“A Sudden Fearful Death” – Anne Perry

(William Monk book 4)

⚕️On page 1 itself, Monk has a client seeking to investigate a r*pe. There’s no easing into the story here, we dive right in to the action. This case is but a layer in the overall mystery because it’s fairly obvious who the attacker was and why the victim claims not to remember any details. As she is wont to do, Perry takes a moment for Monk to process the injustice of this young victim’s precarious financial and social positions.

⚕️I love the social justice warrior side of Monk. His amnesia seems to heighten his empathy for others’ suffering – an empathy that Perry suggests did not exist in pre-accident Monk. His feelings of constant wrong-footedness allow him to feel what it may be like for members of society who are deliberately prevented from achieving sure-footing such as financially dependent women.

⚕️Perry writes of the horrendous crime of r*pe but also of the circumstances of many women in the Victorian era – wealthy and poor alike – having no knowledge of conception leave aside effective birth control, many found themselves in unending cycles of pregnancy and enduring the toll upon their bodies. She then brings in the specter of unscrupulous hacks and back-alley ab*rtionists. The victims of the latter were more likely poor and exhausted women who could not afford to keep yet another baby, but also physically couldn’t bear it. These women were likely to bleed to death or develop sepsis.

Despite all the strides in women’s rights, the ab*rtion as health care debate rages on today, with full bodily autonomy out of reach in many places.

⚕️ The theme of nursing and hospital reform continues here with the plucky Hester Latterly. Perry provides a great deal of background about the advent of the use of anesthesia during surgery which enabled surgeons to operate with greater precision rather than the 2 minutes/however long a conscious patient could be subdued. She reminds us that unhygienic practices post-op meant that most would still die of infections such as septicemia and gangrene.

Lady Callandra Daviot takes up Hester’s charge to improve quality of care by focusing her efforts on treating nurses as professionals rather than menial laborers to improve sanitary standards of care on the wards.

⚕️As with prior books in this series, I noticed good and bad. I love the richness in historical detail and I’m always intrigued by the social injustices that Perry chooses to highlight. For me, this novel fell apart a in the courtroom. The conclusion just didn’t make sense legally; almost as though Perry was in a rush to wrap things up.

🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨SPOILER ALERT 🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨

⚕️The multiple layers of mystery in ASFD made it a riveting novel, but IMO Perry didn’t do enough to allow Rathbone to appear as though providing a full, competent defense. While the rest of the novel was meticulously written, the final courtroom scene was clumsy. I asked myself how on earth is one repeat witness’ damning testimony, unsupported by evidence, enough? It provides a motive, but the reader is well aware of all the contrary evidence provided in regards to outstanding moral character, etc.

I can’t imagine that English law on the point of a right to competent representation was all that different in the Victorian era. A defense attorney sabotaging his own case (for whatever reason) would be grounds for a mistrial and certainly would *ruin* the defense attorney’s reputation for zealously representing their clients. Rathbone even alludes to all of this, but we are never told how he rationalizes his actions.

⚕️Though the legal aspects of the courtroom drama that didn’t add up for me, I was pulled in by the interesting historical details with regards to medicine and health care that Perry ties into this plot. Overall, an engaging read though it does require suspension of disbelief in the end.

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