First off, the titles to Anne Perry’s books have meaning, without giving away the plot.

Commander Monk and Hooper really are stumped on this string of murders in the Hungarian community near the Thames River. 17 candles and other aspects of the murders point towards a serial killer who hates the Hungarians. They have to enlist the help of a prominent Hungarian, Antal Dobokai, who speaks excellent English and has an almost photographic memory.

Hester and Scuff, now called Will, help Crow in his clinic and there encounter a Dr. Fitzherbert, who Hester worked closely with in the Crimea. He has terrible flashbacks or nightmares from the war. Sometimes he doesn’t remember where he is. Could he be the murderer?

Sir Oliver Rathbone has married Beata and is finally happy. He steps in to assist in the defense of Dr. Fitz and the time is running out. Will does an excellent job on the witness stand and is learning to be a doctor so Monk and Hester are proud of him.

Definitely a page turner with plot twists and further development of the main characters. ( )

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an advance copy of this to review.
In this latest installment of Anne Perry's William Monk series, she continues to show her skill at world building. There's no doubt but that she knows the Victorian age, and her descriptions are fairly light-handed so that the reader doesn't feel like a history lesson is being shoe-horned into a story. The details that are there feel natural and necessary to create the setting.
This mystery centers on the Hungarian community in London, several members of which are being violently struck down. For much of the novel, Monk is stymied as to what the motivation could even be, let alone who the culprit is. Because the investigation stalls continually, when the denouement finally does come, it feels rather rushed.
Perry's main characters all have a habit of lengthy introspection, which sometimes breaks up the narrative and makes each and every moment seem a little too deliberate. One gets the sense that these people are unable to live life one day to the next, because each action carries with it a flood of memories. However, in this novel, it works a little better than in some of the others, because a new character is obviously suffering with PTSD.
One of the up-and-coming characters who is getting a bit more notice in this book is Scuff, a/k/a Will, the orphan boy adopted by William and Hester Monk. He's now grown to about age 18 and is studying medicine. His development and medical training are among the more interesting aspects of the novel.
Overall, I found this a pretty easy read, with prose that let me move along and not get bogged down. One of the better of Anne Perry's novels to date! ( )

"An Echo of Murder" begins with a gruesome murder of a man in his office. Blood is everywhere and the scent of it is staggering. The victim is Hungarian and that may be a clue as to why he was so brutally murdered. Candles and a bayonet just add to the confusion. Who wants this man dead in such a horrible way?

Anne Perry writes such fascinating mysteries - her Pitt books are among the top of the genre. Her depictions of Victorian London are always intriguing and give a real sense of what it was like. William Monk moves slowly as he begins to solve this mystery and that allows the plot to unfold in an engaging manner. The clues are there and he'll need to prove that the doctor did not do this crime, if, in fact he is innocent. Although some things are never really explained, the story is intriguing and compelling, as are the characters. Especially interesting are Dr. Crow and the boy, Scuff - their teacher-student relationship is informative. Several other characters lend substance to the story.

Highly recommended for readers that enjoy historical mysteries, Victorian London, and learning about one ethnicity and their struggles. ( )

I've read all of the William Monk series, and I have to say, this is by far the weakest book. Monk is trying to solve a series of murders of Hungarian immigrants to London, all killed in a ritualistic horrible manner. When a Crimean doctor with PTSD, also a friend of Hester's, is accused of the crimes, it's up to Monk and his usual associates to prove him innocent and find the real murderer.
I'm used to Ms. Perry's repetitive style which doesn't usually bother me much, but here it seemed excessive. Her stories also never seem to get going until halfway through the books, but again, I like the Victorian detail she brings to her writing. There are occasionally holes in her plots, but this story seemed like one big plot hole. It was fairly easy to figure out the real murderer early in the story. Never explained was the rituals of the murders nor why after seventeen years the first murder occurred (no real backstory of the love triangle). It was just a means to the rest of the story, easily tossed aside after it served its purpose. Even the reason for the other murders seemed weak.
The reasons to accuse Fitz, the Crimean doctor, was plausible, but since there was no proof he was the culprit, it seemed like the police could have held him in protective custody or the like. They never proved him a murderer nor seemed to try to prove his innocence ie Why was he covered in blood the second time?
So I dithered between 2 and 3 stars, settling on 2 1/2. Hopefully, the next book will be back on track. ( )

An Echo of Murder is the twenty-third William Monk mystery. The year is 1870. William Monk, as Commander of the River Thames Police, is called in to the scene of a particularly gruesome murder. The victim is a widower, a respected member of the Hungarian community in London. His body was discovered by Antal Dobokai, a man who is more or less the leader of that community. It's a good thing that Mr. Dobokai speaks fluent English, because Monk and his right hand officer, Hooper, don't speak Hungarian.

The investigation is getting nowhere when another Hungarian man is murdered in the same way. There will be more, all with the same ritualistic details. Ms. Perry takes the opportunity to educate readers about the way natives might look down on immigrants for being different, particularly in language and religion (the Hungarians are Roman Catholic). Our main characters are not so bigoted, although Hooper makes a comment about Catholics worshiping the Virgin Mary. We don't. We venerate her, but we worship only the Holy Trinity. Aside from the murder victims, I felt the most sympathy for a poor woman who inadvertently used a vulgar word while grocery shopping. Some English women in the same shop soon convinced themselves that she was a prostitute. What followed wasn't good.

A man who becomes a suspect is Herbert Fitzherbert, a former Army surgeon who served with Hester Latterly Monk during the Crimean War. We learn why Hester thought her friend was dead. Fitz spent some years after the war in Hungary and is fluent in that language, but he's interpreting for and helping series regular Dr. Crow.

Scuff, the one-time mudlark whom we met in book 14, The Shifting Tide, has come a long way. He didn't know his age then, but he's probably 18 now. He's been a son in all but blood to the Monks for years and he's been given a regular name: Will Monk. Will is studying with Dr. Crow, still determined to become a doctor. A harrowing experience of his own (probably in book 16, Execution Dock), allows Will to be sympathetic when Fitz displays 'waking nightmares' where he believes himself back on the battlefield in the Crimea. Today we would say that Fitz has PTSD, or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (sometimes the 'post traumatic' is hyphened). It's still a common problem among survivors of war.

The first time Fitz is found wandering, covered in blood, there's an innocent reason. I don't recall that we ever found out whose blood and why it was on Fitz when a mob forms and chases him -- and Monk -- down.

A nice subplot is Fitz talking Hester in to seeing her surviving brother, Charles Latterly, again. Some of their backstory (and Monk's) mentioned in this book comes from book one, Face of a Stranger. The events in Charles' life that Hester learns here are from the 13th of Ms. Perry's short Christmas novels, A Christmas Escape. It's nice to see Charles' ward, Candace Finbar, again. She's a few years younger than Will/Scuff. Is there a future romance in the cards? After all, Candace is intelligent and not unlike Hester at that age.

There are some red herrings among the clues and I fell for one of them. I didn't guess the killer's motive at all. The usual courtroom drama wasn't bad. It had a more dramatic climax than most of these books. (The misstep Sir Oliver Rathbone took was in book 19, Blind Justice. It was so stupid it's the only Monk novel I never finished.)

This is a good entry in a good series. ( )