Celia,
new wife of Detective John Hooper of the Thames River Police
is concerned when her close friend Clementine announces she
is going to marry Seth Marlowe. Seth is a man with a dark
past, a man whose first wife died in mysterious circumstances
and whose daughter ran away from home. He also knows Celia’s
own secret that could ruin her reputation and lose her husband
his job if it was widely known. It is going to be up to the
Hoopers to discover as much about Seth as possible.
I
have a tradition of reading each new book just before Christmas.
I’ve been doing this since the first one came out back
in 2002 and always enjoy them. It is a great idea to have
a series like this running concurrently with her other series
as each novella gives a minor character the chance to take
center stage and have a story of their own. This time it is
the turn of the Hoopers who were introduced in a Monk novel
I haven’t read yet. I would strongly advise anybody
planning on reading this (or any other in this series) to
be up to date with the relevant series because there are plot
spoilers in here, plus various things that would make more
sense if you had read the novel being alluded to. That aside
this is another triumph for the prolific Ms Perry that takes
a seasonal look at the nature of compassion, forgiveness and
redemption. Is Seth as black as he is painted or is something
else going on? What really happened to his wife and child,
and will Clementine’s bright, joyful spirit redeem a
lonely, bitter widower? I found it takes a bit of time to
get into its stride but once John Hooper and his team hit
the streets (or rather the river) it takes off. I would have
preferred more of this but this is a short tale under 200
pages and just the thing to curl up with in front of a fire
with the curtains drawn on a winter night. As with all this
author’s work it comes recommended.
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