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'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].
{{Frontpage
|isbn=178607981X0241636604|title=Bad ApplesThe Trading Game: A Confession|author=Will DeanGary 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.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=1035021803
|title=The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder
|author=C L Miller
|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Tuva Moodyson was driving It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up a foggy hillside towards Visberg when she discovered an Audi 4x4 parked at the side of the road. Wondering if someone needed She's back now because of a request for help she got out of the car - and heard the screams from deep inside the foresther beloved aunt, Carole. Determining the direction of a sound isnFreya't easy when you need hearing aids s former mentor and dampness Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is causing interference but Tuva made her way dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to where a woman say the least. Arthur was holding the reason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, she feels, let her coat over down badly. Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the body of a manor pursue the profession she loved. He'd been decapitated. He was Arne Gustav PerssonAfter the split, she worked in a resident cafe, met and married James (on the rebound from the love of Visbergher life, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.
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{{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.''
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{{Frontpage
|author=Lucy HopeSunny Singh|title=FledglingHotel Arcadia|rating=43.5|genre=Confident ReadersThrillers |summary=Bavaria, 1900. Our scene The Hotel Arcadia is a most peculiar hilltop house, built bit luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by bit over a terrorist group. Hiding from the decadesterrorists who are rampaging through, and now looking imperiously down killing everyone on the village and woods below. It's an eccentric housesite, to host eccentrics, so the library shelving system there is not as we'd know it, the roof is retractableSam, there is a steam-poweredwartime photographer and Abhi, hand-operated lift system cut through it, and so onthe hotel manager. At As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the moment it houses an ex-soldier with PTSD and a passion for residents who are still alive in the long-standing family hobby of taxidermyhotel, he forms a woman bond with Sam who does nothing but quibblerefuses to be cowed by events, kvetch and sing opera loudly, and the dying grandma keeps on venturing out of her room to our heroine, Cassie, a young lass who has try to do all the maintenance of this bizarre machine-like abode. Oh but itcapture what's also going to house someone or something else, when crashing happened through Cassie's bedroom window one stormy day is a cherubher photography. And Although they only ever talk over the phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and they both wait to see if you think such a heavenly arrival is going to they will be a completely great and wonderful thing, think again..rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists.|isbn=183994188X086154742X
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=18462767721529153298|title=The End List of Bias: How We Change Our MindsSuspicious Things|author=Jessica NordellJennie Godfrey|rating=4.5|genre=Politics and SocietyGeneral Fiction|summary=Anyone who It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not an ablewhat's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, white man understands bias in that they may no longer even recognise the extent 've been murdered, but to which they suffer from it: ithave 'disappeared' doesn's simply a part of everyday lifet sound quite so frightening. White men will always come first. The able will come before Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the disabledfamily 'Down South'. JobsWhen you're from Yorkshire, promotionsDown South is a frightening, higher salaries are the preserve of the white manforeign place, best avoided. Even when those who wouldn't pass For Miv, the medical become a part of an organisation itmove would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she's rare ll do anything to prevent that their views are heard, that their concerns are acknowledged. ItShe's personally appalling and degrading for not worried about the individuals on the receiving end of the bias but itdangers or that her Mum's not just the individuals who are negatively impactedstopped talking - to anyone.
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Teresa Driscoll1398524085|title=Her Perfect FamilyHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French
|rating=5
|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=The novel begins by introducing you to Gemma, who Charlotte Salter was expected at first instance appears to be your average studenther husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, faced with the familiar horrifying realisationsons Niall, at the eleventh hourPaul and Ollie and her daughter, that Etty. are all worried but - strangely - her graduation outfit husband, Alec, is all wrongnot. Suddenly Shortly afterwards, Gemma receives an eerie message stating ''He is not who he says he is…'Etty and Greg, find the body of Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, paving in the way river. It was an easy assumption for the sinister tone police to make that remains throughout Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the novelguilt. In a twist of events, The Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but get on with their lives and after a change of outfit, Gemma is shot in the midst of her graduation ceremony. With Gemma then in a coma, wonder about what follows is a complex whodunit with a list of suspects that continues to grow the further you readreally happened.|isbn=1542028752
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=84092901031035906708|title=If OnlyDiva|author=Matthew TreeDaisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=Twenty-one-year-old Malcolm Lowry had been sent abroad by his fatherWe tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, cotton-broker AO Lowry: he asked his accountantbut she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, Mr PatrickNew York, in December 1923 and only moved to ensure that the young man got on board the boat and thereafter Patrick Athens when she was to send him a monthly allowancethirteen. Patrick sent the money regularly and a correspondence - of sorts - sprang up between the two although we hear more about what Lowry has Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to say than Patrick. It wasn't that Lowry senior didnCallas't care for his son, to make it was that he didn't care to have him more manageable in this country where he might be a danger to his wife and other childrenthe States. The alcohol problem When she was obvious even before Patrick managed to back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the young man on his wayNazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her elder sister, Jackie.
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{{Frontpage
|author=Antti Tuomainen and David Hackston (translator)Christopher Edge|title=The Rabbit FactorBlack Hole Cinema Club|rating=3.54|genre=CrimeConfident Readers|summary=Meet Henri. With a mind so much more focused on maths Lucas and calculations than it is other human beings, he's perfect for his job friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the insurance company – until they decide henickname of 'The Black Hole's not a team-member. All big movie fans, that they'd prefer everyone re looking forward to be all open-planlots of exciting films, holistic and keen on stupid-many, many snacks! However, as workshopping. This the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is when he finds his brother has died, having a heart attack while busy changing his Volvo's radio channelvery different, and has left Henri everything. Unfortunately (or otherwise) that 'everything' is just they are swept up into an adventure park, and nothing elsethey couldn't even imagine. ''YouMeFun'' is so not what Henri wants But as they lurch from one film genre to occupy his mind, but he perks up a little when he sees huge holes in the finances – it runs at a steady money-moving pacenext, despite some desultory staff ideas, but loans have been made can they figure out and the amount vanished. Fortunately (or otherwise) some people are quickly what on earth is going on ? Will they ever get back to the scene to explain that missing money – it's been turned into a gambling debt that has also now been inherited by Henricinema, and the activities of these guys are not conducive to getting a cheap life insurance plan...their real lives?|isbn=191319387X1839942738
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1471179311Rachel Greenlaw|title=The Unheard|author=Nicci FrenchCompass and Blade|rating=43.5|genre=ThrillersTeens|summary=Tess''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.'' Rosevear, a teacher remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and Jasonplundering the wrecks. Mira, a headmasterlike her mother before her, have split up: she and Poppy have moved is one of the seven who swim out of to survey the family home ruins – rescuing any survivors and Jason is now married any treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a trap to Emily. The separation was amicable - end the wrecking, they had just drifted apartcapture the island's leader and Mira's father. They co-parent three-year-old Poppy Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who has is as charming as he is secretive and with only coordinates to guide her bedroom , she sets off in what was the search of a family home and another secret that lies buried deep in the flat she shares with sea. With only nine days to unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her mother. It ''seemed'' from the watched streets of foreign islands to be working well until the day that Poppy came home with a menacing drawing heart of a woman falling from a tall building and she started swearingthe smuggler's territory, using words she was unlikely Mira must be determined to have heard in either home. Her behaviour deteriorated and there were problems stop at nursery school. Tess turns nothing to a therapist for help, then save the future of her doctor home and finally the police but no one will take what ones she has to say seriouslyholds most dear.|isbn=0008664730
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1471196615James Sherwood Metts|title=Iced|author=Felix FrancisPlanet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersConfident Readers|summary=Miles Pussett used to be Things have been a Steeplechase jockey but those days are past and he now gets his thrills from hurling head-first down bit sticky for the three-quarter-mile Cresta Run, occasionally reaching eighty miles an hourEarthlings. He was in St Moritz the same weekend as White Turf - that's high-class horseracing on the frozen lake AI and against his better judgement he gets talked into helping with the saddling of the horses. Itautomation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they's seven years since he put horseracing behind him re paid to do and he swore other tasks that he'd never go back took time to itaccomplish. But when he sees that something suspicious is going onJust as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of other, new ways to spend time, Miles can't help but look for answersalong came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and, even when along with it puts him in danger, all the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|isbn=1736128426
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=147228612XMatthew Tree|title=The Late Train to Gipsy Hill|author=Alan JohnsonWe'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersLiterary Fiction|summary=We all know people like Gary NelsonTimothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, although we probably haven't taken much notice of them. They live quiet, uneventful lives and stay mostly under the radar. In a city like London, that's quite easy - drunk and even Gary's three flatmates largely ignore him. The highlight chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his day is watching a beautiful young woman apply her makeup as she goes artistic passions all failed miserably and who had endless crises of self confidence. So Tim applied himself to work on the train each morning: he'd love to ask her for a date but he doesn't have the courage. Thenhis studies, on cultivated his homeward commute, Arina speaks to him abilities rather than his daydreams and asks for his help. Before long he finds set himself on the run from mobsters, Russian secret agents and the Metropolitan policehigh but achievable ambitions.|isbn= B0CVFXPGP8
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{{Frontpage
|author=Claire McGowanA G Slatter|title=I Know YouThe Briar Book of the Dead|rating=45|genre=ThrillersFantasy|summary=''Then:'There' Casey returns from s a walk with the babypart of me that wants to keep this just to myself for however long I can. This secret magic of my own, Carsonall mine, and comes across three bodies, almost at last. I just want to enjoy it for a whole family taken downwhile.''
Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Briar''Now:'' Rachel 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 out the first non-witch to be born into her family for generations and as such since she was young, her training as a walk with 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 dogway left, Brandyright and centre, when she comes across Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, putting her at the heart of a body in maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what to do as the woodsBriar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat.|isbn=15420199741803364548
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=15291482511529900360|title=Misfits: A Personal ManifestoThe Ghost Orchid|author=Michaela CoelJonathan Kellerman|rating=54|genre=Politics and SocietyCrime|summary=It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis'How am I able s fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to be so transparent ask for his help on paper about rape, malpractice and poverty, yet still compartmentalise? difficult cases. It's as though I His assertions that there were telling the truth whilst simultaneously running away from it.only open-and-shut cases which didn'' Before you start reading ''Misfits'' you t need to be in a certain frame the help of mind. You're not going to read a book of essays or psychologist only worked for a self-help bookwhile. You're going to read writing which Finally, it was inspired by Michaela CoelRobin, Delaware's 2018 MacTaggart Lecture to professionals within partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the television industry at involvement was something that the Edinburgh TV Festivalman she loved needed. You might be ''reading'' The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a remote property in Bel Air. He was the book but you need heir to ''listen'' an Italian shoe empire and she is married to the words as though youan extremely rich man and it're in s not the lecture theatreItalian. The disjointedness will fade away and you'll be carried on a cloud But which of exquisite writing.them was the primary target?
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=00084336311529395224|title=Next Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of Kina Vet|author=Kia AbdullahSion Rowlands|rating=3.5|genre=ThrillersAnimals and Wildlife|summary=It was the sort of thing that happened every day, although not to Leila SyedSiôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. SheHis father was a GP and Rowlands didn'd never driven her nephewt want to follow in his footsteps, Max, to school before but particularly when he considered the strain that being on-call put on his father, Andrew Hanson, had rung her in a panic's life. He When he was supposed to be taking Max to school but seventeen he'd been called into took the opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the delay in getting there could lead to financial lossesjob for him. As the school was only five minutes out of Leila's wayBefore long, could she drop him off? Of course, she could and a sleeping Max he was duly strapped into the back of her carat Liverpool University. On the way Leila took a phone call It hadn't - as with so many students - there been his dream since he was panic at her work tooa child. If anything, with a problem which could put he'd wanted to be a multi-million-pound contract at riskprofessional footballer.
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn= Justine Avery and Naday Meldova0861541774|title=Everybody Toots! (Everybody Potties!)A Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=For SharingCrime|summary= TootsDCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, trumpsDanny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, fartsGuy Trueman. Whatever your word for them, find us Maik was involved in a child street brawl - he would later maintain that doesn't find them irresistibly funnyhe was facing a man armed with a knife - and he killed a Ghurka. Funny Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to talk about and joke about, light that suggested that ishe might have planned to murder the man. But horribly embarrassing if you let one go at Now he could be facing the wrong timedeath penalty. In class, say, when everyone will hear it Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and everyone will laugh. At you. Justine Averywouldn's latest entry in her ''Everybody Potties!'' series takes aim t help Danny at any shame associated with tooting and gently and calmly, with the familiar humour attached, explains that tooting is perfectly normalall. Everybody does it: ''Everybody Toots''!|isbn= B09C2RVJ2W}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1784165263Alexander McCall Smith|title=Invite Me In|author=Emma CurtisThe Perfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction|summary=Martin Curran's wifeThe Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, Eliza knew that she had to be home run by Ness and operating as an alternative to make his lunch for one o'clock on all the dotonline apps in providing a more personal, despite the fact that she was actually painting one of their properties prior to it being lettailored service. If Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she didn't could come and look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get home, there would be troubleaway for a while. There was some excuse: Martin was Katie is coming out of a break up with a paraplegic bad boyfriend, and confined so jumps at the chance to come home to a wheelchairEdinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but don't be too quick with some new characters who quickly begin to be understandingcharm. He was also Katie has no experience in running a very unpleasant person: he once told Eliza ''you're good at being a disappointment''. All this was business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in Elizaher abilities, and there's mind when she first met Dan Jones who arrivedalways her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, unannouncedWilliam, at the flat just as Eliza was about to leave: he wanted the lease of flat 2, 42 Linden Road and he was desperate to get in before it was advertised as being available.lend a hand…|isbn=1846976596
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=17847427750811771741|title=A Change of Circumstance (Simon Serrailler)InstaKnits for Baby|author=Susan HillMelissa Leapman|rating=54|genre=CrimeCrafts|summary=Drugs hadnMelissa Leapman's ''t really been that much of InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a problem in Lafferton and Detective Superintendent Simon Serrailler had thought collection of drugs ops as a bit knits from toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of a waste the 'long, cosy afternoons in front of the fire' variety. The projects are divided by the time. They still werethey'll take to complete - less than five hours, five to a great extentten hours, but Serrailler knew that something had ten to be donetwenty hours and more than twenty hours. Children as young as nine were being recruited to transport All the drugs projects are attractive, modern and the operation running the county lines was tightuseable. A mule might know the name (although it probably wouldn I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 't be the correct one) of the person who was running him but he certainly wouldnsocial-media-worthy projects't know anything about those higher up in the organisation. The police might catch a few of the runners but theythat'd never get anywhere near those higher ups me being picky.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B09FS89KX9Dean Koontz|title=Fall On Me|author=Penelope PottsThe Bad Weather Friend|rating=34.5|genre=Women's FictionParanormal|summary=Life should have been good for Hollie: Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. She was just going into the final year of her veterinary degree Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin- three years later - was still working at BBsized object to his home, and it's dinerpossible 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. Bob - the owner - regarded her fondly: he was He is a good bossnice person. A really nice person. Hollie had moved in with her boyfriendSo fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, Marcus: her mother thought he was great and he was doing well in his careerwho has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Hollie wasn't quite so certain though: Marcus wanted Spike is going to control her take care of Benny, and most will certainly take care of all Benny's enemies, if he wanted her to leave her job at the diner. Then there was the fact that he would be violent, both to her Benny, and to other peopleHarper (a 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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|author=John GwynneAdam Stower|title=The Shadow Of The GodsMurray and Bun|rating=4.5|genre=FantasyConfident Readers |summary=The Shadow Of The Gods Murray is the first installment supposed to be a humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the Bloodsworn Sagatwo. But he's a bad magician's cat, set in the era of the Vikings in the shadow of Ragnarokso his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, when the Gods have battled and their bones lie scattered for all to see. This story is the ultimate in High Fantasycatflap they both use can chuck them out, and John Gwynne certainly does justice to not into the genreregular back garden, with mythical creatures, archaic language but into a world of frightening adventure and battles galorewhiffs. This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is a thick bookexpected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, with an intricate plot but he's turned up and fascinating characters that are woven together he'll have to create a wonderfully realistic and gritty world in which our heroes must do battle.do…|isbn=03565142180008561249
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=B09HTWX47XB0C47LV1PC|title=Endless ObsessionFragility|author=Dai HenleyMosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=CrimeLiterary Fiction|summary=ItCan you make a 's some years since we last caught up with Andy Flood, formerly a DCI in the Met but now a well-respected private investigator. He's married to Laura, formerly his DS in the Murder Squad but now working in a forensics laboratory. FloodYo birthing person''s daughtersjoke? And if you could, Gemma and Pippa, have flown is the nest, Pippa to Australia, from where she has very little contact with question should you make it? Or is the familyquestion if you did, and Gemma to married life. She's had mental problems since she was abducted many years ago but Andy and Laura hope would it land? The catch is that married life will provide the support she needsanswer for both could well be.. Flood.. no. ''Fragility''s business is going well and that was why he felt able set as the city of Portland, Oregon, cautiously begins to turn down emerge from the case of Lisa Black.restrictions imposed during the covid pandemic
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Peter Papathanasiou1529431735|title=The StoningWinter Visitor|author=James Henry|rating=3.54|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=In a town sleazy enough to make sh*tholes elsewhere look glamorous in comparisonIt's February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, a teacher has which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the more surprising. He'd been transported across town at night in exiled on the Costa del Sol as a shopping trolley, and she's been taped to wanted drug smuggler for a tree and shedecade. The return has come about because he's had rocks bowled at her as if a letter from his ex-wife, saying that she were the world's tallest cricket stumps. When sheill and hasn's discovered by the town gossip everyone, including the local cops, are quite confident the culprit has come from the immigrant detention centre the place is reluctantly home t long tolive. An arson attack on that shows the feeling – and it It's only fair, hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is the general opinionabducted, for the occupants are often setting their own fires stripped to his underwear and sent to a watery grave in protest at their conditions. Cue the arrival boot of George Manolis, a higher rank stolen Ford Sierra. Is it a warning from the city, a Spanish gang or a problem closer to sort everything out. Because such an aggrieved, insular community is really going to welcome a Greek-heritaged city boy laying down the law...|isbn=1529416973home?
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B08Z8BMZ7HAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=The Mystery Glorious Race of Healing|author=A P McGrathMagical Beasts
|rating=4
|genre=Crime (Historical)Confident Readers|summary=We meet Solon Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in Pergamon the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and in the second century of evening a helper at the common era dessert cafe his gran owns and heruns. Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – for there is a generation missing in the family. A few short years ago, Eli's parents were both lost to the physician on duty at the munus titular race, a globe- trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the games put on for world in the amusement company of the populacea magical beast. The remuneration isn't high but This has made the work gives race anathema to the doctor pair – but when a feeling of virtue and hones his skills: Solon ''wants'' bad incident at the warriors eatery leads to live. It's quite a spectacle: the magistri are the charge hands and when we first see themconfession from gran, Eli knows his only hope is to dare to enter what he most hates, they're sprinkling gold dust onto with the lions' manes to make them look more impressive. The sagitarii are sole aim the archers and prize of magic at the beastiarii are end – the condemned criminals who are going only thing to fight for their lives with the wild animals. Today, it's the crocodilespossibly save his gran.|isbn=0571382231
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Kate DiCamillo and Sophie Blackall178763681X|title=The Beatryce ProphecyKnife Skills for Beginners|author=Orlando Murrin|rating=54|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Chef Paul Delamare took a teaching job at a residential cookery school in Belgravia. He didn't really want to but celebrity chef Christian Wagner had a way of getting both men and women to do what he wanted. Paul ''Stories have joy and surprises in themsomehow'', we are told here. And none more so than in this wondrous story, which feels an instant classic with got the freshness and impression that he'd be at the agelessness it has in equal proportion. We start with school to assist Paul, who had a group of monksbroken arm, the Order of the Chronicles of Sorrowing, and the demonic goat but it didn't turn out that loves nothing more than upending, trampling on way. The teaching - and biting the poor Brothersproblems - are all his own. Things change drastically when the beast takes a totally maternal approach The one thing he hadn't expected was for someone to a homeless girl, one who has survived some trauma that has blocked her past from her memoryturn up dead. Elsewhere sits a King in his castle Unfortunately, desperate to find he was the girl, for it is prophesied that a young child can unseat person who discovered the throne body and cause great change. Who foretold everyone knows that revolution but the Order of police consider that person to be the Chronicles of Sorrowing? But how can a simple, amnesiac lass ever prove a threat to anyone?|isbn=1529500893prime suspect.
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|isbnauthor=B09FFJF8YSSarah Marsh|title=You Can't Wear Panties! (No More Nappies!)|author=Justine Avery and Kate ZhoidikA Sign of Her Own
|rating=3.5
|genre=For SharingGeneral Fiction|summary=''For the big, grownup girls out there, the potty masters in training, "You Can't Wear Panties!" is After a cry (the big-girl kind!) bout of toilet triumph and persevering panty pride.'' And so it is! This latest book from Justine Avery celebrates scarlet fever as 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 dogchild, Ellen Lark loses her cathearing. Suddenly plunged into a world of silence, everything about her stuffed rabbit and her baby sibling that ''she'' can wear super-duper proper pants, while they cannotlife changes. Neither can Living in a time when the flowersuse of sign language was seen as something only savages do, nor the fish, nor the birds. Boy's certainly can't. She's Ellen is sent to a big girl now and school where she wants everyone is taught to know it!}} {{Frontpage|author=Nick Lake and Emily Gravett|title=Locked Out Lily|rating=4lip read, but physically restrained from signing.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Lily is From here, or was, or she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been, very ill, teaching the deaf and to give her parents relief she's been told to stay with her grandma for using a few dayssystem called Visible Speech. The parents need At the relief as Lily's baby sibling same time, Bell is just about to be born – a child Lily swears she hates already and wants nothing to do with. But working on tracking back home for word of her parents (other inventions and her plush toy so she can sleep) she finds stony-eyed simulacra of her parentsideas, and the babe-Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in-arms, already installed. These devilish interlopers need to be ousted to get the family back intact, even if it's not the family Lily wants – and all she has to help her in the task are some talking animals – Crow, Mole, Mouse and Snakea complicated tangle of espionage.|isbn=14711948331035401614
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Greg James and Chris Smith1803816759|title=The Great Dream RobberyUnravelling|author=Will Gibson|rating=54|genre=Confident ReadersScience Fiction|summary=MayaIt's father 2038 and Joe is a professor who invented an amazing dream machinebored cop policing the wealthy and peaceful New York City. Joe longs for a bit of adventure and to get stuck into some really gritty crime detection. But then something went goes horribly wrongwith the AI system that now runs everything, making life easier for many, and now he can't wake upriots start to spread. Or at leastFinally, that's what Maya has been toldJoe gets to do some real policing. In a rather strange dream one night Maya makes a new friend, the aftermath of the rioting global pop star Suki is kidnapped and discovers that Joe is assigned to bring her home. Joe isn't the only way one trying to save her dad may be by being asleep. Cue one madcap action adventure story where dreams Suki - Dylan, a British superfan and reality collidetech nerd, is also on the case...really...and thereWhat went wrong? Did the system fail or was it hacked? And how is Suki's everything from llamas and bananas, dream machines made from hairdresser cast-offs, to a talking cat called Bin Bag!|isbn=024147051Xkidnapping connected?
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=18004644951529421284|title= 100 Ways in 100 Days to Teach Your Baby Maths: Support All Areas of Your Baby’s Development by Nurturing a Love of MathsLaying Out the Bones|author=Emma SmithKate Webb
|rating=4.5
|genre=Children's Non-FictionCrime|summary=''Babies seem It was one of those flash downpours that the British weather often delivers in a heatwave. In a gully, a human skeleton came to the surface and forensic testing proved the body to be born with an amazing number sense: understanding shapes in the womb, being aware of quantities at seven hours old, assessing probability at six months oldLee Geary, and comprehending addition and subtraction at who had disappeared nine months oldyears earlier. He'' Did you know this? I didn't! How about: ''Maths ability on entry to school is d been a strong predictor of later achievementknown drug user and had learning disabilities, double that so it could have been a simple case of literacy skills.'' I didnmisadventure but DI Matt Lockyer wasn't know this either! I think most parents are aware that giving your children a good start in literacy - reading stories, teaching pen grips, singing rhymes - gives children convinced. Geary was a solid foundation when they start school. But do we think the same way about mathstownie, beyond countingso what was he doing out on Salisbury Plain alone? I don't think we do, in part because so many of us There are afraid connections to the suicide of mathsHolly Gilbert and to two other deaths which were not considered suspicious at the time. But why are we? Most Lockyer and DC Gemma Broad of us use maths in daily life without realising the Major Crimes Review Unit (that's cold cases to you and it follows that giving our children a similar pre-school grounding will be just as beneficialme) investigate.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=15293793850571379559|title=The Madness House of Crowds (Chief Inspector Gamache)Broken Bricks|author=Louise PennyFiona Williams|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeLiterary Fiction|summary=In ''The House of Broken Bricks'' is the Canadian village story of Three Pines, wefour people. Tess Hembry're post-pandemics roots are in Jamaica: the scars are still temperamentally she might be happier there , but life is starting to get back to normalinstead, she lives in the house on the riverbank, built of broken bricks. Insubstantial as it might look, it's stood the passage of time, storms and floods. The villagers are beginning Her husband, Richard, struggles to return grow his vegetables, to complete the Bistro delivery rounds - and to bring in sufficient money. They have twin boys - Sonny and Max, the Aubergerainbow twins. TheySonny're visiting each others colouring reflects his mother's homes and having friends and relatives to stayJamaican heritage. Max takes after his father. A young Sudanese woman who has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize People don't believe that they're related, much less twins and there's an assumption when Max is one such visitor and out with his mother that she soon proves that not all saints are necessarily pleasant people to be around - a bit like Vincent Gilbert, known in the village as the Asshole Saint's his nanny.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn= B09F4CTKJR1529425867|title= Flights for FreedomLost and Never Found (A D I Wilkins Mystery)|author= Steven BurgauerSimon Mason
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Bobby Carter was a lawyer In 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 consigliere to one father of the major crime families in nineteen seventies GlasgowRyan, is not. DC Jack Laidlaw is on the CID team charged with the investigationHe's not any of those things. I say He's white, originated from a trailer park, barely educated (reading'on the teams not '' but Laidlaw never really seems '' 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're being introduced to be a part of itpolice procedural written for laughs. He does his own thingWell, goes his own way and 'you're not. The Dark Remains'' uncovers two men are just different sides of the same policing coin. Sometimes the truth of why Bobby Carter's body was found behind one of Glasgowcombination works brilliantly well. Sometimes it's seedier pubsproblematic.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1942410255Mosby Woods|title=Tokyo Zangyo (Detective Hiroshi)|author=Michael PronkoA Whirly Man Loses His Turn|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeLiterary Fiction|summary=''Zangyo: overtime work, often unpaid'' It's the culture, The West isn't the dominant force it? The hours for which you're paid are really just a statement of once was. Nobody in the minimum you'll be required West is quite sure how to do: you'll work more hours to get mend this or even if mending it is the job done and done to the satisfaction best course of bullies like Shigeru Onizukaaction. When he was found dead in front of Senden Central's headquarters in Tokyo Governments are flailing. A war here, a push for climate action there was nothing . A feeling that nobody is in the way of regret or grief, even from his familyactual charge. Imagine then, but there was a mild curiosity as to whether he'd jumped from man with precognition. Imagine the roof strategic advantage in this asset; a man who can tell you what will happen given any set of circumstances. That man would be valuable, right? Perhaps the building or been assisted most valuable asset in his descenthistory. Gossip revolves around the fact that he left the roof at the exact same spot Imagine then, that an employee, Mayu Yamase, had committed suicide some three years earlierthis man loses this ability. She'd accused Onizuka of bullying her and forcing her What would governments do to work an unreasonable amount of overtime.get it back?|isbn=B0C9SNG8R1
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