In the tenth book in Perry's William Monk series, set in Victorian England, private enquiry agent William Monk and his bride, nurse Hester Latterly, are just returned from their honeymoon and settling into their new roles as husband and wife, when Monk is asked to search for a lady who fled precipitously from her own engagement party and has not been seen or heard from since.
The frantic young bridegroom, Lucius Stourbridge, wants Monk's help to locate his missing fiance, Mrs. Miriam Gardiner, a young widow in modest circumstances, with whom he fell in love at first sight.
All was well between them, he insists; his parents had welcomed the engagement, even though Miriam's bith and background did not compare to his own as the heir to wealth, a great estate and a distinguished name.
Miriam ran from the party at his parents' London townhouse, along with the Stourbridge's coachman, Treadwell, and their coach and horses. At first Lucius and his family supposed she had asked Treadwell to take her back to her own house, on Hampstead Heath. But Miriam is not at her home, and the coachman, coach and horses have also vanished.
Lucius is crushed; his parents and his maternal uncle, Aiden Campbell, who traveled to London just to attend the engagement party, all profess themselves mystified and equally concerned. However, when Monk interviews them separately, Lucius's mother, Verona Stourbridge, admits Miriam was, socially, not the ideal match for her son, often over-familiar with servants --- and at least nine years older than Lucius.
As Monk continues to investigate, he discovers the missing coachman has turned up, murdered, on Hampstead Heath. Indeed the evidence shows the dying man had crawled some distance, and his body was found sprawled on the footpath leading to the house where Miriam Gardiner's foster mother still lives. With still no sign of Miriam herself, the police consider her a prime suspect in the murder. Monk, who was once a police investigator himself, until he was fired for insubordination, finds that solution a little too obvious and convenient. With Hester's assistance, Monk pursues a broader investigation, looking into the past for reasons that explain Miriam's strange behavior. As all good Anne Perry mysteries do, the truth is only revealed in a final, climactic courtroom scene.
Click HERE to read the review from Publishers Weekly.
Click HERE to read the review from Kirkus Reviews.
