A Christmas Homecoming: A Novel

A Christmas Homecoming by Anne Perry 2011

This is my favorite so far of Anne Perry's Christmas novels, short little treats she comes out with for her fans each year at this time. Indeed, I like it better than any of her work that I have read for some time -- her major series novels have become even more intensely finicky, the series story arcs often top heavy, to the point where they have become speed-reading skimmers for me, or I simply don't bother. The nice thing about the Christmas novels is that they take a side character from one of her Victorian series (the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt series, or the WIlliam Monk series) and make them the central character in a more simply structured and shorter (about a half to a third as long) mystery. That character is often physically separated from the series' London haunts (in one case to far distant, wild, Ireland!), but even when not s/he is dependent on their own devices, not embedded in the web of characters that work on a case from multiple perspectives in the main novels. Their short length keeps the fine attention to detail characteristic of Perry to a level more suitable to at least my taste, and enforces a more straightforward resolution than the major novels with their digressions and red herrings. One reviewer mentioned that you don't need to have read the previous volumes in the Christmas series. Quite true, but it would certainly help if you are at least familiar with the series from which the central character is derived.

A Christmas Homecoming features Charlotte Pitt's mother Caroline, who, following the death of Charlotte's father, eventually fell in love with and married a most unsuitable man. Joshua Fielding was not only considerably younger than Caroline, but an actor and Jewish to boot. So in middle age, Caroline found herself cast out from the prissy upper middle class society that had been her whole life into theatre society and the sometimes uncertain role of an actor's wife .. and she thrived on it.

Joshua and Caroline are on their way to spend the Christmas holiday at the estate of Charles Netheridge outside of the Yorkshire fishing village of Whitby, where they will meet other members of Joshua's troupe to stage a dramatic presentation of Bram Stoker's hot new novel, Dracula, adapted by Netheridge's daughter Alice. This very stretch of coast is also where Dracula made landfall in England in the novel. Netheridge has supported Fielding in the past, and, if the play is a success, they hope he will sponsor them for the coming season.

The Fieldings, and the rest of the actors, arrive nine days before the performance on Boxing Day (the day after Christmas), just before a major storm snows them in. Introductions are made -- rounding out the household are Alice's fiance Douglas Paterson and Charles's wife Eliza -- and a preliminary reading of the script has Joshua declaring ruefully, "But it's actually awful." Fortunately, there may be time to ... diplomatically ... rewrite the script, rehearse the play, and convince the skeptical Etheridge and the antagonistic Paterson that it's worth doing at all.

It is a dark and stormy night, with the wind howling and the snow blowing crosswise in the light of thewindows when .. Lo! .. there is a knocking at the door!! A stranded traveller, tall, handsome, sepulchral, whose carriage has broken down and who has struggled through the snow drifts, is begging succour. Etheridge can do naught but offer him hospitality, but Anton Ballin proves to be not only charming but to have a deep knowledge of vampire lore, Stoker's book, and excellent suggestions for modifying and staging the play. Perhaps too much so?

This has been the setup. I won't say much about the actual plot, the mystery. One aspect I found quite nice was the fact that the murder (their has to be a murder!) doesn't take place until over halfway through the book. This keeps us guessing not only who done it, but who it is going to be done to. With the party unable to send for the police, Caroline (on the basis of her son in law's position as a policeman) takes over the investigation. The resolution is surprising, though well developed.

This novel isn't quite as simple as the above outline suggests. There are added levels of complexity, in particular the relations between the troupe members; the ghost of Etheridge's mother, whose memory and interior design tastes have lingered and oppress poor, timid Eliza; and the thorny relation of Alice and Paterson. This is a bit more than we have come to expect form the Christmas novels, and makes this one in particular more of a fully realized novel than a mere confection. I don't hesitate to give this an enthusiastic 5 *'s.

A REASONABLY WRITTEN STORY THAT GOES NOWHERE. IT MORE PROPERLY BELONGS IN YOUR 99 CENT LIST. VERY DISAPPOINTING WITH A PLOT THAT JUST ISN'T "THERE".

This is Perry's 58th published novel & her ninth Christmas novel. In this novel, it's Charlotte Pitt's mom Caroline & her 2nd husband Joshua, who take center stage. Joshua & his theatre troupe are invited to visit an estate in Whitby, Yorkshire & put on a play written by the owner's daughter, based on the Dracula novel by Bram Stoker. The entire troupe & the family & the servants all get snowed in during a terrible winter storm. While cooped up in the home, murder takes place. No one can get through the storm, so no one can notify the police & the police can't get through to them. The solving of the murder is left to Caroline. Perry, does a fine job of developing her characters & making the reader care about what happens to them. Her plotting is strong & tight. The mystery is hard to fathom, right until the very end. There is much theorizing about good & evil. Perry has never disappointed me & she's produced another winner.

I love Anne Perry's little Christmas novellas. In them we see some of the minor characters from both of her long-running series. In this one we have Caroline, Charlotte Pitt's intrepid mother. She and her husband Joshua are in Whitby, Yorkshire with some other members of Joshua's acting troupe. They are there to put on a private play from a script taken from the newly released Bram Stoker's Dracula. The year is 1897 and it's just a few days before Christmas. Things aren't going well with the rehearsals since the play is cumbersome and doesn't flow. The group is locked inside because a vicious winter storm is occurring outside. Then a stranger comes to call, and murder and mayhem follow. Even with all that, the book is a delight as all these little novellas are. Nothing puts me in the Christmas spirit more than my annual fix of one of Anne Perry's little Christmas stories. It is a tradition that I have grown to love.

I have now read the first nine of Anne Perry's Christmas mysteries, and this is not one of my favorites. There is no mystery until the second half of the book. The first half deals with a theatrical group attempting to produce a play of "Dracula" at a snowbound country estate at Christmastime. The play, written by the daughter of the estate's owner, needs a lot of revision, and the first 120 pages deal with the changes in the production. Anyone fascinated with the Dracula story might enjoy this, but I am not a fan of vampires and I know very little about the characters in "Dracula." Probably for this reason, I found the first half tedious. On page 129, a body is found, and for me, the story picked up when it finally became a whodunit. I was interested in finding the identity of the killer, but unfortunately the solution was totally unmotivated. The reader has no idea about the situation that led to the murder, and there is no way an armchair detective could ever solve this one. Anne Perry has written some good Christmas mysteries--A Christmas Visitor was a favorite of mine--and I suggest readers try one of the others instead of this.

Every holiday season I look forward to reading the latest Anne Perry Christmas mystery. For me, this one was just okay and not one of her best. Too much of the story is about the Dracula play to be performed. I just don't feel that Dracula and Christmas go together. It missed the mark for me.

Are you sure this is an Anne Perry book? It's disjointed, the characters are not fully fleshed out. It's almost as if Ms. Perry had to come up with a Christmas book and threw one together at the last second.

Anne Perry is a trusted author for me, so I always read her new books. I was a little mistrustful of a "Christmas" story but figured what the heck, I trust her. And I was right to trust her.

This is, as others have written, not your typical Christmas story. The background of dramatizing Dram Stoker's novel (new at that time) sets the scene. I am disappointed that the characters are not as fully drawn as Perry usually does, but that may be a page length issue.

I was struck by the thinking and coversations that led to the averment that evil must be invited in - in to a person's soul, a relationship or an event - that it cannot come in uninvited.

My only disappointment was the last few pages, after the denoumont and the death of the murderer. Perry writes major turnarounds in belief for some of the characters, but the turnarounds don't ring true because they come so quickly. A few more pages to lead to this ending might have helped.

Still, I will recommend this book, especially for those who want a novella size book rather than Perry's very full length stories.

I've read several of Anne Perry's short stories along with a handful of both the Pitt/Monk series, and while I've always been impressed with her ability to, on a regular basis, generate both unusual and intriguing plots, I've always felt that her execution of those plots were either exceptionally well done or very poor. This little novella, however, was by far one of her best. Not only did the premise exceed my expectations, blending elements of the supernatural, but she blew me away with her use of the Christmas theme, focusing on the potential for good and evil in all of us as it related to the unconventional play being rehearsed by a troupe of actors stranded in a country manor over the holidays.

The pacing throughout was a bit slow, which is why I've reduced my rating to four stars (technically, I'd give it 4.5) since despite my interest, found the slow moving story lagging at times. Although the appearance of Mr Ballin, the mysterious stranger that disarranges the lives of the players for good or worse, was not only a shot in the arm for this book, he is an intriguing, likeable and vivid character who came alive on the page. After his arrival, 'A Christmas Homecoming' only gets more atmospheric, thought provoking - and honestly while not always done in the style of a traditional mystery, I did not mind the deviations from the genre at all. Perry utilizes the theme of Christmas time not in your average way - there are no traditional Victorian celebrations of the season in here. Instead, she forces the reader to think along with the characters and from that I took away more than just an enjoyable story.

The climax was short, yes, but somehow it managed to be all the more powerful for that. When I'd read the last line and closed this book, I shivered. This was a provocative read, well written, and I always do appreciate Perry's gift for imposing the reader in the 19th century. An excellent novella, and very highly recommended. In fact, I finished this last night and am already trying to loan my copy to anyone willing to read it!

I wanted to read some Christmas-themed fiction this December that wasn’t a romance. Nineteen years ago, I went on an Anne Perry-kick where I read just about everything she had written up until that time. Then I got tired of her and haven’t picked up one of her books since. But she has a Christmas-series, so I decided to read A Christmas Homecoming: A Novel (the Christmas Stories Book 9). Although it’s called a Christmas novel, it really didn’t feel very Christmassy.

A Christmas Homecoming is told through the eyes of Caroline Fielding, the mother of one of Perry’s most popular characters, Charlotte Pitt. After being widowed, Fielding marries the famous actor Joshua Fielding, who is 17 years her junior. In Victorian society, this is a risk for Caroline as actors aren’t always acceptable and acting isn’t always financially rewarding. Plus, Joshua is Jewish. It is coming up on Christmas and Fielding and his company of actors travel to the manor of Charles Netheridge. His only daughter has written an “amateur dramatization of Stoker’s new novel, Dracula.” The plan is to rehearse the play and then present it to Netheridge’s friends and family on Boxing Day. In return, the troop is expecting Netheridge’s financial support the following season. The play has major issues and Joshua tries his best to find what will work in Alice Netheridge’s script. A mystery guest shows up in a snowstorm and although nobody knows who this gentleman is, he has the answers to many of the play’s problems. But he also meets great derision from Alice’s fiancé, Douglas Paterson.

I wasn’t quite sure if this book was really a mystery until one of the characters if found murdered almost two-thirds into the book. Because of the snowstorm, the police can not be brought in. So Charlotte takes it upon herself to find the killer. It has to be someone in the manor because nobody has been able to get in or out. Charlotte “must squash down her own emotions and think clearly. What would her son-in-law, [police inspector] Thomas Pitt, do? He would ask questions to which there would be precise answers and then compare those answers. If she did the same, with luck a picture would emerge, even if it was merely an understanding of who was lying and who was telling the truth.”

Very little about A Christmas Homecoming involves Christmas. They didn’t really celebrate Christmas in the Netheridge manor. At least A Christmas Homecoming was a decent mystery, and it was good to return to Victorian England.