Books #7 - #9,52 Books in 52 Weeks

More Anne Perrys and Anne Rivers Siddons

I've been keeping up with the reading, but not the blogging, so decided to go ahead and list the last three all at once.  Maybe I can get back on track by next Sunday!

Book #7: Long Spoon Lane, by Anne Perry

"In New York Times bestselling author Anne Perry's newest (2005) novel, featuring Victorian-era sleuth Thomas Pitt, London is a city besieged by anarchists.  After a violent gun battle between rioters and police, a chase culminates in narrow, cobbled Long Spoon Lane, where Magnus Landsborough, the young son of Lord Sheridan Landsborough, is shot to death.  Two anarchists are arrested, and they provide conflicting evidence about Landsborough's death: whether he was the victim of an accident or murder, and whether he was a hostage of the anarchist or an anarchists himself."

Book #8: A Christmas Homecoming, by Anne Perry (2011)

Charlotte Pitt's mother, Caroline, travels with her young husband, Joshua Fielding, and his theatrical troupe to Yorkshire to produce a stage adaptation of Dracula by the daughter of millionaire Charles Netheridge during the Christmas holiday.  Only because of Netheridge's financial backing for their spring tour does the troupe keep at the production, after the first disastrous read-through of the script.  A brooding evil makes itself felt at the lonely hilltop mansion.  Instead of the theatrical triumph that Netheridge desired for his daughter, there is murder - shocking and terrifying."

Several popular authors produce special Christmas stories each year, so Anne Perry is right in step with that trend.  The interesting thing about this book is that it features Charlotte (William Pitt's wife)'s mother.  She does refer to Charlotte and even mentions how she's picked up some "detective skills" from William - and her daughter Charlotte.

Book #9: Burnt Mountain, by Anne Rivers Siddons (2011)

"New York Times bestseller Anne River Siddons returns with a dramatic tale of love and betrayal within a wealthy Southern family.

Growing up, the only place tomboy Thayer Wentworth felt at home was at her summer camp - Camp Sherwood Forest in the North Carolina mountains. It was there that she came alive and where she met Nick Abrams, her first love....and first heartbreak."

While her mother doted on Thayer's older sister, Lily, Thayer depended on her father.  Sadly, he and his father were both killed in a car accident while she was still quite young. Luckily for Thayer, the wealthy widowed grandmother moved in with them after a time and what she could to help Thayer grow into a strong young woman.

I'll have to get another of this author's books!  It was such fun to read a "Southern" novel that got it right. I didn't grow up in the Atlanta area, but there were definite similarities. Definitely an author to get to know!