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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN num: 9780345440105
ISBN number: 0345440102
Label: Ballantine Books
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 368
Printing Date: March 29, 2005
Publishing house: Ballantine Books
Release Date: March 29, 2005
Sale Popularity Level: 283285
Studio: Ballantine Books
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Product Description:
In her new masterpiece featuring private inquiry agent William Monk, New York Times bestselling novelist Anne Perry displays her prodigious writing talent. With insight, compassion, and a portraitist’s genius, Perry illuminates the shifting tide of emotions encompassing Queen Victoria’s London and the people who live there—aristocrats, brothel owners, thieves, Dickensian ruffians, and their evil keepers. She takes us through dangerous backstreets where the poor eke out their humble livings, and into the mansions of the rich, safe and secure in their privileged lives. Or so they believe. . . .
William Monk knows London’s streets like the back of his hand; after all, they are where he earns his living. But the river Thames and its teeming docks— where towering schooners and clipper ships unload their fabulous cargoes and wharf rats and night plunderers ply their trades—is unknown territory.
Only dire need persuades him to accept an assignment from shipping magnate Clement Louvain to investigate the theft of a cargo of African ivory from Louvain’s recently docked schooner, the Maude Idris. Monk is desperate for work, not only to feed himself and his wife, Hester, but to keep open the doors of Hester’s clinic, a last resort for sick and starving street women.
But he wonders: Why didn’t Louvain report the ivory theft directly to the River Police? Why did he warn Monk not to investigate the murder of one of the Maude Idris crew? Even more mysterious, why has Louvain brought to Hester’s clinic a desperately ill woman who he claims is the discarded mistress of an old friend? Neither Hester nor Monk anticipates the nightmare answers to these questions . . . nor the trap that soon so fatefully ensnares them.
In this magnificent novel, Anne Perry holds the reader spellbound, as Monk and Hester struggle to save themselves and their world from a catastrophe whose dimensions they can scarcely measure.
From the Hardcover edition.
Amazon.com Review:
Commissioned to find the precious cargo of ivory stolen by river thieves from the hold of Clement Louvain's ocean-going schooner, private enquiry agent William Monk is intrigued by his new surroundings. The waterfront of the River Thames is a world unto itself, but without the help of the famed River Police, Monk hardly stands a chance of retrieving the ivory or tracking down the murderous men who killed an innocent crew member while robbing Louvain's ship. Not so coincidentally, Monk's wife Hester, who operates a shelter for sick and injured women of the streets, discovers that a woman with a mysterious connection to Louvain may hold the key to the missing ivory as well as many more deaths aboard his ship than the one Monk knows about. Perry's trademarked plotting, characterization, and verisimilitude in recreating Victorian London gleam brilliantly in this well-crafted historical mystery. --Jane Adams
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Rated by buyers -
This one is something of a departure in the long-running series about William Monk, private investigator in mid-Victorian London, and his wife, Hester, ex-Crimean nurse and avid social activist. Monk is equally familiar with the back streets and opium dens of the underworld and with the drawing rooms of Society, but the Thames is another whole world, a very tough and dangerous one, with which he has almost no experience. But economic times are tough, so he accepts a job from Clement Louvain to locate a shipment of ivory tusks stolen off one of his ships just returned from an African voyage. One of the crew was apparently killed during the theft, but Louvain wants his cargo back before he'll let Monk take the murder to the police. And, of course, Monk solves the mystery and locates the ivory -- and does it all by the halfway point in the narrative. And then things turn ugly. Hester, who has been running a charitable shelter for injured, abused, or ill poor women and prostitutes in a bad part of town, discovers that the woman Louvain brought in, and whose care he has paid for, has been murdered -- but it almost doesn't matter because she was dying of bubonic plague in any case. With the help of a few local men who stand guard and bring supplies, and a handful of very strong women who help her nurse the sick, Hester closes up the clinic from the inside, to contain the plague from spreading and possibly killing off half of Europe again. The pestilence almost certainly arrived on Louvain's ship and Monk has to try to locate the other crew members, who may also be infected. Oliver Rathbone contribution in the courtroom is minimal this time around. It's all Hester's story. It's a harrowing tale and Perry tells it very effectively.
Rated by buyers -
Moving Monk back to the police force is a welcome change in the series. Needing the regular income, Monk replaces the hero of THE SHIFTING TIDE, Inspector Durban, as commander of the Thames River police, trying to win the respect of his men and solve the case of what appears to be a suicide. The dangers of sewer construction and the callous attitudes towards the lives of the people who do the work add a nice historical base for this case. There is also the intriguing shift in the relationship of Monk and his old nemesis, Runcorn. Sutton, Scuff, and Rathbone all make welcome appearances as the series seems to be reinvigorated by the change of scenery. The mystery becomes a bit convoluted with its many twists and turns, but overall this is another fine addition to the series.
Rated by buyers 
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It's hard to believe that Anne Perry lives in our own time. It would be more believeable if she had been a contemporary of sir Arthur Conan Doyle. She re-creates Vicotrian London with such authenticity that its hard to accept the fact that she lives in our own time.
With every book that I read by Anne Perry, my admiation grows for her. She is a writer's writer. Her prose flows smoothly, her characters come to life, and her plots keep you on t he edge of your seat.
William Monk is another great Perry creation. And "The Shifting Tide" is a book not to be missed!
Also recommended: Ellery Queen: 5 Complete Novels--great puzzle mysteries.
Rated by buyers -
The title of the novel gives the reader an excellent focus on characterization. What seems obvious turns out to be illusory and, at times, frustrating. Hester continues to be noble to a fault. Monk glowers his way through the docks where he encounters minor characters who assume major importance because they are written so well. Lady Callandra, like the tide, recedes which is disconcerting for readers who enjoy her wit and social conscience. Rathbone meanders aimlessly while deciding whether to declare his intentions or remain removed from personal happiness. Louvain's personal villainy is barely credible. It is not only the tide that shifts in this novel and that reality makes Perry's writing an above average effort in its creation of nineteenth century London.
The book is well worth the time spent in reading if only to discover the rat catcher and his dog, the mudlark, the medical crow, and the dock police. Perry knows how to draw characters who lure the reader. One is repeatedly enthralled by them and then even moved to research the social issues inspired by their presence in the novel. It is that social subtext
which raises Perry's work above many others, making this flawed novel worth reading.
Rated by buyers -
I came late to Anne Perry's Monk series - I had read all the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt series very first - but am now firmly hooked.
This is a book of change for the characters - several large changes occur that will greatly affect the character's lives beyond this book. There are also several new characters (esp. the personable mudlark Scuff) who hopefully have joined the core cast and will be seen in future books.
Overall this is one of the best books of the Monk series in terms of digging in and revealing more of the inner lives of this series' characters.
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