Customer Reviews
Christmas past - By: Jane Baker, 09 Dec 2007 
A delightful, gentle read to prepare you for Christmas. A crime novel in a traditional setting which apart from being a very good read evokes the spirit of Christmas as it used to be before global warming - snow, ice on ponds & big, cosy fires. Then there is the intrigue & secrets which can only belong to close knit village life. Anne Perry has put me in Christmas mood yet again & enthrallled me with the reminder of Dominic Corde whom I last met in the Inspector Pitt novels. What more could a reader want? I have come to depend on her Christmas novellas - they are as much a part of my preparation as ordering the turkey.
a very good read - By: tregatt, 11 Dec 2006 
I've become quite fond of Anne Perry's Christmas novellas in spite of the fact that they're not always as compelling or as thought provoking as her Pitt or her Monk series. True, they are extremely well written (or at least I find them to be so), & possess many of the quality traits that you'd find in her other novels -- good period detail, thoughtful storylines & good character developments. And indeed I thought that her previous Christmas novella, A CHRISTMAS GUEST was reallly quite stella & the best of the lot so far. So that while I still think that A CHRSITMAS GUEST is the best Christmas novella Anne Perry has written to date, I did think that A CHRISTMAS SECRET was a very engaging & satisfying read. It may not be the most suspenseful or most intriguing read of the month, but I enjoyed it nevertheless & can definitely recommend as a good read.
A CHRISTMAS SECRET features Daniel Corde, Charlotte Pitt's brother-in-law, who has turned his back on his life of wealth & privilege, & who has taken orders, & his new wife, Clarice, as chief protagonists. Anne Perry fans may remember Daniel as the self-indulgent husband of Charlotte's eldest sister, who was brutallly murdered in the first Thomas & Charlotte Pitt mystery, THE CATER STREET HANGMAN. In A CHRISTMAS SECRET Daniel is given the opportunity to escape the petty & critical gaze of his superior & to stand in for the vicar of the village of Cottisham, the Reverend Wynter, over the Christmas season. Knowing that his has enormous shoes to fill (Wynter is much beloved & revered by his parishioners), Daniel is, nevertheless, determined to do his best & to make as good an impression as possible. But when Daniel's clever wife, Clarice, makes a shocking discovery in the cellar, she & Daniel are confronted with the choice between doing the right & moral thing, & doing the prudent & safe thing. Suddenly the village of Cottisham is not as idyllic or as safe as it seems. However, Daniel & Clarice are determined to do the right thing, no matter the cost to themselves...
The mystery is not a very complex one; but then, quite truthfully speaking, I don't reallly read Anne Perry's Christmas novellas for their depth & complexity of plot. I read them because they are so very engaging; because she uses minor characters from her series & gives new depths & dimensions to these characters, making them more accessible & understandable; & because of her good understanding of human foibles, frailties & nobility. A CHRISTMAS SECRET may not exceed A CHRSITMAS GUEST in excellence, but it was a wonderfully satisfying read nevertheless.
Lovely - By: Bea Zolis, 22 Nov 2006 This is such a warming novel. The characters reallly shine amid the setting of a charming English village. A lovely mystery / love story. To get you in the festive mood, read this & the other Anne Perry Xmas books ( A Christmas Visitor / A Christmas Journey) or the very modern It's Cold Outside by Steve Horsfalll.
