Victor and Vespasia. Always a pleasure!

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A Christmas Gathering: A Novel (Christmas Stories #17) 
by Anne Perry             


I love these two, Victor Narraway and Lady Vespasia. True love in their mature years. As Vespasia muses, "So late in life, she had found the man she truly loved with all the passion, intelligence, and trust in her nature." What a special couple!
Victor has retired as head of the London Special Branch, but unbeknownst to Vespasia he's acting as a contact for a young woman, Iris Watson-Watt, involved in a sting to unmask a traitor. So they are spending Christmas at Cavendish Hall the country house of Max and Lady Amelia Cavendish. Not really where they both wanted to be. For Victor this case is personal. It takes him back to a similar occassion in France which did not end well. And like that time twenty years ago, the young woman Iris is attacked. Recovery is uncertain. Will history repeat itself?
Vespasia of course knows most of the people at the house party, not that she'd had much to do with them for some time.
The guests seem an uneasy lot and when the claws come out, I applauded the way Vespasia  held her own against cutting remarks made by the hostess. Such panache and style!
A taught mystery novella that showcases the strengths and misgivings of these two wonderful Perry personalities that I've always adored. Another Anne Perry Christmas treat!

 A Random House ARC via NetGalley

*****

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