The William Monk series by Anne Perry runs to 24 novels, published between 1990 and 2018. It begins with a detective who wakes after an accident with no memory of his own life, and it follows him through Victorian London for the rest of his career. The nurse Hester Latterly and the barrister Oliver Rathbone are his partners in almost every book.
The series is complete and should be read in publication order. This guide lists every book with its setting and premise, explains the two titles of book nine, and suggests where to start.
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Quick Series Facts
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Author | Anne Perry |
| Number of books | 24 novels (complete) |
| First book | The Face of a Stranger (1990) |
| Final book | Dark Tide Rising (2018) |
| Setting | Mid-Victorian London |
| Genre | Historical mystery |
| Also known as | William Monk and Hester Latterly series |
William Monk Books in Publication Order
Years are those of first publication, and some editions appeared a year later. The list is split into three stages.
Books 1 to 8: The Man Without a Past
Monk begins as a police inspector and soon becomes a private detective. These books lean on trials, with Rathbone in court and Monk and Hester finding the evidence.
1. The Face of a Stranger (1990)
Setting: London
William Monk is a London police detective whose memory has vanished after an accident. He goes back to work and hides the fact from everyone, and is assigned the murder of a celebrated war hero. Each discovery about the case also tells him something about the man he used to be, and not all of it is welcome.
2. A Dangerous Mourning (1991)
Setting: London
No breath of scandal has ever touched the aristocratic Moidore family. Then Sir Basil Moidore’s beautiful widowed daughter is stabbed to death in her own bed, and Inspector Monk is ordered to find the killer inside one of London’s grandest houses.
3. Defend and Betray (1992)
Setting: London
General Carlyon dies in what first looks like a freak accident. His wife then confesses that she killed him and will not say why. With the trial days away, her defenders work to break through the silence around her.
4. A Sudden, Fearful Death (1993)
Setting: London
A gifted nurse is found strangled. Monk, by now working as a private detective, is convinced it was no random act of violence, and the inquiry shows him an evil that touches every level of society.
5. The Sins of the Wolf (1994)
Setting: London
Hester Latterly is nursing the wealthy Mrs Farraline when the old lady dies in the night. A pearl brooch is found among Hester’s things, the death proves to be poisoning, and Hester is charged with murder. Monk has to uncover the secrets of the Farraline family before she hangs.
6. Cain His Brother (1995)
Setting: London
Angus Stonefield, a respectable man, is missing and presumed murdered. The likely culprit is his twin brother Caleb, identical in appearance and opposite in character. Still rebuilding his own identity, Monk steps into Angus’s life to find out what happened to him.
7. Weighed in the Balance (1996)
Setting: London
Countess Zorah Rostova asks the barrister Sir Oliver Rathbone to defend her against a charge of slander. She has accused Princess Gisela of murdering her husband, Prince Friedrich, who gave up a throne to marry her. Zorah has no evidence at all, and Rathbone turns to Monk and Hester to find some.
8. The Silent Cry (1997)
Setting: London
In a slum street called Water Lane, the respected solicitor Leighton Duff lies beaten to death, and beside him his son Rhys is barely alive. The police cannot make sense of it until Monk finds a connection to a series of attacks on local women.
Books 9 to 14: Monk and Hester
In the middle of the series the partnership becomes a marriage, and Hester’s work among the sick and the poor produces as many cases as Monk’s clients do.
9. A Breach of Promise (1997)
Setting: London
The brilliant young architect, Killian Melville, is sued for breach of promise after refusing to marry the heiress, Zillah Lambert. He will not explain his refusal, even to his own counsel, Oliver Rathbone, who asks Monk and Hester for help. In Britain, the book is titled Whited Sepulchers.
10. The Twisted Root (1999)
Setting: London
Miriam Gardiner leaves the party held to celebrate her coming marriage and disappears without a trace. Her fiancé, Lucius Stourbridge, wants no scandal, so he goes to William Monk and asks him to find her.
11. Slaves of Obsession (2000)
Setting: London
A murder, several disappearances and a theft draw Monk and Hester, now husband and wife, into the affairs of a London arms dealer and his apparently perfect household.
12. Funeral in Blue (2001)
Setting: London
Two women are found strangled in an artist’s studio. One is the wife of Dr Kristian Beck, a friend of the Monks, and he is accused of the killing. Monk, Hester and Lady Callandra Daviot set out to clear his name.
13. Death of a Stranger (2002)
Setting: London
Hester is running a refuge for injured women of the streets in Coldbath Square when Nolan Baltimore, the wealthy head of a railway company, is found dead in a nearby brothel. At the same time, Monk is hired by a woman who fears that her fiancé’s employer is committing fraud. The employer is Baltimore’s company.
14. The Shifting Tide (2004)
Setting: London, the Pool of London
A ship back from Zanzibar is robbed of its cargo of ivory at the Pool of London, and one of the men guarding it is killed. The owner, Clement Louvain, pays Monk well to recover it, though Monk knows nothing of the river and its ways. Meanwhile, Hester’s clinic for sick women is running out of money and medicine.
Books 15 to 24: The Thames River Police
The last ten novels are set on the river. Monk commands men again, and the cases deal with the docks, smuggling, and the exploitation of the city’s poorest children.
15. Dark Assassin (2006)
Setting: London, the Thames
Monk is now a superintendent in the Thames River Police. From a patrol boat near Waterloo Bridge, he watches a young couple at the railing fall to their deaths in the icy river. Was it an accident, a suicide, or a murder? The inquiry leads towards a conspiracy that reaches into the government.
16. Execution Dock (2009)
Setting: London, the Thames, 1864
After a long pursuit, Monk has caught Jericho Phillips, the chief suspect in the murder of a young mudlark and the man behind a ring that exploits children. When the case comes to trial, however, Oliver Rathbone is hired anonymously to defend Phillips, and the police case begins to fall apart.
17. Acceptable Loss (2011)
Setting: London, the Thames, 1864
Monk and Hester are caring for Scuff, a homeless boy recovering from a terrible ordeal, and Monk is determined to find the men who fund the trade that harmed him. Then the body of a small-time crook named Mickey Parfitt washes up at Mortlake, and the trail leads towards respected gentlemen.
18. A Sunless Sea (2012)
Setting: London, Limehouse, 1864
The mutilated body of a woman is found on Limehouse Pier. Monk’s inquiries connect her to Dr Lambourn, a scientist who supported a bill to regulate the sale of opium and who has recently died. The verdict was suicide. His widow is sure it was murder.
19. Blind Justice (2013)
Setting: London
Oliver Rathbone is now a judge. He presides over the trial of Abel Taft, a charismatic minister accused of fraud that has ruined members of his own congregation. When the defence’s star witness tears the victims’ stories apart, Rathbone faces a choice between the law and what he believes is right.
20. Blood on the Water (2014)
Setting: London, the Thames
A pleasure boat is blown up on the Thames with great loss of life, and an Egyptian man is quickly sentenced to hang. Monk, head of the River Police, finds that the evidence was flawed. He and Hester start again, at a time when the new Suez Canal has given many people a great deal to gain or lose.
21. Corridors of the Night (2015)
Setting: London, Greenwich
One night in a corridor of the Royal Naval Hospital, Greenwich, Hester is approached by a terrified girl from a hidden ward of children whose brother is dying. Hester is helping with a secret new treatment, and she slowly realizes what it is costing those children.
22. Revenge in a Cold River (2016)
Setting: London, the Thames
Monk is called to the drowning of an escaped prisoner and finds himself up against McNab, a customs officer who clearly bears him a bitter grudge. Monk cannot remember why. His lost memory, a secret he guards closely, leaves him open to a past that includes time in Gold Rush San Francisco.
23. An Echo of Murder (2017)
Setting: London, 1870
A Hungarian immigrant is found dead with a bayonet through his heart and seventeen blood-dipped candles around his body. Commander Monk at first suspects someone inside the community. When a second murder follows, he fears the immigrants are being targeted from outside.
24. Dark Tide Rising (2018)
Setting: London, the Thames
Kate Exeter is kidnapped on the bank of the Thames, and her desperate husband asks Commander Monk to oversee the ransom handover in the slums of Jacob’s Island. On the night, someone betrays them. This is the final novel of the series.
Chronological Order vs Publication Order
They are the same. The series moves through the mid-Victorian decades in the order the books were written, reaching 1864 with Execution Dock and 1870 with An Echo of Murder. There are no prequels.
Start with The Face of a Stranger and read in order. More than most mystery series, this one depends on what the reader already knows, because Monk is finding out about his own past at the same pace.
About the William Monk Series
Most detectives know who they are. Monk has to work it out from other people’s reactions to him and from the cases he once handled and cannot recall. What he learns is not always flattering, and the series asks how far a man can go in deciding to be different.
Hester Latterly is his equal. She is a nurse with firm opinions and little patience for authority, and her hospitals and clinics take the series into parts of London that polite society avoided. Oliver Rathbone, one of the leading barristers of his day, gives the books their courtroom scenes, and his own choices become a major storyline in the later novels.
What Makes the Series Special
- The amnesia is used seriously. It is the spine of the series, and it still matters in book 22.
- Trials as well as detection. Many of the plots are settled in court, with the outcome in doubt until the last witness.
- Hester’s London. Infirmaries, refuges, and fever wards are as important as drawing rooms.
- The river. From book 15, the Thames gives the series a setting that few Victorian mysteries use.
Where to Start
There is only one good starting point: The Face of a Stranger. The first book sets up Monk’s situation, and every later novel assumes you know it.
Readers returning to the series after a long gap can pick it up again with Dark Assassin, which opens the Thames River Police stage and introduces Monk’s new post.
About the Author
Anne Perry was born in London in 1938 and died in Los Angeles in 2023. She published her first novel in 1979 and went on to write more than 100 books. Her literary agency, Ki Agency, lists this series under both Monk and Hester.
Her other long Victorian series follows Inspector Thomas Pitt and his wife Charlotte through 32 novels, starting with The Cater Street Hangman. The full list is in the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt reading order, and all her series are covered on the Anne Perry author page.
Historical Context: Mid-Victorian London
The Monk novels are set a generation before the Pitt novels, in the decades when London was growing faster than its institutions could keep pace with. The professional police were still new and widely distrusted, and a detective who questioned gentlemen was resented for it. That tension is in the series from the first book.
Nursing was changing, too. Hester belongs to the first generation of women who treated it as skilled work, and her arguments with doctors and hospital governors reflect a real struggle over who was allowed to practice medicine. The opium debate in A Sunless Sea and the experiments in Corridors of the Night come from the same world.
The cases and the central characters are invented, but they are placed against real events, such as the building of the Suez Canal in Blood on the Water. For more novels set in the period, see the Victorian Era hub.
Similar Series You’ll Love
- Charlotte and Thomas Pitt by Anne Perry. The companion series is set later in the century and lighter in tone. Start with The Cater Street Hangman.
- Shardlake by C.J. Sansom. A lawyer detective in Tudor England, and the closest match for the moral weight of the Monk books. Start with Dissolution.
- Bernie Gunther by Philip Kerr. Another difficult detective with a past he would rather not examine, this time in Berlin. Start with March Violets.
- Marcus Didius Falco by Lindsey Davis. A private informer in ancient Rome, with far more jokes. Start with The Silver Pigs.
- Brother Cadfael by Ellis Peters. A healer who solves murders, as Hester does, in twelfth-century Shrewsbury. Start with A Morbid Taste for Bones.
- Charles Lenox by Charles Finch. A gentleman detective in the same Victorian London. The first book is A Beautiful Blue Death.
There are more ideas in our guide to the best historical mystery fiction.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many books are in the William Monk series?
There are 24 novels, from The Face of a Stranger in 1990 to Dark Tide Rising in 2018. The series is complete.
In what order should I read the William Monk books?
Read them in publication order, beginning with The Face of a Stranger. The story moves forward in time from book to book, so publication order and chronological order are the same.
Do I need to read the William Monk books in order?
It is strongly recommended. Every book has a complete case, but Monk’s lost memory, his relationship with Hester and the career of Oliver Rathbone develop across the whole series. Later books also refer openly to what happened in earlier ones.
What is the William Monk series about?
It follows William Monk, a Victorian detective who loses his memory in an accident and has to rebuild his life while solving murders. He works first for the police, then as a private detective, and later for the Thames River Police. The nurse Hester Latterly and the barrister Oliver Rathbone share the series with him.
Who is Hester Latterly?
Hester Latterly is a nurse and the second lead of the series. She is outspoken, practical and angry about the way the sick and the poor are treated, and many of the cases begin with her work. She and Monk marry in the course of the series, which is why it is sometimes listed as the William Monk and Hester Latterly series.
Is Whited Sepulchres the same book as A Breach of Promise?
Yes. The ninth novel is called Whited Sepulchres in Britain and A Breach of Promise in the United States. You only need one of them.
When does Monk join the Thames River Police?
He is a superintendent in the Thames River Police in Dark Assassin, the fifteenth novel. The last ten books are set on and around the river.
Is the William Monk series connected to the Thomas Pitt series?
No. Both are by Anne Perry and both are set in Victorian London, but they have separate characters and plots. The Monk books are set earlier, reaching 1864 in the middle of the series and 1870 near its end, while the Pitt books begin in 1881.
Should I read William Monk or Thomas Pitt first?
Either. The two series do not depend on each other. The Pitt books are a little lighter and centre on a marriage and on society drawing rooms, while the Monk books are darker and spend more time in courtrooms, hospitals and on the river.
Will there be more William Monk books?
No. Dark Tide Rising, published in 2018, was the last, and Anne Perry died in April 2023.
Are the William Monk books suitable for younger readers?
They are written for adults. The violence is not dwelt on, but the cases involve murder, sexual violence, the exploitation of children and other hard subjects, particularly in the later books.
How long does it take to read the William Monk series?
There are 24 full-length novels. At one book a month, the series takes two years, and since each book has a complete case it is easy to take breaks along the way.
Conclusion
The William Monk series is Anne Perry’s darker Victorian sequence and, for many readers, her best. Over 24 books a man with no past builds a life, a marriage and a reputation, and the cases he takes show a city that punished the poor far more readily than the powerful.
Begin with The Face of a Stranger. When you have finished, The Cater Street Hangman opens her other great series.