From My Bookshelf....by Lynn Willoughby

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Prayers for Sale - Sandra Dallas
I have reviewed Dallas before and any of you who are quilters will especially like this book. I enjoyed it, but it was certainly missing the twisted plot, hidden agendas and unlikely consequences of "The Chile Queen".
This is the tale of two women trying to survive in the high country of the Rocky Mountains in a Colorado mining town. Hennie is in her eighties, but is drawn to the new comer, seventeen year old Nit Spindle, who is grieving the loss of a stillborn baby.
It is an unlikely friendship, but the two are kindred spirits who can share secrets, the pleasures of hiking and wildflowers and a love of quilting. Nit is desperately lonely, but once Hennie invites her to join The Tenmile Quilters, she is totally accepted into the little group.
Hennie's good heart has led her to enable many people to survive and continue their little lives in Middle Swan. She accepts and includes the store keeper's wife, who once had made her living at "the hook house;" she buys more winter coats from the Sears catalogue than anyone, and passes them on as "outgrown by my daughter Mae." She is generous in donating gifts of food, home made from her limited resources. She is wise and giving and forgiving - not always easy after 86 years of hard living.
This is "comfort fiction - like mac n' cheese or chicken pot pie...to be savoured and enjoyed." - Sherri Caldwell

•     The Chile Queen
•     Alice's Tulips's
•     Buster Midnight's Cafe

……and others

The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag - Alan Bradley
I reviewed "The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie" - a first novel for Bradley and I said I couldn't wait for the next book.  Here it is and I am not disappointed. This is a wonderful mystery with a plot that keeps you on your toes - in the style of Agatha Christie or Elizabeth George. However, Flavia de Luce - the bright centre of these novels, is only eleven.
"Bradley has once again created an engaging, whimsical, twisting tale that rewards readers...Flavia is...the sort of heroine that is too rare in fiction today; utterly realistic, yet compelling, larger than life." Edmonton Journal
Flavia hears a woman crying and finds her lying face down in the cemetery. She is the assistant and lover of master puppeteer Rupert Porson, whose van has broken down. The vicar persuades them to mount a pair of puppet shows for the villagers, and to make enough money to repair the van. Flavia is drafted as the 'gopher'. so is at the heart of all the action.
We have in this novel - a German prisoner of war who has decided to stay and make his home in England, a crazy woman who lives in the woods, a marijuana gro-op, a farm woman who worked in British Intelligence during WWII, the death of a five year old who hanged himself, an over zealous vicar and various other colourful characters, including the de Luce family and their staff. How could this not be the stuff of a great summer mystery?
This Canadian author plans to focus on Flavia de Luce novels after taking an early retirement. I'm delighted, and ready for the next read.

Who Knew?
Fraternization between German POWs and the local population was strictly forbidden in England during the war. When that ban was lifted - just in time for Christmas 1946, many people chose to put the war behind them and invited the POWs to join them for a family Christmas. 24,000 POWs decided to stay and make Britain their home.