AN ECHO OF MURDER, by Anne Perry

Mystery/Thriller -- 3 stars



William Monk Series - Book #23
It's the mid-19th century in London, and Commander William Monk, head of the Thames River Police, is faced with a series of gruesome murders along the water front.  All the victims are Hungarian immigrants who speak little or no English and Mr. Monk is forced to use a community leader as his interpreter. Scuff, who Monk and his wife Hester rescued from the river slums as a child, is now learning medicine at the hands of a London surgeon when a doctor from Hester Monk's Crimean War history reappears in her life.  I've read about half of these William Monk books and found some of them to be very good, (Blood on the Water, Execution Dock), and others to be okay but not noteworthy.  This is one of the latter.  The story goes nowhere for too long and then the ending is so abrupt you find yourself thinking "What just happened?"