A Christmas Guest

Fans of Anne Perry’s slim, sly period British mysteries aren’t going to like her latest outing, A Christmas Guest: a sappy, completely predictable 19th-century murder tale about a snappish, ill-tempered grandmama who, in the process of solving the crimes in a small village near Dover, learns — you guessed it — the true meaning of Christmas. If mysteries featuring tart old ladies are your thing, head straight for Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple instead.