The Silent Cry

The Silent Cry by Anne Perry
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is one of the best in this series.  It is really hard to see where it is going until the end, but there is suspense all the way through it.


Two gentlemen lay bleeding in the seedier side of London, one dead and one dying.  They are covered in blood but their injuries don't account for the amount of blood.  The younger man lives, but is terribly injured and can no longer speak.  His hands are shattered and he can't communicate with writing either.  Hester Latterly is called to nurse the young man.

At the same time someone is beating up and raping women in Seven Dials and St. Giles.  The wife of a sweatshop owner comes to Monk to pay him to investigate who is doing this.   The women are not professional prostitutes, but young women who work in the factory for a pittance are forced to make a little money on the side to feed their children.  They are already beaten down by poverty and indifference and now someone is making their existence even more miserable.  The violence is escalating and it is just a matter of time before one of them is killed.

The two cases twist and turn towards each other as Evan investigates the former and Monk the latter.  At the same time, Monk is coming across street people who knew him when he and Runcorn patrolled these streets.  Throughout the book, he gets hints as to what he did to make Runcorn detest him so.  If you follow the series, this book pushes the story line much further along the line.


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