A Christmas Homecoming

September 19, 2011
Perry’s fine ninth Victorian Christmas mystery (after 2010’s A Christmas Odyssey) takes Caroline Fielding, the mother-in-law of Insp. Thomas Pitt of Scotland Yard (the lead of Perry’s main series), to the town of Whitby, in York, where Dracula came ashore in Stoker’s recently published horror novel. Caroline and her actor husband, Joshua, are the guests of Charles Netheridge, whose daughter, Alice, has adapted Stoker’s book for the stage. Joshua, who’s brought the lead actors in his acting company to the Netheridges’ huge mansion, hopes to parlay Alice’s Dracula, to be performed for the locals at Christmas, into Charles’s financial backing for the coming theatrical season. Then a mysterious stranger shows up at their snowbound door seeking refuge: Anton Ballin, who alarmingly resembles the vampire king himself. While Ballin makes some staging suggestions that improve the play, his arrival provides the catalyst for bloodshed. Caroline proves herself an astute sleuth in this challenging whodunit.

November 1, 2011
Christmastime in Victorian England. What better setting for staging a vampire play and solving a murder mystery? The ninth in Perry's series of Christmas mysteries (A Christmas Odyssey, 2010, etc.), the book follows Caroline Fielding as she travels with her young husband, Joshua, and his acting troupe from London to Whitby. Hoping to secure Charles Netheridge's patronage for the next season, Joshua has contracted to put on a Boxing Day performance of Dracula, adapted by Netheridge's daughter, Alice. Charles hopes to rid his daughter of frivolous interests before she marries and settles down. However, Alice, engaged to the conservative and artistically unsupportive Douglas Paterson, yearns for independence. The play is amateurish, but encouraged by Caroline, Joshua works closely with Alice to bring the gothic tale to life. Outside, a relentless snow storm isolates the cast and family, and underlying tensions begin to percolate. Douglas' eye begins to wander towards one of the actors, the lovely Lydia. Vincent, playing Van Helsing, challenges Joshua at nearly every directorial turn. Despite the storm, the mysterious Anton Ballin arrives, seeking shelter and proving to be an expert on not only vampires but also stagecraft. Just as the play falls into shape, Caroline stumbles over a dead body in the dark of night. Isolated by the storm, only one of them could be the murderer. But who? With careful attention to the nuances of character, Perry offers a tale worthy of mulling over by the fireplace.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

November 1, 2011
Along with husband Joshua and his acting troupe, Caroline Fielding heads to Yorkshire to produce a play by their host's daughter, Alice, which is based on Bram Stoker's recently published Dracula and scheduled for performance on Boxing Day. The troupe receives a warm welcome, but the actors are unsettled and irritable. Unfortunately, the script is terrible, and Joshua must tactfully help Alice rewrite it. A stranded stranger, Anton Ballin, who arrives at the manor during a blizzard looking for a place to stay, helps with reworking the play, much to the annoyance of several actors. Late one night, Caroline finds Ballin stabbed with a sharpened broomstick. Heavy snow makes it impossible for anyone to travel, so the murderer must be at the manor. Unable to summon police, Caroline, mother-in-law of Perry's Victorian detective series star, Thomas Pitt, decides to investigate. Background on staging a play, plenty of vampire lore, and the personal story of Caroline's attempt to fit in with her much-younger husband's colleagues add to the appeal of this engaging locked-room mystery.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)