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    A Christmas Return
    A Christmas Return
    A Christmas Return
    Audiobook4 hours

    A Christmas Return

    Written by Anne Perry

    Narrated by Jenny Sterlin

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Spurred by holiday cheer and a surprise hidden in Christmas pudding, an elderly aristocrat tries to right a past wrong by solving a decade-old murder in the latest Christmas novella from New York Times bestselling author Anne Perry. When a beautiful Christmas package appears on Grandmama's porch, it's much too heavy for the Christmas pudding it holds. With her family away for the holidays, Grandmama digs in to the pudding, only to find a cannon ball baked inside; instantly her memory flies back to a friendship she destroyed a decade before. Hoping to make amends, Grandmama travels to Surrey and joins up with her former friend's grandson to solve the murder of his grandfather-who Grandmama once loved and whose death she blamed, out of jealousy, on her friend. Grandmama has learned a thing or two from her detective grandson-in-law Thomas Pitt, and her friend's grandson, a sleuth in his own right, has found a suspect and some promising evidence. With Grandmama now on board, the pair sets out for justice amidst the picaresque Surrey hills, hoping to solve an old murder and restore a former friendship before the holiday spirit fades. Author bio: Anne Perry is the New York Times bestselling author of two acclaimed mystery series set in Victorian England, the William Monk novels and the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novels, and a series of five World War I novels. She has also written fifteen holiday novels as well as a stand-alone novel set in the Ottoman Empire, the bestseller The Sheen on the Silk. She lives in Los Angeles.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateNov 7, 2017
    ISBN9781501962011
    A Christmas Return
    Author

    Anne Perry

    With twenty million books in print, ANNE PERRY's was selected by The Times as one of the twentieth century's '100 Masters of Crime', for more information about Anne and her books, visit: www.anneperry.co.uk

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    Reviews for A Christmas Return

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      With the Christmas season approaching, Charlotte Pitt's grandmother, Mariah Ellison, is at the home of her other granddaughter, Charlotte's sister Emily, with none of Emily's family in residence. They're traveling for the holiday. Mariah has mixed feelings about spending the holiday alone except for Emily's servants, but has no plans to do anything to change that.

      Then a most unusual package arrives. It's improbably heavy, especially when it's revealed to be a Christmas pudding. Or at least, it looks like a Christmas pudding. It proves to be about an inch or so of cake around a small, decorative cannonball. Then in the later post that day, she also receives a Christmas card with a message from an old friend's grandson. He sent her the cannonball, and he wants her to come help with an impending family crisis, the long-delayed fallout from an unsolved murder twenty years ago.

      Mariah Ellison has long been a grumpy, cantankerous woman, not easy to get along with. Nevertheless, she once had a close friendship with Rowena Wesley and her husband, attorney Cullen Wesley. Then a shocking murder of a young girl occurred, and Cullen was preparing to defend the accused killer, Dr. Owen Derwood.

      And then suddenly he wasn't defending Derwood. With no explanation, he announced that he could no longer handle the case. Days later, he was dead himself. A bookcase fell over, and he was struck in the head by that decorative cannonball. Derwood was acquitted anyway, and left town. Rumors swirled that instead of Cullen's death being an accident, Rowena might have killed him, in jealousy over his supposed interest in Mariah. The two friends have not met since.

      Now Derwood has returned to town, apparently intending to clear his name--which will mean proving the vile rumors about Cullen, Rowena, and Mariah. Rowena's grandson, Peter Wesley, wants Mariah's help in fighting back--which will mean finding, and proving, the truth of what really happened.

      As with all of Perry's Christmas novellas, this is a contained story, in a contained location with a small cast of characters. Also like the other Christmas stories, it's an opportunity for a minor character who gets short shrift in the main series novels to take center stage and get some growth and character development. This is Mariah Ellison's second Christmas outing, and I'm starting to like her quite a bit.

      Recommended.

      I bought this audiobook.
    • 5/5
      Anne Perry is the consummate storyteller; capable of mining little nuggets of characters from her own books. Irascible Mariah Ellison is the focus of this seasonal vignette of Victorian Times as portrayed by this fine author. Justice for a girl's rape and murder has not been resolved with serious side effects for first one then, seemingly, another small English village.
    • 4/5
      It's so great to see the minor characters from the Thomas Pitt series get some of the spotlight for themselves. Mariah Ellison is not necessarily one of those characters I would have thought to shine on, but it was so interesting to see a back story for this character. Using this woman who had had an unhappy life fight to protect the memory of a man long dead truly brought the Christmas spirit to the forefront.
    • 5/5
      I love Anne Perry, and I particularly enjoy her small Christmas novelettes which feature some of the lesser known characters from her two long-running wonderful series. This one features Chalotte Pitt and her sister Emily's gruff, no-nonsense grandmother Mariah Ellison. Mariah is in London living in Emily's lush and lavish house while Emily and Jack are away in Paris for the holidays., when she receives a very strange package. The package appears to be an ornamental cannonball, and Mariah's world is twisted upside down. That cannonball brings a 20 year old tragedy to her mind. She is being asked to return to a small village in Surrey to help her old friend Rowena who is being slandered for the sudden death of her husband 20 years ago. Mariah doesn't hesitate to go to her aid, and she and Rowena's grandson set out on a dangerous mission to unmask a particularly brutal killer. The suspense in this little book is unrelenting and the plot moves along quickly. We discover another entirely differnent side to stern Mariah. Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      A Christmas Return is the 15th of Anne Perry's annual short Christmas mysteries. Once again the focus is on widowed Mariah Ellison, maternal grandmother of Charlotte Ellison Pitt and her younger sister, Emily Ellison Ashworth Radley. It takes place the year after book 3, A Christmas Guest, which also featured Mariah as the protagonist.. Mariah may have resolved to be a better person last Christmas, but she's still being left alone this Christmas. She's been living with Emily and her second husband, but they're not even bothering to foist her on another relative this time. No, everyone has had the good sense to be somewhere else for the holidays. Luckily for Mariah, she receives a very unusual Christmas present a week before the day itself. That and a card from Peter Wesley, grandson of the late Cullen Wesley. Mariah was known to be a friend of Cullen and his wife, Rowena, but it turns out that Mrs. Ellison was hopelessly in love with Cullen.Peter was only ten years old when Cullen was murdered twenty years ago, a murder as yet unsolved. Peter remembers Mariah as a strong woman. His grandmother, a sweet and gentle soul, needs Mariah (though she doesn't know that yet.)
    • 4/5
      A past Christmas tragedy wakes.Never disappointing, Perry pens a mystery novella that keeps you wondering. An unusual Christmas present, the wretched reminder of a tragic past and a cry for help, catapults Mariah Ellison, (Charlotte Pitt's grandmother), into a situation that has her drawing on all the fortitude she can muster. Mariah Ellison finds herself facing her own dark past memories as she comes to the aid of a friend.A dark wound of twenty years ago is reopened and Mariah is called to aid a friend in need.Twenty years ago Mariah's friend, Cullen Wesley died under strange circumstances just after he'd withdrawn as the attorney for a man accused of the rape and murder of a child.Subsequently, his ex client Owen Durward was acquitted. is back in Now Durward has returned to the village of 'Haslemere, bent on clearing his reputation.' He has taken aim at Cullen's wife Rowena, spreading rumours that perhaps she killed her husband.As the poison spreads Rowena is being shunned by the villagers.Her grandson Peter Wesley calls on Mariah to help clear Rowensa name.Mariah is prepared for battle, but where to start? Can they find out the truth of twenty years ago?A tightly woven mystery that raises all sorts of questions.A NetGalley ARC