After reading more than 1700 pages through the last two volumes, it was time to get away from Safehold, which must be thousands of years in the future, and the next-read mystery from the last century wasn’t enough, so I dipped into this Victorian mystery, scrounged from a hospital waiting room, and found it delightful. The cover illustration characterizing the novel as “featuring Inspector Monk,” which suggests that Ms. Perry has written other novels about him, as well as her Victorian mystery series about Inspector Thomas Pitt and his wife, so I shall be looking for them. [Added note: in the process of posting this review, I discovered that this was the first of a series about Monk, which explains a few things, such as why a few loose ends were not tied up--which I now expect will happen in a later account.]I was particularly intrigued in this case, because I had just finished Follett’s Code To Zero, which featured a protagonist who woke up and found he was suffering from complete amnesia, and here was exactly the same situation in this book! A significant difference here was that this amnesiac wakes up in a hospital in Victorian London and is informed right away who he is: a peeler (so named because Sir Robeet Peele, who established a special police force that became the Metropolitan Police Department of London … but, interestingly enough, they were called bobbies in England and peelers in Ireland, which suggests that Ms. Perry--who lives in Scotland--either does not have her Victorian slang quite correct or else that she is better informed than whoever wrote the Wikipedia article about that police force).There is, indeed, a special set of requirements pertaining to modern day authors who want to write novels set in the Victorian period: they must be able to adopt a vocabulary that clearly belongs to that age, while at the same time making sure that the modern day reader will be able to understand what the strange words mean without looking them up, as most dictionaries available to the average reader would not include such terms, but now we have the Internet, which is positively full of not only the word lists themselves but also learned tomes describing their etymology. All of that was not available to Ms. Perry when she published this book in 1990, but it clearly is there now. Of course, that same information also is available to present day writers, making their job a bit easier, perhaps, but that availability carries with it the danger that they will drop too far into the cant, making their story unreadable. Personally, I think she did this very well. (I, of course, had the advantage of having the Internet to check out a few words for my own enlightenment, but I suspect I would have enjoyed the book just as much back in 1990, when I was reading Barbara Cartland and Georgette Heyer’s novels with equal enthusiasm.)Actually, Ms. Perry outdoes them, for her protagonist is a policeman, rather than a member of the 400, and his work brings him into conversation with various types of people, some with vastly different accents, and she does a very creditable job (to my uneducated ears) of showing that in print without having to go into the nature of why they talked that way, whereas Cartland and Heyer’s characters were all of high society, except for an occasional servant’s comment. Indeed, Ms. Perry has much the harder task, because her protagonist moves between the upper and lower levels of Victorian society, and she has to show it all, and neither end of the spectrum comes off too well in this portrayal.William Monk wakes up with lots of bruises and broken bones and is informed that he was in a serious accident when a cab in which he was riding on a stormy July night turned over. He has two problems right away--first, that he remembers nothing of his life before waking up; second, that he realizes that he will lose his employment if his superiors realize this, because he will be useless as a detective without all his previously learned contacts and experience. He is allowed a bit of time for convalescence, which he spends with a young sister he does not remember out in the coastal country, and then he reports to work, being immediately assigned to a high-pressure murder investigation, because the previously assigned inspector has just fallen ill. Consequently, he must proceed to investigate the six-weeks old murder without having any idea how a police inspector goes about doing such a thing, while at the same time managing to hide this fact from his fellow policemen--and, moreover, while at the same time trying to find out more about himself … and finding, as he goes about the latter, that he does not much like the self he appears to have been.I really enjoyed the way that the author uses this plot to show us a much grimmer picture of what life was like in the Victorian age than we would ever find in the novels by the other writers I mentioned. But what I found particularly interesting was the god-like third-person writing style, which let the author jump over to what appeared to be a completely unrelated story with a thoroughly likable heroine in a different part of society and follow that story for awhile, then jump back to the one she started with--and then, of course, when I least expected it, slowly merge those two stories together, revealing how one affected the other.I give it four stars, not only because it is an interesting story with nuanced complexity, but because it presents a balanced view of Victorian society (Heyer’s novels made me want to live in that time; this one made me thankful I do not) and the Crimean War (which I had to go study on the Internet to see why the British were involved, since her characters clearly did not know, and neither did I).
A man wakes up in a hospital after a carriage accident in 1856 with no idea of who he his or what his life has been like. He doesn't remember his name or his profession.He is told that he is William Monk, police detective. And he is immediately assigned to a very difficult murder case. A member of the aristocracy, Joscelin Grey, was beaten to death in his own home. Can Monk, a man who doesn't even recognize his own face, solve this baffling mystery and keep his job?...This book was amazing.THE SETTINGLondon 1856 is brought to vivid life by Perry. You can taste the vegetable stew and smell the rank odors of extreme poverty as Monk makes his way through Victorian London. I don't generally read historical fiction, and I was very impressed.THE CHARACTERSPerry really takes the time to develop her characters. We get in the head of not only Monk, but the independent spinster spitfire Hester Latterly. The sparks that fly (not necessarily romantically) between these two leads are epic. There's also a lot of tension between Monk and his smug, belligerent boss Runcorn. These scenes (Monk vs. Latterly and Monk vs. Runcorn) were crackling off the page.UNREALISTICI do feel like this book was unrealistic in "feminist" women. While I like and appreciate that there are so many independent and free-spirited females in this novel, it's certainly not very believable considering the time period. I also found it very unrealistic that Monk, Latterly, Evan, and others were so concerned with class differences and the deaths and suffering of the poor. Again, possible technically I guess, but not very believable.I'm mentioning this, but you can see I gave this five stars. It's not a criticism - I love feminist characters and also 'hero' characters who fight against discrimination and for better lives for the poor - but merely an observation that it is not very believable.THE WRITINGPerry definitely has a unique style of writing, and one which I really enjoyed.He remembered the horror he had felt when actually standing in the room. Did walls retain memory? Could violence or hatred remain in the air after a deed was finished, and touch the sensitive, the imaginative with a shadow of the horror?I saw The Grudge! I know it can happen! LOL :)Some might find Perry's writing a bit slow, or even pedantic - but I liked it a lot. Especially considering the time period this novel takes place in - it was very appropriate. The book is in no way boring or dull.THE AMNESIA Monk's amnesia is an obvious plot device to help ease the reader into this world. As Monk discovers things about himself and the world he lives in, so does the reader. I didn't mind this. Even though it sounds clunky and obvious, Perry actually does a great job with it. It was scary (for both Monk and the reader) never knowing who to trust, or who you hated or even loved in the past. Life is such a minefield for Monk as he tries to figure out who his friends and enemies are, and it keeps the reader in a state of nervous excitement.CHANGING CHARACTERIt is especially interesting that when Monk takes a close look at his previous life, he comes to the conclusion that he might have been... not the best person. Now, with the amnesia giving him a fresh start, a fresh chance at life - he makes the slow, conscious decision to be a better person than he was. I liked seeing this and it was interesting to see characters who were once afraid of Monk's past self, slowly starting to trust and like him. Very interesting and well done.THE MYSTERY The mystery was well-crafted. I did not figure out who did it (before the author chose to reveal it to me) and Perry presented me with some great twists and turns. Both the general plot and the mystery plot of this book are engaging and exciting.THE DIALOGUEI feel I must warn you about the dialogue:"Ah, there you 'ave me, sir; I don't think as I would. Yer see, I didn't see 'im close, like, when 'e was down 'ere. An' on the stairs I only looked where I was goin', it bein' dark. 'E 'ad one o' them 'eavy coats on, as it was a rotten night an' rainin' somethin' wicked. A natural night for anyone to 'ave 'is coat turned up an' 'is 'at drawn down. I recken 'e were dark, that's about I could say fer sure, an' if 'e 'ad a beard, it weren't much of a one."Now, I'm not saying Perry is unskilled at capturing a certain class of British accent. As you can see, she is very skilled. However, at times I found these paragraphs of dialogue very difficult to read and understand. Deaf = death. 'orspital = Hospital. Etc. etc. etc. If you hate this kind of "writing an accent phonetically," you are going to have problems with this book. This kind of language is not constant - it only crops up when Monk talks to street urchins, prostitutes, skeevers, porters, and other lower class people. But it does happen frequently enough that I feel it bears mentioning. Read at your own risk....In short, an excellent books in all respects and a series that I will definitely continue. This is my first Anne Perry book (although so many of my friends in real life rave about her) and I was pleased to discover that she lived up to the hype. I went into this book not expecting much, and ended up loving it! The best kind of book, in my opinion. :)
What do You think about The Face Of A Stranger (2011)?
Yes, I'm very behind on writing these. And they don't seem to have an image of the edition I have uploaded.Anyway, so this is the first William Monk novel. I have actually read several of the later ones, which might make reading this one seem odd, but actually, I really enjoyed it. I was a little surprised; there was at least one other of Perry's early books that I'd read and found not very well-written, but this one was quite good. She sets it in the Victorian age without romanticizing the period at all, which is always nice to see. Not to say that every historical author romanticizes the period they choose, but quite a few do. Writing an amnesiac can be tricky, but she manages to pull it off quite well. Monk is both likable and sympathetic and the mystery is compelling and not too obvious. And of course Hester is still awesome. If you like historical mysteries, I'd recommend it.
—Moontyger
I found this book engrossing and a great read. Set in the 1850's in London, a Detective finds himself in a hospital, having suffered severe injuries in a hansom cab accident.The most serious injury however is that he has lost his memory! At first he doesn't even recognize himself, his flat, his landlady---anybody or anyplace that should have meaning for him. He is quite terrified about this predicament, but determined not to let anyone know. His superior assigns him a new case when he returns to work, physically healed.He and a new young partner begin investigating the bludgeoning death of the third son of a wealthy family, a survivor of the Crimean War. As the story evolves, several suspects emerge: is it the oldest brother, whose wife really loved Joscelin the murdered man? Robbers off the street? Men who may have lost to him in gambling or to whom he owes money? Or somebody even more unlikely? Monk and his partner work ceaselessly to determine the connections, friends, family members and business partners who may have been somehow involved.The ending is a surprise for sure! Highly recommended!
—Chris Demer
Set in London in the 1850s (no dates are given, but the Crimean War is prominent), The Face of a Stranger is the first in a 20-volume series of novels featuring detective William Monk. In an inventive twist, Monk is not introduced like Holmes or Peter Wimsey, with a full set of eccentricities and inhuman brilliance, but as a completely blank slate- he has total amnesia. I don’t have much experience in the detective genre, but like anyone else present in the current glut of Sherlock Holmes remakes and cookie-cutter police procedural TV, I think I have a decent handle on the general tropes, and Perry seems to both use and subvert the expected elements common to the mystery genre in Stranger. Rather than employ a somewhat clueless Watson type, the story is told almost exclusively from the detective’s perspective. However, having an amnesiac detective undercuts this choice, and condenses the perspective to one that is perhaps almost as clueless as an outsider, but with more personal and emotional involvement. It’s a brilliant cold open to a series, and feels very different from earlier detective stories. A brief summary: Detective William Monk wakes up in a hospital following a near-fatal carriage accident, with no recollection of his life or even an idea of his own identity. After a few weeks of recovery, in which his body heals but his mind remains essentially blank, he is thrust into a controversial case concerning the murder of Jocelin Grey, a promising young war veteran from an upper class family. Fearing failure and the penury that would follow, he tries to cover up his lack of memory while investigating- relying purely on instinct and intelligence- and discovers his not inconsiderable natural skill along the way. Also unlike a lot of popular detectives, Monk is an actual policeman (or “peeler,” after police reformer Robert Peel) and has to deal with the hierarchies inherent in both the police force and a highly stratified society that sees him as a working man, and thus not a gentleman. While investigating Grey’s murder, Monk becomes embroiled not only in the family drama of the Greys and complications of police hierarchy, but also in the mystery of an alluring young woman, Imogen Latterly, who seems to know Monk from a previous case. While Imogen is not as essential to his identity as he initially believes, her particular mystery is deeply involved in his current case. I won’t give further detail here, since detective stories are particularly easy to ruin with “spoilers,” but mention of Imogen leads me to a much more interesting character that deserves a look, her sister-in-law, Hester.Hester Latterly is an intelligent, independent woman seemingly born at the wrong place and time. Returning home after nursing in the Crimea, she finds herself continually frustrated by the incompetence and stupidity of those in power, whether they are pompous generals or her stuffy brother. The story could have easily become anachronistic with the introduction of Hester, but she manages to be a clever, strong-willed, and dynamic without becoming a backward-facing caricature of the proto-feminist. She is very much hemmed in by social position and gendered expectations, and while she fights hard against her constraints, she also knows that she has to work as well as she can within the limitations of the system. Hester and Monk lock horns the very first time they meet, and they never really come to like each other, though each has a grudging respect for the abilities of the other. Hester becomes a key part to the final solution, but again, we’ll leave that alone. I mention this mostly just because I really hope Hester becomes an important character in the series and that she and Monk come together- not necessarily romantically, but in some sort of partnership. It would be so much more interesting than the helpless, “feminine” types Monk seems to favor. The Victorian angel-in-the-house type does manifest itself in several female characters, and yet they all manage to be different. Unlike most historical detective stories, the characters rarely feel like stock choices. Nearly all of Perry’s characters are well drawn and complex, even those with very little bearing on the overall plot, but she also does an excellent job with the setting as well, recreating a very palpable Victorian London. Not only does she provide the requisite set pieces of hansom cabs and frock coats, but she doesn’t shy away from the dirt and squalor of the city and how miserable life in the slums could be. The city doesn’t simply operate as a throwback to the days of yore; there is a real despair and horror in the dark corners of the city that go beyond a mere stage setting. Children die in the gutters and cutthroats roam the alleyways, and the rich are typically self-involved, but equally capable of suffering- especially when they bring it upon themselves.This book was chosen for my book club, and as I have mentioned, I’m not a mystery aficionado, so I came into this book completely blind. I didn’t even have the prurient thrill of knowing that Anne Perry had served time for murder before becoming an acclaimed author! (I won’t get into that here, it’s really not important to my experience, but you can definitely check it out on Wikipedia if you’re curious- or just look at some of the other reviews). I was very pleasantly surprised to realize not far into the text that I really loved this book and am thoroughly looking forward to starting the next volume in the series. With such a long run, I might be spending quite a lot of time with Mr. Monk.
— ~Geektastic~
