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'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Daniel Abraham0241636604|title=Age of AshThe Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson
|rating=4.5
|genre=FantasyAutobiography|summary= We meet Alys under the most northerly If you were to bring up an image of Oldgatea city banker in your mind, you's four bridgesre 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. she 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 knife in her hand and 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 meeting that she dreadscard game which got him an internship with Citibank. Meanwhile 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 twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the City English country village where she grew up. She's back now because of Kithamar a request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Freya's former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is at a point in dead and the turning of years when circumstances seem suspicious, to say the worlds are at their thinnest and all things are possibleleast. It is Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the night between village: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the funeral of a Prince and man or pursue the coronation of his successorprofession she loved. For After the split, she worked in a night cafe, met and married James (on the rebound from the Kithamar is un-ruledlove of her life, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.|isbn=0356515427
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=1529095522AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=The InterviewAll Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=C M EwanBenjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=45|genre=ThrillersScience Fiction|summary=Kate Harding is going for an interview for her dream job at Edge Communications. It's the last interview 'Opening up new ways of thinking about the day at one shape of Londonthings to come.'' I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you's newest office buildings and Edge re eighteen. Well, I must confess that there have fitted out their part been more than a few decades of the building to be something specialtechnology in my lifetime. Maggie, Kate I've kept up reasonably well with what's recruitment agent, is keen advantageous to see me but I'm left with the feeling that Kate approaches the interview in a good state it's all getting away from me. Some of mind: Kate assumes that this it is because Maggie will get a decent bonus if Kate gets - 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 job - latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and she has to admit that life has not been easy for her recentlywho could deliver information in a way I could understand.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B097XNMCRKSunny Singh|title=The Blood Tide (DS Max Craigie)|author=Neil LancasterHotel Arcadia|rating=43.5|genre=CrimeThrillers |summary=Loch Torridon ''The Hotel Arcadia is'' a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Hiding from the back of beyond: terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there's not even any light pollution which is why it was Sam, a wartime photographer and Abhi, the perfect place to land illegal deliveries of drugshotel manager. Jimmy McLeish thought that he was onto a nice little earner, only As Abhi continues to try to find that Maccacare remotely for the residents who are still alive in the hotel, the man he thought he was working forms a bond with, is dead. His remains would never Sam who refuses to be found. The delivery is hijacked cowed by Davie events, and Callumkeeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what's happened through her photography. As Although they only ever talk over the story progresses we'll get phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and they both wait to know them quite wellsee if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists.|isbn=086154742X
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{{Frontpage
|isbn= B09NDJ77LM1529153298|title=Me and My ShadowThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Deborah StoneJennie Godfrey|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary= It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She'What happens when someone is pushed too far and s not what's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, they begin 've been murdered, but to lose their grip on reality? How would you cope if you felt have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that no one loved you? And how far would you go her father wants to be happy? Accompany Rachel as she tries to shake off move the shadows of her past and attempts to repair decades worth of painfamily 'Down South'. When you'' Rachel re from Yorkshire, Down South is in a current conversation with her psychiatristfrightening, foreign place, who pushes her to recall her life from very young childhood onwardsbest avoided. But Rachel is combative with Doctor Blake For Miv, sometimes even contemptuous of the move would mean leaving herbest friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to prevent that. You can see that it She's not an easy therapeutic relationship. Rachelworried about the dangers or that her Mum's recall of her life is in remarkable detail. She remembers each minor slight and each major betrayal in perfect detail with absolute and unforgiving claritystopped talking - to anyone.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=15294096591398524085|title=The Locked Room (Dr Ruth Galloway)Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Elly GriffithsNicci French
|rating=5
|genre=Crime
|summary=It Charlotte Salter was some time since expected at her father had remarried but his wife was now keen to do some decorating and Dr Ruth Galloway volunteered to clear out her motherhusband's belongingsfiftieth birthday party but never turned up. She was intrigued by the discovery of a picture of her own house: it was an old photographHer children, sons Niall, taken in misty conditions Paul and Ollie and on the back it said 'dawn 1963'her daughter, some years before Ruth was bornEtty. It was before are all worried but - strangely - her parents were marriedhusband, Alec, is not. When she returned to Norfolk she was determined to Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find out what was behind the photograph but Covid intervened and body of Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in the country was in lockdownriver. Ruth and Kate are restricted to It was an easy assumption for the cottage with Ruth attempting police to home school Kate make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and continue with her university teaching dutiesthen committed suicide when he couldn't stand the guilt. The good thing was meeting Zoe, the new tenant from next door whom Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they got to know whilst clapping for carerscan do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=18479418341035906708|title=Atomic HabitsDiva|author=James ClearDaisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=LifestyleGeneral Fiction|summary=I've said this before We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but there are some books that you seek outshe was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, some books that you stumble across in December 1923 and some books that drop into your life because you really MUST read them, like, right now! only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas'Atomic Habits'' to make it more manageable in the States. is When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the last categoryNazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her elder sister, Jackie.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B09MSC981WChristopher Edge|title=The Woke Iliad|author=George BoreasBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionConfident Readers|summary=Helen Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the nickname of 'The Black Hole'. All big movie fans, they're looking forward to lots of exciting films, and many, many snacks! However, as the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is a popular activistvery different, and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. Or should we call her a popular influencer But as they lurch from one film genre to the next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Or perhaps a popular franchise owner Will they ever get back to the cinema, and to their real lives? Anyway, Helen is so popular that |isbn=1839942738}}{{Frontpage|author=Rachel Greenlaw|title=Compass and Blade|rating=3.5|genre=Teens|summary=''I can hear the United States government has made her its Ambassador song of Wokethe sea. Helen runs all sorts The call of initiatives the deep, the answering beat in my heart.'' Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on behalf luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, is one of the government, including seven who swim out to survey the Shaming Conference ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. But when the Permissible Entertainment Committee - Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the island's leader and Mira'for indoctrinating s father. Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and legislating against summer fun for any who still knew how with only coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. With only nine days to unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to have it'the heart of the smuggler's territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and the ones she holds most dear. Ouch!|isbn=0008664730
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B09D95TRKZJames Sherwood Metts|title=The Wedding Murders|author=Sarah LinleyPlanet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersConfident Readers|summary=Libby Steele was hoping to get Things have been a permanent job with bit sticky for the newspaper Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're paid to do and the case she was covering was her big chanceother tasks that took time to accomplish. It was even more important Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to her than the celebrity wedding she was think of other, new ways to attend the following day with her ex-rock star boyfriendspend time, Matthewalong came an awful pandemic. She Life was leaving her seven-year-old sonpretty much shut down and, Patrick along with her sister, Emma, and heading off to a grand manor house hotel in the North Yorkshire countryside. Daniel Acroydit, television presenter and former member of all the rock band was marrying Vicky and Libby suspected that the wedding wasn't ''quite'' as high-profile as had been suggested as there was no ban many daily social interactions on photos or phoneswhich they depend so heavily.|isbn=1736128426
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1838226834Matthew Tree|title=Carried Away With the Carnival|author=Ed BoxallWe'll Never Know|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingLiterary Fiction|summary=It was one 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 those memories we treasure from our childhoods: an outing with our grandparents. They're there to undo his artistic passions all the good that parents do, so the trips out were always so much funfailed miserably and who had endless crises of self confidence. A young boy was going So Tim applied himself to the carnival with his Grandadstudies, who told him:cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions. ''It'll be brilliant, just remember, don't let go of my hand.''|isbn= B0CVFXPGP8
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1529135362A G Slatter|title=The Long Weekend|author=Gilly MacmillanBriar Book of the Dead|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersFantasy|summary=It was '' There's a part of me that wants to keep this just to myself for however long drive I can. This secret magic of my own, all mine, at last. I just want to enjoy it for a while.'' Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the weekend retreat in Northumbriaworld, right up near lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Briar's, a family of witches who protect the Scottish borders town and to make it worse the three husbands had all - wider world from the Darklands. Though she has always wished for one reason or another magic, Ellie Briar is the first non- had witch to delay making the trip until the Saturday morning. Jane be born into her family for generations and Ruth had known each other for a long time but Emily as such since she was young, her training as a bit of an outsider. She steward revolved around letters and Paul had married only relatively recently administration rather than spells and she was ten years younger than potions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the other two womentown's leader, and Ellie takes her place beside her. The friendship of As challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the group went back rare ability to school days. Paul had coached rugby communicate with the dead, putting her at the school where Mark, Toby and Rob were pupilsheart of a maelstrom of chaos. Mark had married JaneReeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and Toby is Ruthdetermine what to do as the Briar witches's husband. And Rob? Welllegacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, Rob's deadis under threat.|isbn=1803364548
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=gareth_steel1529900360|title=Never Work With AnimalsThe Ghost Orchid|author=Gareth SteelJonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=Animals and WildlifeCrime|summary=I donIt hadn't often begin my reviews with a warning been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but with ''Never Work With Animals'' it seems he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to be appropriateask for his help on difficult cases. Stories His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the help of a vetpsychologist only worked for a while. Finally, it was Robin, Delaware's life have proved popular since ''All Creatures Great and Small'' but ''Never Work With Animals'' is definitely not the companion volume you've been looking partner, who nudged Milo into asking forhelp again. As a TV show She knew that the author would argue involvement was something that ''All Creatures'' lacked realismthe man she loved needed. The next case did look simple, as do other similar programmesthough. Gareth Steel says that Two lovers were murdered in the book is not suitable for younger readers and - after reading - I agree with himswimming pool of a remote property in Bel Air. He says that he's written it was the heir to inform an Italian shoe empire and provoke thought, particularly amongst aspiring vets. It deals with some uncomfortable she is married to an extremely rich man and distressing issues but it doesn't lack sensitivity, although there are occasions when you would be best choosing between reading and eatings not the Italian. But which of them was the primary target?
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=17876348841529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The HerdSecret Life of a Vet|author=Emily EdwardsSion Rowlands|rating=3.5|genre=General FictionAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Our story opens Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in December 2019his footsteps, before most 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 us had even heard of Covid or realised that whether or not we should be vaccinated would come to be doing work experience with a family friend who was a major issuevet and was convinced this was the job for him. We're in Farley County CourtBefore long, where Elizabeth and Jack Chamberlain are facing Bryony and Ash Kohlihe was at Liverpool University. As they were best friends until just It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a few months ago we know that whatever has happened is major and thatchild. If anything, regardless of the outcome, this is not going he'd wanted to work out well for anyonebe a professional footballer.
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Annabel Abbs0861541774|title=The Language A Nye of FoodPheasants|author=Steve Burrows|rating=54|genre=Historical FictionCrime|summary=Eliza Acton is DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a poet who has never had the slightest inclination short holiday in Singapore to boil meet up with an eggold ally, Guy Trueman. When tasked with writing Maik was involved in a cookery book, she recruits Ann Kirby, street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a local woman man armed with a troubled home lifeknife - and he killed a Ghurka. Together Initially, they test, craft, refine and reshape he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the world of domestic cookery, reinventing man. Now he could be facing the recipe book death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and changing the face of cookery writing foreverwouldn't help Danny at all.|isbn=1398502227
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{{Frontpage
|author=Louie StowellAlexander McCall Smith|title=Loki: A Bad God's Guide to Being GoodThe Perfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=Meet Loki. The trickster god has got into trouble again, so the other gods have decided there's only one thing for it – he must be banished. And transformed – for Loki Perfect Passion Company is spending a month both dating agency in exile Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the physical form of business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a middle-school kid here on Earthwhile. He's guarded by Katie is coming out of a giant and break up with a god in disguise as his parentsbad boyfriend, and Thor has so jumps at the chance to come along as wellhome to Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to be the more suavean Edinburgh we already love, more popular thanks to 44 Scotland Street and more successful brother of the twoIsabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Loki Katie has no experience in running a month to redeem his reputation, and get his moral compass pointing the right way againbusiness, or elsein match-making, and to prove it he but Ness has to write the text we read full confidence in a sentient notebookher abilities, that is able to cry foul of his liesand there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, and judge his progress. But Loki is the kind of god who insists he can do anythingWilliam, so surviving a bit more virtuously for a month is going to be lend a walk in the park...right?hand…|isbn=14063997521846976596
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=00084544420811771741|title=A Flicker in the DarkInstaKnits for Baby|author=Stacy WillinghamMelissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=ThrillersCrafts|summary=ItMelissa Leapman's May 2019 and Dr Chloe Davis, ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a medical psychologist, is completing a session with a new patientcollection of knits from toys to blankets. Lacey is suffering mentally but Chloe has hopes Some will be quick knits - others are of getting her through the trauma. You see'long, Chloe knows what itcosy afternoons in front of the fire's like to have a traumatic childhoodvariety. Her father is Richard Davis, The projects are divided by the man who murdered six girls some twenty years ago. Their bodies have never been found but Chloe found some jewellery belonging time they'll take to the girls complete - trophies taken from their bodies - tucked away in a cupboard at home less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and she and her mother handed it to the policemore than twenty hours. Dick Davis is in All the Louisiana State Penitentiary projects are attractive, modern and Chloie has had nothing to do with him for the last twenty yearsuseable. Her mother is in a care homeI perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's me being picky.
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{{Frontpage
|author=Christopher EdgeDean Koontz|title=Escape RoomThe Bad Weather Friend|rating=34.5|genre=Confident ReadersParanormal|summary=I've seen junior variants of the 'Choose Your Own Adventure' format cover escape rooms – the process by which Benny is having a character or characters start by being trapped in terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a specific locationreally weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and have it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the very last person to solve problems in order to get their way outdeserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. What I've not done (alongside experience one for myself – So fortunately for Benny it turns out that would require actual friends) the delivery to his house is seen a prose book describing people in such an adventurenew friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, with the regular second who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person narrative replaced by the first. Here Spike is going to take care of Benny, Ami and four other tweenagerswill certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, all new to each other and booked Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into the game without any of their friends, are a team – starting out at the gameBenny's main offices, where they're told wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they and their quest for The Answer are a world-changer. But could watching people engage with such a pastime, despite the ramped-up threat levels, change much in the world of literature?|isbn=17880079641662500491
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1732898731Adam Stower|title=The Boy Who Loved Boxes: A Children's Book for Adults|author=Michael Albanese Murray and Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=LifestyleConfident Readers |summary=There was Murray is supposed to be a Boy humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who loved boxesis able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the two. He had But he's a box for everything and he was meticulous about storage: bad magician's cat, so his parents probably couldn't believe their luck! It began with art suppliesfavourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, stuffed toys and the like: all catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the things which most children have in abundanceregular back garden, but into a world of frightening adventure and whiffs. The BoyThis time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but he's delight was in the sense of order in his room: it made him feel happy. As he grew turned up and became a Man, his life became more complicated and he dealt with this by getting bigger and better boxes. Look carefully at the pictures and you'll see that one of them has a padlock...have to do…|isbn=0008561249
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=B09MN1526WB0C47LV1PC|title=Blood Games (DS Nikki Parekh 4)Fragility|author=Liz MistryMosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=CrimeLiterary Fiction|summary=ItCan you make a ''Yo birthing person's the third murder in the space of a few weeks and they've all been because of machetes used on teenagers. DS Nikki Parekh and DC Sajid Malik are amongst joke? And if you could, is the first to arrive on the scene at Chellow Dene Reservoir on question should you make it? Or is the outskirts of Bradford. Only, this timequestion if you did, would it's going to land? The catch is that the answer for both could well be different. The body appears to Nikki to be that ... no. ''Fragility'' is set as the city of her beloved nephewPortland, HaqibOregon, and she has a very public meltdown. It isn't Haqib: there are similarities but cautiously begins to emerge from the restrictions imposed during the body is clad in designer clothes and comes from an obviously monied background. What it does mean though is that Nikki is going to be on sick leave for some time with anxiety and depression.covid pandemic
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Ally Wilkes1529431735|title=All the White SpacesThe Winter Visitor|author=James Henry
|rating=4
|genre=HorrorCrime|summary=In post-WWI EnglandIt's February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, Jonathan Morgan stows away which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the more surprising. He'd been exiled on an Arctic expedition led by the famous Australis Randall. For Jonathan, this adventure represents Costa del Sol as a chance wanted drug smuggler for a fresh startdecade. The return has come about because he's had a letter from his ex-wife, saying that she's ill and the opportunity hasn't long to live life as his authentic self and true gender, without the disapproval and constraints of his parents. However It's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, Jonathan isn't the only one fleeing the confines of stripped to his past underwear and sent to a watery grave in the shadow boot of the war hangs like a funeral shroud over the expeditionstolen Ford Sierra. Guilt, mistrust and grief stalk the party and, when disaster strikes and they are forced to overwinter on land, Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a menacing presence waits to prey on their darkness. If Jonathan is to make it out of the Arctic winter alive, he will have problem closer to face his demons once and for all, or risk making the barren, icy landscape his tomb.|isbn=1789097835home?
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{{Frontpage
|author=Dean Koontz|title=Quicksilver|rating=2.5|genre=Thrillers|summary=Meet Quinn Quicksilver. He's not had the chance to get to be a mercurial character yet, for he's lived in a nun-run orphanage since he was a three-day old foundling, Alex Bell and now is starting a career on a needless magazine's staff. But when this book starts he IS now ''subject to sudden or unpredictable changes of mood or mind'', for something – call it unearthly intuition, call it mind-control, call it a supernatural urge – has demanded of him that he go to a derelict diner, find a gold coin worth a fortune, cash the value of it out of his bank and prepare for going on the lam. And all this is just in time for two of those typical Men in Black types to turn up and suggest he's of interest to them. Helped to escape, he finds his flight is interrupted by other instances of him acting without being in control, the discovery that he is not unique in having some kind of burgeoning power – and a whole lot more besides.|isbn=1542019885}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008441618Tim McDonagh|title=Other Parents|author=Sarah Stovell|rating=5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Jo Fairburn knew that she was under intense pressure as the new head of West Burntridge First School: if she didn't live up to her retired predecessor there could well be a house price slump in that part The Glorious Race of the town. The school had an active Parent Teacher Association and the funds which they raised were a considerable benefit to the school. There was one difficulty, though - they were ''devastatingly shockable'', with two members, in particular, causing problems for the head. Laura Spence and Kate Monroe objected to Jo's restrictions on the toys children could bring in on Toy Day but that was just a warm-up act for their real gripe: LGBTQ education.}}{{Frontpage|author=Sarah Ann Juckes|title=The Hunt for the NightingaleMagical Beasts|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Jasper Eli is a little boy who has some struggles, and whilst busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we're never told why exactlystart by visiting with him, we can see that he has anxiety and panic attacks, in the evening a helper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and has difficulty dealing runs. Eli lives with change and big emotions. His big sisterhis lovely gran, Rosie, has been too – for there is a huge support to himgeneration missing in the family. A few short years ago, talking him down when things Eli's parents were difficult, encouraging himboth lost to the titular race, and writing a book with him, globe-trotting adventure where all about birds, that he can read when he gets scared entrants have to help him calm down. His parents seem completely caught up navigate the world in their business, and so it is Rosie he always turns tothe company of a magical beast. Even though she This has gone away made the race anathema to University now, she has promised him that she will still be there the pair – but when he needs her. But now he can't find Rosie. She hasn't come home when she said she would, and she isn't answering her phone. His parents won't speak a bad incident at the eatery leads to him or when they doa confession from gran, he doesn't understand or take in what they're saying. Nothing seems to be right, and the Eli knows his only way he feels he can find any peace hope is if to dare to enter what he can find Rosiemost hates, and if they can find with the sole aim the prize of magic at the end – the nightingale and listen only thing to its song, as they do together every Springpossibly save his gran.|isbn=13985108900571382231
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{{Frontpage
|genre=Crime
|summary=It's five years since the stag weekendChef Paul Delamare took a teaching job at a residential cookery school in Belgravia. Five of them He didn't really want to but celebrity chef Christian Wagner had set out: Tim (the groom) and his four groomsmen, Scot, Miguel (who was usually called Miggy), Neil and Josh. The first night they had plenty a way of alcohol - too much really - getting both men and in the night Scot managed women to wander offdo what he wanted. The remaining four searched for him in vain and it was decided Paul ''somehow'' got the impression that Timhe'd be at the school to assist Paul, who was experienced in survival techniqueshad a broken arm, would go for help. When help but it didn't come turn out that way. The teaching - and the remaining three finally made their way back to townproblems - are all his own. Scott followed soon after but there The one thing he hadn't expected was no sign of Timfor someone to turn up dead. Every year, Tim's father, MartinUnfortunately, he was the person who discovered the body and everyone knows that the four friends have been back police consider that person to continue be the search although they do now acknowledge that they're looking for 'remains' rather than for Timprime suspect.
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{{Frontpage
|author=Gunnar StaalesenSarah Marsh|title=Bitter FlowersA Sign of Her Own
|rating=3.5
|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction|summary=Varg Veum is After a Norwegian Private Investigator who has just finished bout of scarlet fever as a stint in rehab and is now returning to workchild, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. However, the quiet job he's supposedly taken on caretaking someone's house quickly turns Suddenly plunged into a murder investigationworld of silence, and everything about her life changes. Living in a mystery around time when the use of sign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a missing woman. Varg finds himself not only investigating theseschool where she is taught to lip read, but also looking into an oldphysically restrained from signing. From here, cold case of an eight year old girl she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who disappeared one night has been teaching the deaf and was never foundusing a system called Visible Speech. Somehow, these disparate cases appear to be linked At the same time, but what Bell is the linkworking on other inventions and ideas, and how can Varg possibly unravel the truth?Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a complicated tangle of espionage.|isbn=191319308X1035401614
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Kia Ahankoob1803816759|title=The Gold Lion and the Tournament of SentinelsUnravelling|author=Will Gibson
|rating=4
|genre=Graphic NovelsScience Fiction|summary= When Myriad created Duniva he endowed his children with different powers, each with its own strength It's 2038 and weakeness, in Joe is a bored cop policing the hope they would complement each other and collaborate, creating a dynamic wealthy and prosperous societypeaceful New York City. Each power is contained within Joe longs for a magical ring belonging to one bit of eight countries led by Myriad's children adventure and their descendantsto get stuck into some really gritty crime detection. But it didn't quite work out like then something goes horribly wrong with the AI system thatnow runs everything, making life easier for many, and riots start to spread. Rivalries developedFinally, Joe gets to do some real policing. Enmities grew out In the aftermath of them the rioting global pop star Suki is kidnapped and the eight countries went Joe is assigned to warbring her home. Having fought themselves into an endless and ruinous stalemate and finding Joe isn't the cost of war too highonly one trying to save Suki - Dylan, a solution British superfan and tech nerd, is proposed. Each of also on the eight countries will send their greatest warriors, known as sentinels, to a single combat tournamentcase. The winner will take possession of all What went wrong? Did the rings and become the supreme ruler of Duniva.|isbn=B09MMQJFPVsystem fail or was it hacked? And how is Suki's kidnapping connected?
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Alastair Chisholm and Eric Deschamps1529421284|title=Dragon Storm: Tomas and IronskinLaying Out the Bones|author=Kate Webb|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Meet TomasIt was one of those flash downpours that the British weather often delivers in a heatwave. Happy In a gully, a human skeleton came to work with his father in the blacksmith's forgesurface and forensic testing proved the body to be Lee Geary, hewho had disappeared nine years earlier. He's almost of the age to become d been a full apprentice, known drug user and help with the new batch of dragonswords is certainly needed. Not that there are any dragonshad learning disabilities, so it could have been a simple case of course – they vanished centuries ago. Except..misadventure but DI Matt Lockyer wasn't convinced. Strange signals from within the forge furnace, and Geary was a peculiar invite to become an apprentice clerk insteadtownie, so what was he doing out on Salisbury Plain alone? There are things for Tom connections to the suicide of Holly Gilbert and to puzzle over – until it all comes out in two other deaths which were not considered suspicious at the wash, that yes dragons do still exist in this world, time. Lockyer and DC Gemma Broad of the Major Crimes Review Unit (that Tom is rare in the ability 's cold cases to summon them, share magical attributes, you and ride with themme) investigate...|isbn=1839940026
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=15293465410571379559|title=Something to Hide: An Inspector Lynley NovelThe House of Broken Bricks|author=Elizabeth GeorgeFiona Williams
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=''The House of Broken Bricks'' is the story of four people. Tess Hembry's roots are in Jamaica: temperamentally she might be happier there, but instead, 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. Her husband, Richard, struggles to grow his vegetables, to complete the delivery rounds - and to bring in sufficient money. They have twin boys - Sonny and Max, the rainbow twins. Sonny's colouring reflects his mother's Jamaican heritage. Max takes after his father. People don't believe that they're related, much less twins and there's an assumption when Max is out with his mother that she's his nanny.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1529425867
|title=Lost and Never Found (A D I Wilkins Mystery)
|author=Simon Mason
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=It's late July and Deborah St James In Oxford, there are two D I Wilkins. Raymond Wilkins is at a meeting with Dominique Shawof Nigerian descent, Undersecretary for the school systemBalliol educated and always exquisitely dressed. D I Ryan Wilkins, a representative from the NHSson of Ryan and father of Ryan, Mr Oh from Barnardos, someone from Orchid House whose name she didnis not. He't catch but would later turn out to be Zawadi and Narissa Cameron, a filmmakers not any of those things. It follows on He's white, originated from the success of Deboraha trailer park, barely educated (reading's book not ''London Voicesreally'': the meeting is an exploration his thing) and his wardrobe consists mainly of the possibility shell suits and trackies. They're usually in lime green or acid yellow. You might wonder if you're being introduced to a police procedural written for laughs. Well, you're not. The two men are just different sides of the idea behind same policing coin. Sometimes the book being used to highlight an area which is causing concern in some communitiescombination works brilliantly well. DeborahSometimes it's uncertain about quite how successful she could be as the problem seems to occur in Nigerian and Somali communities as she relies on getting the trust of the people she speaks to and photographsproblematic.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B09Q3P283YMosby Woods|title=Shadebringer|author=Grayson W HooperA Whirly Man Loses His Turn
|rating=4
|genre=FantasyLiterary Fiction|summary=Clyde Robbins signs up for the US Army during The West isn't the Vietnam Wardominant force it once was. He's not really that invested Nobody in the fight against Communism, nor West is he particularly interested in a career in the military. If he's honest - which Clyde usually quite sure how to mend this or even if mending it is, with himself at least - he hasn't got many choices and this one, at least, gets him out of the rut he's in. He's good in training and is quickly put onto a non commissioned officer training best courseof action. He's chuffed with himselfGovernments are flailing.}}{{Frontpage|author=Lucy Strange and Pam Smy|title=The Mermaid in the Millpond|rating=4A war here, a push for climate action there.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=There A feeling that nobody is no mermaid in the millpondactual charge. That at least is what Bess is telling herself. Neither will Imagine then, there be was a friend for her in amongst all the other kids, who have had their entire childhoods sold to the mill-owners by man with precognition. Imagine the London workhouse they used to call home. Bess knows there is no time for friendship strategic advantage in this asset; a hand-to-mouth, every man for himself kind who can tell you what will happen given any set of existencecircumstances. But despite herself Bess does find a bit of a kindred spirit That man would be valuable, right? Perhaps the most valuable asset in the slight little Dothistory. Imagine then, and despite everything that life has taught her about betrayal and how befriending people only leads this man loses this ability. What would governments do to harm, there might be a glimmer of companionship in the tired-out mill workers. But surely that doesn't mean there is any truth in the existence of the mermaidget it back?|isbn=180090049XB0C9SNG8R1
}}
