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A Dangerous Mourning
A Dangerous Mourning
A Dangerous Mourning
Audiobook14 hours

A Dangerous Mourning

Written by Anne Perry

Narrated by Davina Porter

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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About this audiobook

When the beautiful daughter of Sir Basil Moidore is stabbed to death in her bed, Inspector Monk and Nurse Latterly uncover a tale of shame and scandal that threatens to destroy a powerful London dynasty.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateOct 2, 2009
ISBN9781440775710
A Dangerous Mourning
Author

Anne Perry

With twenty million books in print, ANNE PERRY's was selected by The Times as one of the twentieth century's '100 Masters of Crime', for more information about Anne and her books, visit: www.anneperry.co.uk

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Reviews for A Dangerous Mourning

Rating: 3.880753150627615 out of 5 stars
4/5

239 ratings16 reviews

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The book, the writing, the narration - all excellent.
    Just note that in chapter 8, from 12:36 min to 25 min, this is a chunk of a later chapter, erroneously slotted abruptly into a different prior scene. It should come in at 39:30 min.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Interesting mystery & surprising denouement. What makes this series so fascinating is Perry’s highlighting of the social iniquities of the Victorian age. Whether it be the dismissal of a pregnant maid raped by a member of her employer’s family, or the more generalised suppression of women in the workplace or the social ‘disgrace’ of seeking a divorce from a sadist.In this book Monk puts his career on the line when he refuses to arrest an innocent man, and he co-opts the aid of a Crimean nurse to play private detective in a wealthy household.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The second Monk mystery continues to develop his storyline as he tries to regain his memory while on the job. The relationship between Monk and Hester Latterly develops nicely. The crime itself is interesting enough, and in the end the perpetrators are brought to task after an initial travesty of justice. The writing is good and I enjoy the author's observations of Victorian society. The book could have been shortened, as I found my patience starting to wear thin with the investigation repeatedly going over the same ground several times. I'll try the next book in the series and see if my interest in the characters holds..
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Monk and Evan are assigned to investigate the murder of a young woman found in her bedroom stabbed to death. She is the daughter of a baronet, and they are quickly able to ascertain the murder must have been done by someone in the house. The police chief wants Monk to charge one of the servants, but the evidence is pointing to someone in the family. Monk manages to insert nurse Hester Latterly into the family under the guise of caring for Lady Moidore, mother of the murdered woman.I enjoyed the first book in this series very much, but this one was a little slow for me. In both books, the solution to the murder comes at the very ending and is surprising, at least for me. But in the first book, Monk is suffering from amnesia and that condition colors the rest of the story and adds to it. Here, Monk still can't remember much of his life before his accident, but nothing much gets added to the rest. Monk and Evan interview people over and over, never learning much to add to their case. Hester who's inserted with the family also talks to family and servants but learns only a little bit more. I like Ms. Perry's writing and the setting, but this book dragged. I'd give it a 3 and 1/2 stars.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    ohmygoodness, really did not see that ending coming!

    The writing is much better in this book. Much less introspection and I enjoyed the development of Hester Latterly.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I liked William Monk much better in this book. He's aware that he wasn't a very nice person before he lost his memory, and he is fighting from becoming the same person. I also like Hester, even though she seems overly harsh with Monk at times. They complement either other very well. Three and a half stars.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    An inspector, having lost his prior memory, is called on to handle a murder of a member of a prominent family. He calls on a former associate / nemesis to nurse the matriarch of the family. Interesting plot, with somewhat laborious developing of the clues leading to the solving of the case. Lengthy tape, but worthy of a listen.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Interesting read, both the mystery and the cultural assumptions the protagonists constantly run up against.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I really liked the first of this series (Face of a Stranger), but this one echoed a lot of the same points without tugging at my sympathy strings. Yes there were some interesting twists and turns of the plot, and emotional highs, but I would say it's not as good as the first one. I did like the way the author added in real-life, historical bits though- a very nuanced, non-intrusive way of explaining different customs that Victorians of 1853 would have taken for granted.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    #2 in the William Monk series.At least this time I was not schizophrenically reading William Monk but thinking of Adrian Monk!Perry developed a good mystery with plenty of suspects. She was hard-hearted in one respect, but even saying that may be a "spoiler alert," so I will say no more. It was a good read, with Hester Lattimer once again helping Monk.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    If there is a pattern emerging from this series it is that the English nobility has no limit to their cunning in hiding truth which may shame them or affect their money.Monk, still unable to recover his memory, is given another case involving the apparent break in and murder of a lady in her bedroom. No one heard anything and witnesses in the street saw no one entering or leaving the house after hours. Monk arrives at the conclusion that someone in the house is the murderer but faces a tight family unit supported by a cast of servants, none of whom had helpful information. Suspicion falls on a dashing footman but Monk does not believe he is guilty and is fired when he refuses to arrest him.Calling upon the bravery and intelligence of his new friend, Hester Latterly, he is able to place her as a nurse to the wife of Sir Basil Moidore who has taken to her room and seems to be falling to depression over the unsolved death. Hester is now able to talk and listen to all the members of the house and report back to him.Will Monk be able to discover the truth before the footman hangs? This is another page turning episode with a frank portrayal of an important house of the Victorian era.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    William Monk is an unusual character. Because he doesn’t know anything about his own background, the reader has nothing to pull from to understand his motivations. For instance, why does he hate his boss so much? Is it just because he rubs him the wrong way, or is there a history that even Monk doesn’t know, but that he can’t stop himself from reacting to? It’s frustrating and intriguing all at once.But there’s more to this book than the mystery of Monk. Hester continues to excel at being the female lead, and I find their relationship very interesting. Is it strictly platonic, or are their hints of romantic feelings hiding beneath the ire they tend to display? Hester is obviously in search of a life that is larger than the one society would like to dictate, and Monk appears to be her ticket to that life.As for the murder mystery, it swims in the stink of class bigotry. I think Perry did a good job illustrating the feelings of both the aristocracy and the servant classes.The one issue I had with this book had more to do with how I was reading it than anything else. I was reading it on my phone, and it was my “emergency” read, so I only got to it once or twice a week. Because of that, I had a hard time remembering who was who in the Moidore family. Though in my defense, there were a lot of them. This also wasn’t a quick moving plot. There’s really not a lot of action.Bottom line, if you enjoy a period mystery, it’s hard to go wrong with Anne Perry.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I loved this. I liked the characters. I liked the quirky plot. I like all the details about Victorian life.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Now back to my 19th century murder mystery obsession. William Monk and Hester Latterly are back in two more adventures (there are way more, I'm sure). I don't have much to say about them except for I remember getting a tad bit bored after the third one. The internal repetitive musings can become a bit much.Although I find both their characters fascinating (especially Hester- a strong, independent woman with an easily roused temper who suffers from an excess of competence, to the chagrin of all her male acquaintances) much of the time their actions don't make sense to me. They become bitter and resentful at the slightest provocation. They seem to willfully misunderstand each other.In A Dangerous Mourning, Monk resigns from his post as Police Detective over the arrest of a footman for the murder of his mistress. Monk does not believe the footman is guilty, but his nemesis at the station (whose name I forgot and am too lazy to look up) is getting pressured from on high (not God - his superiors) and wants to get the case over and done with. Nobody will miss an arrogant footman after all.But that does not stop Monk. He enters into private consultation and is hired by Hester's friend Lady something or other (another name that has fallen down the well of my mind).Hester has been fired as well from the hospital where she had been working as a nurse for taking matters into her own hands (even though she did the right thing and saved a baby's life, it was unforgivable of her to act without the stupid doctor's consent). She finds herself in need of a place and ends up in the dead woman's family.Need I say more? As I think about it, I can't even remember who did it? Oh wait. it is coming back to me. I've got it. And I'm not telling...
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Love it. Excellent mystery, excellent characters, beautiful lush landscape. The memory thing is starting to get a little old, but it's not more than mildly annoying. And the drama between the main character and his boss was seeming a little strained and fake, but that might be done with now. Mostly. Overall, I loved it and would recommend to any mystery lover, especially if you liked the first one.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I liked this book more than the first one in the series which doesn't happen that often. Perry easily draws the reader especially into the life of the servants which was extremely enlightening. She does a great job of commenting on people's vanity and desire for self-preservation. Very enjoyable read.