I currently have my rating at 3 stars because I’m not sure how I feel about this one. The writing style took a bit to get used to, taking place in Victorian England and often involving the Cockney accent. It was a book where I felt like I had to read a lot at one time to get into it and remember what was going on. Seemed like there was a lot of ‘background’ or seemingly unnecessary details to wade through to get to the meat. As others have pointed out- much of this happened in the middle of conversation causing it to be disjointed. Several times I had to go back and figure out what question the response was even connected to because so much happened between the asking and the answering. I can’t say that the solved mystery was shocking or brilliant by any means. Because of the writing style it made it hard to solve on my own ahead of time because I wasn’t entirely sure what clues I should even have at that point. And there were lots of references to the Crimean War which I knew nothing about. And I did get a bit tired of hearing Monk’s character contemplate himself and all his self-reflection. BUT. All that to say, I’m willing to read the next book and see if I can be engaged now that I know what to expect. The storyline was interesting enough and I do like a good mystery. I’ll give Anne Perry another shot!