In retrospect maybe reading this book in August wasn't the best idea, but in my defense, I had just just bought my first three Christmas presents and my thoughts were on the holidays. But, in truth, I think that my reaction to the book would have been the same if I had read it on Christmas Eve just after decorating the tree and drinking a couple of glasses of eggnog. It is the Christmas season and Joshua Fielding, his wife, and his theatrical troupe travel to an lovely manor house in Whitby where they are to debut a stage production of Dracula. While the actors revise and rehearse the production, a blizzard cuts off the outside world and a stranger dressed in black arrives seeking shelter. You got it--there is a murder in a isolated country house and virtually everyone inside the house is a suspect. The Christmas novels of Anne Perry (of which the 11th comes out in December) follow the same formula. She borrows a character or characters from one of her major mystery series, the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series or the William Monk series, and has them discover and solve a murder. They all take place in the Christmas season and deliver an explicitly Christian message.In this one the impromptu detective is Charlotte Ellison Fielding, mother of Charlotte Pitt. She and her second husband, a Jewish actor named Joshua Fielding are invited to the Whitby, England home of the wealthy Charles Netheridge to work on the amateur play written by Netheridge's daughter.The action starts 9 days before Christmas in 1897. Earlier in the year Dracula by Bram Stoker has been published and is a sensation. The amateur play here is based on that novel. The play needs a lot of work before it could be suitable for presentation on Boxing Day (the day after Christmas) and Fielding's little acting troupe are working hard on it until murder occurs.Along the way the very nature of evil is brought into question. For that and other reasons I think this is the best of the series.
Do You like book A Christmas Homecoming (2011)?
A nice cosy mystery set in a great location. A quick and enjoyable read for anytime of the year.
—Hkf
I enjoy Anne Perry's books and this is no exception. Creepy and very hard to put down.
—charles
a good cozy mystery, starts out slow with a good ending
—Magdalena
I liked the story but not the ending.
—AsianArtist
