Saturday, November 28, 2015

An eventful Victorian holiday abroad: Anne Perry's A Christmas Escape

Since we've moved past Black Friday, and the Christmas countdown has officially begun, I thought this would be a good time to focus on a historical novel that evokes the season.  Don't expect a traditional cozy celebration here, though, for there's danger afoot.

Perry’s thirteenth holiday novella takes a sojourn from her familiar realm of Victorian England over to the small Italian island of Stromboli, in the Tyrrhenian Sea. The steep mountainous landscape is picturesque and the weather temperate, even in early December, and Charles Latterly aims to spend a few weeks pulling his thoughts together after his wife’s recent death.

However, despite the beautiful locale and the scrumptious meals prepared by the hostelry’s owner, his stay is extremely volatile. First, most of the other guests – a vibrant teenager and her great-uncle, a grumpy man and his troubled wife, the colonel who tries to save her from potential abuse, and a famous novelist – knew each other from back home and don’t all get along. Also, the volcano sitting atop the village shows signs of reawakening.

There’s a lot of suspense and character development packed into this relatively short work. After one of the guests is found dead – a murder disguised as an accident – Charles realizes the suspect pool is very limited and seeks to find a motive. His growing fatherly rapport with the young woman, Candace Finbar, brings out a new side to his nature. Between knowing that a murderer is nearby and the danger posed by falling lava bombs, the atmosphere is incredibly tense. The notion of a “Christmas escape” turns out to have an unexpected double meaning.

Charles, of course, is the brother of Hester (Latterly) Monk, heroine of Perry’s Monk detective series. Charles has a recurrent secondary role in those novels, and is such an intriguing character here that he deserves the chance to take the lead once again.

A Christmas Escape was published by Ballantine this month in hardcover ($18.00, 158pp).  That's a bit steep for a novella, but the price is heavily discounted online.  This review first appeared in November's Historical Novels Review.  Although this is the first of Perry's short holiday releases that I've read, I'll be back for more; it made for a pleasant break in between lengthier reads.

14 comments:

  1. Er, I think you meant murder disguised as accident? (Although I did read one book where a character is arrested for his father's murder and it was an accident, one that had nothing to do with him). Anyway, it sounds like fun. Maybe my local library has a copy, must check. They do have some Anne Perry books.

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    1. Oops, thank you! All fixed. It was a fun read, and nice to see one of Perry's characters out of his usual environment. Even though trouble followed him on vacation (not surprisingly).

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  2. This is very intriguing. One of my favorite Perry books is also a departure from the British locale: THE ONE THING MORE. It is set in France at the time of the revolution. Quite a change from the British setting and series. Her other stand-alone novel is set in Byzantium, I believe, but I haven't searched out a copy of that just yet. Naturally, I searched a little more diligently for the French-set one! ;)

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    1. Mais bien sûr! I haven't read her French Revolution novel yet, or the one in Byzantium... though have had a copy of the latter for ages. I'd heard it was a dense read, which was putting me off, but I like the unusual setting a lot.

      There was a time about a decade ago when I read the first book in Perry's Monk series, then got so addicted that I proceeded to read the next five in succession. And I got a bit burned out. I ought to get caught up with them again.

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    2. Perry is very popular in France, according to my French bibliophile friends. I think that is great testimony to the integrity of her settings, wherever in the world they happen to be. The French are ever-so picky (particular?) about such things! And rightfully so. 8)

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    3. That's really interesting to hear! I hadn't realized she was so popular in France. And yes, I agree. It's a good sign.

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  3. So glad you enjoyed A Christmas Escape. I love Perry's Christmas books, and I look forward to reading them every year.

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  4. Thanks for the recommendation of the books. Are the others also spin-offs from her longer series?

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    1. Yes, some of them feature characters from the Pitt series, and some of them feature characters from the Monk series. They each have a different main character.

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    2. Good to know - so, maybe not much chance Charles will appear in another novella, but I can hope!

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    3. He might. Once in a while she uses a main character she's used before. There are two about Henry Rathbone from the Monk series. This page lists them in order, and if you scroll down to the end it tells you which characters are featured in each book: http://stopyourekillingme.com/P_Authors/Perry_Anne.html

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    4. Looks like the link isn't clickable. But you can copy and paste it. :-)

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    5. Thanks for the link! It showed up as clickable in my email :)

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  5. Sounds good! I'm not getting the posts by email, so it looked like it wasn't clickable. :-)

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