Execution Dock by Anne Perry

Execution Dock is Perry's most recent chapter in the Chronicles of William Monk, Victorian Detective, and it is a Duesie! Monk has succeeded his friend Durban, a man whom he admired as a good leader and a good man, as head of the River Police patrolling the Thames and the surrounding docklands of London in the mid-1800's. His predecessor had wanted very much to capture and bring to trial the man called Jericho Phillips, a purveyor of pornography starring young boys he'd picked up around the area. Sometimes, there was evidence that his crimes extended beyond the corruption of the boys: sometimes he tortured and killed them, as was evidenced upon the corpse of Walter Figgis, found floating in the river. As the book opens, Monk and his men are pursuing Phillips over the tops of lighters and barges, capturing him just in the nick of time. He will be sent up for trial and they can rest on their laurels -- a job well done.



But it all goes awry in the courts. Monk is made to look a fool, with a slipshod and less-than-useless force following him. The policies, ethics, morals, and methods of his predecessor are called into question. Even Mrs. Monk, a former Crimean War nurse who runs a clinic for women and children of the streets, and who had testified, with her medical knowledge, at the trial, was made into an over-emotional and hysterical woman who could have no understanding of the case. What's more, the person whose legal expertise allows Phillips to be freed, is a well-thought-of barrister friend of both of the Monks.



Soon things become very knotted, as it becomes clear that the backing of the poronography ring has very deep and high-born pockets. There is a fabric of lies, deception, rumors, and untruths, which threaten to tie the hands of the police, the law, and all well-meaning souls. It is only by trickery, and the use of classes of people mostly ignored by society, that the Right prevails, and that is only after a considerable number of scary events. Just the fear of getting lost in the docklands is painted as a frightening picture in this dark Victorian world, where women and children are treated as less than human and law is easily corrupted.



Perry has always written brilliantly, but the fear in this novel is as palpable as the smells of rotting wood, human excrement, and boiled cabbage, and the web of intrigue has virtually no holes. A tour de force and rapid page-turner, you can be sure. Very highly recommended!