Book Description
Frances and George are looking forward to a Christmas season enlivened by all the diversions London can provide. But family comes first, and George’s sister Fiona and her husband persuade everyone to gather at their Norfolk estate for the holiday. The weather will be chilly, but the prospect of snow delights the youngsters. And with blazing fires and invigorating country walks in store, Frances envisions a peaceful, jolly Christmas.
Instead of a picturesque snowfall, however, Norfolk is hit by pounding rainfall and high winds. In the aftermath of the storm, Frances, Fiona, and the children make an unpleasant discovery in a nearby field—the body of their neighbor, dead in suspicious circumstances. Joshua Penhollow was the local doctor, though not a well-respected one. Indeed, most viewed him as a quack, and even his own stepdaughter held a grudge against him.
With the menfolk gone to help clear a blocked road, the investigation falls to Frances and Fiona, who must also curb the young people’s excitement at encountering a real-life murder. Combing through a village full of colorful characters and more than a few suspects, Frances feels any hope of a quiet Christmas slipping away. But more pressing is the need to stop a killer whose heart is as cold as the season . . .
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Elise’s Thoughts
A Christmas Guide to Family and Murder by Dianne Freeman is an entertaining story about a murder investigated by the main character Frances, her sister-in-law, Fiona and their three children.
The story begins with George’s sister Fiona and her husband, Robert, persuading the Hazelton clan to gather at their Norfolk estate for the holiday. The weather will be chilly, but the prospect of snow delights the youngsters.
Instead of a picturesque snowfall, however, Norfolk is hit by pounding rainfall and high winds. In the aftermath of the storm, Frances, Fiona, and the children make an unpleasant discovery in a nearby field: the body of their neighbor, dead in suspicious circumstances. The victim, Joshua Penhollow was the local doctor, though not well-respected or liked.
All the men of the family are called out of town to help with villages damaged by the storm. This leaves the investigation falling to Frances and Fiona, who must also curb the young children’s excitement at encountering a real-life murder.
The children, Rose, nine years old and her cousins, Grace and Gregory, nine and ten were assigned to write a Christmas story based on Dicken’s A Christmas Carol. The children were resolute in writing a murder mystery. In their story, Scrooge is the victim and the two detectives assigned to the case, named Frank and Georgianna, obviously inspired by George and Frances, solve the crime. They title it “A Christmas Murder” and are excited about the presence of the body in the house realizing they can help with the murder investigation. Frances is dismayed by the children’s enthusiasm for crime-solving at first, but realizes they have some good insight, especially since the village is full of an overabundance of suspects.
Intertwining the children’s writing of the story with the actual investigation makes for entertaining interludes. This Christmas story has plenty of family, secrets, and investigation. Readers wanting A Christmas Carol turned on its head involving a murder mystery will like this read.
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Author Interview
Elise Cooper: Idea for the story?
Diane Freeman: It was kind of a roundabout way. This was the third book in the series. I’d known for a couple of years that I was going to be writing a Christmas story. And in my mind, I had an image of George and Frances, my main characters, out looking for Christmas greenery and stumbling over a body buried in the snow. But when it came down to writing it, I kind of ran into a problem with weather.
EC: What was the problem?
DF: At that point, we were in December of 1900, and it was the warmest December on record for the UK. And it was snowing, nowhere. Sometimes, it’s little facts like that that just trip you up. And hopefully you find them while you’re still in the planning phase, like I did. I just kept reading the weather reports and found on New Year’s Eve that year, there was a gale that hit the east coast of England and did a lot of damage. They ended up going out to the countryside in the county of Norfolk, and they were hit by the gale. And everything kind of followed from there. I just moved the gale up by ten days.
EC: How would you describe Frances?
DF: I think Frances is kind of an amalgam of all the heiresses, because I feel like they really had to be. She’s an American, and her family was new money. They came into money when Frances was about 10 years old. And they moved to New York, where she was raised not really learning how to do any practical things. Her mother raised her to eventually become a countess or a duchess or something of that nature, so she had art, music, and languages, and she knew the events of the day, and could carry on a good conversation. But she didn’t know how to make a cup of tea, or boil an egg or anything of that nature. So, when she became a widow, she was thrust into a whole new situation, especially since her husband has spent all the money. She is gutsy, adventurous, willing to give it a try, with her biggest character trait courage.
EC: George, her second husband, was hardly in it?
DF: The men were called away because streets were blocked by trees that were felled from the storm, gas works were broken, houses were flooded with the Norfolk coast itself kind of notorious for erosion. It’s been kind of weaning away, and houses do occasionally have to be moved back, because the coastline recedes. It made sense, that the men would have to leave, and I wanted a case where Frances would have to be on her own, because even the police were gone. Frances is my sleuth. And though she and George work together, I occasionally want readers to see that she’s grown. And I thought this was a good situation for that, even though the family and the kids helped her.
EC: The children did play a role in solving the mystery?
DF: The children wrote the Scrooge story centered around the murder. Only because if Scrooge had been murdered, really, would anybody miss him? And that was kind of the case with Dr. Penhallow. Nobody really liked him. Nobody. But nobody was crying over him. Nobody was really missing him. His wife, to some degree.
Frances would not have wanted them completely involved in the murder, and that was another reason. I had George and her brother-in-law Robert had to leave, because I didn’t want them taking the place of what things that the kids could be doing. They would be really excited to see what happened in a real investigation. So that was really the kind of reason for having them write that story, to get them involved. My initial first draft, I just kept pushing the kids aside, making them do something else. And I thought, ‘This isn’t working. This is a Christmas guide to family and murder. They must be involved in this.’ So, I scrapped that and started over. And the idea of having them write their own story and wanting to do some research worked well.
EC: How would you describe the children?
DF: I have no children, so they’re kind of how I remember being as a kid. Christmas is certainly exciting, but once they had a project that they are involved in, I think that kind of takes over everything. They’re inquisitive, they’re fun, and in the case of Gregory, kind of a little smart aleck. I just think they’re typical 9- and 10-year-olds from my past. In the book there is a quote, “Children think everything is a negotiation and a democracy.” I am pretty sure this is relevant to any parent.
EC: What was the role of Christmas?
DH: I wanted this to feel like a family book. To me, holidays are all about family, so even though there are some of them called away, and even though there’s a murder dropped in the middle of it, they kind of carry on.
EC: Is this a cozy mystery?
DF: I always think of it as a traditional mystery, but I think it follows some of the cozy rules. Most of anything gruesome is off the page. There’s no sex, no violence, nothing of that nature. And that tends to be a thing with cozies, which kind of puts a whole other definition to the word cozy, that the victim and the killer usually know each other. Sometimes it can be too cozy.
EC: Why the Victorian era?
DF: I read a book called To Mary a British Lord, and then I saw “Downton Abbey,” and I thought of Cora Crowley. I just thought it was fiction. And then when I realized this really happened. There was a quarterly publication called “Titled Americans,” that you could buy at a newsstand, kind of like online dating, but it would say, what titled gentlemen were available, what titles they held, what land they held, and if they had any money. So that the American family could figure out how to fill this Lord’s need, and then make a deal. Basically, trading money for titles was a big deal. The real heiress Consuelo Yznaga, The Duchess of Manchester, made money, helping other heiresses find their feet once they got into England. This just fascinated me, and I thought to myself, what would this be like 10 years after the wedding? She was quite an amazing woman.
EC: How would you describe Frances’ sister-in-law, Fiona?
DF: Fiona is the perfect best friend. I wish she were my best friend. She’s fun loving. If you saw her from the outside, you would think she was frivolous. But she really is clever, and she somehow manages to be the person people confide in. So, she tends to know people’s secrets, but she doesn’t tend to divulge them. She’s a very loyal, good friend, and like I said, I wish she was mine.
EC: Next book?
DF: It takes place in March 1901 right after Queen Victoria’s death. The title is A Royal Guide to Secrets and Murder. It’s going to be a fall book of 2027.
THANK YOU!!
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BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.
