Book Review: A Christmas Vanishing by Anne Perry
By Janet Webb
January 19, 2024
Mariah Ellison is old, she stopped keeping track of her age before she turned eighty and that was a while back. She’s grandmother to the redoubtable Charlotte Pitt and like Charlotte, she has a gift for solving mysteries, as readers discovered in A Christmas Guest (2004) and A Christmas Return (2017). When readers first met Mrs. Ellison, in the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt series, she came across as a staid, conventional, even close-minded, matriarch. But should past practice dictate current behaviors and attitudes? Surely not. Mariah’s age does not prevent her from beginning to consider her world in a fresh way. Old people are too often pigeonholed although certainly not by Anne Perry.
In A Christmas Vanishing, Mariah is confronted with a troublesome mystery. Her longtime friend Sadie has invited Mariah to spend Christmas with her and her husband Barton Alsop in their little village. The invitation comes as a surprise to Mariah since she and Sadie have had their share of “old grudges.” In the past Mariah would have declined the invitation. Why rake over dead coals? But now she is inclined to make the effort.
Mariah had been forced to see herself as others saw her, and it was painful. Not only had she been ill-tempered, but she had been self-absorbed and had frequently seen only the worst in people. She realized now that she had been a coward, too fearful to change—until recently.
She thought back to Sadie’s letter. At first, it had read like a simple invitation to an old friend to visit for Christmas. But when she had read on, she had sensed fear. Even more than that, an undercurrent of despair.
Mariah is very curious to talk to Sadie, to judge her mood for herself, but that’s not to be. After pulling the doorbell of Sadie’s house twice, and about to yank it sharply for the third time, Barton opens the door.
“Yes?” he said sharply. It was a question that suggested not only what do you want? but also who the hell are you?
Mariah was not pleased to have to explain herself. Had Sadie not told him that she was coming?
They stare at each other: it’s a Mexican stand-off. Barton tells Mariah that she can’t stay with him because Sadie isn’t there. He’s incredibly rude, unconcerned about where she goes, even though it’s a wintry afternoon in December. Fortunately, Mariah is acquainted with another family, the Spearses, and she directs her driver to take her there. Annabel Spears is somewhat welcoming, her husband John more so but where is Sadie? Mariah says, “She could be lying in a ditch somewhere!” Annabel poopoos the notion but Mariah is determined to find out what’s happened to her friend. John kindly suggests that Annabel’s unmarried sister Gwendolyn would welcome Mariah’s company, which comes an enormous relief.
A Christmas Vanishing is more than the mystery behind a woman’s disappearance. Every question Mariah asks, every answer she receives, causes her to think about her troubled marriage so many years ago and all the ways she has dealt since with uncomfortable truths: it’s a voyage of self-discovery for her. Why are the villagers so reluctant to acknowledge that Sadie might be injured or in serious trouble? Gwendolyn has a possible answer.
Gwendolyn’s expression became even more serious. “It’s the sort of thing we wouldn’t like to ask. We only want to know other people’s business to talk about it. And if it is something unpleasant, I suppose we don’t want to know at all. In case we have to help.” She winced, as if hearing the criticism in her voice, and promising herself to not to be of this mind.
Home truths indeed. Of course, what really happened gradually emerges. Sadie and her husband quarreled, causing her to run off. But her husband expected her to return home. When Mariah and Oliver Mallard, the owner of the local bookshop, interrogate interview Sadie’s husband three days after Sadie’s disappearance, he can’t disguise his anxiety. Mariah dreads finding Sadie’s body but instead, she uncovers physical evidence that her friend, in Oliver’s words, “is in grave danger.” The next fact tiptoes into spoiler territory—it seems Sadie was a petty blackmailer. Is that what led to her disappearance?
Finding and interpreting Sadie’s actions—and the reactions to them—is akin to peeling an onion. Mariah Ellison is the perfect guide to unraveling the mystery: she is fearless, and she possesses an extraordinary inner courage that enables her to delve into territory many would back away from. I want to go back and read more about the transformation of Mariah Ellison since readers first met her.
A Christmas Vanishing was published posthumously: Anne Perry died on April 10th, 2023, but she leaves a rich legacy of books behind.
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