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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Julian Barnes0008517061|title=Staring at the SunDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=Jean's first Incident involved Uncle LeslieFormer Metropolitan Police detective, hyacinths and golf tees. It's perhaps best forgottenJake Johnson, but Jean doesn't forget. Uncle Leslie figures large in her has settled into his rustic life - mostly on the golf course - until the War comes and he runs away to Americaat Little Sky. He's replaced by Tommy Prosser, There’s perhaps a grounded pilot who once saw little uncertainty about the sun rise twice in one day future of his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and excites her daughter Diana, as many questions moving in Jean as he ever answers. Tommy is replaced by Michael, together would mean a policeman, whom Jean eventually marries. He doesn't know why minks are excessively tenacious lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life and he doesn't much care. But Jean to move in with Livia or does. She cares much less Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the future she wants for herself and her daughter? For the Dutch cap that Michael sent her off to obtain before moment they’re enjoying life in the wedding present and much less again for their rather disastrous adventures in putting the future on the bedroomback burner. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099540096</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alexandra Bruce1786482126|title=2012: Science or SuperstitionThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=34.5|genre=Popular ScienceCrime|summary=The fuss about 2012 has not started just recentlyBuilders 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. The first book to feature the story There was from no skull. Was this a Yale professorritual killing or murder? Inevitably, in 1966Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. WeIt've also had prog rock bands named after Popol Vuhs difficult as Ruth knows, the Maya creation myth. But but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as the crunch date a result of December 21st, 2012 - the winter solstice that year - nears, it's becoming a very big story indeedone night they spent together some three months ago. Even though it sounds absurd - the end of a 5,125-year Her condition will be obvious before long cycle of the Maya calendar, which started on August 13th, 3114BCE - or was judged not least because Ruth is prone to start then, when they came across this concept a couple sudden bouts of thousand years into that periodsickness. Surely they couldn't predict the future from their 'primitive' state with such accuracy?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1934708283</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jeff Kinney0008551324|title=Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog DaysThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=It is a truth universally acknowledged that school summer holidays are only enjoyable if you want 's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to enjoy summerapproach the police. Greg here doesnNeither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he't want s prepared to notice ittell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. This person, he promises, is someone big and would prefer it will be worth the police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to spend serve the remainder of his days curtains drawn, face glued sentence and to late night TV or a computer game, hand either clicking away at a controller or shovelling in snacksget an early parole date. The last thing he needs, thenNot much to ask, is his mother, on a it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she'family togetherness'' trip, s even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and on a budget, anyone who works with bad ideas of him is kept well away from what Greg should be doing instead's happening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141327650</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rick Yancey0008405026|title=The Monstrumologist: The Terror BeneathA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=45|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=In late 19th century AmericaIt's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, young Will Henry has been the apprentice of the sternHelena, and her father are dead in their bed. Initially, forbidding Dr Warthrop since it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the death positioning of his parents, who were also employed by the doctorbodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. The twelve year old boy has seen many things in his service What looked as though it was going to the monstrumologist be an open- a specialist in monsters and- but nothing can prepare him for the fateful day when an elderly grave robber brings the doctor the twin corpses of shut case is now a young girl and complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the headless creature with fangs explanation lies in his chest who had tried to feast on herRosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184738546X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stella Whitelaw0571379877|title=Midsummer MadnessThe Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=43.5|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=You'll like Sophie Gresham. She wanted to be an actress but suffers from paralysing stage fright Edward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and when the side effects became too much for her she worked behind the scenesStanza. SheRobert's a very good prompt despite the fact that you need to wrap up very warmly to survive in the prompt corner she loves her job and most of the cast in the theatre companydirector. ItHe's a bit of a shock though when she realises that the guest producer from New York is Joe Harrisonalso self-obsessed, demanding, the man she helped out when he had nothing to eat handsome and entitled and nowhere uses Edward to sleeprun errands for him. Sophie was a little softer Edward has been in those love with Stanza since their university days – in the meantime she- and he's had drunkenly confided how he feels to develop a protective shell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089147</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Bonnie Greer|title=Obama Music|rating=3|genre=History|summary=This is an interesting read, but unless I'm missing something, the focus of the book seems a little difficult to graspRobert. ItMost men in Robert's best if I start with the authorposition would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but he's intentions as set out in her Prologue. It not like most men: Edward is a mixture of tales of her own life growing up on the South Side, she writes, interspersed with stories and observations about Obama, linking it with left to stumble upon the music, musicians and music scene, past and present, including hip hop, country, classical, and rock'n'roll. All two of these, she notes, were heard on the President's Inauguration Day. To them she adds the blues, gospel, soul and jazz of the South Side, when the people began to build the great institutions and great solidarity that enabled him to become the most powerful man on the planetkissing in a dark passageway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906558248</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=P J ParrishJo Callaghan|title=Dead of WinterLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Loon Lake, Michigan When a man is picture-postcard pretty – an idyll that sits serenely and snugly in found crucified on the midst top of a pine-peppered winter wonderlandhill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. Louis Kincaid needs a little serenity in his life and on arrival in Loon Lake he feels almost as if he has come home. Life has not It's their first live case together, having previously been easy for Kincaidvery successful with several cold cases. A troubledBut when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, unhappy child of mixed race, passed around various institutions Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and foster homes, Louis figures a very high profile case that if he is going draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to put some integrity back into solve the worldcase in time, he or will need to wear Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of a badge to do it.career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847391346</amazonuk>139851120X
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Russell Celyn Jones1399613073|title=The Ninth Wave (New Stories from the Mabinogion) Moral Injuries|author=Christie Watson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionThrillers|summary=Pwyll rules Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a medieval-style fiefdom in quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to be a post-climate change Walescardiothoracic surgeon. Life Laura is different in many ways - there's a new-but-old social order built on feudalism perfectionist and horsepower a trauma doctor. Anjali is the main means free spirit of transportthe group and she becomes a GP. But in many ways When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's much going to end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the same tragedy or the consequences. Twenty- people still fight one anotherfive years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. This time, towns still have sink estates, rich boys still have too much time on their hands and precious little meaning in it's their livesteenage children who are involved. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1854115146</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Owen Sheers0241636604|title=White Ravens (New Stories from the Mabinogion)The Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionAutobiography|summary=In If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the old taleEast End, where he was familiar with violence, Branwen is poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the sister London School of Bendigeidfran Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It was his ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader.}}{{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 giant King of BritainEnglish country village where she grew up. She marries the King 's back now because of Irelanda request for help from her beloved aunt, who doesnCarole. Freya's former mentor and Carole't treat s close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and 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 welldown badly. She manages Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to send Bendigeidfran be near the man or pursue the profession she loved. After the split, she worked in a message via a tamed starling cafe, met and married James (on the rebound from the love of her life, who was murdered) and Freya and war James have now divorced.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and killings ensueStephen Oram (Editors)|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.''
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jennifer BohnetSunny Singh|title=Follow Your StarHotel Arcadia
|rating=3.5
|genre=Women's FictionThrillers |summary=It's three years since Nanette Weston left MonacoThe Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. She'd been engaged to Hiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, a Formula 1 racing driver wartime photographer and had lived the life of Abhi, the wealthy but a serious car accident had ended all thathotel manager. The accident could have killed her fiancé and she lost her driving licence because of As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the alcohol she'd consumed. Her slow recovery was hindered hotel, he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by the end events, and keeps on venturing out of her engagement but sheroom to try to capture what's found some contentment in being a nanny to two young childrenhappened through her photography. When Although they only ever talk over the phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her friend and employer, Vanessa, remarries keep safe and takes an extended honeymoon in the Amazon Nanette is asked they both wait to take see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the children back to Monaco where their father livesterrorists.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0709089090</amazonuk>086154742X
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=J R Stephenson1529153298|title=Crooked JusticeThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=2.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Meet Barry JohnsIt's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly... ) YouShe'll see him coming - hes not what's five hundred pounds if heworrying Miv's an ouncefamily, though. Women have been disappearing. Just donWell, they've been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't ever lend him money - he wonsound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the family 'Down South't pay it back. A businessman with When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a share of a nightclub on Cyprusfrightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, he goes there for a customary breakSharon, and finds his sortshe'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking -of mollto anyone.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1398524085|title=Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, Etty. are all worried but -type sortstrangely -of girlfriend has been installed as the bar dancerher husband, Alec, is not. He manages to tread both on Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the toes body of his local colleague and some Greek rivalsGreg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in the river. And when a rival in London chases him up It was an easy assumption for thousands of pounds owed he decides the police to pack up make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and shut upthen committed suicide when he couldn't stand the guilt. ItThe Salter children are not convinced but there's a big stone that hides him, little else they can do but he leaves a very awkward trail for everyone wanting to upturn it and get on with their revengelives and wonder about what really happened.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955855713</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stephen Baker1035906708|title=They've Got Your NumberDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular ScienceGeneral Fiction|summary=If you are in the slightest bit paranoid, worry that ''Big Brother'' is always watching or like We tend to believe that you are not a numberthink of Maria Callas as Greek, but a free man (or woman)she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, then this may not be the book for youNew York, as in December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it will do nothing to dispel any of those worries. If, on the other hand, you think 'Callas' to make it more manageable in the mathematical modelling of humanity' sounds like one of States. When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the sexiest things ever, Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and are chomping at the bit to learn more about itmade no secret of her preference for her elder sister, then you might well be interested in what Business Week journalist Baker has to sayJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099507021</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rebecca TopeChristopher Edge|title=Fear in the CotswoldsBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=CrimeConfident Readers|summary=Thea Osborne is Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a house sitter by profession. When people go away she moves into movie marathon at their homes and looks after their animals and local cinema, a place that has the property. This time itnickname of 's winter and sheThe Black Hole's spending a month in the Cotswold village of Hampnett. It wouldnAll big movie fans, they't be a job for all re looking forward to lots of us but Thea delights in getting to know the local people exciting films, and the area. many, many snacks! In the past she's also been involved with However, as the police in solving various cases but it looks as though movie starts, they very quickly realise that might have come to something about this new film format is very different, and they are swept up into an end as the relationship she had with DS Phil Hollis has crumbledadventure they couldn't even imagine. For the first time Thea feels like an outsider – and a foolish But as they lurch from one - when she finds footsteps in film genre to the snow which lead next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to a body in a nearby field. When the police finally arrive the body has disappeared cinema, and the police obviously wonder if she's imagined it all.to their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0749007478</amazonuk>1839942738
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{{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 deep, the answering beat in my heart.''
Rosevear, a 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 any treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the 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 lies buried deep in the sea. With only nine days to unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the heart of the smuggler's territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and the ones she holds most dear.|isbn=0008664730}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tad TulejaJames Sherwood Metts|title=A Dictionary of Foreign Words and PhrasesPlanet Storyland|rating=34.5|genre=Home and FamilyConfident Readers|summary=Take Things have been a look at bit sticky for the cover design of this bookEarthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're paid to do and you'd be mistaken for thinking this was a trivia compendium for all those foreign words other tasks that have taken part in our English language since whenever took time to accomplish. Just as they crossed over from their original homes. But the title is definitely honest, for were beginning to get used to all this is a dictionary book firsttechnological change and starting to think of other, for referencenew ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and a browser for , along with it, all the trivia buff secondmany daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0709089562</amazonuk>1736128426
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anne RiceMatthew Tree|title=Angel TimeWe'll Never Know|rating=24.5|genre=General Literary Fiction|summary=Toby O'Dare is an extremely efficient hit man with Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, a passion for music, history drunk and playing his beloved lute. He's also something chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of a lost soul having turned his back on God many years ago. One day while on a 'job' he is visited by an Angel artistic passions all failed miserably and who offers him a chance at redemptionhad endless crises of self confidence. Toby agrees So Tim applied himself to become the Angel's human instrument and help save lives his studies, cultivated his abilities rather than take them. He is sent on an assignment to help a Jewish couple accused of murder in 13th Century Englandhis daydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0701178140</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ian MortimerA G Slatter|title=1415: Henry V's Year The Briar Book of Glorythe Dead
|rating=5
|genre=HistoryFantasy|summary=The medieval, in fact time-honoured, view '' There's a part of King Henry V as one me that wants to keep this just to myself for however long I can. This secret magic of England's greatest heroes was propagated though not originated by Shakespearemy own, all mine, and again more recently at last. I just want to some extent by Olivier's portrayal in filmenjoy it for a while. At least one historian has called him ''the greatest man that ever ruled England''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224079921</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Miss Read1529900360|title=Christmas at Thrush GreenThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=Set in 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't need the rural village help of Thrush Greena psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, it was Robin, this book is Delaware's partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the latest man she loved needed. The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a series surrounding familiar charactersremote property in Bel Air. There is He was the feisty Ella Bembridge, who is finally having heir to admit that old age is creeping up as her eyesight fails. Friends such as Dimity an Italian shoe empire and Charles Henstock are concerned about her, but she refuses is married to accept any help. Albert Piggott has decided an extremely rich man and it's time not the Italian. But which of them was the primary target?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=3.5|genre=Animals and Wildlife|summary=Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to retire now follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the strain that being on-call put on his wife, Nelly, is father's life. When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a successful cafe owner vet and can afford to take care of was convinced this was the job for him! And relative newcomer Phil Hurst and her husband are arranging the local nativity play. Before long, despite he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a number of set-backschild. Will everything If anything, he'd wanted to be in place for Christmas? And will independent Ella make a decision about her future?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409101592</amazonuk>professional footballer.
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Matt and Dave0861541774|title=Yuck's Robotic BottomA Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=ItDCI Domenic Jejeune's concerned me for close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a while that it's relatively easy short holiday in Singapore to pick meet up early readers for girls – princesseswith an old ally, magic soft toys, mermaids Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and pets abound – but there's he killed a much smaller choice for boysGhurka. It's important too with early readers Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that the content is ''interesting'' and reading becomes more than just something which you ''he might have'' planned to do at school and moves into being funmurder the man. Now he could be facing the death penalty. Matt Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and Dave have found the answer in Yuckwouldn't help Danny at all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847382991</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John E SmelcerAlexander McCall Smith|title=The Great DeathPerfect Passion Company|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary='As Western Europeans settled Alaska, they brought with them diseases against which the indigenous people had no natural immunity. At the beginning of the twentieth century, fully two thirds of all Alaska natives perished from The Perfect Passion Company is a pandemic of measles, smallpoxdating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and influenza. No community was spared. In most cases, half of a village's population died within a week. In some cases, there were no survivors. It was the end of operating as an ancient way of life. Natives still refer alternative to all the dreadful period as the Great Death.'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1842709194</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Maxine Barry|title=River Deep|rating=3.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Two young women both have online apps in providing a love of the Thames. Melisande Ray's beloved hotelmore personal, the Ray of Sunshine is on the river banktailored service. It's here that guests Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come who want to be pampered and looked look after in the way that only the best hotels can do wellbusiness, but when Wendell James checks in as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to the hotel it's not pampering he's looking get away fora while. He's buying Katie is coming out of a break up with a piece of land not far from the Ray of Sunshine bad boyfriend, and he's sussing out so jumps at the competitionchance to come home to Edinburgh. There's something personal in there too – if his And so begins this new hotel means that story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Ray of Sunshine goes under then that would be an added bonusIsabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. ThereKatie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's just always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a slight doubt in his mind when a red-haired maid catches his eye.hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0709088930</amazonuk>1846976596
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joe Gores0811771741|title=Spade and ArcherInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=CrimeCrafts|summary=Sam Spade decides, bravely, Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to set up his one-man detective agencyblankets. ItSome will be quick knits - others are of the 's the 1920s long, cosy afternoons in San Francisco so we have front of the prohibition era and all that that entailsfire' variety. Many locals, of courseThe projects are divided by the time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, choose five to disobey the law, stick two fingers upten hours, so ten to speak twenty hours and as a result there's lots of bootleg liquormore than twenty hours. Straight away, it's evident that Sam is a man of few words. He has All the mannerisms of a cat - stealthyprojects are attractive, quick on his feetmodern and useable. HeI perhaps show my age when I wonder about 's also a compulsive chainsocial-media-smoker, worthy projects' but then again, most people were. In that era, holding a cigarette was an elegant, almost essential accessory. How times have changed's me being picky.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140911323X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michael Morpurgo and Emma Chichester ClarkDean Koontz|title=The Best of TimesBad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersParanormal|summary=Most children enjoy Benny is having a good traditional tale terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and this lovely book by Michael Morpurgo seems to have all the right ingredients – a handsome prince his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a beautiful princess who fall in lovereally weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, get married and live happily ever after. Or do they? Sadlyit's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, not long after Prince Frederico marries Benny is the lovely Princess Serafina, she becomes very sadlast person to deserve all this bad luck. Nobody knows what has caused such great sadness, but poor Prince Frederico He is desperate to find a cure nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for his wife's misery. He tries everything in his power and eventually decides Benny it turns out that the delivery to offer his kingdom house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to anyone who can make her happy again before she dies of help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a broken heartgood person. Lots Spike is going to take care of people come to the palace to try Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and help but in the end the solution is Harper (a simple one provided by some very kind travellerswaitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405232552</amazonuk>1662500491
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Shirley JacksonAdam Stower|title=We Have Always Lived In The CastleMurray and Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionConfident Readers |summary=Mary Katherine BlackwoodMurray is supposed to be a humble, also known as Merricattidy and friendly cat, one who is eighteenable to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, and lives with her older sister Constance in whatever takes his fancy next of the family home where two. But he'Blackwoods had always liveds a bad magician'. Merricat quickly draws s cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the reader regular back garden, but into her a world by a series of matter of fact but bizarre statements – her likes include her sister frightening adventure and death cap mushroomswhiffs. This time round it drops them into a Viking land, and everyone else in her family where a troll hunter is dead. The wealthy Blackwood family has always kept the house 'steady against the world'expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, shutting out other peopleto be honest, but he's turned up and they live near a village. Merricat believes that he'The people of the village ll have always hated us', and tells us that she hates them too.to do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141191457</amazonuk>0008561249
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Simon WestonB0C47LV1PC|title=Nelson to the Rescue|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Nelson used to pull Mike the Milk's milk float, but he has now retired. He lives in the stable at the back of the dairy along with a couple of tricky rats, Rhodri and Rhys, a pigeon who has no sense of direction, a frog who thinks he's a secret agent spy and an old racehorse who spends most of his time sleeping. Rhodri and Rhys find a mysterious message on Mike's fridge and the animals believe that Mike has been invited to Buckingham Palace to receive an MBE. Somehow our hero, Nelson, finds himself travelling down to London, pulling a ceremonial coach for Prince Charles as well as giving a TV interview about his experience.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848510454</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewFragility|author=Elizabeth Baines|title=Too Many MagpiesMosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Becoming Can you make a mother brings a whole new world of fear into your life. Suddenly ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, is the question should you see make it? Or is the danger in every situationquestion if you did, and fear and trepidation can would it land? The catch is that the answer for both could well be become your constant companions. In this novella, we meet a young mother who is married to a logical scientist. They attempt to control their children's futures on a scientific basis, growing their own fruit and vegetables, giving their children nothing sugary, eating .. no eggs for a whole year until any adverse affects from them were disproved. But after meeting with an enigmatic stranger our young mother begins to struggle ''Fragility'' is set as he introduces ideas the city of freedom into her world. She begins an affair with himPortland, Oregon, cautiously begins to let things slip at home and with emerge from the children, yet finds she is still continuously haunted by restrictions imposed during the sense of an ever-present danger.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844717216</amazonuk>covid pandemic
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Katherine May1529431735|title=Burning OutThe Winter Visitor|author=James Henry
|rating=4
|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=Violet has it all – a well-paid job, It's February 1991 and a luxurious apartment all to herself. Everything Essex is catered for; her mealsbitingly cold, her clothes, and her health are which made Bruce Hopkins' return all how she would like them to bethe more surprising. But He'd been exiled on the life she is leading is beginning to take its tollCosta del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decade. On the verge of snapping, The return has come about because he's had a drained and somewhat outletter from his ex-of-sorts Violetwife, withdraws back saying that she's ill and hasn't long to her home townlive. There, she meets someone familiar It's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his underwear and sent to a ghost reminding her watery grave in the boot of how she used to be ten years earlier – a young carefree girl, full of lifestolen Ford Sierra. Only this isn't Is it a warning from a ghost, but Spanish gang or a girl living the life Violet once lived – exactly the same. Haunted by the past Violet realizes history is repeating itself and is convinced events will happen again. Events that will in turn haunt the girl.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906727392</amazonuk>problem closer to home?
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Amanda DownumAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=The Drowning CityGlorious Race of Magical Beasts|rating=3.54|genre=FantasyConfident Readers|summary=In Eli is a nutshellbusy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, you're reading this because you're wondering whether The Drowning City is good, bad or mediocre. You've probably glanced and in the evening a helper at the rating dessert cafe his gran owns and guessed runs. Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – for there is a generation missing in the latterfamily. I'm afraid itA few short years ago, Eli's not quite that simpleparents were both lost to the titular race, a globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in the company of a magical beast. This is has made the race anathema to the pair – but when a debut that provokes decidedly mixed feelings. I started off convinced that I was going bad incident at the eatery leads to love this book. The cover art a confession from gran, Eli knows his only hope is effortlessly coolto dare to enter what he most hates, with the premise intriguing, sole aim the prize of magic at the characters laden with potential for greatness and end – the backdrop is certainly evocativeonly thing to possibly save his gran.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841498149</amazonuk>0571382231
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tove Jansson178763681X|title=The True DeceiverKnife Skills for Beginners|author=Orlando Murrin|rating=54|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=Most people of my age will have come across Jansson's work unwittingly, via the televised renditions of the Moomin talesChef Paul Delamare took a teaching job at a residential cookery school in Belgravia. The readers amongst us would then have been entranced a few years ago He didn't really want to discover that at last Thomas Teal but celebrity chef Christian Wagner had set about the translation into English, first a way of The Summer Book getting both men and then of a collection of short stories which were published as women to do what he wanted. Paul 'A Winter Book'. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0954899571</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Daniel Kehlmann |title=Me and Kaminski|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=After reviewing several long books, itsomehow's been refreshing to read such a fluent yet pared down story as 'Kaminski and Megot the impression that he'. In it, Sebastian Zollner, d be at the obnoxious main character, shoves himself forward in a desperate attempt school to research a best seller which will re-ignite his career as an art critic. Kaminskiassist Paul, the proposed subject, was who had a fashionable painter long agobroken arm, but now, ancient it didn't turn out that way. The teaching - and chronically ill, has virtually slid into oblivionthe problems - are all his own. So the second-rate writer is on a loser unless The one thing he can dig hadn't expected was for someone to turn up some juicy details dead. Unfortunately, he was the person who discovered the body and everyone knows that the police consider that person to hook be the art world and general publicprime suspect.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847249892</amazonuk>
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