Little Pixie

So, bit of a stressful time here. My Dad had a nasty fall on the ice, and broke two ribs, plus he partially dislocated his hip. The Paramedics were absolutely brilliant ; they got here quickly, even though the operator said it might be a wait, `cos they had lots of ( mainly car, I think ) accidents at the time. Dad insisted on coming back home from the hospital the same day and is getting about with a zimmer frame, very slowly. The ribs are stupidly painful. Neighbours have been great, phoning, emailing and coming over ( one of them fixed our kitchen light for us ; the starter motor had died, but we had spares - but I have balance problems and can`t get up on a chair to fix it ). The pharmacy dropped off Dad`s medication too, which was so helpful. Apparently ribs take ages to heal. gah. Hope everyone is okay. Boo at all the boiler trouble.

Thanks Poppy. -7C overnight and huge snowflakes now ! So pretty ! Apparently the power went off for our postcode this morning, but just for an hour, while they fixed the underground cable.

Oh, there was also a bit of a murder. But mainly, it was the missing lock of hair.

The Black Curl - Constance and Gwenyth Little The last of the ' Little Sisters' books, and a fun read, even if it's not up to the same standard as the earlier books. Bill , a hard working, fussy and a bit parsimonious New Yorker, has a bunch of sponging relatives living with him, as well as a new housekeeper. One morning he wakes up to find that someone has sneaked into his room during the night and cut off a lock of his hair. Why they did it and the complicated reasons for the mystery, are explored in the book, with time for plenty of drinking and wisecracking. The copyright page of the book says ' Any resemblance to persons living or dead would be downright ridiculous'.

Ooh, I've just read the first couple of paragraphs and it looks really good. Thanks for the heads up.

Shakespeare and Hathaway Private Investigators - a new whodunnit in the Father Brown/Dr Blake timeslot on BBC1. Good fun.

I`m slowly getting there.

So behind with reviews. The Incredible Crime - Lois Austen-Leigh Written by the great-great-grandniece of Jane Austen, this is a fun college mystery from the 1930`s. Prudence - the Master`s daughter - gets involved in a mystery involving foxhunting and smuggling. While not a patch on Dorothy L Sayers` Gaudy Night, it was a pleasant enough read. I read a bunch of the British Library Crime Classics anthologies ( edited by Martin edwards ) ; I think my favourite was Crimson Snow, a set of stories and novellas set in Winter ( Christmassy tales, trapped in snowbound country houses with a murder, etc ).There was a particularly good one by Victor Gunn, called Death in December. Hide in Time - Anna Faversham A lovely time-travel romance, set in the present day and the early 19th century. Laura - a Regency woman who ends up in the present day - decides to hide her friend Xandra in the past, after she`s threatened by criminals. The book really catches fire when it moves to the 19th C, and I loved how the characters blossomed. One of my top time-travel reads.

That`s great news. I hope the weather improves for you, and you don`t get hit again.

I haven`t started either; I thought I knew where all the books were, but am having trouble locating at least two of them. Oops.

Hugs to you and your family. At least when we get flooded, we can still manage to get to a supermarket/doctors` surgrey/hospital , if we really needed to, by taking lots of alternate roads. Plus, the electrics stay on, so we can use the flood pumps. Yours sounds so much worse.

That looks so bad ! Any idea how long the clean-up and rebuild will take ?

Nope, the books just get added to the vast TBR piles.

Wow, that`s some book haul ! Congrats on the goodies.

Yikes ! Hope you`ll be okay Poppy.

Aww. It does sound like a worthwhile read.

It`s surprising how many earthquakes there are. UK - recent earthquakes

Thanks, I`m looking forward to it.

Joanne Fluke`s Hannah Swensen series I`ve put up the paperback version, but a bunch of this series are available on Kindle for 99p or £1.99. I`ve read 20 of them and loved them ( though, they might be marmite books - cosy mystery, woman ( with pet cat, Moishe ) in small town USA stumbles across body and investigates with help of family and friends, some of the books have been turned into hallamrk TV movies). Hannah Swensen on US Kindle - the first book is $2.75, the next few are $1.37.

Yay !

The State of Grace - Racael Lucas Down to 99p. Have taken this one ( I remember Gaia talking about it, and it was on my wish list ).

Earthquake ! We had a 4.4 this afternoon ; the hosue shook for a second or two. Eathquake news

Ncis , Castle repeats, The Orville, Real Housewives of New York ( ), My Four Wives.

Our news said it was the 18th school shooting this year in the US.

You`re welcome. There`s also this one - Annie Dobbs - a romance novel by the same author using a pseudonym.