I have long followed Anne Perry. She has two series that feature different times of the Victorian Era. One features Monk and his wife Hester, the other Thomas Pitt and his wife Charlotte. Her other series dealt with the horror of WWI.
For the past years, Mrs. Perry has been writing a book released in November that I call a small Christmas gift to her readers. Stories featuring a character from one of her Victorian series and them dealing with a situation around the Christmas season.
Her latest is A Christmas Grace. Initially I thought the title may refer to the Pitt's young maid and friend, Grace, but instead the book showcases Emily Radley, Charlotte Pitt's sister.
Perry paints amazing visuals of the Victorian Era, the Monk series, a bit after the Crimean War, the Pitt series at the end of the 1800's. This era is particularly interesting because class was the governing factor in everyday life. Who your family was, who you knew, who you married - every factor defined who you were. Emily married Thomas Pitt for love. He was a lowly policeman who had nothing to give Charlotte but love. Charlotte's sister, Emily, married above her station, and lived in luxury and a station in society. When Emily's husband died, she eventually remarries to a man for love, and he becomes a member of Parliament.
A letter comes to Emily from Thomas Pitt that her aunt Susannah in dying and has asked for someone to come to her in her last days. Truthfully she asked for Charlotte, but she is too ill to travel and Thomas asks Emily take the trip to help a dying relative. Susannah married for love, and outside her religion. Her parents and grandparents disowned her. Susannah lived with her husband in West Coast of Ireland, and her husband's village became her family.
But now, she needs help. Susannah had heard that Charlotte sometimes would help Thomas in solving crimes. There is some shadow in the village Susannah wants to be solved before she dies, and asks for help.
With encouragement from her husband, Emily makes the arduous trip to Western Ireland. She meets her Aunt Susannah as an adult, and sees she at the age of 50 is indeed dying. The two ladies start becoming friends, and Emily also is befriended by the priest and villagers.
One night there is an horrific storm, and there is a shipwreck. One young man is the only survivor. The whole town reacts strangely to this man. There was a similar situation years ago, and that survivor died mysteriously. This is the mystery Susannah needs help to resolve for the people who were so kind to her. She wants the village to be unburdened before she dies. She is not afraid of death; indeed she welcomes reuniting with her husband on the Other Side.
Emily, who is usually the more pampered of the sisters, steps up to the plate and helps care for her aunt and does the heavy chores. She works to help her aunt physically and spiritually. Emily works toward giving a second chance to these people, and a peace for the relative who lost so much by marrying for love in essence losing her family and gaining a village as a surrogate family. Emily also grows as a person to appreciate her husband more through this experience.
Showing us the details of the Victorian culture has always been Perry's forte, and these small Christmas books help zero in on a character and we see with clearer eyes a not so distant time in history.
Perry is an amazing writer with excellent series, and her latest Christmas offering to her readers is indeed a grace.
ellen george
A Christmas Grace, Anne Perry, ISBN 978-0-354-50203-2, Ballantine Books, review by ellen george
