Acceptable Loss: A William Monk Novel by Anne Perry (English) Paperback Book

Description: Acceptable Loss by Anne Perry When a murdered body is discovered in the Thames, clues lead to a heinous child-pornography case that police superintendent William Monk thought he had left behind, in an investigation that threatens his friend Oliver Rathbone and forces Monk to consider painful sacrifices. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description Anne Perrys seventeenth William Monk novel, now in paperback, is a mesmerizing masterpiece of innocence and evil on Londons docks, a welcome addition to this successful and beloved series. NATIONAL BESTSELLER On a London riverbank, when the body of small-time crook Mickey Parfitt washes up with the tide, no one grieves. But William Monk, commander of the River Police, is puzzled by the murder weapon: an elegant scarf whose original owner was obviously a man of substance. Dockside informers lead Monk to a floating palace of corruption on the Thames managed by Parfitt, where a band of half-starved boys is held captive for men willing to pay a high price for midnight pleasures. Though Monk and his fearless wife, Hester, would gladly reward Parfitts killer, duty leads them in another direction—to an unresolved crime, to a deadly confrontation with some of the empires most respected men, and ultimately to a courtroom showdown with Monks old friend, Oliver Rathbone, in a trial of nearly unbearable tension and suspense. "Masterful storytelling . . . [the] best in the series to date."—The Star-Ledger Author Biography Anne Perry is the bestselling author of two acclaimed series set in Victorian England: the William Monk novels, including Blind Justice and A Sunless Sea, the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novels, including Death on Blackheath and Midnight at Marble Arch. She is also the author of a series of five World War I novels, as well as eleven holiday novels, most recently A New York Christmas, and a historical novel, The Sheen on the Silk, set in the Ottoman Empire. Anne Perry lives in Scotland and Los Angeles. Review "Fascinating and fast-paced . . . will keep readers entranced."—Wichita Falls Times Record News "[An Anne Perry novel can] take us away to the far reaches of our imaginations, to a place and a time about which we can only dream. . . . We see the gaslight, we feel the fog, and in Perrys latest, Acceptable Loss, we experience the horror of murder, blackmail and sordid crime, as well as the shining victory of heroic sacrifice and personal courage."—Asbury Park Press "The real drama in the story involves the struggle between loyalty and truth. Questions of morality and painful choices haunt every chapter."—Lincoln Journal Star "Terrific . . . Readers will not be prepared for the twists and turns that lay in wait."—Bookreporter Review Quote PRAISE FOR ANNE PERRY AND HER WILLIAM MONK NOVELS Excerpt from Book chapter 1 Hester was -half--asleep when she heard the slight sound, as if someone were taking in a sharp breath and then letting out a soft, desperate gasp. Monk was motionless beside her, his hand loose on the pillow, his hair falling over his face. It was not the first time in the last two weeks that Hester had heard Scuff crying in the night. It was a delicate relationship she had with the boy she and Monk had befriended. He had lived on the streets by the river and had largely provided for himself, which had made him wise beyond his age, and fiercely independent. He considered he was looking after Monk, who in Scuffs opinion lacked the knowledge and the fierce survival instincts required for his job as head of the Thames River Police at Wapping, in the heart of the London docks. Until last month Scuff had come and gone as hed pleased, spending only the occasional night at Monks house in Paradise Place. However, since his kidnapping, and the atrocity on the boat at Execution Dock, he had come to live with them, going out only for short periods during the day, and tossing and turning at night, plagued by nightmares. He would not talk about them, and his pride would not let him admit to Hester that he was frightened of the dark, of closed doors, and, above all, of sleep. Of course she knew why. Once the tight control he kept over himself in his waking hours slipped from him, he was back on the boat again, curled up on his side beneath the trapdoor to the bilges, nailed in with the -half--rotted corpse of the missing boy, fighting the swirling water and the rats, the stench of it making him gag. In his nightmares it did not seem to matter that he was now free, or that Jericho Phillips was dead; Scuff had seen the mans body himself, imprisoned in the iron cage in the river, his mouth gaping open as the rising tide trapped him, choking off his voice forever. Hester heard the gasping sound again, and slipped out of bed. She pulled on a wrap, not so much for warmth in the late September night, but for modesty so as not to embarrass Scuff if he was awake. She crept across the room and along the passage. His bedroom door was open just wide enough for him to pass through. The gas lamp was on low, maintaining the fiction that she had forgotten and left it on, as she did every night. Neither of them ever mentioned this. Scuff was lying tangled in the sheets, the blankets slipped halfway to the floor. He was curled up in just the same position as they had found him in when she and the -rat--catcher, Sutton, had pried open the trapdoor. Without debating with herself anymore, Hester went into the room and picked up the blankets, placing them over him and tucking them in lightly. Then she stood watching him. He whimpered again, and pulled at the sheet as if he were cold. She could see in the faint glow of the gaslight that he was still dreaming. His face was tight, eyes closed hard, jaw so clenched he must have been grinding his teeth. Every now and again his body moved, his hands coming up as if to reach for something. How could she wake him without robbing him of his pride? He would never forgive her for treating him like a child. And yet his cheeks were smooth, his neck so slender and his shoulders so narrow that there was nothing of the man in him yet. He said he was eleven, but he looked about nine. What lie would he not see through? She could not waken him without tacitly admitting that she had heard him crying in his dream. She turned and walked back to the door and went a little way along the passage. Then a better idea came to her. She tiptoed downstairs to the kitchen and poured a glass of milk. Then she took four cookies and put them on a plate. She went back upstairs, careful not to trip over her nightgown. Just before she reached his room, she deliberately banged the door of the linen cupboard. She knew it might waken Monk as well, but that could not be helped. When she reached Scuffs room, he was lying in bed with the blankets up to his chin, fingers gripping them, eyes wide open. "You awake too?" she said, as if mildly surprised. "So am I. Ive got some milk and cookies. Would you like half?" She held up the plate. He nodded. He could see there was only one glass, but the milk did not matter. It was the chance to be awake and not alone that he wanted. She came in, leaving the door ajar, and sat on the edge of the bed. She put the glass on the table beside him and the plate on the blankets. He picked up a biscuit and nibbled it, watching her. His eyes were wide and dark in the low lamplight, waiting for her to say something. "I dont like being awake at this time of the night," she said, biting her lip a little. "Im not -really hungry; it just feels nice to eat something. Have the milk if you want it." "Ill take alf," he said. Food was precious; he was always fair about it. She smiled. "Good enough," she agreed, picking up a biscuit herself so he would feel comfortable eating. He reached for the glass, holding it with both hands. He drank some, then looked at it to measure his share, drank a little more, then handed it to her. He sat very upright in the bed, his hair tousled and a rim of white on his upper lip. She wanted to hold him, but she knew better. He might have wanted it too, but he would never have allowed such an admission. It would mean he was dependent, and he could not afford that. He had lived in the docks, scavenging for pieces of coal off the barges, brass screws, and other small valuable objects that had fallen off boats into the Thames mud. The low tide allowed boys like -him--mudlarks--to survive. He had a mother somewhere, but perhaps she had too many younger children, and neither the time nor room to care for him. Or maybe she had a new husband who did not want another mans son in the house. Boys like himself had been his friends, sharing food, warmth, and one anothers pain, comrades in survival. "Have another biscuit," Hester offered. "Ive ad two," he pointed out. "That was alf." "Yes, I know. I took more than I wanted," she replied. "I thought I was hungry, but now Im just awake." He looked at her carefully, deciding if she meant it, then took the last biscuit and ate it in three mouthfuls. She smiled at him, and after a moment he smiled back. "Are you sleepy?" she asked. "No_._._." "Nor am I." She hitched herself up a little so she could sit on the bed with her head against the headboard beside him, but still keeping a distance away. "Sometimes when Im awake I read, but I havent got a good book at the moment. The newspapers full of all sorts of things I dont -really want to know." "Like wot?" he asked, twisting round so he was facing her a little more, settling in for a conversation. She listed off a few social events she remembered, adding where they had been held and who had attended. Neither of them cared, but it was something to say. Presently she wandered off the subject and remembered past events, describing clothes and food, then behavior, wit, flirting, disasters, anything to keep him entertained. She even recalled the chaotic remembrance service where her friend Rose had been hopelessly and unintentionally drunk; she had climbed onto the stage and seized the violin from the very earnest young lady who had been playing it, and had then given her own rendition of several current music hall songs, growing bawdier with each. Scuff giggled, trying to picture it in his mind. "Were it terrible?" he asked. "Ghastly," Hester affirmed with relish. "She told them all the truth of what a fearful person the dead man had been, and why they had - really come. It was awful then, but I laugh every time I think of it now." "She were yer friend." He said the word slowly, tasting its value. "Yes," she agreed. "Dyer elp er?" "As much as I could." "Fig were my friend," he said very quietly. "I dint elp im. Nor the other neither." "I know." She felt the lump, hard and painful, in her throat. Fig was one of the boys Jericho Phillips had murdered. "Im sorry," she whispered. "Yer cant elp it," he said reasonably. "Yer did yer best. No one can stop it." He moved an inch or two closer to her. "Tell me some more about Rose and the others." She had seen survivors guilt before. In her nursing in the Crimea she had heard soldiers cry out from the same nightmares and had seen them waken with the same shocked and helpless eyes, staring at the comfort around them, and feeling the horror inside. She tried to think of something else to say to Scuff, happy things, anything to take away his memory of his own lost friends, adding a little more until she looked at him and saw his eyes closing. She lowered her voice, and then lowered it even more. He was so close to her now that he was touching her. She could feel the warmth of him through the sheet that separated them. A few minutes later he was asleep. Without being aware of it he had put his head against her shoulder. She stopped talking and lay still. It was a little cramped, but she did not move until morning, when she pretended to have been asleep also. After a breakfast of hot porridge, toast, and marmalade, Monk sent Scuff out on an errand and turned to Hester. "Nightmares again?" he asked. "Sorry," she apologized. "I knew Id probably waken you, but I - couldnt leave him alone. I banged the door so-" Details ISBN0345510615 Author Anne Perry Short Title ACCEPTABLE LOSS Language English ISBN-10 0345510615 ISBN-13 9780345510617 Media Book Format Paperback DEWEY FIC Residence Portmahomack, STK Birth 1938 Death 1998 Year 2012 Publication Date 2012-08-21 Series Number 17 Subtitle A William Monk Novel Place of Publication New York Country of Publication United States AU Release Date 2012-08-21 NZ Release Date 2012-08-21 US Release Date 2012-08-21 UK Release Date 2012-08-21 Pages 336 Publisher Random House USA Inc Series William Monk Imprint Ballantine Books Inc. 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