Starred review from September 25, 2017
One day in December 1896, octogenarian Mariah Ellison, the sensitive, fully fleshed-out star of bestseller Perry’s exceptional 15th Christmas-themed mystery (after 2016’s A Christmas Message), receives an unusually heavy Christmas pudding at her house in London. Inside there’s a small cannonball. This odd gift reawakens painful memories of 20 years earlier, when Cullen Wesley, whom Mariah secretly loved, died under mysterious circumstances. Cullen was the lawyer defending Owen Durward, who was charged with the murder of 14-year-old Christina Abbott in Haslemere, Surrey. Before Owen’s trial, Cullen quit the case; hours later, he died when struck by an ornamental cannonball in a bizarre accident in his study. Owen was eventually acquitted of killing Christina. But now, according to the note from Cullen’s grandson Peter that arrives the same day as the pudding, Owen has returned to Haslemere, bent on regaining his reputation, and may be a threat to Cullen’s widow, Rowena. Peter believes Mariah is the only person who can save his grandfather’s good name, and Mariah decides to journey to Surrey to help. Perry unobtrusively incorporates insights about the true meaning of the season into the engrossing plot. Agent: Donald Maass, Donald Maass Literary.
October 1, 2017
Great news for everyone nervously contemplating a trip home for the holidays: it can't possibly be as fraught as Mariah Ellison's visit to Rowena Wesley to rescue her old friend from an ancient scandal that's roared back to life.Twenty years ago, Haslemere doctor Owen Durward was accused of raping and murdering Christina Abbot, a 14-year-old abducted on her way to visit a friend. He retained Cullen Wesley, Rowena's husband, to defend him. But something made Cullen change his mind about acting on Durward's defense, and the night he withdrew from the case, he was killed when a bookcase fell on him and an ornamental cannonball on top of the bookcase crushed his skull. Now that Durward, who plans to marry a wealthy widow, has returned to Haslemere to clear his name, Peter Wesley, Cullen and Rowena's grandson, sends a plea to his grandmother's old friend to help her fight back against the doctor's accusations. Just in case Mariah doesn't think the case is urgent enough, Peter also sends her a Christmas pudding with a duplicate cannonball nestled inside. Arriving in Haslemere, Mariah finds Rowena at first unwilling even to see her, then unable to muster the energy to battle Durward, who's spread the word that Cullen withdrew when he learned that Rowena had begun an affair with Durward. But Mariah has never backed down from a fight, and soon she's linked Durward to an even older outrage in nearby Brocklehurst. Armed with her potent discovery, she returns to Haslemere planning to confront Durward in the most public forum imaginable: the village Christmas party.No real suspense or surprises, and even fans of Perry's holiday novellas (A Christmas Message, 2016, etc.) may find it hard to swallow the injunction to seasonal revenge. But as the vicar's wife points out, "What's Christmas about, if not hope and giving a hand where it's needed?"
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October 15, 2017
In Perry's latest seasonal novel (after A Christmas Message), Charlotte Pitt's grandmother Mariah Ellison returns for more sleuthing in the wake of her investigation in A Christmas Guest. It's nearing the Yuletide season when Mariah receives a letter from Peter Wesley requesting her presence in Haslemere, where his grandfather Cullen died 20 years earlier. The death was ruled accidental, but there were always suspicions of foul play, especially since Cullen, a lawyer, had refused to continue to defend Dr. Durward shortly before he went to trial for killing a 14-year-old youth. Now Durward, who was acquitted and moved out of the area, has returned to clear his name, but he greatly underestimates Mariah's determination and persistence. While she wasn't able to fight back against her abusive husband, she's not going to let this man get away with murder. VERDICT Perry's many fans will enjoy another winning Victorian-era mystery set during the holidays. [See Prepub Alert, 5/7/17.]
Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
June 1, 2017
When Grandmama finds a cannonball baked into a Christmas pudding she's been gifted, she is inspired to make amends for cutting off a friend after the murder of the friend's husband. So she joins forces with the victim's grandson and her famous detective grandson-in-law, Thomas Pitt, traveling to lovely Surrey to discover who actually committed the crime.
Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.