I occasionally encounter a mystery fan who has never read a book by
Anne Perry. This surprises me. It doesn't happen often, but it
certainly occurs more than it should. She has had two different
series of historical mysteries going: the first being the Charlotte
and Thomas Pitt novels, which were first introduced in 1979, and
the second being the somewhat darker William Monk volumes. Perry
began a third series last year, and it's the one that has somewhat
become my early favorite. I don't think they have a proper name as
yet, but I'm calling them, for our purposes here, the Reavley
books