A Christmas Promise by Anne Perry
A mystery book review by Anne McFadgen
Combining a Victorian whodunit with a Christmas message, A Christmas Promise is one of a series of mystery novellas by Anne Perry published annually during the holiday season. As readers of her Pitt and Monk mysteries know, Perry has made the Victorian period her own, skillfully evoking its mindset and atmosphere.
”The week before Christmas, the smell and taste of it was in the air, a kind of excitement, an urgency about everything. Geese and rabbits hung outside butcher’s shops and there were little pieces of holly on some people’s doors. The streets were just as grey, the wind as hard and cold, the rain turning to sleet, but it wouldn’t have seemed right if the backdrop to Christmas had been different.”
It’s December 1883 in the slums of East London, and thirteen-year-old Gracie Phipps is running an errand for her gran when she comes upon Minnie Maude, a mournful, skinny little girl with a garbled story about a lost donkey. Minnie Maude arouses both pity and exasperation in Gracie, who against her better judgment promises to help in the child's search. Anger, fear and lies meet the girls’ questions. The missing donkey is connected with the recent death of Minnie Maude’s beloved Uncle Alf and they soon realise that dark deeds are involved. Their persistence leads them into danger. Luckily, it also leads them to a champion: Mr. Balthasar, a mysterious shopkeeper as wise and exotic as the magus whose name he shares.
Don’t expect Perry’s usual degree of gritty reality. Although the poverty, squalor and vices of the East End are not brushed aside - even good Uncle Alf had his secrets - the moral is that faith, hope and charity can sometimes be rewarded with a happy ending. A Christmas Promise is a holiday confection, a taste of dark chocolate with a sweet centre. (2009; 152 pages)