An Echo of Murder

De: Anne Perry

Narrado por: David Colacci

A string of gruesome, ritualistic murders of Hungarian immigrants has the Thames River police commander stuck on solving the pattern in the latest installment of the New York Times best-selling William Monk series.

When a Hungarian immigrant is dismembered near London's River Thames, Commander Monk is called to the eerie scene, where 16 candles surround the corpse. As identical murders pop up around the city, Monk confronts the unsettling options: could it be the work of a secret society? A serial madman? Or is a xenophobic Brit targeting foreigners?

A local doctor who speaks Hungarian from his days on the battlefield may be able to help, but his own struggles with post-traumatic stress have left his memory in shambles: could he have committed the crimes without remembering?

Fighting both local prejudice and the weight of the past, Monk and his wife Hester - herself a battlefield nurse familiar with horror - are in a race to find the killer and stop the echo of these repeated murders for good.

©2017 Anne Perry (P)2017 Recorded Books

Great series

Other than wishing Davina Porter would have continued reading this series, nothing could be improved upon from my point of view. Just wish Anne could write faster!!!

Repetitious

Had high hopes for another Monk novel. Turned out to be poorly organized and boringly repetitious

Not as good as I expected.

The story almost has no mystery at all, easily guess who commented the crime. The story could have been short er.

Really good mystery.

Nice to visit with these characters again. the ending was very abrupt but the story was engaging.

Another winner

What made the experience of listening to An Echo of Murder the most enjoyable?

Anne Perry rarely disappoints. I've listened to many of her books and love her returning characters especially her strong women. The surrounding history makes the storyline all the more poignant.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

William Monk and Oliver Rathbone slowly unravel the plot thus keeping you engaged until the end.

What about David Colacci’s performance did you like?

I look forward to David Colacci's narration. He's perfect for this historical timepiece.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The search for the truth no matter the cost.

Perhaps the best in the William Monk Series

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes. The Monk series has introduced and followed the lives of its characters through many crises and triumphs. This entry brings together Hester's family, a character from her Crimean War experience as one of Florence Nightingale's nurses, and Monk's job as Commander of the Thames River Police. The character of Scuff, a former homeless mudlark, is shown in his maturity as a medical student. The courtroom climax is riveting.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

The lack of police progress in solving the grisly murders leads to the seemingly hopeless job Sir Oliver faces in defending the doctor suffering from being left for dead on the battlefield during the Crimean War 10 years earlier. He becomes the easy victim of fear by the very people he has helped.

Have you listened to any of David Colacci’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

His performances have always been excellent.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

In the courtroom when Hester's brother, from whom she had been estranged, offers to care for the defendant after all charges are dropped. Hester's participation in the war kept her from being able to care for her family at home when her father was ruined financially and committed suicide.

monk is back!

it was wonderful to see that the author had written another Detective m o n k book. I love that series and hope to see more.

Without a sense of her own lore

Authors have what is generally called their “bible” which contains all story elements, side characters, minor story arcs etc. This story seems to have been written by someone who did not have access to that at all.

If you are reading this as a stand alone then it’s probably fine, though the ending was rushed and it’s easy to see that describing the fate of medical personnel during the Crimea, the state of medical care of the Victorian era, and a comment on social pressures and xenophobia were the primary point of this novel. If you’ve read them all, prepare to be frustrated as the “mystery” is very deus ex machina and who so ever wrote this is entirely unaware of the well fleshed out relationship between Hester and her sister-in-law Imogen, not to mention the almost constant use of Imogen as a touchstone for Monk across the first ten or so novels. Not to mention how this novel should have been allowing us to get to know Crow more but nvm…there is a handsome and tortured gentleman to pay attention to instead.

This one feels very sloppy and I’m salty about the discordance with the general feel of the rest of Perry’s work.

Best yet!

This Monk book is gripping and very well written. The narration only adds to the story line.

Perfectly Fine Anne Perry Mystery

I see several negative reviews of this book below. I must disagree with them. Yes, the whodunit solution is a bit far-fetched, but no more so than other mysteries by Perry and others.For me, a good mystery isn't really about solving the murder. It's about exploring the human mind, heart and relationships in extremis. This book certainly does that and does it well. In response to the reviewer who complains that Monk calls Scuff "Will" before he asks Monk to do so, this is a misreading of the text. It is not Monk who calls him "Will" in that passage; it is the third-person narrator. In fact, throughout the book from there on, both the narrator and the characters sometimes call him "Scuff" and sometimes "Will." This is deliberately and carefully done by the author. I know this because a good friend of mine recently became a nun and took a new, religious name. I still sometimes call her Patrice and sometimes Sr. Therese. Sometimes, I just still need her to be Patrice for me. Other times, I simply forget. The narrator is thus reflecting the reader's need to get used to Will's new name. What I liked most about this book were the scenes at Crow's clinic. These scenes are the heart of the novel. Perry does not spare us the gruesome details of mid-19th-century medicine, but she delivers them with great respect and sympathy. I especially appreciated the chance to peek in on Scuff's first tentative and heart-filled steps into maturity. David Colacci does a fine job as narrator. I will always yearn to hear Davina Porter's voice in these audiobooks, but I cannot fault Colacci for not being her. As a whole, I prefer women narrators as they seem to deliver more credible male voices than the men deliver female ones. But Colacci's Hester is quite good, and there were times, many of them, in which I forgot that she was being voiced by a man. That's quite a feat for a male narrator with as deep a voice as Colacci's. If you are looking for a realistic whodunit, this novel doesn't deliver it. But if you are more interested in people and their relationships than you are in clever and yet completely believable plotting, then you will find much to like in this book.