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Reviews by readers from all the many walks of literary life. With author interviews, features and top tens. You'll be sure to find something you'll want to read here. Dig in!
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{{Frontpage
|author=Sylvie Cathrall|title=A Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary= There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of them.|isbn=14721270130356522776}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008517061|title=Agatha RaisinDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary= 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 his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a lot of compromise: Hot does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life to Trotmove in with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the future she wants for herself and her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and putting the future on the back burner.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1786482126|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=M C Beaton and R W GreenElly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Raisin Investigations had quite Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a bit of work on handchild beneath a doorway. The chairman of Philpott Electronics There was concerned about his managing director, Harold Cheeseman, who had apparently returned from Australia because his wife did not like it thereno skull. This was unusualWas this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, as his wife had died before Cheeseman went to AustraliaDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. Then there was the Chadwick divorce: Chadwick was convinced It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his wife, Sheraton, was seeing another man. Mr Gutteridge wanted Raisin Investigations to instal listening devices in the staff canteen: he wanted to know what child as a result of the staff were saying about him and his secretary, who was from Genevaone night they spent together some three months ago. ApparentlyHer condition will be obvious before long, the staff called her The Swiss Roll. Then there was the murdernot least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=00084203860008551324|title=Failosophy: A handbook for when things go wrongThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Elizabeth DayNeil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre=LifestyleCrime|summary=What do Malcolm Gladwell, Alain de Botton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Lemn Sissay, Nigel Slater, Emeli Sandé, Meera Syal, Dame Kelly Holmes and Andrew Scott have 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 common? They've all failed prison and - more importantly - they've been willing to appear on Elizabeth Dayhe's podcast prepared to discuss their failures tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and how life worked out who was responsible for them afterwardsher death. This person, he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants. You'll find And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the results remainder of these discussions in 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'Failosophy'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=05713626720008405026|title=SnowA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=John BanvilleJane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=It''Well, at least you're 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 Wexford manhalt.'' So said Colonel Osborne when he welcomed DI St John (pronounced 'Sinjun') Strafford to Ballyglass House just before Christmas 1957 Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in their bed. Osborne was master Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the Keelmore Hounds bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and had done something memorable with the Inniskilling Dragoons at Dunkirkher boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. The niceties had What looked as though it was going to be established even when there was an open-and-shut case is now a Catholic priest dead on complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the library floor with some precious bits of his anatomy missingexplanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0571379877|title=The Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=3. Strafford was from Roslea at Bunclody and this5|genre=Crime|summary=Edward Jevons is a working-class young man, along obsessed with his goodupper-butclass friends, Robert and Stanza. Robert's a theatre director. He's also self-shabby suitobsessed, marked demanding, handsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for him out as of Osborne. Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and he's class and obviously Protestantdrunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. The dead priest was Father Tom Lawless Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Scallanstown, who - despite 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 different religions - was two of them kissing in the habit of spending time at Ballyglass House. His horse was stabled therea dark passageway.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1787477630Jo Callaghan|title=The Postscript Murders|author=Elly GriffithsLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=When a 90-year-old-woman with man is found crucified on the top of a heart condition dies peacefully hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her armchairsidekick, it really shouldn't be suspicious and that was the view taken by DS Harbinder Kaur until she spoke to Peggy SmithAI detective Lock. It's carertheir first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. Natalka Kolisnyk was adamant that But when there was more to Peggy's death than met the eye - particularly as she knew that there was no heart condition is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that Peggy had worried that she was being followeddraws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Then there was Will they be able to solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the fact that Peggy was case and, potentially, out of a 'murder consultant' who helped authors with knotty plot lines in their books: she knew more about murder than any elderly woman should need to know.career?|isbn=139851120X
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=00083301311399613073|title=The Stolen SistersMoral Injuries|author=Louise JensenChristie Watson|rating=34.5
|genre=Thrillers
|summary=When we start ''The Stolen Sisters'' we know that twenty-years Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on from the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a dreadful event they are all healthy adultsquarter of a century. WellOlivia is ruthlessly ambitious, they're healthy in the physical sense, but Carly has trust issues, Leah has OCD and Marie drinkswhich is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. They're the Sinclair sisters Laura is a perfectionist and one day they were all stolena trauma doctor. Carly was thirteen-years-old Anjali is the free spirit of the group and she was in charge of her sisters, the eight-year-old twinsbecomes a GP. Much as she loved When we first meet them Carly was desperate to get they're at a text from Dean Malden drug and her mobile phone held her attention. Leah alcohol-fuelled party and Marie were nattering about a lost ball and a fleece which had been left outsideit's going to end in tragedy. The gate wasnWe don't shut properly and Bruno, their boxer dog, escapedknow who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. As Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three girls went to chase after him they were snatched by two menfriends. This time, it's their teenage children who are involved.
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Stephen Fabes0241636604|title=Signs of LifeThe Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=TravelAutobiography|summary= I was brought If you were to bring up on maps and first-person narratives an image of tales a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of far away placessomeone like Gary Stevenson. I A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was birth-righted wanderlust familiar with violence, poverty and curiosityinjustice. Unfortunately, I didn't inherit what Dr. Stephen Fabes clearly There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had which was been to the guts to simply go out London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and do ithe has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. I He also didn't inherit the kind of steady nerve, ability to talk realised that most rich people expect poor people to strangers and basic practicality that would have meant that I would have survived if I had been gifted with the requisite 'bottle'be stupid. In order words I'm not the sort of person who will get on It was his ability at what was, essentially, a bike outside a London hospital and not come home for six yearscard game which got him an internship with Citibank. Fabes did precisely thatEventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader.|isbn=1788161211
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Arvin Ahmadi1035021803|title=How It All Blew Up|rating=4|genre=Teens| summary=18-year-old Amir is American Iranian, a Muslim, and gay. He struggles with his identity, unable The Antique Hunter's Guide to face telling his parents who he really is, so when another student at his school starts blackmailing him, threatening to show his parents photographs of Amir kissing his boyfriend Amir panics and runs away...to Italy! So begins a journey for Amir, and his family, where they all discover more about him, and who he really is, and who he really wants to be.|isbn=1471409929}}{{FrontpageMurder|author=Antoine Laurain|title=The Readers Room|genre=General FictionC L Miller
|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime|summary=ViolaineIt's publishing house twenty years since Freya Lockwood has had a great success, and it was through been back to the slush pile of unsolicited manuscriptsEnglish country village where she grew up. The three people who work in the ReadersShe' Room to sift through what is ninety-nine per cent dross – plus the fourth advisor in s back now because of a request for help from her rarefied mansion up the road – all agreed the book would be a huge smashbeloved aunt, and so it has provenCarole. But there are several Freya'howeverss former mentor and Carole' s close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to thatsay the least. As in, however – Violaine herself is Arthur was the reason why Freya had not having life all her own waybeen back to the village: Arthur, for she has been involved in a near-fatal accidentfeels, and starts this book coming round from a comalet her down badly. And, however – despite all urgingEven though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the author of man or pursue the book has never once made themselves known to profession she loved. After the publishers in personsplit, and she worked in fact offered up a most peculiar statement-come-threat in their last email. What is going to befall Violainecafe, met and married James (on the rebound from the love of her memorylife, her staff – who was murdered) and Freya and how much is any of it due to the hit novel? And just where the heck did that come from?|isbn=1910477974James have now divorced.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=1948124572AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=Think Outside the BoxAll Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Justine Avery Benjamin Greenaway and Liuba SyrotiukStephen Oram (Editors)|rating=45|genre=For SharingScience Fiction|summary=''Whenever you find a problem <br>''Wherever there's a puzzle Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to solve <br>''However you get stuck in a sticky situation <br>''Just think outside the boxcome.''
And so begins I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Well, I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of technology in my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but I'm left with the latest picture book feeling that it's all getting away from Justine Avery me. Some of it is - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the possibilities and Liuba Syrotiukthe probabilities 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. It's I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a clarion call to children to use their imaginations and not logic alone when it comes to solving problemsway I could understand.
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{{Frontpage
|author=Agnes Ravatn and Rosie Hedger (translator)Sunny Singh|title=The Seven DoorsHotel Arcadia|rating=43.5|genre=CrimeThrillers |summary=Come here for The Hotel Arcadia is a thriller luxury hotel in an unnamed city that interestingly doesn't even try to suggest has suddenly been violently taken over by a genre of any kind until we're a full fifth of terrorist group. Hiding from the way terrorists who are rampaging through. We start with our couple, she a literature lecturerkilling everyone on site, he big in medical provision and decisions at the council, being forced to move out of their homethere is Sam, a building that had existed throughout her life since childhood wartime photographer and which they'd occupied for over thirty yearsAbhi, the hotel manager. The building As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the hotel, he's inherited, meanwhile, and which they let out to forms a single mother, is needed by their adult daughter, bond with Sam who quite blatantly says refuses to its occupant 'take a hikebe cowed by events, I'm moving in and you're moving keeps on venturing out'. Now, at this stage you may well, if you know this is a genre read, think it's going of her room to be a throwback try to those capture what'home invasion' thrillers Hollywood gave us in the 1980s, but nos happened through her photography. We avoid genre completelyAlthough they only ever talk over the phone, their friendship grows as I say – instead learning about Greek tragedy, in case that has any bearing on what happens here, Abhi tries to help her keep safe and seeing how an older-middle aged couple live their lives. Until at that twenty per cent stage we find something that raises an eyebrow as any crime book should – until the point where they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the evicted tenant is found to have completely vanishedterrorists.|isbn=1913193381086154742X
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Michael J Malone1529153298|title=A Song The List of IsolationSuspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=35|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction|summary=Film star Amelie Hart throws up a career It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I 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 is only beginning her father wants to hit move the heights to retire to family 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the highlands with an ordinary guy…an accountant of all thingsmove would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, though and she'll do anything to his credit he would rather be working in forestryprevent that. They have found a hideaway on a small Scottish estate, but things are starting She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to feel wrong between themanyone. |isbn=1913193365
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn= Christopher Paolini1398524085|title= To Sleep in a Sea of StarsHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating= 5|genre= Science FictionCrime|summary= On the moon of a distant gas giant, Xenobiologist Kira Navárez is helping with the efforts to make the planet habitable to human life. However, a discovery of an ancient alien bunker under the moonCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband's surface leaves her bonded with a strange alien entityfiftieth birthday party but never turned up. After the entity bonded to her loses control and kills half the staff of the research station Her children, the United Military Command cruiser Extenuating Circumstances arrives in the system to take Kira in for examination. Things go from bad to worse when the Extenuating Circumstances is attacked and destroyed by an alien shipsons Niall, Paul and she has to flee to the 61 Cygnus star system. She is revived aboard the freighter Wallfish, crewed by Captain Falconi Ollie and a rag-tag bunch of misfitsher daughter, and the news is grimEtty. The same aliens that destroyed the Extenuating Circumstances are now wreaking havoc across all of humanworried but - strangely -occupied spaceher husband, Alec, is not. Shortly afterwards, Etty and only a mythical weapon known as Greg, find the Staff body of Blue can stop themGreg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in the river. As It was an easy assumption for the death toll climbs and more players are introduced into this war, Kira slowly begins police to realise make that she may have Duncan had a greater hand in murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the conflict than she couldguilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there've possibly imagined…|isbn=1529046505s little else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Carlie Sorosiak1035906708|title=My Life as a CatDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=This is the story We tend to think of an alien who has come down Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to spend some time on earth living as a human. It's something that each member Greek parents in the alien collective is allowed to doManhattan, for 1 monthNew York, once they reach a certain agein December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Leonard comes Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to earth but gets distracted en route, and so something goes wrong with his arrival and he finds that instead of landing in Yellowstone Park, ready 'Callas' to work as a park ranger, he is instead make it more manageable in the body of a cat on the other side of the country! States. This is not what he had planned! Not only is he When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the wrong place Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and the wrong body, he is also in the middle made no secret of a stormher preference for her elder sister, stuck in a tree! And so he meets Olive, the little girl who rows out in a boat to rescue him, and who names him LeonardJackie.|isbn=1788006089
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{{Frontpage
|author= Tahi SaihateChristopher Edge|title= Astral Season, Beastly SeasonBlack Hole Cinema Club|rating= 3.54|genre= Literary FictionConfident Readers|summary= We long Lucas and his friends are all booked in for our past even though it is a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place to which we can never returnthat has the nickname of 'The Black Hole'. Tahi Saihate All big movie fans, in her debut novel they''Astral Seasonre looking forward to lots of exciting films, and many, many snacks! However, as the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, Beastly Seasonand they are swept up into an adventure they couldn'' illustrates how these rose-tinted glasses often liet even imagine. Her novel But as they lurch from one film genre to the next, can they figure out what on earth is a meditation going on youth and how ? Will they ever get back to the things we do as a teenager can seem intensely important cinema, and often life-altering.to their real lives?|isbn= 19162771011839942738
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{{Frontpage
|author= Andrea StewartRachel Greenlaw|title= The Bone Shard Daughter (The Drowning Empire)Compass and Blade|rating=43.5|genre= FantasyTeens|summary=''I could never be what he wanted if I did not take what I wantedcan hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.''
In an empire controlled by Rosevear, a bone shard magic that powers animal-remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, like constructsher mother before her, an heir is one of the seven who swim out to survey the throne, a smuggler, ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a warrior will fight trap to find their place in end the world. Lin is wrecking, they capture the emperorisland's forgotten daughterleader and Mira's father. Desperate to save him from death, kept locked away in Mira makes a bargain with a palace of secrets wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and closed doors. When her father refuses with only coordinates to recognise guide her as heir to the throne, she vows to show him she is capable sets off in search of reviving a dying empire and family secret that lies buried deep in secret, she begins the sea. With only nine days to unlock one door after anotherunearth what might save her father, searching for the mysteries of as her journey takes her past and from the forbidden art watched streets of bone shard magic. Yet Lin is playing a deadly game and her quest for power will come at great cost. With revolution in the air and creeping closer and closer foreign islands to the gates heart of the palacesmuggler's territory, Lin Mira must decide just how far she will be determined to go stop at nothing to become a catalyst save the future of change her home and save her peoplethe ones she holds most dear.|isbn=03565149430008664730
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{{Frontpage
|author=Sharon DoeringJames Sherwood Metts|title=She Lies ClosePlanet Storyland|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersConfident Readers|summary= Ava Boone was five years old when she went missing, around 6 months agoThings have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. There has been no sign of her since, AI and no arrests automation have been made. And yetproceeding apace, this book is not about Ava. Not really. This book is about Grace, who has just discovered her neighbour in her new house is a suspect in Avaoften replacing jobs they's disappearancere paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. As a single mother Just as they were beginning to get used to two young children, she's really wishing all this sort technological change and starting to think of information had come other, new ways to light before spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and, along with it, all the many daily social interactions on which they moved independ so heavily.|isbn=17890941941736128426
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{{Frontpage
|author=Yara Evans and Luciana BettiMatthew Tree|title=The Adventures of an Urban Fox: Maggie ArrivesWe'll Never Know|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary=Black Cat 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 failed miserably and Tabby Cat are minding their own business in their own house when a very alarming thing happenswho had endless crises of self confidence. A creature - a large, dog-like creature - appears in their house. Black Cat, always one So Tim applied himself to take chargehis studies, challenges this fearsome creature with all the courage he can muster. Tabby Cat backs him.... from a cultivated his abilities rather safe distancethan his daydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions. The creature is indignant - ''I'm not a dog. I'm a fox!''|isbn=1511658649 B0CVFXPGP8
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1712435728A G Slatter|title=Jamie's Keepsake|author=Michael GallagherThe Briar Book of the Dead|rating=4.5|genre=TeensFantasy|summary=When we first meet Alex Hannah, he'' There's 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. I just being released want to enjoy it for a while.'' Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the Southern General Hospital. The nurse thinks he'll come back to visit world, lies Silverton; a town under the other patients but Alex has no intention protection of doing that: hethe Briar's been there , a family of witches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands. Though she has always wished for a yearmagic, on Ellie Briar is the same ward where his brother died first non-witch to be born into her family for generations and nowas such since she was young, with his hair all shorn offher training as a steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, heEllie's going home in his dead brothercousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the town's clothesleader, and Ellie takes her place beside her. He wants As challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to get outside and back communicate with his friends: his brotherthe dead, Forbesputting her at the heart of a maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from one family secret to another, says that Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what to do as the fresh air will do him good and his mother tells him that heBriar witches's not to mention TB and legacy, everything they have sacrificed to say it was tonsillitis. Good luck with that onesurvive, Alexis under threat.|isbn=1803364548
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Alice Oseman1529900360|title=SolitaireThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=TeensCrime|summary= Victoria Spring has returned to Year 12 following Christmas break It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and feels dead even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to the worldask for his help on difficult cases. Nothing is interesting. People are stupid His assertions that there were only open-and boring-shut cases which didn't need the help of a psychologist only worked for a while. She has one real friend; the rest are just people she sits near so sheFinally, it was Robin, Delaware's not a complete lonerpartner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She hates a lot of things - including herselfknew that the involvement was something that the man she loved needed. But suddenly The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a blog called Solitaire has arrived and is pulling pranks throughout remote property in Bel Air. He was the school. And Michael Holden has appeared heir to an Italian shoe empire and is showing up everywhere in Tori's life. Tori doesn't know (or care) why she's involved, but suddenly she is. What does Solitaire want? Who's behind married to an extremely rich man and it? Why does it all seem to be linked to Tori? Why does Michael want to be in Tori's life so badly and who is he, reallynot the Italian. But which of them was the primary target? Things are only getting stranger and darker, and only one thing is certain – Tori isn't bored anymore.|isbn=9780007559220
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Natasha Farrant1529395224|title=Voyage Letting the Cat Out of the SparrowhawkBag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=3.5|genre=Confident ReadersAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Set in England in the aftermath of World War One, this is the story of two children, Lotti Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Ben, who have lost everyone they love, but donRowlands didn't want to let go of their lastfollow in his footsteps, tiny glimpses of hope. Ben is living particularly when he considered the strain that being on a narrowboat -call put on the canal, lying to the police about his brotherfather's imminent return from life. When he was seventeen he took the battlefields to take care opportunity of him. Lotti, meanwhile, has been expelled from school and is back at home; it's doing work experience with a family friend who was a beautiful house that belongs to her but that her terrible Aunt vet and Uncle currently have guardianship was convinced this was the job forhim. The day Lotti meets Ben (the day she steals a dog!) is the beginning of a deepBefore long, and powerful friendshiphe was at Liverpool University. It sees them become each otherhadn's family, and undertake t - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a perilous trip to France, in the boatchild. If anything, he'd wanted to try to find out the truth of the people they both lovebe a professional footballer.|isbn=0571348769
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=14711792730861541774|title=House A Nye of CorrectionPheasants|author=Nicci FrenchSteve Burrows|rating=54
|genre=Crime
|summary=When we first meet Tabitha Hardy, sheDCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in prisonSingapore to meet up with an old ally, on remandGuy Trueman. She's sharing Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a cell man armed with Michaela, who's more caring than she first appearsa knife - and he killed a Ghurka. She delivers tough love and gets Tabitha eating and drinking - and encourages her Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have a shower, unpleasant as planned to murder the whole processes might beman. And how did Tabitha get here? Well, on 21 December Now he could be facing the body of Stuart Robert Rees was discovered in her garden shed by Andrew Kane, who was helping with the renovations to Tabitha's housedeath penalty. So far Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as the any interference from another police are concerned, Tabitha is the only person who force could have killed Rees - provoke a diplomatic incident and when they arrived wouldn't help Danny at her house she was covered in his bloodall.
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{{Frontpage
|author=Darren ShanAlexander McCall Smith|title=Archibald Lox and the Vote of Alignment The Perfect Passion Company|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=This third The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and final book operating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the first volume business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. Katie is coming out of Darren Shan's a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new ''Archibald Lox'' series sees Archie story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and Inez make it almost all the way Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to the Cuckoocharm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's Nestalways her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, where the Vote of Alignment will be held. But how will they get in?William, to lend a hand…|isbn=B086LLWP4V1846976596
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|isbn=00083147210811771741|title=Truth Be ToldInstaKnits for Baby|author=Kia AbdullahMelissa Leapman|rating=54|genre=CrimeCrafts|summary=The Hadids are an Melissa Leapman's ''effortfulInstaKnits for Baby'' familygives us a collection of knits from toys to blankets. Flowers Some will be quick knits - others are sent for of the slightest problem or achievement: letters are sent to thank and this prompts a phone call 'long, cosy afternoons in returnfront of the fire' variety. There The projects are two sons of divided by the family, seventeentime they'll take to complete -year-old Kamran and sixteen-year-old Adam. Their motherless than five hours, Sofiafive to ten hours, regrets that she didn't name them the other way round: 'Adam ten to twenty hours and Kamran' trips off the tongue so much more easily than 'Kamran twenty hours. All the projects are attractive, modern and Adam'useable. Sofia worries I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that sort of thing. Both boys go to the prestigious Hampton school, where they board, despite the school 's me being less than ten miles from their Belsize Park home. Kamran has a place at Oxford next year and all seemed to be going well until the night when he was rapedpicky.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1509889515Dean Koontz|title=The Darkest Evening (D I Vera Stanhope)|author=Ann CleevesBad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeParanormal|summary=It was Benny is having a mercy that DI Vera Stanhope took the wrong turning as she drove home in the blizzardterrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. If she hadn't the car might not have been found until the morning Oh, and who knows what would have happened someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the toddler strapped into the car seatthing that has trashed his house! The thing is, particularly as Benny is the car door had been left openvery last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. Vera took the boy and drove to the nearest habitationA really nice person. She ''thought'' So fortunately for Benny it would be turns out that the village but it was Brockburndelivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, the ancestral home of the Stanhopes: her father had who has been the younger brother sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Spike is going to take care of the man who inherited - Benny, and Hector was the black sheep will certainly take care of the family. Calling there unannouncedBenny's enemies, if he, Benny, particularly as and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they seemed to have guests was going to be embarrassing, but there was little else that she could do in the circumstancesare.|isbn=1662500491
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0241425441Adam Stower|title=The Thursday Murder Club|author=Richard OsmanMurray and Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeConfident Readers |summary=The first member of The Thursday Murder Club we encounter Murray is Joyce Meadowcroft. She used supposed to be a nurse humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is thus the perfect person for Elizabeth able to consult about how long it would take a person who has been stabbed to bleed out. Details of where sleep and eat and how are exchanged eat and Joyce confirms that it would have taken about forty-five minutes sleep and that , well, whatever takes his fancy next of the victim could have been saved if she'd received prompt medical helptwo. It didnBut he't put Joyce off her shepherds a bad magician's pie (which tells us that it was cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a Monday) hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the regular back garden, but it does get her interested in The Thursday Murder Clubinto a world of frightening adventure and whiffs. They meet each Thursday (as you might This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but he's turned up and he'll have guessed) in the Jigsaw Room at Coopers Chase Retirement Village.to do…|isbn=0008561249
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=1948124440B0C47LV1PC|title=What Wonders Await OutdoorsFragility|author=Justine Avery and Liuba SyrotiukMosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=For SharingLiterary Fiction|summary=The second book in Justine AveryCan you make a ''Yo birthing person''s Wonders series joke? And if you could, is the perfect antidote to long summer days with bored children - orquestion should you make it? Or is the question if you did, indeed, as wewould it land? The catch is that the answer for both could well be.... no. ''Fragility''ve found recently, for those long lockdown days when an awful pandemic is rolling across set as the world. What do you do when every book has been read and every toy has been played withcity of Portland, repurposedOregon, and played with again?cautiously begins to emerge from the restrictions imposed during the covid pandemic
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn= Samira Ahmed1529431735|title= Mad, Bad and Dangerous to KnowThe Winter Visitor|author=James Henry|rating= 3.54|genre=TeensCrime|summary=It's February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins'In return all the end, we all become storiesmore surprising. He'' Spending d been exiled on the summer in Paris sounds like Costa del Sol as a dream wanted drug smuggler for most people, especially arta decade. The return has come about because he's had a letter from his ex-loverswife, but Khayyam cansaying that she's ill and hasn't relax long to live. It's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his underwear and stop thinking about sent to a watery grave in the mess she left behind in Chicagoboot of a stolen Ford Sierra. On Is it a chance encounter with warning from a descendant of Alexandre Dumas, Khayyam finds herself on Spanish gang or a historical journey with him problem closer to unveil the truth about the 19th century Muslim woman who may have crossed paths with Alendre Dumas, Eugene Delacroix and Lord Byron. As the two teenagers travel the city they not only discover themselves, but uncover the true story of the woman and why it was one that should never have been forgotten.|isbn=0349003556home?
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{{Frontpage
|author=Alice OsemanAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=LovelessThe Glorious Race of Magical Beasts|rating=54|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary= Georgia Eli is a teenager who's embarking on her first year of university busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and is in the evening a desperate struggle to figure herself outhelper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. She's always been in love Eli lives with love. With the idea of lovehis lovely gran, the idea of falling madly too – for someone and finding bliss. But there is a generation missing in the reality for her has always been differentfamily. She A few short years ago, Eli's never had parents were both lost to the titular race, a globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in the company of a crushmagical beast. She's never been kissed. And she's desperate This has made the race anathema to feel something and fall for someone. But the pair – but when a bad incident at the opportunity presents itself in any kind of realeatery leads to a confession from gran, tangible and physical way for her - she's disgusted by it. But isn't that what she's supposed Eli knows his only hope is to dare to want? Isn't that enter what everyone is supposed he most hates, with the sole aim the prize of magic at the end – the only thing to do? How come everyone else can do it? Why can't she?possibly save his gran.|isbn=000824412X0571382231
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