Execution Dock

Execution Dock
By Anne Perry
Ballatine Books, 2009. 306 pgs. Mystery

Perry’s mysteries continue to dissect the moral dregs found at the bottom of man’s soul. When the body of a thirteen-year-old boy is fished from the Thames River, Inspector Monk—now head of the famous River Police—is called upon to finish the appalling case his former superior was enmeshed in at his death. At the sordid trial of the accused, he uncovers the wicked trade of the sex merchants who work the Thames River.

With historical accuracy, Victorian England has rarely been depicted with such sinister malevolence, even for Perry. A psychological study, readers be forewarned that even if justice eventually succeeds, the subject is so vile the emotional senses are left reeling from the filth the river unearths.

DAP