This story - a novella, really - started off with an intriguing mystery, a curious setting and interesting main characters but seemed to spiral off into something a bit unbelievable and, well, out there. I could appreciate the spiritual aspects - to a point - and then even that became a bit reaching.
The ending, too, left me with an odd taste in my mouth and wanting a bit more.

I love Anne Perry and I was exciting to see her character Vespasia a bigger treatment but in the end I was disappointed. ( )

I have a friend who enjoys Anne Perry's William Monk books and apparently some of her Christmas series. She passed this book on to me. It's probably weird to drop into the Christmas set at book #14--I didn't know that when I was reading it but seeing it listed as such does make me wonder less at why there seemed to be some backstory I thought I was missing.

Victor and Vespasia undertake a journey--well several journeys, I guess. There's the physical journey which is supposed to be a Christmas holiday, but there's a spiritual journey that develops as well as they decide to fulfill the delivery of a parchment they've been entrusted with.

Likes:
-Victor and Vespasia must love each other. One, they are willing to change their lives/behaviors for each other. Two, each is willing to die for the other.
-The spiritual journey that several characters take and the beliefs that they must examine as they journey.
-Vespasia is written as a self-sufficient woman (though her skirts do get in the way a time or two). She's not the typical historical female. Though she also has common sense and knows when she needs to be the typical female of the time.

Dislikes:
-I'm not quite sure the spiritual journey leads to the Christian belief system.
-I have a feeling there is some symbolism present that went over my head. I vaguely think that Benedict was an angel sent to earth (and who's lost some of his memory by taking human form). Jeshua seems to me to be a symbol for Jesus. There's talk of the star followed by the wise men and whether it was a physical star that pointed them to Bethlehem or an inner sense that led them. (This book seems to lean toward the inner sense.) The Watcher character seems to represent Lucifer or a demon. ( )

Strong message supported by an allegorical perspective on a Christmas message. Vespacia and .Narraway find their vacation trip to Jerusalem interrupted by a murder and the challenge of delivering a section of a coded message. Her introspection about her relationship with Narraway consumes most of her thoughts as they strive to complete their journey by the Eve of Christmas. ( )

This is one of Anne Perry's Christmas mystery novellas that I usually enjoy. This one, however, is just preposterous. Victor Narroway & his wife, Charlotte Pitt's Aunt Vespasia have gone to Palestine with the goal of spending Christmas in Jerusalem. But, of course, in Jaffa, they meet a mysterious man who ends up being killed, apparently for the piece of paper that he secrets to Narroway just before his murder.

Victor & Vespasia must travel to Jerusalem and deliver the paper to a bakery where, hopefully it will be matched up with the two other missing people to make a whole message. Presumably because they have nothing better to do, they set off, running into another person who amazingly has the second part of the puzzle.

Unfortunately they also run into "The Watcher", a shadowy figure that obviously symbolizes evil. What then follows is a chase, a fight, and much religious hocus pocus as the mystery is solved & good triumphs over evil. Unfortunately good story telling doesn't triumph over muddled writing. This is four hours of my life I'll never get back. ( )

I usually enjoy Anne Perry's Christmas novellas, as each one takes a lesser character (or two) from her other mysteries and inserts them into their own mystery. Up until now, they have always been well written and provide a little more insight into the character than the longer mysteries, and there is always a satisfactory conclusion. That is not the case with this book.

This book, however, does not live up to her usual standards, in my opinion. Vespasia and Victor Narraway are on a journey to the Middle East for Christmas 1900. In Jaffa, they have dinner with a mysterious man only to find him murdered the next day and Victor in possession of a peculiar piece of parchment and a note which directs him to deliver the parchment to Jerusalem by Christmas Eve. The two set out by train from Jaffa and encounter more mysterious strangers en route, as well as meeting with not one but two malfunctions of the train. Once they make it to Jerusalem, two more pieces of parchment appear and are all delivered to the same location to three religious men, one Catholic, one Orthodox, and one Protestant.

I believe this was intended to be a deeply philosophical novella which would lead to reflections on the message of Christmas and the meaning of life. However, I found it to be meandering and confusing; many of the sentences left me scratching my head as to what was being said, either due to poor writing or poor editing. This book will not get a second reading from me as many of her Christmas books have. ( )