Changes

|author=Robin Birch and Jobe AndersonTom Percival|title=Secret Beast Club: The Unicorns of Silver StreetWrong Shoes|rating=45

|summary=JaydenWill's nose life is forever difficult, in a book, which means he knows a lot about mythological creatures – the phoenixes and unicorns multitude of the world, for exampleways. Aisha He is addicted to her new tabletbullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', where she he has the wrong shoes because his dad can see videos of anything that might be out there. The problem, as their mothers see it, is that they are never 'out theret work and doesn' themselves, exploring t have enough money for even the outside world most basic of Hackney, London. But when a narrowboat turns up carrying a science-minded, educational purposethings like food, and with a past involving Jaydenhis dad can's cousint work because he lost his job at the college, they find was working a magical world they never knew existedcash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. For many of those mythological creatures Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are realseparated, including the one Aisha thinks sheand Will's seen on life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has a bit tiny amount of local footagehope. The crew of the boatHe is good at art, including a living gargoyle, are tasked with saving the rare critters – and the kids unknowingly have the magical sight needed clings to join in. Dare they side with Leila, the woman on boardmoments of joy when he is drawing, and her relative who lives as that feel like a figure in light at the end of a paintinglong, and become saviours of the unseen?dark tunnel.|isbn=02415734831398527122

|isbnauthor=1913839656Sylvie Cathrall|title=Let's Celebrate Being Different|author=Lainey DeeA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=3.5|genre=For SharingScience Fiction|summary=Todd was excited about spending the weekend with his grandmother, not least because she made the best beetle juice. He packed two pairs of dungarees and his favourite hat and then gathered together his button collection There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to show his grandmothera compelling premise. She had promised to take him to the Friday Night Club at the local community centre and Todd was pleased about And this as he wanted to make new friends. At home, his only friend was his mum and he wondered why that could be. Grandma thought that it might be because he looked differentis one of them.|isbn= 0356522776

|isbn=17873010360008517061|title=What July KnewDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Emily KochStig Abell|rating=54|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=When we first meet July Hooper on 20 July 1995 she's just ten years oldFormer Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. She's There’s perhaps a careful, meticulous child. The care has been taught by her father, Mick Hooper, who is not prepared to discuss little uncertainty about the death future of his wifelife with his vet girlfriend, July's motherLivia and her daughter Diana, and any hint that the conversation is heading that way will lead to the necessity of as moving in together would mean a Lesson. Other infractions lot of compromise: does Jake give up his requirements also lead off-grid and relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to these Lessons and he's not even careful Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the injuries are visible. future she wants for herself and her daughter? July's teacher is concerned For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and brings up putting the possibility of abuse with the head but her worries are dismissed: Mick has been good to future on the school, has he not? The playground wouldn't have been resurfaced but for himback burner.

|authorisbn=Lucy Ashe1786482126|title=Clara and OliviaThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths

|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=The year is 1933. The place? SadlerBuilders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury's Wellsapartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. Ballerinas Clara and Olivia are sisters, twins There was no lessskull. Identical on the outside but not, we learn, on the inside. And not on stage Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, eitherDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. Because there It's a lot that builds a dancer. Some things that can be taught or learnt – disciplinedifficult as Ruth knows, attention to detail – and some things, that ''je ne sais quoi'but Nelson doesn't, that don't come from she is pregnant with his child as a result of the classroomone night they spent together some three months ago. A stage presence Her condition will be obvious before long, a charm, a ''joie de vivre''. The difference between a hard-worker, and a starnot least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness.|isbn=0861544080

|isbn=00084544930008551324|title=All the Dangerous ThingsThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Stacy WillinghamNeil Lancaster

|summary=Isabelle Drake hasnIt't really slept s unusual for a year - well, apart anyone from the odd occasion when she lost track of time Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or drifted off has any respect for a momentthe other. ItBut Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's now prepared to tell the police where the body of a year since missing person is buried and who was responsible for her sondeath. This person, Masonhe promises, was stolen from his bed in the middle of the night and Izzy is consumed with guilt that she heard nothing someone big and particularly about her relief in it will be worth the morning when she thought police doing what he wants. And what he was sleeping inwants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date. In that year Not much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's done everything she could even prepared to raise awareness about 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.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008405026|title=A Stranger in the caseFamily (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 does interviews was never found and the investigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, Helena, and when we meet herfather are dead in their bed. Initially, sheit looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's just been 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 TrueCrimeCon where she gave be an open-and-shut case is now a keynote presentationcomplex double murder. On Kerrigan is convinced that the plane back, sheexplanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's approached by a podcasterboss, Waylon Spencer, who points out that she could do a podcast and get to so many more people than she could by giving speeches to a few hundred people at conferencesUna Burt) are less convinced.

|authorisbn=Jeremy Dronfield and David Ziggy Greene0571379877|title=Fritz and KurtThe Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=43.5|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=We start Edward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with the pair of brothers Fritz and Kurt, and their muckers, doing things any Jewish lad in 1930s Vienna would want to do – kicking things around the empty market place, helping the neighbourshis upper-class friends, being dutiful when it comes to the synagogue choir Robert and at a vocational schoolStanza. Kurt has to make sure the lamps are turned on at their very Orthodox neighboursRobert' each Friday night – the Sabbath preventing them for using anything nearly as mechanical and workmanlike as s a light switchtheatre director. But this is the time just before the Austrian leader is going to cave to HitlerHe's willalso self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and instead of having a national vote uses Edward to keep the Nazis out, invite them in with open armsrun errands for him. ''Kristallnacht'' happened Edward has been in Vienna just as much as in Germany, as did all the roundlove with Stanza since their university days -ups of Jewsand he's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. These Most men in their turn leave the younger Kurt at home with his mother and sisters anxious to hear word of an evacuation to Britain Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or the US, while Fritz and his father are, unknown initially tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to each other, packed off on stumble upon the same train to Buchenwald and the stone quarry theretwo of them kissing in a dark passageway. And us wondering how the titular event for the adult variant of all this could come about…|isbn=024156574X

|isbnauthor=1529421241Jo Callaghan|title=Stay Buried|author=Kate WebbLeave No Trace|rating=54

|summary=DI Matt Lockyer When a man is found crucified on Major Crime Review which sounds quite grand until you realise that it's actually the top of a cold hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case unit and there are just two of them doing alongside her sidekick, the jobAI detective Lock. LockyerIt's not unduly worriedtheir first live case together, though although he's not quite so sure about DC Gemma Broad: she's probably capable of something betterhaving previously been very successful with several cold cases. It was But when there is a second body found crucified a bit of few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a shock when he got the phone call from Hedy Lambert: she's in H M Prison Eastwood Park for murder - potential serial killer and it was Lockyer who put her there, fourteen years agoa very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. She's keen to see him and Will they be able to tell him that solve the man everyone thought she'd murdered - but case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the body turned case and, potentially, out to be someone else - has returned home after being away for decades.of a career?|isbn=139851120X

|isbn=B0BQXSYYTF1399613073|title=Just LookingMoral Injuries|author=Matthew TreeChristie Watson

|genre=Dystopian FictionThrillers|summary=It was Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the summer first day of 2035 medical school and on their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a cruise ship in Marseillescentury. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, Jim was celebrating his new-found wealth which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Anjali is the end free spirit of his marriage - not two celebrations generally found in the same sentence by group and she becomes a man! GP. He's watching the tornado - When we first meet them they're more common in Europe these days at a drug and alcohol- thatfuelled party and it's keeping the cruise ship going to end in port and falls into conversation with Jean-Pierre, a French journalist in his thirtiestragedy. He writes for a relatively new paper, We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the rightconsequences. Twenty-wing ''La Tribune Gauloise'' and he's interesting if a little wordy on subjects such as the difference between 'France' and 'five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the French'three friends. His partnerThis time, Helen, whoit's English and Jewish, keeps him in check to some extenttheir teenage children who are involved.

|isbn=057137493X0241636604|title=The Other HalfTrading Game: A Confession|author=Charlotte VassellGary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeAutobiography|summary=''The room was full If you were to bring up an image of the sort of people ''Tatler'' thinks a city banker in your mind, you should know.'' ''The Other Half'' is the story re unlikely to think of two men, both with what looks someone like the same surnameGary Stevenson. Rupert Beauchamp is A hoodie and jeans replaces the heir to a baronetcy pin-stripe suit and his thirtieth birthday party background is a catered-the East End, where he was familiar with-butler event at McDonalds in Camden Town. Think Bollinger violence, poverty and cocaineinjustice. His surname is pronounced 'Beecham'. Caius Beauchamp is a detective inspector with There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the Metropolitan police and is bi-racialLondon School of Economics. His surname Stevenson is pronounced as you see it. The two encounter each other when Caius, out for bright - extremely bright - and he has a run, stumbles across the body facility with numbers which most of Clemmie O'Hara, Rupert's girlfriendus can only envy. Rupert thought He also realised that she most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It was being deliberately late for his partyability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. She was dead under Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a bushtrader.

|authorisbn=Joe Thomas1035021803|title=White RiotThe Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=43.5

|summary= Whenever anyone writes fiction about politics thereIt's always twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the danger English country village where she grew up. She's back now because of making it too reactionary; too rawa request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Knee-jerk observations Freya's former mentor and hot takes that donCarole't age well or properly capture s close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the spirit of circumstances seem suspicious, to say the momentleast. It takes a truly talented writer Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to be the village: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to capture be near the zeitgeist of a particular event man or era of political historypursue the profession she loved. Austerity Britain, After the student riotssplit, Donald Trump, Brexit – so much of what isshe worked in a cafe, met and has been, written in married James (on the rebound from the immediate aftermath love of these phenomena has been proven by time to be frothy and insubstantial and ultimately not particularly powerful or incisive. Inevitably (and perhaps disappointingly for people her life, who do enjoy fiction of this naturewas murdered), the best writing about current political events is that which is written when the events in question are no longer current and when time Freya and experience has afforded the writer the benefit of a more objective viewJames have now divorced.|isbn= 1529423376

|authorisbn=Heather FawcettAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=Emily WildeAll Tomorrow's Encyclopaedia of FaeriesFutures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=45|genre=General Science Fiction|summary=Emily Wilde ''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.'' I've heard it said that 'technology' is an expert academic scholar on faerie lore, and she has travelled extensively, and researched meticulously, to write her lifewhat happens after you's workre eighteen. Well, the very first encyclopaedia I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of faeriestechnology in my lifetime. Whilst she is brilliant at research and speaking I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to faeries, she me but I'm left with the feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of it is not so good with people- frankly - quite frightening. So when she finds herself farOf course, far North in I could research the small village of Hrafvsnik, having somehow offended possibilities and the village matriarch, she is not sure probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what she has done, nor how to redeem herself and put her final investigations for her book back on they're talking about or the right tracklatest conspiracy theorist. Enter Wendell Bambleby, her dashingly handsome I needed people I knew I could trust and insufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, all charm and delight, much to Emily's frustrationcould deliver information in a way I could understand. But why is he here? What does he want? And what exactly is going on with the faerie folk around Hravsnik?|isbn=0356519120

|isbnauthor=1848458436Sunny Singh|title=Just the Nicest Couple|author=Mary KubicaHotel Arcadia|rating=43.5|genre=Thrillers|summary=''The whole thing Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has spiralled out of control, turning into someone I'm notsuddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group.''  ''Just Hiding from the Nicest Couple'' terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is the story of two couples: Christian Sam, a wartime photographer and Lily ScottAbhi, and Nina and Jake Hayesthe hotel manager. The connection between As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the two is that Lily and Nina teach residents who are still alive in the same school: Nina teaches English hotel, he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and Lily covers high school algebra. The couples have mixed as a foursome but itkeeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what's not a regular thinghappened through her photography. Christian is a market research analyst Although they only ever talk over the phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and Jake is a neurosurgeon: they don't have much in common except their wives. Lily hasn't said anything yet, but she's pregnant. She has a lengthy history of miscarriages so she doesn't want both wait to tempt fate see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by making the knowledge publicterrorists.|isbn=086154742X

|isbn=19145854021529153298|title=Dashboard Elvis is DeadThe List of Suspicious Things|author=David F RossJennie Godfrey|rating=4.5

|summary=It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I reviewed David F Rossmean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's book [[Therefamily, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's Only One Danny Garvey by David F Ross|Thereupset because she's Only One Danny Garvey]] overheard that her father wants to move the family 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a couple of years back and remember being absolutely floored by how powerful and affecting it wasfrightening, foreign place, best avoided. It was a gripping For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, emotionally wounding readSharon, and rereading my review of it my main takeaway was she'll do anything to prevent that I might . She's not have lavished enough praise on itworried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.

|isbn=178563335X1398524085|title=Sea DefencesHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Hilary TaylorNicci French

|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=When we first meet Rachel Bird sheCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband's a trainee vicar, sitting in on a PCC meeting and wondering why they're held when you need to pick the children fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her husbandchildren, Christophersons Niall, collects six-year-old Hannah Paul and Ollie and her elder brother, Jamiedaughter, whilst Rachel holds a sobbing parishionerEtty. Thelma's daughterare all worried but -instrangely -law won't let her see her grandsonhusband, Alec, is not. HolthorpeShortly afterwards, on the Norfolk coast, is a lovely placeEtty and Greg, but Rachel is struggling to develop a real bond with find the parish - and shebody of Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in awe of the vicar, Gail, but river. It was an easy assumption for the police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then shecommitted suicide when he couldn's been doing t stand the job for more than thirty yearsguilt. Rachel and Christopher hoped that a walk on the beach would The Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do them some good - it was stormy but it was probably get on with their lives and wonder about what they needed. And then Hannah went missingreally happened.

|authorisbn=Hadeer Elsbai1035906708|title=The Daughters of IzdiharDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4.5|genre=FantasyGeneral Fiction|summary= Drawing inspiration from Egypt, ''The Daughters of Izdihar'' explores the lives We tend to think of two women who could not be more differentMaria Callas as Greek, yet find themselves fighting for the rights of women and weavers – those with magical abilities - but she was born to Greek parents in a society pitted against them. NehalManhattan, born into the upper classNew York, wishes in December 1923 and only moved to attend the Weaving Academy Athens when she was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to learn 'Callas' to control make it more manageable in the States. When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her abilities and then join the military, but instead voice - she is forced into an arranged marriage with Nico. Giorgina on was raised under the other hand did not have Nazi occupation by a privileged upbringing like Nehal and feels great pressure to provide for mother who mercilessly exploited her family and maintain their reputation, whilst secretly attending meetings made no secret of the Daughters of Izdihar – a group campaigning her preference for women's rights. Giorgina also happens to be in love with Nico. What follows is a story of an unjust societyher elder sister, filled with hypocrisy and cruelty, from which blossoms a group of admirable women fighting for their rights and overcoming their personal obstaclesJackie.|isbn=0356520471

|author=Sarah Todd TaylorChristopher Edge|title=Alice Eclair, Spy Extraordinaire! A Spoonful of SpyingBlack Hole Cinema Club

|summary=[[Alice Eclair, Spy Extraordinaire! A Recipe Lucas and his friends are all booked in for Trouble by Sarah Todd Taylor|Last time around]], Alice Eclair had to prove herself as a spy and as a master movie marathon at all things French and fancy and fondanttheir local cinema, as a place that has the only way to save the day involved being an expert baker and icer on the French railwaysnickname of 'The Black Hole'. HereAll big movie fans, we start on a bateau-mouche in Paris, and even though the espionage isnthey't a complete success it proves re looking forward to Alice lots of exciting films, and her handlers that things are afoot. many, many snacks! And there will never be more feet than at However, as the World's Fairmovie starts, reviving the huge expo they very quickly realise that gave the city the Eiffel Tower something about this new film format is very different, and this time showing all her interwar glories off to the worldthey are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. Once again Alice will have But as they lurch from one film genre to present the front to the world of being a humble yet world-class cake decoratornext, while seeking can they figure out clues. At stakewhat on earth is going on? Pioneering flight technology that Will they ever get back to the enemy just cannot be allowed cinema, and to smuggle out…their real lives?|isbn=18399409721839942738

|author=Amanthi HarrisRachel Greenlaw|title=Beautiful PlaceCompass and Blade|rating=3.5|genre=Literary FictionTeens|summary= Padma''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.'' Rosevear, a young Sri Lankanremote and partially forgotten island, has returned to survives on luring ships into the Villa Hibiscus on rocks and plundering the southern coast of wrecks. Mira, like her home country. This is a place she spent mother before her formative years. It , is not a place she was born into, but the one she thinks of as homethe seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. How she came But when the Council Watch lays a trap to be at end the Villawrecking, how it became her homethey capture the island's leader and Mira's father. Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and the machinations that have flowed through with only coordinates to guide her life ever since , she first arrived there provide sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the ''score'' for this gentle and yet subtly violent novelsea. Padma's present fails With only nine days to escape unearth what might save her past and much like father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the musical score heart of a filmthe smuggler's territory, that strand weaves its way through everything that happens Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the Villafuture of her home and the ones she holds most dear.|isbn=17846319300008664730

|author=Nigel BainesJames Sherwood Metts|title=A Tricky Kind of MagicPlanet Storyland

|genre=Emerging Confident Readers|summary=Cooper loves to perform magic tricksThings have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. His father was a magicianAI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're paid to do and named Cooper after the great Tommy Cooperother tasks that took time to accomplish. But sadly Cooper's father died suddenly, Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and now Cooper doesn't quite know who starting to bethink of other, or how new ways to bespend time, along came an awful pandemic. And when his dad's prop rabbit starts talking to himLife was pretty much shut down and, along with it, he ''really'' doesn't know what's going all the many daily social interactions on anymore!which they depend so heavily.|isbn=14449602611736128426

|isbnauthor=1542037239Matthew Tree|title=Death in Heels|author=Kitty Murphy|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=Set against the backdrop of Dublin's drag scene, We''Death in Heels'' tells the story of Fi McKinnery and her best friend, Robyn, who is about to debut as drag queen Mae B. What is meant to be a night of excitement soon takes a downward turn when fellow drag queen, Eve, takes to the stage to mock Mae B. As if the night could not get any worse, when Fi heads home she discovers Eve dead in a gutter. Fi is adamant that Eve was murdered, yet the drag community, and the Guards, accept it as an accident. Fi takes it upon herself to solve the mystery as she fears for her friends, but instead ruins relationships as she delves deeper.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1800465270|title=The Lensky Connection|author=Conrad Delacroixll Never Know

|genre=ThrillersLiterary Fiction|summary=When we first meet Major Valeri Grozky, it's June 1995 and he's at the Serafimov Cemetry in St Petersburg. He's a pallbearer for Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his elder brother, Timur, whose death was drug-related. Valeri and Timur's father, Keto, is also a pallbearer drunk and he's disgusted by what chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his son artistic passions all failed miserably and who had becomeendless crises of self confidence. Valeri thinks differently: he's determined So Tim applied himself to make his own stand against organised crime and avenge Timur's death. Within a matter of monthsstudies, cultivated his obsession will have cost him abilities rather than his marriage to Marisha daydreams and created a dubious link with Natassja Petrovskaya, a journalist. She's determined to expose any and all corruption - and she's less concerned than she ought to be about her own safety. To her, he's a good source. For him, it's a way to get information published, which wouldn't otherwise be possibleset himself high but achievable ambitions.|isbn= B0CVFXPGP8

|isbnauthor=1399702289A G Slatter|title=A World The Briar Book of Curiosities (Chief Inspector Gamache)|author=Louise Pennythe Dead

|genre=CrimeFantasy|summary=After '' There's a harsh winterpart 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 want to enjoy it for a while.'' Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the tiny Canadian village world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of Three Pines is enjoying the arrival Briar's, a family of springwitches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands. But something Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is worrying Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and Inspector Jeanthe first non-Guy Beauvoir of the Sûreté du Québec. Gamache had offered help witch to be born into her family for generations and as such since she was young, her training as a young woman after steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the murder of town's leader, and Ellie takes her mother: he'd been less certain about place beside her charismatic brother. For Jean-GuyAs challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, it had always been putting her at the other way aroundheart of a maelstrom of chaos. Now they're both in the village Reeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and neither can fathom determine whatto do as the Briar witches's happening. Armand will soon find that legacy, everything they're not just in Three Pines but in his home and in his lifehave sacrificed to survive, is under threat.|isbn=1803364548

|isbn=B0BHR8KWSK1529900360|title=DukkhaThe Ghost Orchid|author=Martin HydeJonathan Kellerman

|genre=HorrorCrime|summary=Sam wakes up chained in a basement. He rails against his captor and the injustice of his imprisonment? Why? It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis'Why?'' But of courses fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, he knows whySturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. Sam is an erstwhile drug dealer who escaped this down His assertions that there were only open-and dirty life by going to -shut cases which didn't need the help of a retreat and emerging as psychologist only worked for a neophyte Buddhist monkwhile. Recently returning to join the community in his old neighbourhood Finally, it was Robin, he knew his past would be hard to escape but he hadnDelaware't imagined it exploding s partner, who nudged Milo into this new life asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the man she loved needed. The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in quite such the swimming pool of a violent fashionremote property in Bel Air. He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to an extremely rich man and it's not the Italian. But which of them was the primary target?

|isbn=B09XWSXSKY1529395224|title=Maestro Orpheus and Letting the Cat Out of the World ClockBag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Robert Penee and Joanne GrodzinskiSion Rowlands|rating=43.5|genre=Confident ReadersAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Frederick (or Fred, but never Freddy, please) couldn't sleepSiôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. A tune, rather like the ticking of His father was a clock was playing over GP and over in his mind. It happened every time he came to visit his grandfather. He hadnRowlands didn't really wanted want to come; after allfollow in his footsteps, particularly when heconsidered the strain that being on-call put on his father's ten now life. When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and all those old clocks don't appeal to was convinced this was the job for him anymore. ''Who needs old clocks anyway? All they do is tell the time. And time isn't good for anything...'' And that was why Before long, he was looking at the clock beside the bedLiverpool University. It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he was nearly twelve o'clock but at midnight the clock chimed only six timesa child. There was nothing for it but to go and find grandad - but where was If anything, he? And why had all the clocks stopped at twelve o'clock?d wanted to be a professional footballer.

|isbn=37562287110861541774|title=CDC: The happy years with a spectacular IT 'Phenomena'A Nye of Pheasants|author=Hans BodmerSteve Burrows

|genre=HistoryCrime|summary=DCI Domenic Jejeune''The history of the development of IT could fill books of several hundred pagess close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman.'' Author Hans Bodmer is quite right about Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain thathe was facing a man armed with a knife - and he killed a Ghurka. He has chosen to tell us about the short Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but explosive, history of evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the Control Data Company, CDC, for whom man. Now he workedcould be facing the death penalty. It's a fascinating tale, told in Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a mixture of technological summary diplomatic incident and wry anecdotewouldn't help Danny at all.

|isbnauthor=1529356660Alexander McCall Smith|title=The Sanctuary|author=Emma HaughtonPerfect Passion Company|rating=34.5|genre=ThrillersGeneral Fiction|summary=It was the quiet which woke Zoey up - or, rather, the absence of the noise which was The Perfect Passion Company is a constant dating agency in New York. Here it was silent Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the heat was overwhelmingonline apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. When she looked out of the window all Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could see was come and look after the desertbusiness, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. How did she get here? Zoey was house-sitting for Uncle Dan and his two Manx cats and she remembered that she'd been Katie is coming out of a break up with Franny a bad boyfriend, and Rocco last nightso jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. She knew that she'd had quite a lot And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to drink 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but how could she have got with some new characters who quickly begin to the desert from New York? charm. She had Katie has no memory of getting on experience in running a plane business, or in match-making, but as she thought backNess has full confidence in her abilities, and there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, a memory of sirensWilliam, flashing lights and of being pushed into to lend a car snagged on the edge of her mind.hand…|isbn=1846976596

|authorisbn=Christopher Golden0811771741|title=Road of BonesInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman|rating=3.54|genre=HorrorCrafts|summary=The Kolyma Highway… the Melissa Leapman's 'Road of Bones'… the R504. Stretching InstaKnits for over Baby'' gives us a thousand miles across Siberia, it's one collection of the world's most notorious routesknits from toys to blankets. For months Some will be quick knits - others are of the year it's a spread long, cosy afternoons in front of sheet ice suspended above the permafrost surrounding it, while its fire'springvariety. The projects are divided by the time they' sees it turn into a huge blodge of unremitting, apocalypticll take to complete -level mudless than five hours, which dries into ruttedfive to ten hours, puddly dustten to twenty hours and more than twenty hours. I don't think google streetview updates it very often. Built because Stalin wanted so much uranium and other Siberian mineralsAll the projects are attractive, modern and because he wanted to give too many people a lesson, it legendarily cost a life every metre it coversuseable. You can easily find documentaries I perhaps show my age when I wonder about it online, but that's a bit rich, for one of our main characters, Felix 'Teig' Teigland, is a filmsocial-media-maker, doing a recce with his cameraman buddy, John Prentiss – who's mostly there to encourage the project to fruition to claw back some of the funds he'd invested in the pair's prior TV worthy projects. They pick up their oh-so-chatty local guide, gain the company of a local beauty, and fetch up at the guide's childhood village. And but that's where things start to go awry…|isbn=1803361476me being picky.

|isbnauthor=1838776184Dean Koontz|title=Her Majesty the Queen Investigates: Murder Most Royal|author=S J BennettThe Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeParanormal|summary=''The QueenBenny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, like the sunrise and the tides, was generally a reliable way of marking time.'' It seemed to begin as a coldhis house gets trashed. Hardly surprisingOh, and someone has delivered a reallyweird, as Prince Philip had been suffering for a couple of days but seemed disturbing coffin-sized object to be getting better. Hopefullyhis home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the Queen thoughtthing that has trashed his house! The thing is, her cold would go Benny is the same wayvery last person to deserve all this bad luck. She'd probably caught it from one of the great-grandchildrenHe is a nice person. Unfortunately, it didn't get better and when the doctor called he diagnosed full-blown fluA really nice person. She and So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the Duke were due delivery to go his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to Sandringham by train that day but the doctor put his foot downhelp him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. HeSpike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny'd have preferred that the queen have s enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a few dayswaitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny' bed rest before venturing s wild adventure) can figure out but had to be satisfied with the thought that who exactly they'd go by helicopter the following day. It was annoying: people would be ready for her today and Her Majesty did not like to disappointare.|isbn=1662500491

|author=Peter Owen JonesAdam Stower|title=Conversations with NatureMurray and Bun|rating=4.5|genre=Spirituality and ReligionConfident Readers |summary= One Murray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the comments made when I was offered this beautiful book for review was that ittwo. But he's a bad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the catflap they both use can chuck them out, not very longinto the regular back garden, but into a world of frightening adventure and whiffs. Having read the book twice overThis time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, I'm brought back inescapably to the Spanish proverb that Life may be shorthonest, but it is broad. In this case Ihe's turned up and he'm brought ll have to the idea that the length of life is not the point; the point is its depth. Peter Owen Jones dives deep.do…|isbn=19129924180008561249

|isbn=1916459943B0C47LV1PC|title=Squeakily BabyFragility|author=Beth WebbMosby Woods

|genre=For SharingLiterary Fiction|summary=Much as mothers love their babies, thereCan you make a 's something they all dread - a squeakily baby. He's so tired but he canYo birthing person't - or won't - go to sleep: insteadjoke? And if you could, he just lies on his blanket and ''wails''. The sea offers to help. It rocks Baby gently and is the question should you make it? Or is the waves sing ''hushquestion if you did, hush''. Think of gentle wavelets falling onto a sandy beach and you have would it land? The catch is that the sound perfectlyanswer for both could well be. The mermaids join in - ''la lou, la lay...'' And for a moment it seems to have worked as Baby closes his eyesno. Then a seagull  ''Fragility'shouts''' and we know exactly what's going is set as the city of Portland, Oregon, cautiously begins to happen next.emerge from the restrictions imposed during the covid pandemic