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Title: R.I.P.
Review: I trudged through this dull disappointment in disbelief - is this the same Anne Perry whose William Monk and Thomas Pitt novels delivered finely-drawn characters, incisive social commentary and intricate plots?Here, the characters are cyphers; where personalities exist, they're delivered through overwrought histrionics or dull platitudes. None of Perry's fascinating insight into Victorian mores, gender roles and class issues survives the leap forward into 1914 - in this novel the lower classes are distinguished mostly by their use of "Oi" in referring to themselves, and - in the case of the initially intriguing police inspector dispatched to Cambridge University - witless incomprehension regarding the lofty sphere of British acedemia.Perry must have been having a bad day when she wrote this - I couldn't help wondering whether she'd pulled this manuscript out from a pile of early attempts at fiction, perhaps to satisfy a contractual obligation.
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