SOURCE: A review of The Silent Cry, in Rocky Mountain News, October 19 1997, p. 4E.

In the following excerpt, Dickinson complains of the obvious ending and difficult to believe plot of Perry's The Silent Cry.

… Anne Perry's novels of Victorian England are prominent on the list of historical mysteries, a rapidly growing niche within the genre that some of us find a bit hard to take. Nevertheless, the best of the bunch deserve the attention of all mystery lovers. The Silent Cry, alas, is not among the best.

Perry's 1996 novel Pentecost Alley was one of the weaker nominees for an Edgar this year. The Silent Cry, though less turgid, also suffers from major flaws that only Perry's biggest fans will be willing to overlook.

When the bodies of respected solicitor Leighton Duff and his barely breathing son Rhys are discovered, kicked and beaten, in a slum street, mystery surrounds...