A Christmas Visitor

On this sweltering summer day, I needed something to cool me off. A Christmas Story about Victorian England by Anne Perry seemed like just the right thing. I was right. It definitely helped! As we move away from Christmas and Easter, it's easy to forget the things that Christians are supposed to do . . . including following the example of Jesus. There is perhaps no more dangerous occupation for a Christian's soul than being a judge . . . for it is God's job to judge and ours to forgive. In this novella, we learn about a remarkable, upright judge, Judah Dreghorn. The tale develops in an unusual fashion because Dreghorn has just died and his brothers, sister-in-law, wife, child and friend, Henry Rathbone, are arriving to celebrate Christmas as best they can. Dreghorn's death soon appears to be suspicious, and the visitors begin to unearth the secrets of his final day on Earth . . . with surprising consequences. For many who prefer a certain type of Christmas story, this book will seem a little off. I found it more morally advanced than most Christmas stories because it addresses the challenges of doing the right thing . . . when there are earthly consequences. I guarantee that you won't soon forget this story . . . and will probably think about it when you have the chance to right a wrong. May God bless you always!

This is the second year Ms. Perry has taken one of the secondary characters from her main series and given them their own Christmas mystery novella, which is wonderful. It's a tradition I hope she continues. There is no one who creates a sense of time and place, as does she. The story contains a message of the true spirit of Christmas, wrapped in a very good mystery. If you're either a Perry fan or one who loves period mystery, I highly recommend it.

I loved this quick, thoughtful read. I love Anne Perry anyways, but this book really touched me. There is a paragraph at the end that really said it all for me - I even quoted it my book journal. "Sometimes we bring to a struggle or a cause the gifts we see most clearly, a courage, a strength, or a charm others have told us we have. But often we find more is asked of us than that, more than we intended or thought we possessed. We are asked to offer that which we though dearest, to forgive what seemed unpardonable, to face what we feared the most and endure it." It goes on, but that's the essence & I love it.

Ten years had passed since the four Dreghorn brothers had been home together, but they were gathering to spend Christmas reunion in their Lake District family home. However, a tragedy occurred when one of the siblings Judah died when he slipped on wet rocks cracking his head. His distraught wife Antonia, mother of a nine year old, asks her Godfather Henry Rathbone to help her in an upcoming fight in which her late husband's highly regarded moral reputation as an honest Justice of the Peace is at stake. Henry drops everything to assist Antonia. Ashton Gower has recently accused Henry of being corrupt. Over a decade ago Peter Colgrave took Ashton to court insisting that the latter's claim to ownership was based on forged documents. Henry examined the questionable deed and agreed with Peter. Gower went to prison for forgery while Colgrave sold the estate to Judah. Gower asserts he was the victim of a fraud between Ashton and Judah. Henry investigates Gower's allegation, but also looks into Judah's alleged accidental death as being too conveniently timed. A CHRISTMAS VISITOR is a fabulous Victorian cozy that stars a delightful mathematician as a sleuth trying to learn what happened eleven years ago and what occurred a few days ago because he cares for his goddaughter. Rathbone, whose son Oliver is a recurring player in the Monk novels, is terrific as the lead. The support cast adds depth, but ironically mostly in providing insight into Judah, who Rathbone also knew quite well; thereby making the case more difficult because he has a positive frame of reference that is diagonally opposite that of Gower. Ms. Perry provides a wonderful Yuletide historical mystery. Harriet Klausner

"A Christmas Visitor" may not be in the style of a grand puzzler, but it was a great read nevertheless. As is usual with a novel by Anne Perry, at the heart of "A Christmas Visitor" lies a question of morality -- doing the right thing no matter the personal cost, and the feelings that this act arouses within oneself and those affected by the act. "A Christmas Visitor" is a very short novella, and it is a very fast read -- it doesn't possess a very complex storyline, nor is it full of clever and suspenseful twist and turns, and yet within the 199 pages, Ms Perry expounds on the theme morality very well, holding my interest from start to finish. Judah Dreghorn was a very well thought of, highly respected and much loved Justice of the Peace. And yet, just before his tragic accidental death, he was accused by Ashton Gower of being corrupt and venal. Eleven years ago, Ashton Gower's ownership of his estate was questioned by his cousin, Peter Colgrave. It was Colgrave's contention that Gower had forged the deeds and that the estate rightfully belonged to him, Peter Colgrave. The case was put before Judah Dreghorn, who upon examining the deeds, discovered them to be a forgery. Gower was sent to prison for forgery and fraud, and Colgrave inherited the estate -- an estate he promptly sold to Dreghorn. But now, Gower who has been released from prison, has returned to the area to accuse Dreghorn of a deliberate miscarriage of justice in order to acquire the estate. A few days later, Judah accidentally slipped and cracked his head on some sharp stones in a deep stream. And now it is left to Judah's family (his wife, Antonia and his three brothers) to protect his name and the estate from Gower's claims. Henry Rathbone (father to Oliver Rathbone from the popular William Monk series), who happens to be Antonia's godfather and Judah's good friend, has come down to help Antonia with the Gower problem, and he cannot help but wonder about the nature of Judah's death. For Judah to die at such a time seems just too convenient. Was Judah murdered after all? And was Gower responsible for murdering Judah out of anger and spite? Or was there some other reason to Judah's death, and could Gower's claim of being wrongly imprisoned have some merit after all? Sure that the truth is the only way to help the Dreghorn family heal and get on with life, decides to uncover the truth about everything no matter the cost... I thoroughly enjoyed "A Christmas Visitor." It was a very fast, engaging and compelling read. And given that the book was only 199 pages long, I thought that Ms Perry had done an excellent job of vividly portraying her characters and the stark beauty of the Lake District in December. Also brilliantly done was how the entire book hinged on the moral character of the dead man -- what we know of Judah Dreghorn we learn from other characters. And yet he is a presence felt throughout the book in spite of the fact that he is dead even before the book even begins. Many