SOURCE: A review of A Breach of Promise, in Los Angeles Times, October 4, 1998, p. 2.

In the following excerpt, Kaufman praises "the long-awaited romantic denouement [of Perry's A Breach of Promise, which brought tears to my eyes."]

Usually while reading Anne Perry's Victorian mysteries, I am struck by how little humanity has changed in a hundred years. But her latest William Monk novel, A Breach of Promise, knocked me for a loop.

Barrister Oliver Rathbone must defend Killian Melville, a talented young architect being sued for refusing to marry his alleged fiancee, Zillah Lambert, a charming and beautiful heiress. It is inconceivable that a man could face financial, professional and social ruin for changing his mind about a betrothal, but, as Perry explains it, in a society where appearance is everything, if a man breaks off an engagement to marry (or seems to), people will raise questions as to...