Synopses & Reviews
Once again, the distinguished mathematician Henry Rathbone is approached to help solve a mystery. This time, the call comes from an old friend whose son has gone missing--and just before the Christmas holiday. Now in his early twenties, Lucien has known trouble for some time and has often fallen victim to the vices of drugs, alcohol and women. Thus, his father now fears the worst.
Henry's first thought is to enlist the help of Hester, since her work in the East End clinic might prove useful. However, when he calls in at the clinic, the first person he meets is their old friend, Squeaky Robinson, who says he mustn't involve a good woman in this kind of search, and volunteers himself instead. Henry agrees and, joined by Crow, a young doctor at the clinic, the pair trawls the pubs, brothels and opium dens of the West End, which in some ways are even worse than those in the East. After all, these establishments cater to people with money, and as a result the entertainment procured is more extreme and dangerous.
The trio finds a young barmaid who actually knows Lucien and who insists on coming to help them, and through their sleuthing, they find even more troubling information about the missing youth: he had become obsessed with a woman called Sadie, and had begun working for a major drugs dealer.
Eventually, the group finds Lucien on the streets, but badly injured following a vicious knife-fight. He asks them to let him die: he's beyond redemption. But of course, they refuse to do this and instead patch him up and nurse him, all-the-while still wondering about the elusive Sadie. The only clue to her whereabouts seems to be a pool of dried blood.
Eventually they learn Sadie's sad truth--a tale of prostitution and murder. But just as this comes to light, the detectives' own situation becomes increasingly dire. The drug baron is not a man to be toyed with and Rathbone and his friends quickly realize he has them trapped, confined to a labyrinth of underground passages and alleyways.
Finally, with nothing left to lose, Lucien embarks on an act of bravery and self-sacrifice that will ultimately save all their lives and reunite father and son for a much-deserved Christmas celebration.
Synopsis
In her beloved Christmas novels, Anne Perry brings readers both the authentic Victorian charm and the nail-biting suspense that have made her Thomas Pitt and William Monk tales bestsellers for a generation. Though rife with intrigue, these special seasonal stories beam with the blessed light of the holiday.
Ten days before Christmas, as an icy wind cuts through London, wealthy James Wentworth feels not joy but grief. His reckless son, Lucien, has been lured into a deadly world of drugs and wild passion. Wentworth’s only hope, he believes, is his old friend Henry Rathbone, who volunteers to search for the prodigal son. Rathbone knows nothing of the sensation-obsessed underworld where Lucien now dwells, but he acquires two unexpected new companions who do: Squeaky Robinson, a reformed brothel-keeper who now works in Hester Monk’s medical clinic, and Crow, a mysterious slum doctor who turns no one away, however undeserving.
Slowly this odd trio gathers clues—about Lucien’s mad infatuation with a beautiful woman named Sadie, and about Shadwell, the ruthless man who owns her and, like the Devil, never lets go of one of his own. Rathbone, Squeaky, and Crow even welcome into their little band a most valuable recruit: young Bessie, a teenager whose courage holds fast even in the depths of the slum. And so they set forth on their odyssey into London’s dark streets, on a mission whose outcome they cannot begin to guess.
Anne Perry’s novels are supreme masterpieces of suspense, and A Christmas Odyssey ranks with the very best. The days leading up to Christmas may prove to be fraught with challenges, but ’tis the season for comfort and joy and miracles.
About the Author
Anne Perry is the bestselling author of seven earlier holiday novels—A Christmas Promise, A Christmas Grace, A Christmas Journey, A Christmas Visitor, A Christmas Guest, A Christmas Secret, and A Christmas Beginning—as well as the William Monk series and the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series set in Victorian England, five World War I novels, and a work of historical fiction, The Sheen on the Silk. Anne Perry lives in Scotland.