Perry's quick, simple and pleasant Christmas book for 2013 is a straightforward story featuring one of the characters in the Monk series. Protagonist Claudine volunteers in the clinic for street women. In this book she is in her privileged life at a holiday party when she witnesses a murder. The story is Claudine's struggle to maintain her courage and honor in the face of conflict with her society and her husband. This is one of Anne Perry's Victorian era holiday mysteries, more of a short story to her usual series, and I like that they include characters we see in her other series, in this case, from the Monk series. One of the volunteers from Hester's clinic (medical care & temporary shelter to prostitutes), is at a party when a prostitute, who came with a questionable guest (a poet who drinks too much & womanizes), is beaten & seriously hurt on the terrace. Claudine, rushes to her aid, using what she has learned at the clinic. Later, the unfortunate woman dies, and Claudine takes it upon herself to find out who killed her, much to her husband's horror. Good short (197), read, characters come to life, and work along side other minor characters from Monk series.
What do You think about The Christmas Hope (2013)?
A great Christmas story with a theme of the importance of honesty, integrity, and courage.
—Nour
I like Anne Perry's books because her characters are so interesting.
—cassy
