A Christmas Homecoming

by Anne Perry

Among the brilliant array of Anne Perry’s New York Times bestselling novels, her Christmas stories occupy perhaps the warmest spot in the hearts of readers. Each one is a masterpiece of suspense; each is alight with the true holiday spirit.In A Christmas Homecoming, a familiar face from the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novels—Charlotte’s mother, Caroline—travels with her young husband, Joshua Fielding, and his theatrical troupe to Whitby, the Yorkshire fishing village where Dracula the vampire first touched English soil in the sensational novel named after him. Joshua has arranged to produce a stage adaptation of Dracula by the daughter of Whitby millionaire Charles Netheridge during the Christmas holiday, but after the disastrous first read-through of her amateurish script, only the fact that the company is depending on Netheridge’s financial backing for their spring tour keeps them at work. As tempers flare and wind and snow swirl around Netheridge’s lonely hilltop mansion, a black-cloaked stranger emerges from the storm—an eerily opportune arrival, for this enigmatic figure, one Anton Ballin, turns out to be a theatrical genius. At the same time, a brooding evil makes itself felt. Instead of the theatrical triumph that Netheridge desired for his daughter, there is murder—shocking and terrifying.Anne Perry’s ninth Christmas novel keeps us poised on a razor’s edge of suspense, hypnotized by a story in which the heartwarming power of goodness is challenged by the seductive power of inner darkness. In the end, A Christmas Homecoming lifts the spirit and rejoices the heart.

Genres: Mystery, Christmas, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Audiobook, Historical Mystery

225 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Anne Perry, born Juliet Hulme in England, lived in Scotland most of her life after serving five years in prison for murder (in New Zealand). A beloved mystery authoress, she is best known for her Thomas Pitt and William Monk series.

Her first novel, "The Cater Street Hangman", was published in 1979. Her works extend to several categories of genre fiction, including historical mysteries. Many of them feature recurring characters, most importantly Thomas Pitt and amnesiac private investigator William Monk, who first appeared in 1990, "The Face Of A Stranger".

Her story "Heroes," from the 1999 anthology Murder And Obsession, won the 2001 Edgar Award For Best Short Story. She was included as an entry in Ben Peek's Twenty-Six Lies / One Truth, a novel exploring the nature of truth in literature.

Series contributed to:
. Crime Through Time
. Perfectly Criminal
. Malice Domestic
. The World's Finest Mystery And Crime Stories
. Transgressions
. The Year's Finest Crime And Mystery Stories

Reviews

[Fred · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novels— Caroline (Charlotte’s mother) and her husband, Joshua Fielding travel to create a Dracula play.

Their “amateur” actor backgrounds, the play’s hardships & actors friendships growing are difficult. They are surrounded by a unescapable snow storm, a dead body mystery then searching the house for a secluded Murderer.

A Little “Christmas” theme & great “Enthusiasm” in plot to me while reading....

[Crazytourists_books · Rating 1 out of 5]

Seriously? A detective book of 154 pages and the crime happens at page 92? Really? It was kind of disappointing having to wait that long for something to happen, and then the culprit was found in a few pages, in a not so believable way, no explanation was given, situations remained unanswered. The only positive of this book is that it is well written, vivid and looked after and really does take you back to the covered with snow Witby of Christmas 1897.

B.R.A.CE. 2019 στην κατηγορία "Ένα βιβλίο που να διαδραματίζεται σε γιορτή ( Χριστούγεννα, Πάσχα, κτλ )"

[Hannah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rather disappointing because there's more about Dracula than of mystery or Christmas. I didn't enjoy the rants about the meaning of good and evil as defined by Dracula's author and the murder happens at 58% of the book, so the mystery is smushed into a very small percentage of the story and has little in the way of solving.

Connected series: Charlotte Pitt's mother is the MC

Content: several profanities

[Deb Zich · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yikes. I don't know why it's called "A Christmas Homecoming". It should be called "A Christmas Eve Murder".

[Julie Klassen · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I didn't find the characters or story itself very compelling, I will say the author kept me guessing on the who-donit portion of this short story. Is there an Anne Perry Christmas novella you would recommend instead?

[Sara the Librarian · Rating 2 out of 5]

So this is one in a seemingly neverending series of entries in the Anne Perry Christmas mystery collection. For those of you unaware this is a cash gra- ahem series of novella length stories featuring the secondary characters from her Pitt and Monk series finding love and/or solving little baby mysteries of their own.

In this one Caroline Fielding (Charlotte Pitt's mother) and her Jewish actor second husband Joshua have brought their theater company to Whitby to perform the newly written play of their patron's daughter for Christmas. The play is an adaptation of that beloved Christmas classic "Dracula."

No one is murdered until about 3/4 of the way through and the solution arises from Caroline and Joshua "realizing" something the reader has absolutely zero way of knowing that has no connection to anything you've read up to that point.

Until then it's a lot of lofty discussions about the nature of evil, how being in the theater is hard, whether or not woman should choose their own paths in life or stay in the kitchen where they belong and everything ends on a weird, existential cliffhanger.

That and I can never seem to get around the fact that the author is a pretty unrepentant murderer.

[Cindy B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good plot, interesting people - like her tales more as time goes on. No graphics, profanity or gore but still a little creepy (in a good way) . Well narrated and highly recommended.

[Shiloah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recently re-read Dracula. Mix in a Christmas murder and it was atmospheric and interesting.

[Cynthia Egbert · Rating 3 out of 5]

I checked this one out from the library months ago to read at Christmastime and it just kept renewing and I thought I would race through it before it has to be returned. It was a nice mystery wound around a bunch of actors getting together to perform a version of Bram Stoker's Dracula for a wealthy family over Christmas holidays. The murder was really a small sidelight to the main story and I enjoyed the story a great deal. I actually appreciated the discussions concerning good vs evil that other reviewers were frustrated by, such as this passage...

"For heaven's sake, we are so limited! she added with sudden ferocity. "We need a force infinitely bigger and wiser than we are in our lives. But we cannot have good without also the possibility of evil, so if there are angels, then there must be devils as well. If we are even remotely honest with ourselves, we know that. So, in a way devils and demons are good," she finished. "Because of we are reminded that there is evil, even supernatural manifestations of it, then we will believe in and love the good even more."

[Don · Rating 3 out of 5]

The catalog of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped does a good job of summarizing this book without giving too much away. It reads:

"Charlotte Pitt's mother, Caroline, travels with her much younger husband's theater troupe to a remote Yorkshire fishing village for the holiday. Their plan to put on a private production of Dracula for their wealthy host is hampered--first by a poor script and then by a murder."

This is a very typical whodunit which reminded me a lot of an Agatha Christie offering. Though it is set in the 1890's, there really isn't much history here, though Perry does a great job of setting the mood. While this book could have benefited from some editing, it was a fun little read that kept my interest.

[Eldarwen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Left me cold for the most part.

[Sonia · Rating 5 out of 5]

just what I was looking for in a short holiday murder mystery!

[Jill Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was hot garbage, but the narrator for the audiobook version somehow made it mildly enjoyable.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anne Perry writes books that are 7/8 wonderful and then the ending is always a big letdown for me. It's a great premise for a story: An acting troupe arrives at the home of a wealthy man just before Christmas in the mid--1890s. The man is indulging his daughter's whim of being a playwright and has hired the troupe to perform her adaptation of the book everyone is talking about, Dracula. In the midst of a blizzard a mysterious man arrives at the front door seeking refuge from the storm. Everyone agrees there's something odd about him and he seems to have a better understanding of the play than anyone should have. Blending Christmas, a blizzard, and Dracula and then bringing in a murder to be solved is brilliant! There are lots of suspects and red herrings. And then we come to the end . . . and as in the other Perry books I've read, the rest of the story does not add up to the mystery's solution. Several things happen that the book has already made clear could not have happened (see below if you want the spoilers). And that, for me, takes a lot of the fun out of the story.



**********************************************************

SPOILERS *******************************************

When Caroline goes out to the ice house, she notes how deep the snow is and there's no sign of any tracks -- nor have there been any signs of tracks since the murder took place. How did the murder get the body out of the house, drag it to the ice house, and then put it on the roof (!) without there being any signs in very deep snow. And finally, since the blizzard has last several days and the snow is so deep no one can come or go, how is it that the murder falls out a second floor window and dies because he lands on hard pavement?

[Toby · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first of this week’s book haul from the library.

I love how Anne Perry tackles societal issues in her books. Perhaps as I’ve become more aware of the world around me, and in the work that I do, these pieces have become more obvious to me when I encounter them in rather unexpected places. This novella dealt with the oppression of women - a fairly common topic of Perry’s novels but a striking one in this one specifically.

I enjoyed this book. I have read Dracula multiple times so the references to the story were intriguing. However, I think that if one is unfamiliar with the plot of Dracula then this novel’s plot and details may be tedious. I loved the clever pieces of philosophy, taken from Bram Stoker and applied to the lives of the characters, and I enjoyed the ending as well. The final line almost made me cry, due to its placement and meaning based on the story arc:

“Behind her, other church bells joined in the welcome of the day when, briefly, gloriously, all mankind is at home.”

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a complete surprise, mostly because it wasn't anything like what I was expecting. The cover says quaint, old-fashioned Christmas but in reality Christmas is really only mentioned a few times in passing. I'm not sure why it's named A Christmas Homecoming; that just doesn't seem fitting to me. I really enjoyed the references to Bram Stoker's Dracula since I'm a huge fan of that particular work. The characters in Anne Perry's 9th Christmas story were likable enough, the setting was perfect, and I really liked the idea of the murder mystery. It's unexpected and adds a nice twist. The murder itself, however, happens late in the story and there isn't much of a build-up to the climax. This was my first time reading one of Anne Perry's novels and, while it was okay and entertaining enough on a slow weekend afternoon, I wasn't overly impressed. I may pick up one of her other books sometime in the future but probably not anytime soon.

[Jennifer Robb · Rating 3 out of 5]

A friend of mine reads Anne Perry, and I will send this book on to her now that I have read it. In fact, I thought of her when I saw it at the library book sale.

I haven't read any of the Pitt mysteries by this author but this book features Charlotte's mother, Caroline. Caroline is married to an actor whose troupe is invited to Whitby for a private performance of a play written by a potential benefactor's daughter. The play is based on Bram Stoker's "Dracula".

A stranded traveller seeks hospitality when a snowstorm hits, but this traveller seems to understand acting and producing for the stage. Then he is found murdered.

Due to the snowstorm, the killer has to be someone already on the grounds--unless the traveller is a vampire who was invited in?

There are some good comments about good vs. evil. Evil needs to be invited in. And we recognize goodness because of evil.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Challenges: Summer Romance Bingo 2019 - Borrowed book (47); and, Create Your Own Readathon/Stacking the Series/Steeped in Books - Working List/Level 15c/Book 9. A mystery in a snowbound mansion and primer for how a reasonably good play can organically grow from one that is not so good. The subject? Bram Stoker's Dracula, at Christmas time; a time for examination of the light and the dark which leads to new beginnings.

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad little book, but the ending left me grumpy as it came out of left field.

I don't like murder stories where I am not given any clues to allow me to try and work it out. That's half the fun of murder mysteries.

[Marian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charlotte Pitt’s mother, Caroline, is spending the holiday with her young husband, Joshua Fielding, in Whitby, the fishing village where Dracula first touches English soil in Bram Stoker’s sensational novel. Joshua has arranged to produce a stage adaptation of Dracula, written by the daughter of millionaire Charles Netheridge, but tempers flare after a disastrous first read-through of the script. As wind and snow swirl around Netheridge’s lonely hilltop mansion, a black-cloaked stranger emerges from the storm. At the same time, a brooding evil makes itself felt, and instead of theatrical triumph, there is murder.

[Fran · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this and was surprised by how delighted I was as I was reading it. The premise of a English country manor home at the turn of the 19th century and a who-done-it with a play, certainly piqued my interest. Despite all these wonderful qualities, there really was no way the reader could guess the murderer and the conclusion was reached in less than a page- too fast for me to prolong any enjoyment.

[Yazlina Saduri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Coincidentally, the plot presents similarity in these two novels, a Christmas Homecoming and Witness in Death by JD Robb,. The victim several years earlier accidentally killed the leading actress during a play, with a knife which was supposed to retract. Tye actress in this novel, was in a relationship with the man who then murdered the actor.

[Nancy Cook-senn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Matriarch Caroline and her young husband, dramatist Joshua, go to the coast to stage a play about Dracula and, of course, ...

[Chalice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Caroline knows that her husband Joshua loves her, but she can't help but feel insecure. She's much older than him, she's not part of his circle, they're different religions, and she's been married before (and has two grown daughters). But he values her opinion and her companionship, so of course she goes with him to a commissioned acting gig over the Christmas holidays. He and his troupe are at the stately home of a wealthy businessman in order to perform the daughter's adapted version of Dracula. But between the extensive revisions needed, the snarky and mean-spirited Van Helsing, and a mysterious visitor, Caroline and Joshua both have plenty to keep themselves occupied.

Caroline is such an interesting character. She gave up everything for love, and the reverse age-gap alone would be controversial today. I do love her. For all that she thinks of Charlotte as the brave rebel of the family, it's clear that Charlotte got her pluck from somewhere.

[Judy · Rating 2 out of 5]

It strikes me rather odd to be reading a Christmas book that deals with Bram Stoker and vampires. But Anne Perry know how to tell a story and present a mystery. I don’t think I’ll read any more of her Christmas books, but will continue to enjoy her historic mysteries.

[Sneha Pathak (reader_girl_reader) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh boy, what a drag! These two stars are for the way it creates the atmosphere of dread as a precursor to the crime that takes forever in coming. by the time it did, I had lost all interest.

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un peu bizarre que le résumé e 4ème de couverture ne corresponde pas à l'histoire. Bon suspens mais seulement 3☆ à cause de quelques invraissemblances dans le récit

[Eileen · Rating 2 out of 5]

No heartwarming Christmas spirit here. A dark and dreary story about Charlotte Pitt’s ( character in main series by Perry) mother and her actor husband. Quite short but still too long for me.

[Janet Riegel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely a gentle read. I was expecting more of a mystery, since it is labeled MYSTERY. The Characters are fun and the setting is great for putting on a horror play - Dracula. It was a find companion for travelling.

[Nancy Ellis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last year's contribution to the series, I think it's the best one yet....at least until I read this year's! Caroline Fielding and her actor husband Joshua travel to Yorkshire for a Christmas celebration with his theater troupe where they will perform an adaptation of the new sensation "Dracula" written by the daughter of their group's financial supporter. A "mysterious stranger" enters the scene when they are snowbound on the estate and interesting things begin to happen, including, of course, a murder! Very entertaining with enjoyable characters!