Patricia Hall je uznávanou výskumníčkou a zberateľkou diel Johnnyho Gruella, ktorá sa svojmu výskumu venuje od roku 1967. Jej práca sa zameriava na hlbšie pochopenie Gruelllovho umeleckého odkazu a vplyvu, najmä jeho ikonických postáv. Svoje rozsiahle vedomosti z folkloristiky a muzeológie, získané na UCLA, uplatňuje pri konzultáciách pre múzeá a pri tvorbe dokumentárnych filmov, čím prispieva k uchovaniu a prezentácii Gruelllovho diela pre budúce generácie.
Level 1: Starting to Read• Simple stories• Increased vocabulary• Longer sentencesMarcella is learning to read. The dolls want to learn too. With Raggedy Ann¹s help the dolls have a reading adventure!
A past crime causes new murder in the latest intriguing Kate O'Donnell mystery 1964. Detective Sergeant Harry Barnard has been ordered to track down notorious Soho club owner Ray Robertson, who hasn't been seen for several days. The case takes on a greater urgency when a battered body is discovered at the gym Ray owns. Is Ray the killer ... or is he a victim? Photographer Kate O'Donnell meanwhile is working on a feature about the regeneration of Canvey Island, finally being rebuilt after the devastating East Coast floods of 1953. But as Kate and Harry are about to discover, the Canvey Island floods, the murder and Ray Robertson's disappearance are connected in more ways than one ...
With an inquiry into the death of one of his officers hanging over his head back in Yorkshire and his career in limbo, DCI Michael Thackeray sets off for his alma mater, Oxford College, for a summer course, all the while brooding on his newly uncertain future. Before long, a former tutor has persuaded him to investigate the disappearance of a senior don. Why has Dr. Mark Harrison abandoned his wife, his family, and his students so abruptly? And why has no one heard from him or his girlfriend since the day they left St. Frideswide's? The college needs some answers urgently. Back on their home turf, Thackeray's girlfriend, reporter Laura Ackroyd, watches and waits--and does some of her own investigating--as the ripples caused by the young policewoman's death throw young sergeant Kevin Mower into turmoil and an ambitious officer pursues Thackeray's job. As Laura Ackroyd battles on the home front, Thackeray is tormented by unhappy memories of his own time at Oxford. Are the missing professor and his girlfriend alive or dead? How many more horrors, so effortlessly covered up over the years, will come back to haunt St. Frideswide's, as well as Thackeray himself? The answers to these questions may be more than he bargained for, and the distance between the privileged world of college cloisters and the violence outside its ivy-covered walls may turn out to be just an illusion.
Patricia Hall's much-praised first mystery novel, The Poison Pool (SMP, 1993), prompted Library Journal to say, "This first novel promises good things to come." And now Hall fulfills that promise with the introduction of a winning new character, reporter Laura Ackroyd. A hotly contested parliamentary by-election is raging in Bradfield, Yorkshire, much to the professional delight of newspaper reporter Laura Ackroyd, who knows the town and its politics much better than the self-styled experts hot off the London train. Balancing the job is Laura's relationship with her wry, politically active granny and the return of an old boyfriend from the bright lights of London. Laura's workload gets heavier, though, as she is assigned other news stories to follow, like the police investigation of an unidentified body on the moors, the student campaign to "out" various public figures, and the hints of some dirty dealings in the back rooms of town hall. As Laura diligently peels away the veneer of each story, she discovers a tangle of old and new indiscretions, emotional blackmail, and a disturbing amount of violence. Eventually, her inquiries reveal a common thread tying all these events together, bringing her to the attention of attractive, reserved Inspector Michael Thackeray - and to the attention of the murderer as well.