Mystery crime fiction written in the Golden Age of Murder London. 22nd December. Chief Inspector Brett Nightingale and Sergeant Beddoes have been called to a gloomy flat off Islington High Street. An elderly woman lies dead on the bed, and her trunk has been looted. The woman is Princess Olga Karukhin—an emigrant of Civil War Russia—and her trunk is missing its glittering treasure... Out in the dizzying neon and festive chaos of the capital a colourful cast of suspects abound: the downtrodden grandson, a plutocratic jeweller, Bolsheviks with unfinished business? Beddoes and Nightingale have their work cut out in this tightly-paced, quirky and highly enjoyable jewel of the mystery genre.

Just before Christmas, Chief Inspector Brett Nightingale is called to a drab, gloomy flat off Islington High Street, where the body of an elderly woman has been discovered. But this is no ordinary corpse - it is that of Princess Olga Karukhin, who fled Russia after the Revolution, and had existed in terror of being discovered ever since. Though she lived modestly, there is evidence that she had a small hoard of valuable jewellery and objets d'art from her life before - items which are now missing. With the suggestion of a robbery before him, Nightingale must investigate the mysterious life and death of the princess...

On a small farm in Maine, there lives a chicken named Penelope. She's just a plain white hen who doesn't feel very special. Surrounded by a bibliophilic dog, some film-making young chickens, and a peacock who likes to play epic games of hide-and-seek with the sheep, she just doesn't seem to stand out. Feeling sad and alone, Penelope decides to try and change her lot through the only asset she thinks she has: her eggs.

Five young children perform a mumming play for their estranged grandfather on Christmas Eve. Includes the text of the mumming play that is performed in the story, and information about the history of mumming plays.

At Pascha, Orthodox Christians all over the world dye and bless red eggs. Here is the story of how this tradition started--way back in apostolic times, with St. Mary Magdalene and a blessed miracle that dazzled the unbelieving Roman emperor with the reality and power of Christ's Resurrection.A picture book for children preschool age and up.