Execution Dock

by Anne Perry
Finished June 23, 2011

This is the last published Monk mystery. I am finally finished reading all of them. What will I do??

I'll read the next one that will be published in August!

But then I'll be going through Monk withdrawl. I've so enjoyed reading this series. It'll be hard waiting years for the next one. I feel the way I did after first reading the Harry Potter books. I started reading them when book 3 was just published. I read the first three in a row and then had to wait a year for the next.

A friend suggested that I move on to Perry's Thomas and Charlotte Pitt novels. But, no... I think I'll take a break for a while.

I first started the series by listening to them. A female narrator named Davina Porter. She did an excellent job, but I didn't really like how she did the voice of Monk. I read most of the others until the last three - those were audiobooks narrated by David Colacci. Excellent! I really enjoyed his narration. The only thing I disliked was his voice for Rathbone - a bit too stuffy for me.

Anyway - in Execution Dock Perry has gotten more comfortable with the Thames area setting and characters she's been developing for the last few books. I had to laugh when I read the first couple of chapters. I've long thought that some of the crimes were solved and the criminals tried and convicted by simple conjecture or scant evidence. Execution Dock begins with a trial. Oliver Rathbone has been asked by his father-in-law to defend a despicable man named Jericho Phillips who was accused of murdering a young boy. Phillips is a dealer in young boys. He provides photos and questionable entertainment for wealthy perverts. But he's being tried for murder, not the other crimes. Rathbone is able to prove that there isn't enough evidence to find Phillips to be guilty beyond reasonable doubt. Phillips is aquitted and is set free. I wonder if it was ever pointed out to Anne Perry how conveniently the other crimes in her books were solved. The rest of the book is about the quest to find Jericho Phillips and get him convicted of other crimes.

The street urchin, Scuff, appears in this book again. Although some of the scenes between Hester, Monk and Scuff are kind of sentimental, the boy hasn't ruined the stories as I feared he would. He was a good addition to this mystery and played an important part in the plot.

I'll miss my Monk stories! But on to the next good book...