By Chip Schrader
Book Review Editor
In The Christmas Promise, English author Anne Perry continues her tradition by publishing her seventh holiday mystery in a compact book that is sure to promise her fans a Christmas treat. The tale is set in a time of mules, horse drawn carriages, homemade Christmas toys, and homey ornamentations along the slums of London. The hardcover edition itself seems to be an homage to the original copy of A Christmas Carol with its pocket size, and pastoral painting on the cover.
The story begins with a poor thirteen year old named Gracie who encounters a crying eight-year old named Minnie Maude whose family’s donkey is missing. As Gracie talks with Minnie Maude, she finds that more than the donkey is Missing. “Uncle Alf” was en route with this creature, and neither made it home.
As Minnie Maude fears that without this mule, her family would starve, any of the grownups they encounter also overlook the fact that Alf is missing, too. Gracie, in spite of Alf’s reputation as being less useful than the mule, insists on finding this man. Her promise to Minnie Maude is to have the donkey back by Christmas so that the holiday could be saved.
Together Gracie and Minnie Maude interview grownups who had seen Alf on that last day, Gracie stubbornly insists something has happened. Quickly, the reader begins to wonder if anything the grownups say is actually truthful, as these children wander through the streets of nineteenth century London finding facts.
The “wiseman” Mr. Balthazar tells the girls he will look into the case, but this is not enough of a promise to keep them home and out of trouble. The intelligence and defiance of Gracie and Minnie Maude is charming, and their inquisitiveness nicely propels the narrative of this tale. But just as they get wise to some of the false leads, the girls set out to retrace Alf’s steps. Gracie must disobey orders and set out by herself on a mission she now knows could be much more perilous than she initially anticipated, but she has no choice at this point.
While the descriptions and Christmas setting evokes the style and spirit of Dickens, the reader might even draw similarities with the poverty described in Frank McCourt’s Limerick from Angela’s Ashes. The story itself has a solid arc that never leads the reader astray with a fresh economy of word use.
While it does take a few chapters to get used to the dialect in which the characters speak, the language creates a great deal of the mystery’s ambiance, and paints a deeper image of the time period. The prose is well laid out, and the descriptions would be well accompanied by a warm fire in the hearth. The ease of reading makes this a nice book to savor during an otherwise busy time of year. A first class holiday read.
Photo caption: Cover of The Christmas Promise by Anne Perry. (Courtesy photo)
Book Review Editor
In The Christmas Promise, English author Anne Perry continues her tradition by publishing her seventh holiday mystery in a compact book that is sure to promise her fans a Christmas treat. The tale is set in a time of mules, horse drawn carriages, homemade Christmas toys, and homey ornamentations along the slums of London. The hardcover edition itself seems to be an homage to the original copy of A Christmas Carol with its pocket size, and pastoral painting on the cover.
The story begins with a poor thirteen year old named Gracie who encounters a crying eight-year old named Minnie Maude whose family’s donkey is missing. As Gracie talks with Minnie Maude, she finds that more than the donkey is Missing. “Uncle Alf” was en route with this creature, and neither made it home.
As Minnie Maude fears that without this mule, her family would starve, any of the grownups they encounter also overlook the fact that Alf is missing, too. Gracie, in spite of Alf’s reputation as being less useful than the mule, insists on finding this man. Her promise to Minnie Maude is to have the donkey back by Christmas so that the holiday could be saved.
Together Gracie and Minnie Maude interview grownups who had seen Alf on that last day, Gracie stubbornly insists something has happened. Quickly, the reader begins to wonder if anything the grownups say is actually truthful, as these children wander through the streets of nineteenth century London finding facts.
The “wiseman” Mr. Balthazar tells the girls he will look into the case, but this is not enough of a promise to keep them home and out of trouble. The intelligence and defiance of Gracie and Minnie Maude is charming, and their inquisitiveness nicely propels the narrative of this tale. But just as they get wise to some of the false leads, the girls set out to retrace Alf’s steps. Gracie must disobey orders and set out by herself on a mission she now knows could be much more perilous than she initially anticipated, but she has no choice at this point.
While the descriptions and Christmas setting evokes the style and spirit of Dickens, the reader might even draw similarities with the poverty described in Frank McCourt’s Limerick from Angela’s Ashes. The story itself has a solid arc that never leads the reader astray with a fresh economy of word use.
While it does take a few chapters to get used to the dialect in which the characters speak, the language creates a great deal of the mystery’s ambiance, and paints a deeper image of the time period. The prose is well laid out, and the descriptions would be well accompanied by a warm fire in the hearth. The ease of reading makes this a nice book to savor during an otherwise busy time of year. A first class holiday read.
Photo caption: Cover of The Christmas Promise by Anne Perry. (Courtesy photo)
