The Nightingale Christmas Show

By: Donna Douglas

Narrated by: Penelope Freeman

Christmas 1945. The war is over, but the Nightingale Hospital still bears the scars.

Matron Kathleen Fox has the job of putting the hospital back together but wonders if she is up to the task. In an attempt to bring some festive cheer, she decides to put on a Christmas show.

The idea is greeted with mixed feelings by the nurses, who all have their own problems, and also by the new Assistant Matron and ward sister, who find themselves rivals for the role of organiser. But as rehearsals begin, the performers begin to find the show is not just a tonic for the patients. Could the Christmas show really be just what the doctor ordered for their own problems?

©2017 Donna Douglas (P)2018 Soundings

Misses the mark

Author attempts a new plot format and it just doesn’t work. It’s disjointed, rushed, confusing and has very little character development. The author didn’t spend much time letting the reader get to know these new characters and I found it difficult remembering who was who. I didn’t particularly like any of the new characters-they weren’t very nice people and I missed the ones I have grown to care about. Like always, Penelope Freeman does a nice job and there doesn’t seem to be as many nasty, nasally sounding hateful characters in this book as they are in the others. I’m hoping for at least one more book to time up loose ends from the last book.