A New York Christmas, Anne Perry
A New York Christmas, Anne Perry
List: $10.99 | Sale: $7.70
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A New York Christmas

Author: Anne Perry

Narrator: Saskia Maarleveld

Unabridged: 3 hr 49 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 11/04/2014


Synopsis

Anne Perry's new Christmas novel is an irresistible tale of love, betrayal, greed, murder, and selfless devotion. For the first time, Perry's annual yuletide offering is set in New York City-a sparkling young metropolis bursting with life, promise, and subtle menace. The year is 1904. Twenty-three-year-old Jemima Pitt, the daughter of Thomas Pitt, head of Britain's Special Branch, is crossing the Atlantic. She is traveling with an acquaintance, Delphinia Cardew, who is to marry the aristocratic Brent Albright in a high-society New York wedding-a grand affair that will join together two fabulously wealthy families, titans of the international financial world. But Jemima senses a mysterious shadow darkening the occasion. Missing from the festivities is Delphinia's mother, Maria, who is marked by disgrace. Nearly sixteen years ago, Maria abandoned young Delphinia and disappeared-and now the Albrights refuse to mention her name. But when Harley, the groom's charismatic brother, asks Jemima to help him search for Maria and forestall the scandal that would surely follow if the prodigal parent turned up at the wedding, she agrees to assist him. From Hell's Kitchen to Fifth Avenue, the Lower East Side to Central Park, Jemima trudges through strange, snowy streets, asking questions but getting few answers-and never suspecting that she is walking into mortal danger, from which not even a handsome young police officer named Patrick Flannery may be able to protect her. Once more, Anne Perry delivers a suspenseful, deeply moving novel that captures the essence of the holiday spirit.

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 Linda on November 24, 2017

3.5 stars. I really enjoyed getting to know Jemima in this book. You can really see how she takes after her parents. The mystery was pretty good although figuring out The Who was much easier than the why.......more

Goodreads review by Shirley on November 11, 2014

Christmas in New York in 1904. In the last Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novel which I read earlier this year, young Jemima was 16 years old. For those not in the know, Jemima is Charlotte and Thomas's daughter. In this book we jump ahead seven years and we sail across the ocean with Jemima. She is acco......more

Goodreads review by Andie on November 18, 2014

In Anne Perry's 2014 Christmas installment, it is 1904 and Jemima Pitt, new 23 years old is on her way to New York City as the companion of Delphina Cardew, who is going to marry Brent Aldrich, the wealthy son of her father's American business partner. The wedding will be a gilded affair, but Jemima,......more

Goodreads review by Jackie on December 06, 2017

UGH. I love fiction works set in the past but ugh. I felt like everything about this was so artificial, the way the characters spoke to each other seemed contrived and there wasn't enough scene-setting. I live in NYC and I still was having trouble understanding where the Albright family lived in Manh......more