A Christmas Journey, Anne Perry
A Christmas Journey, Anne Perry
2 Rating(s)
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A Christmas Journey

Author: Anne Perry

Narrator: Terrence Hardiman

Unabridged: 3 hr 37 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/15/2008


Synopsis

Readers of Anne Perry's bestselling suspense novels revel in a world that is all their own, sharing the privileged existence of Britain's wealthy and powerful elite in West End mansions and great country houses. It is also a world in which danger bides in unsuspected places and the line between good and evil can be razor thin. This new novel features Lady Vespasia Cumming-Gould—one of the most memorable characters from the Thomas Pitt series—who appears here as a lively young woman, the ultimate aristocrat who can trace her blood to half the royal houses of Europe.

About Anne Perry

Sometimes the personal story of a particular author seems almost as intriguing as the books they write. Such is the life of British author Anne Perry (aka Juliet Marion Hulme). As a child Hulme was very ill with tuberculosis and ended up being fostered out by a family in the Caribbean. She did get better, and the family moved to a private island in New Zealand, where she describes her life as a Swiss family Robinson type existence. She became ill again and during her bouts of illness through her teen years, she missed most of her childhood education. However, her mother had prepared her by teaching her how to read and write by the time she was four. Her heart always seemed to be in writing.

At the age of 15, Juliet and her best friend plotted and killed her friend's mother. The three went for a walk in the park and Hulme dropped a stone, causing the mother to bend over to pick it up, and her friend hit her own mother on the head with a half brick. They had planned on the strike killing her, but they had to strike her 20 times before she was dead. The girls were put on trial and each served five years in prison. It is said that they never saw each other again after being released. For many years, nobody connected author Anne Perry as the teen murderer, Juliet Hulme. In 1994, the film Heavenly Creatures, portrayed Hulme and her friend Pauline Parker with characters being played by Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey respectively.

Perry's genre of writing covers Victorian Era Detective fiction for the most part. Her novels have been centered around two main characters, Thomas Pitt and William Monk. She has published 47 novels and several collections of stories.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jaline

This story was the first in what was to become 15 years’ worth of Christmas Stories from the writer, Anne Perry. (So far.) As in her splendidly crafted novels, these stories take place in the British Isles during the Victorian era in the mid-1800’s. This is a time and a place that have always fascin......more

Goodreads review by Ken

I must admit that I was expecting more of a Christmas setting with this novella, but nonetheless it was still a perfect winters read. The story opens at a party in early December. Gwendolen Kilmuir body is found in the lake the morning after the gathering, she had committed suicide after Isobel has ma......more


Quotes

“Set in Victorian England, this novelette has all the poignancy one might expect from Anne Perry…With subtle tone and pacing, Terrence Hardiman infuses Isobel’s careless remark with the depth of cruelty it reveals.” AudioFile