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'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=17847427750008517061|title=A Change of Circumstance (Simon Serrailler)Death in a Lonely Place|author=Susan HillStig Abell|rating=54
|genre=Crime
|summary=Drugs hadn't really been that much Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the future of a problem in Lafferton his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and Detective Superintendent Simon Serrailler had thought of drugs ops her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a bit lot of a waste of time. They still were, compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life to a great extent, but Serrailler knew that something had move in with Livia or does Livia move to be done. Children as young as nine were being recruited to transport Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the drugs future she wants for herself and her daughter? For the operation running moment they’re enjoying life in the county lines was tight. A mule might know the name (although it probably wouldn't be the correct one) of the person who was running him but he certainly wouldn't know anything about those higher up in present and putting the organisation. The police might catch a few of future on the runners but they'd never get anywhere near those higher upback burner.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=B09FS89KX91786482126|title=Fall On MeThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Penelope PottsElly Griffiths|rating=34.5|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=Life should have been good for Hollie: She Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was just going into to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the final year bones of her veterinary degree and - three years later - a child beneath a doorway. There was still working at BB's dinerno skull. Bob - the owner - regarded her fondly: he was Was this a good boss. ritual killing or murder? Hollie had moved in Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with her boyfriend, Marcus: her mother thought he was great and he was doing well in his careerDCI Harry Nelson. Hollie wasnIt's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't quite so certain though: Marcus wanted to control her and most , that she is pregnant with his child as a result of all he wanted her to leave her job at the dinerone night they spent together some three months ago. Then there was the fact that he would Her condition will be violentobvious before long, both not least because Ruth is prone to her and to other peoplesudden bouts of sickness.
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=John Gwynne0008551324|title=The Shadow Of The GodsDevil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre=FantasyCrime|summary=The Shadow Of The Gods is It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the first installment of police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the Bloodsworn Saga, set other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the era of police where the Vikings in the shadow body of Ragnarok, when the Gods have battled a missing person is buried and their bones lie scattered who was responsible for all to seeher death. This story person, he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the ultimate in High Fantasy, and John Gwynne certainly does justice police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the genre, with mythical creatures, archaic language remainder of his sentence and battles galoreto get an early parole date. This Not much to ask, is a thick book, with an intricate plot it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and fascinating characters she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that are woven together to create a wonderfully realistic DS Max Craigie and gritty world in which our heroes must do battleanyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.|isbn=0356514218
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=B09HTWX47X0008405026|title=Endless ObsessionA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Dai HenleyJane Casey|rating=45
|genre=Crime
|summary=It's some sixteen years since we last caught up with Andy Flood, formerly a DCI in nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the Met but now investigation ground to a well-respected private investigatorhalt. He's married to LauraNow, her mother, Helena, formerly his DS and her father are dead in the Murder Squad but now working in a forensics laboratorytheir bed. FloodInitially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's daughters, Gemma and Pippa, have flown something about the nest, Pippa to Australia, from where she has very little contact with positioning of the family, bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and Gemma to married lifeher boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. She's had mental problems since she What looked as though it was abducted many years ago but Andy going to be an open-and Laura hope that married life will provide the support she needs-shut case is now a complex double murder. Flood's business Kerrigan is going well and convinced that was why he felt able to turn down the case of Lisa Blackexplanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Peter Papathanasiou0571379877|title=The StoningKellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet
|rating=3.5
|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=In Edward Jevons is a town sleazy enough to make sh*tholes elsewhere look glamorous in comparisonworking-class young man, a teacher has been transported across town at night in a shopping trolleyobsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and sheStanza. Robert's been taped to a tree and shetheatre director. He's had rocks bowled at her as if she were the worldalso 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 tallest cricket stumpsdrunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. When she Most men in Robert's discovered by the town gossip everyone, including the local cops, are quite confident the culprit has come position would stay away from the immigrant detention centre the place is reluctantly home to. An arson attack on Stanza or tell Edward that shows the feeling – and ita relationship had begun between them but he's only fair, not like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the general opinion, for the occupants are often setting their own fires two of them kissing in protest at their conditions. Cue the arrival of George Manolis, a higher rank from the city, to sort everything outdark passageway. Because such an aggrieved, insular community is really going to welcome a Greek-heritaged city boy laying down the law...|isbn=1529416973
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B08Z8BMZ7HJo Callaghan|title=The Mystery of Healing|author=A P McGrathLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=We meet Solon in Pergamon in the second century of the common era and he's the physician When a man is found crucified on duty at the munus - the games put on for the amusement top of a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the populace. The remuneration isn't high but case alongside her sidekick, the work gives the doctor a feeling of virtue and hones his skills: Solon ''wants'' the warriors to liveAI detective Lock. It's quite a spectacle: the magistri are the charge hands and when we their first see themlive case together, they're sprinkling gold dust onto the lions' manes to make them look more impressivehaving previously been very successful with several cold cases. The sagitarii are the archers But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and the beastiarii are the condemned criminals who are going a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to fight for their lives with the wild animalsAI Future Policing project. TodayWill they be able to solve the case in time, it's or will Kat find herself taken off the crocodiles.case and, potentially, out of a career?|isbn=139851120X
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Kate DiCamillo and Sophie Blackall1399613073|title=The Beatryce ProphecyMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersThrillers|summary=''Stories have joy Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and surprises in their friendship would keep them'', we are told hereinseparable for a quarter of a century. And none more so than in this wondrous story Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which feels an instant classic with the freshness is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and the agelessness it has in equal proportiona trauma doctor. We start with a group of monks, Anjali is the Order free spirit of the Chronicles of Sorrowing, group and the demonic goat that loves nothing more than upending, trampling on and biting the poor Brothersshe becomes a GP. Things change drastically when the beast takes When we first meet them they're at a totally maternal approach drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to a homeless girl, one end in tragedy. We don't know who has survived some trauma that has blocked her past from her memory. Elsewhere sits a King in his castle, desperate to find suffered the girl, for it is prophesied that a young child can unseat tragedy or the throne and cause great changeconsequences. Who foretold Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that revolution but will impact the Order of the Chronicles of Sorrowing? three friends. But how can a simpleThis time, amnesiac lass ever prove a threat to anyone?|isbn=1529500893it's their teenage children who are involved.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=B09FFJF8YS0241636604|title=You Can't Wear Panties! (No More Nappies!)The Trading Game: A Confession|author=Justine Avery and Kate Zhoidik|rating=3.5|genre=For Sharing|summary=''For the big, grownup girls out there, the potty masters in training, "You Can't Wear Panties!" is a cry (the big-girl kind!) of toilet triumph and persevering panty pride.''  And so it is! This latest book from Justine Avery celebrates a little girl's final goodbye to nappies and pull-ups and graduation to "proper" pants by following her around as she proudly explains to her dog, her cat, her stuffed rabbit and her baby sibling that ''she'' can wear super-duper proper pants, while they cannot. Neither can the flowers, nor the fish, nor the birds. Boy's certainly can't. She's a big girl now and she wants everyone to know it!}} {{Frontpage|author=Nick Lake and Emily Gravett|title=Locked Out LilyGary Stevenson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersAutobiography|summary=Lily If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background isthe East End, or where he wasfamiliar with violence, or has been, very ill, poverty and to give her parents relief she's injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been told to stay with her grandma for a few daysthe London School of Economics. The parents need the relief as Lily's baby sibling Stevenson is just about to be born – bright - extremely bright - and he has a child Lily swears she hates already and wants nothing to do facility with. But on tracking back home for word numbers which most of her parents (and her plush toy so she us can sleep) she finds stony-eyed simulacra of her parents, and the babe-in-arms, already installedonly envy. These devilish interlopers need He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be ousted to get the family back intactstupid. It was his ability at what was, even if it's not the family Lily wants – and all she has to help her in the task are some talking animals – Crowessentially, Molea card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, Mouse and Snakethis turned into permanent employment as a trader.|isbn=1471194833
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Greg James and Chris Smith1035021803|title=The Great Dream RobberyAntique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=3.5|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=MayaIt's father is a professor who invented an amazing dream machine. But something went wrong, and now he can't wake twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up. Or at least, that She's what Maya has been toldback now because of a request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. In a rather strange dream one night Maya makes a new Freya's former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and discovers that the only way circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to save the village: Arthur, she feels, let her dad may down badly. Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be by being asleepnear the man or pursue the profession she loved. Cue one madcap action adventure story where dreams After the split, she worked in a cafe, met and reality collide...really...married James (on the rebound from the love of her life, who was murdered) and there's everything from llamas Freya and bananas, dream machines made from hairdresser cast-offs, to a talking cat called Bin Bag!|isbn=024147051XJames have now divorced.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=1800464495AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title= 100 Ways in 100 Days to Teach Your Baby MathsAll Tomorrow's Futures: Support All Areas of Your Baby’s Development by Nurturing a Love of MathsFictions that Disrupt|author=Emma SmithBenjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=4.5|genre=Children's Non-Science Fiction|summary=''Babies seem to be born with an amazing number sense: understanding shapes in Opening up new ways of thinking about the womb, being aware shape of quantities at seven hours old, assessing probability at six months old, and comprehending addition and subtraction at nine months oldthings to come.''
Did you know this? I didn't! How about: ve heard it said that 'technology'Maths ability on entry to school is a strong predictor of later achievementwhat happens after you're eighteen. Well, double I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of literacy skillstechnology in my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with whats advantageous to me but I didn't know this either! I think most parents are aware m left with the feeling that giving your children a good start in literacy it's all getting away from me. Some of it is - reading stories, teaching pen grips, singing rhymes frankly - gives children a solid foundation when they start schoolquite frightening. But do we think Of course, I could research the possibilities and the same way about maths, beyond counting? probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I don't think we do, in part because so many of us are afraid of mathsm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. But why are we? Most of us use maths I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in daily life without realising and it follows that giving our children a similar pre-school grounding will be just as beneficialway I could understand.
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{{Frontpage
|author=Robert Peston
|title=The Whistleblower
|rating=3
|genre=Thrillers
|summary=I'm not the first to point out how fitting it is for Robert Peston to write a political thriller, so I'll move on quickly – but this won't be winning any awards for originality. It's an interesting plot with a good pace, but it does very little to differentiate itself and I suspect before much time has passed I'll have forgotten a lot of it.
|isbn=1838775242
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1529379385Sunny Singh|title=The Madness of Crowds (Chief Inspector Gamache)|author=Louise PennyHotel Arcadia|rating=43.5|genre=CrimeThrillers |summary=In The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Hiding from the Canadian village of Three Pinesterrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, we're post-pandemic: the scars are still there but life is starting to get back to normalSam, a wartime photographer and Abhi, the hotel manager. The villagers are beginning As Abhi continues to return try to care remotely for the Bistro residents who are still alive in the hotel, he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and the Auberge. They're visiting each otherkeeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what's homes and having friends and relatives to stayhappened through her photography. A young Sudanese woman who has been nominated for Although they only ever talk over the Nobel Peace Prize is one such visitor phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and she soon proves that not all saints are necessarily pleasant people they both wait to see if they will be around - a bit like Vincent Gilbert, known in rescued before they are discovered by the village as the Asshole Saintterrorists.|isbn=086154742X
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{{Frontpage
|isbn= B09F4CTKJR1529153298|title= Flights for FreedomThe List of Suspicious Things|author= Steven BurgauerJennie Godfrey|rating=4.5|genre=Historical General Fiction|summary=It's the later stages of World War 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I and mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the United States has just entered the conflictfamily 'Down South'. Petrol Petronus When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a young American who has signed up and joined the 17 Aero Squadronfrightening, foreign place, best avoided. This company was For Miv, the first US Aero Squadron to be trained in Canadamove would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, the first to be attached to the RAF and the first she'll do anything to be sent into the skies to fight prevent that. She's not worried about the Germans in active combat. But before dangers or that can happen, Petrol has her Mum's stopped talking - to master flying the notoriously difficult but majestic Sopwith Camelanyone.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=183885410X1398524085|title=The Dark RemainsHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=William McIlvanney and Ian RankinNicci French|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Bobby Carter Charlotte Salter was a lawyer and consigliere to one of the major crime families in nineteen seventies Glasgowexpected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. DC Jack Laidlaw is on the CID team charged with the investigationHer children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, Etty. I say ''on the team'' are all worried but Laidlaw never really seems to be a part of it- strangely - her husband, Alec, is not. He does his own thingShortly afterwards, goes his own way Etty and ''The Dark Remains'' uncovers Greg, find the truth body of why Bobby CarterGreg's body father, Duncan Ackerley, in the river. It was found behind one of Glasgowan easy assumption for the police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the guilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there's seedier pubslittle else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=19424102551035906708|title=Tokyo Zangyo (Detective Hiroshi)Diva|author=Michael PronkoDaisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction|summary=''Zangyo: overtime workWe tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, often unpaid'' It's the cultureNew York, isn't in December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it? The hours for which youto 're paid are really just a statement of the minimum youCallas'll be required to do: you'll work make it more hours to get the job done and done to manageable in the satisfaction of bullies like Shigeru OnizukaStates. When he she was found dead back in front of Senden Central's headquarters in Tokyo there Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was nothing in raised under the way of regret or grief, even from his family, but there was Nazi occupation by a mild curiosity as to whether he'd jumped from the roof of the building or been assisted in his descent. Gossip revolves around the fact that he left the roof at the exact same spot that an employee, Mayu Yamase, had committed suicide some three years earlier. She'd accused Onizuka mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of bullying her and forcing preference for her to work an unreasonable amount of overtimeelder sister, Jackie.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0241425425Christopher Edge|title=The Man Who Died Twice|author=Richard OsmanBlack Hole Cinema Club|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeConfident Readers|summary=Elizabeth Best was Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a little surprised when she received the letter. It came from movie marathon at their local cinema, a man whose body she had helped to pull from the Thames and who had never existed but then this is the sort of conundrum which retired spies have to deal with on a regular basis. When she visits place that has the sender nickname of the letter (he's moved into the CooperThe Black Hole's Chase Retirement Village) it comes as no surprise that it's someone with whom she has a long professional history - and who used to be her husband. HeAll big movie fans, they's made a bad mistake - something re looking forward to do with a mask being removed within the range lots of a CCTV camera on a raidexciting films, a missing twenty-million pounds in diamonds and a few death threats. many, many snacks! He's now in hiding with a young woman called PollyHowever, who's his MI5 handler as well as being the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, and they are swept up into an incompetent waitressadventure they couldn't even imagine. 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
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{{Frontpage
|author=Andrew SharpRachel Greenlaw|title=The Chef, the Bird Compass and the BlessingBlade|rating=43.5|genre=General FictionTeens|summary= Chef Mlantushi - Mozzy to his employer - is''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in his mindmy heart.'' Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the head chef rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, is one of the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a safari business catering trap to VIP guests in an unnamed African countryend the wrecking, they capture the island's leader and Mira's father. Mozzy Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is earnest and dedicated to his task and as charming as he puts all of himself into creating fine cuisine dishes for the guests at BOD-W safaris but his dream is secretive and with only coordinates to become the head chef guide her, she sets off in search of a restaurant family secret that lies buried deep in London or a big American citythe sea. Even With only nine days to win a Michelin star. He is thwarted in this ambition by his bossunearth what might save her father, Mr Bin (Ben as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to you and me) who incurs Mozzythe heart of the smuggler's disapproval for his scruffy waysterritory, his uninterest in his guests Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and - shock, horror - his allowing of bush animals into the houseones she holds most dear.|isbn=B09926MK8H0008664730
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{{Frontpage
|author=Alex FoulkesJames Sherwood Metts|title=Rules for VampiresPlanet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary= Eleonore Von Motteberg (or 'Leo' Things have been a bit sticky for short) is a Vampirethe Earthlings. She drinks blood, she sleeps during the dayAI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're paid to do and she can Grimwalk (turning into a flock of bats other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as they were beginning to get used to travel around, although not all of them remember this technological change and starting to come back). Pretty cool stuff. Now, on the night think of her hundredth birthnightother, she has new ways to go out and hunt her first human. Howeverspend time, instead she ends up killing two humans by accident and burning down along came an orphanageawful pandemic. Oops! And to make things worse, the ghosts of one of the orphans Life was pretty much shut down and the evil master of the orphanage come back to haunt her. So, not only does Leo have to team up along with the friendly ghost Minna to stop the ghost of the Orphanmaster before he becomes unstoppably powerfulit, she has to do it all while hiding it from her familythe many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily. Did I mention vampires and ghosts hate each other? Yeah, there's a reason why there are rules for vampires…|isbn=147119955X1736128426
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{{Frontpage
|author=Tori BovalinoMatthew Tree|title=The Devil Makes ThreeWe'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensLiterary Fiction|summary= Working Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, a drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all summer in her boarding schoolfailed miserably and who had endless crises of self confidence. So Tim applied himself to his studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions.|isbn= B0CVFXPGP8}}{{Frontpage|author=A G Slatter|title=The Briar Book of the Dead|rating=5|genre=Fantasy|summary='' There's library is the a part of me that wants to keep this just to myself for however long I can. This secret magic of my own, all mine, at last thing Tess Matheson wants . I just want to do — especially when she gets a request enjoy it for over a hundred books that she has to deliver herselfwhile. What makes it worse is '' Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the man who requested protection of the books: Mr Birch. The boarding schoolBriar's headmaster, a family of witches who protect the town and a man Tess hatesthe wider world from the Darklands. As a petty act of revenge Though she has always wished for making magic, Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to be born into her find family for generations and deliver as such since she was young, her training as a large requeststeward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, Tess sticks post-it notes on each of Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the booksBriar Witch, scribbled with the ugliest insults she can think oftown's leader, and Ellie takes her place beside her. They're never meant As challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to reach himcommunicate with the dead, putting her at the heart of coursea maelstrom of chaos. Her plan is Reeling from one family secret to get her anger out like thisanother, Ellie must decide who to trust and then take them all off before delivering them. No harm done… Or it would bedetermine what to do as the Briar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, if someone hadn't delivered them for heris under threat.|isbn=17890981301803364548
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|isbn= B09BG8V3Q61529900360|title= Who Needs Nappies? Not Me! (Everybody Potties!)The Ghost Orchid|author= Justine Avery and Seema AmjadJonathan Kellerman|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingCrime|summary= It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis'Who Needs Nappies? Not Me!s fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the help of a psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, it was Robin, Delaware' is s partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the latest release man she loved needed. The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the ''Everybody Potties!'' series from Justine Averyswimming pool of a remote property in Bel Air. This series of fun picture books aims He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to take the pain out of potty training children an extremely rich man and replace it with some fun. It's a worthy aim, as any frustrated parent will tell younot the Italian. .But which of them was the primary target?
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|isbn=B098FFFBH91529395224|title=SnowcubLetting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Graham FulbrightSion Rowlands|rating=43.5|genre=Literary FictionAnimals and Wildlife|summary=FourteenSiôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the strain that being on-year-old Rachel is her schoolcall put on his father's animal rights project leader and she and her life. When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend are producing who was a competition entry to highlight vet and was convinced this was the way in which human beings exploit the animal worldjob for him. She gets a great deal of support from her family: father Pip HarrisonBefore long, a lecturer he was at Imperial College, London, mother Kate and her twin, NickLiverpool University. Kate runs the family business, It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a toy shop called Cornucopia in Putneychild. If anything, which is where wehe'll meet Rachel's main (if unsuspected) source of information: five soft toysd wanted to be a professional footballer.
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|authorisbn= Angharad Walker0861541774|title= The Ash HouseA Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows|rating= 54|genre= Confident ReadersCrime|summary= A new boy arrives at The Ash House. He doesnDCI Domenic Jejeune't know his names close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, or why he is there but he is used has taken a short holiday in Singapore to the systemmeet up with an old ally, used to different places and different facesGuy Trueman. He meets Dom who names him Sol Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and sets out to teach him the rules of The Ash House. These rules centre on he killed a variety of Nicenesses set out by the absent HeadmasterGhurka. All children must remember their Niceness and complete their chores Initially, working as he faced a hive in charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the smouldering shadows of The Ash Houseman. But soon their easy peace is shattered by the arrival of Now he could be facing the Doctordeath penalty. By the end of the story, lives will be changed forever Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and The Ash House will never be the same againwouldn't help Danny at all.|isbn=1912626977
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{{Frontpage
|author=Yancey WilliamsAlexander McCall Smith|title=Crosshairs of the DevilThe Perfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=Award-winning crime writer Eddie Jablonski The Perfect Passion Company is getting on a dating agency in years andEdinburgh, despite his strenuous objections run by Ness and thanks operating as an alternative to his daughterall the online apps in providing a more personal, finds himself living - or imprisonedtailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, from Eddie's point of view - in room 315 as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the Garden of Eden nursing chance to come hometo Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with only some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a trusty nursing aidebusiness, Jenkins, for palatable company. Nothing is going to keep Eddie from his stock-or inmatch-trade of writing thoughmaking, so herebut Ness has full confidence in her abilities, for his readers, are his wanderings through his lifeand there's work.always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|isbn=09860316581846976596}}
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|authorisbn=Philip Reeve0811771741|title=Utterly Dark and the Face of the DeepInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman|rating=54|genre=Confident ReadersCrafts|summary=In Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a word, richcollection of knits from toys to blankets. There is certainly an abundance Some will be quick knits - others are of riches in this story set on a peculiar island called Wildsea, British but way west, beyond the Scillies. There are troll people on it'long, and sea-witches, and legends cosy afternoons in front of the Dark family that has to keep watch for magical islands and their monster approaching from even further west, where no ship dare sailfire' variety. The current Darks projects are divided by the Watchertime they'll take to complete - less than five hours, Andrewefive to ten hours, who has ten to keep notes of activity from twenty hours and more than twenty hours. All the Hidden Landsprojects are attractive, his brother Will who lives in London with too much science in his head to worry modern and useable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about such local yokel superstitions, and Andrewe'social-media-worthy projects' but that's foundling daughter, who washed up out of the sea one day eleven years ago. But when Andrewe Dark drowns himself, both his sullen brother and his curious ward are thrust into the world of protecting their island, like it or notme being picky.|isbn=1788452372
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|author=Erling KaggeDean Koontz|title=Walking: One Step At A TimeThe Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre= LifestyleParanormal|summary= Those who have read my reviews before will know that how much I loved Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a book is evidenced by the number of pages with corners turnedreally weird, so let me start this one with an apology disturbing coffin-sized object to the Norfolk Library Service: sorry! I forgot his home, and it 's possible that whoever or whatever was your book not mine. In my defence, I will say inside is the thing that as a reader of this type of book there has trashed his house! The thing is something connective about noting where prior readers were inspired (provided it , Benny is subtle – I'll allow creased corners, but not scribbles – for the latter we must buy our own copy – which I am about very last person to do as soon as I have finished telling you why)deserve all this bad luckErligg Kagge He is a Norwegian explorer who has walked nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to the South Pole, the North Pole and the summit of Everest. He knows his house is a thing or two about walking. Howevernew friend, this isn't a travelogue about any of those epic journeysbad weather friend called Spike, it who has been sent to help him since Benny is instead clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a thoughtful exploration of what it means to walkgood person. It Spike is a plenitude going to take care of unnumbered essays about walking. There is no 'contents' page Benny, and I havenwill certainly take care of Benny't counted. In small format paperbacks enemies, if he, each essay is only a few pages long. Perhaps thenBenny, better thought of as and Harper (a meditation rather than an essaywaitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=02413577051662500491
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|author=Ian Mark and Louis GhibaultAdam Stower|title=Monster Hunting For BeginnersMurray and Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Meet Jack. Now Jack knows very little about being fearless Murray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and nimble friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and quick, for he's a slight boy, eat and although he wants for danger eat and peril sleep and interesting things , well, whatever takes his dad refuses to let him out fancy next of his sightthe two. That But he's because Jacka bad magician's mother knew all about monsterscat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and look what happened to her – she died. Luckily or unluckily thenthe catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the regular back garden, depending on your point but into a world of viewfrightening adventure and whiffs. This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a giant ogre will threaten his aunt when Jack's father also goes AWOLtroll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, Jack will fluke the ogrebut he's death, a dwarfish wizard-type will make him an apprentice monster hunter, turned up and he'll be given a book that tells him all he needs have to know about the perils he always wanted closer contact with. The book's name? ''Monster Hunting for Beginners''...do…|isbn=07555019420008561249
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|authorisbn=Keith GrayB0C47LV1PC|title=The ClimbersFragility|author=Mosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary=Sully is the best tree climber in the village. He has whatCan you make a ''s known amongst the kids as Yo birthing person'reach'. But what happens when a new kid shows up in townjoke? A new kidAnd if you could, called Nottingham, who clambers up some of is the hardest trees with easequestion should you make it? Suddenly Sully Or is worried that his status the question if you did, would it land? The catch is being threatened, and not only that, that his chance to name the final, unnamed big tree in the park by being the first to conquer it, might answer for both could well be snatched from his hands. How can Sully stop Nottingham? And will it cost him his best friend... no. ''Fragility'' is set as the city of Portland, or maybe even all of his friendsOregon, cautiously begins to do so?|isbn=1781129991emerge from the restrictions imposed during the covid pandemic
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|authorisbn=Emma Carroll1529431735|title=The Week at World's EndWinter Visitor|author=James Henry
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=FirstIt's February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the titlemore surprising. We He're in Worldd been exiled on the Costa del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decade. The return has come about because he's End Close, had a mediocre set of housesletter from his ex-wife, where Stevie (Vie saying that she's ill and hasn't long to her friends) finds fun only with the family dog and with the boy over the roadlive. But we could also be at World It's Endhard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, because something taking a great chunk of the fun away is the fact that the Cuban Missile Crisis is kicking off. The Soviet boats are getting blockaded as America tries stripped to reduce the risk of nuclear missiles offshore, his underwear and not much else is able sent to make a watery grave in the news. That said, Vie has news boot of her own – Anna, a secretive young woman hiding in their coal shedstolen Ford Sierra. Anna has, in no short time, taken Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a strong interest in the American airforce base behind the Close, said she'd locate something she wanted and leave, failed to leave, and implied her life was at risk. But surely this bit of intrigue has got nothing problem closer to do with what the Cold War is doing miles awayhome?|isbn=0571364438
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|author=Kiran Millwood Hargrave Alex Bell and Tom de FrestonTim McDonagh|title=Julia and the SharkThe Glorious Race of Magical Beasts
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=JuliaEli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, our pre-teen heroine, has been packed off with her parents and their cat from in the evening a helper at the family home in SW England to be lighthousekeepers dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – for there is a summer, generation missing in the far NE of the Scottish islandsfamily. Here be VikingsA few short years ago, that kind Eli's parents were both lost to the titular race, a globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in the company of Scottish islanda magical beast. Dad is going This has made the race anathema to be automating the lanternpair – but when a bad incident at the eatery leads to a confession from gran, which Eli knows his only hope is his specialist thingto dare to enter what he most hates, while mum will be leaving her career in algae behind to hunt with the sole aim the prize of magic at the elusive Greenland shark. And Julia, well, she will be homesick and alone end until she suddenly finds company one nightthe only thing to possibly save his gran.|isbn=15101077890571382231
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|authorisbn=Freya Sampson178763681X|title=The Last LibraryKnife Skills for Beginners|author=Orlando Murrin
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=I am always Chef Paul Delamare took a little nervous to start a story about a library, since I am a librarian. I always grit my teeth slightly teaching job at the thought of the incoming cardigan-wearing, hair in a bun, cat-owning, glasses on a chain stereotypes! In this story, the main character, June, does put her hair residential cookery school in a bun, and she does own a cat (called Alan Bennett), and she has barely any friends and spends her evenings eating the same Chinese takeaway meal once a week whilst reading books alone! But I Belgravia. He didn't immediately throw the book out really want to but celebrity chef Christian Wagner had a way of the window, because I found I was interested in June, getting both men and why she lived as she didwomen to do what he wanted. Her mum used to Paul ''somehow'' got the impression that he'd be a librarian at the village library, but when she got sick, June gave up on going school to University and stayed at home to take care of her mumassist Paul, as well as taking on who had a job as library assistant at the local library. And even though her mum sadly died some years agobroken arm, she is still working there, still eating her mumbut it didn's favourite takeaway meal, and still reading her mum's old bookst turn out that way. June is stuck, but little does she know, everything in her life is about the change.|isbn=183877369X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008370982|title=Rock Paper Scissors|author=Alice Feeney|rating=4.5|genre=Thrillers|summary=Amelia Wright is fortyThe teaching -two and it was the staff raffle at Battersea Dogs Home that gave her a weekend away in a converted chapel in Scotlandproblems - are all his own. Her husband, Adam, isnThe one thing he hadn't so keen on the ideaexpected was for someone to turn up dead. Like AmeliaUnfortunately, he was the person who discovered the body and everyone knows that their marriage has been under strain: he's a screenwriter and he's never shy of making it clear to Amelia the police consider that he'd prefer person to spend time with be the novels he's hoping to adapt than with her. Amelia's annoyed that he never enquires about how her day has been - and working with the dogs, many of whom have been abused, is never easy. Still - she's won the weekend away, even if it does mean driving for eight hours in her 1978 Morris Minor Traveller with Adam beside her in the passenger seat - and then doing the same thing to come back a couple of days laterprime suspect.
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