Ice Cave Snowflakes and The House at Sea's End

. 

This week's knitting project is actually crochet!

 

After years of fearing and admiring snowflake ornaments, I made some last year.  I was delighted with the near-instant gratification of making something so pretty so quickly, and loved ones were happy with the gift.  This year, I was ready for more!  I've started with the Ice Cave pattern.  I've made about a dozen of these so far and love them.  I used a Size 7 hook, and some cotton crochet thread.  I have a few steel hooks, but a 7 is the largest one in my collection.  I used that as a search filter when looking for patterns and this led me to several good ones designed by Deborah Atkinson.  I practically soaked them in straight glue to starch them, but they hold their shape well.  I'll thread some shiny ribbon through one point and mail them to friends and family this winter.  I'm having fun!

It always blows my mind to see what a difference tension makes. The one on the left was crocheted really loosely, and the one on the right was worked up more tightly.  I love the way the one on the left opens up!

The novel is really a novel.  The House at Sea's End is the third book in the Ruth Galloway series.  Ruth has had her baby and named her Kate.  Maternity leave has passed, and Ruth is back at work at the university and is called in when some archeologists she know discover 6 skeletons.  They're Germans! Like the kind from World War II!  Ruth and Nelson investigate the history of a village about to drop into the sea, uncover old plots to guard against enemy invasion, view rich people with suspicion, and argue about Kate's child minder.  

Also in the mix is a naming ceremony for Kate, Judy's reluctance to get married, a mysterious German who also wants to identify the bodies on the beach, a snowstorm, and a figure from Ruth's past who you think is going to be more central to the plot and she just...isn't?  Other books have alluded to Ruth's time in Bosnia where she worked to identify bodies (under Erik, of course. I hate him.  I mentally make a fart noise every time he's mentioned.  So mystical and influential and accomplished and pfffffffffffffft.)  

Give me more Tatjana, who lost her whole family in Bosnia while she was at school overseas and worked tirelessly to find their bodies and also to kill the man who killed them.  She succeeds at both.  This story is slowly revealed in pieces throughout the book and I think it's supposed to be a big reveal when we learn about it.  I think the only surprise was that she'd already done it, and she really was in England for some work.  She makes time to attend Judy's bachelorette party, maybe have an affair, chew Ruth out for spending too much time away from Kate and going on a dig.  Then, when going to the dig nearly gets Ruth killed, Tatjana saves her from a bad guy and the incoming tide. 

England is full of bad guys who will kill you as the tide comes in.  I forgot to mention the explosive fire that happens on the water as the tide is coming in and the bad guy is chasing Ruth while Nelson half-drowns uselessly in the sea. 

And there's so much more!  A caregiver in danger.  And a sweet old lady knitting in the kitchen.  A young woman who might not be what she seems?  A snowstorm.  Cathbad and Judy hook up during the snowstorm.  And so do Nelson and Ruth!  A code!  Maybe euthanasia?  Weird digressions on class.  Working mom guilt.  The tide, of course.  Hidden film.  And Nelson's wife, Michelle, figures out that Nelson is Kate's father.  

I'm so glad I checked out The House at Sea's End and the book after it, A Room Full of Bones, at the same time because I seriously closed one book and immediately picked up the next one.  I've read the first few books in Ruth Galloway series before, but what does it matter?  I'm having fun, and eating these up.  They're the snowflake ornament project of murder mysteries and I'm having a great time.