Anne Perry’s Christmas Crimes: A Christmas Homecoming / A Christmas Garland by Anne Perry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
In need to find Christmas stories that would actually get me into the Christmas mood I borrowed this book from my mother, hoping that it would be better than The Chimes by Charles Dickens (this would be the first time I admit that a classic is not as good as a contemporary story), which made me feel strangely odd. I began to read with mixed feelings.
I really wasn’t quite sure what to expect. This book as a whole was over 400 pages long, containing two stories that could not be completely called “short” stories, yet while reading the first story, A Christmas Homecoming I couldn’t shake the impression that the author wanted to make the story longer, include more depth for the characters, include more details and make the plot in general much more intriguing. Instead the reader was left with a good overall story and an intense desire to read more. Sometimes that is a good thing, but for this story it did not do it justice at all. Having said that, the story and the murder mystery part was compelling and intriguing enough to make for an entertaining reading experience.
The second story in this book was sadly too lost in the jargon of military politics to hold my interest for very long at a time. The element of the traditional Christmas story seemed forced. It did not hold my interest and I have to confess that I cannot even remember the outcome of this story. But again, the murder mystery part of the story was well enough executed to keep me reading. I found that the author’s talent to write murder mysteries well exceeds her skill to write Christmas stories, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
Overall, it this collection of two rather longer “short stories” was entertaining enough and triggered my interest in the author’s other works. I will definitely return this book to my mother for her to read during this year’s Christmas season.
