Dark Assassin

Dark Assassin, by Anne Perry, is a murder mystery set in the Victorian era of London. Since the book is also written in the dialect of that time and place, it was difficult for this skimming speed reader to follow at times.

The main character is William Monk, a Thames River Police superintendent, who witnesses a couple in a heated discussion fall from the Waterloo Bridge into the icy waters. Monk's subsequent investigation into their deaths uncovers a mysterious connection to the woman's family, her father's suicide and the new sewer system being built beneath London.

To solve the mystery, Monk enlists the help of an eclectic mix of people - Hester, his wife and former army nurse, Orme, a subordinate police officer, Runcorn, a fellow police superintendent, Rathbone, a lawyer, Crow, a doctor to the poor, Scuff, a mudlark (someone who scavenges the river at low tide), and Sutton the rat catcher and his dog Snoot. From the world of the powerful and wealthy to the dark world of sewer tunnels, seedy characters and starving people, impending danger awaits them.