ANNE PERRY ~ THE REIGNING QUEEN OF
LITERARY OF MYSTERIES
I often use this column to expound on books in the pulp or
hardboiled genres, however, my reading tastes are actually wide, varied, and
eclectic. When I want a literary mystery with both depth and strong characterization,
I never hesitate to pull an Anne Perry novel off the shelf.
There are plenty to choose from as Perry’s output is
prodigious. Her Thomas and Charlotte Pitt series started with 1979’s The Cater Street Hangman and now runs to
thirty titles. Her William and Hester (Latterly) Monk series began in 1990 with
The Face of a Stranger, and saw its
twentieth title, Blood on the Water, recently
published. Her shorter Christmas novels started being published in 2003 with A Christmas Journey and have continued yearly
through the most recent, A New York
Christmas. In between all of these words, she has also produced five novels
in a separate series – Reavley – set
during WWI, two complex and lengthy fantasy novels, four novels in her young
adult Timepiece series, a number of
standalone novels, and has contributed award winning short stories to numerous
anthologies. Whew!
What is even more astonishing than her output is the
consistent quality and the amount of research involved in each effort. Perry is
a true master of the mystery genre, yet this is not what sets her apart from
other writers who also wear that mantle. Perry has no equal when it comes to an
understanding of the many sides of social issues and the complexities of human
nature and interaction. Often, her historical situations mirror modern
counterparts, showing how little true social progress has been made – what
affected society in the Victorian era, WWI, and today are too frequently little
different.
Perry’s novels do not shy away from the harshest of subject
matters, exploring them without prurient focus, yet still laying them bare in
an emotionally gripping manner. Perry’s gift goes beyond the concoction of a Gordian
knot of mystery to a much more important dissection of humanity. Actions have
consequences in Perry’s novels, often far reaching and disastrous for her
characters, yet redemption is also possible.
While I’m partial to her William and Hester Monk novels, I
also always enjoy her Thomas and Charlotte Pitt series, and her Christmas tales
– which often put secondary or minor characters from those other two series
front and center.
The Monk mysteries are set early in the Victorian era (1850s
– 1860s) and the Pitt books twenty to thirty years later (1880s – 1890s), but
the true difference between the series is Perry’s consummate skill in creating
two similar sets of sleuths, yet imbuing them with completely different voices.
If they ever crossed paths, Pitt and Monk would recognize each other as kindred
spirits – as would Hester and Charlotte – yet the reader would never confuse
the individual voices of the four characters.
We first meet Thomas Pitt as a detective with the London
Metropolitan police. Through thirty books, we follow his career through the
police and on to the creation of Special Branch, responsible for the
investigation of treason and anarchy and threats to the Crown. In the first
book in the series, The Cater Street
Hangman, Pitt investigates the murders of several young women in the
streets near the wealthy Ellison family home. His investigation leads him into
the sphere of Charlotte, the Ellison’s progressive, strong-willed daughter, who
longs to break free of stifling convention.
While educated, Pitt is the son of a gamekeeper and a cook –
hardly a likely match for a high society daughter of a wealthy family. However,
Pitt’s ability to engage Charlotte in useful and interesting discussions binds
her to him. Despite the convention of the times, the duo go on in the series to
marry, have children (who grow and progress with the series), and find
themselves bringing their individual gifts and circumstances into the solving
of the mysteries. Somehow, Perry manages to keep Charlotte’s involvement in the
stories pivotal while also believable, a feat few mystery writers can accomplish.
In William Monk, Perry has created an enigma. Monk is a man
without a past, or at least one he can remember. A coach accident in 1856, causes
Monk to lose his memory - a fact he keeps secret to save his job as a policeman.
The issue, however, is more than memory. Monk has also lost his original ruthless
personality. He is a man who has made many enemies on his way up the
promotional ladder, and now he no longer knows friend from foe.
In coming to terms with the, hopefully better, man he has
now become, and dealing with the harsh realities of a past haunting his every
step, Monk meets Hester Latterly, a Crimean War nurse returned to London.
Despite their initial irritation with each other, they became close, with her
being the only one who knows about Monk's memory issues. Hester is an amazing
character, her background on the battlefield giving her quite a different world
view than that of Charlotte Pitt. Her work with Monk comes into even greater
play when Monk is fired from the police and is forced to become a private
investigator. The series, however, comes into its own when Monk takes advantage
of an opportunity to return to police work as head of the (Thames) River Police.
Monk, Pitt, Hester, and Charlotte are fully realized
characters, who I would recognize in an instant were I to meet them on the
street. However, the added charm and complexity of the worlds Perry has created
in these series are the many secondary characters – the lawyer Sir Oliver
Rathbone, Monk’s second in command Orme, Pitt’s second in command Stoker, the
river orphan Scuff, and the wonderful Lady Vespasia Cumming-Gould to name but a
few.
To spend time with these characters is to be taken on a
thinking readers’ journey. While driven by intense dialogue, the novels are
dense with atmosphere and challenge, drawing willing readers to get lost in the
pages. I have also found the audio versions of Perry’s books to be among the
best available, brilliantly performed by talented and engaging readers who
bring Perry’s words and characters to fully realized life.
To butcher a cliché, I admit to wearing my admiration for
Anne Perry on my sleeve. Her difficult early life experiences appear to have
produced a writer who has thought long and hard about the world and humanities’
place in it. For me, she is a joy to read and a writer with qualities to which
I aspire.
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