A Christmas Guest (Christmas Novella 3): A festive tale of mystery, humour and warmth

Description

Mariah Ellison isn't merely disappointed to learn that she won't spend Christmas at home with her married granddaughter: she is furious. Instead, Grandmama is being packed off to a house in the Romney Marshes to stay with her ex-daughter-in-law. Never having got on with Caroline, Mariah much disapproves of her new husband: decades younger than her, Joshua, an actor, is scarcely even respectable. There will be nothing to do, no one to visit, and no doubt the terrible weather will make even taking a walk impossible. It is going to be the worst Christmas of Grandmama's life. As if that weren't enough, another visitor is foisted on the household. Then something shocking and quite unexpected happens. Has a crime been committed Grandmama is surprised to find herself turning detective - another profession she deplores - and proving extremely good at it.

New York Times bestselling author Anne Perry lives in Portmahomack, Scotland, and her well-loved series featuring Thomas and Charlotte Pitt has recently been adapted for television. THE CATER STREET HANGMAN was watched by millions of viewers when it was broadcast by ITV. Also available from Headline are the critically acclaimed William and Hester Monk mysteries.

Praise for Anne Perry's other Christmas novellas: 'This brief work has an almost Jamesian subtlety, and with its powerful message of responsibility and redemption - "We need both to forgive and to be forgiven" - it conveys a moral force in keeping with the season * Wall Street Journal * The tale is redolent with Victorian atmosphere, from the hypocritical snobbishness to the rigid social conventions of the time * Tangled Web * If you don't have a lump in your throat by the time you finish the final few pages, you shouldn't have had all that sherry * Yorkshire Evening Post *