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{{Frontpage
|isbn=14722639360008517061|title=The FigurineDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Victoria HislopStig Abell|rating=54|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=It was in 1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to GreeceFormer Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. She was alone: her mother, Greek by birthThere’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the future of his life with his vet girlfriend, had left the family home Livia and refused to returnher daughter Diana, but Mary and Hamish (Helena's parents) felt that it as moving in together would be mean a pity if Helena grew lot of compromise: does Jake give up without knowing his off-grid and relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her grandparents reservations about whether or understanding not this is the future she wants for herself and her Greek heritage. daughter? Her trip to For the family apartment moment they’re enjoying life in up-market Kolonaki would be the first of several annual visits. She grew to love her grandmother present and putting the family's maid, Dina, but was wary - and frightened - of her grandfather, retired general Stamatis Papagiannis. He was proud of his close connections to future on the Junta and expected his family to uphold his values but saw no reason to accommodate them. His prejudices included Helena's red hair and green eyes - inherited from her father's Scottish ancestorsback burner.
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Cody Goodfellow1786482126|title=VerticalThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=34.5|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary= Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. Therewas no skull. Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's something about tall buildings that just captures my imagination. Who difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't love , that she is pregnant with his child as a good view from up highresult of the one night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, after all? Even the drabbest office building not least because Ruth is somewhere I'm intrigued prone to get inside if it's 40 stories tallsudden bouts of sickness. So when I picked up this book – about people who scale tall buildings for fun – I was instantly intrigued.|isbn= 1803363991
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Hannah Gold and Levi Pinfold0008551324|title=Finding BearThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=[[The Last Bear by Hannah Gold|Last time]], April had been on Bear Island, a lot further north than many people would venture, and finding a ridiculously unexpected but delightful friendship with a polar bear – that she called BearIt's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Back home, things on Neither side likes or has any respect for the domestic other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and family front are he's prepared to tell the police where the body of a bit advanced, but not perfect missing person is buried and who was responsible for herdeath. This person, he promises, is someone big and so can easily it will be ignored when word comes through from worth the islands Bear was last left onpolice doing what he wants. For a bear doing very Bear-y things has been shot And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and woundedto get an early parole date. Desperate Not much to make sure heask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's OK, she and her father return even prepared to do the Arctic and hope other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that in a world of very white DS Max Craigie and very dangerous things, she can find one specific white and dangerous thing – and that the friendship can continueanyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.|isbn=0008582017
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=18041832100008405026|title=No ReserveA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Felix FrancisJane Casey|rating=45|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=Thirty-fourIt's sixteen years since nine-year-old Theo Jennings shouldn't have been on Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the rostrum when the colt - as yet unnamed - came up for auctioninvestigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, but Peter RadwayHelena, the chairmanand her father are dead in their bed. Initially, hadnit looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there't arrived, so he continued his sessions something about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. To say that he What looked as though it was shocked when the bidding reached three million pounds would going to be an understatement. A lovely animal open- 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 industryshut case is now a complex double murder. Jennings was in one of the cubicles in the toilets when the two men came in and their conversation revealed Kerrigan is convinced that the horse had been deliberately bid up to that figure. Both were happy that they had insurance explanation lies in place. The following morningRosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, the horse was dead in its stallUna Burt) are less convinced.
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Sarah Wilson0571379877|title=This One Wild and Precious Life: the path back to connection in a fractured worldThe Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet
|rating=3.5
|genre= LifestyleCrime|summary= My favourite Mary Oliver line Edward Jevons is the one in which she asks ''What is it you plan to do a working-class young man, obsessed with your one wild his upper-class friends, Robert and precious life?Stanza. Robert'' I get to love that line so much because my answer is ''This! Precisely thiss a theatre director.'' IHe'm lucky enough to be living my one wild s also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and precious life the way I want uses Edward torun errands for him. Sarah Wilson is equally lucky. In her book that takes OliverEdward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and he's words as her title (though I can't see that she acknowledges the source) she pushes us drunkenly confided how he feels to think about whether we really ''are'' living the life we want – the best life that we could be livingRobert. Her answer is an unequivocal Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but he'no, we are s not''. Don't care what you're doing, she thinks you (we, I) could be doing more…And she's effing furious about like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the fact that we are nottwo of them kissing in a dark passageway.|isbn=1785633848
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1839948493Jo Callaghan|title=A World of Dogs|author=Carlie Sorosiak and Luisa UribeLeave No Trace|rating=54|genre=Children's Non-FictionCrime|summary=In When a man is found crucified on the interests top of full disclosure, I must tell you that I'm a sucker for dogs. In nearly eight decadeshill in Nuneaton, I've never met one I didn't trust and I've loved most of them. I wish I felt DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the same about human beings. Socase alongside her sidekick, any book about dogs, I'm going to sit down and devourthe AI detective Lock. Then IIt'm going to go back and read it properlys their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. And so it was But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with ''A World a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a lot of Dogs'', with ninety-six pages devoted entirely unwanted attention to my four-legged friendstheir AI Future Policing project. Author Carlie Sorosiak found Will they be able to solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the accidental owner case and, potentially, out of an American Dingo - she's learned quite a lot about dogs since then.career?|isbn=139851120X
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=14059516801399613073|title=The Safe HouseMoral Injuries|author=Cameron WardChristie Watson|rating=4.5
|genre=Thrillers
|summary=Jess Walker accepted an offer (OKOlivia, actually she was gently nudged into it by her friendLaura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, Rupert) which is a bonus when you aim to caretake be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a luxury property in the Australian outback for perfectionist and a couple of monthstrauma doctor. After Anjali is the free spirit of the problems group and shebecomes a GP. When we first meet them they'd had re at work, a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it seemed like just the break she needed's going to end in tragedy. She was no longer a data analyst for the Metropolitan police in London: she was Jess We don't know who was returning to suffered the country of her birth and in need of tragedy or the space to get over consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the traumatic end of her relationship with Charlesthree friends. A few weeks in the Otway Ranges in Victoria sounded like just the ticketThis time, it's their teenage children who are involved.
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Rachel Harrison0241636604|title=Bad DollsThe Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=Short StoriesAutobiography|summary=ItIf you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you's been some time since I've read any horrorre unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. I had a couple of misspent teen years reading Stephen King, borrowing A hoodie and jeans replaces the books from a boy I fancied at school pin-stripe suit and scaring myself half silly his background is the East End, where he was familiar with them violence, poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the point that I couldn't shut my bedroom curtains at night for fear London School of the vampires outside! Economics. Don't worry Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - this short story collection isn't like and he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that! most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It doesnwas his ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1035021803|title=The Antique Hunter't have those jump scares, and I didns Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=It't have s twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to read it during daylight hours only! the English country village where she grew up. But it is creepyShe's back now because of a request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Freya's former mentor and I found most of that feeling came from the fact that these are stories about womenCarole's close friend, living normal livesArthur Crockleford, is dead and that at the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least . Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. Even though they were in partbusiness together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the horrors arises from very normal situations such as man or pursue the profession she loved. After the split, she worked in a breakupcafe, trying a new dieting appmet and married James (on the rebound from the love of her life, going to a hen party who was murdered) and Freya and a coping with griefJames have now divorced.|isbn=1803363932
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=1394159544AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=Recycling for DummiesAll Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Sarah WinklerBenjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=LifestyleScience Fiction|summary=''Recycling one ton Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of plastic can save up things to 16.3 barrels of oilcome.''
I've heard it said that 'Recycling one ton of paper can save 17 trees from being cut down.technology'is what happens after youIf you send an apple core to landfill, it will take between 6 months and 2 years to decomposere eighteen. A glass bottle will take up to 1 million years. As a just-post-WWII babyWell, I faced must confess that there have been more than a dilemma: reducing, reusing and recycling is part few decades of technology in my DNAlifetime. NEVER throw away anything that might I've kept up reasonably well with what'possiblys advantageous to me but I'm left with the feeling that it' come in handy now or in the futures all getting away from me. Some of it is - frankly - quite frightening. NEVER buy anything if you can cobble together something that would serve Of course, I could research the purpose. Almost everything can be used one more time possibilities and any purchase must pass the test of probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'Is this absolutely essential?m reading someone who knows what they' re talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. On the other hand, I suspected needed people I was guilty of wishcycling: assuming that something must be recyclable (toothpaste tubes - knew I'm looking at you) could trust and dropping it who could deliver information in a way I could understand.}}{{Frontpage|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 kerbside binhotel manager. YesAs Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the hotel, I could go searching 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 internet - phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and get conflicting advice - but what I needed was a recycling biblethey both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists.s|isbn=086154742X
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Lauren St John1529153298|title=Finding WonderThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=45|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=RooIt's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's life has become almost impossibly difficultfamily, though. Women have been disappearing. Her mum died when she was youngWell, they've been murdered, and now but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she finds herself awoken in the middle of the night by the police banging on her door to tell her 's overheard that her dad has dropped dead on his way father wants to move the corner shop to buy a lottery ticketfamily 'Down South'. When asked what other family she hasyou're from Yorkshire, she can only name her auntDown South is a frightening, Joniforeign place, who she knows her dad didn't think very highly ofbest avoided. But she has no one elseFor Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and so off she goes 'll do anything to live with her unreliable auntprevent that. Things continue to get worse for Roo, as when she and Joni leave London in JoniShe's old campervan, it breaks down in not worried about the middle of nowhere and then bursts into flames! Poor Roo!|isbn=0571376169dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=14483097431398524085|title=The Devil Stone (DCI Christine Caplan)Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Caro RamsayNicci French|rating=45
|genre=Crime
|summary=In the village of Cronchie on the West coast of Scotland, five members of a wealthy family are found murderedCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. The only item missing from the home is the Devil Stone: myth says that if the stone is removed from Otterburn HouseHer children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, death will followEtty. The only suspects are known Satanists all worried but in many ways- strangely - her husband, Alec, is not. Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, thatfind the body of Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in the river. It was an easy conclusion given assumption for the police to make that two of them 'discoveredDuncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn' t stand the bodyguilt. The Senior Investigating Office is DCI Bob Oswald Salter children are not convinced but when he disappears, DCI Christine Caplan is pulled in to there'shadow' hims little else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn= Kay Chronister1035906708|title= Desert CreaturesDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating= 4.5|genre= Dystopian General Fiction|summary= With a world that is becoming increasingly inhospitable for humanityWe tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, post-apocalyptic fiction can become an almost masochistic thrill. Whether it is a robotic takeoverbut she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, a world devoid of water or a nuclear holocaustNew York, this genre is a way for humans in December 1923 and only moved to cathartically experience their most existential fearsAthens when she was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas'Desert Creatures'' to make it more manageable in the States. When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by Kay Chronister is a new work mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of post-apocalyptic fiction that aligns many of the fears that exist her preference for humanity today. It is a shocking novel that still manages to find hopeher elder sister, Jackie.|isbn=1803364998
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{{Frontpage
|author=Christopher FowlerEdge|title=Word MonkeyBlack Hole Cinema Club|rating=54|genre=AutobiographyConfident Readers|summary= It's the first of August Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the middle nickname of a cool wet summer in East Anglia'The Black Hole'. I decided not All big movie fans, they're looking forward to swim at the pool in favour lots of going to my beach hut. exciting films, and many, many snacks! The weather closed inHowever, rain arrivedas the movie starts, and I decided not to do they very quickly realise that either. When I finished reading something about this booknew film format is very different, I realised it was because (a) I wanted to finish reading this book and (b) I did not want to do so anywhere near my shackthey are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. No spoiler alertsBut as they lurch from one film genre to the next, the dust jacket tells us who Christopher Fowler 'was' – and his first chapter tells us about his terminal diagnosis. can they figure out what on earth is going on? There is something very strange about being made Will they ever get back to laugh by a man who repeatedly reminds you that he is dyingthe cinema, and you know he actually is at that point, because he does. He did.to their real lives?|isbn=08575296251839942738
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1529077699Rachel Greenlaw|title=The Raging Storm (Two Rivers)|author=Ann CleevesCompass and Blade|rating=43.5|genre=CrimeTeens|summary=''It's all bloody peculiarI can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, isn't it, Sir?the answering beat in my heart.''
Well yesRosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, it isone of the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. Jem Rosco blew into But when the local pub one evening in Council Watch lays a trap to end the middle of an autumn galewrecking, stayed for about a month they capture the island's leader and then turned upMira's father. Desperate to save him from death, naked Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and deadwith only coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search of a small boat, anchored family secret that lies buried deep in Scully Cove close the sea. With only nine days to unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the village watched streets of Greystone, in Devon. Rosco had foreign islands to the status heart of a national treasure: a renowned adventurer, round the world sailor and all round ''celebrity''. I ''nearly'' said 'all-round good egg' but as wesmuggler'll find outs territory, he could Mira must be more than a little bit close with money determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and his background isn't exactly an open bookthe ones she holds most dear. Where did he get the money for his first boat? How did he finance the trip?|isbn=0008664730
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B0CC9W7GLRJames Sherwood Metts|title=On the Beach: The Winter Visitor|author=Chris Green and Jenny FiondaPlanet Storyland|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingConfident Readers|summary=Kit Things have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're paid to do and Teal other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as they were just beginning to wonder whether it was better get used to all this technological change and starting to be at homethink of other, bored but warmnew ways to spend time, or frozen cold and building sand sculptures on a snowy beach when a large slab of silvery ice drifted onto the shorelinealong came an awful pandemic. On top of the ice Life was a polar bear. As the ice bumped onto the sandpretty much shut down and, the bear woke and along with wobbly legs moved from the ice. Kit was all for making a run for it, but Teal knew that all the bear was hungry and gave him one apple and then another. He obviously needed to be taken home many daily social interactions on the bus and given a good meal and somewhere to sleepwhich they depend so heavily. What else would you do?|isbn=1736128426
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{{Frontpage
|author=Claire NorthMatthew Tree|title=House of OdysseusWe'll Never Know|rating=4.5|genre= Literary Fiction |summary= ''What could matter Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than love?'' The follow-up to the excellent ''Ithaca'' picks up be different from his father, a few months after where we left off. In the palace drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of Odysseus, with delicate care Queen Penelope continues to rule without her husband, who sailed to war being exceptional at Troy any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and then by divine intervention never returned home. As ever she remains surrounded by suitors vying for the throne who had endless crises of the Western Islesself confidence. Having survived – politically and physical – the chaotic storm that Clytemnestra brought So Tim applied himself to Ithaca's shores, Queen Penelope is on the brink of a fragile peace. One that shatters however with the return of Orestes, King of Mycenaehis studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and his sister Elektra, seeking refugeset himself high but achievable ambitions.|isbn=0356516075B0CVFXPGP8
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1529427045A G Slatter|title=The Girl in Briar Book of the Eagle's Talons|author=Karin SmirnoffDead
|rating=5
|genre=CrimeFantasy|summary=''Life has more 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. I just want to offer than people - prime numbers enjoy it for examplea while.''.
Lisbeth Salander has headed north to Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the small world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of Gasskasthe Briar's, where a family of witches who protect the so-far-untapped natural resources of town and the wider world from the area have sparked a gold rushDarklands. The criminal underworld Though she has not been slow in coming forwardalways 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 steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. SalanderWhen her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's niececousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the town's mother is leader, and Ellie takes her place beside her. As challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the latest woman in the area rare ability to have vanished without trace. It was only communicate with reluctance that Salander became the dead, putting her niece's guardian but it quickly becomes obvious that Svala is at the heart of a remarkably gifted teenager maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who's unaware of to trust and determine what to do as the part Salander played in her fatherBriar witches's deathlegacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat.|isbn=1803364548
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=B0CCCPJJ5B1529900360|title=The Last Person in the WorldGhost Orchid|author=Matthew TreeJonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=Our narrator was a scholarship day boy at the London-based public school where It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he met Ralph Finns. It was an unusual relationship as Ralph felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was a boarder and had money reluctant to throw around ask for his help on a difficult cases. Rolex watch, vintage wines His assertions that there were only open-and a state-shut cases which didn't need the help of-a psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, it was Robin, Delaware's partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the-art sound systemman she loved needed. Both were probably quite surprised when they became almost friends and certainly more than acquaintances The next case did look simple, though. Finns had no intention Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of going on to University, unlike our storyteller who had a place at Wolverton College remote property in Wellingford, Bel Air. He was the UKheir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to an extremely rich man and it's third most prestigious university. Before going up, he took up a loose invitation to visit Ralph at his home, Clouds Manor in West Dorsetnot the Italian. But which of them was the primary target?
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Dean Koontz1529395224|title=The House at Letting the End Cat Out of the WorldBag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=43.5|genre=ThrillersAnimals and Wildlife|summary=When you experience overwhelming tragedy Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and feel Rowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the strain that there is no one being on your side, you can either suck it up, saddle up and ride -call put on or you can retreat to your own private fortress on an island that sits snugly in his father's life. When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a small chain of tiny dots on vet and was convinced this was the map and live out your days in peace and solitudejob for him. That's what Katie thought she Before long, he was doing when she shut down her old life to start afresh on Jacobat Liverpool University. It hadn's Ladder; and all would have t - as with so many students - been the aforementioned peace and solitude were it not for the pesky US Government occupying Ringrockhis dream since he was a child. If anything, the neighbouring island and perpetrating all manner of mischief in the name of science and quite possibly bringing about the end of all mankindhe'd wanted to be a professional footballer.|isbn=1662453159
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=T Kingfisher0861541774|title=Thornhedge|rating=5|genre=Fantasy|summary=''You had a right to retake your place.'' T Kingfisher's latest novella is a lovely reimagining of a fairytale that is well known and well beloved. But whilst there is a princess trapped in a tower, sleeping under an eternal enchantment, Thornhedge is not her story. Instead, our protagonist is Toadling, who was stolen away by fairies when she was a new-born baby and secreted away to the land A Nye of fairie where her childhood was spent being taught how to draw magic from her veins and cast spells.|isbn=1803364238}}{{Frontpage|isbn= B0CCCVRSGX|title=Stories 2Pheasants|author=Richard F WalkerSteve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=Short StoriesCrime|summary= This is Richard F WalkerDCI Domenic Jejeune's second volume of close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short storiesholiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. There are thirteen Maik was involved in all a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and I took something from each of themhe killed a Ghurka. There isn't Initially, he faced a single one charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that doesn't deserve suggested that he might have planned to murder the man. Now he could be among facing the others or brings down the overall qualitydeath penalty. It Domenic Jejeune can be tricky do nothing to review short stories without giving too much away, so Ihelp as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn'll just pick two to talk about and I think they give a general flavourt help Danny at all.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1787636607Alexander McCall Smith|title=The Trap|author=Catherine Ryan HowardPerfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction|summary=It's The Perfect Passion Company is a scene replicated dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all too often the online apps in the early hours of the morningproviding a more personal, tailored service. Drunken revellers spilling out of clubs Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and looking for look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a way trip to get home. Some are lucky and manage Canada to get one of the few taxis availableaway for a while. Others squash onto the night bus that will only go as far as one Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the outlying villageschance to come home to Edinburgh. The woman all regret 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 'taxi problem'Isabel Dalhousie novels, particularly in the light of 'the missing women'but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. For one young womanKatie has no experience in running a business, the final stop on the bus leaves her a long way short of her home. She had intended to ring someone to come and collect her or in match- making, but Ness has full confidence in her phoneabilities, and there's dead. The bus had driven off before she had the chance to beg the bus driver to let always her use his. There's no option but very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to start walking - unsuitably clothed and in high-heeled shoes.lend a hand…|isbn=1846976596
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=14059571740811771741|title=A Death at the PartyInstaKnits for Baby|author=Amy StuartMelissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=CrimeCrafts|summary=From Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of the first page'long, we know that Nadine Walshcosy afternoons in front of the fire's party will not end wellvariety. The victim projects are divided by the time they'll take to complete - a man - is dying when we first meet him less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and Nadine consciously makes no effort to call the ambulance he so desperately needsmore than twenty hours. What we don't know is who All the man is or why Nadine prefers to have him dieprojects are attractive, modern and useable. Iperhaps show my age when I wonder about 'd better give you a little more background so social-media-worthy projects' but that you can understand what's happeningme being picky.
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{{Frontpage
|author=Tania UnsworthDean Koontz|title=Nowhere IslandThe Bad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersParanormal|summary=Meet Gil. Just twelve, he Benny is so determined to escape the care system – the system that constantly puts him in futureless places that are not homes – and find having a home for himselfterrifically bad day. He is en route to yet another fostererloses his job, when he jumps into an anonymous carloses his fiancee, and lets it ride him to his futurehouse gets trashed. That future seems Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to be in jeopardy when someone steals his one bag of belongings – but home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that someone lives with has trashed his brother in house! The thing is, Benny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a camp on an island between nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the two directions of delivery to his house is a motorwaynew friend, a place inaccessible and definitely ignored enough bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to provide help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for their safety and seclusionbeing a good person. ThemSpike is going to take care of Benny, and a mute girl also finding a home therewill certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, albeit so much more successfully. Over and Harper (a few weeks we see if their oddball destinies waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can combine, or if this is one place where life as we would want it just would not work…figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=18045400801662500491
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|isbnauthor=0008530025Adam Stower|title=Murder in the Family|author=Cara HunterMurray and Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeConfident Readers |summary=It was in December 2003 that fifteen-year-old Maura Howard came home Murray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and found the body of her stepfather, Luke Ryderwell, in whatever takes his fancy next of the garden of their West London hometwo. He had an injury on the back of his head which could have happened if But he'd slipped down the steps but the vicious beating s a bad magician's cat, so his face had taken was obviously deliberate. Twenty years later, no one favourite bun has been charged with his murder turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and it's now the subject of ''Infamous''catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the regular back garden, but into a true-crime show. A group world of experts has been brought together to review the evidence frightening adventure and to take the investigation furtherwhiffs. More to the pointThis time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, they're going to do this live on camerabe honest, episode by episode. Therebut he's no dump of the whole box set - turned up and no shortage of cliffhangers. Ithe's compelling viewing.ll have to do…|isbn=0008561249
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|authorisbn=Judith EagleB0C47LV1PC|title=The Stolen SongbirdFragility|author=Mosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary=CaroCan you make a 's mother'Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, a world-famous whistleris the question should you make it? Or is the question if you did, has failed to return home from her recent work trip abroad and would it land? The catch is now missingthat the answer for both could well be... Her other mother, Ronnie, is having to go up North to take care of her sister who is unwell. So who is going to look after Caro? Sent to stay with Gam, someone Caro has heard her mother despises, she feels frustrated and confused and worriedno. All her summer holiday plans of building herself some equipment to practise her gymnastics are brought to a halt whilst she is stuck inside this staid old Victorian lady ''Fragility''s house, along with an orphan boy, Albie, who is living there too. But she soon finds herself caught up in a mystery, set as she discovers a painting the city of a bird hidden away inside her mum's old suitcasePortland, Oregon, and all across London a fearsome gang called the Snakes are thieving artworks and terrorising people. Is the painting somehow linked cautiously begins to emerge from the gang? And what has happened to Caro's mother? Is she somehow involved in restrictions imposed during the mystery too?|isbn=0571363148covid pandemic
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|isbn=15291959771529431735|title=None of this is TrueThe Winter Visitor|author=Lisa JewellJames Henry|rating=54|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=On her 45th birthdayIt's February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, Alix Summer celebrated with a crowd of friends in which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the Landsdown pub on Salisbury Road when she encountered Josie Fairmore surprising. She, too, was out celebrating her 45th birthday, only she was just with her husband, Walter. It turns out that not only are Alix and Josie birthday twins, they were both born in St MaryHe's hospitald been exiled on the Costa del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decade. ThatThe return has come about because he's where the similarities end, though: Alix, with her husband, Nathan, are in the midst of had a joyfulletter from his ex-wife, monied group of friends saying that she's ill and whilst theyhasn're not ''exactly'' rowdy, they're enjoying themselvest long to live. JosieIt's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, on the other hand, holds her handbag close stripped to her tummy his underwear and you get sent to a watery grave in the sense that Walter's not too happyboot of a stolen Ford Sierra. He's not used Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to spending this much money on a meal - but it is Josie's birthday after all.home?
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|isbn=1803365110|author=Chuck TingleAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=Camp DamascusThe Glorious Race of Magical Beasts|rating=3.54|genre=HorrorConfident Readers|summary=Love Eli is love; although humans continue to be confused a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by this sentimentvisiting with him, and in the evening a helper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. Gay conversion therapy Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – for there is ongoinga generation missing in the family. The UK government ruled out plans A few short years ago, Eli's parents were both lost to make it the titular race, a crime and, globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in the US, nearly 700 000 adults have received itcompany of a magical beast. Although it is both This has made the race anathema to the pair – but when a secular and bad incident at the eatery leads to a religious prejudiceconfession from gran, Chuck Tingle, in Eli knows his new horroronly hope is to dare to enter what he most hates, ''Camp Damascus'', peels back with the sole aim the skin prize of Christian ''pray magic at the end – the gay away'' camps only thing to show the reader the horror lurking withinpossibly save his gran.|isbn=0571382231
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|isbn=1803136383178763681X|title=Tin SoldiersKnife Skills for Beginners|author=David ChadwickOrlando Murrin|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary= Wat Tyler has returned from fighting Chef Paul Delamare took a teaching job at a residential cookery school in Vietnam under something of a cloudBelgravia. What actually happened out there is gossiped about and nobody is sure exactly what took place, He didn't really want to but an act celebrity chef Christian Wagner had a way of heroism leading to a rare battlefield commission followed by rank cowardice getting both men and disgrace seems women to do what he wanted. Paul ''somehow'' got the impression that he'd be at the consensusschool to assist Paul, who had a broken arm, but it didn't turn out that way. Wat himself is keeping The teaching - and the problems - are all his cards close own. The one thing he hadn't expected was for someone to his chestturn up dead. Unfortunately, as he always doeswas the person who discovered the body and everyone knows that the police consider that person to be the prime suspect.
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