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'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=14091816690241636604|title=The MaidensTrading Game: A Confession|author=Alex MichaelidesGary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeAutobiography|summary=Mariana was convinced that Professor Edward Fosca had committed two murders and looked likely If you were to get away with them both. She needed bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think carefully about what she knew and decide how she should proceedof someone like Gary Stevenson. Everything A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin- or so she thought - had begun with the death of Tara Hampton on stripe suit and his background is the Paradise nature reserve in Cambridge. She'd been brutally stabbed and Mariana's nieceEast End, Zoewhere he was familiar with violence, had telephoned her in distresspoverty and injustice. Tara There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been her best friend to the London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and she was struggling to copehe has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. Mariana wasn't ''entirely'' happy about having He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to go to Cambridge, but she caught the first fast train from King's Crossbe stupid. Mariana and Zoe were close and had been made all the more so by the death of Mariana's husbandIt was his ability at what was, Sebastianessentially, in a swimming accident on Naxos some fourteen months earliercard game which got him an internship with Citibank. Zoe had been their surrogate daughter after the death of Zoe's mother and Mariana's sisterEventually, Elizathis turned into permanent employment as a trader.
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|authorisbn=Maisie Chan1035021803|title=Danny Chung Does Not Do MathsThe Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=43.5|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Danny is eleven It's twenty years old, and what he really, really loves since Freya Lockwood has been back to do is drawthe English country village where she grew up. He creates fantastical comicsShe's back now because of a request for help from her beloved aunt, whilst his best friend Ravi adds the wordsCarole. DannyFreya's former mentor and Carole's dadclose friend, however, wants Danny to concentrate on his mathsArthur Crockleford, is dead and forget about the drawingcircumstances seem suspicious, because he says nobody can make a living from drawing! to say the least. At least Danny has his own roomArthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, she feels, where he can draw in secret and in peacelet her down badly. But then one day his parents tell him Even though they have a surprise for himwere in business together as antique hunters, and this surprise turns out to be his grandmother who she has come over from China not felt able to live with them, and who will not only be sharing Danny's bedroom but she will also be sleeping on near the top bunk of his bunk bed! Danny is horrified! His Nai Nai (grandmother) speaks no English, and Danny finds himself forced into being her babysitter, and showing her around man or pursue the townprofession she loved. Poor DannyAfter the split, stuck on she worked in a maths projectcafe, frustrated with his bedroom situationmet and married James (on the rebound from the love of her life, who was murdered) and then he even has a falling out with Ravi..Freya and James have now divorced.how on earth will things ever get better?!|isbn=180078001X
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Terry MilesAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=RabbitsAll Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=4.5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=Welcome to ''Opening up new ways of thinking about the world shape of The Game. Or should that be the game, for while it ought to be capitalised things to high heaven, it never leaves lower case throughout this bookcome. It's also called Rabbits, although only as a slangy term for ' I've heard it – as far as anyone knows, it has no official title, no official source, no hard and fast structure, and to the average person no obvious entry point. A bit like the game of life then. Yes, this said that 'technology' is the game of life for a certain tribe of people – the fan of the conspiracy, the computer game, the hack from the darkest of webswhat happens after you're eighteen. People like our hero, K Well, named like I must confess that in the least Kafkaesque manner possible. K and his bezzies are trying to be historians of the game, and there have studied amongst many things the most unique of high score boards, for the lists been more than a few decades of who has successfully won the game are technology in the most peculiar places, and are still very shortmy lifetime. However this time it I've kept up reasonably well with what's different. This time advantageous to me but I'm left with the game seems the most dangerous, nay lethal, the most broken feeling that it's ever been – morally and otherwiseall getting away from me. Some of it is - frankly - quite frightening. Unfortunately for K Of course, in trying to sort out what I could research the game is doing, if it's even being played, possibilities and how his loved ones might be kept safe, he is only to find out that the line between observing probabilities and learning end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the game, latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and playing it, is who could deliver information in a very thin one indeed..way I could understand.|isbn=1529016932
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{{Frontpage
|author=C J CareySunny Singh|title=WidowlandHotel Arcadia|rating=43.5|genre=General FictionThrillers |summary=It's April 1953, and Adolf Hitler's schedule includes going to Moscow to attend the state funeral of Joseph Stalin then within weeks coming to London, parading around The Hotel Arcadia is a bit, and watching luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over the sanctioned return to the throne of Edward VIII with his wife, Queen Wallisby a terrorist group. For yes, Britain caved in the lead-up to Hiding from the World War Two that certainly didn't happen as we know it, and we terrorists who are now a protectorate – wellrampaging through, we share enough of the same blood as the Germanic peoples killing everyone on ''the mainland''. But this site, there is most certainly a different Britain, for Nazi-styled phrenology, and ideas of female purposeSam, has put all of that gender into a caste system, ranging from high-brow office bigwigs to the drudges, wartime photographer and beyond thoseAbhi, right on down to the childless, the husbandless and the widowshotel manager. Female literacy is actively discouraged. And As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in this puritanical existencethe hotel, our heroine, Rose Ransom, is employed he forms a bond with the task of bowdlerising classical literature Sam who refuses to take all encouragement for female emancipation out of it – after all, not every book can be bannedcowed by events, and not every story excised immediately from British civilisation, and so they just get a hefty tweak towards the party line before theykeeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what're stamped ready for reprints happened through her photography. That is her job, at least, until Although they only ever talk over the first emerging signs of female protest come to lightphone, with their potential friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and they both wait to spoil Hitler's visitsee if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists.|isbn=152941198X086154742X
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{{Frontpage
|author=Louise Beech|title=This Is How We Are Human|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=Veronica is a devoted single mother to her son, Sebastian - but she can't give him everything he wants. Sebastian has decided that it's time for him to have sex. But as an autistic 20 year-old, that's easier said than done. And it's starting to cause them both problems. |isbn=1913193713}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B093VPBL5L1529153298|title=Cape Henry HouseThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jolly Walker BittickJennie Godfrey|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Meet BosnerIt's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, orhonestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, to give him his full title, Petty Officer Third Class Bosnerthough. Women have been disappearing. We never really find out if he has a first name: thereWell, they've been murdered, but to have 's merely a hint that he had the nickname disappeared'Secretarydoesn' at one pointt sound quite so frightening. HeMiv's upset because she's simply Bosner overheard that her father wants to one and allmove the family 'Down South'. When we first encounter him heyou's exploring his memories of 2008 when he was re from Yorkshire, Down South is a greaser on helicopters (or helosfrightening, foreign place, as they were called) at a naval establishmentbest avoided. The hours could be long For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and he was often working nights but at she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the age of twentydangers or that her Mum's stopped talking -one, there was always a way to work some fun (think drinking and eating) into his dayanyone.
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Hannah Whitten1398524085|title=For the WolfHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French
|rating=5
|genre=FantasyCrime|summary=In RedCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband's familyfiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, the first daughter becomes queensons Niall, Paul and Ollie and the second her daughter becomes a sacrifice. To Red's misfortune, she is the second daughterEtty. Sent alone into the woods with nothing are all worried but the cape on - strangely - her backhusband, Alec, Red knows what to expect: within the woods is a wolfnot. Shortly afterwards, Etty and he is the one who will decide Greg, find the fate body of their kingdom. If she is not a worthy sacrificeGreg's father, the monsters he keeps contained to the woods will be releasedDuncan Ackerley, and the fabled kings he keeps hostage will never be returned—or so in the stories goriver. But when Red enters It was an easy assumption for the woods, expecting nothing more than police to be killed within the hour, she finds make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the legends are liesguilt. The wolf is Salter children are not a monster—heconvinced but there's a manlittle else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.|isbn=0356516369
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=M G Leonard1035906708|title=TwitchDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=Twitch is a boy who loves birds. He keeps pigeons at homeWe tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, and chickensNew York, and even has swallows nesting in his bedroom! His time spent watching December 1923 and helping birds is easy compared only moved to that of his time in schoolAthens when she was thirteen. But things are about Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to change for Twitch 'Callas' to make it more manageable in all aspects of his life as there is a dangerous bank robber on the run, and it's possible States. When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the missing bank haul is hidden somewhere in Aves Wood, the place where Twitch has his Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret hide and that he knows like the back of his hand! Can Twitch solve the mysteryher preference for her elder sister, and find the missing millions?|isbn=1406389374Jackie.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1838853804Christopher Edge|title=The Cursed Girls|author=Caro RamsayBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=ThrillersConfident Readers|summary=Megan Melvick's earliest memory is of her fourth birthday: she followed her grandfather down to the pondLucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, only to find a place that hehas the nickname of 'd hanged himself. Twenty years later sheThe Black Hole's back home again and this time the occasion is no less sad. SheAll big movie fans, they's there re looking forward to say her final farewells to her sisterlots of exciting films, Melissaand many, who is dying of anorexia. many snacks! As she diesHowever, Melissa whispers 'sorry' to Megan but what did she mean? There were lots of thingsas the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, minor and major cruelties, for which Melissa might have been sorry - or was it they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even a question? imagine. Was she asking if Megan was sorry for sleeping with Melissa's husband, JagoBut as they lurch from one film genre to the next, can they figure out what on earth is going on their wedding day? The Melvicks might seem Will they ever get back to have everything - Ivan Melvick was Lord Lieutenant of the County cinema, and money was never in short supply - but there did seem to be a curse. In addition to Melissa's health problems, Megan was deaf and their mother, Beth, had left suddenly three years before. Would she come back for her elder daughter's funeralreal lives?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0241400120|title=The Girl Who Died|author=Ragnar Jonasson and Victoria Cribb|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=Una was not thriving in Reykjavik: it was some years since her beloved father had committed suicide without leaving any explanation and since then she'd given up her medical studies and retrained as a teacher. She was thirty years old and money was tight. Her friend, Sara, showed her an advert for a job in Skalar on the Langanes Peninsula. There were only ten people in the village but a teacher was required for two children: a salary would be paid and accommodation provided. Una was the only applicant and the job meant that she could let her flat in Reykjavik and, hopefully, save some money over the winter which her contract covered.1839942738
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1846975719Rachel Greenlaw|title=For Any Other Truth (DCI Jim Daley)|author=Denzil MeyrickCompass and Blade
|rating=3.5
|genre=CrimeTeens|summary=We learn that MI5 is having its problems with environmental terrorists supergluing themselves to awkward places''I can hear the song of the sea. But that's LondonThe call of the deep, isnthe answering beat in my heart.'t it? What's happening in Kinloch?
When Rosevear, a light aircraft crash lands at Machrie airportremote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, DCI Jim Daley is one of the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and his colleagueany treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, Acting DI Brian Scottthey capture the island's leader and Mira's father. Desperate to save him from death, head Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and with only coordinates to guide her, she sets off for in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the airport straight awaysea. It soon becomes evident though that both occupants 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 plane were dead before take off. How could that be? The sort heart of tech which would make that possible isnthe smuggler't available s territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and the paying publicones she holds most dear. And why have the man no identification on them - or even labels in their clothes?|isbn=0008664730
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{{Frontpage
|author=Richard BrookJames Sherwood Metts|title=Understanding Human Nature: A User's Guide to LifePlanet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=LifestyleConfident Readers|summary= I am Things have been a firm believer that sometimes we choose books, and sometimes books choose us. In my case, this is one of bit sticky for the latterEarthlings. Not so very long ago, if I had come across this book I'd AI and automation have skimmed itbeen proceeding apace, found some of it interesting, but it would not have often replacing jobs they'hit home' in the way re paid to do and other tasks that it does nowtook time to accomplish. I believe it came Just as they were beginning to get used to me not just because I was likely all this technological change and starting to give it a favourable review [ ''full disclosure The Bookbag's u.s.p. is that people chose their own books rather than getting them randomlythink of other, so there is a predisposition towards expecting new ways to like the bookspend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and, even if it doesn't always turn out that way'' ] – but also because along with it is a book I needed to read, right nowall the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|isbn=18004616821736128426
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B095CY7NBNMatthew Tree|title=Autumn Camp|author=Barry FowlerWe'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Literary Fiction|summary=It was Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be Brian's last camp. He'd founded the organisation some four years ago different from his father, a drunk and had done chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all the organisation since but he was leaving school failed miserably and the time who had come to hand the reins to someone elseendless crises of self confidence. The obvious person was Gary, who'd always been the fun element of the camps and Brian had said that on this camp, Gary should act as the leader and he'd just be there So Tim applied himself to observe. The problem with this was that Gary wasn't really an organiserhis studies, an administrator if you like. He was the entertainer, the person who basked in the spotlight and made things fun - so Brian stepped in and did the organising. He handed the camp over - and then took it back. And Gary determined to have cultivated his revenge. This should have been ''abilities rather than his'' campdaydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions.|isbn= B0CVFXPGP8
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=194812467XA G Slatter|title=The Farm Shop|author=Devon Avery, Justine Avery and Ema TepicBriar Book of the Dead|rating=45|genre=For SharingFantasy|summary=Kirelle and her best friend Sam the cat decide '' There's a part of me that wants to keep this just to go myself for a walkhowever long I can. Kirelle is dressed for This secret magic of my own, all weathers in her bright yellow wellies and Sam is perfectly turned out as ever in his smart grey fur coatmine, at last. As they walk I just want to the top of the hill, they see enjoy it for a big barn with a sign outsidewhile. It's a farm shop! But this is a farm shop with a difference: all the stallholders and customers are farmyard animals. There are sheep and ducks and cows, goats and chickens, and even some mice. Excited, Kirelle and Sam go shopping.'
What will 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, 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 buy?have sacrificed to survive, is under threat.|isbn=1803364548
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=00084049251529900360|title=The Killing KindGhost Orchid|author=Jane CaseyJonathan Kellerman|rating=54
|genre=Crime
|summary=Difficult clients 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 nothing new to barrister Ingrid Lewis but John Webster came as something only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the help of a surprisepsychologist only worked for a while. After allFinally, it was her cross-examination of the Robin, Delaware'victim' which saved him from a lengthy prison sentences partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. He'd been accused of stalking She knew that the woman but it didn't take long to establish involvement was something that - if anything - it was the other way aroundman she loved needed. The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a remote property in Bel Air. Soon Ingrid never seemed He was the heir to be free of John Webster an Italian shoe empire and then she came is married to see him as a threat an extremely rich man and was forced to remember that it's not the police officer at his trial had told her that this Italian. But which of them was the best chance they'd had to put Webster away for a long time: he was a very dangerous man.primary target?
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=00083955941529395224|title=Both Letting the Cat Out of Youthe Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Adele ParksSion Rowlands|rating=43.5|genre=ThrillersAnimals and Wildlife|summary=You could be forgiven for thinking that Leigh Fletcher has it all: great husband and two gorgeous stepsons whom she adoresSiôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. ThenHis father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, one Monday, she went to particularly when he considered the strain that being on-call put on his father's life. When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and never came homewas convinced this was the job for him. MarkBefore long, Oli and Seb are shattered. Well, Mark and Seb are but Oli's sixteen and he was at the stage where he thinks boredom is his best lookLiverpool University. HeIt hadn's t - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a bit off with Leigh for a while but she put it down to him growing up and starting to become independentchild. SebIf anything, he's only twelve and Leigh's absence hits him hard. Then Daan Janssen, d wanted to be a wealthy Dutch businessman, reports his wife, Kai missing. She too has vanished without traceprofessional footballer.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=14736857450861541774|title=Unbreak Your HeartA Nye of Pheasants|author=Katie MarshSteve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=When Beth Carlyle and Simon Withers first met they were on opposite ends of an angry exchange - well, Simon was angry and Beth was doing her best to apologise for having knocked SimonDCI Domenic Jejeune's sonclose friend and former colleague, JakeDanny Maik, off his bike. He wasn't hurt but Jake has historytaken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. He has HLHS Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that's Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome for those of you who are not ''au fait'' he was facing a man armed with your medical acronymsa knife - and he killed a Ghurka. When Initially, he was born, the left side faced a charge of his heart hadn't developed properly and manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he needed open-heart surgery when might have planned to murder the man. Now he was a few days oldcould be facing the death penalty. So, Simon has every right Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to be over-protective particularly when someone isnhelp as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn't looking where they're drivinghelp Danny at all.
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|author=Louie StowellAlexander McCall Smith|title=OtherlandThe Perfect Passion Company|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary= Myra The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and Rohan are like Yin and Yang – Myra is loudoperating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, bright tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and hates ruleslook after the business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while Rohan . Katie is very politecoming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, serious and worries about the tiniest things. Their only connection? Being born and briefly dying so jumps at the same time at the same hospital on Midsummer's daychance to come home to Edinburgh. And sobegins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, every year their families get together bringing us to celebrate the two's birthday/deathday. But when Rohan's little sister Shilpa is taken by the fairy queenan Edinburgh we already love, they must journey thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the OtherlandIsabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a magical realm full of fairiesbusiness, vampiresor in match-making, dragonsbut Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and Gods. Itthere's going always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to be the worst night of their lives.lend a hand…|isbn=17880004631846976596
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|isbn=walker140811771741|title=The Coldest Case (A Bruno, Chief of Police Novel)InstaKnits for Baby|author=Martin WalkerMelissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=CrimeCrafts|summary=It was when he saw Elisabeth DaynesMelissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' work in the prehistory museum at Les Eyzies that chief gives us a collection of knits from toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of police Bruno Courreges had the idea which he thought might help his boss'long, chief cosy afternoons in front of detectives Jalipeau, known as J-J, to solve a case that had haunted him for thirty yearsthe fire' variety. The body of a young male was found in projects are divided by the woods but he was never identified time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and his killer never brought to justicemore than twenty hours. What if an artist could recreate All the face from the skull projects are attractive, modern and the resulting publicity be used to identify the young man? useable. JI perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-J calls the skull worthy projects'Oscarbut that' and has a picture on his door: he sees it every time he leaves his office: he doesn't want to forget Oscar until his killer has been brought to justices me being picky.
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|author= Martha LeighDean Koontz|title= Invisible Ink: A Family MemoirThe Bad Weather Friend|rating= 4.5|genre= BiographyParanormal|summary= Benny is having a terrifically bad day. Martha Leigh begins her book talking about a childhood spent in a slightly eccentricHe loses his job, he loses his fiancee, immediately recognisable upper middle class English familyand his house gets trashed. Her father is Oh, and someone has delivered a Cambridge donreally weird, forever clacking away on disturbing coffin-sized object to his typewriter as he edits the complete correspondence of the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseauhome, his lifeand it's workpossible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. Her mother So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a concert pianist new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who practises has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for hours every daybeing a good person. Neither parent Spike is hugely interested in the practicalities going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of life. There is love in the house but also darker undercurrents that Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a child does not fully understand but knows is therewaitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=18004603841662500491
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{{Frontpage
|author=Darren ShanAdam Stower|title=Archibald Lox Murray and the Slides of Bon Repell: Archibald Lox series, Volume 2, book 2 of 3Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers|summary=So. Having done the impossible Murray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and unpicked the lock friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the Forgotten Crypttwo. But he's a bad magician's cat, from which so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the Departed communicate with catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the Mergeregular back garden, Archie now has ''grop'' to think aboutbut into a world of frightening adventure and whiffs. But before that This time round it drops them into a Viking land, soirees. Soirees! Archiewhere a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to Inezbe honest, but he's amusement, doesnturned up and he't even know what one of those is. But he manages ll have to come through the fancy party unscathed, even after an uncomfortable encounter with Kurtis, whose fledgling romance with Inez was crushed in the first volume of this series. do…|isbn=B093J9TF730008561249
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|authorisbn= Adrian TchaikovskyB0C47LV1PC|title= Shards of EarthFragility|author=Mosby Woods|rating= 4|genre= Science Literary Fiction|summary= Eighty years agoCan you make a ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, Earth was destroyed, warped into an unrecognisable shape by is the moon-sized aliens known as question should you make it? Or is the Architects. Humanity question if you did, would it land? The catch is scattered, constantly fleeing as world after world falls to that the architect's reshapinganswer for both could well be.. Then, just when they had the human race on the run, the Architects vanished. And so, the memories of the war fades, heroes are forgotten, and humanity begins to fracture and fight among themselves. Idris Telemmier, a man genetically engineered to try and communicate with the Architects, does not want to be rememberedno. But, when he and  ''Fragility'' is set as the crew city of the salvage ship he calls home discover what appears to be recent Architect activity, suddenly he is thrust back into the spotlight. As he and his allies bounce from star system to star system, chased by alien crime syndicatesPortland, human secret police and rich slaversOregon, he slowly cautiously begins to realise that emerge from the restrictions imposed during the real war is only just getting started…|isbn=1529051886covid pandemic
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=18484584281529431735|title=Local Woman MissingThe Winter Visitor|author=Mary KubicaJames Henry
|rating=4
|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=Eleven years agoIt's February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, a man regularly came home to his wife with lipstick marks on his collar and lame excuses as to why he was late - againwhich made Bruce Hopkins' return all the more surprising. His wife was in He'd been exiled on the habit of going out Costa del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a run late at nightdecade. It was the only time she The return has come about because he's had for herself when a letter from his ex-wife, saying that she didn's ill and hasn't have long to look after her baby - but when she was out she would meet up with a man, grateful for the unquestioning affection he gave herlive. The locality was stunned It's hard to feel any sympathy when Shelby Tebow disappearedHopkins is abducted, seemingly without a trace, leaving her husband stripped to look after her disabled baby. Ten days later, a local woman his underwear and her six-year-old daughter disappeared. Meredith Dickey was sent to a birth doula and she'd seemed to be under some strain for watery grave in the last couple boot of weeks or soa stolen Ford Sierra. Her body was eventually found in Is it a warning from a seedy motel - it appeared that she'd committed suicide. She left Spanish gang or a note saying that her daughter, Delilah, was safe and there was no point in looking for her.problem closer to home?
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|author=Nicolas BouvierAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=The Japanese ChroniclesGlorious Race of Magical Beasts|rating=54|genre=TravelConfident Readers|summary= It never does to Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and in the evening a review of a book helper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – for there is a quote from generation missing in the blurbfamily. A few short years ago, but sometimes itEli's unavoidable. Le Monde reviewed this bookparents were both lost to the titular race, at some point, with a globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the words ''what world in the old master craftsmen would call company of a masterpiece.'' It is precisely thatmagical beast. A masterpiece in This has made the sense of race anathema to the craft as well as pair – but when a bad incident at the art of writing. I'm going eatery leads to hesitate to call it 'travel writing' because this is as much a history of Japanconfession from gran, a mythology-primer for the Japanese culture as it Eli knows his only hope is a personal response to living and travelling in dare to enter what he most hates, with the sole aim the prize of magic at the end – the countryonly thing to possibly save his gran. |isbn=19060110440571382231
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Genevieve Gornichec178763681X|title=The Witch's HeartKnife Skills for Beginners|author=Orlando Murrin
|rating=4
|genre=FantasyCrime|summary= A modern and approachable reimagining of the Norse myths that centres around Chef Paul Delamare took a teaching job at a witch named Angrbodaresidential cookery school in Belgravia. She hides in He didn't really want to but celebrity chef Christian Wagner had a forest at the edge way of getting both men and women to do what he wanted. Paul ''somehow'' got the nine worlds, remembering nothing of her past life but impression that fact that she was survived burnt he'd be at the stake three times because of Odin's wrath. Her attempts school to live in peaceassist Paul, howeverwho had a broken arm, but it didn't turn out that way. The teaching - and the problems - are quickly thwarted when Loki shows up with her literal heart—the all his own. The one that thing he hadn't expected was cut from her chest before she for someone to turn up dead. Unfortunately, he was tied the person who discovered the body and everyone knows that the police consider that person to be the stake—and refuses to leave her aloneprime suspect.}}{{Frontpage|author=Sarah Marsh|title=A Sign of Her Own|rating=3. 5|genre=General Fiction|summary=After an initial period a bout of mistrustscarlet fever as a child, Angrboda begins to fall for Loki's charmsEllen Lark loses her hearing. Suddenly plunged into a world of silence, and everything about her life changes. Living in a time when the two start an unusual family made use of sign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a school where she is taught to lip read, but physically restrained from signing. From here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the deaf and using a half-dead daughtersystem called Visible Speech. At the same time, a son that's a wolfBell is working on other inventions and ideas, and another son that's Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a snakecomplicated tangle of espionage.|isbn=17890970611035401614
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=17885497591803816759|title=The Distant DeadUnravelling|author=Lesley ThomsonWill Gibson|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeScience Fiction|summary=It was December 1940 's 2038 and Joe is a bored cop policing the wealthy and twenty-four-year-old Maple Greenhill had gone out peaceful New York City. Joe longs for a bit of adventure and to get stuck into some really gritty crime detection. But then something goes horribly wrong with the evening 'with her friend Ida' leaving her three-year-old sonAI system that now runs everything, making life easier for many, Williamand riots start to spread. Finally, at home with her parentsJoe gets to do some real policing. The boy thought that Maple was his sister - it was better for In the family than aftermath of the shame of illegitimacy, but Maple had high hopes of putting her life (rioting global pop star Suki is kidnapped and William's) on a better footing. She was going Joe is assigned to meet bring her well-home. Joe isn't the only one trying tosave Suki -do fiancéDylan, hoping to persuade him to come a British superfan and meet her family tech nerd, is also on the following weekcase. Later, her body would be found in What went wrong? Did the bombed-out home where he had taken her.system fail or was it hacked? And how is Suki's kidnapping connected?
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=15294072491529421284|title=The Perfect LieLaying Out the Bones|author=Jo SpainKate Webb
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=It was July 2019 and Erin was happyone of those flash downpours that the British weather often delivers in a heatwave. She and Danny Ryan were planning In a few days away: that's always gully, a dangerous thing human skeleton came to do when you're married the surface and forensic testing proved the body to a cop but she was hopefulbe Lee Geary, who had disappeared nine years earlier. They He'd been married for six months a known drug user and life was good with had learning disabilities, so it could have been a decent apartment by the sea in Newport, Long Islandsimple case of misadventure but DI Matt Lockyer wasn't convinced. The knock on the door Geary was insistent and when it was openeda townie, Danny's partner, Ben Mitchell so what was there with a couple of other officers. Danny took one look, turned, walked he doing out on Salisbury Plain alone? There are connections to the open window suicide of Holly Gilbert and jumped to his death from two other deaths which were not considered suspicious at the fourth floortime. Eighteen months later, Erin would be on trial for her husbandLockyer and DC Gemma Broad of the Major Crimes Review Unit (that's murdercold cases to you and me) investigate.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=15230927340571379559|title=A Women's Guide to Claiming SpaceThe House of Broken Bricks|author=Eliza Van CortFiona Williams
|rating=5
|genre=Politics and SocietyLiterary Fiction|summary=''She brings a hug-kick-thunderclap that every woman needs in her life. Again and again and again.'' (Alma Derricks, former CMO, Cirque du Soleil RSD) The House of Broken Bricks''To claim space is to live the life story of choosing unapologetically and bravelyfour people. It is to live the life youTess Hembry've always wanted.'' Sometimes the reviewing gods s roots are generousin Jamaica: at a time when violence against women is much temperamentally she might be happier there, but instead, she lives in the newshouse on the riverbank, ''A Womenbuilt of broken bricks. Insubstantial as it might look, it's Guide to Claiming Space'' by Eliza Van Cort dropped onto my deskstood the passage of time, storms and floods. Now Her husband, Richard, struggles to grow his vegetables, to complete the delivery rounds - and to be clear bring in sufficient money. They have twin boys - this book is not a 'how to disable your attacker with two simple jabs' manual: it's something far more effectiveSonny and Max, but discussion at the moment seems to be about how women can be ''protectedrainbow twins. Sonny's colouring reflects his mother's Jamaican heritage. Max takes after his father. IPeople don've always thought t believe that women need to rise above thisthey're related, to be people who donmuch less twins and there't need protection, people who claim their own space. If all women did this, those few men who are violent to women would realise that we are not just s an easy target to be used to prove assumption when Max is out with his mother that they are big menshe's his nanny.
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Darren Shan1529425867|title=Archibald Lox Lost and the Forgotten Crypt: Archibald Lox series, Volume 2, book 1 of 3Never Found (A D I Wilkins Mystery)|author=Simon Mason
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=The second trilogy in ShanIn Oxford, there are two D I Wilkins. Raymond Wilkins is of Nigerian descent, Balliol educated and always exquisitely dressed. D I Ryan Wilkins, son of Ryan and father of Ryan, is not. He's not any of those things. He's white, originated from a trailer park, barely educated (reading's not ''Mergereally'' his thing) and his wardrobe consists mainly of shell suits and trackies. They're usually in lime green or acid yellow. You might wonder if you' saga opens with our herore being introduced to a police procedural written for laughs. Well, Archie, back in London in you're not. The two men are just different sides of the world of same policing coin. Sometimes the Borncombination works brilliantly well. It Sometimes it's not been easy, explaining problematic.}}{{Frontpage|author=Mosby Woods|title=A Whirly Man Loses His Turn|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary= The West isn't the dominant force it once was. Nobody in the West is quite sure how to his foster parents where he's been, mend this or slipping back into ordinary life and forgetting about Inez and his other friends in the Merge, but Archie has done his even if mending it is the bestcourse of action.Governments are flailing.A war here, a push for climate action there.A feeling that nobody is in actual charge. wellImagine then, except for visiting veteran locksmith Winston in Big Ben's clock tower and except for fiddling there was a man with that sneaky master lock precognition. Imagine the strategic advantage in Seven Dials every time he this asset; a man who can sneak awaytell you what will happen given any set of circumstances. That man would be valuable, right? Perhaps the most valuable asset in history.Imagine then, that this man loses this ability. What would governments do to get it back?|isbn=B093H8DPQZB0C9SNG8R1
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