Set during the reign of Henry I of England, a noble Saxon family struggles to co-exist with their Norman conquerors, treated by them as inferior in a land where once they held power. The Little Saxon is the youngest son in a family that had strong tie

All About Us is supposedly written by Aline Deal, a lively and precocious girl of eleven, nearly twelve. She describes her eccentric family and the lodgers who live at the top of their large house in the suburbs of London as well as all the various pets around the place. The family always seem to be short of money so that many of her exploits are concerned with finding ways to get some. Her narrative is sometimes perceptive, often funny and, when she deals with the break up of her parents relationship, touching. As Aline herself says: " I hope you enjoy reading my book and tell all your...

Flora, a young ballet dancer, offered a job at a prestigious private opera house in the grounds of a ducal palace, finds herself surrounded by bitchiness and rivalries both professional and amorous. When an attempted murder occurs, an aristocratic detective is assigned to the case because of its high profile. His impartiality is threatened by his own connections to the ducal family. The case seems to get more and more complicated as further murders happen. Understandably, there are a great many suspects, cross-examination of whom is made difficult by their poor command of the English...

These three murder mysteries deal, as the titles suggest, with the world of opera, ballet, and drama, where not only artistic reputations can be murdered. Two of the novellas re-introduce the character of Detective Superintendent Ralph Hurstbourne, assisted by his wife Lady Letty, who just can't help getting involved. As usual, Hurstbourne's method is to find motives for murder to point to his suspects-- not always easy to determine. The characters are richly eccentric and theatrical as you would expect when dealing with people whose whole life is steeped in fantasy rather than reality.