Dark Tide Rising

July 9, 2018
In Edgar-finalist Perry’s riveting 24th William Monk novel set in Victorian England (after 2017’s An Echo of Murder), an attorney approaches the Thames River police commander on behalf of Harry Exeter, an affluent man whose wife was abducted in broad daylight from a London riverbank the previous day. Exeter, who has assembled the considerable ransom demanded, wants Monk’s help with handing it over at the site that the kidnappers have set for the exchange: Jacob’s Island, not literally an island but a “region of interconnecting waterways with old offices and wharfs.” Monk agrees to accompany Exeter there the next day, and assembles a group of his most trusted officers to be on the scene in disguise. But despite Monk’s careful planning, the exchange ends in bloody failure, and he’s left to wonder who on his team gave the kidnappers the details of his operation. The added suspense from Monk’s mole hunt makes this one of the series’ more powerful recent entries. Agent: Donald Maass, Donald Maass Literary.