(Image source from: Nobels celebrate Christmas)
Don't be fooled by the pretty jacket with smiling, dancing Victorian revelers at a Christmas ball. It's November 1868 in London, and Claudine Burroughs is reluctantly off to a Christmas party with her cold, disapproving husband. Any holiday spirit is quickly dashed at the Gifford mansion by screams from the balcony. A young woman - a prostitute, it turns out - has been beaten and later dies. A brooding poet stands accused,but did a trio of young upper-crust men actually commit the crime? The noble Claudine, who volunteers at a clinic for prostitutes, is determined that the truth come out, no matter how many "friends" she alienates. Anne Perry's Christmas novels are anything but flouncy and frivolous. They take on darker subjects to memorable effect, and offer us a glimmer of "Christmas Hope."
