The Twisted Root, Anne Perry

 

The Book

    When Lucius Stourbridge hires William Monk to find his missing fiancée, Monk is wary to take the case. He dislikes taking domestic cases, but he has to support his new wife, Hester Latterly. Lucius explains that he is hiring the best private investigator he can find for two reasons. They do not want to report to the police that in addition to the missing woman his father's carriage, and the coachman who was driving it, have disappeared. Monk takes the case. 

    Hester, meanwhile, has stopped working professionally as a nurse and has started working as a volunteer at the hospital where Callandra is a trustee. Together they try to get the women to work better and to convince the head of the hospital to try some of the new nursing reforms Florence Nightingale champions. While doing this work, they discover there are medicines missing from the pharmacy, a fact the pharmacist is keeping from the boorish head of the hospital. Together Callandra and Hester decide to investigate, with Hester using some of the skills she has acquired working with Monk. 

    Meanwhile Monk traces the carriage back to the neighborhood where Mrs. Gardiner lived before her engagement. And while he is there he discovers that coachman hasn't disappeared, he was murdered. Miriam Gardiner is soon found and arrested for the man's murder. 

    Lucius, his parents, and Hester all believe Miriam is innocent, but she won't tell them what she knows. Oliver Rathbone takes the case, and while he works brilliantly, it is left to Hester to figure who really killed the coachman, and why. 

My Thoughts

    This is one of the those books where the story stuck with me, but none of the details. I had no idea who Lucius Stourbridge was, nor did I remember anything about the B plot missing medicines. And yet, once presented with the problems on the page, I knew exactly what the plot twist was, and how the book ended. It's an interesting quirk of fate that leads me to understand the book so thoroughly, but to forget so much. I know it's true of successful authors who have many books in their cannon. The memory made this a fast read, much faster than some of the others. It was still immensely enjoyable, even if I was just searching down the red herrings and sorting out the real clues. This was a puzzle in fine form. Brava. 

How Much My Library Card Saved Me

    This book came to me from Des Plaines public library. For a hardcover 394 page book from 1999, it's not in bad shape. It is however, showing it's age. I've seen worse, and this book has obviously been lovingly and repeatedly read. The original due date card is still attached in the front of the book. The last time the book was checked out on that system it was due in February of 2002. I am guessing that at some point that year Des Plaines upgraded their system to a digital checkout, because it had been checked out nearly 15 times at that point, or at the very least checked out and reupped that many times. Even assuming that the book slowed down in the twenty years since, I would guess the book has been read somewhere close to 40 times. The cover says the book cost $25.00 in 1999, that is the number we will use for this analysis. 

This Book                                                     $25.00

Items Reviewed This Year                          $350.94

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