I received the first three books of the William Monk series as a gift. You can guarantee I will ‘eventually’ read all three. The first book in the series easily pulled me in right away. I became obsessed with this new world and learning all about these new characters I was excited to read more about. I went into this first book knowing that I would have two more books to read, which is unusual. Usually, reading the first of a series it is unknown if it’ll pull me in or not. One might say there is an added pressure wondering if I should commit to the whole series. This was the obvious effect… I felt I was in it for the long haul.

Now … the second book. (What you came here for.) HONESTLY – it was a let down compared to the first book. I want to be fair as maybe the let down was just the fact that I wasn’t discovering everything with Monk for the first time. I enjoyed learning about these new characters.

With the second book, it felt that there were too many characters brought in to the book that already had a large cast of wonderful characters introduced in book one. The overall ‘mystery’ didn’t take to me as quickly as the story did in book one. Again, maybe I’m being unfair to book two … but as it is a series and meant to be read one after another, it is hard to “not” compare the two. The ‘entertainment’ factor when it comes to plot just wasn’t there. I’m not sure WHAT was causing this… but I feel better knowing a few other reviewers stated the same. 
     In the end though, the wonderful story with period correct language, life and rules depicted  of the 20th century was once again, expertly portrayed by Perry. You can’t take away the simple fact that Perry KNOWS what she is doing. Even though the plot didn’t pull me in as much as I would have liked… Perry’s way of presenting readers with this past world is SO beautifully done that  I definitely pick up book three. I will be going with a 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars for this one.