With 56 novels in her popular Thomas Pitt and William Monk series alone, prolific author Anne Perry’s got nothing to prove, but still has a lot of stories to tell.
Just as her characters have aged, so have avid fans of the two series. When we first met William Monk in Face of a Stranger, he was a young detective with no memory of his life or why he was feared by so many. In talented and brave Crimean war nurse Hester Latterly, he met his match and found his true partner.
Readers fell in love with Thomas Pitt from the moment the handsome, disheveled young detective refused to use the servants’ entrance in The Cater Street Hangman. Charlotte, stifled by polite society, didn’t care that, as a policeman, Pitt was the social equivalent of a rat catcher. His dogged detective skills and her intuition and understanding of society made them a formidable duo.
Although the Monk books continue, Perry shocked many fans by ending the Pitt series and allowing the couple to age and continue their adventures off page. William and Hester Monk aren’t getting any younger, either.
The author who created such fan favorites wasn’t about to leave us all wanting. She’s launched two new series that will garner her new (younger) readers and satisfy those of us not ready to let go of Thomas and Charlotte.
In Twenty-One Days, the Pitt’s son, Daniel, has finished university and is beginning his career practicing law and stepping out from behind his now-famous father’s shadow. Daniel has inherited his father’s devotion to the law and his mother’s cleverness. His sister, Jemima, lives in the U.S. with her American police officer husband. Readers have a page-side seat as the brother and sister–we’ve known since their childhoods–grow into their adult roles. But don’t worry, their parents are still in the picture. The second book in the series, Triple Jeopardy, released in 2019, is followed by One Fatal Flaw, in bookstores this April.
The second series debuted, Death in Focus, is set between the World Wars and features 28-year-old photographer Elena Standish. In Elena, Perry has created a modern young woman in a world on the precipice of greater change. A simple, yet uncharacteristic, decision to accompany a new friend on a trip sends Elena on a harrowing journey that changes her life and could alter all of Europe.
Searching for the truth may be in Elena’s genes. She’s the daughter of a diplomat and, unbeknownst to the family (NOT a spoiler), her grandfather is the former head of MI6. Her grandmother is concealing secrets of her own.
Is a series featuring the Monk’s son–a young doctor with a street-savvy past–on the horizon? As an ardent Anne Perry fan, I certainly hope so. Through the Monks’ and Pitts’ investigations, Perry pulled back the elegant drapes of London’s Victorian society and exposed its weaknesses and sins. Now, she’s taking a new generation of sleuths and readers on a journey of crime-solving, suspense and discovery.