Mistletoe Malice by Kathleen Farrell review – a snarky stocking filler | Fiction
When the “old” and “tottering” widow Rachel – she is in her late 60s – hosts Christmas at her Sussex seaside home, comfort and joy fail to show. This acidic novel, first published in 1951, tackles an important subject to which many modern readers will relate: the murderous claustrophobia of a family Christmas. It is also a novel about post-second world war Britain: the nostalgia, grimness and traumatic memories, the fear – of nuclear annihilation and shifting gender roles – and the desperate hopes of this shaken land.The…