Alice B. reviewed on + 3563 more book reviews
Beautiful Gift copy.
A few days before Christmas, 13-year-old Gracie Phillips comes across 8 year-old Minnie Maude Mudway standing in the cold. Her uncle, a rag and bone man, was found dead in the street with his cart and Charlie, the mule, missing. Gracie starts out by promising to help her find Charlie, but goes on to help her find out who killed her uncle.
Anne Perry's Christmas books are wonderful gifts to her readers and always feature one of the secondary characters of her series. A young, pre-Pitt family, Gracie takes center stage yet even at this young age, you see her grit, determination and indomitable spirit. She is determined that she'll learn to read and improve her life, but doesn't let her lack of skill stop her. Yet I so agree with the wonderful, slightly mysterious, Mr. Balthasar when he states, "...Everyone should read. There is a whole magical world waiting for you, people to meet and places to go, flights of the mid and the heart you can't even imagine."
Speaking of places to go, the sense of time and place is one of the things I most admire in Ms. Perry's writing. You feel the cold wind and see the dirty alleys, but also the wreaths on the doors and the lights. The dialogue is written in dialect, which took me a bit to get on to, but I quickly forgot it was even there.
Lest you think this is a light Christmas story; it's not. This is not the London of drawing rooms, but of back alleys, the poor, desperate and hungry. There is fear and cruelty and a mystery with tension, suspense and a wonderful ending.
A few days before Christmas, 13-year-old Gracie Phillips comes across 8 year-old Minnie Maude Mudway standing in the cold. Her uncle, a rag and bone man, was found dead in the street with his cart and Charlie, the mule, missing. Gracie starts out by promising to help her find Charlie, but goes on to help her find out who killed her uncle.
Anne Perry's Christmas books are wonderful gifts to her readers and always feature one of the secondary characters of her series. A young, pre-Pitt family, Gracie takes center stage yet even at this young age, you see her grit, determination and indomitable spirit. She is determined that she'll learn to read and improve her life, but doesn't let her lack of skill stop her. Yet I so agree with the wonderful, slightly mysterious, Mr. Balthasar when he states, "...Everyone should read. There is a whole magical world waiting for you, people to meet and places to go, flights of the mid and the heart you can't even imagine."
Speaking of places to go, the sense of time and place is one of the things I most admire in Ms. Perry's writing. You feel the cold wind and see the dirty alleys, but also the wreaths on the doors and the lights. The dialogue is written in dialect, which took me a bit to get on to, but I quickly forgot it was even there.
Lest you think this is a light Christmas story; it's not. This is not the London of drawing rooms, but of back alleys, the poor, desperate and hungry. There is fear and cruelty and a mystery with tension, suspense and a wonderful ending.
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