Changes

|isbn=B0CP95J1CG0241636604|title=Of Ghosts & Broken PromisesThe Trading Game: A Confession|author=Mark LinganeGary Stevenson

|genre=Science FictionAutobiography|summary= RonanIf you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you's not entirely sure why he decides to go re unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the party but pin-stripe suit and his interest background is piqued by the way it arrivedEast End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. And it seems like a good opportunity There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to get out the London School of his room Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and away from the online activities he makes has a living 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 atwhat was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. So he makes his way there Eventually, dodging 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 buses that make English country village where she grew up most . She's back now because of a request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Freya's former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. Arthur was the traffic and watching reason why Freya had not been back to the local energy storage indicator lightsvillage: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. Should Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be enough powernear the man or pursue the profession she loved. Hopefully After the split, she worked in a cafe, met and married James (on the rebound from the love of her life, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.

|isbn=1454955546AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=SugarlessAll Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Nicole M AvenaBenjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)

|genre=LifestyleScience Fiction|summary=''This isn't a diet book. The last thing anyone needs is another diet bookOpening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.''

There was a time, not that long ago, when I've heard it was thought said that sugary food was better for 'technology' is what happens after you than food with high-fat content're eighteen. Fat was the demon food which was going to elevate your cholesterol and cause heart disease. Sugar was Well, I must confess that there have been more than a carbohydrate, so goodfew decades of technology in my lifetime. ThereI've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but I'm left with the feeling that it's a problem, thoughall getting away from me. Some of it is - frankly - quite frightening. Sugar is addictive Of course, I could research the possibilities and can hijack your brain in much the same way as drugs like heroin probabilities and cocaineend up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. Does that sound over the top? Well, it isn'tI needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand.

|author=Sunny Singh|title=Hotel Arcadia|rating=3.5|genre=Thrillers |summary=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 terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, a wartime photographer and Abhi, the hotel manager. As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the hotel, he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what's happened through her photography. 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 they will be rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists.|isbn=086154742X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=15211298861529153298|title=They Had It Coming (Greg Mason mysteries)The List of Suspicious Things|author=Keith RedfernJennie Godfrey|rating=45|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction|summary=Greg MasonIt's just beginning to get his confidence as an investigator to the point where he'll warn someone about how much he charges1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly... ) ItShe's not what's a good job too because Greg and Joyce will soon have a baby and theyworrying Miv're both delighteds family, though. Joyce will be more delighted about the baby when she gets past the morning sicknessWomen have been disappearing. Greg is approached by an old friend whose brother-in-law appears Well, they've been murdered, but to have killed himself'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. StuartMiv's concerned about his sister, Lucy, whoupset because she's struggling overheard that her father wants to make ends meet and her son move the family 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is not thrivinga frightening, foreign place, best avoided. LucyFor Miv, he saysthe move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, is convinced and she'll do anything to prevent that Gil would never have killed himself - it simply wasn. She't in his nature. The police and s not worried about the coroner have accepted dangers or that the death was suicide, but Stuarther Mum's prepared stopped talking - to pay Greg to find out what happened on the night Gil diedanyone.

|isbn=B0CK3MYJ561398524085|title=Responsibilities (Greg Mason mysteries)Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Ann MacarthurNicci French|rating=45

|summary=It's the 1990s and Greg MasonCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband's twenty-eight years old. He used to have a high-flying job in the city fiftieth birthday party but it wasn't satisfying so he's now set himself never turned up as a private investigator. 'Shades of Cameron Strike' Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, you might be thinkingEtty. Nice blokeare all worried but - strangely - her husband, but where's the life experience that backs up this profession? On the other handAlec, he has been asked to look into somethingis not. Joyce Shortly afterwards, Etty and Helen are half-sistersGreg, find the body of Greg's father, or ratherDuncan Ackerley, they were until Helen was killed in what's been written off as a tragic accident at an unmanned level crossingthe river. Joyce - It was an easy assumption for the police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and her parents, Oliver and Pam Hetherington - canthen committed suicide when he couldn't understand what she was doing there - or how she could come to fall in front of a trainstand the guilt. GregThe Salter children are not convinced but there's been asked to investigatelittle else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.

|authorisbn=Katherine Howe1035906708|title=A True AccountDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin

|summary=Hannah Masury is living We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in BostonManhattan, having been sent to live with a family who run an innNew York, in December 1923 and being made only moved to work there from a young ageAthens when she was thirteen. When she hears there is Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas' to be a hanging of some pirates make it more manageable in the town, she decides to go and watchStates. Enthralled and horrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled When she was back in a young boy's death at the hands of two vicious pirates. She hides away, Athens - supposedly so that they don't find and kill she could get appropriate training for her too, and then to escape them completely voice - she runs away to sea, dressing as was raised under the Nazi occupation by a boy mother who mercilessly exploited her and joining the notorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a cabin boy. She soon finds herself in the thick made no secret of things when there is a mutiny on boardher preference for her elder sister, and from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on the ocean wavesJackie.|isbn=0861547438

|author=Tananarive DueChristopher Edge|title=The ReformatoryBlack Hole Cinema Club|rating=54|genre=Historical FictionConfident Readers|summary= GracetownLucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, Floridaa place that has the nickname of 'The Black Hole'. June 1950 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 very different, and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. After a scuffle with a white boy But as they lurch from one film genre to the next, twelve year-old Robbie Stephens Jr can they figure out what on earth is sentenced going on? Will they ever get back to the cinema, and to six months at their real lives?|isbn=1839942738}}{{Frontpage|author=Rachel Greenlaw|title=Compass and Blade|rating=3.5|genre=Teens|summary=''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the Gracetown School for Boysdeep, otherwise known as the Reformatoryanswering beat in my heart. It's ' Rosevear, a place with a brutal remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, is one of the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and dark reputationany treasure that lies within. But when the segregated reformatory is Council Watch lays a chamber of horrorstrap to end the wrecking, haunted by they capture the boys island's leader and Mira'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 with only coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search of a family secret that have died therelies buried deep in the sea. In order With only nine days to unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to survive the school governor and his Funhouseheart of the smuggler's territory, Robert Mira must enlist be determined to stop at nothing to save the help future of her home and the schoolones she holds most dear.|isbn=0008664730}}{{Frontpage|author=James Sherwood Metts|title=Planet Storyland|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary= Things have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they's ghosts – only re paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as they have their own motivations.were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of other, new ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic.Life was pretty much shut down and, along with it, all the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|isbn=18033665321736128426}}

|isbnauthor=1471180158Matthew Tree|title=Maybe Tomorrow|author=Penny ParkesWe'll Never Know

|genre=General Literary Fiction|summary=Jamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery storeTimothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, for a man drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and who's a control freak with all the subtlety had endless crises of a half brickself confidence. Jamie's sonSo Tim applied himself to his studies, Bo, 'has cultivated his abilities rather than his problems'. He's asthmatic and the more you read, the more you'll suspect that he's on the autistic spectrum. Sometimes Jamie needs to take time off at short notice - she's a frequent flier in the local A&E daydreams and sometimes Bo's not fit enough to go to school. Missed shifts or the need to be away on time to pick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and put in the wrong. It was going to come to a headset himself high but achievable ambitions.|isbn= B0CVFXPGP8

|author=Harry AllenA G Slatter|title=Children The Briar Book of the SunDead

|genre=TeensFantasy|summary= Ra Eun Seo lives in '' There's a North Korean part of me that wants to keep this just to myself for however long 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 world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Briar's, a family of witches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands. Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to be born into her family for generations and as such since she was young, her training as a talented singersteward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. Life is hard When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the town's leader, and food is difficult to Ellie takes her place beside her. As challenges come byher way left, so Seo right and centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, putting her friends Nari and Min go foraging every eveningat the heart of a maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from one family secret to another, looking for tree bark Ellie must decide who to trust and edible grasses determine what to supplement do as the meagre rations of rice and kimchi at homeBriar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat.|isbn=18051404931803364548

|authorisbn=Edel Rodriguez1529900360|title=Worm: A Cuban American OdysseyThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman

|genre=Graphic NovelsCrime|summary=WeIt hadn're in childhoodt been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and we-shut cases which didn're in Cubat need the help of a psychologist only worked for a while. The revolution has happenedFinally, and Castroit was Robin, first thought of as a saviour of the country, has proven himself a CommunistDelaware's partner, and not done nearly enough to create a level playing field who nudged Milo into asking for allhelp again. She knew that the involvement was something that the man she loved needed. WellThe next case did look simple, those hours-long speeches of his were kind of taking his time awaythough. Our narrator's family weren't Two lovers were murdered in the happiest swimming pool of places here, an uncle refusing to be a remote property in Bel Air. He was the good soldier the country demanded (especially as he would probably be shipped off heir to some minor pro-Communism skirmish, such as Angola) an Italian shoe empire and the father being watched and watched, she is married to an extremely rich man and it's not liked for his successful photography business, success being frowned uponthe Italian. The mother gets the couple jobs with the party to ease some But which of them was the heat, but in this sultry island country, it remains the kind of heat forcing you out of the kitchen…|isbn=1474616720primary target?

|authorisbn=K P O'Donnell1529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Vital Link (A Spark in the Ashes)Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands

|genre=Science FictionAnimals and Wildlife|summary=VL-15, Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a prototype robot, is desperate GP and Rowlands didn't want to understand who she is. Unfortunately, before she could find any answersfollow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the world ended, consumed in an apocalyptic war between the nations of Drexel and Renada. Over halfstrain that being on-a-century later, civilisation is starting to rebuild. Dr Amelia Wong is determined to continue her call put on his father's legacy, building a world where machines and humans can live together in harmony, but internal frictions and external enemies might bring it all crashing down againlife. Craig Anderson, leader When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a group of salvagers called vet and was convinced this was the Exhumersjob for him. Before long, has he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as with so many students - been his entire life turned upside down when dream since he unearths was a prototype combat robot: none other than VL-15 herselfchild. Even after being buried for 65 years If anything, her determination hasnhe't diminished in the slightest, and no errant machine, no savage human tribe and not even Drexel's ravaged ecosystem will stop her on her quest for answers…|isbn=B0CKRYFRZMd wanted to be a professional footballer.

|isbn=18389544810861541774|title=The MisperA Nye of Pheasants|author=Kate LondonSteve Burrows

|summary=Ryan Kennedy killed a police officer: thereDCI Domenic Jejeune's no doubt about thatclose friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. He Maik was the fifteeninvolved in a street brawl -yearhe would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife -old holding the gun and pointing it at DI Kieran Shawhe killed a Ghurka. He pulled the trigger Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but due evidence came to the vagaries of the jury system light that suggested that he was found not guilty of both the might have planned to murder and the manslaughter of the officerman. And so lives must go onNow he could be facing the death penalty. For DI Sarah Collins that means leaving the capital Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and hoping for a quieter life in the countryside but when a missing teenager is found on her territory shewouldn's drawn into a wider investigation - and back into the orbit of Ryan Kennedyt help Danny at all.

|isbnauthor=1035025299Alexander McCall Smith|title=Went to London, Took the Dog|author=Nina StibbeThe Perfect Passion Company|rating=4.5|genre=AutobiographyGeneral Fiction|summary=Nina Stibbe The Perfect Passion Company is returning a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to London for all the online apps in providing a sabbatical more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after being the business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for twenty yearsa while. She's been Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at Victoria's smallholding the chance to come home to Edinburgh. 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 with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in Leicestershire which isn't all that conducive to writingher abilities, as and there's always something smallholding happening - as you might expect. The other side of the decision was sealed when a room became available her very helpful (courtesy of Deborah Moggachand rather handsome) at neighbour, William, to lend a very reasonable rent.hand…|isbn=1846976596

|isbn=B0CKD1L5JL0811771741|title=Radio Free OlympiaInstaKnits for Baby|author=Jeffrey DunnMelissa Leapman

|genre=General FictionCrafts|summary= Petr is an orphanMelissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to blankets. Rescued by Some will be quick knits - others are of the strange, reclusive Bear, he is brought up far from bustling cities and busy human society'long, cosy afternoons in front of the forests of Washingtonfire's Olympic Peninsulavariety. After Bear dies and a brief sojourn in human companyThe projects are divided by the time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and armed with only a pirate radio transmitter, Petr goes on a journey through more than twenty hours. All the forestprojects are attractive, broadcasting the strange, wild modern and rarely heard voices he encountersuseable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's me being picky.

|isbnauthor=1635866243Dean Koontz|title=The Knitting Pattern Writing Handbook|author=Kristina McGrath and Sarah Walworth Bad Weather Friend

|genre=CraftsParanormal|summary=''I quickly discovered that putting words and numbers on Benny is having a page wasn't enoughterrifically bad day. Creating a pattern that was correctHe loses his job, clearhe loses his fiancee, conciseand his house gets trashed. Oh, and consistent required someone has delivered a great deal of trial and errorreally weird, patiencedisturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and perseverance.it'' (Introduction byFrancoise Danoy) A friend recently showed me a knitting pattern for which she'd paid good money. s possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The first line of thing is, Benny is the instructions began: ''Cast off 100 stitchesvery last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person.'' It was clear So fortunately for Benny it turns out that no good could come of this - the instructions didn't get any better - and (finally) PayPal obliged with 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 nefarious forces for being a refund when the seller refused as she couldn't afford the repaymentgood person. The pattern looked prettySpike is going to take care of Benny, but the creator didnand will certainly take care of Benny't have the basic knowledge s enemies, if he, Benny, and skills to enable her to connect with her knitters. She should have read ''The Knitting Pattern Writing Handbook'Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=1662500491

|author=Adam Baron and Benji DaviesStower|title=Oscar's Lion|rating=3|genre=Confident Readers|summary=We start incredibly bluntly, with Oscar hoping to have his mother – or father, but mother is more likely – read him his very favourite book a couple of times before he has to be ready for school. But when he enters his parents' bedroom, all he sees is a mahoosive male lion on their bed, looking sheepish, Murray and admitting that he won't be hungry for another two days. But there are benefits to having a lion around – it can be shown as an unspoken threat to the bully that ruined a birthday party for Oscar the other month. And it can shapeshift, so he can take it to school and it can get him out of a problem. And it's wonderful to have around the house – not limiting his biscuit intake, being much more lax about the rules, and so on. OK, it can't work a dimmer switch but it can give Oscar a wonderful time.|isbn=0008596751}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0BC3YTCMR|title=Good Girls Die|author=Ayura AyiraBun

|genre=General FictionConfident Readers |summary=''This story Murray is not for everyone.'' Lavender Daniels was three weeks short of her fifteenth birthday when The Incident happened. She was supposed to be a very bright studenthumble, a bit too nerdy if truth be toldtidy and friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and suffered from vitiligo - people were afraid to hug her in case it's contagiouseat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the two. ItBut he's not easy being a black girl whose skin is 84% white. She had bad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a crush on seventeen-year-old Reggie Anderson hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the regular back garden, but never thought he would notice her. Then he did: Lavender was very good at math into a world of frightening adventure and Reggie asked if she would tutor himwhiffs. She readily agreed: tutoring This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was something she gladly did at church: this was just an extension. She went , to his house be honest, but he's turned up and he raped her. In shock, she even allowed him 'll have to give her a lift home.do…|isbn=0008561249

|authorisbn=V CastroB0C47LV1PC|title=The Haunting of AlejandraFragility|author=Mosby Woods|rating=3.54|genre=HorrorLiterary Fiction|summary=Can you make a ''Yo birthing person''This was a part of her past joke? And if you could, is the question should you make it? Or is the question if you did, would it land? The catch is that had to stop with herthe answer for both could well be.... She would be the one to confront thisno.''

At some point during her life, Alejandra lost herself. She feels ''Fragility'' is set as if she is playing parts for others in her life – her husband and her children – without ever giving any thought to her own desiresthe city of Portland, her own futureOregon, her own identity. Day by day she goes through quotient motions without anyone seeing that there is something fundamentally wrong. For invisible cautiously begins to all but Alejandra, there is a darkness threatening to consume her. More and more she is visited by a ghost, a weeping woman in a fraying white gown dripping with water, who leaves distress in her wake.|isbn=1803365617emerge from the restrictions imposed during the covid pandemic

|authorisbn=Richard Kadrey1529431735|title=The Pale House DevilWinter Visitor|author=James Henry

|genre=HorrorCrime|summary=Ford It's February 1991 and Neuland are a couple ofEssex is bitingly cold, well, guys for hire I guess, though really which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the way I thought of them through more surprising. He'd been exiled on the book was Costa del Sol as a couple of strange detectives! wanted drug smuggler for a decade. One of them is living, you seeThe return has come about because he's had a letter from his ex-wife, saying that she's ill and the other is undead, and so one of them kills the living, and the other kills the undead. (Only not each other, obviously)hasn't long to live. TheyIt're on a job in New York that goes badlys hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his underwear and so they head out sent to a watery grave in the West coast to try to lay low for boot of a while and find some other work to keep them goingstolen Ford Sierra. But when Is it a young woman called Tilda hires them to kill the 'something' that appears to be haunting warning from a wealthy gentleman's house they find themselves uncovering Spanish gang or a whole lot of family history, and a terrifyingly powerful creature that they've never come across before!|isbn=1803363894problem closer to home?

|author=Helen CooperAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=The Taming Glorious Race of the CatMagical Beasts|rating=3.54

|summary=Once again, mice are pitched against cat. In this case, principally, Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we have Brie the mousestart by visiting with him, up against Gorgonzola the cat – and in case you're seeing the evening a connection, they live in a cheese shop helper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and therefore all the names used here seem to be the names of cheesesruns. Anyway, Brie is shunned, scorned and, if you must, mous-tracised, for the way his habits don't match the other mice he Eli lives with. They nibble up paper wrapping from the cheese his lovely gran, too – for bedding – he displays it as art and makes stories based on there is a generation missing in the visuals on itfamily. And that story-telling will come in handy one nightA few short years ago, when he feels all alone and cast out. ItEli's almost as if there parents were another character from fable who had had both lost to tell stories the titular race, a globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to keep themselves alivenavigate the world in the company of a magical beast. This makes Brie has made the race anathema to the top dog in pair – but when a bad incident at the mouse communityeatery leads to a confession from gran, thoughEli knows his only hope is to dare to enter what he most hates, as all with the sole aim the prize of magic at the others had end – the chance only thing to half-inch some cheese while the cat was distractedpossibly save his gran. But will the story have the successful sequel it needs when that cheese runs out?|isbn=05713760100571382231

|isbn=B0CDZRGT1M178763681X|title=Super Short Stories: Flash Fiction|author=Mark C Wallfisch|rating=4.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=''Got a minute to be amused, entertained, or challenged?''''These 100 stories are super short. None is more than 300 words. You can read one in a flash.''''Some are funny. Some are poignant. All are short.'' Question: how do you review flash fiction? How do you give a flavour of a fully rounded little story if that story is told in fewer than three hundred words? Or do you try to draw out themes from all the flash fictions in a book of them? I don't know! Perhaps we could start by explaining that there really isn't a fixed definition of flash fiction but that Knife Skills for this collection, author Mark C Wallfisch has gone for a three hundred word limit. That's about a single page in your average paperback.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1732898766|title=The Adventures of Birpus and Bulbus: Book One: The Sour Milk DragonBeginners|author=Wynn Everett-Albanese, Michael Albanese and Indre Ta (Illustrator)Orlando Murrin

|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=When we first meet Birpus and Bulbus they're running for their lives Chef Paul Delamare took a teaching job at a residential cookery school in the Forest of Fine Repute. Their greatest fear has come about: the Sour Milk Dragon is chasing themBelgravia. Hedidn's right behind them, spewing hot, sour milk from his nostrilst really want to but celebrity chef Christian Wagner had a way of getting both men and women to do what he wanted. (Please donPaul ''somehow'' got the impression that he't try this d be at home: the school to assist Paul, who had a broken arm, but it wondidn't end wellturn out that way.) Fortunately, they were nearly at Nobby LobThe teaching -lolly and the problems - and when a ladder of moss and vines are all his own. The one thing he hadn't expected was lowered for them, they escapedsomeone to turn up dead. They climbed up to Unfortunately, he was the Tree Wee homes high up in person who discovered the tangled woods where they lived with their Grand Wees, Nester Nook body and Granny Crannyeveryone knows that the police consider that person to be the prime suspect.

|isbnauthor=1472263936Sarah Marsh|title=The Figurine|author=Victoria HislopA Sign of Her Own|rating=3.5

|summary=It was in 1968 that Helena McCloud made After a bout of scarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her first trip to Greecehearing. She was alone: her mother, Greek by birth, had left the family home and refused to returnSuddenly plunged into a world of silence, but Mary and Hamish (Helena's parents) felt that it would be a pity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding everything about her Greek heritagelife changes. Her trip to the family apartment Living in up-market Kolonaki would be a time when the first use of several annual visits. She grew sign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a school where she is taught to love her grandmother and the family's maid, Dinalip read, but was wary - and frightened - of her grandfather, retired general Stamatis Papagiannisphysically restrained from signing. He was proud of his close connections to From here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the Junta deaf and expected his family to uphold his values but saw no reason to accommodate themusing a system called Visible Speech. His prejudices included Helena's red hair At the same time, Bell is working on other inventions and green eyes - inherited from her father's Scottish ancestorsideas, and Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a complicated tangle of espionage.|isbn=1035401614

|authorisbn=Cody Goodfellow1803816759|title=VerticalThe Unravelling|author=Will Gibson|rating=3.54|genre=ThrillersScience Fiction|summary= ThereIt's 2038 and Joe is a bored 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 about tall buildings goes horribly wrong with the AI system that just captures my imaginationnow runs everything, making life easier for many, and riots start to spread. Finally, Joe gets to do some real policing. In the aftermath of the rioting global pop star Suki is kidnapped and Joe is assigned to bring her home. Who doesnJoe isn't love the only one trying to save Suki - Dylan, a good view from up highBritish superfan and tech nerd, after allis also on the case. What went wrong? Even Did the drabbest office building system fail or was it hacked? And how is somewhere I'm intrigued to get inside if itSuki's 40 stories tall. So when I picked up this book – about people who scale tall buildings for fun – I was instantly intrigued.|isbn= 1803363991kidnapping connected?

|authorisbn=Hannah Gold and Levi Pinfold1529421284|title=Finding BearLaying Out the Bones|author=Kate Webb

|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=[[The Last Bear by Hannah Gold|Last time]]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 Lee Geary, April who had disappeared nine years earlier. He'd been on Bear Island, a lot further north than many people would ventureknown drug user and had learning disabilities, and finding so it could have been a ridiculously unexpected simple case of misadventure but delightful friendship with a polar bear – that she called BearDI Matt Lockyer wasn't convinced. Back homeGeary was a townie, things so what was he doing out on Salisbury Plain alone? There are connections to the domestic suicide of Holly Gilbert and family front are a bit advanced, but to two other deaths which were not perfect for her, and so can easily be ignored when word comes through from considered suspicious at the islands Bear was last left ontime. For a bear doing very Bear-y things has been shot Lockyer and wounded. Desperate to make sure heDC Gemma Broad of the Major Crimes Review Unit (that's OK, she and her father return cold cases to the Arctic and hope that in a world of very white and very dangerous things, she can find one specific white and dangerous thing – you and that the friendship can continueme) investigate.|isbn=0008582017

|isbn=18041832100571379559|title=No Reserve|author=Felix Francis|rating=4|genre=Thrillers|summary=Thirty-four-year-old Theo Jennings shouldn't have been on the rostrum when the colt - as yet unnamed - came up for auction, but Peter Radway, the chairman, hadn't arrived, so he continued his session. To say that he was shocked when the bidding reached three million pounds would be an understatement. A lovely animal - but three million pounds? Two men had been bidding against each other. Brian Kitman and Elliot 'Mitch' Mitchell were well-known and respected in the racing industry. Jennings was in one of the cubicles in the toilets when the two men came in and their conversation revealed that the horse had been deliberately bid up to that figure. Both were happy that they had insurance in place. The following morning, the horse was dead in its stall.}}{{Frontpage|author=Sarah Wilson|title=This One Wild and Precious Life: the path back to connection in a fractured world|rating=3.5|genre= Lifestyle|summary= My favourite Mary Oliver line is the one in which she asks ''What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?'' I get to love that line so much because my answer is ''This! Precisely this.'' I'm lucky enough to be living my one wild and precious life the way I want to. Sarah Wilson is equally lucky. In her book that takes Oliver's words as her title (though I can't see that she acknowledges the source) she pushes us to think about whether we really ''are'' living the life we want – the best life that we could be living. Her answer is an unequivocal ''no, we are not''. Don't care what you're doing, she thinks you (we, I) could be doing more…And she's effing furious about the fact that we are not.|isbn=1785633848}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1839948493|title=A World House of DogsBroken Bricks|author=Carlie Sorosiak and Luisa UribeFiona Williams

|genre=Children's Non-Literary Fiction|summary=In ''The House of Broken Bricks'' is the interests story of full disclosure, I must tell you that I'm a sucker for dogsfour people. In nearly eight decadesTess Hembry's roots are in Jamaica: temperamentally she might be happier there, but instead, I've never met one I didn't trust and I've loved most she lives in the house on the riverbank, built of thembroken bricks. I wish I felt Insubstantial as it might look, it's stood the same about human beingspassage of time, storms and floods. SoHer husband, Richard, any book about dogsstruggles to grow his vegetables, I'm going to sit down complete the delivery rounds - and devourto bring in sufficient money. Then I'm going to go back They have twin boys - Sonny and read it properlyMax, the rainbow twins. And so it was with Sonny's colouring reflects his mother'A World of Dogss 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 ninety-six pages devoted entirely to my four-legged friends. Author Carlie Sorosiak found herself the accidental owner of an American Dingo - his mother that she's learned quite a lot about dogs since thenhis nanny.

|isbn=14059516801529425867|title=The Safe HouseLost and Never Found (A D I Wilkins Mystery)|author=Cameron WardSimon Mason|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=Jess Walker accepted an offer (OKIn Oxford, there are two D I Wilkins. Raymond Wilkins is of Nigerian descent, actually she was gently nudged into it by her friendBalliol educated and always exquisitely dressed. D I Ryan Wilkins, Rupert) to caretake a luxury property in the Australian outback for a couple son of Ryan and father of monthsRyan, is not. After the problems sheHe'd had at work, it seemed like just the break she neededs not any of those things. She was no longer He's white, originated from a data analyst for the Metropolitan police in London: she was Jess who was returning to the country trailer park, barely educated (reading's not ''really'' his thing) and his wardrobe consists mainly of her birth shell suits and trackies. They're usually in need 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 space to get over same policing coin. Sometimes the traumatic end of her relationship with Charlescombination works brilliantly well. A few weeks in the Otway Ranges in Victoria sounded like just the ticketSometimes it's problematic.

|author=Rachel HarrisonMosby Woods|title=Bad DollsA Whirly Man Loses His Turn

|genre=Short StoriesLiterary Fiction|summary=ItThe West isn's been some time since I've read any horrort the dominant force it once was. I had a couple of misspent teen years reading Stephen King, borrowing Nobody in the books from a boy I fancied at school and scaring myself half silly with them West is quite sure how to the point that I couldn't shut my bedroom curtains at night for fear of the vampires outside! Don't worry - mend this short story collection isn't like that! It doesn't have those jump scares, and I didn't have to read it during daylight hours only! But or even if mending it is creepy, and I found most the best course of that feeling came from the fact that these action. Governments are stories about womenflailing. A war here, living normal lives, and a push for climate action there. A feeling that at least nobody is in partactual charge. Imagine then, there was a man with precognition. Imagine the horrors arises from very normal situations such as strategic advantage in this asset; a breakupman who can tell you what will happen given any set of circumstances. That man would be valuable, trying a new dieting appright? Perhaps the most valuable asset in history. Imagine then, going that this man loses this ability. What would governments do to a hen party and a coping with grief.get it back?|isbn=1803363932B0C9SNG8R1