I felt like clapping as I set down this book after finishing it. I thought it was so fun to read. I actually reached out and patted the book with glee a few times and chuckled to myself once setting it down. :) I can't say many books have entertained me in such a way. I think the complexity of the storyline really had me going. I'm afraid I'm 'hooked.'I'm so glad Perry was accurate in her account of the 'slums' and the conditions of Victorian times. I appreciated her strictness in presenting soc...

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 S...

Excellent start for a series! A bit wordy and at some points repetitive but I enjoyed reading it all the same!The main character William Monk is quite complicated because he is divided between the personality he had before his memory loss and how he perceives himself now and we along with him are called to like and dislike some of his past and present personality traits!Hester Latterly was my favourite character even though a bit impertinent at some points! She has a sence for justice and an inn...

It got me hooked on Monk and friends. What a change from modern mysteries/police dramas. The insight into period detail and how it relates to police investigation was nice, but I have found Perry is just a really good story teller. I've read all the Monk books the local library has...

William monk is a good detective who gets results, but when an accident robs him of his memory....something he chooses to hide from his colleagues....he finds himself not only trying to solve a particularly brutal and perplexing murder, but also searching for clues to his own identity and past.This book has a high rating, but it didn't quite work for me....The murder mystery is very good, the writing is good too. There are some interesting characters, and lots of historical background which give...

This would make a solid stand-alone novel, but man, what a great way to start a series! And the trick of giving the main character amnesia gives the writer the chance to not only describe the character to himself, and thus the reader, through self-realization, it also affords the write some breathing room to develop a character on the fly. I know when I finished writing my first book, I felt like I didn't know my mc like I should, so I went through the bother of writing a prequel. This avoids th...

The face of a stranger is the first volume in William Monk series, a victorian mystery with an interesting detective. At the beginning of this book we meet the MC in a hospital suffering from amnesia. He doesn't remember who he is and what happened to him and we conveniently learn more about him as he discovers himself. He cannot allow his colleagues from work to know that he no longer remembers his job and as a result he is thrown in a crime investigation soon after he is recovers physically. H...

One of the best books I've read in the last 12 months. Characters were complex, flawed, and authentic. Dialogue rang true. The mystery was good and not capable of being figured out with any certainty until close to the end. In candor, I've avoided reading any Anne Perry books until now because of my discomfort with the author's ability to get away with murder with a slap on the wrist several decades ago. It's been my loss.

This is the first book in an historical mystery series set in Victorian England. It features a police detective who is suffering from amnesia, so while he's solving the murder he's also trying to discover what kind of person he used to be.It's well written, if occasionally repetitive and often preachy (war is not glamorous, slums and workhouses are bad, classism is unfair, women are marginalized, etc.). I liked Monk and the other major characters, and I look forward to reading more in this serie...

Inspector Monk, a detective in Victorian London, awakens in a hospital bed to discover he has no idea where he is, how he got there, or even who he is. Thrust back into his open investigation while pretending to not have complete amnesia, Monk has to retrace his steps while having to cover his own ineptitudes without seeming completely insensible.Having a particular proclivity for time-travel tomes, I tend to find many amnesia characters to be something akin to time travelers ... or Quantum Leap...

Themes: identity, crime, war, family, secrets, memory, classSetting: Victorian EnglandNow I remember why I don't read Anne Perry anymore. I don't really like her writing. This book sounded like a change from her Thomas/Charlotte Pitt series, which I did enjoy at one time. I just got a little tired of reading about the seamy side of Victorian life, and she explored deviance in all its forms, the worst crimes she could imagine, and on and on and on. There wasn't much to smile about in her books, e...

As an historical fiction fan, I am embarrassed that it has taken me so long to discover Anne Perry. This first in the William Monk series was superb. There is a tension to this story as we work alongside Monk to discover who he himself is. He is suffering from total memory loss after an accident. He realises he is actually not a nice person and also that his job hangs precariously by a thread as his boss sets him up for a fall. He must solve a murder that has everyone baffled and time is of the

Amazing! This was the first Anne Perry book I've read and I was totally engrossed in not just the suspenseful murder mystery but the unraveling of Mr. Monk himself, who suffers memory loss after a head injury in a hansom cab crash. The way Monk and his assistant Evan piece the story together bit by bit with very little to go on was remarkable. I hope the other books in the Monk series will be just as good, as well as the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series that I've never read. A recommended read!

I don't get what this is trying to be. It seems like maybe it wants to be a serious historical novel, but then the plot relies on a case of silly bonk-on-the-head amnesia. The characters are mainly insufferable. Loose ends never get tied up. Even the amazing Davina Porter could not save the audio version.

This is the first in a Victorian mystery series, and it starts with a twist: Monk, our protagonist, has woken in a hospital (not a nice place to be in Victorian England) with amnesia. He discovers he's a police inspector almost right away, but subtle clues-- the fact that no one has visited him in his convalescence, or seems particularly excited he's returned to work-- allow him to piece together a picture of his former life that is rather unpleasant. In other words, Monk appears to have been so...

I should've read this long ago. I have always been a fan of Anne Perry's Thomas and Charlotte Pitt novels, but for some reason I hadn't read her William Monk series yet. I am so glad I did! Monk is a muddle of a man. So many contradicting emotions. Hester is a wonderful character. Anne Perry puts such strong women in her books set in anti-woman Victorian England. (You'd think a country ruled by a woman would be more progressive!) And Evans is a delight. Can't wait to see more of this.

Do not believe the reviews: This is not a 'richly-textured' historical book at all. Any historical context is as bare as bones; with a few minor changes, the novel could be as easily set in Renaissance England, or modern-day London, as in the Victorian time period where it is in fact set. Not even as a mystery does it work: The characters advance completely by guesswork for the first three-fourths of the novel, making huge jumps in logic and intuition, all in no way supported by the actual evide...

4.25★Definitely not often a crime novel is written by an author who committed a brutal premeditated murder at the age of fifteen. Her former name was Juliet Marion Hulme and the disturbing movie Heavenly Creatures with Kate Winslet was based on her story, though with no input from her. There are two books about her on Goodreads. I discovered this information just before I started reading this, her first of over forty novels. I admit to being overly intrigued after reading in a Guardian interview...

Review written April 4, 20184 Strong Stars - Great serial openerBook #1 in a new for me historical mystery serial. Set in London 1856 with the main character the police detective William Monk. The Face of a Strangeris the serial opener from 1990 and the firts of 24 book parts so far (still a new one next to every year as it looks). A very HAPPY EASTER 🥚🐣🐥 read. Got hooked from start and just wish to start the second book. **********************************************« His name, they tell him, i...