A Christmas escape

Yet another winner from Anne Perry. I'm always impressed by how thoroughly she draws me into the scenes she writes of. In this unusual Christmas mystery, a volcano plays so large a part as to nearly become a character in its own right. The murder does not happen until late, but the story is so good I didn't mind.

This story has just the right amount of foreshadowing to make the murder and its solution believeable, but I wasn't sure if my guess was actually going to be right for a while. And the descriptions! The volcano “making noises like Bailey does when he sleeps” was one of my favorites.

And I loved this excerpt: “...The recipe for a perfect speech is to begin at the beginning, go through the middle, come to the end, and then for heaven's sake stop!” Definitely brought some long-wonded speakers to mind.