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'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B09HTWX47X0241636604|title=Endless ObsessionThe Trading Game: A Confession|author=Dai HenleyGary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It was his ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1035021803|title=The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=It's some twenty years since we last caught Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up with Andy Flood, formerly a DCI in the Met but now a well-respected private investigator. HeShe's married to Laura, formerly his DS in the Murder Squad but back now working in because of a forensics laboratoryrequest for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. FloodFreya's former mentor and Carole's daughtersclose friend, Arthur Crockleford, Gemma is dead and Pippa, have flown the nestcircumstances seem suspicious, Pippa to Australia, from where she has very little contact with say the family, and Gemma to married lifeleast. She's Arthur was the reason why Freya had mental problems since she was abducted many years ago but Andy and Laura hope that married life will provide not been back to the support village: Arthur, she needsfeels, let her down badly. Flood's Even though they were in business is going well and that was why he together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to turn down be near the man or pursue the profession she loved. After the split, she worked in a cafe, met and married James (on the rebound from the case love of Lisa Blackher life, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.'' I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Well, I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of technology in my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but I'm left with the feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of it is - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand.}}{{Frontpage|author=Peter PapathanasiouSunny Singh|title=The StoningHotel Arcadia
|rating=3.5
|genre=Thrillers|summary=In The Hotel Arcadia is a town sleazy enough to make sh*tholes elsewhere look glamorous luxury hotel in comparison, a teacher an unnamed city that has suddenly been transported across town at night in violently taken over by a shopping trolley, and she's been taped to a tree and she's had rocks bowled at her as if she were the world's tallest cricket stumpsterrorist group. When she's discovered by Hiding from the town gossip terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyoneon site, including the local copsthere is Sam, are quite confident the culprit has come from the immigrant detention centre the place is reluctantly home to. An arson attack on that shows the feeling – a wartime photographer and it's only fairAbhi, is the general opinion, hotel manager. As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the occupants residents who are often setting their own fires still alive in protest at their conditions. Cue the arrival of George Manolishotel, he forms a higher rank from the citybond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of her room to sort everything outtry to capture what's happened through her photography. Because such an aggrieved Although they only ever talk over the phone, insular community is really going their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and they both wait to welcome a Greek-heritaged city boy laying down see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the law..terrorists.|isbn=1529416973086154742X
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B08Z8BMZ7H1529153298|title=The Mystery List of HealingSuspicious Things|author=A P McGrathJennie Godfrey|rating=45|genre=Crime (Historical)General Fiction|summary=We meet Solon in Pergamon in the second century of the common era It's 1979 and heMargaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's the physician on duty at the munus - the games put on for the amusement of the populacenot what's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been disappearing. The remuneration isnWell, they've been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't high but the work gives the doctor a feeling of virtue and hones his skills: Solon sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wantsto move the family 'Down South' the warriors to live. ItWhen you's quite re from Yorkshire, Down South is a spectacle: the magistri are the charge hands and when we first see themfrightening, foreign place, they're sprinkling gold dust onto the lions' manes to make them look more impressivebest avoided. The sagitarii are For Miv, the archers move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and the beastiarii are the condemned criminals who are going she'll do anything to fight for their lives with the wild animalsprevent that. Today, itShe's not worried about the crocodilesdangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Kate DiCamillo and Sophie Blackall1398524085|title=The Beatryce ProphecyHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French
|rating=5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband''Stories have joy s fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and surprises in them''her daughter, we Etty. are told hereall worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, is not. And none more so than in this wondrous story Shortly afterwards, which feels an instant classic with the freshness Etty and the agelessness it has in equal proportion. We start with a group of monksGreg, find the Order body of the Chronicles of SorrowingGreg's father, and the demonic goat that loves nothing more than upendingDuncan Ackerley, trampling on and biting in the poor Brothersriver. Things change drastically when It was an easy assumption for the beast takes a totally maternal approach police to a homeless girl, one who has survived some trauma make that has blocked her past from her memoryDuncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the guilt. Elsewhere sits a King in his castle, desperate to find the girl, for it is prophesied that a young child The Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can unseat the throne do but get on with their lives and cause great changewonder about what really happened. Who foretold that revolution but the Order of the Chronicles of Sorrowing? But how can a simple, amnesiac lass ever prove a threat to anyone?|isbn=1529500893
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B09FFJF8YS1035906708|title=You Can't Wear Panties! (No More Nappies!)Diva|author=Justine Avery and Kate Zhoidik|rating=3.5|genre=For Sharing|summary=''For the big, grownup girls out there, the potty masters in training, "You Can't Wear Panties!" is a cry (the big-girl kind!) of toilet triumph and persevering panty pride.'' And so it is! This latest book from Justine Avery celebrates a little girl's final goodbye to nappies and pull-ups and graduation to "proper" pants by following her around as she proudly explains to her dog, her cat, her stuffed rabbit and her baby sibling that ''she'' can wear super-duper proper pants, while they cannot. Neither can the flowers, nor the fish, nor the birds. Boy's certainly can't. She's a big girl now and she wants everyone to know it!}} {{Frontpage|author=Nick Lake and Emily Gravett|title=Locked Out LilyDaisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=Lily isWe tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, or but she wasborn to Greek parents in Manhattan, or has been, very illNew York, in December 1923 and only moved to give Athens when she was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her parents relief shefather changed it to 'Callas's been told to stay with her grandma for a few daysmake it more manageable in the States. The parents need the relief as Lily's baby sibling is just about to be born – a child Lily swears When she hates already and wants nothing to do with. But on tracking was back home for word of her parents (and her plush toy in Athens - supposedly so that she can sleep) she finds stony-eyed simulacra of could get appropriate training for her parents, and the babevoice -in-arms, already installed. These devilish interlopers need to be ousted to get she was raised under the family back intact, even if it's not the family Lily wants – Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and all she has to help made no secret of her preference for her in the task are some talking animals – Crow, Moleelder sister, Mouse and SnakeJackie.|isbn=1471194833
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Greg James and Chris SmithChristopher Edge|title=The Great Dream RobberyBlack Hole Cinema Club|rating=54
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Maya's father is Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a professor who invented an amazing dream machine. But something went wrongmovie marathon at their local cinema, and now he cana place that has the nickname of 'The Black Hole't wake up. Or at least All big movie fans, thatthey's what Maya has been told. re looking forward to lots of exciting films, and many, many snacks! In a rather strange dream one night Maya makes a However, as the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new friendfilm format is very different, and discovers that the only way to save her dad may be by being asleep. Cue one madcap action they are swept up into an adventure story where dreams and reality collidethey couldn't even imagine...really...and there's everything But as they lurch from llamas and bananasone film genre to the next, dream machines made from hairdresser cast-offscan they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the cinema, and to a talking cat called Bin Bag!their real lives?|isbn=024147051X1839942738
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1800464495Rachel Greenlaw|title= 100 Ways in 100 Days to Teach Your Baby Maths: Support All Areas of Your Baby’s Development by Nurturing a Love of Maths|author=Emma SmithCompass and Blade|rating=43.5|genre=Children's Non-FictionTeens|summary=''Babies seem to be born with an amazing number sense: understanding shapes in I can hear the song of the womb, being aware sea. The call of quantities at seven hours oldthe deep, assessing probability at six months old, and comprehending addition and subtraction at nine months oldthe answering beat in my heart.'' Did you know this? I didn't! How about:
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1529379385James Sherwood Metts|title=The Madness of Crowds (Chief Inspector Gamache)|author=Louise PennyPlanet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeConfident Readers|summary=In Things have been a bit sticky for the Canadian village of Three PinesEarthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, weoften replacing jobs they're post-pandemic: the scars are still there but life is starting paid to get back do and other tasks that took time to normalaccomplish. The villagers are Just as they were beginning to return get used to the Bistro all this technological change and the Auberge. They're visiting each starting to think of other's homes and having friends and relatives , new ways to stayspend time, along came an awful pandemic. A young Sudanese woman who has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize is one such visitor Life was pretty much shut down and she soon proves that not , along with it, all saints are necessarily pleasant people to be around - a bit like Vincent Gilbert, known in the village as the Asshole Saintmany daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|isbn=1736128426
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor= B09F4CTKJRMatthew Tree|title= Flights for Freedom|author= Steven BurgauerWe'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Literary Fiction|summary=It's the later stages Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, a drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of World War I his artistic passions all failed miserably and the United States has just entered the conflict. Petrol Petronus is a young American who has signed up and joined the 17 Aero Squadronhad endless crises of self confidence. This company was the first US Aero Squadron So Tim applied himself to be trained in Canadahis studies, the first to be attached to the RAF cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and the first to be sent into the skies to fight the Germans in active combat. But before that can happen, Petrol has to master flying the notoriously difficult set himself high but majestic Sopwith Camelachievable ambitions.|isbn= B0CVFXPGP8
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=183885410XA G Slatter|title=The Dark Remains|author=William McIlvanney and Ian RankinBriar Book of the Dead|rating=3.5|genre=CrimeFantasy|summary=Bobby Carter was '' There's a lawyer and consigliere part of me that wants to keep this just to one myself for however long I can. This secret magic of the major crime families in nineteen seventies Glasgowmy own, all mine, at last. DC Jack Laidlaw is on the CID team charged with the investigationI just want to enjoy it for a while. I say ''on Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the teamBriar'' but Laidlaw never really seems 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 part of itsteward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. He does his own thingWhen her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the town's leader, goes his own and Ellie takes her place beside her. As challenges come her way left, right and ''The Dark Remains'' centre, Ellie uncovers the truth rare ability to communicate with the dead, putting her at the heart of a maelstrom of why Bobby Carter's body was found behind chaos. Reeling from one of Glasgowfamily secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what to do as the Briar witches's seedier pubslegacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat.|isbn=1803364548
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=19424102551529900360|title=Tokyo Zangyo (Detective Hiroshi)The Ghost Orchid|author=Michael PronkoJonathan Kellerman|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=It hadn''Zangyo: overtime work, often unpaid'' Itt been Lt Milo Sturgis's the culturefault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, isn't it? Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. The hours for His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which youdidn're paid are really just a statement of the minimum you'll be required to do: you'll work more hours to get t need the job done and done to the satisfaction help of bullies like Shigeru Onizukaa psychologist only worked for a while. When he Finally, it was found dead in front of Senden CentralRobin, Delaware's headquarters in Tokyo there partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was nothing something that the man she loved needed. The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the way swimming pool of regret or grief, even from his family, but there was a mild curiosity as to whether he'd jumped from the roof of the building or been assisted remote property in his descentBel Air. Gossip revolves around He was the fact that he left the roof at the exact same spot that heir to an employee, Mayu Yamase, had committed suicide some three years earlier. She'd accused Onizuka of bullying her Italian shoe empire and forcing her she is married to work an unreasonable amount extremely rich man and it's not the Italian. But which of overtime.them was the primary target?
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=02414254251529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Man Who Died TwiceSecret Life of a Vet|author=Richard OsmanSion Rowlands|rating=43.5|genre=CrimeAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Elizabeth Best was a little surprised when she received the letterSiôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. It came from His father was a man whose body she had helped GP and Rowlands didn't want to pull from follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the Thames and who had never existed but then this is the sort of conundrum which retired spies have to deal with strain that being on-call put on a regular basishis father's life. When she visits he was seventeen he took the sender opportunity of the letter (he's moved into the Cooper's Chase Retirement Village) it comes as no surprise that it's someone doing work experience with whom she has a family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the job for him. Before long professional history - and who used to be her husband, he was at Liverpool University. HeIt hadn's made a bad mistake t - something to do as with a mask being removed within the range of a CCTV camera on a raid, a missing twentyso many students -million pounds in diamonds and been his dream since he was a few death threatschild. HeIf anything, he's now in hiding with d wanted to be a young woman called Polly, who's his MI5 handler as well as being an incompetent waitressprofessional footballer.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Andrew Sharp0861541774|title=The Chef, the Bird and the BlessingA Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary= Chef Mlantushi - Mozzy to his employer - isDCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, in his mindDanny Maik, the head chef of has taken a safari business catering short holiday in Singapore to VIP guests in meet up with an unnamed African countryold ally, Guy Trueman. Mozzy is earnest and dedicated to his task Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and he puts all killed a Ghurka. Initially, he faced a charge of himself into creating fine cuisine dishes for the guests at BOD-W safaris manslaughter but his dream is evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to become murder the man. Now he could be facing the head chef of a restaurant in London or a big American citydeath penalty. Even Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to win help as any interference from another police force could provoke a Michelin star. He is thwarted in this ambition by his boss, Mr Bin (Ben to you diplomatic incident and me) who incurs Mozzywouldn's disapproval for his scruffy ways, his uninterest in his guests and - shock, horror - his allowing of bush animals into the houset help Danny at all.|isbn=B09926MK8H
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Alex FoulkesAlexander McCall Smith|title=Rules for VampiresThe Perfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary= Eleonore Von Motteberg (or 'Leo' for short) The Perfect Passion Company is a Vampire. She drinks blood, she sleeps during the daydating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and she can Grimwalk (turning into a flock of bats operating as an alternative to travel around, although not all of them remember to come back). Pretty cool stuff. Now, on the night of her hundredth birthnightonline apps in providing a more personal, she tailored service. Ness has to go out and hunt asked her first human. However, instead younger cousin Katie if she ends up killing two humans by accident could come and burning down an orphanagelook after the business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. Oops! And to make things worse Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, the ghosts of one of the orphans and so jumps at the evil master of the orphanage chance to come back home to haunt herEdinburgh. So And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, not only does Leo have thanks to team up 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with the friendly ghost Minna some new characters who quickly begin to stop the ghost of the Orphanmaster before he becomes unstoppably powerfulcharm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, she but Ness has to do it all while hiding it from full confidence in her family. Did I mention vampires abilities, and ghosts hate each other? Yeah, there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a reason why there are rules for vampires…hand…|isbn=147119955X1846976596
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Tori Bovalino0811771741|title=The Devil Makes ThreeInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman|rating=4.5|genre=TeensCrafts|summary= Working all summer in her boarding schoolMelissa Leapman's library is the last thing Tess Matheson wants to do — especially when she gets a request ''InstaKnits for over Baby'' gives us a hundred books that she has collection of knits from toys to deliver herselfblankets. What makes it worse is the man who requested Some will be quick knits - others are of the books: Mr Birch. The boarding school's headmasterlong, and a man Tess hates. As a petty act of revenge for making her find and deliver such a large request, Tess sticks post-it notes on each cosy afternoons in front of the books, scribbled with fire' variety. The projects are divided by the ugliest insults she can think of. Theytime they're never meant ll take to reach himcomplete - less than five hours, of course. Her plan is five to get her anger out like thisten hours, ten to twenty hours and then take them all off before delivering themmore than twenty hours. No harm done… Or it would be All the projects are attractive, if someone hadnmodern and useable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that't delivered them for hers me being picky.|isbn=1789098130
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor= B09BG8V3Q6Dean Koontz|title= Who Needs Nappies? Not Me! (Everybody Potties!)|author= Justine Avery and Seema AmjadThe Bad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=For SharingParanormal|summary= Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it''Who Needs Nappies? Not Mes possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house!'' The thing is, Benny is the latest release in very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the ''Everybody Potties!'' series delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from Justine Averynefarious forces for being a good person. This series of fun picture books aims Spike is going to take the pain out care of potty training children Benny, and replace it with some fun. Itwill certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a worthy aim, as any frustrated parent will tell you. waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=1662500491
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B098FFFBH9Adam Stower|title=Snowcub|author=Graham FulbrightMurray and Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionConfident Readers |summary=Fourteen-year-old Rachel Murray is her school's animal rights project leader supposed to be a humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and she sleep and her friend are producing a competition entry to highlight the way in which human beings exploit , well, whatever takes his fancy next of the animal worldtwo. She gets But he's a great deal of support from her family: father Pip Harrisonbad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a lecturer at Imperial Collegehyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, Londonand the catflap they both use can chuck them out, mother Kate not into the regular back garden, but into a world of frightening adventure and her twin, Nickwhiffs. Kate runs the family businessThis time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a toy shop called Cornucopia in Putneytroll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, which is where webut he's turned up and he'll meet Rachel's main (if unsuspected) source of information: five soft toys.have to do…|isbn=0008561249
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn= Angharad WalkerB0C47LV1PC|title= The Ash House|rating= 5|genre= Confident Readers|summary= A new boy arrives at The Ash House. He doesn't know his name, or why he is there but he is used to the system, used to different places and different faces. He meets Dom who names him Sol and sets out to teach him the rules of The Ash House. These rules centre on a variety of Nicenesses set out by the absent Headmaster. All children must remember their Niceness and complete their chores, working as a hive in the smouldering shadows of The Ash House. But soon their easy peace is shattered by the arrival of the Doctor. By the end of the story, lives will be changed forever and The Ash House will never be the same again.|isbn=1912626977}}{{FrontpageFragility|author=Yancey Williams|title=Crosshairs of the DevilMosby Woods|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Award-winning crime writer Eddie Jablonski is getting on in years and, despite his strenuous objections and thanks to his daughter, finds himself living - or imprisoned, from EddieCan you make a ''Yo birthing person''s point of view - in room 315 of the Garden of Eden nursing homejoke? And if you could, with only a trusty nursing aide, Jenkins, for palatable company. Nothing is going to keep Eddie from his stock-in-trade of writing though, so here, for his readers, are his wanderings through his life's work.|isbn=0986031658}} {{Frontpage|author=Philip Reeve|title=Utterly Dark and the Face of question should you make it? Or is the Deep|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=In a wordquestion if you did, rich. There would it land? The catch is certainly an abundance of riches in this story set on a peculiar island called Wildsea, British but way west, beyond that the Scillies. There are troll people on it, and sea-witches, and legends of the Dark family that has to keep watch answer for magical islands and their monster approaching from even further west, where no ship dare sailboth could well be. The current Darks are the Watcher, Andrewe, who has to keep notes of activity from the Hidden Lands, his brother Will who lives in London with too much science in his head to worry about such local yokel superstitions, and Andrewe's foundling daughter, who washed up out of the sea one day eleven years ago. But when Andrewe Dark drowns himself, both his sullen brother and his curious ward are thrust into the world of protecting their island, like it or not.|isbn=1788452372}}{{Frontpage|author=Erling Kagge|title=Walking: One Step At A Time|rating=5|genre= Lifestyle|summary= Those who have read my reviews before will know that how much I loved a book is evidenced by the number of pages with corners turned, so let me start this one with an apology to the Norfolk Library Service: sorry! I forgot it was your book not mine. In my defence, I will say that as a reader of this type of book there is something connective about noting where prior readers were inspired (provided it is subtle – I'll allow creased corners, but not scribbles – for the latter we must buy our own copy – which I am about to do as soon as I have finished telling you why)no.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Ian Mark and Louis Ghibault1529431735|title=Monster Hunting For BeginnersThe Winter Visitor|author=James Henry|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Meet Jack. Now Jack knows very little about being fearless and nimble It's February 1991 and quickEssex 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 slight boyletter from his ex-wife, saying that she's ill and although he wants for danger and peril and interesting things his dad refuses hasn't long to let him out of his sightlive. That It's because Jack's mother knew all about monstershard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his underwear and look what happened sent to her – she dieda watery grave in the boot of a stolen Ford Sierra. Luckily or unluckily then, depending on your point of view, Is it a giant ogre will threaten his aunt when Jack's father also goes AWOL, Jack will fluke the ogre's death, warning from a dwarfish wizard-type will make him an apprentice monster hunter, and he'll be given Spanish gang or a book that tells him all he needs problem closer to know about the perils he always wanted closer contact with. The book's namehome? ''Monster Hunting for Beginners''...|isbn=0755501942
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{{Frontpage
|author=Keith GrayAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=The ClimbersGlorious Race of Magical Beasts
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Sully Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the best tree climber wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and in the village. He has what's known amongst evening a helper at the kids as 'reach'dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. But what happens when Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – for there is a new kid shows up generation missing in town? the family. A new kidfew short years ago, called Nottingham, who clambers up some of Eli's parents were both lost to the hardest trees with ease? Suddenly Sully is worried that his status is being threatenedtitular race, and not only that, that his chance a globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to name navigate the final, unnamed big tree world in the park by being company of a magical beast. This has made the race anathema to the pair – but when a bad incident at the first eatery leads to conquer ita confession from gran, might be snatched from Eli knows his hands. How can Sully stop Nottingham? And will it cost him his best friendonly hope is to dare to enter what he most hates, or maybe even all with the sole aim the prize of magic at the end – the only thing to possibly save his friends, to do so?gran.|isbn=17811299910571382231
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Emma Carroll178763681X|title=The Week at World's EndKnife Skills for Beginners|author=Orlando Murrin
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=First, the titleChef Paul Delamare took a teaching job at a residential cookery school in Belgravia. We He didn're in World's End Close, t really want to but celebrity chef Christian Wagner had a mediocre set way of houses, where Stevie (Vie getting both men and women to her friends) finds fun only with do what he wanted. Paul ''somehow'' got the family dog and with the boy over the road. But we could also impression that he'd be at World's Endthe school to assist Paul, because something taking who had a great chunk of the fun away is the fact broken arm, but it didn't turn out that the Cuban Missile Crisis is kicking offway. The Soviet boats are getting blockaded as America tries to reduce the risk of nuclear missiles offshore, teaching - and not much else is able to make the newsproblems - are all his own. That said, Vie has news of her own – Anna, a secretive young woman hiding in their coal shed The one thing he hadn't expected was for someone to turn up dead. Anna has Unfortunately, in no short time, taken a strong interest in he was the American airforce base behind person who discovered the Close, said she'd locate something she wanted body and leave, failed everyone knows that the police consider that person to leave, and implied her life was at riskbe the prime suspect. But surely this bit of intrigue has got nothing to do with what the Cold War is doing miles away?|isbn=0571364438
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|author=Kiran Millwood Hargrave and Tom de FrestonSarah Marsh|title=Julia and the SharkA Sign of Her Own|rating=43.5|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=JuliaAfter a bout of scarlet fever as a child, our pre-teen heroineEllen Lark loses her hearing. Suddenly plunged into a world of silence, has been packed off with everything about her parents and their cat from the family home life changes. Living in SW England to be lighthousekeepers for a summer, in time when the far NE use of the Scottish islands. Here be Vikingssign language was seen as something only savages do, that kind of Scottish island. Dad Ellen is sent to a school where she is going taught to be automating the lanternlip read, which is his specialist thingbut physically restrained from signing. From here, while mum will be leaving her career she ends up in algae behind to hunt another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the elusive Greenland sharkdeaf and using a system called Visible Speech. And JuliaAt the same time, wellBell is working on other inventions and ideas, she will be homesick and alone – until she suddenly Ellen finds company one nightherself unwittingly caught up in a complicated tangle of espionage.|isbn=15101077891035401614
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|authorisbn=Freya Sampson1803816759|title=The Last LibraryUnravelling|author=Will Gibson
|rating=4
|genre=General Science Fiction|summary=I am always It's 2038 and Joe is a little nervous bored cop policing the wealthy and peaceful New York City. Joe longs for a bit of adventure and to start a story about a library, since I am a librarianget stuck into some really gritty crime detection. I always grit my teeth slightly at But then something goes horribly wrong with the thought of the incoming cardigan-wearingAI system that now runs everything, hair in a bunmaking life easier for many, cat-owningand riots start to spread. Finally, glasses on a chain stereotypes! Joe gets to do some real policing. In this story, the main character, June, does put her hair in a bun, aftermath of the rioting global pop star Suki is kidnapped and she does own a cat (called Alan Bennett), and she has barely any friends and spends Joe is assigned to bring her evenings eating the same Chinese takeaway meal once a week whilst reading books alone! But I didnhome. Joe isn't immediately throw the book out of the window, because I found I was interested in Juneonly one trying to save Suki - Dylan, and why she lived as she did. Her mum used to be a librarian at the village library, but when she got sick, June gave up on going to University British superfan and stayed at home to take care of her mumtech nerd, as well as taking is also on a job as library assistant at the local librarycase. What went wrong? Did the system fail or was it hacked? And even though her mum sadly died some years ago, she how is still working there, still eating her mumSuki's favourite takeaway meal, and still reading her mum's old books. June is stuck, but little does she know, everything in her life is about the change.|isbn=183877369Xkidnapping connected?
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|isbn=00083709821529421284|title=Rock Paper ScissorsLaying Out the Bones|author=Alice FeeneyKate Webb
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=Amelia Wright is forty-two and it It was one of those flash downpours that the staff raffle at Battersea Dogs Home that gave her a weekend away British weather often delivers in a converted chapel in Scotlandheatwave. Her husbandIn a gully, Adam, isn't so keen on a human skeleton came to the idea. Like Amelia, he knows that their marriage has been under strain: he's a screenwriter surface and he's never shy of making it clear to Amelia that he'd prefer to spend time with forensic testing proved the novels he's hoping body to adapt than with herbe Lee Geary, who had disappeared nine years earlier. AmeliaHe's annoyed that he never enquires about how her day has d been - a known drug user and working with the dogshad learning disabilities, many of whom so it could have been abuseda simple case of misadventure but DI Matt Lockyer wasn't convinced. Geary was a townie, is never easy. so what was he doing out on Salisbury Plain alone? Still - she's won There are connections to the weekend away, even if it does mean driving for eight hours in her 1978 Morris Minor Traveller with Adam beside her in suicide of Holly Gilbert and to two other deaths which were not considered suspicious at the passenger seat - time. Lockyer and then doing DC Gemma Broad of the same thing Major Crimes Review Unit (that's cold cases to come back a couple of days lateryou and me) investigate.
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|authorisbn=Doug Johnstone0571379559|title=The Great SilenceHouse of Broken Bricks|author=Fiona Williams|rating=45|genre=CrimeLiterary Fiction|summary=For those who, like me, haven't come across the Skelfs before, I'll risk a quick synopsis The House of whoBroken Bricks's who – although Johnstone does a good job ' is the story of bringing the backstory in without being heavy handed about itfour people. Skelf isn Tess Hembry't some fantastic creatures roots are in Jamaica: temperamentally she might be happier there, but instead, she lives in the house on the riverbank, though it sounds built of broken bricks. Insubstantial as though it ought to bemight look, it is merely 's stood the surname passage of a family of undertakers. Undertakers time, storms and private investigatorsfloods. Dorothy is Her husband, Richard, struggles to grow his vegetables, to complete the matriarch – Californian by birth delivery rounds - and instinct, she married a scot and ended up helping to run the Edinburgh undertaking firm that had been bring in the family for generationssufficient money. Recently widowed They have twin boys - Sonny and now involved with a black Swedish police officerMax, the rainbow twins. Swedish by nationality Sonny's colouring reflects his mother's Jamaican heritage. Scottish policeMax takes after his father. Daughter Jenny, 46 People don't believe that they're related, much less twins and there's an assumption when Max is haunted by her still-living husband – a violent escaped prisoner. And grand-daughter is about to graduate out with a first-class physics degree and join the academic staff next termhis mother that she's his nanny.|isbn=1913193837
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|isbn=19015149781529425867|title=There's a Problem With DadLost and Never Found (A D I Wilkins Mystery)|author=Carlos AlbaSimon Mason
|rating=4.5
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Life In Oxford, there are two D I Wilkins. Raymond Wilkins is different for George Lovelace of Nigerian descent, Balliol educated and he can't really understand whyalways exquisitely dressed. He's always done everything he ought to: steady workerD I Ryan Wilkins, husband son of Ryan and father - and a father who was always there for school plays and sports daysof Ryan, is not. So why is he never quite in tune with He's not any of those around him? things. Why does he upset people? Why is someone with such He's white, originated from a trailer park, barely educated (reading's not 'good'really'' mind unable to progress at work or to relate to his colleagues? thing) and his wardrobe consists mainly of shell suits and trackies. Why does he make so many breath-taking gaffes? They're usually in lime green or acid yellow. ItYou might wonder if you's almost become a cliche these days re being introduced to suggest that someone who is a little police procedural written for laughs. Well, you're not. The two men are just different is 'on sides of the spectrum', but George Lovelace has all same policing coin. Sometimes the symptoms of Aspergercombination works brilliantly well. Sometimes it's Syndrome: high-functioning autismproblematic.
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|author=Louise CandlishMosby Woods|title=The HeightsA Whirly Man Loses His Turn|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersLiterary Fiction|summary=Ellen doesnThe West isn't expect the dominant force it once was. Nobody in the West is quite sure how to see Kieran that daymend this or even if mending it is the best course of action. Governments are flailing. She's on siteA war here, visiting a client push for climate action there. A feeling that nobody is in actual charge. Imagine then, there was a lighting consultation when she spies him man with precognition. Imagine the strategic advantage in this asset; a building across the wayman who can tell you what will happen given any set of circumstances. There are lots of thingsThat man would be valuable, lots of people, you might see when you look out across London, but this isn't one Ellen expected that day or right? Perhaps the most valuable asset in fact any other dayhistory. Why? Because Kieran has been dead for over two yearsImagine then, and Ellen knows that this for a fact, because she had a hand in his murderman loses this ability.What would governments do to get it back?|isbn=1471183483B0C9SNG8R1
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