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'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Claire North0008517061|title=Notes from the Burning AgeDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=Science FictionCrime|summary=At its core ''Notes From the Burning Age'' by Claire North is a spy thrillerFormer Metropolitan Police detective, with as many double crossesJake Johnson, interrogations and night time escapes as Le Carre or Fleminghas settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. However, as There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the future of his life with the best novelshis vet girlfriend, it wears many masks Livia and its most affecting one is that of a new and timely genreher daughter Diana, cli-fi, or climate change fiction. North's novel tells of as moving in together would mean a world devastated by climate change where humans have been forced to start anew and live alongside nature without any lot of the modern compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and corrupting "luxuries" (read: fossil fuels, weapons of mass destruction, intensive farming). There is a growing unhappiness relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this limiting world, is the future she wants for herself and one group, her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in the Brotherhood, aims to master these processes no matter present and putting the cost to future on the Earthback burner.|isbn=0356514757
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=1786482126|title=Eva Bjorg Aegisdottir and Victoria Cribb The Janus Stone (translatorDr Ruth Galloway)|titleauthor=Girls Who LieElly Griffiths|rating=34.5|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=You might be forgiven for thinking that all the dark corners of Iceland have featured Builders were demolishing an old house in their noirish thrillers and crime books before now. You think, seeing on Norwich - the map that wesite was going to hold seventy-five 're set in Akranes, and finding itluxury's only twenty kilometres from apartments - when they discovered the capital city, that this author is clutching at the few final straws leftbones of a child beneath a doorway. However just because the book aims for the usual small-town feel, it's not just in Akranes that our interests lieThere was no skull. Six months ago Was this a woman failed to turn up for her date eveningritual killing or murder? Inevitably, and was never seen againDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. This left a teenaged girl not at all disappointed It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she could now live permanently is pregnant with the couple who had given her foster care before her mother had asked for the girl back, and his child as a couple result of delighted adopters. But it left our the one night they spent together some three detectives at a quandary – mobile phone use was at a high level until it stopped all of a sudden, in one place, the woman's car was found miles away in a second place, and now, after six months, the body has been discovered, in a third, even more remote placeago. MeanwhileHer condition will be obvious before long, this narrative not least because Ruth is interrupted by a confessional monologue from a mother who found herself with heavy post-natal depression, and very little maternal feeling in her bodyprone to sudden bouts of sickness. Is the assumption that is so easy for the reader to make the right one?|isbn=191319373X
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=B0925KS87N0008551324|title=Dead Man's Grave The Devil You Know (DS D S Max Craigie)
|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. This person, he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date. Not much to ask, is 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 anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=0008405026
|title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)
|author=Jane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=Crime
|summary=It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in their bed. Initially, it 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. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=0571379877
|title=The Kellerby Code
|author=Jonny Sweet
|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Edward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and Stanza. Robert's a theatre director. He's also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for him. Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. Most men in Robert'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 the two of them kissing in a dark passageway.
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{{Frontpage
|author=Jo Callaghan
|title=Leave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Tam Hardie had been determined When a man is found crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to find the grave - and it took some finding - in an overgrown old cemeterycase alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. It was a strange thing for Scotland's premier criminal to dotheir first live case together, but Tam was getting old and there were things he wanted to dohaving previously been very successful with several cold cases. OnlyBut when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, his family didn't hear from him again after he'd said Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that he'd found the grave - the one which said that it shouldn't be opened - and his three sons began draws a lot of unwanted attention to worrytheir AI Future Policing project. Tam JuniorWill they be able to solve the case in time, Frankie and Dave wouldn't normally go to or will Kat find herself taken off the police but they weren't certain where their father had been case and they were worried., potentially, out of a career?|isbn=139851120X
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Emily Critchley1399613073|title=The Tiny Gestures of Small FlowersMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=34.5|genre=General FictionThrillers|summary= The Tiny Gestures Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of Small Flowers had all the hallmarks medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of something gooda century. I was intrigued by the plot Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, liked which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Anjali is the design free spirit of the book, group and she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and thought the authorit's work sounded interestinggoing to end in tragedy. From We don't know who suffered the outset tragedy or the consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. This time, it all looked incredibly promising's their teenage children who are involved. So what on earth went wrong here?|isbn= 1911427091}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Sarah Langan0241636604|title=Good NeighboursThe Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersAutobiography|summary= If you're were to bring up an image of a certain vintagecity banker in your mind, ityou's hard re unlikely to read think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the words ''Good Neighbours'' without adding a singpin-song ''that's when Good Neighbours…become…good friends''. Maple Street stripe suit and his background is no Ramsay Streetthe East End, thoughwhere he was familiar with violence, Arlo poverty and Gertie live a world apart from the Melbourne suburbsinjustice. They're one of 18 households There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the crescent, quite new arrivals having moved in a year earlierLondon School of Economics. They're not quite like all the other families ( Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he's an ex rocker, she's has a former beauty queen) but they've made some friends and their kids have settled in, and it's all going okfacility with numbers which most of us can only envy. Until it isn't He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. One hot, clammy, sticky It was his ability at what was, sweaty summeressentially, a sinkhole opens up in the park across the waycard game which got him an internship with Citibank. It's Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a revolting mess of dirt and chaos, but for the residents of Maple Street, the worst is yet to cometrader.|isbn=1789098211
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Lisa Thompson1035021803|title=The Small ThingsAntique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=3.5|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Although Anna It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has friends at school, been back to the English country village where she feels like she never really fits ingrew up. Her family don She't have enough money to let s back now because of a request for help from her do after school activitiesbeloved aunt, Carole. Freya's former mentor and so she feels like her life at home Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is boring in comparison dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to theirssay the least. When a new girl joins her class, Anna is asked Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to partner her, but things are complicated because the new girlvillage: Arthur, Ellieshe feels, is unwell and so can't attend school let her down badly. Even though they were in personbusiness together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the man or pursue the profession she loved. Instead After the split, she joins worked in with a cafe, met and married James (on the class by using a robot. Can Anna overcome rebound from the challenge love of making friends with someone through a robother life, who was murdered) and is she even interesting enough to be a good friend to Ellie?|isbn=1781129649Freya and James have now divorced.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=0008350388AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=We Need to Talk About MoneyAll Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Otegha UwagbaBenjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Politics and SocietyScience Fiction|summary=''To be a dark-skinned Black woman is to be seen as less desirable, less hireable, less intelligent and ultimately less valuable than my light-skinned counterparts...'' ''We Need to Talk About Money'' by Otegha Uwagba ''0.7% Opening up new ways of English Literature GCSE students in England study a book by a writer thinking about the shape of colour while only 7% study a book by a womanthings to come.'' ''The Bookseller'' 29 June 2021
Otegha Uwagba came to the UK from Kenya when she was five years oldI've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Her sisters were seven and nineWell, I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of technology in my lifetime. It was her mother who came first, I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but I'm left with her father joining them later. The family was hard-working, principled and determined the feeling that their children would have the best education possibleit's all getting away from me. There was always a painful awareness of money although this did not translate into a shortage Some of anything: it was simply carefully harvestedis - frankly - quite frightening. When Otegha was ten Of course, I could research the possibilities and the family acquired a carprobabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. For Otegha, education meant a scholarship to a private school I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in London and then a place at New College, Oxfordway I could understand.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1787631869Sunny Singh|title=The Rising Tide|author=Sam LloydHotel Arcadia|rating=43.5|genre=Thrillers|summary=Lucy Locke's early life hadn't The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been easy but she'd built violently taken over by a good and decent life in the aftermathterrorist group. She's now married to DanielHiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, who co-owns Locke-Povey Marine killing everyone on Penleith Beachsite, and they live at Wild Ridge on Mortis Point with Billiethere is Sam, Lucy's daughter a wartime photographer and FinAbhi, the child she had with Danielhotel manager. They have financial difficultiesAs Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the hotel, some caused he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by Nick Poveyevents, Danieland keeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what's partner and so-called best friendhappened through her photography. Nick Although they only ever talk over the phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and Daniel have a history together from the time they both spent in a children's home but it's difficult wait to think that Nick has Daniel's best interests at heart, particularly where Lucy, or money, is concernedsee if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists.|isbn=086154742X
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Hannah Peck1529153298|title=Kate on the CaseThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=3.5|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=Meet Kate, although I got the impression sheIt'd rather be a Catherine – s 1979 and one specific Catherine at thatMargaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly... ) For Catherine Rodriguez is KateShe's not what's idol, and the author of our heroineworrying Miv's favourite possessionfamily, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, but to have 'The Special Correspondent Manualdisappeared'doesn't sound quite so frightening. Armed with a plucky father, Miv's upset because she's overheard that book, and her talking mouse called Rupert, she is all equipped to manage a train ride father wants to move the Arctic, to see her scientist mother for the first time in yonksfamily 'Down South'. HoweverWhen you're from Yorkshire, this Down South is a train ride with a differencefrightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, for on board is a greedy-seeming harridan and the move would mean leaving her catbest friend, a thief – and two glowing eyesSharon, shining from the darkness in a blink-and-youshe'll-miss-them styledo anything to prevent that. ItShe's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's definitely a case for a new young investigative journaliststopped talking - to anyone...|isbn=184812970X
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Darren Shan1398524085|title=Archibald Lox and the Forgotten Crypt: Archibald Lox series, Volume 2, book 1 of 3Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=The second trilogy in ShanCharlotte 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. are all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, is not. Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the body of Greg''Merge'' saga opens with our heros father, ArchieDuncan Ackerley, back in London in the world of the Bornriver. It's not been was an easy, explaining assumption for the police to his foster parents where make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when hecouldn's been, or slipping back into ordinary life and forgetting about Inez and his other friends in t stand the Merge, guilt. The Salter children are not convinced but Archie has done his best.... well, except for visiting veteran locksmith Winston in Big Benthere's clock tower little else they can do but get on with their lives and except for fiddling with that sneaky master lock in Seven Dials every time he can sneak awaywonder about what really happened.|isbn=B093H8DPQZ
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=05713658841035906708|title=My Mess is a Bit of Life: Adventures in AnxietyDiva|author=Georgia PritchettDaisy Goodwin|rating=4.5|genre=AutobiographyGeneral Fiction|summary=Georgia Pritchett has always been anxiousWe tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, even as a child. She would worry about whether the monsters under the bed were comfortable: it but she was the sort of life where if she had nothing born to worry about she would become anxious but such occasions were few Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and far between. On a visit only moved to a therapist, as an adult, Athens when she was completely unable to speak about what thirteen. Her original surname was wrong with Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it was suggested that she should write it down and to 'Callas'My Mess is a Bit of a Life: Adventures to make it more manageable in Anxiety'' is the result States. When she was back in Athens - or supposedly so we are given to believethat she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her elder sister, Jackie.
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{{Frontpage
|author=Alex CotterChristopher Edge|title=The House on the EdgeBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Faith's family home is teetering on the edge of Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a cliffmovie marathon at their local cinema, literally. Is a place that crack in has the garden getting bigger? Is the house starting to slope a little? And as the house seems to be falling apart, so is Faithnickname of 'The Black Hole's family. Her dad has disappeared All big movie fans, and her mum is struggling they're looking forward to copelots of exciting films, barely leaving her bed. So that leaves Faith in chargeand many, taking care of her little brother Noahmany snacks! However, taking care of her mumas the movie starts, feeding everyonethey very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, getting Noah and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to schoolthe next, and avoiding awkward questions from interfering teachers. Is her little brother okay? Why is he obsessed with can they figure out what he claims on earth is a ghost in the cellargoing on? What should she do about the house? Can she find a way to raise enough money to fix it? What's happened to her dad? Why did he disappear? Maybe he'll come Will they ever get back if she manages to get funding for the house? She carries the weight of all these worries on her constantlycinema, and she doesn't know how much longer the cliff will hold together, or how long she can keep on keeping on.to their real lives?|isbn=17880086261839942738
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0008269041Rachel Greenlaw|title=Risk of Harm|author=Lucie WhitehouseCompass and Blade|rating=43.5|genre=CrimeTeens|summary=DCI Robin Lyons is back in her native Birmingham after her less-than-comfortable departure from ''I can hear the song of the Metsea. She might have been reinstated but The call of the deep, the whole episode left a nasty taste answering beat in her mouthmy heart. She was now working for Detective Chief Superintendent Samir Jaffrey - then '' Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the man who had broken rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her heart nearly twenty years mother before. She and her fifteen-year-old daughter have moved , is one of the seven who swim out of her parentto survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the island's home into a rented house but thereleader and Mira's still father. Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a difficult situation bargain with her brother Luke a wreck survivor who has gone out of his way is as charming as he is secretive and with only coordinates to make life difficult for Robin since guide her, she was sets off in search of a young childfamily secret that lies buried deep in the sea. HeWith only nine days to unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the heart of the smuggler's married territory, Mira must be determined to Natalie, now stop at nothing to save the future of her home and has a young child but he's still got it in for Robinthe ones she holds most dear.|isbn=0008664730
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1786332388James Sherwood Metts|title=The First Day of Spring|author=Nancy TuckerPlanet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersConfident Readers|summary=Sometimes I wonder if I take my pleasures too sadly - Things have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they''The First Day of Spring'' was one such occasion. The writing is superb re paid to do and completely compellingother tasks that took time to accomplish. The characterisation is excellent Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and the plot grips you and won't let go. Sostarting to think of other, what's the problem? Wellnew ways to spend time, the problem is Chrissie, the main characteralong came an awful pandemic. When we first meet her she's just eight years oldLife was pretty much shut down and, small for her age and she readily tells us that she's just killed someone - a two-year-old boy. She's completely cold about what she's done along with her main memory being that whilst she was killing - suffocating - her hands seized upit, all the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily. There's a clue that Chrissie isn't completely responsible for her actions a little later in the book: when will Steven come back, she wonders? Hasn't he been dead for long enough?|isbn=1736128426
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{{Frontpage
|author=Catherine SteadmanMatthew Tree|title=The Disappearing ActWe'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersLiterary Fiction|summary= British actress Mia Eliot is on the cusp of success. Great success. If the rumours are true, award season is going Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to treat her wellbe different from his father, acknowledging her for her latest, critically acclaimed production. She's going places but so, unfortunately, is her partner. And the places he's going take him towards lies, deceit a drunk and a pretty young thing in the form chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his new co-starartistic passions all failed miserably and who had endless crises of self confidence. It's a good time for Mia So Tim applied himself to escapehis studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and pilot season in LA provides just the excuseset himself high but achievable ambitions.|isbn=1471189783B0CVFXPGP8
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{{Frontpage
|author= Christophe MedlerA G Slatter|title=Madrigal: A Closely Guarded Secret|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary= Set against the backdrop of the English Civil War, a secret plan (code-named Madrigal) is discovered by Sir Robert Douse in the summer of 1642. As a loyal servant The Briar Book of the King, and Head of the Secret Service, it is Robert's duty to uncover the details of the plan and follow the clues to uncover one of the most guarded secrets in history—especially since the plot could affect the King.|isbn=B095HY8SXQ}}{{Frontpage|author=Tasha Suri|title=The Jasmine ThroneDead|rating=45
|genre=Fantasy
|summary= On the night '' There's a part of her sacred burning, Princess Malini defies her brother and refuses me that wants to step on keep this just to the pyremyself for however long I can. This secret magic of my own, all mine, at last. She is immediately sent I just want to be imprisoned on enjoy it for a while.'' Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Hirana: an ancient temple that was once filled with Briar's, a community family of people witches who got powers protect the town and the wider world from the mysterious deathless watersDarklands. But now Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is the temple is nothing more first non-witch to be born into her family for generations and as such since she was young, her training as a steward revolved around letters and administration rather than an overgrownspells and potions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, decaying ruin. One daythe town's leader, Malini witnesses a girl kill someone with magicand Ellie takes her place beside her. Instead of reporting As challenges come her for such a gruesome crimeway left, right and centre, Malini claims that Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the girl saved dead, putting her at the heart of a maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from an attacker one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and begs for determine what to do as the girl Briar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to become her own personal maidservantsurvive, is under threat.|isbn=03565156481803364548
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=B088YWF5BC1529900360|title=The Lies We TellGhost Orchid|author=Jane CorryJonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=Sarah Wallace said that she grew up on a council estate in Kent and It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that she Alex Delaware had two brothers been badly injured but he felt responsible and two sisterseven after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. It seemed to have been His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the help of a psychologist only worked for a loving, stable familywhile. When we first meet her, she can't sleep because her sonFinally, Freddieit was Robin, whoDelaware's nearly sixteenpartner, hasn't come home by who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the time he sort of half-promised he'd be in byman she loved needed. Her husbandThe next case did look simple, Tom, is fast asleep: they're moving house though. Two lovers were murdered in the morning but he's still going to be going to work and he needs his sleepswimming pool of a remote property in Bel Air. He wakes, though, when Freddie does come in was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to an extremely rich man and overhears him tell his mother that heit's killed someonenot the Italian. But which of them was the primary target?
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|authorisbn=Joseph Knox1529395224|title=True Crime StoryLetting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=43.5|genre=ThrillersAnimals and Wildlife|summary= Joseph Knox, known for his series surrounding Detective Aidan Waits, has created Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a new genre with GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in his latest novelfootsteps, "True Crime Story". The story follows particularly when he considered the disappearance of Zoe Nolan from her university halls of residencestrain that being on-call put on his father's life. Split into four parts, the reader is taken through When he was seventeen he took the life and disappearance opportunity of Zoe through the eyes of her twin sister, other doing work experience with a family, friends friend who was a vet and professionals, such as was convinced this was the policejob for him. The various accounts help the reader get to know Zoe Before long, or he was at least the Zoe she presented to othersLiverpool University. It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a child. However If anything, the twists and turns at the end of each chapter leave you shocked, confused and unsure of what is true or fabricatedhe'd wanted to be a professional footballer. Whose accounts can we trust?|isbn=0857527703
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Justine Avery and Naday Meldova0861541774|title=No, No, No!A Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=They say the best picture books are the simplest ones. And nothing could be truer of this latest from Justine Avery, a Bookbag favourite. DCI Domenic Jejeune''Nos close friend and former colleague, NoDanny Maik, No!'' is based around the simplest text imaginable. ''Nohas taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, no, no! Okay, okayGuy Trueman. Yes, you may Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and he killed a Ghurka.'' That's it! But Initially, like all the best picture books, this tiny snippet he faced a charge of text is a veritable tardis - so much bigger on manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the inside that it appears on man. Now he could be facing the outsidedeath penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn't help Danny at all.|isbn=1638820457
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{{Frontpage
|author=Monica ConnellAlexander McCall Smith|title=Against a Peacock SkyThe Perfect Passion Company|rating=4.5|genre=TravelGeneral Fiction|summary= Monica Connell went The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to Nepal to do all the fieldwork for her Ph.D. online apps in social anthropologyproviding a more personal, tailored service. I think it Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, as Ness is important planning to know that. She went on take a grant-supported trip, with a relatively specific objective. She wasn't a hippy wanderer looking to Canada to get away for Shangri-la. She wasn't a mere tourist passing throughwhile. She went Katie is coming out of a break up with a fundamental aim of learning about these people bad boyfriend, and how they lived. She also went, presumably, with so jumps at the academic discipline of how chance to find these things out, how come home to organise them in her mindEdinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, how bringing us to "understand" them in the context of her own paradigmsan Edinburgh we already love, and how thanks to keep enough notes and files 44 Scotland Street and photos to help her create some greater sense of the experience after the event. FortunatelyIsabel Dalhousie novels, she also went but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a sense of open-ness and curiosity and a willingness to muckbusiness, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence inher abilities, to break and there's always her own rules very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to truly connect with the people of the village where she hauled up.lend a hand…|isbn=17806004291846976596
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=14091816690811771741|title=The MaidensInstaKnits for Baby|author=Alex MichaelidesMelissa Leapman|rating=54|genre=CrimeCrafts|summary=Mariana was convinced that Professor Edward Fosca had committed two murders and looked likely Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to get away with them bothblankets. She needed to think carefully about what she knew and decide how she should proceed. Everything - or so she thought Some will be quick knits - had begun with the death others are of Tara Hampton on the Paradise nature reserve in Cambridge. She'd been brutally stabbed and Mariana's niecelong, Zoe, had telephoned her cosy afternoons in distressfront of the fire' variety. Tara had been her best friend and she was struggling to cope. Mariana wasn't The projects are divided by the time they''entirely'' happy about having ll take to go complete - less than five hours, five to Cambridgeten hours, but she caught the first fast train from King's Crossten to twenty hours and more than twenty hours. Mariana and Zoe were close and had been made all the more so by All the death of Mariana's husbandprojects are attractive, Sebastian, in a swimming accident on Naxos some fourteen months earliermodern and useable. Zoe had been their surrogate daughter after the death of ZoeI perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects's mother and Marianabut that's sister, Elizame being picky.
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{{Frontpage
|author=Maisie ChanDean Koontz|title=Danny Chung Does Not Do MathsThe Bad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersParanormal|summary=Danny Benny is eleven years old, and what he really, really loves to do is drawhaving a terrifically bad day. He creates fantastical comicsloses his job, whilst he loses his fiancee, and his best friend Ravi adds the wordshouse gets trashed. Danny's dadOh, howeverand someone has delivered a really weird, wants Danny disturbing coffin-sized object to concentrate on his mathshome, and forget about it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the drawing, because he says nobody can make a living from drawingthing that has trashed his house! At least Danny has his own roomThe thing is, where he can draw in secret and in peaceBenny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. But then one day his parents tell him they have He is a surprise nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for him, and this surprise Benny it turns out that the delivery to be his grandmother house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has come over been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from China nefarious forces for being a good person. Spike is going to live with themtake care of Benny, and who will not only be sharing Dannycertainly take care of Benny's bedroom but she will also be sleeping on the top bunk of his bunk bed! Danny is horrified! His Nai Nai (grandmother) speaks no Englishenemies, and Danny finds himself forced into being her babysitterif he, and showing her around the town. Poor Danny, stuck on a maths project, frustrated with his bedroom situationBenny, and then he even has Harper (a falling waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out with Raviwho exactly they are...how on earth will things ever get better?!|isbn=180078001X1662500491
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{{Frontpage
|author=Terry MilesAdam Stower|title=RabbitsMurray and Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=Science FictionConfident Readers |summary=Welcome Murray is supposed to the world of The Game. Or should that be the gamea humble, tidy and friendly cat, for while it ought one who is able to be capitalised to high heavensleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, it never leaves lower case throughout this bookwhatever takes his fancy next of the two. It But he's also called Rabbits, although only as a slangy term for it – as far as anyone knowsbad magician's cat, it so his favourite bun has no official title, no official source, no hard and fast structure, and to the average person no obvious entry point. A bit like the game of life then. Yes, this is the game of life for been turned into a certain tribe of people – the fan of the conspiracy, the computer game, the hack from the darkest of webs. People like our hero, Khyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, named like that in the least Kafkaesque manner possible. K and his bezzies are trying to be historians of the gamecatflap they both use can chuck them out, and have studied amongst many things not into the most unique of high score boardsregular back garden, for the lists but into a world of who has successfully won the game are in the most peculiar places, frightening adventure and are still very shortwhiffs. However this This time round it's different. This time the game seems the most dangerousdrops them into a Viking land, nay lethalwhere a troll hunter is expected – well, the most broken it's ever been – morally and otherwise. Unfortunately for Kone much bigger than Murray was, in trying to sort out what the game is doingbe honest, if itbut he's even being played, turned up and how his loved ones might be kept safe, he is only 'll have to find out that the line between observing and learning about the game, and playing it, is a very thin one indeed...do…|isbn=15290169320008561249
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=C J CareyB0C47LV1PC|title=WidowlandFragility|author=Mosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=General Literary Fiction|summary=ItCan you make a ''Yo birthing person's April 1953, and Adolf Hitler's schedule includes going to Moscow to attend the state funeral of Joseph Stalin then within weeks coming to Londonjoke? And if you could, parading around a bit, and watching over is the sanctioned return to question should you make it? Or is the throne of Edward VIII with his wifequestion if you did, Queen Wallis. For yes, Britain caved in would it land? The catch is that the lead-up to the World War Two that certainly didn't happen as we know it, and we are now a protectorate – answer for both could well, we share enough of the same blood as the Germanic peoples on be.... no. ''the mainlandFragility''. But this is most certainly a different Britain, for Nazi-styled phrenology, and ideas set as the city of female purposePortland, has put all of that gender into a caste systemOregon, ranging from high-brow office bigwigs cautiously begins to the drudges, and beyond those, right on down to the childless, the husbandless and the widows. Female literacy is actively discouraged. And in this puritanical existence, our heroine, Rose Ransom, is employed with the task of bowdlerising classical literature to take all encouragement for female emancipation out of it – after all, not every book can be banned, and not every story excised immediately emerge from British civilisation, and so they just get a hefty tweak towards the party line before they're stamped ready for reprint. That is her job, at least, until restrictions imposed during the first emerging signs of female protest come to light, with their potential to spoil Hitler's visit.|isbn=152941198Xcovid pandemic
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Louise Beech1529431735|title=This Is How We Are HumanThe Winter Visitor|author=James Henry
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Veronica It's February 1991 and Essex is a devoted single mother to her sonbitingly cold, Sebastian - but she canwhich made Bruce Hopkins' return all the more surprising. He't give him everything he wantsd been exiled on the Costa del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decade. Sebastian The return has decided that itcome about because he's time for him to have sex. But as an autistic 20 yearhad a letter from his ex-oldwife, saying thatshe's easier said than doneill and hasn't long to live. And it It's starting hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his underwear and sent to cause them both problemsa watery grave in the boot of a stolen Ford Sierra. |isbn=1913193713 Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B093VPBL5LAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=Cape Henry House|author=Jolly Walker BittickThe Glorious Race of Magical Beasts
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Meet Bosner, or, to give him his full title, Petty Officer Third Class Bosner. We never really find out if he has a first name: there's merely a hint that he had the nickname 'Secretary' at one point. He's simply Bosner to one and all. When we first encounter him he's exploring his memories of 2008 when he was a greaser on helicopters (or helos, as they were called) at a naval establishment. The hours could be long and he was often working nights but at the age of twenty-one, there was always a way to work some fun (think drinking and eating) into his day.
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{{Frontpage
|author=Hannah Whitten
|title=For the Wolf
|rating=5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=In Red's family, the first daughter becomes queen, and the second daughter becomes a sacrifice. To Red's misfortune, she is the second daughter. Sent alone into the woods with nothing but the cape on her back, Red knows what to expect: within the woods is a wolf, and he is the one who will decide the fate of their kingdom. If she is not a worthy sacrifice, the monsters he keeps contained to the woods will be released, and the fabled kings he keeps hostage will never be returned—or so the stories go. But when Red enters the woods, expecting nothing more than to be killed within the hour, she finds that the legends are lies. The wolf is not a monster—he's a man.
|isbn=0356516369
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{{Frontpage
|author=M G Leonard
|title=Twitch
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Twitch Eli is a boy who loves birds. He keeps pigeons at homebusy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and chickens, and even has swallows nesting in the evening a helper at the dessert cafe his bedroom! His time spent watching gran owns and helping birds is easy compared to that of his time in schoolruns. But things are about to change Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – for Twitch in all aspects of his life as there is a dangerous bank robber on the run, and it's possible that the generation missing bank haul is hidden somewhere in Aves Wood, the place where Twitch has his secret hide and that he knows like the back of his hand! family. Can Twitch solve the mysteryA few short years ago, and find the missing millions?|isbn=1406389374}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1838853804|title=The Cursed Girls|author=Caro Ramsay|rating=4|genre=Thrillers|summary=Megan MelvickEli's earliest memory is of her fourth birthday: she followed her grandfather down parents were both lost to the pondtitular race, only a globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to find that he'd hanged himselfnavigate the world in the company of a magical beast. Twenty years later she's back home again and this time This has made the occasion is no less sad. She's there race anathema to say her final farewells the pair – but when a bad incident at the eatery leads to her sistera confession from gran, Melissa, who Eli knows his only hope is dying of anorexia. As she dies, Melissa whispers 'sorry' to Megan but dare to enter what did she mean? There were lots of thingshe most hates, minor and major cruelties, for which Melissa might have been sorry - or was it even a question? Was she asking if Megan was sorry for sleeping with Melissa's husband, Jago, on their wedding day? The Melvicks might seem to have everything - Ivan Melvick was Lord Lieutenant the sole aim the prize of magic at the County and money was never in short supply - but there did seem end – the only thing to be a cursepossibly save his gran. In addition to Melissa's health problems, Megan was deaf and their mother, Beth, had left suddenly three years before. Would she come back for her elder daughter's funeral?|isbn=0571382231
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=0241400120178763681X|title=The Girl Who DiedKnife Skills for Beginners|author=Ragnar Jonasson and Victoria CribbOrlando Murrin
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Una was not thriving Chef Paul Delamare took a teaching job at a residential cookery school in Reykjavik: it was some years since her beloved father Belgravia. He didn't really want to but celebrity chef Christian Wagner had committed suicide without leaving any explanation a way of getting both men and since then shewomen to do what he wanted. Paul ''somehow'' got the impression that he'd given up her medical studies and retrained as be at the school to assist Paul, who had a teacherbroken arm, but it didn't turn out that way. She was thirty years old The teaching - and money was tight. Her friend, Sara, showed her an advert for a job in Skalar on the Langanes Peninsulaproblems - are all his own. There were only ten people in the village but a teacher The one thing he hadn't expected was required for two children: a salary would be paid and accommodation providedsomeone to turn up dead. Una Unfortunately, he was the only applicant person who discovered the body and everyone knows that the job meant police consider that she could let her flat in Reykjavik and, hopefully, save some money over person to be the winter which her contract coveredprime suspect.
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