Acceptable Loss (William Monk)

";Give her a good murder and a shameful social evil,"; The New York Times Book Review once declared, ";and Anne Perry can write a Victorian mystery that would make Dickens’s eyes pop."; And Perry’s new William and Hester Monk story, a mesmerizing masterpiece of innocence and evil on London’s docks, outshines all her previous novels in this successful and beloved series.When the body of a small-time crook named Mickey Parfitt washes up on the tide, no one grieves; far from it. But William Monk, commander of the River Police, is puzzled by the expensive silk cravat used to strangle Parfitt. How did this elegant scarf€”whose original owner was obviously a man of substance€”end up imbedded in the neck of a wharf rat who richly deserved his sordid end?Dockside informers lead Monk to what may be a partial answer€”a floating palace of corruption on the Thames managed by Parfitt, where a captive band of half-starved boys