A Sunless Sea, Anne Perry
A Sunless Sea, Anne Perry
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A Sunless Sea

Author: Anne Perry

Narrator: Ralph Lister

Unabridged: 15 hr 27 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 05/27/2025


Synopsis

Anne Perry’s spellbinding Victorian mysteries, especially those featuring William Monk, have enthralled readers for a generation. The Plain Dealer calls Monk “a marvelously dark, brooding creation”—and, true to form, this masterpiece is as deceptively deep and twisty as the Thames.

As commander of the River Police, Monk is accustomed to violent death, but the mutilated female body found on Limehouse Pier one chilly December morning moves him with horror and pity. The victim’s name is Zenia Gadney. Her waterfront neighbors can tell him little—only that the same unknown gentleman had visited her once a month for many years. She must be a prostitute, but—described as quiet and kempt—she doesn’t appear to be a fallen woman. What sinister secrets could have made poor Zenia worth killing? And why does the government keep interfering in Monk’s investigation?

While the public cries out for blood, Monk, his spirited wife, Hester, and their brilliant barrister friend, Oliver Rathbone, search for answers. From dank waterfront alleys to London’s fabulously wealthy West End, the three trail an ice-blooded murderer toward the unbelievable, possibly unprovable truth—and ultimately engage their adversaries in an electric courtroom duel. But unless they can work a miracle, a monumental evil will go unpunished and an innocent person will hang.

Anne Perry has never worn her literary colors with greater distinction than in A Sunless Sea, a heart-pounding novel of intrigue and suspense in which Monk is driven to make the hardest decision of his life.

“Anne Perry’s Victorian mysteries are marvels.”—New York Times Book Review

About Anne Perry

Sometimes the personal story of a particular author seems almost as intriguing as the books they write. Such is the life of British author Anne Perry (aka Juliet Marion Hulme). As a child Hulme was very ill with tuberculosis and ended up being fostered out by a family in the Caribbean. She did get better, and the family moved to a private island in New Zealand, where she describes her life as a Swiss family Robinson type existence. She became ill again and during her bouts of illness through her teen years, she missed most of her childhood education. However, her mother had prepared her by teaching her how to read and write by the time she was four. Her heart always seemed to be in writing.

At the age of 15, Juliet and her best friend plotted and killed her friend's mother. The three went for a walk in the park and Hulme dropped a stone, causing the mother to bend over to pick it up, and her friend hit her own mother on the head with a half brick. They had planned on the strike killing her, but they had to strike her 20 times before she was dead. The girls were put on trial and each served five years in prison. It is said that they never saw each other again after being released. For many years, nobody connected author Anne Perry as the teen murderer, Juliet Hulme. In 1994, the film Heavenly Creatures, portrayed Hulme and her friend Pauline Parker with characters being played by Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey respectively.

Perry's genre of writing covers Victorian Era Detective fiction for the most part. Her novels have been centered around two main characters, Thomas Pitt and William Monk. She has published 47 novels and several collections of stories.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Heidi on January 14, 2024

A very well written mystery which is also a fascinating collision of fictional characters and true events. The last third of the book made up for the rather dreary (i.e. boring) middle third. Not enough Hester and friends in action, hence the 3 star rating. (okay and the bad guys were obvious from t......more

Goodreads review by Ricki on September 05, 2012

I found the title of this latest Anne Perry novel to be quite appropriate: it comes from Kublai Khan, a poem written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who was a notorious opium eater and according to legend wrote this upon awakening from an opium dream. "In Xanadu did Kublai Khan A stately pleasure dome d......more

Goodreads review by Donna on September 24, 2012

I was soooo looking forward to this book. "Dorchester Terrace" was great and I had high hopes for this one. I was not disappointed. I tried so hard not to race through it, to take it slowly, enjoy the building of the mystery and what Monk would do to solve it. To no avail. I blew through this book......more

Goodreads review by We Are All Mad Here on November 29, 2022

Just when you think there can't possibly be another social issue for Anne Perry to attack, she reminds you that there is TRULY NO END TO THE PROBLEMS IN THE WORLD. This installment felt a little extra-repetitive and drawn out; it seemed to me that we covered the same internal questions at least fort......more

Goodreads review by Diane on November 15, 2012

I have read all of Anne Perry's books in the William Monk and Thomas Pitt series, and I always look forward to a new one. While I enjoyed The Sunless Sea, it seems to lack the intensity of other books in the series. Monk and Hester have become domesticated, leaving Hester with little to do but engag......more