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'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].
{{Frontpage
|author=Christopher FowlerSylvie Cathrall|title=Word MonkeyA Letter to the Luminous Deep
|rating=5
|genre=AutobiographyScience Fiction|summary= It's the first of August in the middle of There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a cool wet summer in East Angliacompelling premise. I decided not to swim at the pool in favour And this is one of going to my beach hutthem. The weather closed |isbn= 0356522776}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008517061|title=Death ina Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary= Former Metropolitan Police detective, rain arrivedJake Johnson, and I decided not to do that eitherhas settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. When I finished reading this book, I realised it was because (There’s perhaps a) I wanted to finish reading this book and (b) I did not want to do so anywhere near my shack. No spoiler alerts, little uncertainty about the dust jacket tells us who Christopher Fowler 'was' – and future of his first chapter tells us about life with his terminal diagnosis. There is something very strange about being made to laugh by a man who repeatedly reminds you that he is dyingvet girlfriend, Livia and you know he actually is at that pointher daughter Diana, because he as moving in together would mean a lot of compromise: does. Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the future she wants for herself and her daughter? He didFor the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and putting the future on the back burner.|isbn=0857529625
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=15290776991786482126|title=The Raging Storm Janus Stone (Two RiversDr Ruth Galloway)|author=Ann CleevesElly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury'It's all bloody peculiar, isn't it, Sir?'' Well yes, it is. Jem Rosco blew into the local pub one evening in apartments - when they discovered the middle bones of an autumn gale, stayed for about a month and then turned up, naked and dead, in child beneath a small boat, anchored in Scully Cove close to the village of Greystone, in Devondoorway. There was no skull. Rosco had the status of Was this a national treasure: a renowned adventurerritual killing or murder? Inevitably, round the world sailor and all round ''celebrity''Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. I ''nearly'' said 'all-round good eggIt' s difficult as Ruth knows, but as weNelson doesn'll find outt, he could be more than a little bit close that she is pregnant with money and his background isn't exactly an open bookchild as a result of the one night they spent together some three months ago. Where did he get the money for his first boat? How did he finance the trip?Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=B0CC9W7GLR0008551324|title=On the Beach: The Winter VisitorDevil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Chris Green and Jenny FiondaNeil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Kit and Teal were just beginning to wonder whether it was better It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to be at home, bored but warm, or frozen cold and building sand sculptures on a snowy beach when a large slab of silvery ice drifted onto approach the shorelinepolice. On top of Neither side likes or has any respect for the ice was a polar bearother. As But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the ice bumped onto police where the sand, the bear woke body of a missing person is buried and with wobbly legs moved from the icewho was responsible for her death. Kit was all for making a run for This person, he promises, is someone big and it, but Teal knew that will be worth the bear was hungry and gave him one apple and then anotherpolice doing what he wants. He obviously needed And what he wants is to be taken home on transferred to an open prison to serve the bus and given a good meal remainder of his sentence and somewhere to sleepget an early parole date. What else would you Not much to ask, is it? 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 anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Claire North0008405026|title=House of OdysseusA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey
|rating=5
|genre= Literary Fiction Crime|summary= It''What could matter more than love?'' The follows sixteen years since nine-year-up old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to the excellent ''Ithaca'' picks up a few months after where we left offhalt. In the palace of Odysseus Now, with delicate care Queen Penelope continues to rule without her husbandmother, Helena, who sailed to war at Troy and then by divine intervention never returned homeher father are dead in their bed. As ever she remains surrounded by suitors vying for Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the throne positioning of the Western Islesbodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. Having survived – politically What looked as though it was going to be an open-and physical – the chaotic storm that Clytemnestra brought to Ithaca's shores, Queen Penelope -shut case is on the brink of now a fragile peacecomplex double murder. One Kerrigan is convinced that shatters however with the return of Orestes, King of Mycenae, and his sister Elektraexplanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, seeking refugeUna Burt) are less convinced.|isbn=0356516075
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=15294270450571379877|title=The Girl in the Eagle's TalonsKellerby Code|author=Karin SmirnoffJonny Sweet|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Edward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and Stanza. Robert's a theatre director. He'Life has more s also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and uses Edward to offer than people - prime numbers run errands for example''. Lisbeth Salander has headed north to the small town of Gasskas, where the so-far-untapped natural resources of the area have sparked a gold rushhim. The criminal underworld Edward has not been slow in coming forward. Salander's niecelove with Stanza since their university days - and he's mother is the latest woman in the area drunkenly confided how he feels to have vanished without traceRobert. It was only with reluctance that Salander became her nieceMost men in Robert's guardian but it quickly becomes obvious position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that Svala is a remarkably gifted teenager whorelationship had begun between them but he's unaware not like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the two of the part Salander played them kissing in her father's deatha dark passageway.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B0CCCPJJ5BJo Callaghan|title=The Last Person in the World|author=Matthew TreeLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=When a man is found crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. It's their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of a career?
|isbn=139851120X
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1399613073
|title=Moral Injuries
|author=Christie Watson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Thrillers
|summary=Our narrator was a scholarship Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day boy at the London-based public of medical school where he met Ralph Finnsand their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. It was an unusual relationship as Ralph was Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a boarder and had money bonus when you aim to throw around on be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Rolex watch, vintage wines Laura is a perfectionist and a state-trauma doctor. Anjali is the free spirit ofthe group and she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered thetragedy or the consequences. Twenty-art sound system. Both were probably quite surprised when they became almost five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends and certainly more than acquaintances. Finns had no intention of going on to UniversityThis time, unlike our storyteller it's their teenage children who had are involved.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0241636604|title=The Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=If you were to bring up an image of a place at Wolverton College city banker in Wellingfordyour mind, the UKyou's third most prestigious universityre unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. Before going up 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 he took up has a loose invitation facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to visit Ralph be stupid. It was his ability at his homewhat was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, Clouds Manor in West Dorsetthis turned into permanent employment as a trader.
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Dean Koontz1035021803|title=The House at the End of the WorldAntique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=43.5|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=When you experience overwhelming tragedy and feel that there is no one on your side, you can either suck it up, saddle up and ride on or you can retreat It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to your own private fortress on an island that sits snugly in a small chain of tiny dots on the map and live out your days in peace and solitudeEnglish country village where she grew up. ThatShe's what Katie thought she was doing when she shut down back now because of a request for help from her old life to start afresh on Jacobbeloved aunt, Carole. Freya's former mentor and Carole's Ladder; close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and all would have the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the aforementioned peace and solitude village: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. Even though they were it in business together as antique hunters, she has not for felt able to be near the man or pursue the profession she loved. After the pesky US Government occupying Ringrocksplit, she worked in a cafe, met and married James (on the neighbouring island and perpetrating all manner of mischief in rebound from the name love of science her life, who was murdered) and quite possibly bringing about the end of all mankindFreya and James have now divorced.|isbn=1662453159
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=T KingfisherAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=ThornhedgeAll Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=FantasyScience Fiction|summary=''You had a right Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to retake your placecome.''
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor= B0CCCVRSGXSunny Singh|title=Stories 2|author=Richard F WalkerHotel Arcadia|rating=43.5|genre=Short StoriesThrillers |summary= This The Hotel Arcadia is Richard F Walker's second volume of short storiesa luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. There Hiding from the terrorists who are thirteen in all rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, a wartime photographer and I took something from each of themAbhi, the hotel manager. There isn't a single one that doesn't deserve As Abhi continues to try to be among care remotely for the others or brings down residents who are still alive in the overall quality. It can hotel, he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be tricky cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of her room to try to review short stories without giving too much awaycapture what's happened through her photography. Although they only ever talk over the phone, so I'll just pick two their friendship grows as Abhi tries to talk about help her keep safe and I think they give a general flavourboth wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists.|isbn=086154742X
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=17876366071529153298|title=The TrapList of Suspicious Things|author=Catherine Ryan HowardJennie Godfrey|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction|summary=It's a scene replicated all too often in the early hours of the morning1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, though. Drunken revellers spilling out of clubs and looking for a way to get homeWomen have been disappearing. Some are lucky and manage Well, they've been murdered, but to get one of the few taxis availablehave 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Others squash onto the night bus Miv's upset because she's overheard that will only go as far as one of her father wants to move the outlying villagesfamily 'Down South'. The woman all regret the 'taxi problemWhen you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, particularly in the light of 'the missing women'best avoided. For one young womanMiv, the final stop on the bus leaves move would mean leaving her a long way short of her homebest friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to prevent that. She had intended to ring someone to come and collect her - but her phone's dead. The bus had driven off before she had not worried about the chance to beg the bus driver to let dangers or that her use his. ThereMum's no option but stopped talking - to start walking - unsuitably clothed and in high-heeled shoesanyone.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=14059571741398524085|title=A Death at the PartyHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Amy StuartNicci French|rating=45
|genre=Crime
|summary=From the first page, we know that Nadine WalshCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party will not end wellbut never turned up. The victim Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, Etty. are all worried but - a man strangely - her husband, Alec, is dying when we first meet him not. Shortly afterwards, Etty and Nadine consciously makes no effort to call Greg, find the body of Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in the ambulance he so desperately needsriver. What we donIt was an easy assumption for the police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't know is who stand the man is or why Nadine prefers to have him dieguilt. IThe Salter children are not convinced but there'd better give you a s little more background so that you else they can understand do but get on with their lives and wonder about what's happeningreally happened.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Tania Unsworth1035906708|title=Nowhere IslandDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=Meet Gil. Just twelveWe tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, he is so determined but she was born to escape the care system – the system that constantly puts him Greek parents in futureless places that are not homes – and find a home for himself. He is en route to yet another fostererManhattan, when he jumps into an anonymous carNew York, in December 1923 and lets it ride him only moved to his futureAthens when she was thirteen. That future seems Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to be in jeopardy when someone steals his one bag of belongings – but that someone lives with his brother in a camp on an island between the two directions of a motorway, a place inaccessible and definitely ignored enough 'Callas' to provide for their safety and seclusion. Them, and a mute girl also finding a home there, albeit so much make it more successfully. Over a few weeks we see if their oddball destinies can combine, or if this is one place where life as we would want it just would not work…|isbn=1804540080}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008530025|title=Murder manageable in the Family|author=Cara Hunter|rating=4States.5|genre=Crime|summary=It When she was back in December 2003 Athens - supposedly so that fifteenshe could get appropriate training for her voice -year-old Maura Howard came home and found the body of her stepfather, Luke Ryder, in the garden of their West London home. He had an injury on the back of his head which could have happened if he'd slipped down the steps but the vicious beating his face had taken she was obviously deliberate. Twenty years later, no one has been charged with his murder and it's now raised under the subject of ''Infamous'', Nazi occupation by a true-crime show. A group of experts has been brought together to review the evidence mother who mercilessly exploited her and to take the investigation further. More to the point, they're going to do this live on camera, episode by episode. There's made no dump secret of the whole box set - and no shortage of cliffhangers. It's compelling viewingher preference for her elder sister, Jackie.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Judith EagleChristopher Edge|title=The Stolen SongbirdBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Caro's motherLucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a world-famous whistler, place that has failed to return home from her recent work trip abroad and is now missingthe nickname of 'The Black Hole'. Her other motherAll big movie fans, Ronnie, is having to go up North they're looking forward to take care lots 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 despisesexciting films, she feels frustrated and confused and worried. 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's housemany, along with an orphan boy, Albie, who is living there too. many snacks! But she soon finds herself caught up in a mysteryHowever, as she discovers a painting of a bird hidden away inside her mum's old suitcasethe movie starts, and all across London a fearsome gang called the Snakes are thieving artworks and terrorising people. Is the painting somehow linked to the gang? And what has happened to Caro's mother? Is she somehow involved in the mystery too?|isbn=0571363148}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529195977|title=None of they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is True|author=Lisa Jewell|rating=5|genre=Thrillers|summary=On her 45th birthdayvery different, Alix Summer celebrated with a crowd of friends in the Landsdown pub on Salisbury Road when she encountered Josie Fair. She, too, was out celebrating her 45th birthday, only she was just with her husband, Walter. It turns out that not only and they are Alix and Josie birthday twins, swept up into an adventure they were both born in St Marycouldn's hospitalt even imagine. That's where But as they lurch from one film genre to the similarities end, though: Alix, with her husband, Nathannext, are in the midst of a joyful, monied group of friends and whilst can they're not ''exactly'' rowdy, figure out what on earth is going on? Will they're enjoying themselves. Josie, on ever get back to the other handcinema, holds her handbag close to her tummy and you get the sense that Walter's not too happy. He's not used to spending this much money on a meal - but it is Josie's birthday after all.their real lives?|isbn=1839942738
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{{Frontpage
|rating=3.5
|genre=HorrorTeens|summary=Love is love; although humans continue to be confused by this sentiment''I can hear the song of the sea. Gay conversion therapy is ongoingThe call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart. The UK government ruled out plans to make it '' Rosevear, a crime remote andpartially forgotten island, in survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the USwrecks. Mira, nearly 700 000 adults have received itlike 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. Although it is both But when the Council Watch lays a secular trap to end the wrecking, they capture the island's leader and Mira's father. Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a religious prejudice, Chuck Tinglebargain 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 his new horrorthe sea. With only nine days to unearth what might save her father, ''Camp Damascus'', peels back as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the skin heart of Christian ''pray the gay awaysmuggler'' camps s territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to show save the reader future of her home and the horror lurking withinones she holds most dear.|isbn=0008664730
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1803136383James Sherwood Metts|title=Tin Soldiers|author=David ChadwickPlanet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersConfident Readers|summary= Wat Tyler has returned from fighting in Vietnam under something of Things have been a cloudbit sticky for the Earthlings. What actually happened out there is gossiped about AI and nobody is sure exactly what took placeautomation have been proceeding apace, but an act of heroism leading often replacing jobs they're paid to a rare battlefield commission followed by rank cowardice do and disgrace seems other tasks that took time to be the consensusaccomplish. Wat himself is keeping his cards close Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to his chestthink of other, as he always doesnew ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and, along with it, all the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily. |isbn=1736128426
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B0C7J9D21BMatthew Tree|title=A Captive in Algiers (Muhammed Amalfi Mysteries)|author=A J LewisWe'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Literary Fiction|summary=When we first meet our hero, Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his name is Ettore and he lives at The House of Beautiful Swallows. Idyllic as this might soundfather, it's a bordello drunk and Ettore's mother died when he was born. He's not been short chronic underachiever whose dreams of mothers, though - but for someone being exceptional at any of his background in late-eighteenth-century Amalfi, it's difficult to obtain decent employment. The stint working with the preparation artistic passions all failed miserably and who had endless crises of anchovies didn't work out and bastards are considered bad luck on fishing boatsself confidence. Ettore was nothing if not resourceful - So Tim applied himself to his studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and determined - and it was not long before he had a successful business as a guide for visitors. He was even saving some moneyset himself high but achievable ambitions.|isbn= B0CVFXPGP8
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{{Frontpage
|author=Dean KoontzA G Slatter|title=After DeathThe Briar Book of the Dead|rating=35|genre=General FictionFantasy|summary= Michael Mace'' 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, Head of Securityall mine, at last. I just want to enjoy it for a top secret biological research facility, is among 55 people who die when a virus is released in a bio-hazard accidentwhile. Finding himself in '' Within a makeshift mortuaryremote mountain pass, covered in plasticfar away from the world, he has lies Silverton; a sense that something verytown under the protection of the Briar's, very bad a family of witches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands. Though she has happened always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to him – be born into her family for generations and only him – as he sits up such since she was young, her training as a steward revolved around letters and looks around at the shrouded bodies of his dead friends administration rather than spells and former colleaguespotions. As he recovers his sensesWhen her grandmother suddenly dies, he realises that there is something different about him; he can Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the town'feel'' everythings leader, and Ellie takes her place beside her. ''Everything''As challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, putting her at the heart of a maelstrom of chaos. Michael isnReeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what to do as the Briar witches't ''Michael'' anymorelegacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat.|isbn=16625004671803364548}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Jamie Littler1529900360|title=ArkspireThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Two sisters, Juniper It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and Elodie, born fifteen minutes aparteven after Alex recovered, are growing Sturgis was reluctant to be chalk ask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and cheese-shut cases which didn't need the help of a psychologist only worked for a while. Juniper is an eager hunter and trader in illicit magicFinally, it was Robin, Delaware's partner, including relics from prior major wars left out in who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the Badlandsman she loved needed. Elodie is intent on getting closer to power in one of the religious districts of ArkspireThe next case did look simple, perhaps even to become the child though. Two lovers were murdered in line to inherit the power swimming pool of the Watcher, the closest to a ruler the district has, and one of the five major victors remote property in said earlier warBel Air. Being trained in He was the magic that only five people can use would definitely change the status of heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to an extremely rich man and it's not the whole familyItalian. But in finding something oddly magical, Juniper might just be able to gain some power which of her own – for good, or for very, very bad…|isbn=0241586143them was the primary target?
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Thiago de Moraes1529395224|title=Old Gods New TricksLetting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=43.5|genre=Confident ReadersAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Meet TrixieSiôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. Forever getting into scrapes, larks His father was a GP and adventures involving flooding the school aircon with fart powderRowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, she could almost be thought a young goddess of nuisance. But just particularly when she's he considered the strain that being told that by her oneon-last-chance-giving headteacher, the world changes. Suddenly, practically everything electronic stops working – a power-out, even of electric cars, hits not just the town the schoolcall put on his father's in but life. When he was seventeen he took the entire planet (apart from mobile phones, opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and all that powers was convinced this was the Internet, just job for our convenience's sake)him. Trixie, luckilyBefore long, realises what has happened – the ancient Gods have taken the power of power from ushe was at Liverpool University. And It hadn't - as with so she begins her epic questmany students - been his dream since he was a child. If anything, he'd wanted to gather all the people that can steal it back – namely the characters from myth that have past form in stealing from the Gods, ie the semi-deities, giants, half-gods and so on known as the trickstersbe a professional footballer.|isbn=178845295X
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Alexia Casale0861541774|title=Sing if you Can't DanceA Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows|rating=54|genre=TeensCrime|summary=ItDCI Domenic Jejeune's hard enough close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to navigate your teenage years without suddenly finding that you're having to navigate meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in a lifestreet brawl -changing disability too, but he would later maintain that's what Ven is dealing he was facing a man armed with after collapsing on stage in the middle of a dance performance that was going to change her life. But she comes back fighting, desperate to avoid the pity stares, knife - and desperate to get back to he killed a life that's as normal as she can possibly manageGhurka. Meanwhile there's Initially, he faced a new (cute!) boy in school, her music A Level performance piece charge of manslaughter but evidence came to try light that suggested that he might have planned to sort out, and just murder the day-to-day traumas of all man. Now he could be facing the challenges her body continues to throw at her to navigatedeath penalty. So even though she Domenic Jejeune cando nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn't dance anymore, might she be able to sing her way through instead?|isbn=0571373801help Danny at all.
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{{Frontpage
|author=Helen PetersAlexander McCall Smith|title=Friends and TraitorsThe Perfect Passion Company|rating=34.5|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=England, WW2. Two young girls are new at the country pile called Stanbrook. One The Perfect Passion Company is Nancya dating agency in Edinburgh, destined run by Ness and operating as an alternative to be all the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service all . Ness has asked her life it seemsyounger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, like the female generations before heras Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. The other Katie is Sidney, coming out of a girl from break up with a hoity-toity Sussex boarding school that has been removed there away from bomber flight-paths. The girls are chalk and cheesebad boyfriend, and if we hadn't guessed that then their behaviour with each other over their first encounters would only prove it sojumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. But something is amissAnd so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and first separately and then in combination they realise the Lord Evesham must be a rum 'unIsabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Midnight deliveries are received under cover of secrecyKatie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, talk is made of meetings with Germansbut Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and not only thatthere's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a local Spitfire factory has been attacked. But surely the girls are wrong, and the upper class could never be so underhand?hand…|isbn=17880046471846976596
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=02419961040811771741|title=Coming to Find YouInstaKnits for Baby|author=Jane CorryMelissa Leapman|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersCrafts|summary=NancyMelissa Leapman's mother and step-father were brutally stabbed at their Sussex farmhouse and her step-brother, Martin, has been convicted of their murder. We first meet Nancy outside the court, after Martin receives a life sentence. The barrister tells her that she's received a 'silent sentenceInstaKnits for Baby' - she's not been found guilty gives us a collection of anything but knits from toys to blankets. Some will have to live with what happened for be quick knits - others are of the rest 'long, cosy afternoons in front of her lifethe fire' variety. Of course, itThe projects are divided by the time they's made worse because Nancy's rich ll take to complete - she inherited less than five million pounds from her mother - hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and more than twenty hours. All the papers projects are making the most of itattractive, modern and useable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects'Farmhouse slaughter daughterbut that'' is one favourite epithet and ''rich bitch'' might not be printed but is undoubtedly spokens me being picky.
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|isbnauthor=1529413680Dean Koontz|title=A Chateau Under Siege (A Bruno, Chief of Police Novel)|author=Martin WalkerThe Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeParanormal|summary=One of the main events of the Sarlat tourist season Benny is the rehaving a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-enactment of the liberation of the town from the English in 1370 sized object to his home, and Brunoit's there to see possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the show with some friends. thing that has trashed his house! It's all been very carefully choreographed but goes badly wrong whenThe thing is, Kerquelin, the man playing one of the main characters Benny is seriously injured when he departs from the scriptvery last person to deserve all this bad luck. Luckily, his doctor is there and the man He is whisked away in a helicopternice person. A local doctor (and really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend of Bruno) wonders about his chances of survival but - as he's , a senior government employeebad weather friend called Spike, the man who runs Frenchelon - the military has stepped inbeen sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. One daughter lives nearby Spike is going to take care of Benny, and anotherwill certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who lives in California, is flying in with some of her fatherfinds herself roped into Benny's friends for a pre-arranged holidaywild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=1662500491
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|isbnauthor=1529196388Adam Stower|title=The Trial|author=Rob RinderMurray and Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeConfident Readers |summary=Grant Cliveden was Murray is supposed to be a hero: a policeman humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who stood for all that was good is able to sleep and eat and eat and honest sleep and looked up to by just about everyone, so there was public uproar when he was murdered in plain sight at well, whatever takes his fancy next of the Old Baileytwo. ThereBut he's just one man in the frame for a bad magician's cat, so his murder - Jimmy Knight - favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and it's the catflap they both use can chuck them out, not too long before Knight appears in courtinto the regular back garden, charged with Cliveden's murder. Knight was told that the best barrister for him was Jonathan Taylor-Cameron but into a world of Stag Court Chambers frightening adventure and whiffs. This time round it's Taylor-Cameron and his pupildrops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, Adam Greenone much bigger than Murray was, who eventually represent him. Knight's determined to plead not guiltybe honest, despite all Taylor-Cameronbut he's recommendations turned up and he'll have to the contrary.do…|isbn=0008561249
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|authorisbn=Essie FoxB0C47LV1PC|title=The FascinationFragility|author=Mosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Literary Fiction|summary= The Victorian era is incredibly over-romanticised as Can you make a setting for historical fiction (matched only''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, perhaps, by is the Second World War) which has often led to more than a few writers mishandling question should you make it. There's such a glut of media set in ? Or is the era question if you did, would it land? The catch is that the hallmarks weanswer for both could well be.... no. ''Fragility''ve come to associate with it are familiar to is set as the point city of being clichedPortland, Oregon, hackneyed even. All this is simply cautiously begins to illustrate that it would be an easy thing to do poorly. But despite that, something about it still grabs me – and something about this book's description did as well.|isbn=1914585526emerge from the restrictions imposed during the covid pandemic
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|authorisbn=Andrew Cartmel1529431735|title=Death in Fine ConditionThe Winter Visitor|author=James Henry|rating=34
|genre=Crime
|summary=Cordelia really loves classic paperback crime fiction, It's February 1991 and in particular a series called Sleuth Hound. She spends her time hunting out copies that she can sell on for profitEssex is bitingly cold, sometimes which made Bruce Hopkins'tweaking' them, to add value, in somewhat fraudulent waysreturn all the more surprising. One day she discovers a near perfect collection of these books after seeing them in He'd been exiled on the background of Costa del Sol as a photograph on her wanted drug dealersmuggler for a decade. The return has come about because he's living room wallhad a letter from his ex-wife, and so saying that she sets about discovering where this collection is, 's ill and how she can steal it! hasn't long to live. It's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his underwear and sent to a next-level step watery grave in her petty crime career, but has she reached too far, and what will happen when the owner boot of the collection comes looking for their booksa stolen Ford Sierra. Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?|isbn=1789098947
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|isbnauthor=1529507987Alex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=The Repair Shop Craft Book|author=Walker Books and Sonia Albert (Illustrator)Glorious Race of Magical Beasts|rating=4.5|genre=Children's Non-FictionConfident Readers|summary=I love ''The Repair Shop''Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and in the evening a helper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. It's my go-to programme when I want to be cheered upEli lives with his lovely gran, too – for there is a generation missing in the family. After a hard dayA few short years ago, thereEli's nothing better than watching experts repair treasured items without ever mentioning what they're worth. You seeparents were both lost to the titular race, a globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the value is world in what these possessions are worth to the people who own them and the memories they holdcompany of a magical beast. No expense appears This has made the race anathema to be spared and the experts spend as much time and effort as pair – but when a bad incident at the eatery leads to a confession from gran, Eli knows his only hope is required to achieve dare to enter what he most hates, with the desired result. Regular viewers know sole aim the experts and they're all brilliant prize of magic at explaining what it is they're doingthe end – the only thing to possibly save his gran. But how did they start?|isbn=0571382231
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