One of the best things about Ms. Perry's William Monk series (and the Thomas Pitt series as well) is that the characters are constantly changing and growing. Even though this is a long-running series, there is nothing predictable about what happens to the characters and how they react. Heartbreaking in some case, heart-lifting in others, but never predictable. Ms. Perry's exploration of the darker elements of Victorian society is central to the mystery, as always, but again the author finds new ground in exploring the horrifying history of the Opium Wars. I did figure out the mystery portion before the characters did, but I wasn't living in the middle of the story.
A copy of this book was sent to me for review