Funeral in Blue: A William Monk Novel #12

Anne Perry takes us to Vienna in this novel and the plot revolves around the revolutions of 1848 in continental Europe. This is not a successful theme for Perry. She is far more effective and convincing when writing about Victorian Britain and its politics. This novel contains more speeches than other William Monk novels and less interesting plotting and characterization. I did not find the conclusion convincing and the plot dragged in many places.

What I really love abt Anne Perry is how she works the subjects that are so personal and profound to her. As someone who committed murder as a teen, she explores in this book identity, memory, social condemnation, love, and betrayal among other subjects. I think Monk is her, and he has lost his memory, so watching him work to solve mysteries while the biggest mystery of his/her life (why she got involved in that) remains an enigma.

I'm torn on the rating for this book. I started out thinking it was mildly ok but not great, and ended up thinking it was terrific...so the story gets a 4 star. What's worthy of note is that the first 5 books of this series are really terrific. The narrator is the incomparable Davina Porter. The two primary characters are engaging in the beginnings of a romantic relationship with all the banter, questioning, back/forth that goes with that relationship. Ms. Perry writes all of this with wonderful prose and humor.

Now skip forward: Audible does not have the rights to release books 6 through 11 ... so we now move from book 5 to book 12. Not only is the narrator different but the plot has moved forward as you would expect. The primary characters (Hester and Wm Monk) are now married and their courtship banter is gone (and is missed because it was truly engaging). Ms Porter's wonderful lilt is gone from the narration and therefore most everything seems darker and more ponderous for the first half of the book. However Anne Perry's wonderful use of language and turns of sentences does come to the fore. Colacci, in the end, proves himself to be a wonderful narrator. And overall I remembered why I love this series.

All readers should be aware though, this skip in the series makes it hard to keep going in the middle of this book. In the end I'm very glad that I didn't give up, and I'm hoping that none of you do either.

This story is what I have come to expect from the books by Anne Perry. She is my favorite author and is always one of my go to authors for a great read.

I really love Hester and her part in all the Monk series.

Hard to pick just one.

I've listened to or read all of the series so far. I very much enjoyed Davina Porter's narration in previous books and wasn't sure I would like David Colacci but I was pleasantly surprised to find he does an excellent job. I also really liked Monk's trip to Austria. I love historical fiction and adding this element to the story enhanced the overall plot and made it that much more enjoyable for me.

This has been a great series. I already have the next one ready to go.

I was really surprised by this book. The later books in the Monk series after he joins the River Police are exciting and full of action.

By contrast - this story could have been told in about half the time and pages. It gets off to a good start with the murders. But in between the interesting bits that actually move the plot fowards there are long periods dealing with the internal thoughts and emotions of the various characters. I am afraid this is just not very exciting. There is simply too much character introspection in this story to make it truly interesting. All in all I found the book very boring and finally skipped to the end.

David Colacci is an excellent narrator but even he cannot salvage such a slow-moving story. Actually his narration is the best part of the whole audiobook. The plot and story are dismal failures.

This was the usual Perry/Monk type of light mystery/social history tale, but I found Colacci's attempt at British English often annoying and at times inconsistent. Even if he had used his own accent as narrator as he does with Donna Leon's novels, it would have been a better listen.

I usually enjoy both Perry's novels and Colacci's narration, but I wish I had passed on this Monk installment. Play the entire sample before you decide to download.

This is the best of the Monk series that I've listened so far. I really enjoyed it as well as I have the Thomas Pitt series.