Sonderbooks Book Review of A Christmas Guest

Reviewed January 2, 2006.
Ballantine Books, New York, 2005. 193 pages.
Available at Sembach Library (MCN F PER).
Sonderbooks Stand-out 2005 (#1, Mystery)

Here’s another quick Christmas story—I’m sorry I didn’t review it in time for you to read it before Christmas, but you can still enjoy it as a cozy winter story.

This is the first book I’ve read by Anne Perry, and I’m definitely going to have to read more. I found this book delightful, not predictable or trite, as Christmas books sometimes turn out to be.

Mariah Ellison, the Grandmama of Charlotte Pitt from Anne Perry’s detective series, is being sent away while her daughter and son-in-law spend Christmas in France. She’s not happy about it, and, as usual, makes sure everyone knows it. She goes to stay with a daughter-in-law who was once married to her son, but after her son’s death married an actor. Grandmama does not approve, and it not happy about spending Christmas at their house.

Then yet another guest comes to the house, also unwanted by her family. Maude Barrington has just returned to England after forty years in Africa. Grandmama finds her outrageous and annoyingly cheerful. When she turns up dead, though, Grandmama doesn’t think it’s right. If her disreputable son-in-law Thomas Pitt can solve crimes, surely she can figure out this one.

The story is told from Grandmama’s point of view, and is done delightfully. We see a believable change in her heart and in her character, which gives us a heart-warming story for Christmas.

Other Reviews of books by Anne Perry:
A Christmas Grace
A Christmas Promise
A Christmas Garland
A Christmas Hope
A New York Christmas
A Christmas Return
A Christmas Gathering
A Christmas Resolution
A Christmas Deliverance
The Sheen on the Silk

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Book Reviews by Sondra Eklund

*****A Christmas Guest*

by Anne Perry