The Face Of A Stranger

tags: historical fiction, mystery, police procedural, reread 

⭐⭐

from GoodReads

His name, they tell him, is William Monk, and he is a London police detective. But the accident that felled him has left him with only half a life; his memory and his entire past have vanished. As he tries to hide the truth, Monk returns to work and is assigned to investigate the brutal murder of a Crimean War hero and man about town. Which makes Monk's efforts doubly difficult, since he's forgotten his professional skills along with everything else...

I finished reading one of Anne Perry's new mystery series - the Daniel Pitt series - and I didn't like it one bit, I gave it 1 star. 

I've read several of her books including this first book in the British Victorian mystery series with Police Detective Monk and I remember liking it at the time. That was in the early 90s. I reread the first book, The Face Of A Stranger, and to my dismay, I thought it was tedious and meandering with Monk's frequent internal monologues because he's suffering from amnesia. Get on with the dang crime investigation instead of wondering what he did in the past and things, music, etc he liked. Sheesh! I also discovered my utter dislike for the nurse character, Hester Latterly who also has frequent internal monologues. Ugh! I'm wondering why I now have a different view of the characters and Anne Perry's writing style. 

I will tackle next time one of her stand alone novels, Tathea, which I read almost 20 years ago, I can't remember it anymore. A fantasy and if I recall has some religious themes. 

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Bit of trivia re Anne Perry

Anne Perry was born Juliet Marion Holme in England. She and her family moved to New Zealand when she was very young and there she committed a serious crime although it was her friend who did the deed. She was the subject of the 1994 Peter Jackson movie Heavenly Creatures starring Kate Winslett. I remember watching it but never knew the 15 year old murderess is one of my most read authors. The movie is based on the murder of the mother of Juliet's friend, Pauline Parker. The girls killed the woman, were both found guilty and "detained", whatever that means, then released to their parents after 5 years. She and her family moved back to England after her release.