Scan barcode
A review by plantbirdwoman
A Christmas Secret by Anne Perry
3.0
This is the book selected for reading by my library mystery book group. It's probably not one I would have chosen on my own, although I am a fan of Anne Perry. I have long loved and followed the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt and the William Monk series. This is a story of another couple in the tradition of those two series. This time it is a vicar, Dominic Corde, familiar from the first Charlotte and Thomas book, "The Cater Street Hangman," and his wife, Clarice. This couple shares many of the same characteristics of those earlier couples and so they seem very familiar, although this is the first one of their tales I've read.
This is a very short novel or a very long short story. I finished it in one sitting on a Saturday afternoon. I wore a sweater the whole time I was reading, as the descriptions of the winter landscape made me cold.
Dominic is chosen by the bishop to take over for an old vicar who has gone on an end-of-the-year vacation, just at Christmas-time. It is a welcome assignment for Dominic and Clarice, but then Clarice discovers that the old vicar did not really go on vacation. There is a mystery to be solved and the couple determines to find the answer.
This is a minor entry in the Perry repetoire but it carries all the hallmarks - the attention to details, the appreciation of homely virtues and the everyday chores that were necessary to the running of a house, and the compassionate humanity of the characters. She excels at describing settings and interpersonal relationships.
This is a very short novel or a very long short story. I finished it in one sitting on a Saturday afternoon. I wore a sweater the whole time I was reading, as the descriptions of the winter landscape made me cold.
Dominic is chosen by the bishop to take over for an old vicar who has gone on an end-of-the-year vacation, just at Christmas-time. It is a welcome assignment for Dominic and Clarice, but then Clarice discovers that the old vicar did not really go on vacation. There is a mystery to be solved and the couple determines to find the answer.
This is a minor entry in the Perry repetoire but it carries all the hallmarks - the attention to details, the appreciation of homely virtues and the everyday chores that were necessary to the running of a house, and the compassionate humanity of the characters. She excels at describing settings and interpersonal relationships.