Christmas Reads for the Older Folks

I have always enjoyed "cozy" mysteries -- the kind Dorothy Sayers or Agatha Christie popularized. Anne Perry, who writes two different Victorian era mystery series and has also written a few books about WW1, has a Christmas gift just for folks like me --

Each year since 2003, Ms. Perry has written a novella using one of her secondary characters as the protagonist in the midst of a mystery. The first, A Christmas Journey,uses her character, Lady Vespasia Cummings-Gould, as the detective in trying to determine why a young widow on the brink of remarrying would commit suicide. The second, A Christmas Visitor , uses the character of Henry Rathbone to determine who would kill a respected judge - or was it just an accident? The third in Perry's canon -- and this year's book -- , A Christmas Guest, uses the cranky old Grandmama (Charlotte Pitt's grandmother) to solve a murder that only she knows has been committed!

All three of these books are delightful "cozies". They're short, novella length stories and the mysteries are well-crafted by this expert author of numerous British mysteries.

Each of these is just what a busy mom with Christmas "chores" to do can use to relax at the end of a LONG day! Think of it as "a-reading-theraphy" instead of "aromatherapy".