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'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Lev Parikian 0008517061|title=Light Rains Sometimes FallDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell|rating=4.5|genre=Animals and WildlifeCrime|summary= If you’re a writer yourselfFormer Metropolitan Police detective, or an aspiring writerJake Johnson, or someone who pretends to write, then you know that there are unnumbered types has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the future of books. Some you read for funhis life with his vet girlfriend, some for distractionLivia and her daughter Diana, some for vicarious emotion, some as moving in together would mean a lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life to learn from move in a random way, some with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the future she wants for focussed research, herself and her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and some because they are, broadly speaking, putting the future on the kind of thing you think you might like to writeback burner. Or, indeed, are actually trying to write.|isbn=1783966386
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|isbn=07515815771786482126|title=Lying Beside YouThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Michael RobothamElly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=Elias Haven murdered his parents and his twin sisters two days after his nineteenth birthday. Voices told him to do it. Only two people survived Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the carnage - Elias, who site was sent going to Rampton, and his thirteenhold seventy-yearfive 'luxury' apartments -old brother, Cyrus, who hid in when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a shed until the police found himdoorway. There was no skull. Twenty years laterWas this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Cyrus is a forensic psychologist and heDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's been told difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his brother is being released. Can Cyrus forgive the sinner whilst having to live on child as a daily basis with the results result of the crime? one night they spent together some three months ago. Can he bear to have Elias living in the same house? How Her condition will his lodgerbe obvious before long, twenty-one-year-old Evie Cormac, cope?not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness.
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|isbn=140595115X0008551324|title=A Stranger on BoardThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Cameron WardNeil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=Right It's unusual for anyone from the beginning, we know this will not turn out wellHardie family to approach the police. Eight days into Neither side likes or has any respect for the trip other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to deliver tell the police where the superyacht ''Escape'' to Antiguabody of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. This person, he promises, all 300 tonnes is someone big and six decks it will be floundering without power in worth the Atlanticpolice doing what he wants. Those And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of the crew who are left will be cowering in fear a fellow crew member tries his sentence and to pick them off, one by oneget an early parole date. Some are already dead. Not much to ask, is it? They are three days from shore The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and there anyone who works with him is no way of making contact. But letkept well away from what's go back to when all this started, in Southamptonhappening.
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|isbn=13985086320008405026|title=The Wilderness CureA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Mo WildeJane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=LifestyleCrime|summary=It had been on the cards for a while but it was the week's sixteen years since nine-year-long consumer binge which pushed Mo Wilde into beginning old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her year of eating only wild foodbed one summer night. The end of November, particularly in Central Scotland She was perhaps not never found and the best time investigation ground to starta halt. Now, her mother, in a world where the normal sores had been exacerbated by climate changeHelena, Brexit and a pandemicher father are dead in their bed. Wilde had Initially, it looks like a few advantages: straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the area around bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her was a known habitat with a variety of terrainsboss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. She had electricity which allowed her What looked as though it was going to run a fridge, freezer be an open-and dehydrator. She had -shut case is now a car - and fuelcomplex double murder. Most importantly, she had shelterKerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: this was not a plan to others (such as Derwent''live'' wild just to live off its produces boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.
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|isbn=16358646740571379877|title=Tomato Love: 44 Mouthwatering Recipes for SaladsThe Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=Edward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, SaucesRobert and Stanza. Robert's a theatre director. He's also self-obsessed, Stewsdemanding, handsome and Moreentitled and uses Edward to run errands for him. Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the two of them kissing in a dark passageway.}}{{Frontpage|author=Joy HowardJo Callaghan|title=Leave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=CookeryCrime|summary=''Think When a man is found crucified on the top of it as no-whining dining.'' We know it's a fruit rather than a vegetable but the fact that so many people get confused just goes hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to show how versatile the tomato is. Then there are all the different typescase alongside her sidekick, not to mention the cultivars - and you begin to understand why Joy Howard says that she hasn't met one she didn't loveAI detective Lock. IIt'd argue s their first live case together, having previously been very successful with her there - I have no affection for the ones you find in the supermarket ''next'' to the ones labelled 'grown for flavour' to distinguish them from the ones that have obviously just been grown for profitseveral cold cases. PersonallyBut when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, I'd prefer Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a tin lot of tomatoes unwanted attention to those - and Howard makes good use of thesetheir AI Future Policing project. She's not at all precious if you get Will they be able to solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the taste.case and, potentially, out of a career?|isbn=139851120X
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=02419890271399613073|title=We All Have Our SecretsMoral Injuries|author=Jane CorryChristie Watson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Thrillers
|summary=Harold Gentle advertised Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for live-in help as he was failing a quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to cope at Willowmead House on his ownbe a cardiothoracic surgeon. His advert was fairly specific: he was Laura is a perfectionist and a retired lawyer needing help but he also spoke trauma doctor. Anjali is the free spirit of the ability to cook group and she becomes a good steak, enjoy decent wine and be free from any food fadsGP. The When we first person who came meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to the house was Francoise, a French woman end in her early twenties, who fit the bill perfectlytragedy. She got the job but Francoise didnWe don't know about who suffered the tragedy or the advert: she was there for a completely different reasonconsequences. Emily Gentle is Harold's daughter and she came to Willowmead House because she was running away from a problem in LondonTwenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. EmilyThis time, it's a midwife and her last shift had seen her lacking concentration and a complaint had been madetheir teenage children who are involved.
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|authorisbn=Ewald Arenz and Rachel Ward (translator)0241636604|title=Tasting SunlightThe Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson
|rating=4.5
|genre=General FictionAutobiography|summary=Sally is If you were to bring up an image of a teenager who has run away from an anorexia treatment cliniccity banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. She just wants space 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 for he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to stop questioning herbe stupid. It was his ability at what was, essentially, tiptoeing around hera card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, and trying 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 fix her without ever truly understanding herthe English country village where she grew up. She finds herself on some farmland with 's back now because of a woman called Liss who request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Freya's former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is in her forties dead and seems the circumstances seem suspicious, to live alonesay the least. Liss is unlike any other adult Sally has ever met. She just accepts Sally as Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, she isfeels, giving let her a room to sleep down badly. Even though they were inbusiness together as antique hunters, and the space she has not felt able to just benear the man or pursue the profession she loved. As they work together on After the farmsplit, she worked in a closeness develops between themcafe, becoming a beautifulmet and married James (on the rebound from the love of her life, powerful friendshipwho was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.|isbn=1914585143
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|authorisbn=Jennifer MasonAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=PreposterousAll Tomorrow's Futures: An Elizabeth Cromwell MysteryFictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=45|genre=General Science Fiction|summary=''A struggling poetry zine, a mom-and-pop mobile diner in Opening up new ways of thinking about the Northern California redwoods, a 400-meter hurdler who just missed the 2004 Olympics, a women's track coach with a yen for bullwhips, a billionaire with a state-shape of-the-art S&M dungeon, a man serving a life sentence in Alabama, an enigmatic signature, K(s, x), on a cheap oil painting, an erotic art dealer in Georgia..things to come.''
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|author=Will BrookerSunny Singh|title=The Truth About Lisa JewellHotel Arcadia|rating=3.5|genre=BiographyThrillers |summary=Meet [[:Category:Lisa Jewell|Lisa Jewell]], one of the most successful British authors I've never knowingly readThe Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Now meet Will BrookerHiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, one of the thousands of less successful authors I quite confidently never have read. This book starts with the two meeting each otherkilling everyone on site, as wellthere is Sam, a wartime photographer and shows how 2021 drew Abhi, the two closer and closer togetherhotel manager. The meeting was some unspecified combination, it seems, of her anecdote about cup cakes, As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the words of her latest book she was recitinghotel, and her being in he forms a ''black lace mini-dress bond with gold brocade'' (certainly a get-up never commonly worn at the author Sam who refuses to be cowed by events I get to attend), but pulled Brooker, a professor and keeps on venturing out of cultural studies who has swallowed Roland Barthes, down the rabbit-hole that is Jewellher room to try to capture what's diverse outputhappened through her photography. Brooker decides he'd like nothing more than to follow her through a year in Although they only ever talk over the published author's lifephone, working their friendship grows as Abhi tries to make a success of the latest title, help her keep safe and struggling with the next in line. Jewell, due diligence appropriately done, agrees. And this is they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the resultterrorists.|isbn=1529136024086154742X
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|isbn=18011092651529153298|title=The CompanionList of Suspicious Things|author=Lesley ThomsonJennie Godfrey
|rating=5
|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction|summary=James Ritchie thought of himself as It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She'a punctual man who was inexplicably never on times not what's worrying Miv' and he was - as usual - late to pick up his sons family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, Wilburthey've been murdered, for their but to have 'boysdisappeared' day outdoesn't sound quite so frightening. These were always days which appealed more to James than Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to Wilbur and, competing for move the boyfamily 'Down South's attention. When you're from Yorkshire, his motherDown South is a frightening, Annaforeign place, promised him a roast dinner when he returnedbest avoided. The dinner For Miv, the move would never be servedmean leaving her best friend, Sharon, as James and Wilbur are the victims of a double stabbing on the beach. The case falls she'll do anything to DI Toni Kemp of Sussex policeprevent that. She's feeling not worried about the pressure. You can always tell dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - she shoplifts Snickers Bars when the going gets toughto anyone.
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|isbn=152941363X1398524085|title=To Kill a Troubadour (A Bruno, Chief of Police Novel)Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Martin WalkerNicci French|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband''Nobody knows what the truth is any mores fiftieth birthday party but never turned up.'' Bruno Courrèges is the police chief for St Denis Her children, sons Niall, Paul and much of the Vézère valley Ollie and works closely with Commissaire Jean-Jaques Jalipeau (known as 'JJ')her daughter, the head of detectives for the départment of the DordogneEtty. They're not just policemen are all worried but - they're both deeply committed to the wellstrangely -being and prosperity of this most beautiful part of Franceher husband, Alec, is not. The discovery of an oldShortly afterwards, stolen PeugeotEtty and Greg, crashed and abandoned in a ditch wouldnfind the body of Greg't normally have worried them so much had it not been for the strange bullets father, with Russian letters stamped on the baseDuncan Ackerley, which they found in the carriver. Oh, It was an easy assumption for the police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and there was a golf ball too, which didnthen committed suicide when he couldn't belong to the owner of stand the carguilt. A golf bag would be a good place to hide a sniperThe Salter children are not convinced but there's weaponlittle else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened. Was there going to be an attempt to kill someone, or were the detectives being pushed in a certain direction?
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=02415424051035906708|title=Meredith AloneDiva|author=Claire AlexanderDaisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=When we first meet Meredith Maggs it's Wednesday 14 November 2018 and We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she's not left her home for 1,214 days. She'd ''like'' was born to: Greek parents in factManhattan, New York, in December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she so nearly doeswas thirteen. Her outdoor clothes are on and she's even considered which shoes original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to wear if she's going to catch her train. Then, she canCallas't. She simply can't force herself to leave make it more manageable in the safety of her homeStates. She's fortunate When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she has could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a good friend, Sadie, mother who visits regularly with mercilessly exploited her two children, James and Matilda. Sadie's a cardiac nurse and full made no secret of sound common sense. In fact it was Sadie who gave Meredith her cat, Fred. Groceries are online deliveries and there's also an internet-based support group where you'll find Meredith as JIGSAWGIRL, so you can guess what she does in preference for her spare time. Then Tom McDermott arrives. He's from Holding Handselder sister, a charity which supports people with problems such as Meredith'sJackie.
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|isbnauthor=B09Y451X9KChristopher Edge|title= Greetings, aliens!: (do pop in for tea)|author=Richard F WalkerBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionConfident Readers|summary= ''Anything can happen Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a birthday party, particularly when place that has the birthday boy is the young Lord nickname of the Manor'The Black Hole'. But when an eerie signal is picked up in All big movie fans, they're looking forward to lots of exciting films, and many, many snacks! However, as the early hoursmovie starts, George and his they very quickly realise that something about this new girlfriendfilm format is very different, and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to the vivacious Lady Antonianext, embark can they figure out what on earth is going on a quest ? Will they ever get back to the cinema, and to uncover its incredible messagetheir real lives?|isbn=1839942738}}{{Frontpage|author=Rachel Greenlaw|title=Compass and Blade|rating=3. Things get complicated when some total spoilsport lets 5|genre=Teens|summary=''I can hear the song of the cat out sea. The call of the bag and deep, the world goes into a state of panicanswering beat in my heart.''
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|author=Darren ShanJames Sherwood Metts|title= Archibald Lox and the Sinkhole to Hell: Archibald Lox series, book 7 Planet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary= SoThings have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. WeAI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're back paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to the Merge with the first chapter in the third volume of Darren Shan's saga think of Archibald Loxother, a young man who can pick the locks of portals from our world new ways to anotherspend time, called the ''Merge''. Since his last adventure, Archie has persuaded his foster parents into a slightly uneasy truce on the topic of his regular disappearancesalong came an awful pandemic. They don't ask too many questions Life was pretty much shut down and Archie has settled into a fairly peaceful routine of visiting Winston, his lock-picking mentor in the ''Merge'' and showing Kojoalong with it, all the young guardian, around our world of the Bornmany daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily. |isbn= B09Z2MTCZD1736128426
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|author=John Henry PhillipsMatthew Tree|title=The SearchWe'll Never Know|rating=4.5|genre=HistoryLiterary Fiction|summary=Archaeology cannot Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be child's playdifferent from his father, when you're scraping in the dirt looking to find what you can find, often knowing there should be something there but not always confident what. Archaeology must be a fair bit harder when you set out to find some specific thing. This book is a case drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of the latter, as our author promises to locate the topic his artistic passions all failed miserably and who had endless crises of the titular searchself confidence. And he really hasn't made it easy for So Tim applied himself – the search area is a wide one, the target might not exist any more – oh, and it's underwater, when he cannot dive. Latching on to a particular D-Day veteran through helping the heroic old man's visit back to France, our author has promised to find the landing craft that delivered him to Normandyhis studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and that he was lucky to survive when it sank from beneath him. The secondary aim is to erect a memorial to everyone else aboard, the vast majority of whom perishedset himself high but achievable ambitions. Who else would make such promises to someone in their nineties?|isbn=1472146182B0CVFXPGP8
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|author=Fiona LongmuirA G Slatter|title=Looking for EmilyThe Briar Book of the Dead
|rating=5
|genre=Confident ReadersFantasy|summary=Meet Lily'' There's a 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. She and her mother have I just moved want to enjoy it for a while.'' Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a city to town under the protection of the Briar's, a tiny seaside family of witches who protect the town called Edge, and everyone the wider world from said mother to her teacher are making demands of Lily that she make new friendsthe Darklands. It turns out that Though she doesn't have any say in has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is the matter, first non-witch to be born into her family for while pretending when phoning home that generations and as such since she was with someone called Emilyyoung, she is unaware her neighbourtraining as a steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, SamEllie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, is just about to make herself knownthe town's leader, and in a big wayEllie takes her place beside her. But where does Emily As challenges come from? Wellher way left, right and centre, Lily used that name because of what she'd just stumbled into – a mysterious collection of Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the most mundane objectsdead, in some converted houses behind putting her at the heart of a most unassuming door, in a place calling itself 'The Museum maelstrom of Emily'chaos. Sam is completely unaware of this 'museum'Reeling from one family secret to another, too, leaving the two girls Ellie must decide who to make sure they leave no stone unturned in finding trust and determine whatto do as the Briar witches's behind the intrigue..legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat.|isbn=18399427541803364548
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|isbn=B09XZMCDVF1529900360|title=Stories: 13 tantalising talesThe Ghost Orchid|author=Richard F WalkerJonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=Short StoriesCrime|summary=It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn'A news vendor is crying out t need the headlines in the middle help of the night; a wheelchair user loses touch with reality when he tries walking around in his imagination; psychologist only worked for a stickler while. Finally, it was Robin, Delaware's partner, who nudged Milo into asking for correct grammar goes back in time to correct an iconic quote; a volunteer teacher proves help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the ideal person to have around man she loved needed. The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in a lawless village; the new boy on the pub football team is very useful with his feet, and awfully familiar…'' This collection swimming pool of thirteen short stories by Richard F Walker has a lot to offer the eclectic readerremote property in Bel Air. Tying them together is He was the idea that remarkable and strange, even miraculous, things can happen heir to ordinary people. And that ordinary doesn't mean boring or uninteresting. Form an Italian shoe empire and tone varies so this little treasury of short fiction she is never boring married to an extremely rich man and you're never quite sure whatit's coming nextnot the Italian. But which of them was the primary target?
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|isbn=18009012321529395224|title=Stitched UpLetting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Steve ColeSion Rowlands|rating=3.5|genre=Dyslexia FriendlyAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Twelve-year-old Hanh wanted to be a fashion designerSiôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. Life His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in the rural village where she lived with her family was happy, if not prosperoushis footsteps, so particularly when he considered the smartlystrain that being on-dressed man and woman came to call put on his father's life. When he was seventeen he took the village to offer Hahn opportunity of doing work experience with a job in Hanoi it family friend who was an opportunity not to be missed. Some money changed hands a vet and Hanh was on convinced this was the mini-bus to Hanoijob for him. OnlyBefore long, Hanh and the other girls were not going to work in a shop, they were to work in virtual slavery in an illegal garment factoryhe was at Liverpool University. You know those jeans you really wanted: the ones It hadn't - as with intricate embroidery and beading on the legs? The ones with the artfullyso many students -placed rips and distressed seams that felt so soft when you touched them? been his dream since he was a child. ItIf anything, he's quite possible that Hanh and her co-workers made themd wanted to be a professional footballer.
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|authorisbn=Daisy Hildyard0861541774|title=EmergencyA Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Part of the Oslo Detectives seriesDCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, this crime story is has taken a mixture of police procedural and thrillershort holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. Beginning with the death of a young woman Maik was involved in a carpark, street brawl - he would later maintain that looks very much like an overdose, it unravels into he was facing a man armed with a farknife -reaching investigation of murder, fraud, and international pharmaceutical dealingshe killed a Ghurka. Our two detectives are Gunnarstranda and Frolich Initially, who end up working separately on the case as Gunnarstranda remains in Norway whilst Frolich is led he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to Africa as they follow murder the twists and turns of man. Now he could be facing the investigationdeath penalty. Gunnarstranda and Frolich are tenacious, chasing down the truth in increasingly difficult, frustrating circumstances, trying hard Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to uncover the truth help as they are sure that something much bigger, any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and much more dangerous, is going onwouldn't help Danny at all.|isbn=1914585127
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|isbnauthor=0008541477Alexander McCall Smith|title=Clarice Bean: Scram!|author=Lauren ChildThe Perfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=It was The Perfect Passion Company is a hot summer day right at dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the beginning of online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the summer holidays and Clarice Bean was bored: ''Nothing ever happens except business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for sometimesa while... And only on rare-sh occasions, which Katie is hardly ever.'' There are seven members coming out of the Bean family living in the house: Grandad (who lives on the ground floor because he's wobbly)a break up with a bad boyfriend, Mum and Dad, Clarice's older brother, Kurt and younger brother, Minal Cricketso jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. There's also MarcieAnd so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, who's main claim bringing us to fame seems an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to be that she steals 44 Scotland Street and the batteries from Clarice's torchIsabel Dalhousie novels, which means that she can't read in the airing cupboardbut with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Clarice would love to have someone who listened to herKatie has no experience in running a business, rather than wanting to talkor in match-making, but the only one who does that is Granny Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and she lives in New York. The Bean family is there''different''.s always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|isbn=1846976596
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|isbn=07112662040811771741|title=The Secret Life of BirdsInstaKnits for Baby|author=Moira Butterfield and Vivian Mineker (illustrator)Melissa Leapman|rating=54|genre=Children's Non-FictionCrafts|summary=I have recently discovered Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a great pleasure: I sit and watch the vast numbers collection of birds which visit our garden on a daily basisknits from toys to blankets. An hour can pass without my noticingSome will be quick knits - others are of the 'long, cosy afternoons in front of the fire' variety. IThe projects are divided by the time they've established which species feed from the groundll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, which pop ten to the feeders for a quick snatch of some food twenty hours and who settles in for a good munch but I wish I was more knowledgeablethan twenty hours. It would have been wonderful if, as a childAll the projects are attractive, modern and useable. I perhaps show my age when Iwonder about 'd had access to a book such as ''The Secret Life of Birdssocial-media-worthy projects'but that's me being picky. So – what is it?
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|isbnauthor=1737030942Dean Koontz|title=Bag O'Goodies|author=Jolly Walker BittickThe Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre= AnthologiesParanormal|summary=Sometimes, you deserve Benny is having a treat and mine was Jolly Walker Bittick's ''Bag O'Goodies''terrifically bad day. I first encountered He loses his writing about a year agojob, when I read he loses his [[Cape Henry House by Jolly Walker Bittick|Cape Henry House]]fiancee, a rollicking tale of what happens when five young men find a base for their partyingand his house gets trashed. Right nowOh, I didn't want and someone has delivered a fullreally weird, disturbing coffin-length novelsized object to his home, so I turned to this anthology of verse and short stories. Bittickit's writing possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has matured - and so have trashed his charactershouse! The thing is, Benny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. WellHe is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the 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 good person. most Spike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of them!Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (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=Caryl Lewis and George ErmosAdam Stower|title=SeedMurray and Bun|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Marty has two parental figures in his lifeMurray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and they both might be thought of as complete embarrassments. His grandfather runs an allotmentfriendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and manages to stink the entire town out from it when he douses it in fish guts each spring to fertilise eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his vegetables. His mother somehow combines the dual roles fancy next of housebound failure and hoarder – while she seems to do nothing and hasn't left the building in years she has still managed to fill it to the brim with junktwo. What Marty But he's classmates dona bad magician't know about this s cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the catflap they both use can draw lines to from how poor Marty always lookschuck them out, with his one school uniform built from lost property. We see him as once again not into the council threaten her regular back garden, but into a world of frightening adventure and him with evictionwhiffs. This 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 turned up and as he celebrates his birthday with the gift from his grandfather of a solitary plant seed.'ll have to do…|isbn=15290776640008561249
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|authorisbn=Sophie CameronB0C47LV1PC|title=Our Sister, AgainFragility|author=Mosby Woods|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary=After IslaCan you make a ''s older sister Flora dies, her family struggle to find a way forward. In particular, IslaYo birthing person's mum who can’t seem to be able to let her daughter go. When Isla passes her mum's details onto a support group she finds onlinejoke? And if you could, she thinks they might be able to help. But actuallyis the question should you make it? Or is the question if you did, would it turns out they are part of an experimental company who offer land? The catch is that the family the chance to have Flora back again, in robot formanswer for both could well be.... no. But this won ''Fragility't just be a look-a-like. They use all of Flora's online history, and interviews with family and friends, and through this data they will recreate Flora is set as closely as possible. But what will it really mean for the familycity of Portland, Oregon, cautiously begins to have Flora back? And is it really Flora at all?|isbn=1788953916emerge from the restrictions imposed during the covid pandemic
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=13985075041529431735|title=Cold ReckoningThe Winter Visitor|author=Russ ThomasJames Henry|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=DS Adam Tyler never believed that his father committed suicide It's February 1991 and for Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the last sixteen years hemore surprising. He's d been searching exiled on the Costa del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for evidence to prove that a decade. The return has come about because he's right. When had a frozen body was found in Damflask Reservoirletter from his ex-wife, there was a link back saying that she's ill and hasn't long to a cold case from 2002live. There didn It't immediately seem s hard to be feel any connection with DI Richard Tyler's death but Adam Tyler senses a link sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to the case his father was investigating before he died. Above all there's underwear and sent to a growing sense that watery grave in the criminality boot of Det Supt Stevens is going to be brought out into the opena stolen Ford Sierra. Perhaps Tyler is going Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to get the answers he needshome?
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|isbnauthor=0727850547Alex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=Blind Justice (DS McAvoy 10)|author=David MarkThe Glorious Race of Magical Beasts
|rating=4
|genre=CrimeConfident Readers|summary=Acting DI Aector McAvoy hadn't even had time for breakfast when Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the call came through. A body had been found wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and in the roots of evening a fallen tree helper at Brantingham, near Hullthe dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. When he gets to the sceneEli lives with his lovely gran, he will find what greets him too – for there is even worse than he could have imagineda generation missing in the family. A young manfew short years ago, Eli's corpse is entangled with parents were both lost to the roots of titular race, a newlyglobe-fallen tree – trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in the roots have grown through him – and two silver Roman coins have been nailed through his eyescompany of a magical beast. It would seem that this was done whilst This has made the race anathema to the pair – but when a bad incident at the man was still alive. McAvoy makes eatery leads to a promise confession from gran, Eli knows his only hope is to dare to enter what he most hates, with the victim: I will find answers. You will know justice. But justice always comes sole aim the prize of magic at a cost and this time the cost might be end – the only thing to McAvoy's own familypossibly save his gran.|isbn=0571382231
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|authorisbn=Natalia Garcia Freire178763681X|title=This World Does Not Belong To UsKnife Skills for Beginners|author=Orlando Murrin|rating=54|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary= Early comments on this debut novel from Ecuadorian writer Natalia García Freire include Tremendous, Chef Paul Delamare took a teaching job at a delightresidential cookery school in Belgravia. I will agree with the first – tremendous is no understatement – 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 'a delight' is perhaps using somehow'' got the impression that he'd be at the expression in school to assist Paul, who had a broken arm, but it didn't turn out that way I'm not familiar with. I have to confess my ignorance of The teaching - and the Spanishproblems -language literary tradition so forgive my generalisation hereare all his own. From the little I have read (in translation, I donThe one thing he hadn't read Spanish) there does seem expected was for someone to turn up dead. Unfortunately, he was the person who discovered the body and everyone knows that the police consider that person to be a tendency towards the fantastical – the mystical realismprime suspect. |isbn=0861541901
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