A Christmas Promise, Anne Perry
A Christmas Promise, Anne Perry
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A Christmas Promise

Author: Anne Perry

Narrator: Terrence Hardiman

Unabridged: 3 hr 28 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/01/2009


Synopsis

It's a freezing winter day in London, 1895, when two young girls have a chance meeting. The pair turn out to have much in common: both are poor, both are parentless. But Minnie Maude, only eight, has even worse problems: the uncle with whom she lived has just been murdered, and if that's not enough, the family's donkey has run away. Her new friend Gracie, all of thirteen, feels obliged to help her, and so the girls team up to solve the mystery—and find Charlie the donkey. Anne Perry fans will recognize young Gracie as Charlotte Pitt's maid, a continuing character in the author's bestselling Charlotte and Thomas Pitt Victorian mystery series.

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 Randi Annie on November 25, 2019

Gracie Phipps goes on a quest together with Minnie Maude Mudway to find the rag-and-bone donkey named Charlie which has vanished after its owner suffered a fatal incident. The children try to find the donky themselves, but eventually realize they need help from an adult. I found it touching that Grac......more

Goodreads review by Kav on November 25, 2021

I'm working my way through the author's Christmas stories series as my library has them available. I started out with one about Gracie as a married woman with three children and loved it so was thrilled to stumble upon this one which features Gracie as a thirteen-year-old! The author packs a lot int......more

Goodreads review by Valerie on December 20, 2019

Another Anne Perry Christmas book, third one of hers I have read so far. At first it reminded me of Dickens, with its story of a poor girl in the East End of London, Gracie, who befriends another, younger girl in the girl's search for her lost donkey. The search isn't straightforward, however, as it......more

Goodreads review by Golfergirl on December 09, 2022

This is a rather short novel, and most of the story is told by conversation between the characters. It is set a couple of hundred years ago. The characters use an old English dialect which is a bit difficult to get used to. The tale is a bit interesting, and also a bit frustrating as no one does as......more


Quotes

“With Perry, you’re guaranteed evil will be mixed with good. Let’s just say a Nativity scene at the end will give you faith that all’s right with the world – for a brief shining moment.” USA Today

“[Perry] does a highly credible job of evoking Dickens, especially in the opening scenes.” Publishers Weekly

“The contrast is fascinating, and the story…is meticulously laid out and hard to put down.” RT Book Reviews