Yes, I know it’s really too early to even think about Christmas, but I just can’t resist anything by Elly Griffiths. And tiring a little of my current read, I took a break and read this in a day. So if you like a fairly light crime story, this would be a nice book to have on hand for the big day, if you can get away from all the other stuff for a few hours.
The Case of the Christmas Card is a new case for Ali Dawson, the main character in Griffiths’ new series about a cold case unit in London’s police force that deals with cases so old, the team are known as the Frozen People. And the only way they can solve these cases is by travelling back in time. This technology has only just become possible, thanks to a scientific whizz named Serafina Jones and her side-kick, Bud. But it’s all very hush-hush and no one outside the team is allowed to know about. Not even other police departments.
Ali is a detective inspector when we meet her in this book, and she has help from a small team – I love the way Griffiths builds her characters, the way they bounce off each other through very natural dialogue with plenty of humour. In the first book, The Frozen People, Ali had to travel back to the Victorian era to help clear the name of the ancestor of a rising politician. While she was there she got stuck, so there were some interesting scenes where Ali had to cope with the discomforts of the era, being cold all the time – it was winter – and finding palatable food and drink, the impractical and uncomfortable women’s clothing, and so on.
In The Case of the Christmas Card, Ali doesn’t have to go back in time, but she has a famous visitor from the past who she had met in the 1850s, and has to find a way to get him back. With Bud away on holiday, she has to entertain him for a few days, and his reactions to a London of 2024 make up a chunk of the story and are often amusing. His take on the modern world from a Victorian perspective also makes you stop and think.
There’s also the problem Ali faces of not allowing revelations from her Victorian guest’s visit to affect the play-out of events of the past – the old time travel conundrum. Likewise, in her own time travel experience, she hasn’t been able to alter the 1850s by revelations of what she knows about the future.
Ali remembers hurrying through a snowy London street, heading towards an unknown house that was also somehow familiar. Horse-drawn cabs rattled past, spraying up sludge that spattered Ali’s long skirt. It’s all very well travelling in time, but one of the side effects is a sort of everyday timeslip. Ali can be walking along a London street and she can visualise the older façades appearing behind the modern office blocks. If she closes her eyes, she can hear the voices of street vendors shouting their wares…
Meanwhile a friend’s daughter has gone missing, a girl Ali is also very fond of. Then there’s the Christmas card. New artwork from a long dead artist is surfacing. The artist was shot and the murderer never found and this is to be a new cold case for Ali’s team. And she can’t quite help feeling that someone is following her. So there’s a lot going on for a small book, and plenty to keep you turning the pages.
As I said, I whizzed through it, and recommend it as a nice stocking filler or a relaxing read when you want a bit of time to yourself over the holidays. The Case of the Christmas Card is a three-and-a-half-star read from me.
