Ten days before Christmas, wealthy James Wentworth feels not joy but grief. His reckless son, Lucien, has been lured into a deadly world of drugs and wild passion. Wentworth's only hope, he believes, is his old friend Henry Rathbone, who volunteers to search for the prodigal son. Rathbone knows nothing of the sensation-obsessed underworld where Lucien now dwells, but he acquires two unexpected companions who do.

Just before the Christmas holiday, distinguished London mathematician Henry Rathbone comes to the aid of an old friend whose son Lucien has gone missing. Enlisting the aid of Squeaky Robinson and Crow, Henry soon discovers that Lucien may be involved with a murdered prostitute and a major drug dealer.

A Christmas promise: Three days before Christmas, in the freezing slums of London's East End, thirteen-year-old Gracie Phipps encounters Minnie Maude Mudway, who is eight, alone, and determined to find her friend Charlie. Charlie is a donkey who belonged to Minnie Maude's Uncle Alf. The day before, someone murdered Uncle Alf and made off with his rag-and-bones cart and the beloved beast who pulled it. Minnie Maud means to rescue Charlie, and Grace decides to help. In the cart were not just the usual bits of worn silver and china but also a dazzling golden box. What its contents may have been no one can say, for it too has vanished.

"Anne Perry's "vastly entertaining" (The Star-Ledger) holiday novels are "as delicious as mince pie and plum pudding" (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel). A Christmas Hope is just as delectable--the gripping story of an unforgettable battle between goodness and evil in Victorian London--and a lonely woman's search for meaning in her life. Although she lacks for nothing, Claudine Burroughs dreads the holiday season for forcing her to face how empty her life has become. She no longer expects closeness with her coldly ambitious husband, and she has nothing in common with their circle of wealthy, status-minded friends. The only time she is remotely happy is when she volunteers at a woman's clinic--a job her husband strongly disapproves of. Then, at a glittering yuletide gala, she meets the charming poet Dai Treggaron and finds her spirits lifted. But scarcely an hour later, the charismatic Dai is enmeshed in a nightmare--accused of killing a young streetwalker who had been smuggled into the party