Lee Allen's Blog - Posts Tagged "anne-perry"
The Cosy & The Creepy - Christmas Book Reviews
Here are my reviews of the Christmas crime, horror and mystery I've been reading in the run-up to Christmas...
A Christmas Guest by Anne Perry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A Victorian murder mystery in the tradition of the Golden Age of crime fiction.
This was the first of Anne Perry's Christmas novellas that I read, this one featuring Mariah Ellison, who is incensed to discover she will not be spending Christmas with her granddaughter as usual, but will instead be sent to spend time with her ex-daughter-in-law and her new husband. Once there, she is determined not to enjoy herself, becoming further distressed when another guest arrives unexpectedly. But when this guest is found dead, Mariah becomes convinced she may have been murdered, and sets out to find the perpetrator.
I flew through 'A Christmas Guest' - at times humorous, at other moments touching, with a classic mystery at its heart - a traditional tale of the redemption of a human soul through discovering the spirit of Christmas.
Spirits of the Season: Christmas Hauntings by Tanya Kirk
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A collection of creepy and chilling tales of hauntings of the Christmas season.
Featuring short stories originally published between 1867 and 1940, 'Spirits of the Season' is a wide-ranging collection featuring the gothic and macabre, continuing the tradition of telling ghost stories in the days leading up to Christmas, particularly on Christmas Eve - as editor Tanya Kirk explains, much like on Hallowe'en, souls of the dead are most active on the eve of a holy day.
Personal highlights were Frank R. Stockton's 'The Christmas Shadrach', telling of a gift that holds supernatural influence; Marjorie Bowen's 'The Prescription', the tale of a visitation and the legend of a local murder; and A. M. Burrage's 'Smee', the ghostly tale of a party game joined by an extra player.
If your Christmas is not complete without a horror story on a chilly evening, this collection will satisfy your craving.
The Christmas Pudding Murders by Various
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Another delightful seasonal collection of short stories, curated by Cecily Gayford.
With appearances from classic characters such as Campion and Rumpole and standalone stories from crime fiction greats such as Ellis Peters and Dorothy L. Sayers, 'The Christmas Pudding Murders' is the perfect companion to Christmas evenings, featuring deceptively cosy tales of murder and skulduggery.
My personal highlights were Ellis Peters' 'Let Nothing You Dismay', an atmospheric story about a break-in on the night before Christmas Eve; Julian Symons' 'Twixt the Cup and the Lip', about the planning and execution of a jewellery robbery; and my favourite, Gillian Linscott's 'A Scandal in Winter', as a young girl recounts a story of how she may have witnessed a murder, featuring some surprise appearances that I shan't ruin for those that won't expect them as I didn't.
This annual tradition demonstrates how crime fiction and the Christmas season are natural companions.
Merry Christmas!
View all my reviews
Visit me on Facebook
Follow me on Twitter
A Christmas Guest by Anne PerryMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
A Victorian murder mystery in the tradition of the Golden Age of crime fiction.
This was the first of Anne Perry's Christmas novellas that I read, this one featuring Mariah Ellison, who is incensed to discover she will not be spending Christmas with her granddaughter as usual, but will instead be sent to spend time with her ex-daughter-in-law and her new husband. Once there, she is determined not to enjoy herself, becoming further distressed when another guest arrives unexpectedly. But when this guest is found dead, Mariah becomes convinced she may have been murdered, and sets out to find the perpetrator.
I flew through 'A Christmas Guest' - at times humorous, at other moments touching, with a classic mystery at its heart - a traditional tale of the redemption of a human soul through discovering the spirit of Christmas.
Spirits of the Season: Christmas Hauntings by Tanya KirkMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
A collection of creepy and chilling tales of hauntings of the Christmas season.
Featuring short stories originally published between 1867 and 1940, 'Spirits of the Season' is a wide-ranging collection featuring the gothic and macabre, continuing the tradition of telling ghost stories in the days leading up to Christmas, particularly on Christmas Eve - as editor Tanya Kirk explains, much like on Hallowe'en, souls of the dead are most active on the eve of a holy day.
Personal highlights were Frank R. Stockton's 'The Christmas Shadrach', telling of a gift that holds supernatural influence; Marjorie Bowen's 'The Prescription', the tale of a visitation and the legend of a local murder; and A. M. Burrage's 'Smee', the ghostly tale of a party game joined by an extra player.
If your Christmas is not complete without a horror story on a chilly evening, this collection will satisfy your craving.
The Christmas Pudding Murders by VariousMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Another delightful seasonal collection of short stories, curated by Cecily Gayford.
With appearances from classic characters such as Campion and Rumpole and standalone stories from crime fiction greats such as Ellis Peters and Dorothy L. Sayers, 'The Christmas Pudding Murders' is the perfect companion to Christmas evenings, featuring deceptively cosy tales of murder and skulduggery.
My personal highlights were Ellis Peters' 'Let Nothing You Dismay', an atmospheric story about a break-in on the night before Christmas Eve; Julian Symons' 'Twixt the Cup and the Lip', about the planning and execution of a jewellery robbery; and my favourite, Gillian Linscott's 'A Scandal in Winter', as a young girl recounts a story of how she may have witnessed a murder, featuring some surprise appearances that I shan't ruin for those that won't expect them as I didn't.
This annual tradition demonstrates how crime fiction and the Christmas season are natural companions.
Merry Christmas!
View all my reviews
Visit me on Facebook
Follow me on Twitter
Christmastime Book Reviews
It just wouldn't be Christmas without reading a selection of festive mysteries and ghost stories, complete with bloodshed, horror and romance!
Here's my selection for this year:
A Christmas Beginning by Anne Perry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A tale of murder and the hope of a new beginning.
Superintendent Runcorn chooses to spend Christmas in rural Anglesey, an effort to distance himself from a broken heart. Yet, by sheer coincidence, he finds that Melisande, the woman whom he loves, is also on Anglesey - and now engaged to another man. When a murder occurs and her brother is implicated, Melisande turns to Runcorn for help, a request he cannot refuse. Determined to uncover the murderer's identity, Runcorn hopes that finding the solution to the case will bring him closure too.
'A Christmas Beginning' is a truly heartwarming story - the crime is truthfully secondary to Runcorn's attempts to move on from the love of his life, but nevertheless presents a satisfying puzzle to unravel, both elements combining seamlessly in a satisfying Victorian Christmas mystery. Another superb novella from Anne Perry that captures the true essence of Christmas.
The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories: Volume Two by Allen Grove
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
While Charles Dickens made the Christmas ghost story famous and MR James cemented the tradition of telling ghost stories on Christmas Eve, many writers of the Victorian era turned their hand to ghost stories at Christmas, many published in magazines and subsequently lost for decades. Valancourt presents this annual tradition with a volume of ghostly tales from the era.
Amongst my favourites in Volume Two were 'Number Two, Melrose Square', by Dora Havers under the pseudonym Theo Gift, telling the tale of a haunting in an oft-abandoned property; 'The Steel Mirror', by WW Fenn, a tale of Christmas tradition and ill omens; and 'A Terrible Retribution', anonymously published under the name "AS", a tale of passion and murder, which ends the collection on a more hopeful and romantic note than many of its companions.
Overall, 'The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories, Volume Two' is a chilling collection of the gothic and the macabre.
A Very Murderous Christmas: Ten Classic Crime Stories for the Festive Season by Cecily Gayford
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Christmas is not complete without some classic crime; and I now make reading a volume in the 'Murder at Christmas' series an annual tradition. Featuring a collection of festive mysteries, with appearances from Campion, Sherlock Holmes, Father Brown, Chief Inspector Morse, and Rumpole amongst them, 'A Very Murderous Christmas' (indeed, the whole series) feels like Christmas with old favourites.
Amongst the stories I most enjoyed were Margery Allingham's 'The Man with the Sack', which finds Campion thwarting a Christmas burglary; Anthony Horowitz's tongue-in-cheek 'Camberwell Crackers', investigating the murder of an entrepreneur who recently invested in a cracker-making business; and Ruth Rendell bringing her masterful insight into the criminal mind to the bizarre 'Loopy'.
Overall, 'A Very Murderous Christmas' is an entertaining collection of nostalgia and criminality.
And that's not all! In case you missed my earlier review for Alexandra Benedict's 'The Christmas Murder Game', check it out here.
Today I shall be reading Charles Dickens' second Christmas novella, 'The Chimes'. You can read my review for the classic 'A Christmas Carol' here.
I also have a treat lined up in James Lovegrove's 'Sherlock Holmes and the Three Winter Terrors'. This is the third in this particular series - check out my review of the first, 'The Christmas Demon' here.
I wish all my readers, followers and fellow book lovers a very Merry Christmas!
View all my reviews
Visit me on Facebook
Follow me on Twitter
Follow me on Instagram
Here's my selection for this year:
A Christmas Beginning by Anne PerryMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
A tale of murder and the hope of a new beginning.
Superintendent Runcorn chooses to spend Christmas in rural Anglesey, an effort to distance himself from a broken heart. Yet, by sheer coincidence, he finds that Melisande, the woman whom he loves, is also on Anglesey - and now engaged to another man. When a murder occurs and her brother is implicated, Melisande turns to Runcorn for help, a request he cannot refuse. Determined to uncover the murderer's identity, Runcorn hopes that finding the solution to the case will bring him closure too.
'A Christmas Beginning' is a truly heartwarming story - the crime is truthfully secondary to Runcorn's attempts to move on from the love of his life, but nevertheless presents a satisfying puzzle to unravel, both elements combining seamlessly in a satisfying Victorian Christmas mystery. Another superb novella from Anne Perry that captures the true essence of Christmas.
The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories: Volume Two by Allen GroveMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
While Charles Dickens made the Christmas ghost story famous and MR James cemented the tradition of telling ghost stories on Christmas Eve, many writers of the Victorian era turned their hand to ghost stories at Christmas, many published in magazines and subsequently lost for decades. Valancourt presents this annual tradition with a volume of ghostly tales from the era.
Amongst my favourites in Volume Two were 'Number Two, Melrose Square', by Dora Havers under the pseudonym Theo Gift, telling the tale of a haunting in an oft-abandoned property; 'The Steel Mirror', by WW Fenn, a tale of Christmas tradition and ill omens; and 'A Terrible Retribution', anonymously published under the name "AS", a tale of passion and murder, which ends the collection on a more hopeful and romantic note than many of its companions.
Overall, 'The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories, Volume Two' is a chilling collection of the gothic and the macabre.
A Very Murderous Christmas: Ten Classic Crime Stories for the Festive Season by Cecily GayfordMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Christmas is not complete without some classic crime; and I now make reading a volume in the 'Murder at Christmas' series an annual tradition. Featuring a collection of festive mysteries, with appearances from Campion, Sherlock Holmes, Father Brown, Chief Inspector Morse, and Rumpole amongst them, 'A Very Murderous Christmas' (indeed, the whole series) feels like Christmas with old favourites.
Amongst the stories I most enjoyed were Margery Allingham's 'The Man with the Sack', which finds Campion thwarting a Christmas burglary; Anthony Horowitz's tongue-in-cheek 'Camberwell Crackers', investigating the murder of an entrepreneur who recently invested in a cracker-making business; and Ruth Rendell bringing her masterful insight into the criminal mind to the bizarre 'Loopy'.
Overall, 'A Very Murderous Christmas' is an entertaining collection of nostalgia and criminality.
And that's not all! In case you missed my earlier review for Alexandra Benedict's 'The Christmas Murder Game', check it out here.
Today I shall be reading Charles Dickens' second Christmas novella, 'The Chimes'. You can read my review for the classic 'A Christmas Carol' here.
I also have a treat lined up in James Lovegrove's 'Sherlock Holmes and the Three Winter Terrors'. This is the third in this particular series - check out my review of the first, 'The Christmas Demon' here.
I wish all my readers, followers and fellow book lovers a very Merry Christmas!
View all my reviews
Visit me on Facebook
Follow me on Twitter
Follow me on Instagram
