Charles Latterly is on Christmas holiday off the coast of Sicily. He's staying at a hostel on an island named for its active volcano, Stromboli. There he meets six other people also from England. Charles recently lost his wife and is trying to put the pieces of his life back together. Four of these people seem to know each other, but Charles isn't sure they like each other given their conversation. But he finds fourteen-year-old Candace Finbar quite intriguing. She's not afraid to speak her mind about anything and often says aloud what others are thinking.

Charles overhears a conversation between Walker and Isla Bailey about selling her old home where she grew up and moving to the city. It appears Isla is very much against it. Mr. Bailey is a very rude and disagreeable man and makes everyone around him uncomfortable. He and Percival Quinn, a famous author in their little group, are at odds with each other constantly.

When the Stromboli volcano erupts, everyone is scrambling for cover. They all assemble in the cellar, but Walker Bailey is missing. Charles and Candace's Uncle Roger find Bailey in a shed with a beam across his body, but that's not what killed him. It appears he met foul play. On their way back to the cellar, more lava erupts and Charles, Roger and the hostel owner Stefano are all hit by debris. Only Charles makes it back to the cellar. The five remaining guests try to make their way down the mountain through the lava bombs that are falling all around them. Can they make it to safety? Is one of them Walker's killer?

Anne Perry packs a punch with this novella, A CHRISTMAS ESCAPE. It's fast-paced and well written to share as much information as Ms. Perry does in only about eighty pages. Charles is searching for answers about life and feels he has always been a failure. Candace is certainly a contrast; she has a passion for life and has a good handle on what it's all about, even at age fourteen. A CHRISTMAS ESCAPE explores the idea that people can't know what's inside of us, what makes us who we are or react as we do, unless we open up to them. It's a story about getting a chance to do better in life before we die, a story about hope at Christmastime for everyone. This is Ms. Perry's thirteenth holiday novel and a very heady read.