A Breach of Promise (William Monk Novels) (Hardcover)

by Anne Perry (Author) "OLIVER RATHBONE LEANED BACK in his chair and let out a sigh of satisfaction..." (more)
Key Phrases: withdrawing room, Sir Oliver, Miss Lambert, Zillah Lambert (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
The promises that are breached, broken, and never born in Anne Perry's rich and resonant new William Monk mystery all have to do with the roles and positions of women in Victorian society. At the center of the book is a rousing courtroom drama, as young Zillah Lambert--daughter of a wealthy, well-meaning northern businessman and his socially ambitious wife--sues an immensely gifted architect, Killian Melville. Melville, Zillah argues, failed to live up to his promise of marriage and thereby ruined her chances of making any sort of acceptable match. Private detective Monk is brought into the case by lawyer Oliver Rathbone when his client (Melville), facing financial and social ruin, still refuses to offer any reason for his dastardly conduct.

Monk's attentions are occupied elsewhere, too. Hester Latterly, the courageous nurse who worked with Florence Nightingale in the Crimean War, and whose favors Monk and Rathbone both desire, is looking after a British officer, Gabriel Sheldon, who was badly wounded and disfigured in India. Gabriel's wife, Perdita, is having trouble adjusting to her husband's broken body and spirit. "It was not Perdita's fault that she was confused and frightened," Monk muses. "She had been protected all her short life. She had not chosen to be, it was her assigned role." Monk has also promised a housemaid in the Sheldons' service that he will look for her two little nieces--deaf and deformed from birth--who were abandoned by their mother almost 20 years before. As the cases tangle and combine (perhaps a tad too coincidentally for some tastes, but, then again, real life is full of coincidences), Perry manages to show us the many ways in which women were made to pay for their place in a male-dominated society. She also delivers a touching and surprisingly suspenseful story. Other Monk books in paperback: The Silent Cry, Cain His Brother, Defend and Betray, Weighed in the Balance. --Dick Adler

From Publishers Weekly
In this latest William Monk tale (after The Silent Cry, 1997), Perry offers her strongest indictment yet of Victorian England and a society "where beauty and reputation were the yardsticks of worth." Barrister Sir Oliver Rathbone defends Killian Melville, a talented young architect, in a breach of promise suit brought by Melville's benefactor, Barton Lambert, in support of Lambert's daughter Zillah. Melville insists that Mrs. Lambert, desperate that her daughter marry, misconstrued his friendship with the young woman. Meanwhile, Hester Latterly is hired to nurse Gabriel Athol, who was tragically injured in India and whose wife, Perdita, finds her desire to understand his suffering thwarted by a brother-in-law who insists that women be shielded from the realities of war and violence. Hester befriends Perdita's maid, Martha, who is desperate to find her two deaf, disfigured nieces who vanished years ago when her brother died and his wife disappeared. Rathbone hires Monk to investigate Melville and the Lamberts; Hester implores Monk to help Martha. The first case ends tragically before the startling truth behind Melville's refusal to marry is revealed; the second project ends on a happier note. Perry does a masterful job depicting Victorian hypocrisy regarding women. But she draws her stories together with an incredible connection whose dissonance spoils an otherwise exceptional novel. Mystery Guild main selection.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 374 pages
• Publisher: Fawcett; 1st edition (September 14, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0449908496
• ISBN-13: 978-0449908495
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (55 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,106,815 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This is item 9 in The William Monk Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Deja vu, September 2, 2007

By	L. E. Livingston - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Whited Sepulchres (Inspector William Monk Mystery) (Paperback)

NOTE: This is not a new book. It was published in the U.S. as "Breach of Promise." Dedicated Anne Perry fans will already have read it. Otherwise it's fine.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars MORE TWISTS AND TURNS THAN A ROLLERCOASTER!!, March 7, 2003

By	Lois A. Quarles (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Breach of Promise (William Monk Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)

This book "grabbed" me from the first page. I honestly felt as though I was there with the main characters, participating in their experiences and world. As I'd suspected, my INITIAL guess regarding the reason pretty young Zilla's supposed fiance "backed out" was totally "off-base," and made complete sense when it was ultimately divulged. The writing style is lively, EVERYTHING falls neatly into place, and thus I UNHESITATINGLY classify this novel as a COMPELLING "read." I had trouble putting it down once I got "into" it, and found the details related to life and customs during that period to be enlightening, particularly since I'm not a "well-versed" history buff, per se. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading works of general fiction which are neither exceedingly lengthy nor go into painstaking detail.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A slightly unusual Perry premise..., August 31, 2001

By	bookjunkiereviews (India) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Breach of Promise (William Monk Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)

Most of Anne Perry's works dwell on the darker aspects of human nature, notably various sexual perversions hidden under the veneer of upper-class and middle-class Victorian society. Some of her recent works especially in the Inspector Monk series have also dwelt upon the status of Victorian women of good families, notably the tremendous barriers imposed to them professionally in medicine. More recently, her books have touched more explicitly upon political issues of the day.

This is a slightly unusual Inspector Monk book, in that there is no sexual perversion hidden as the motive for a murder. I shouldn't give away too much of the plot for those who have not read this book. The story is about the fragility of reputation, the impossibly limited choices available to young women in that society, and the ways in which friendships can be misconstrued.

One of the most effective scenes for me was where Sir Oliver Rathbone (the defense lawyer) is neatly boxed in by a match-making mother, and the way in which he understands and reads the minds of the women around him. This is one of the reasons I have kept this particular book, above all the others.

The story-line is at least initially not as dark as the typical Anne Perry (warning: her works are not for the squeamish), with the first half of the book being about a trial for breach of promise brought against one of the most brilliant young architects who refuses to marry a young woman. Why he refuses to marry her is not made clear until the middle of the story, and it certainly comes as a shock to all concerned. The second half of the book is much darker, in that the murder is driven by the personal greeds of one of the principal characters in the trial. This person's crimes are only revealed right at the end, so in that respect, the book is an amazing cliff-hanger. We don't know if this person was guilty until the very end of the last murder.

I have to admit to some problems with this work. Firstly, the motive for the architect's murder is not made clear. One of the problems is that we never get into the mind of his murderer, and that person's past is reconstructed by Monk. From that point of view, this book is not that successful. In the past, I have fully understood why person X murdered person Y (or several persons). In this particular instance, the murder seemed to make no sense. Secondly, I find it hard to believe that while men would be taken in by a cross-dresser, that women would also be unable to identify a cross-dresser. I won't go into more details, but I am surprised that more suspicions were not raised early on.

Although the book is one of Perry's best, I have to also admit that her work is extremely dark. I began reading her in a very dark period in my life. Today, I find the earlier works very good but they are also deeply disturbing. Also in murder stories, I prefer a variety of motives when murder is committed, ranging from psychopathic casualness (chilling in of itself) to blind rage to greed or perversion. While Perry has been widening the range of motives for murder in her novels, most of her murders are committed for sexual (and the odd political) reasons. Reading a whole string of Perrys in a row can therefore be quite depressing and even yawn-producing [with the same narrow range of motives trotted out]. From that perspective, she has moved from being an auto-buy to a "wait-and-see". Perhaps, the surprise element in every series, even a great one, wears out sooner or later, and this has happened with the two brilliant series created by Perry. I still think she has a lot of talent in her; it is just that I no longer resonate with most of her stories.