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==The Best New Books==
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=00084050261786482126|title=A Stranger in the Family The Janus Stone (Maeve Kerrigan 11Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Jane CaseyElly Griffiths|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=ItBuilders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury's sixteen years since nineapartments -year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer nightwhen they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. She There was never found and the investigation ground to no skull. Was this a halt. ritual killing or murder? NowInevitably, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in their bedDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. InitiallyIt's difficult as Ruth knows, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but thereNelson doesn's something about the positioning t, that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspiciousone night they spent together some three months ago. What looked as though it was going to Her condition will be an open-and-shut case obvious before long, not least because Ruth is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convincedprone to sudden bouts of sickness.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=05713798770008551375|title=The Kellerby CodeWhen Shadows Fall (D S Max Craigie)|author=Jonny SweetNeil Lancaster|rating=34.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Edward Jevons is Leanne Wilson's body was found at the bottom of a working-class young manScottish mountain, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and Stanzaseemingly the result of a tragic accident. RobertShe's a theatre directord looked so happy, too, when she posted her intentions on Facebook. He's also self-obsessedHer friends were relieved as she was just out of an unpleasant relationship, demandingbut it looked like she was living her best life now. Then it emerged that five other women had died in similar circumstances in the last year. All were experienced climbers, handsome and entitled properly equipped for what they were doing and uses Edward to run errands for himsensible people. Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and heNone of the 's drunkenly confided how he feels what a stupid thing to Robertdo' explanations applied. Most men in RobertThey were all alone when they died: DS Max Craigie is certain there's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon killer on the two of them kissing in a dark passagewayloose.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Jo CallaghanPaul B Preciado|title=Leave No TraceDysphoria Mundi|rating=4.5|genre=CrimePolitics and Society|summary=When a man ''It is found crucified on never too late to embrace the top revolutionary optimism of childhood'' Through this hybrid text, consisting of arias, letters, essays and autofiction, Preciado expresses his own hybrid self, and brings forth a new sensorium as an offering to the new generation, a hill new feeling mechanism in Nuneatonwhich detachment is not considered a sign of political apathy. Rather, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned it is the proportional, valid response to ''the case alongside her sidekickepistemological and political crack we are living through, and the AI detective Locktension between emancipatory forces and conservative resistances that characterize our present'' which Preciado calls ''dysphoria mundi''. It's their first live case togetherThe whole text is framed against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic as that which has catalysed this revolution, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. But when there is dysphoria began to emerge on a second body found crucified a few days laterglobal scale, Kat is suddenly struggling with or as ''pangea covidica''. Rather than taking this extreme dysphoria as a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a lot sign of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to solve the case in timeweakness, or will Kat find herself taken off the case andmistaking detachment or withdrawal for political paralysis, potentially, out of a career?Preciado urges his readers to ''use dysphoria as your revolutionary platform''. |isbn=139851120X1804271454
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1399613073Samantha Harvey|title=Moral Injuries|author=Christie WatsonOrbital
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersGeneral Fiction|summary=OliviaIn 2024, Laura and Anjali met on Samantha Harvey won the first Booker Prize for ''Orbital'', a compact yet profound work that unfolds over a single day in the lives of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter group of astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Through a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitiousnarrative lens that mirrors the astronauts' orbital perspective, which is a bonus when you aim Harvey invites readers to be see our planet in a cardiothoracic surgeonwholly new light. Laura |isbn=1529922933}}{{Frontpage|isbn=295967572X|title=Pale Pieces|author=G M Stevens|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary= Our unnamed narrator is about to begin a perfectionist train journey with his companion Django. Where they're going and a trauma doctorwhat the purpose of this journey is, is uncertain. Anjali is Django found the free spirit of tickets ''on the group floor somewhere'' and she becomes a GPhas persuaded our narrator to accompany him. When Why not? Not much else is clear either - but we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to end are probably in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the tragedy or past as the pair travel to the consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact station by coach and the three friends. This time, it's their teenage children who are involvedtrain is a steam locomotive.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=02416366040008551324|title=The Trading Game: A ConfessionDevil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Gary StevensonNeil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=AutobiographyCrime|summary=If you were It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to bring up an image of a city banker approach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in your mind, youprison and he're unlikely s prepared to think tell the police where the body of someone like Gary Stevensona missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the East EndThis person, where he was familiar with violencepromises, poverty is someone big and injusticeit will be worth the police doing what he wants. There was no posh public school on his CV - but And what he had been wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the London School remainder of Economicshis sentence and to get an early parole date. Stevenson Not much to ask, is bright - extremely bright it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and he has a facility anyone who works with numbers which most of us can only envyhim is kept well away from what's happening.}}{{Frontpage|author=Jon Fosse and Damion Searls (translator) |title=Vaim|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=''All was strange''.. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It was his ability at what was, essentiallyThis haunting phrase encapsulates the pervading sense of otherworldliness which permeates this story set in Vaim, a card game fictional fishing village in Norway which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventuallyparadoxically could not feel more real for Jatgeir and Eline, this turned into permanent employment as a tradertwo of the protagonists caught in its melancholic current.|isbn=1804271829
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=10350218031035043092|title=The Antique Hunter's Guide to MurderKilling Stones (Jimmy Perez)|author=C L MillerAnn Cleeves|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=ItI can's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has t have been back the only person who was sad when Inspector Jimmy Perez [[Wild Fire (Shetland, Book 8) by Ann Cleeves|left Shetland]] to the English country village where she grew upstart a new life on Orkney. SheIt's back now because of a request for help been seven years since we heard from her beloved aunthim, Carole. Freyabut he's former mentor now living with Willow Reeves and Carole's close friendtheir young son, Arthur CrocklefordJames, is dead and the circumstances seem suspiciousas well as Cassie, to say the leastdaughter of his former partner. Arthur was Willow's also his boss, and she ''should'' be on maternity leave, but when the reason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthurbody of a popular islander, Archie Stout, she feelsis found, let her down badly. Even though they were in business together as antique huntersthe aftermath of a storm, she has not felt able to be near the man or pursue the profession she lovedcan't resist getting involved. After He'd been battered about the split, she worked in head with a Neolithic stone - one of a cafe, met and married James (on the rebound pair - which had been stolen from the love of her life, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorceda museum.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=AllTomorrowsFutureCoverThea Lenarduzzi|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)The Tower
|rating=5
|genre=Science Literary Fiction|summary=''Opening up new ways of thinking about How unctuous are the shape fats of things to come.another's life, how dizzying their sugars in our bloodstream''.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Sunny SinghClaire-Louise Bennett|title=Hotel ArcadiaBig Kiss, Bye-Bye |rating=34.5|genre=Thrillers Literary Fiction|summary=The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel Everything in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Hiding from the terrorists who are rampaging throughthis book, killing everyone on sitehowever sweet or seemingly innocent, there is Samsteeped in anguish and distortion. Even a kiss, usually a wartime photographer symbol of intimacy and Abhicloseness, the hotel managerbecomes evidence of love lost. As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for When the residents who are still alive in the hotelnarrator cries out internally, ''come over here and kiss me, he forms '' it is less an invitation than a bond with Sam who refuses desperate attempt to be cowed by eventsconfirm her emotional numbness. The imagined recipient of this plea is Xavier, and keeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what's happened through her photography. Although they only ever talk over the phoneex-partner, their friendship grows as Abhi tries a ghost she conjures to help test her keep safe and they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the terroristsdetachment.|isbn=086154742X1804271934
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=15291532980008405026|title=The List of Suspicious ThingsA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jennie GodfreyJane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=It's 1979 sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Ministerthe investigation ground to a halt. (A woman? Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in their bed. I meanInitially, honestlyit looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder..) SheKerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's not whatdisappearance: others (such as Derwent's worrying Miv's familyboss, thoughUna Burt) are less convinced.}}{{Frontpage|author=Annie Ernaux and Alison L. Women have been disappearingStrayer (translator)|title=The Other Girl|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=''We were born from the same body. Well, theyI've been murdered, but never really wanted to have think about this.'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv Ernaux's upset because she's overheard that work is always very candid and her father wants to move tone transparent, but this raw epistolary text must be one of the family 'Down Southmost intimate accounts I've read. When you're from YorkshireErnaux writes in direct address to her sister, Down South is a frighteninghowever, foreign place, best avoidedthis letter will never reach her. For MivWhy? Because Annie Ernaux's sister died of diphtheria at 6 years old, a few months before the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharonvaccine was made compulsory in France, and she'll do anything 2 years before the author was even born. The large and instant void created by the jarring concept of writing to prevent that. Shean imaginary recipient emphasises Ernaux's not worried about the dangers or process of reckoning with this giant absence in her life, an absence that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyoneshe has always felt but often denied.|isbn=1804271845
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1398524085Maxim Gorky and Bryan Karetnyk (translator)|title=Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci FrenchReminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev|rating=3.5|genre=CrimeBiography|summary=Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, Etty. Biographies are all worried but often seen as the form of life- strangely - her husband, Alec, is notwriting which offers less colour; it can be seen as more objective and less personal. Shortly afterwardsI think that Gorky completely rejects this perspective, Etty and Gregoffers a vibrant, find subjective yet informed portrait of three of his literary contemporaries. In the body first section of Gregthis book, Tolstoy complains to his friend Gorky that: 's father'you write not of real life as it is, Duncan Ackerley, in the riverbut of what you yourself imagine it to be. It was an easy assumption for the police Whom would it help to make know how I see this tower, that sea, or that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldnTartar - why should it interest anyone? Of what use is it?''t stand the guilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they Well, Maxim Gorky shows exactly what can do but get on with their lives be gained from a subjective account, giving us access to how he saw Tolstoy, Chekhov and wonder about what really happenedAndreyev in such privileged detail that one almost feels unworthy of it.|isbn=1804271977
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=10359067081529077745|title=DivaThe Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)|author=Daisy GoodwinAnn Cleeves
|rating=4.5
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=We tend to think A man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the body of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents a man in Manhattanthe park near Rosebank, New York, in December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteena care home for troubled teens. Her original surname The dead man was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it Josh - one of the care workers who was due to 'Callas' to make it more manageable in work a shift the Statesnight before but who had never turned up. When she was back D I Vera Stanhope is called in Athens to investigate the murder - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for but her voice only clue is the disappearance of one of the residents, fourteen- she year-old Chloe Spencer. Some people believe that Chloe was raised under responsible for the death but Vera thinks this is unlikely as the Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her elder sister, Jackiegirl's diary makes it clear that she adored Josh. She knows that she has to find Chloe to discover what happened to Josh.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Christopher EdgeB0FK5LHKD9|title=Black Hole Cinema ClubThe Colour of Memory|author=Christopher Bowden
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=Lucas and his friends are all booked in for It's been three years since we last reviewed a book by favourite regular Christopher Bowden, so we were very glad to see a movie marathon new novel arrive here at their local cinemaBookbag Towers. Like all Bowden's stories, there's a place that has mystery at the nickname heart of ''The Black HoleColour of Money''. All big movie fans, theyWe like this running theme in an author're looking forward to lots of exciting films, and many, many snacks! However, as the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very s work - take a mystery but give it different, flavour and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagineatmosphere each time. But as they lurch from one film genre to the next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the cinema, and to their real lives?|isbn=1839942738
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Rachel GreenlawOlga Tokarczuk|title=Compass and BladeHouse of Day, House of Night|rating=3.5|genre=TeensLiterary Fiction|summary=''I can hear What's the song good of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat a world that keeps changing like that? How can one go on calmly living in my heart.it?''
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=James Sherwood Metts1836284683|title=Planet StorylandThe Big Happy|author=David Chadwick
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersDystopian Fiction|summary= Things have been Well! This is a murder mystery unlike any other! I do love it when I open a bit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apacebook, often replacing jobs theyit're paid s nothing like I expected it to do be, and other tasks it takes me on a wild ride. And that took time to accomplishis just what happened with ''The Big Happy''. Just as they were beginning I don't want to get used to all this technological change and starting to think ruin a similar experience for any of other, new ways you reading but I'll have to spend time, along came an awful pandemicat least set the scene. Life was pretty much shut down andOnce that's done, along with it, all the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavilyI think you should simply experience this wonderfully original story for yourself.|isbn=1736128426
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Matthew TreeSally Rooney|title=We'll Never KnowIntermezzo
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary= Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, a drunk Sally Rooney has studied the chessboard of life and chronic underachiever whose dreams is something of being exceptional a grandmaster at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably putting it into words. Her dialogue is gripping and who had endless crises of self confidenceso brilliantly frustrating, as her characters never quite say exactly what they feel. So Tim applied himself Among the many relationships woven into this story, the central one for readers to unravel is the fraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and Peter Koubek. Ivan, a socially awkward chess prodigy, contrasts sharply with his studiesolder brother Peter, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitionsa successful lawyer living in Dublin. Following their father's passing after a long battle with cancer, the brothers' already strained relationship faces new trials.|isbn= B0CVFXPGP80571365469
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=A G Slatter1036916375|title=The Briar Book of the DeadJust a Liverpool Lad|author=Peter McArdle|rating=54|genre=FantasyAutobiography|summary='' ThereJust a Liverpool Lad 's ' is a part collection of me that wants to keep this just to myself for however long I canmemories and reflections from the years Peter McArdle spent growing up in and around Liverpool. This secret magic Some are factual, such as the family history of my owna sea-going family, all minewith the docks dominating lives. Other stories blend seamlessly into the what-might-have-been. It's a book to settle into and allow your mind to roam across your childhood memories, at last. I just want to enjoy it for think of simpler times when life seemed less constrained, despite the blitz that was a whileconstant factor in McArdle's early years. I''d never heard of parachute mines before - but they were almost soundless and could appear after the all-clear was sounded.}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=15299003601836285493|title=The Ghost OrchidDouble Life of a Wheelchair User|author=Jonathan KellermanRob Keeley|rating=45|genre=CrimeConfident Readers|summary=It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible Will is a keen player of video games, a conscientious student, a slightly annoying brother and even after Alex recovereda supportive friend. But most of all, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for he is an aspiring writer. English is his favourite lesson at his help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-school, Marlowe Park, and-shut cases one at which didnhe excels. This hasn't need the help of a psychologist only worked for a while. Finallygone unnoticed by his headteacher, it was RobinMrs Howarth, Delaware's partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the man she loved needed. The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a remote property in Bel Air. He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married has suggested to an extremely rich man Will and it's not the Italianhis mum that he spends a couple of afternoons a week at a different school, Station Road, where his ability might be better extended. But which of them was the primary target?
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=15293952241009473085|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a VetConservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Sion RowlandsAnthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)|rating=3.5|genre=Animals Politics and WildlifeSociety|summary=Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was Sometimes it's simpler to explain a GP and Rowlands didnbook by describing what it ''isn't want '' and that applies to follow in his footsteps''The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?''. If you're looking for an easy read which will deliver the inside story about what ''really'' happened on certain occasions, particularly when he considered then this isn't the strain book for you. If that being on-call put on his father's lifewhat you're looking for, I don't think Anthony Seldon's book, {{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, can be bettered for those tumultuous years. When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was It's a vet compelling read and was convinced this was the job should be compulsory for himanyone who thinks Johnson should return to politics. Before long, he was at Liverpool University''The Conservative Effect'' is an entirely different beast. It hadn't s the seventh book in a series which looks at the impact a government has made and co- editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as with so many students the most important. This book follows the well- been his dream since he was established format: a child. If anythingseries of experts from various fields review the state of the nation when the coalition took over in 2010, he'd wanted to be a professional footballerthe changes that occurred and the situation in 2024.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0861541774Jenny Valentine|title=A Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve BurrowsUs in the Before and After|rating=45|genre=CrimeTeens|summary=DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend Elk and former colleagueMab are best friends, Danny Maikor more than that even, has taken their friendship is a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. Maik was involved once in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and he killed a Ghurkalifetime connection. Initially, he faced They meet as children one day on a charge of manslaughter trip out but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder unfortunately they don't get each other's contact details at the mantime. Now he could be facing the death penaltyBut then chance brings them back together, and they are inseparable. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident Something has happened though, something terrible and tragic, and now they must work through their grief, and wouldn't help Danny at alltheir friendship, together.|isbn=1471196585
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Alexander McCall Smith1787333175|title=The Perfect Passion CompanyYou Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji Waterhouse|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionPopular Science|summary=The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative I was tempted to read ''You Don't Have to be Mad to all the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look Work Here'' after the business, as Ness enjoying Adam Kay's first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is planning Going to take Hurt}}, a trip to Canada to get away for a while. Katie is coming out glorious mixture of insight into the workings of a break up with a bad boyfriendthe NHS, humour and so jumps at the chance autobiography. ''You Don't Have to come home to Edinburghbe Mad... And so begins this new story '' promised the same elements but moved from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks physical problems to 44 Scotland Street mental illness and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charmwork of a psychiatrist. Katie has no experience I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in running this setting but the laughter is directed at a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, situation rather than a person and there's it is always her very helpful (delivered with empathy and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|isbn=1846976596understanding.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0811771741Mariana Enriquez|title=InstaKnits A Sunny Place for Baby|author=Melissa LeapmanShady People|rating=45|genre=CraftsShort Stories|summary=Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection Mariana Enriquez writes horror that is disturbingly real, achieving this uncanny familiarity by basing her paranormal plots on gritty realities: her settings include an abandoned field full of knits from toys disused refrigerators due to blankets. Some will be quick knits an urban planning mishap, an overcrowded homeless shelter and a crime- others ridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are of the 'long, cosy afternoons in front of the fire' varietyroutine - all within Argentina. The projects circumstances of her characters are divided by so plausible that the time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and more than twenty hours. All the projects are attractive, modern and useable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's me being pickysupernatural or otherworldly horror which seeps into these spaces adopts a similarly tangible texture.|isbn=1803511230
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Dean Koontz1529934753|title=The Bad Weather FriendProtest|author=Rob Rinder
|rating=4.5
|genre=ParanormalCrime|summary=Benny is having For a terrifically bad daylittle while, it looked as though Sir Max Bruce, the country's most famous living artist, was not going to show up for the opening of his retrospective at the Royal Academy. He loses his jobStill, he loses arrived in the nick of time, complete with his fianceetwo wives and six children, and his house gets trashedone of whom filmed what happened. Oh, and someone has delivered a really weirdBeing an influencer, disturbing coffin-sized object you tend to his homedo things like that, and but it's possible was fortunate that whoever or whatever there was inside is a record of the thing that has trashed his house! protest. The thing isLexi Williams, Benny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that an intern at the delivery to his house is a new friendRA, grabbed a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly spray can of blue paint from under attack from nefarious forces for being a good personchair and proceeded to spray Bruce in the face, whilst shouting ''Stop the War''. Spike is going It seemed to take care be part of Benny, and will certainly take care an ongoing series of Benny's enemiesblue-face' attacks, if he, Bennybut this was different. The can had been laced with cyanide, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they areSir Max Bruce was dead.|isbn=1662500491
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{{Frontpage
|author=Adam StowerAriel Saramandi|title=Murray and BunPortrait of an Island on Fire
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers Politics and Society|summary=Murray is supposed In this powerful collection of essays, Saramandi seeks to be a humbleintradermally dissect the sociopolitical fabric of Mauritius, tidy tunneling deep into the wounds left by colonialism and friendly cat, one who is able slavery to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of expose how these legacies still shape modern life. Saramandi describes the two. But hecountry at one stage as ''rotting's a bad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and blunt yet apt metaphor for the systemic decay brought about by the catflap they both use can chuck them outmalignant forces of racism, not into the regular back gardenpatriarchy, but into a world of frightening adventure environmental degradation and whiffsgovernmental dysfunction. This time round it drops them into Each essay in this collection serves as a Viking landkind of diagnostic, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but he's turned up and he'll have to do…charting the various diseases afflicting the island state.|isbn=00085612491804271616
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B0C47LV1PCPekka Harju-Autti|title=Fragility|author=Mosby WoodsLoveVortex and the Drakor's Curse
|rating=4
|genre=Literary FictionFantasy|summary= Can you make a It''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you coulds the eighteenth century, a time of discovery and Britain is the question should you make it? Or expanding its foreign trade. Captain Julius Hawthorne, an experienced Scottish sea captain, is sent to the question if you didAndaman Islands in his endeavour. Along with his son, Peter, and their cat, Michi, would it land? they set off on a perilous voyage to these faraway lands. The catch is that islands are beautiful and stunning in their scenery and the answer for both could well be.... no. islanders''Fragility'' is set as the city of Portlandleader, OregonAarav, cautiously begins is keen to emerge from the restrictions imposed during the covid pandemicestablish good relations.|isbn=B0DS1VGHH3
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1529431735Helene Bessette and Kate Briggs (translator)|title=The Winter Visitor|author=James HenryLili is Crying|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeLiterary Fiction|summary=It's February 1991 and Essex First published in 1953 in French, this novel is bitingly cold, a timeless text which made Bruce Hopkins' return all wrenches the more surprising. He'd been exiled hearts of its readers just as Bessette wrenches words and sentences from their proper position on the Costa del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decade. The return has come about because he's had a letter from his ex-wifepage and positions them elsewhere, disjointed, saying that she's ill and hasn't long to livetruncated. It's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his underwear and sent to a watery grave in Like the boot lives of a stolen Ford Sierraher characters, they are often left tragically incomplete. Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?|isbn=1804271675
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Alex Bell and Tim McDonaghTom Percival|title=The Glorious Race of Magical BeastsWrong Shoes|rating=45
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Eli Will's life is difficult, in a busy lad – by day an apprentice in multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the wondrous library we start by visiting with himwrong shoes', and in the evening a helper at he has the dessert cafe wrong shoes because his gran owns dad can't work and runs. Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – doesn't have enough money for there is a generation missing in even the family. A few short years agomost basic of things like food, Eliand his dad can's parents were both t work because he lost to his job at the titular racecollege, was working a globecash-trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. Throw into that mix the world fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's life seems bleak in the company of a magical beastevery direction. This And yet, he still has made the race anathema to the pair – but when a bad incident tiny amount of hope. He is good at the eatery leads to a confession from granart, Eli knows his only hope is and clings to dare to enter what the moments of joy when he most hatesis drawing, with the sole aim the prize of magic that feel like a light at the end – the only thing to possibly save his granof a long, dark tunnel.|isbn=05713822311398527122
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|isbnauthor=178763681XSylvie Cathrall|title=Knife Skills for Beginners|author=Orlando MurrinA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=45|genre=CrimeScience Fiction|summary=Chef Paul Delamare took There are few greater joys than a teaching job at a residential cookery school in Belgravia. He didn't really want book which lives up to but celebrity chef Christian Wagner had a way of getting both men and women to do what he wantedcompelling premise. Paul ''somehow'' got the impression that he'd be at the school to assist Paul, who had a broken arm, but it didn't turn out that way. The teaching - and the problems - are all his own. The And this is one thing he hadn't expected was for someone to turn up dead. Unfortunately, he was the person who discovered the body and everyone knows that the police consider that person to be the prime suspectof them.|isbn= 0356522776
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{{Frontpage
|author=Sarah MarshGuadalupe Nettel and Rosalind Harvey (Translator)|title=A Sign of Her OwnThe Accidentals|rating=34.5|genre=General FictionShort Stories|summary=After a bout of scarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Suddenly plunged into a world of silence, everything about her life changes. Living This collection was truly enchanting in a time when the use all senses of sign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a school where she is taught to lip read, but physically restrained from signing. From here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the deaf and using a system called Visible Speech. At the same time, Bell is working on other inventions and ideasword: spellbinding with its fantastical, magical elements and Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up charming in a complicated tangle its gentle portrayal of espionagenature and human relationships.|isbn=1035401614}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1803816759|title=The Unravelling|author=Will Gibson|rating=4|genre=Science Fiction|summary=It's 2038 Guadalupe Nettel writes intelligently and Joe is precisely, her stories structured by a bored cop policing the wealthy and peaceful New York City. Joe longs for a bit of adventure and to get stuck into some really gritty crime detection. But then something goes horribly wrong with the AI system wisdom that now runs everything, making life easier for many, and riots start appears to spread. Finally, Joe gets want to do some real policing. In teach us something about the aftermath of the rioting global pop star Suki is kidnapped and Joe is assigned to bring her homeworld. Joe isn't the only one trying to save Suki - Dylan, a British superfan and tech nerd, is also on the case. What went wrong? Did the system fail or was it hacked? And how is Suki's kidnapping connected?|isbn=1804271470
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