[Read by Simon Prebble] Anne Perry's ''vastly entertaining'' (Newark (NJ) 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. Claudine Burroughs, a volunteer in Hester Monk's clinic for sick and injured prostitutes, no longer expects closeness with her coldly ambitious husband and dreads the holidays. Then, at a glittering yuletide gala, she meets the attractive poet Dai Tregarron, and suddenly her spirits lift. But an hour later, this fascinating man is enmeshed in a nightmare -- accused of killing a young streetwalker who had been smuggled into the party.
