[In the following review, Dunn asserts that although Weighed in the Balance is not Perry's best work, the continuing narrative of William Monk does keep the reader coming back.]

Since 1979, the prolific Anne Perry has been turning out a stream of Victorian detective novels featuring Inspector Thomas Pitt and his high-born wife, Charlotte, as they uncover social evils in England and unmask the hypocrisy of those in high society.

Several years ago, Perry added a second Victorian series, one with a clever conceit at its core. The series has as its hero the imperious, brooding, sharp-tongued William Monk, an investigator who has lost his memory in a carriage accident.

Weighed in the Balance is the seventh of these William Monk mysteries.

Because of Monk's memory loss, each book is a double mystery—Monk and his allies seek to solve their cases, while Monk, through brief feelings and flashes from the past, painfully learns more about the person he was—and the person he has become.

In this latest novel, Monk must help barrister Oliver Rathbone discover the truth in a slander case. Zorah Rostova, a noblewoman from a Germanic principality, has accused a princess of murdering her prince while the exiled couple were on holiday in England. The princess, in turn, accuses the noblewoman of slander, leading to a trial. To clear Zorah Rostova, Rathbone and Monk must learn more about the political climate that has divided the principality.

In addition to Monk and Rathbone, the series focuses on Hester Latterly, a nurse who served in the Crimea with Florence Nightingale. Hester is all the things Monk dislikes in a woman—she is outspoken, independent, unbending. She rankles him; he rankles her. Neither Monk nor Rathbone can quite admit what they feel for Hester, who frequently puts herself at risk to help them with their cases.

Always in Perry's books there is an element of romance—a sweetness, however fleeting, amid the horror. This leads those who prefer the hard-boiled style of detective fiction to dismiss Perry's work as so much Victorian piffle. And yet—and yet—the social ills that she bluntly chronicles in her books were very much realities of Victorian times—child abuse, suicide, anti-Semitism, financial and political double-dealing, class prejudice and abject poverty.

On the surface, civility reigns among the upper classes, who adhere to a code of proper social behavior. But Perry strips away the veneer to show the ravages of the age.

Perry is a compelling writer, a wonderful scene-setter, presenting detail after detail that evokes life in Victorian England.

Is Weighed in the Balance her best William Monk novel? The answer is no. It's the second book in the series, A Dangerous Mourning, that really stays in the mind. In fact, Perry's 16 novels in the Thomas Pitt series are, on the whole, more satisfying reads.

Still, there is something about William Monk that keeps the reader coming back. Perhaps it is the mystery of his past; perhaps it is the uncertainty of his feelings for Hester Latterly.

All in all, it is the richness, the urgency, the almost-overripeness of Perry's writing—and her ability to build tension, even when the plot is a bit thin—that impels the reader to go on.