Publisher's Weekly Review
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. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Superintendent Runcorn, the former boss of William Monk, star of one of Perry's 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 it's 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 Runcorn's 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.--O'Brien, Sue Copyright 2007 Booklist
Kirkus Review
'Tis the week before Christmas, and inquiry agent William Monk's ex-boss Supt. Runcorn, having decided to get as far away from his depressing London beat as possible, runs into a brutal murder on an isolated Welsh isle. Anglesey would be a perfect setting for the midwinter holidays if it weren't so bleak and lonely, and if Supt. Runcorn had someone he loved to celebrate with, and if it weren't the current home to Melisande Ewart, who antagonized her brother, John Barclay, by identifying the victim and testifying against the killer in one of Runcorn's cases. And, of course, if it weren't for the sudden death of Olivia Costain, the vicar's sister, sensitive and lively but widely accounted a bit of a child. Now the child, stabbed in the stomach, will never grow old. Sgt. Warner, the local constable, is clearly out past his depth, and Melisande's fianc Sir Alan Faraday, when he arrives from Caernarfon to take charge of the case, seems so intent on soothing troubled waters that he ignores the one fact clear to Runcorn from the beginning: that Olivia knew her killer and felt comfortable with him. The investigation is ill-paced, with repetitive rounds of questioning suddenly yielding climactic revelations for no good reason, and the murderer is negligible. Perry's fifth seasonal bouquet (A Christmas Secret, 2006, etc.) works best as a study of Runcorn's lower-class inhibitions and how he learns to deal with them. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
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. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.