Side by side they hurtled towards the entrance again, feet flying, shoulders banging into the walls. Monk fell once. Runcorn stopped and hauled him to his feet, almost yanking his arm out of its socket, nearly tearing his wound open. But they reached the entrance just as Finger fired the great lifting machine into life, under Orme's orders. The earth began to shudder and stones were dislodged. Boulders quaked and the whole machine slid forward. The giant stakes that held it were gone and it slithered and pounded, belching steam.

Finger jumped down and ran away from it as it lurched forward. The boulders crashed over and down, then gradually the entire wall and all its retaining boards and planks buckled and slid. Crossbeams exploded like matchsticks. With a great eruption, the earth collapsed with a roar and crashed over the entrance, burying it as if it had never existed.

Pebbles rattled and dropped; steam exploded from somewhere in a white column. Then there was silence.

Monk wiped his hand across his face and found he was shaking.

"Better Sixsmith be buried," Rathbone said, his voice with only a shred of its old humor. "I'm not sure I could have convicted him anyway." He smiled ruefully. "Don't bring me another case for a while, Monk. You've ruined my clothes."

They stood in a row, five of them-filthy, freezing, and strangely victorious.

"Thank you, gentlemen," Monk said. "Each and every one of you." He had never meant anything more in his life.

ANNE PERRY is the author of two acclaimed series set in Victorian England. Her William Monk novels include Death of a Stranger and The Shifting Tide. Among her novels featuring Charlotte and Thomas Pitt are the New York Times bestselling Southampton Row and Long Spoon Lane. With No Graves As Yet, also a New York Times bestseller, Perry began a new miniseries set during World War I. Her short story "Heroes" won an Edgar Award. Anne Perry lives in the Scottish Highlands. Visit her website at www.anneperry.net.

In her bio – not a book you understand, but part of the package sent to wandering journalists (that'd be me) in advance of an interview – Anne Perry writes, "I was born in London, England in 1938, a few months before the war, and spent the first years of my life there, although I was evacuated a couple of times for short periods. My schooling was very interrupted, both by frequent moves and by ill-health. but I do not feel as if I have been deprived because of it… Because much of my education was acquired haphazardly, there are some rather large gaps in it, and some odd additions. I missed most of my schooling from thirteen to eighteen, then took University Entrance examinations and passed in English, Latin, history and geography."

In Anne Perry's case, acquiring an education haphazardly is a rather delicate euphemism for incarceration. Perry was well on her way to becoming an internationally known mystery writer when her secret came out: as a teenager in New Zealand, Perry and her best friend were tried and convicted for killing the other girl's mother. No doubt it was much to Perry's embarrassment that details of the story came to light. Nor could she have been particularly enthusiastic about the 1994 film – Heavenly Creatures - that was made about the story. In that regard, I only know what I've read: understandably, it's not something that Perry likes to discuss.

In person, Anne Perry is much as expected. It's not even difficult to imagine the girl Kate Winslet portrayed in the film growing to be this cultured and mature woman. She is tall, slender, perfectly coifed and turned out when I meet her: she is elegant and her bearing is regal. We meet in a busy bistro and there is noise all around. The clink of glasses, the midrange hum of a successful eatery. Somewhere at a distant table, a child cries intermittently. Perry pays attention to none of it. She meets my gaze with her own clear blue one, sits serenely and answers quietly.

Readers of Perry's Monk mysteries might even feel they recognize one of the writer's own characters in the level, intelligent gaze. In many ways, Perry reminds me of her creation: Hester Latterly. Both women possess the same maturity of style and stance, the same natural elegance and – perhaps – even a bit of the same background.

Perry has not been an overnight sensation. Still relatively unknown in her native United Kingdom, Perry's North American audience has been growing in modulated spurts since the publication of her first book, The Cater Street Hangman. In the last few years, however, that has been changing as well, while a steadily increasing number of readers are tuning into her two series of well-honed Victorian mysteries. And while Perry will be the first to admit she didn't invent the genre, she's certainly done much to increase its popularity.

Perry is committed to publishing two books per year: a "Pitt novel in the spring, and a Monk novel in the fall." And while a pace like that might leave other writers breathless, Perry feels she works consistently but not at breakneck speed. With time enough, in fact, to occasionally focus on other projects. Two of these projects have been of special interest to Perry of late: a film version of The Cater Street Hangman has been completed and will be aired in the United States on A &E in mid-December. And – for something completely different – a fantasy novel called Tathea will be published in February, 1999.

Linda Richards: How do you manage to write so many books?

Anne Perry: I work reasonably hard. Though probably not harder than many people. I work probably eight or nine hours a day, six days a week.

Two books a year is what you're doing?

Yes. Plus a few short stories. I'm not planning to slow up. I normally do two a year. I've done two a year since 1990.

Your first book was published in 1979?

Yes, right at the beginning of 1979. That was The Cater Street Hangman. That was the first one in the Pitt series. First mystery I ever wrote, first Victorian one and the first one to get published.

And you're living in Scotland now?

Yes. Between 45 and 50 miles north of Inverness. In the Highlands. With one dog and five cats.

Of your books, what's your favorite?

Whatever I'm doing at the moment because it might just work out exactly right. My heart is always in whatever I'm doing at the time.

You used to live in the U.S.

I lived near San Francisco for about six months and in the Los Angeles area for four and a half years in the late 60s.

I understand you moved around a lot as a child. I think that spawns writers, in a way.

Yes, I guess you make your own world. And also illness has that effect as well. And I had a lot of childhood illness. Not since then, thank goodness. But it does. Because you have to live within your mind because there's not much you can do outside it.

Your latest William Monk novel doesn't offer the clues to Monk's past that readers have come to look forward to. Is there a pattern or plan in your mind about revealing more of the mysteries from that investigator's history?