Open main menu

Changes

no edit summary
'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].
<!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->
{{Frontpage
|author=Patrick Ness and Tea BendixTom Percival|title=Different for BoysThe Wrong Shoes|rating=4.5|genre=Teens Confident Readers|summary=Ant Will's life is difficult, in Year Eleven at quite a standard school, and multitude of ways. He is surprised to find his geography class (within which it seems absolutely nothing about geography is ever learnt) bullied because he has been restructured'the wrong shoes', so he has the wrong shoes because his desk is one dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of four with both his best buddy from the football teamthings like food, and two other old muckers – in fact they all go back to primary school days together. As theyhis dad can're all fired up, straining t work because he lost his job at the leash only college, was working a singlecash-sex school can form, the talk in class -hand job on a building site and out often turns to sexhad an accident. Which is confusing for AntThrow into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, as he doesnand Will't know what his score is, where his achievements s life seems bleak in that regard lieevery direction. He's had a casual relationshipAnd yet, he still has a secret one, for several months nowtiny amount of hope. He is good at art, and so has effectively progressed up clings to the ladder headed by 'experienced'moments of joy when he is drawing, but whether that's set in stonefeel like a light at the end of a long, he can't be sure. And that's mostly because of who he's been having the relationship and the sex withdark tunnel.|isbn=15295094911398527122
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=M R CareySylvie Cathrall|title=Infinity GateA Letter to the Luminous Deep
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary= I'm annoyingly picky when it comes to science fiction. Not because it's a genre I dislike – nothing of the sort. My standards There are high precisely because it's few greater joys than a hard genre book which lives up to get right – and when it's bad, it's often terrible. But the a compelling premise of Infinity Gate had me hooked. A concept this intriguing felt like a high-stakes gamble: if it was done well, it'd be fantastic. So And this is where I sum up that premiseone of them.|isbn=03565180430356522776
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=13985095820008517061|title=The FavourDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Nicci FrenchStig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=It was 2 amFormer Metropolitan Police detective, not long after A levelsJake Johnson, when has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the car crash happened. It future of his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, as moving in together would cause problems mean a lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the future she wants for Liam Birch but then no one could really understand why he herself and Jude Winter were together. She was utterly driven by her determination to go to medical school. daughter? Liam was For the reverse. He just acted ''as if moment they’re enjoying life just rolled him over in the present and carried him along''. A bit of weed here, a few drinks there: putting the legal effects of future on the car crash really didn't worry him at all. The relationship broke up soon after that - or rather, Liam simply didn't see Jude any moreback burner.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=08570517411786482126|title=The Sins Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=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 child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the one night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of Our Fathers: A Rebecka Martinsson Investigationsickness.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008551324|authortitle= Asa Larsson and Frank Perry The Devil You Know (TranslatorD S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Lars Pohjanen It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or has only a few weeks to live but any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's determined that Rebecka Martinsson is going prepared to investigate tell the police where the case of a body found in a freezer at the home of a deceased alcoholicmissing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. The problem This person, he promises, is that someone big and it will be worth the case has long passed the statute of limitationspolice doing what he wants. Raimo Koskela disappeared without a trace in 1962. He was And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the father remainder of Olympic boxing champion Borje Stromhis sentence and to get an early parole date. Rebecka wants nothing Not much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do with a fifty-yearthe other thing that Hardie demanded -old case on which she can take no action: the problem is make certain that this DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is a dying mankept well away from what's wish. The situation changes when a post-mortem establishes that Henry Pekkari, the dead alcoholic, was also murderedhappening. Is there a connection between the two deaths?
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Robert Dugoni0008405026|title=Her Deadly GameA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=Crime
|summary= Patrick Duggan & Associates has been the lifeIt's work of Patsy Duggan – rather charmingly nicknamed 'The Irish Brawler' due to his reputation for no holds barred courtroom performances in defence of his clientssixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. Along with an indisputable talent for the law, Patsy also has a gift for drinking himself to oblivion She was never found and inevitably the latter was beginning investigation ground to overshadow the formera halt. Enter Keera DugganNow, her mother, Helena, former competitive chess prodigy and proven Seattle Prosecutor who finds herself her father are dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the hideous position positioning of asking the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her father for boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is now a job at complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the family firm because a romantic entanglement with a senior colleague, Miller Ambrose, had gone, rather spectacularlyexplanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, southUna Burt) are less convinced.|isbn=1662500181
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn= Rob Keeley0571379877|title= The Boy Who Disappeared and Other StoriesKellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=43.5|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary= Hooray! Bookbag favourite Rob Keeley Edward Jevons is back a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and Stanza. Robert's a return theatre director. He's also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and uses Edward to the short story format! The Boy Who Disappeared treats us run errands for him. Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to eleven new tales, each as fun Robert. Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to read as his previous offeringsstumble upon the two of them kissing in a dark passageway.|isbn= B0BVW69N1G
}}
{{Frontpage
|author= Michael GrothausJo Callaghan|title=Beautiful Shining PeopleLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre= Literary FictionCrime|summary= When a man is found crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. It''s their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. But fearing something when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and having it come a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to pass are two different thingstheir AI Future Policing project. And I'm willing Will they be able to bet most of what we fear will never happensolve the case in time, or we can take steps to change it.'' ''Beautiful Shining People'' revolves around will Kat find herself taken off the question of identity case and acceptance. Of what it means to be human. Of what is real and what is artificial, and whether the development potentially, out of technology is exciting or frightening.a career?|isbn=191458564X139851120X
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B09BLBP3P81399613073|title=Neville Chamberlain's War: How Great Britain Opposed Hitler, 1939-1940Moral Injuries|author=Frederic SeagerChristie Watson
|rating=4.5
|genre=HistoryThrillers|summary=Received wisdom Olivia, Laura and simplified narrative often lead Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to misconceptions about historybe a cardiothoracic surgeon. One such Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Anjali is the scrubbing from the popular imagination free spirit of the early days of World War II from 1939group and she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-40, known as the ''Phoney Warfuelled party and it's going to end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. We remember Neville Chamberlain appeasing Hitler, war breaking out, and Churchill coming in to save Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the daythree friends. Very little This time is spent on this period in cultural reflections and yet, as Frederic Seager argues in this book, it was of vital significance in how the war played out's their teenage children who are involved.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=07603781340241636604|title=The First-Time GardenerTrading Game: Container Food GardeningA Confession|author=Pamela FarleyGary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=Home and FamilyAutobiography|summary=If you've ever thought how good it would be were to be able to pop out into the garden and pick some fruit and vegetables for bring up an image of a meal – but realised that you wouldn't know where to start, this is the book you need. It's comprehensive: you'll cover everything from why you should grow city banker in your own foodmind, what you're going unlikely to grow, what you'll grow it in (both containers think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and soil)his background is the East End, where you'll put these containershe was familiar with violence, how you'll water poverty and fertilise them and you finish the main part of the book with a handy section on troubleshootinginjustice. There's also a good glossarywas no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the London School of Economics. So, Stevenson is it any good?}}{{frontpage|isbn=1803363002|author= Eric LaRocca|title= The Trees Grew Because I Bled There|rating= 5|genre= Horror|summary= Horror taps into something primeval within bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with numbers which most of uscan only envy. It is used as a way He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to reflect our darkest emotions and how we as humans react and process thembe stupid. Most horror fiction feature a ''Big Bad'' It was his ability at what was, whether that is a home invaderessentially, a monster or a ghostcard game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, it usually something tangible and, by the end of the story, beatable. Eric LaRocca's ''The Trees Grew Because I Bled There'' is not like that. It is this turned into permanent employment as a collection of short stories more interested in the horrors of illness, grief and humiliation. Horrors that linger and are harder to defeat than any ''Big Bad''trader.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Amelia Estelle Dellos1035021803|title=Delilah RecoveredThe Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=43.5|genre=FantasyCrime|summary= We meet Dee at a point when her life isnIt't going as planned but things might, just might, be about s twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to look the English country village where she grew up. Out She's back now because of work, about to lose a request for help from her flatbeloved aunt, Dee is up for an accountantCarole. Freya's job. But itformer mentor and Carole's not close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to be. Dee is attacked by two men calling themselves witch hunterssay the least. She survives Arthur was the attack but reason why Freya had not unscathedbeen back to the village: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. Witch Even though they were in business together as antique hunters? What on earth , she has that not felt able to do with Dee? She's just an ordinary womanbe near the man or pursue the profession she loved. After the split, she worked in a cafe, living an ordinary life. Slivers met and married James (on the rebound from the love of memory of things that are not ordinary at all return to her life, who was murdered) and things will never be the same...Freya and James have now divorced.|isbn=B0BKYFDLLV
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=0008404976AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=The Close (DS Maeve Kerrigan)All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Jane CaseyBenjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=CrimeScience Fiction|summary=It was because ''Opening up new ways of Rula Jacques that DS Maeve Kerrigan and DI Josh Derwent were living together in Jellicoe Closethinking about the shape of things to come.''
If 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 regular reader few decades of the [[Jane Caseytechnology in my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with what's Maeve Kerrigan series in Chronological Order|Maeve Kerrigan series]] youadvantageous to me but I'll have read m left with the feeling that sentence twice and wondered if it's a massive spoiler because there all getting away from me. Some of it is a delicious sexual chemistry between the two which seems very, very real- frankly - quite frightening. But (there's always a Of course, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'butm reading someone who knows what they', isn't there?) Josh has a partner and he dotes on her son, even if re talking about or the relationship with Melissa can be a little rockylatest conspiracy theorist. As for Maeve, she's just come out of an abusive relationship which has left her more than I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a little uncertainway I could understand.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Merryn GloverSunny Singh|title=The Hidden FiresHotel Arcadia|rating=3.5|genre=TravelThrillers |summary= It The Hotel Arcadia is always about a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Hiding from the bookterrorists who are rampaging through, not the writerkilling everyone on site, but there are times when the author's hinterland is also Sam, a wartime photographer and Abhi, the background hotel manager. As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the book and so it is necessary to understand that context, residents who are still alive in order to appreciate the book. Merryn Glover is of Australian parentagehotel, was born in Kathmanduhe forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, grew up in the Annapurna and Himalayan and now lives in Badenoch in Scotland. I can think keeps on venturing out of no-one better a combination her room to try to give us a re-appraisal of Nan Shepherds work than the first Writer in Residence in the Cairngorms National Parkcapture what's happened through her photography. Merryn walks, not so much in Although they only ever talk over the shadow of Shepherdphone, but in their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her spirit. I think keep safe and they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the two would have gotten along famouslyterrorists.|isbn=1846975751086154742X
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Alice M Ross1529153298|title=The Nowhere ThiefList of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=At last there It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is new stock in the impoverished yet over-full antiques shop Elsbeth and her mother run in a seaside townPrime Minister. Elsbeth knows this because she has stolen it(A woman? I mean, honestly... ) She also knows she should be free from worries about being found out'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 has 's overheard that her father wants to move the ability to leave this worldfamily 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, and use an unworldly portal of kaleidoscope colours to enter other worldsforeign place, where the sea levels are rising dramatically and the buildings are generally empty of humans and ripe for plunderbest avoided. With eviction imminentFor Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, can Elsbeth nab and she'll do anything to actually generate custom at the shop? prevent that. Well yes, is She's not worried about the answer, but the fact a mysterious man knows exactly which items come from these different Somewheres only raises more questions…|isbn=1839943769dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=15295047751398524085|title=The Toy Bus (The Repair Shop Stories)Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Amy Sparkes and Katie HickeyNicci French|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Elsie Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her little brother David loved to go to the park and watch the red buses drive pastdaughter, Etty. Elsie would race the buses along the side of the park are all worried but David couldn't - he'd been born with cerebral palsy and even just standing up was very difficult. One day Elsie spotted a bus in the toy shop window which would help David strangely - and was happy to use the coins from her money box to pay for it as cash was tight at homehusband, Alec, is not. GraduallyShortly afterwards, David learned to stand upEtty and Greg, use find the bus for supportbody of Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, and walk behind itin the river. Many decades later, Elsie brought It was an easy assumption for the bus, now damaged and rusted, police to the Repair Shop, hoping make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the experts guilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there could make it so that her grandchildren could play 's little else they can do but get on with ittheir lives and wonder about what really happened.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=18479418341035906708|title=Atomic HabitsDiva|author=James ClearDaisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=LifestyleGeneral Fiction|summary=I've said this before We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but there are some books that you seek outshe was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, some books that you stumble across in December 1923 and some books that drop into your life because you really MUST read them, like, right now! only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas'Atomic Habits'' to make it more manageable in the States. is When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the last categoryNazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her elder sister, Jackie.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Natasha FarrantChristopher Edge|title=The Rescue of RavenwoodBlack Hole Cinema Club|rating=54
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=This story is another excellent adventure from Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the author nickname of ''Voyage of the Sparrowhawk'The Black Hole'. Ravenwood is an old houseAll big movie fans, in the North they're looking forward to lots of Englandexciting films, where Bea and Raffy have been living for most of their lives. many, many snacks! They are part of a complex, extended family arrangementHowever, as Bea is there with her Uncle Leothe movie starts, and Raffy they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is there with his mumvery different, and they are living together as a family. They have grown swept up swimming in the cove, roaming through the trees, completely at one with all of the nature around the house and loving every inch of the placeinto an adventure they couldn't even imagine. But now the house is under threat, as Leo is under pressure they lurch from his other two brothers one film genre to sell the property to a developer as it's becoming more and more expensive to maintain. next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? The children find themselves worrying not only about where Will they're going ever get back to live, but if they'll even be togetherthe cinema, and if Ravenwood itself will be torn down.to their real lives?|isbn=05713487851839942738
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Nick BrooksRachel Greenlaw|title=Promise BoysCompass and Blade|rating=43.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=When ''I can hear the principal (headmaster) song of Urban Promise Prep school the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.'' Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, is murderedone 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 trap to end the wrecking, three boys find themselves called into they capture the police station as suspectsisland's leader and Mira's father. EachDesperate to save him from death, seeminglyMira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and with only coordinates to guide her, has she sets off in search of a grudge family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. With only nine days to unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the heart of some description against Principal Moorethe smuggler's territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and each could the ones she holds most dear.|isbn=0008664730}}{{Frontpage|author=James Sherwood Metts|title=Planet Storyland|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary= Things have been there at a bit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of his murderother, new ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. But who killed himLife was pretty much shut down and, and whyalong with it, and if any of all the boys are innocent, will many daily social interactions on which they be able to clear their names?depend so heavily.|isbn=10350031551736128426
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=G K HollowayMatthew Tree|title=In the Shadows of CastlesWe'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Literary Fiction|summary= We begin after the momentous battle in 1066 Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, a drunk and on the day chronic underachiever whose dreams of William being exceptional at any of Normandy's coronation as King his artistic passions all failed miserably and who had endless crises of England. William's position is not secure and the new king has many challenges. Imposing authority through a coronation is importantself confidence. And William is right So Tim applied himself to worry. While the previous kinghis studies, Harold, is dead cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and the likelihood of more pitched battles is over, the rebels are stirring and much of the country does not wish to recognise a new overlordset himself high but achievable ambitions.|isbn=1800422466B0CVFXPGP8
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0008506337A G Slatter|title=The Garnett Girls|author=Georgina MooreBriar Book of the Dead
|rating=5
|genre=General FictionFantasy|summary=The love affair between Margo Garnett and poet Richard O'Leary was all-consuming, apparently on both sides. Margo was just sixteen when they fell in love. Richard was twenty-one and described by Margo's mother as 'an older man'. Her parents worried that RichardThere's influence would take her away from what they felt she could achieve - going to Oxford and having a glittering career. In the event, they eloped and Richard took her away from the Isle part of Wight. Margo did go me that wants to Oxford and went on keep this just to become a well-respected journalistmyself for however long I can. The couple had three children: RachelThis secret magic of my own, all mine, Imogen and Sasha. Life was lived in London and holidays were spent at Sandcove, the family home on the Isle of Wightlast. Even then the doubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's mind: ''she would never be able I just want to leave him in chargeenjoy it for a while.''.
Then Richard Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Briar's, a family of witches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands. Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to be born into her family for generations and as such since she was young, her training as a steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the town's leader, and Ellie takes her place beside her. As challenges come her way left them, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, putting her at the heart of a maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what to do as the Briar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat.|isbn=1803364548
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Vanda Symon1529900360|title=Expectant (Detective Sam Shephard)The Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Detective Sam Shepherd is approaching It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis'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 start help of her maternity leave when there is a brutalpsychologist only worked for a while. Finally, it was Robin, Delaware's partner, shocking murder of an expectant woman in Dunedinwho nudged Milo into asking for help again. Suddenly She knew that the involvement was something that the man she finds herself embroiled loved needed. The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the hunt for swimming pool of a killer targeting pregnant women, with all the extra pressure that entails being pregnant herselfremote property in Bel Air. Finding herself put on desk duties, which she rails against, she just can't let He was the case go heir to an Italian shoe empire and she starts is married to follow every thread to uncover whatan extremely rich man and it's actually happening, and not the increasingly disturbing worry Italian. But which of just what might happen next.|isbn=1914585577them was the primary target?
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=15291259601529395224|title=Unnatural HistoryLetting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Jonathan KellermanSion Rowlands|rating=43.5|genre=CrimeAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Donny Klement Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a photographer. Well, it was AdonisGP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, actually, but Donny had stuck unless particularly when he got Danny but whichever considered the strain that being on- itcall put on his father's past tense as his PA found life. When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the job for him dead in his bed. Three shots were placed neatly through his heartBefore long, he was at Liverpool University. The PA, Mel Gornick, is distraught and it falls to psychologist Alex Delaware to calm her down whilst Lieutenant Milo Sturgis gets more agitated It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he tries to establish what's happened. Donny had just finished was a series of photographs called ''The Wishers''child. He'd taken eight homeless people off the streets and asked them what theyIf anything, he'd really like wanted to be. They were then dressed up as their fantasy, photographed and sent on their way with a generous gift in dollarsprofessional footballer.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Robin Birch and Jobe Anderson0861541774|title=Secret Beast Club: The Unicorns A Nye of Silver StreetPheasants|author=Steve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=JaydenDCI Domenic Jejeune's nose is forever in a bookclose friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, which means he knows has taken a lot about mythological creatures – the phoenixes and unicorns of the world, for example. Aisha is addicted short holiday in Singapore to her new tabletmeet up with an old ally, where she can see videos of anything that might be out thereGuy Trueman. The problem, as their mothers see it, is Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that they are never 'out there' themselves, exploring the outside world of Hackney, London. But when he was facing a narrowboat turns up carrying man armed with a scienceknife -minded, educational purpose, and with a past involving Jayden's cousin, they find he killed a magical world they never knew existedGhurka. For many of those mythological creatures are realInitially, including the one Aisha thinks she's seen on he faced a bit charge of local footagemanslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the man. The crew of Now he could be facing the boat, including a living gargoyle, are tasked with saving the rare critters – and the kids unknowingly have the magical sight needed to join indeath penalty. Dare they side with Leila, the woman on board, and her relative who lives Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a figure in a painting, diplomatic incident and become saviours of the unseen?|isbn=0241573483wouldn't help Danny at all.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1913839656Alexander McCall Smith|title=Let's Celebrate Being Different|author=Lainey DeeThe Perfect Passion Company|rating=34.5|genre=For SharingGeneral Fiction|summary=Todd was excited about spending The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the weekend with his grandmotheronline apps in providing a more personal, not least because tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she made could come and look after the best beetle juicebusiness, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. He packed two pairs Katie is coming out of dungarees a break up with a bad boyfriend, and his favourite hat and then gathered together his button collection so jumps at the chance to come home to show his grandmotherEdinburgh. She had promised And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to take him an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Friday Night Club at the local community centre and Todd was pleased about this as he wanted Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to make new friendscharm. At homeKatie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, his only friend was his mum and he wondered why that could be. Grandma thought that it might be because he looked different.there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|isbn=1846976596
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=17873010360811771741|title=What July KnewInstaKnits for Baby|author=Emily KochMelissa Leapman|rating=54|genre=ThrillersCrafts|summary=When we first meet July Hooper on 20 July 1995 sheMelissa Leapman's just ten years old''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to blankets. SheSome will be quick knits - others are of the 's a carefullong, meticulous childcosy afternoons in front of the fire' variety. The care has been taught projects are divided by her father, Mick Hooper, who is not prepared to discuss the death of his wife, Julytime they's motherll take to complete - less than five hours, and any hint that the conversation is heading that way will lead five to the necessity of a Lesson. Other infractions of his requirements also lead ten hours, ten to these Lessons twenty hours and he's not even careful about whether or not the injuries are visiblemore than twenty hours. July's teacher is concerned and brings up the possibility of abuse with All the head but her worries projects are dismissed: Mick has been good to the schoolattractive, has he not? modern and useable. The playground wouldnI perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects't have been resurfaced but for himthat's me being picky.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Lucy AsheDean Koontz|title=Clara and OliviaThe Bad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=General FictionParanormal|summary=The year Benny is 1933having a terrifically bad day. The place? Sadler's Wells. Ballerinas Clara He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and Olivia are sisters, twins no lesshis house gets trashed. Identical on the outside but not Oh, we learnand someone has delivered a really weird, on the inside. And not on stagedisturbing coffin-sized object to his home, either. Because thereand it's a lot possible that builds a dancer. Some things that can be taught whoever or learnt – discipline, attention to detail – and some things, whatever was inside is the thing that ''je ne sais quoi''has trashed his house! The thing is, that don't come from Benny is the classroomvery last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A stage presencereally nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend, a charmbad weather friend called Spike, who has been 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 Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny''joie de vivre''. The difference between a hard-workers enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a starwaitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=08615440801662500491
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0008454493Adam Stower|title=All the Dangerous Things|author=Stacy WillinghamMurray and Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeConfident Readers |summary=Isabelle Drake hasn't really slept for Murray is supposed to be a year - humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, apart from whatever takes his fancy next of the odd occasion when she lost track of time or drifted off for a momenttwo. ItBut he's now a year since her sonbad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, Masonand the catflap they both use can chuck them out, was stolen from his bed in not into the middle regular back garden, but into a world of the night and Izzy is consumed with guilt that she heard nothing frightening adventure and particularly about her relief in the morning when she thought he was sleeping inwhiffs. In that year she's done everything she could to raise awareness about the case. She does interviews and when we meet herThis time round it drops them into a Viking land, she's just been to TrueCrimeCon where she gave a keynote presentation. On the plane backtroll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, shebut he's approached by a podcaster, Waylon Spencer, who points out that she could do a podcast turned up and get he'll have to so many more people than she could by giving speeches to a few hundred people at conferences.do…|isbn=0008561249
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Jeremy Dronfield and David Ziggy GreeneB0C47LV1PC|title=Fritz and KurtFragility|author=Mosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary=We start with the pair of brothers Fritz and KurtCan you make a ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, and their muckers, doing things any Jewish lad in 1930s Vienna would want to do – kicking things around is the empty market place, helping question should you make it? Or is the neighboursquestion if you did, being dutiful when would it comes to land? The catch is that the synagogue choir and at a vocational schoolanswer for both could well be... Kurt has to make sure the lamps are turned on at their very Orthodox neighbours' each Friday night – the Sabbath preventing them for using anything nearly as mechanical and workmanlike as a light switch. But this is the time just before the Austrian leader is going to cave to Hitler's will, and instead of having a national vote to keep the Nazis out, invite them in with open armsno.  ''KristallnachtFragility'' happened in Vienna just is set as much as in Germany, as did all the round-ups city of Jews. These in their turn leave the younger Kurt at home with his mother and sisters anxious to hear word of an evacuation to Britain or the US, while Fritz and his father arePortland, unknown initially to each otherOregon, packed off on the same train cautiously begins to Buchenwald and emerge from the stone quarry there. And us wondering how restrictions imposed during the titular event for the adult variant of all this could come about…|isbn=024156574Xcovid pandemic
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1529431735
|title=The Winter Visitor
|author=James Henry
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=It's February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the more surprising. He'd been exiled on the Costa del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decade. The return has come about because he's had a letter from his ex-wife, saying that she's ill and hasn't long to live. It's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his underwear and sent to a watery grave in the boot of a stolen Ford Sierra. Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?