A CHRISTMAS GRACE
Anne Perry
Ballantine Books
Mystery
ISBN: 9780345502032
The year is 1895 and the setting is London, England. In A CHRISTMAS GRACE, Anne Perry introduces us to the sister-in-law of one of her recurring characters, Thomas Pitt. Emily Radley receives a letter from Pitt just a few weeks prior to Christmas. He asks that Emily leave her cozy London home and make her way to a small village in the Connemara region of Western Ireland to visit her dying aunt, Susannah Ross, who has been estranged from their family for several years. Knowing that this probably will be Aunt Susannah’s last Christmas --- and due to the fact that illness keeps the Pitts from making the journey themselves --- Emily is the only remaining relative able to represent the family at her aunt’s side for the Christmas holiday.
Emily reluctantly agrees to this sudden request and inconvenience. She reaches out to Father Tyndale, the local parish priest who contacted the Pitts, and makes arrangements to meet with him at Galway station for the journey to the small village of Oughterard in Western Ireland. Apparently, Susannah’s marriage to an Irishman who was considered well beneath her means was the essential reason for the estrangement between herself and the rest of her family. Emily is eager to meet Susannah and make her last Christmas as festive as possible.
Upon arrival in Connemara County, Emily is met with a town of close-knit residents who seem reluctant to open up to an outsider and may be hiding something. Susannah’s home is beautiful and festively decorated, to a point, and located just off of the seaside docks. Violent storms are in the forecast as Emily settles down to her temporary home and meets with Susannah and her loyal housekeeper, Maggie. Emily is immediately taken with Susannah and feels she has done the right thing by embarking on this trip.
As the storm batters the seaside village as predicted, Emily spies from her window a ship in serious distress that appears to be sinking just off the coast of Oughterard.Local residents brave the storm to rescue the lone survivor of the shipwreck who has washed up on shore. Suffering from a bout of amnesia, he remembers only that his name is Daniel. Emily takes him into Susannah’s home as her and other locals attempt to nurse him back to health. Little does Emily realize that Daniel may hold the key to solving a terrible crime that may have taken place in the town several years prior.
With Daniel gaining his strength back and beginning to travel with Emily around the village, she notices that the local population is acting very strangely in his presence. At this time, she also comes to the realization that the town is quite under-populated with several homes left abandoned for no good reason. The local historian even hedges from her direct questioning about this fact. After further prying, Emily learns that several years earlier another ship had wrecked upon the shores of the village --- also providing one lone survivor to be rescued by the townspeople.
As more of the recent history of this event is revealed, Emily finds out that the lone survivor of the earlier shipwreck --- known as Connor Riordan --- was the cause for the mysterious behavior of the community, as well as the alleged reason for the curse that has brought death and misfortune to the village. Connor allegedly charmed his way into the hearts of everyone in the community only to begin peppering the residents with questions about themselves in a way too familiar and uncomfortable for the town to handle. The legend is that Connor died during a drowning accident --- but the community all knows he was the victim of a homicide --- and this murder is the reason for the curse upon them. Hence, Emily now fears for the life of Daniel, who has begun to ask questions and befriend certain members of the village much in the way Connor had years earlier.
A trip to Galway --- the intended destination of the unfortunate ship Daniel was traveling on --- reveals the truth to Emily, and she returns to the village to confront the person she now knows killed Connor. The Galway visit also fills in the missing history of Susannah’s late husband, who had made a similar trip following Connor’s shipwreck. Did Susannah’s husband find out something about Connor that caused his untimely death? If so, it’s a secret he took to his grave that has now been revealed to Emily.
With A CHRISTMAS GRACE, Anne Perry has given us a tale of second chances, as stated in the novel’s dedication. While the story does not have much at all to do with Christmas initially, the opportunity for redemption as well as the burying of the past as a final gift to a dying relative represents all that this season stands for. Perry once again has given us a great mystery with a denouement that will satisfy all those who require an elevation of their spirits during the holidays.
--- Reviewed by Ray Palen
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