Anne Perry: A Sunless Sea (USA 2013)

From the Publisher:
Anne Perry's spellbinding Victorian mysteries, especially those featuring William Monk, have enthralled readers for a generation. The Plain Dealer calls Monk "a marvelously dark, brooding creation" -- and, true to form, this new Perry masterpiece is as deceptively deep and twisty as the Thames.

As commander of the River Police, Monk is accustomed to violent death, but the mutilated female body found on Limehouse Pier one chilly December morning moves him with horror and pity. The victim's name is Zenia Gadney. Her waterfront neighbors can tell him little -- only that the same unknown gentleman had visited her once a month for many years. She must be a prostitute, but -- described as quiet and kempt -- she doesn't appear to be a fallen woman.

What sinister secrets could have made poor Zenia worth killing? And why does the government keep interfering in Monk's investigation?

While the public cries out for blood, Monk, his spirited wife, Hester, and their brilliant barrister friend, Oliver Rathbone, search for answers. From dank waterfront alleys to London's fabulously wealthy West End, the three trail an ice-blooded murderer toward the unbelievable, possibly unprovable truth -- and ultimately engage their adversaries in an electric courtroom duel. But unless they can work a miracle, a monumental evil will go unpunished and an innocent person will hang.

Anne Perry has never worn her literary colors with greater distinction than in A Sunless Sea, a heart-pounding novel of intrigue and suspense in which Monk is driven to make the hardest decision of his life.

Anne Perry: A Sunless Sea. A William Monk Novel. Ballantine, ISBN: 9780345510655 (August, 2013), 400 p., $16.00.

Anne Perry: A Sunless Sea (UK 2012)

From the Publisher:
Inspector William Monk: In search of justice, he will not stop until he has found the truth.
1864: When the body of a brutally mutilated body of a woman is found on Limehouse Pier, Monk's enquiries into her death unearth a suspicious connection between the victim and Dr Lambourn, a recently deceased scientist and staunch supporter for a new pharmaceutical bill aimed to regulate the sale of opium.

Investigating further, Monk learns that Lambourn's widow refuses to believe that her husband's death was suicide; she is convinced that he was murdered by government officials intent on keeping the lucrative trade of opium flowing.

With pressure mounting for the police to find the Limehouse killer, Monk is propelled headlong into an investigation that will delve the darkest depths of the opium trade and threatens to expose corruption in the very highest echelons of society...

Anne Perry: A Sunless Sea. Can Monk uncover the truth behind a deadly opium conspiracy? An Inspector William Monk Novel. Headline, ISBN: 9780755386208 (August, 2012), 442 p., £7.99.

Anne Perry: A Sunless Sea (USA 2012)

From the Publisher:
Anne Perry's spellbinding Victorian mysteries, especially those featuring William Monk, have enthralled readers for a generation. The Plain Dealer calls Monk "a marvelously dark, brooding creation" -- and, true to form, this new Perry masterpiece is as deceptively deep and twisty as the Thames.

As commander of the River Police, Monk is accustomed to violent death, but the mutilated female body found on Limehouse Pier one chilly December morning moves him with horror and pity. The victim's name is Zenia Gadney. Her waterfront neighbors can tell him little -- only that the same unknown gentleman had visited her once a month for many years. She must be a prostitute, but -- described as quiet and kempt -- she doesn't appear to be a fallen woman.

What sinister secrets could have made poor Zenia worth killing? And why does the government keep interfering in Monk's investigation?

While the public cries out for blood, Monk, his spirited wife, Hester, and their brilliant barrister friend, Oliver Rathbone, search for answers. From dank waterfront alleys to London's fabulously wealthy West End, the three trail an ice-blooded murderer toward the unbelievable, possibly unprovable truth -- and ultimately engage their adversaries in an electric courtroom duel. But unless they can work a miracle, a monumental evil will go unpunished and an innocent person will hang.

Anne Perry has never worn her literary colors with greater distinction than in A Sunless Sea, a heart-pounding novel of intrigue and suspense in which Monk is driven to make the hardest decision of his life.

Anne Perry: A Sunless Sea. A William Monk Novel. Ballantine, ISBN: 9780345510648 (August, 2012), 372 p., $26.00.

Anne Perry: A Sunless Sea (UK 2012)

From the Publisher:
Inspector William Monk investigates a brutal riverside killing and a deadly opium conspiracy in the eighteenth novel in Anne Perry's acclaimed series

Can Monk uncover the truth behind a deadly opium conspiracy?
1864 and on the bank of the Thames, Monk is appalled at the shocking mutilation visited upon the body of a woman found on Limehouse Pier. But when enquiries into the brutal killing unearth a connection between the victim and Dr Lambourn, a brilliant, recently deceased scientist and staunch supporter for a new pharmaceutical bill aimed to regulate the sale of opium, it becomes clear that not all is as it seems.

Lambourn's widow refuses to believe the official verdict that her husband's death was suicide; she is convinced that he was murdered after the research he was conducting was discredited by government officials intent on keeping the lucrative trade of opium flowing.

With pressure mounting for the river police to find the Limehouse killer, Monk is propelled headlong into an investigation that will delve into the darkest depths of the opium trade and threaten to expose corruption in the very highest echelons of society...

Anne Perry: A Sunless Sea. An Inspector William Monk Novel. Headline, ISBN: 9780755386192 (April, 2012), 346 p., £19.99.