by Anne Perry

Weak motivations in this one. The dark secret was very dark, and entirely plausible. However I did not see how it was much of a motivation for murder, especially considering the personality of the perpetrator and their tenuous relationship with the victim. I may have liked it better had I been more familiar with the hero, Runcorn, of the Monk series. His romance and his longing for a woman whom I would have presumably met in an earlier novel was sweet and had a happy end. However, once again, I did not understand why she would have fallen in love with him going by his self –described lifelong character weaknesses, and her beauty and intelligence. Still, it was a nice example of an upstairs/downstairs romance, a favorite trope of mine, if done right. **3 stars out of 5**

June 2, 2016