Monday, July 24, 2017

Funeral in Blue

Funeral in Blue. (William Monk #12) Anne Perry. 2001. 352 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: The operating room was silent except for the deep, regular breathing of the gaunt young woman who lay on the table, the immense bulge of her stomach laid bare.

Premise/plot: The twelfth novel in the William Monk series focuses on Dr. Kristian Beck. This surgeon has appeared briefly in several other novels in this mystery series. In this one, he's the prime suspect for his wife's murder. (There are two murders actually, and both murders occurred at an artist's studio.) Lady Callandra wants Monk and Hester to become involved in the case, to try to protect Beck if they can.

My thoughts: I really enjoyed this one. You wouldn't think that Monk trying to work together with Runcorn would be one of the novel's greatest strengths, but, for me it was. I really loved getting to see the vulnerable Runcorn taking a chance on Monk and the two essentially starting over again. Of course, there is plenty of Hester as well.

Monk travels to Austria in this one to do some background work. And that was fun as well.

Readers also get a chance to further know Hester's brother and sister-in-law. I haven't decided if their presence near the scene of the crime was too big a coincidence for me...or not. But right now I'm just so happy with the series that I don't mind.

© 2017 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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