�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 are forced to perform vile acts for men willing to pay a high price for midnight pleasures. Although Monk and his fearless wife, Hester, would prefer to pin a medal on Parfitt�s killer, duty leads them in another direction�to an unresolved crime from the past, to blackmail and more murder, and to a deadly confrontation with some of the empire�s most respected men.To a superlative degree, Acceptable Loss provides colorful characters, a memorable portrait of waterfront life, and a story that achieves its most thrilling moments in a transfixed London courtroom, where Monk faces his old friend Oliver Rathbone in a trial of nearly unbearable tension�in sum, every delectable drop of the rich pleasure that readers expect from an Anne Perry novel.From the Hardcover edition.