The Silent Cry, Anne Perry

 The Book

Trigger Warning, Sexual Assault is a plot point discussed below    

    William Monk's old partner, John Evan is called in to a case where a rich young man and his father are severely beaten and left for dead in the London slum of St. Giles. When he arrives, expecting to find two dead bodies, he finds instead, Rhys Duff has survived, but his father, Leighton has survived. As the trail goes cold, Evan wonders what Monk would do in his shoes. And he discretely arranges to have former Crimean Nurse, Hester Latterly look after Rhys in his recovery.

    Meanwhile, Monk is hired by the wife of a sweatshop owner to find out who is raping armature prostitutes in Seven Dials. Monk takes the case, moved to anger at the violence of crime. He consults Evan, to see if the police have found anything, and later Runcorn. But Runcorn gives both Evan and Monk a hard truth, these women sell their bodies, no KC is going to prosecute a man who refuses to pay his prostitute, no matter how violent the crime. 

    With Monk still in denial of his feelings for Hester Latterly and Sir Oliver Rathbone just awakening to his, Hester is finding out which man she respects and loves more. Now they are on opposite sides of this tragedy, and Hester shows her loyalty to the truth. It's one only she can uncover, proving once and for all, she is the cleverest of the lot. 

My Thoughts

    I had forgotten how many books lay between when Monk first understands how much he cares and loves Hester and when he finally succumbs to the inevitable a marries her. And I had forgotten, just how much I wanted her to kick Monk to the curb and marry Rathbone. 

    I don't buy the "normal order of things". I do not like, no matter how many books they sell, authors who obey the "conventional wisdom" and give us a story that has been done before. Personally, although you could write up my marriage any number of ways to hit these tried and true tropes, I really believe that what my husband and I share is just our story. 

    So, I don't understand why that's an unreasonable expectation for the novelists that I like. Oh, right, because we don't reward those authors. Or, at least, we seldom do. It has been perfectly obvious from the start of this series, that Hester and Monk are destined for each other. The tried and tired "enemies to lovers" trope being the structure Anne Perry is going to follow. But structure is not Perry's strong suit. 

    Perry lives in the details and asides. She has every historical fact accurate, right down to the tiniest detail. I've seen many a review gush that one can practically hear the rustle of skirts in her books. Certainly there are a number of passages where the London weather, the gloom, the mist of it seep into a reader's bones. 

    So, I had hoped, on my first read through of this series, that Perry would buck tradition and leave Monk a Victorian Sam Spade, with a few more morals than that. And Hester, certainly deserved to be treated as well as Oliver Rathbone might have done. 

    But then, Perry brings it home. We see Monk's character bend, bit by bit, until he is in a place where he can truly love Hester. And together, we see them become a tiny little force for good. And we see Oliver Rathbone's character honed until we see a darker side, and then we see him change, be humbled and grow from it. 

    I love how real and how slowly Perry takes us through these character changes. It's one of the reasons her novels feel more alive for me than many other's. 

How Much My Library Card Saved Me

    This book came to me from my own library's collection. It entered into the library on Oct 19, 2017. It is in pristine condition, in fact, I can nearly hear the fresh book crackel. There are no markings, no dog ears, nor any other marks on this book. The cover says this 356 page book orginally cost $16.00 and that is the figure we will use. 

This Book                                             $16.00

Items Reviewed This Year                  $102.93

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