An unexpected betrothal threatens the peace and sanctity of Christmas 1872 in a village near London. Celia Hooper would love to rejoice in her friend Clementine Appleby's engagement to Seth Marlowe. But her reservations about the man's brusqueness and troubled history are magnified a thousandfold when he confronts her, accuses her of sending him an anonymous letter charging him with the death of his first wife, Rose, who took their daughter, Flavia, and abandoned him, and demands that she give up her friendship with Clementine. If he doesn't, Seth threatens, he'll tell everyone that Celia--pressed to give untrue testimony in a court case in order to save the man she loved, Thames River Police officer John Hooper, from a charge of mutiny for the long-ago rescue of his seagoing mates when their manifestly unfit captain nearly drowned them all--committed perjury. The forced bargain leaves a bitter taste in Celia's mouth, and soon she's confessed her earlier sin to the Rev. Arthur Roberson, the local vicar, and John Hooper, now her husband, has gone in search of information about the missing Rose and Flavia Marlowe. The eponymous resolution will come as a revelation only to readers surprised by the verses inside Christmas cards, but Perry spreads kindness, love, and forgiveness so generously that it would be unseasonable to object. A novella-length sermon on the unexceptionable premise that "God won't fix it. But He'll show somebody else how to." Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Set in December 1872, bestseller Perry's talky 18th Christmas novel focuses on John Hooper of the Thames River Police and his new wife, Celia, last seen in 2018's Dark Tide Rising. Celia is distressed to learn that Clementine Appleby plans to wed Seth Marlowe, a prominent member of their church. Though the impoverished Clementine is grateful for the chance to make a respectable marriage, Celia finds Marlowe cruel and controlling. Marlowe, meanwhile, has been receiving anonymous letters that suggest he helped drive his first wife to suicide. Based only on a vague reference Celia once made to his wife's suicide, Marlowe irrationally concludes that Celia is their source, and he threatens to expose a secret that could damage both Hoopers if she remains friends with Clementine. John attempts to defuse Marlowe's threats and save Clementine from danger by taking a brief leave from the police to investigate Marlowe's past. A vicar who hides his love for Clementine adds some charm, and the novel's musings on faith and forgiveness suit the Christmas season, but the glut of rhetorical questions and lack of dramatic action weaken its appeal. Perry has done better. Agent: Donald Maass, Donald Maass Literary. (Nov.)