A Christmas Hope

March 17, 2014
Set in December 1868, Perry's well-crafted 11th Christmas-themed mystery (after 2012's A Christmas Garland) features a character from her William Monk series. Claudine Burroughs volunteers at the clinic for sick or injured prostitutes run by Monk's wife, Hester, an activity that's just one of the points of friction between her and her disapproving husband, Wallace, an investment adviser. At a party they attend in London attended by the socially prominent, Claudine meets acclaimed Welsh poet Dai Tregarron, who suggests that she change her outlook on life. Before she can fully process his suggestion, another guest, Winnie Briggs, is savagely assaulted, and Tregarron is accused of the attack, which proves fatal. Convinced that the poet is innocent, Claudine works to save Tregarron from execution over her husband's objection. While the book lacks the political content of some of the author's other work, a compelling story and lead make this a winner. Agent: Donald Maass, Donald Maas Literary Agency.

December 1, 2013
Veteran Perry (A Christmas Garland, 2012, etc.) draws back the curtain on an 11th round of decorous Yuletide skullduggery among the oh-so-proper Victorians. Claudine Burroughs doesn't expect much from the Christmas party her distant husband, Wallace, has dragged her to. Forbes Gifford, his second wife, Oona, and their guests are as colorless as they are correct. The only bright spot Claudine finds is a chance meeting with rough-edged Welsh poet Dai Tregarron when she ventures onto the terrace for a breath of fresh air. But the stimulation his company offers pales before the news shortly afterward that the party gets from Creighton Foxley, Cecil Crostwick and Ernest Halversgate, the sons whose parents are among the guests. According to them, Tregarron has set upon Winnie Briggs, another guest, and seriously wounded her. When Winnie dies in the hospital with Claudine at her side, the charges against the missing Tregarron are upgraded to murder, even though Claudine, in whose stable he had taken refuge after fleeing the scene, suspects that the testimony against him is a tissue of self-serving lies. Taking time out for her volunteer work at the clinic Hester Monk runs for sick and wounded prostitutes, she makes the rounds of the other guests, probing ever more deeply into their relations with the dead woman. Though there's precious little mystery here, there's considerable pleasure to be had in watching Perry, on her annual sabbatical from her cumbersomely virtuous anatomies of Victorian social mores (Acceptable Loss, 2012, etc.), manage Claudine's nimble cut-and-thrust conversations with young people, society hostesses and her own husband.

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July 1, 2013

In Perry's 11th Christmas novel, Claudine Burroughs (friend of William Monk's wife, a Perry regular) is bored at yet another festive event until a charming poet arrives with his prostitute companion. When the woman is found dead, Claudine starts to play sleuth.

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