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A Christmas Beginning

ebook
2 of 2 copies available
2 of 2 copies available
A deeply felt story of passion and redemption over the holiday season from bestselling author Anne Perry
Superintendent Runcorn of Scotland Yard is spending Christmas on the wild and beautiful island of Anglesey off the north coast of Wales. On one of his solitary strolls, the lonely bachelor stumbles upon a lifeless body in the village churchyard. The unfortunate victim is quickly identified as Olivia Costain, the local vicar’s younger sister.
In life, Olivia had been a free spirit, full of charm and grace. For Runcorn, she is a haunting reminder of Melisande Ewart, the one woman he’s never been able to forget. Everyone on Anglesey is quick to insist that only a stranger to the island could have committed the heinous crime. But the evidence proves otherwise, and the unpopular work of discovering who among Olivia’s friends and neighbors–and numerous eligible suitors–is a ruthless killer falls to Runcorn. A plebian outsider in the drawing rooms of the snobbish local gentry, Runcorn never dreams that the key that will unlock the secrets of Olivia’ s life and death may also, miraculously, open the door to a new future for himself.
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    • Publisher's Weekly

      August 13, 2007
      Mystery author Perry returns to holiday fare (after last year’s A Christmas Secret
      ) and sends rumpled London policeman Runcorn to a lonely Welsh island for Christmas, where he gets pulled into the case of the murder of Olivia Costain, the town vicar’s lively single sister. Runcorn employs his bare-knuckle investigative skills in interviewing Olivia’s family and her various suitors, to the chagrin of the local constable, Sir Alan Faraday, whose pursuit Olivia rejected. Runcorn’s modest, unflashy ways carry this moody, understated mystery.

    • Library Journal

      October 1, 2007
      Best-selling mystery author Perry continues her yearly Christmas offering (e.g., "A Christmas Secret"), this time featuring a character from her William Monk series, Superintendent Runcorn. Investigating the murder of a young woman, Runcorn finds himself distracted by the unlikely attentions of a former love interest. Unlike some of her previous Christmas tales, readers unfamiliar with Perry's mystery series may not be as drawn in. For all mystery collections.

      Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Booklist

      October 1, 2007
      Superintendent Runcorn, the former boss of William Monk, star of one of Perrys several crime series, is spending the Christmas season on the remote Isle of Anglesey, off the coast of Wales. When sleuths vacation in remote locales, murder invariably finds them. This time its an independent young woman, Olivia Costain, who is the victim of a brutal attack. Olivia, whose dreams extend well beyond her island home and the circumscribed lives common for Victorian-era women, has refused to settle down, spurning several suitable men and exasperating her brother, the local vicar. Could one of the suitors have killed her? Because of Runcorns experience as a London police officer, the local constable asks for his help. Runcorn agrees and continues his investigation even after the chief constable arrives to take control. This leisurely paced murder features a perceptive look at class differences in Victorian England and an engagingly introspective hero forced to take stock of himself and the safe choices he has made in his life.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)

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  • English

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