The Shifting Tide

William Monk, now working as a private inquiry agent along the Thames waterfront, is hired by a shipping magnate to investigate ivory theft from a docked schooner, a commission that pulls him into the dangerous world of river crime and simultaneously into the care of a mysteriously ill woman whose connection to the theft grows more troubling as the investigation deepens. Anne Perry's fourteenth Monk novel is set largely along the fog-laden Thames, giving the familiar Victorian procedural its strongest sense of place yet.

Ralph Lister's narration captures the physical atmosphere of the docks and the moral atmosphere of Victorian class anxiety with equal authority. His handling of the novel's ensemble of waterfront characters distinguishes them clearly, and his pacing through the procedural investigation respects both the mystery's complexity and the novel's broader social concerns. At just over thirteen hours, The Shifting Tide is an atmospheric and satisfying entry in a long-running series.