BOOKS: A transplant, spoof and darkness (Anne Perry)

From The Washington Times --

BOOKS: A transplant, spoof and darkness --

May 31, 2009 --

By Muriel Dobbin --

...Anne Perry is an author who specializes in writing about the tribulations of detectives who are obliged to investigate the dark doings that lie beyond the lavish and elaborate social lives of London's Victorian aristocracy and she does a well researched job of it. Execution Dock (Ballantine, $26, 320 pages) is an especially gruesome investigation of sadism, pornography and pedophilia led by superintendent William Monk of the Thames River police that leads him into the highest levels of the English judiciary. Ms. Perry has a knack for character and her Scuff, a tough little bandit of a river orphan, almost runs off with the book.

Monk and his wife, Hester, as always, are morally impeccable and high-minded almost to the point of exasperation, and it is usually a relief to find in Ms. Perry's cast of characters someone who doesn't live up to his or her shining reputation. She has unquestionably mastered her territory and her topic and established herself as a chronicler of a social dark side made more horrifying by its hypocrisy.