Detective Fiction, Cozy Mysteries & Amateur Sleuths, Holidays - Fiction, Other Mystery Categories, Historical Fiction

A Christmas Secret

Name: A Christmas Secret
Author: Anne Perry
ISBN: 9780345495648

by Anne Perry

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Overview

Just in time for the holidays, Anne Perry gives her fans a marvelous gift: a new yuletide yarn full of light celebration and dark mischief.

Dominic Corde is thrilled to “fill the robe” as substitute vicar in the village of Cottisham, while the Reverend Wynter is away on a three-week Christmas holiday. Glad to escape his dreary London flat and a less-than-satisfying job as church curate, Dominic and his beloved wife, Clarice, set off for what they hope will be a lovely winter getaway.

Upon arrival, in the midst of a frigid, exceptionally snowy season, Dominic and Clarice are welcomed by warm, hospitable neighbors and enchanted by the cozy, inviting vicarage. Everything seems almost too perfect. Dominic’s only concern is how he will be received by the congregation, who hold the Reverend Wynter in such high regard. But as Clarice soon discovers, she and Dominic have much more dire matters to worry about. It turns out that the Reverend Wynter isn’t on holiday at all–and that something very sinister has transpired.

As a blizzard leaves Cottisham treacherously snowbound and the isolated village swirls with unsavory secrets, Dominic and Clarice suddenly find themselves in deadly danger.

From the Hardcover edition.

Synopsis

Just in time for the holidays, Anne Perry gives her fans a marvelous gift: a new yuletide yarn full of light celebration and dark mischief. Dominic Corde is thrilled to “fill the robe” as substitute vicar in the village of Cottisham, while the Reverend Wynter is away on a three-week Christmas holiday. Glad to escape his dreary London flat and a less-than-satisfying job as church curate, Dominic and his beloved wife, Clarice, set off for what they hope will be a lovely winter getaway. Upon arrival, in the midst of a frigid, exceptionally snowy season, Dominic and Clarice are welcomed by warm, hospitable neighbors and enchanted by the cozy, inviting vicarage. Everything seems almost too perfect. Dominic’s only concern is how he will be received by the congregation, who hold the Reverend Wynter in such high regard. But as Clarice soon discovers, she and Dominic have much more dire matters to worry about. It turns out that the Reverend Wynter isn’t on holiday at all–and that something very sinister has transpired. As a blizzard leaves Cottisham treacherously snowbound and the isolated village swirls with unsavory secrets, Dominic and Clarice suddenly find themselves in deadly danger.

About the Author, Anne Perry

Anne Perry is the bestselling author of No Graves As Yet, Shoulder the Sky, and Angels in the Gloom; three earlier holiday novels: A Christmas Journey, A Christmas Visitor, and A Christmas Guest; and two acclaimed series set in Victorian England. Her most recent William Monk novels are Dark Assassin and Death of a Stranger. The popular novels featuring Charlotte and Thomas Pitt include Southampton Row, Seven Dials, and Long Spoon Lane. Her short story “Heroes” won an Edgar Award. Anne Perry lives in Scotland. Visit her website at anneperry.net.

From the Hardcover edition.

Biography

Born in London in October 1938, Anne Perry was plagued with health problems as a young child. So severe were her illnesses that at age eight she was sent to the Bahamas to live with family friends in the hopes that the warmer climate would improve her health. She returned to her family as a young teenager, but sickness and frequent moves had interrupted her formal education to the extent that she was finally forced to leave school altogether. With the encouragement of her supportive parents, she was able to "fill in the gaps" with voracious reading, and her lack of formal schooling has never held her back.

Although Perry held down many jobs—working at various times as a retail clerk, stewardess, limousine dispatcher, and insurance underwriter—the only thing she ever seriously wanted to do in life was to write. (In her '20s, she started putting together the first draft of Tathea, a fantasy that would not see print until 1999.) At the suggestion of her stepfather, she began writing mysteries set in Victorian London; and in 1979, one of her manuscripts was accepted for publication. The book was The Cater Street Hangman, an ingenious crime novel that introduced a clever, extremely untidy police inspector named Thomas Pitt. In this way an intriguing mystery series was born…along with a successful writing career.

In addition to the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt novels, Perry crafts darker, more layered Victorian mysteries around the character of London police detective William Monk, whose memory has been impaired by a coach accident. (Monk debuted in 1990's The Face of a Stranger.) She also writes historical novels set during the First World War (No Graves as Yet, Shoulder the Sky, etc.) and holiday-themed mysteries (A Christmas Journey, A Christmas Secret, etc), and her short stories have been included in several anthologies.

Good To Know

Some fun and fascinating outtakes from our interview with Anne Perry:

The first time I made any money telling a story I was four and a half years old—golden hair, blue eyes, a pink smocked dress, and neat little socks and shoes. I walked home from school (it was safe then) with my lunchtime sixpence unspent. A large boy, perhaps 12 or 13, stopped me. He was carrying a stick and threatened to hit me if I didn't give him my sixpence. I told him a long, sad story about how poor we were—no food at home, not even enough money for shoes! He gave me his half crown—five times sixpence! It's appalling! I didn't think of it as lying, just escaping with my sixpence. How on earth he could have believed me I have no idea. Perhaps that is the knack of a good story—let your imagination go wild, pile on the emotions—believe it yourself, evidence to the contrary be damned. I am not really proud of that particular example!

I used to live next door to people who had a tame dove. They had rescued it when it broke its wing. The wing healed, but it never learned to fly again. I used to walk a mile or so around the village with the dove. Its little legs were only an inch or two long, so it got tired, then it would ride on my head. Naturally I talked to it. It was a very nice bird. I got some funny looks. Strangers even asked me if I knew there was a bird on my head! Who the heck did they think I was talking to? Of course I knew there was a bird on my head. I'm not stupid—just a writer, and entitled to be a little different. I'm also English, so that gives me a second excuse!

On the other hand I'm not totally scatty. I like maths, and I used to love quadratic equations. One of the most exciting things that happened to me was when someone explained non-Euclidean geometry to me, and I suddenly saw the infinite possibilities in lateral thinking! How could I have been so blind before?

Here are some things I like—and one thing I don't:

I love wild places, beech trees, bluebell woods, light on water—whether the light is sunlight, moonlight, or lamplight; and whether the water is ocean, rain, snow, river, mist, or even a puddle.

I love the setting sun in autumn over the cornstooks.

I love to eat raspberries, pink grapefruit, crusty bread dipped in olive oil.

I love gardens where you seem to walk from "room to room," with rambling roses and vines climbing into the trees and sudden vistas when you turn corners.

I love white swans and the wild geese flying overhead.

I dislike rigidity, prejudice, ill-temper, and perhaps above all, self-righteousness.

I love laughter, mercy, courage, hope. I think that probably makes me pretty much like most people. But that isn't bad.

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Editorials

From Barnes & Noble

The Barnes & Noble Review
Anne Perry's Christmas novels (A Christmas Journey, A Christmas Visitor, et al.) are quickly becoming an annual literary holiday tradition for mystery lovers worldwide. For the last four years, she has given her fans a cozy, inspirational historical Yuletide yarn -- and the tradition continues in 2006.

The novel is set in 1890 England and featuries the Reverend Dominic Corde, a secondary character in Perry's Thomas and Charlotte Pitt novels (The Cater Street Hangman and Brunswick Gardens) and his new wife, Clarice. The couple receive "the greatest Christmas gift they could have been given," when the elderly vicar of a small village in Oxfordshire takes an unexpected vacation and Corde is asked to stand in for him temporarily over the holidays. Leaving behind a bleak, industrial London for the picturesque hamlet of Cottisham, the Cordes are absolutely ecstatic about the opportunity -- that is, until Clarice finds the body of the Reverend Wynter hidden away in the cellar. As Christmas quickly approaches, the Cordes investigate the shocking death by talking to the parishioners, some of whom are harboring atrocious secrets…

The appeal of Perry's Christmas novels isn't so much the intricate plot twists or the meticulously detailed Victorian Age ambiance; it's the timeless message behind the spirit of the holidays: forgiveness, compassion, and hope: "…a way forward to the best in ourselves and all that we can become." Amen to that. Paul Goat Allen

Publishers Weekly

Perry's latest short Christmas novel is a well-written if unsurprising period mystery, set in late 19th-century England. Reverend Dominic Corde and his wife, Clarice, are at a turning point in their lives; a chance opportunity has given Dominic the temporary position as vicar of a small village in Oxfordshire, substituting for the incumbent, Reverend Wynter. Their hopes that the position might become permanent are both enhanced and threatened when Clarice discovers Wynter's murdered corpse in the cellar. The resolution is not particularly complicated, but Perry does a nice job of weaving in themes of forgiveness and redemption without being heavy-handed. (Dec.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Best-selling mystery author Perry continues her yearly Christmas offering (A Christmas Journey) with this Victorian suspense tale. Dominic and Clarice Corde (from Brunswick Gardens) are due to take the place of a vacationing vicar but discover that instead of going on holiday the poor man has been brutally murdered. As the village becomes snowbound, the killer is still at large. Readers do not have to be familiar with Perry's mystery series to enjoy this story. For all mystery collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 7/06.] Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A vicar and his wife substitute for an Oxfordshire prelate on Christmas vacation. Anyone would leap at the chance to leave grimy 1890 London for the village of Cottisham, and Rev. Dominic Corde and Clarice, his bride of a year, are delighted to make the change. The locals are obviously attached to Rev. Wynter, the elderly vicar whose place Dominic will assume for the Christmas season, even though two of his closest friends have recently quarreled with him for reasons that remain obscure. Sir Peter Connaught, the local squire, speaks of their break more in sorrow than in anger, and John Boscombe, the vicar's former right-hand-man, doesn't speak of it at all. Soon enough Clarice discovers that Rev. Wynter's holiday took him no farther than the coke cellar, where he's lying with wounds that can't be explained by a heart attack or an accidental fall. Dr. Fitzpatrick, who examines the body, is heavily skeptical about the possibility of foul play, and Sir Peter recoils from the idea that the death could have anything to do with his family. Yet someone's professed love for the vicar was clearly a mask for something far more disturbing. As usual with Perry (Dark Assassin, 2006, etc.), the setup is more rewarding than the payoff. Apart from the mystery, however, the parable of sin and redemption rings true.