A review by leighannsherwin
A Christmas Visitor by Anne Perry

3.0

This started as good story, an interesting premise. The death of Judah Dreghorn shortly before his brothers were due to arrive at the family estate for Christmas. The widow Antonia calls her godfather Henry Rathbone to join them and to offer her some support. As the two other brothers Ephraim and Benjamin arrive and Naomi, widow of the fourth Dreghorn brother Nathianiel arrive and learn the tragic news, they begin to wonder if there is more to Judah's death than it being just a tragic accident. And this is where the story went where I didn't think it would. While it appeared to be a good murder mystery, Judah's body was believed to have been moved after his death, the book moves from finding out who could've killed him, to the story of forged documents and who the estate the Dreghorn's are living on, really belongs to. By the book's conclusion, the focus of the story is all about who forged the documents, or if they were really forged and the death of Judah Dreghorn becomes a secondary or even background story. In fact the only conclusion to that story is the police were investigating his death and one particular person. Rather disappointing for a murder mystery fan, someone who was hoping for just that when I started this book. While overall not a bad story, the ending for me was disappointing. On the bright side it was a quick and fairly easy read and Perry as always is excellent at setting the scene and making the reader feel they are right in the middle of the story themselves, so it wasn't all bad.