Book Review For Dark Tide Rising

One cold and foggy evening, William Monk’s peaceful evening at home was interrupted by a knock at the door.  The caller was Sir Oliver Rathbone, a lawyer and good friend of Monk’s.  He came to Monk for help with a kidnapping.  His client’s wife, Kate, had been kidnapped and the kidnappers had demanded a ransom be paid in exchange for Helen’s release.  Monk was immediately sympathetic with the husband, Harry Exeter, because his own wife, Hester, was kidnapped once. Monk vowed to help Exeter deliver the money and get his wife back.  At the drop off location, however, things went terribly wrong.

Let me first say that I haven’t read an Anne Perry book that I haven’t liked.  Anne Perry is a master storyteller, and she doesn’t disappoint with this latest installment of the William Monk series.

This book can be read as a standalone novel, but in order to truly appreciate Perry’s character development, you should read these books in order.

Perry has a knack for allowing the reader to see into each character and to empathize with what they are going through. Right away, her superb writing does a prodigious job of expressing the despair that Exeter and Monk are feeling.  That despair grows and grows as the novel progresses.  In particular, Monk’s agony over the botched drop off, and his doubts about his men, weighs heavily on him and grows as the story unfolds.  The reader’s desire to see this weight lifted also grows at the same time.  We also learn more about some of the other recurring characters.

Perry’s character evolution does not interfere with the development of the plot.  It is riveting, realistic, and keeps the reader guessing.  There are sub-plots within the main story that all merge together to form a coherent and complex story which in turn leads to the answers of many questions.

Like many of Perry’s other books, this novel ends shortly after the climax of the story.  This is not a negative attribute of her books, but some people are surprised by how abrupt the endings are.

Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for an ARC of this book.  #NetGalley #DarkTideRising