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==The Best New Books==
'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].'''
{{Frontpage
|author=Rob KeeleyPaul B Preciado|title=Childish Spirits: 10th anniversary special editionDysphoria Mundi|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersPolitics and Society|summary=Around here, we're big fans 'It is never too late to embrace the revolutionary optimism of childrenchildhood's author Rob Keeley. He's a ball of happy positivity, he understands children, and he writes for their pleasure and enjoyment, not to lecture or hector.
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{{Frontpage
|author=Jenny ValentineSamantha Harvey|title=Us in the Before and AfterOrbital|rating=4.5|genre=TeensGeneral Fiction|summary=Elk and Mab are best friendsIn 2024, or more than Samantha Harvey won the Booker Prize for ''Orbital'', a compact yet profound work that even, their friendship is unfolds over a once single day in the lives of a lifetime connectiongroup of astronauts aboard the International Space Station. They meet as children one day on Through a trip out but unfortunately they donnarrative lens that mirrors the astronauts't get each other's contact details at the time. But then chance brings them back togetherorbital perspective, and they are inseparable. Something has happened though, something terrible and tragic, and now they must work through their grief, and their friendship, togetherHarvey invites readers to see our planet in a wholly new light.|isbn=14711965851529922933
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Kieran Larwood and Joe Todd-Stanton295967572X|title=Dungeon Runners: Hero TrialPale Pieces|author=G M Stevens|rating=45|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary=Meet Kit. Like most of the people in his world, it seems, he Our unnamed narrator is an avid fan of Dungeon Running – the sport where about to begin a team of warrior, mage train journey with his companion Django. Where they're going and healer enter specially prepared, century-old, magical mazes, and race to what the exitpurpose of this journey is, perhaps bothering with the treasure or the big bad and the points they grant you along the wayis uncertain. Unfortunately for Kit, Django found the only thing hetickets ''s seen of the latest race on the inn TV equivalent is that one team has been retired, eaten, floor somewhere'' and a new trio of questors is needed. Possibly very unfortunately indeed for Kit, he has taken persuaded our narrator to accompany him. Why not? Not much else is clear either - but we are probably in the past as the goading from pair travel to the token bully of his world station by coach and stumbled into declaring he'll enter as the train is a teamsteam locomotive. What chance does this friendless, muscle-free-zone have in actually managing that, and how could he possibly hope to succeed?|isbn=1839945184
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Saima Mir0008551324|title=VengeanceThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=34.5|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary= I was instantly intrigued by It's unusual for anyone from the premise of this novel – an organised crime syndicate in Hardie family to approach the north of England run by a Muslim womanpolice. The fact that it was Neither side likes or has any respect for the second other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in a series I hadnprison and he't read didn't stop me – I've jumped midway into s prepared to tell the police where the body of a few series before (on page missing person is buried and screen) who was responsible for her death. This person, he promises, is someone big and it needn't will be a hindrance if it's good enoughworth the police doing what he wants. And that wasnwhat he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date. Not much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't a problem here. Vengeance swiftly brings you up think so and she's even prepared to speed, do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and I never felt lostanyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.|isbn=0861541561
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{{Frontpage
|author=Stuart DouglasJon Fosse and Damion Searls (translator) |title=Lowe and Le Breton Mysteries - Death at the Dress RehearsalVaim|rating=3.54|genre=CrimeLiterary Fiction|summary=During location filming for his 1970's sitcom 'Floggit and LeggitAll was strange'', leading man Edward Lowe stumbles across the dead body of a woman on ... This haunting phrase encapsulates the edge pervading sense of a reservoir. The police seem happy to assign it as an accidental death, but something about the whole thing bothers Loweotherworldliness which permeates this story set in Vaim, and he enlists the help of a fellow actor, John Le Breton to help him investigate matters further. They travel across the country during their days off filming, uncovering fictional fishing village in Norway which paradoxically could not feel more possible murders real for Jatgeir andEline, seemingly, a link to death during two of the Second World Warprotagonists caught in its melancholic current. But is there really a link between the deaths? And will they manage to uncover who is responsible before more people lose their lives?|isbn=18033682091804271829
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=B0CYV674G21035043092|title=Swanton Morley The Killing Stones (John TannerJimmy Perez)|author=David BlakeAnn Cleeves|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=It seemed like an open-and-shut case. A man, covered in mud and blood - and carrying a knife, comes into the police station shouting that he hasnI can't killed have been the manonly person who was sad when Inspector Jimmy Perez [[Wild Fire (Shetland, Book 8) by Ann Cleeves|left Shetland]] to start a new life on Orkney. A body at the bottom of a freshly dug grave at Swanton Morley church - he It's been stabbed to death. DCI John Tanner is just back seven years since we heard from his honeymoonhim, which coincided but he's now living with Willow Reeves and their young son, James, as well as Cassie, the birth daughter of his daughter Samanthaformer partner. You would think he Willow's also his boss, and she ''should''d be grateful for an easy answer on maternity leave, but when the words body of a popular islander, Archie Stout, is found, in the aftermath of a storm, she can'perverse' and 'John Tanner' were made for each othert resist getting involved. He's sleepd been battered about the head with a Neolithic stone -deprived to the point one of falling asleep at work but he's determined to keep going a pair - probably because he can't get any sleep at homewhich had been stolen from a museum.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1787333175Thea Lenarduzzi|title=You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji WaterhouseThe Tower
|rating=5
|genre=Popular ScienceLiterary Fiction|summary=I was tempted to read ''You DonHow unctuous are the fats of another't Have to be Mad to Work Heres life, how dizzying their sugars in our bloodstream'' after enjoying Adam Kay. In this compelling novel, Thea Lenarduzzi assumes the identity of T, the protagonist of this tale. Just as T's first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This story is Going to Hurt}}being told, the story of a glorious mixture second protagonist is unveiled: Annie, the daughter of insight into a wealthy family in the workings 19th century, who died of the NHStuberculosis after being locked in a tower, humour and autobiography. captures T''You Don't Have to be Mad..s imagination.Annie'' promised the same elements but moved from physical problems s fate is, above all, an enticing story to mental illness and the work of a psychiatristT. I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in this setting but the laughter It is directed at a situation rather than story which she consumes avariciously, both in a person quest for truth and it is always delivered with empathy knowledge, and in service of myth, fable and understandingfantasy. |isbn=1804271799
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{{Frontpage
|author=Onyi NwabineliClaire-Louise Bennett|title=Allow Me to Introduce MyselfBig Kiss, Bye-Bye
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Literary Fiction|summary=Anuri spent her childhood on display to the worldEverything in this book, however sweet or seemingly innocent, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social mediais steeped in anguish and distortion. Even a kiss, where she posted every step usually a symbol of Anuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals intimacy andcloseness, basicallybecomes evidence of love lost. When the narrator cries out internally, monetary gain. Now Anuri is in her twenties ''come over here and she kiss me,'' it is slowly trying to regain her confidence and to get her life back, suing her step-mother less an invitation than a desperate attempt to take down the content about confirm heremotional numbness. Anuri The imagined recipient of this plea is battling alcoholismXavier, failing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. Most importantlyex-partner, a ghost she is desperately worried about conjures to test her little sister, who is the new focus of Ophelia's online empiredetachment. Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time?|isbn=08615468731804271934
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=David Chadwick0008405026|title=Headload of Napalm|rating=4.5|genre=Thrillers|summary= It's September 1973 in Hicks, California. Hicks is a Mojave desert town of a few thousand people with its nearest neighbours of LA and Las Vegas both a significant drive away. Not much happens A Stranger in Hicks. A silver mine and a defence contractor are the main local employers but otherwise, there's not much of note other than dive bars and Joshua trees. Life is quiet, until....|isbn= B0D321VJ76}}{{FrontpageFamily (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Tom Percival|title=The Wrong ShoesJane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=WillIt's life is difficult, in a multitude of wayssixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work She was never found and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was working investigation ground to a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accidenthalt. Throw into that mix the fact that his mum Now, her mother, Helena, and dad her father are separated, and Will's life seems bleak dead in every directiontheir bed. And yetInitially, he still has it looks like a tiny amount straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of hopethe bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. He What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is good at art, and clings to the moments of joy when he now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is drawing, convinced that feel like a light at the end of a longexplanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, dark tunnelUna Burt) are less convinced.|isbn=1398527122
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{{Frontpage
|author=Sylvie CathrallAnnie Ernaux and Alison L. Strayer (translator)|title=A Letter to the Luminous DeepThe Other Girl|rating=54|genre=Science FictionAutobiography|summary= There are few greater joys than a book which lives up ''We were born from the same body. I've never really wanted to a compelling premisethink about this. And '' Ernaux's work is always very candid and her tone transparent, but this is raw epistolary text must be one of themthe most intimate accounts I've read. Ernaux writes in direct address to her sister, however, this letter will never reach her. Why? Because Annie Ernaux's sister died of diphtheria at 6 years old, a few months before the vaccine was made compulsory in France, and 2 years before the author was even born. The large and instant void created by the jarring concept of writing to an imaginary recipient emphasises Ernaux's process of reckoning with this giant absence in her life, an absence that she has always felt but often denied.|isbn= 03565227761804271845
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0008517061Maxim Gorky and Bryan Karetnyk (translator)|title=Death in a Lonely Place|author=Stig AbellReminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev|rating=43.5|genre=CrimeBiography|summary= Former Metropolitan Police detectiveBiographies are often seen as the form of life-writing which offers less colour; it can be seen as more objective and less personal. I think that Gorky completely rejects this perspective, Jake Johnsonand offers a vibrant, has settled into subjective yet informed portrait of three of his rustic life at Little Skyliterary contemporaries. There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about In the future first section of this book, Tolstoy complains to his friend Gorky that: ''you write not of real life with his vet girlfriendas it is, Livia and her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a lot but of compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life what you yourself imagine it to move in with Livia or does Livia move be. Whom would it help to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether know how I see this tower, that sea, or not this that Tartar - why should it interest anyone? Of what use is the future she wants for herself it?''. Well, Maxim Gorky shows exactly what can be gained from a subjective account, giving us access to how he saw Tolstoy, Chekhov and her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life Andreyev in the present and putting the future on the back burnersuch privileged detail that one almost feels unworthy of it.|isbn=1804271977
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=17864821261529077745|title=The Janus Stone Dark Wives (Dr Ruth GallowayD I Vera Stanhope)|author=Elly GriffithsAnn Cleeves
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house A man walking his dog in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they early morning discovered the bones body of a child beneath man in the park near Rosebank, a doorwaycare home for troubled teens. There The dead man was no skullJosh - one of the care workers who was due to work a shift the night before but who had never turned up. Was this a ritual killing or D I Vera Stanhope is called in to investigate the murder? Inevitably- but her only clue is the disappearance of one of the residents, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelsonfourteen-year-old Chloe Spencer. ItSome people believe that Chloe was responsible for the death but Vera thinks this is unlikely as the girl's difficult as Ruth diary makes it clear that she adored Josh. She knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the one night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone has to find Chloe to discover what happened to sudden bouts of sicknessJosh.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=0008551324B0FK5LHKD9|title=The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)Colour of Memory|author=Neil LancasterChristopher Bowden|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction|summary=It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family been three years since we last reviewed a book by favourite regular Christopher Bowden, so we were very glad to approach the policesee a new novel arrive here at Bookbag Towers. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and heLike all Bowden's stories, there's prepared to tell 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 it will be worth the police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve mystery at the remainder heart of his sentence and to get an early parole date. Not much to ask, is it? ''The new Deputy Police Constable doesnColour of Money''t think so and she. We like this running theme in an author's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded work - make certain that DS Max Craigie take a mystery but give it different flavour and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happeningatmosphere each time.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0008405026Olga Tokarczuk|title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane CaseyHouse of Day, House of Night
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=''What's the good of a world that keeps changing like that? How can one go on calmly living in it?''
The title of this spellbinding work, ''House of Day, House of Night'', somewhat reflects this notion of shifting realities - the small, subtle changes which govern our lives, like the shift from day to night, however quotidian, causing chaos. But, the constant in that image is the house, stoic against the ancient diurnal cycle which nonetheless controls how it is perceived.
|isbn=1804271918
}}{{Frontpage
|isbn=henleyA
|title=Ultimate Obsession
|author=Dai Henley
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=It's sixteen years since nineEx-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer nightDCI Andy Flood has been a Private Investigator for some time now, and he should be doing quite well financially. She was never found and the investigation ground to Unfortunately, his daughter's defence against a haltmurder charge drained his savings. NowHis wife, her motherLaura, Helenahas been trying to persuade him to retire - ''maybe go travelling or go on cruises. That's what 'ordinary people do', and her father are dead in '' He's not been entirely up front about the state of their bedsavings. InitiallyWhen Jack Durban tries to persuade him to take his case, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning thought of the bodies money he could make that convinces him that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case this is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced miscarriage of justice that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convincedhe really should put right.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=05713798771836284683|title=The Kellerby CodeBig Happy|author=Jonny SweetDavid Chadwick|rating=34.5|genre=CrimeDystopian Fiction|summary=Edward Jevons Well! This is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friendsmurder mystery unlike any other! I do love it when I open a book, Robert and Stanza. Robertit's a theatre director. He's also self-obsessednothing like I expected it to be, demanding, handsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for himit takes me on a wild ride. Edward has been in love And that is just what happened with Stanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert'The Big Happy''. Most men in RobertI don's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that t want to ruin a relationship had begun between them similar experience for any of you reading but heI's not like most men: Edward is left ll have to stumble upon at least set the two of them kissing in a dark passagewayscene.}}{{Frontpage|author=Jo Callaghan|title=Leave 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. ItOnce that's their first live case togetherdone, 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 projectI think you should simply experience this wonderfully original story for yourself. 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
|isbnauthor=1399613073Sally Rooney|title=Moral Injuries|author=Christie WatsonIntermezzo
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersGeneral Fiction |summary=Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on Sally Rooney has studied the first day chessboard of medical school life and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter is something of a centurygrandmaster at putting it into words. Olivia Her dialogue is ruthlessly ambitiousgripping and so brilliantly frustrating, which is a bonus when you aim as her characters never quite say exactly what they feel. Among the many relationships woven into this story, the central one for readers to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura unravel is a perfectionist the fraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and a trauma doctorPeter Koubek. Anjali is the free spirit of the group and she becomes Ivan, a GP. When we first meet them they're at socially awkward chess prodigy, contrasts sharply with his older brother Peter, a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to end successful lawyer living in tragedyDublin. We donFollowing their father't know who suffered the tragedy or s passing after a long battle with cancer, the consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. This time, itbrothers's their teenage children who are involvedalready strained relationship faces new trials.|isbn=0571365469
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=02416366041036916375|title=The Trading Game: A ConfessionJust a Liverpool Lad|author=Gary StevensonPeter McArdle|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=If you were to bring up an image of ''Just a city banker in your mind, youLiverpool Lad ''re unlikely to think is a collection of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie memories and jeans replaces reflections from the pin-stripe suit years Peter McArdle spent growing up in and his background is around Liverpool. Some are factual, such as the East Endfamily history of a sea-going family, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injusticethe docks dominating lives. There was no posh public school on his CV Other stories blend seamlessly into the what-might-have- but he had been to the London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - It's a book to settle into and he has a facility with numbers which most allow your mind to roam across your childhood memories, to think of us can only envy. He also realised simpler times when life seemed less constrained, despite the blitz 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 Citibankconstant factor in McArdle's early years. Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a traderI'd never heard of parachute mines before - but they were almost soundless and could appear after the all-clear was sounded.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=10350218031836285493|title=The Antique Hunter's Guide to MurderDouble Life of a Wheelchair User|author=C L MillerRob Keeley|rating=3.5|genre=CrimeConfident Readers|summary=It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up. She's back now because Will is a keen player of video games, a request for help from her beloved auntconscientious student, Carole. Freya's former mentor a slightly annoying brother and Carole's close a supportive friend. But most of all, Arthur Crockleford, he is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the leastan aspiring writer. Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the village: ArthurEnglish is his favourite lesson at his school, she feelsMarlowe Park, let her down badlyand one at which he excels. Even though they were in business together as antique huntersThis hasn't gone unnoticed by his headteacher, Mrs Howarth, and she has not felt able suggested to be near the man or pursue the profession she loved. After the split, she worked in Will and his mum that he spends a couple of afternoons a week at a cafedifferent school, met and married James (on the rebound from the love of her lifeStation Road, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorcedwhere his ability might be better extended.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover1009473085|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that DisruptThe Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Benjamin Greenaway Anthony Seldon and Stephen Oram Tom Egerton (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Science FictionPolitics and Society|summary=Sometimes it's simpler to explain a book by describing what it ''isn't''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things and that applies to come''The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?''. If you're looking for an easy read which will deliver the inside story about what ''really'' Ihappened on certain occasions, then this isn've heard it said t the book for you. If that 'technology' is s what happens after you're eighteenlooking for, I don't think Anthony Seldon's book, {{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, can be bettered for those tumultuous years. Well, I must confess that there have been more than It's a few decades of technology in my lifetimecompelling read and should be compulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to politics. I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but IThe Conservative Effect'm left with the feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of it is - frankly - quite frighteningan entirely different beast. Of course, I could research It's the possibilities and seventh book in a series which looks at the probabilities impact a government has made and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or co-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the latest conspiracy theoristmost important. I needed people I knew I could trust This book follows the well-established format: a series of experts from various fields review the state of the nation when the coalition took over in 2010, the changes that occurred and who could deliver information the situation in a way I could understand2024.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Sunny SinghJenny Valentine|title=Hotel ArcadiaUs in the Before and After|rating=3.5|genre=Thrillers Teens|summary=The Hotel Arcadia Elk and Mab are best friends, or more than that even, their friendship is a luxury hotel once in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist grouplifetime connection. Hiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone They meet as children one day on site, there is Sam, a wartime photographer and Abhi, trip out but unfortunately they don't get each other's contact details at the hotel managertime. As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who But then chance brings them back together, and they are still alive in the hotelinseparable. Something has happened though, he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by eventssomething terrible and tragic, and keeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what's happened now they must work through her photography. Although they only ever talk over the phonetheir grief, and their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists, together.|isbn=086154742X1471196585
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=15291532981787333175|title=The List of Suspicious ThingsYou Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Jennie GodfreyBenji Waterhouse
|rating=5
|genre=General FictionPopular Science|summary=ItI was tempted to read 's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not whatYou Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here''s worrying Mivafter enjoying Adam Kay's familyfirst book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is Going to Hurt}}, a glorious mixture of insight into the workings of the NHS, thoughhumour and autobiography. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesnYou Don't sound quite so frighteningHave to be Mad... Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to move mental illness and the family 'Down South'work of a psychiatrist. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in this setting but the laughter is directed at a situation rather than a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, person and it is always delivered with empathy and she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyoneunderstanding.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1398524085Mariana Enriquez|title=Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci FrenchA Sunny Place for Shady People
|rating=5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=Mariana Enriquez writes horror that is disturbingly real, achieving this uncanny familiarity by basing her paranormal plots on gritty realities: her settings include an abandoned field full of disused refrigerators due to an urban planning mishap, an overcrowded homeless shelter and a crime-ridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are routine - all within Argentina. The circumstances of her characters are so plausible that the supernatural or otherworldly horror which seeps into these spaces adopts a similarly tangible texture.
|isbn=1803511230
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1529934753
|title=The Protest
|author=Rob Rinder
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Charlotte Salter was expected at her husbandFor a little while, it looked as though Sir Max Bruce, the country's fiftieth birthday party but never turned most famous living artist, was not going to show upfor the opening of his retrospective at the Royal Academy. Her childrenStill, sons Niallhe arrived in the nick of time, Paul complete with his two wives and Ollie and her daughtersix children, Ettyone of whom filmed what happened. are all worried but - strangely - her husband Being an influencer, Alecyou tend to do things like that, is notbut it was fortunate that there was a record of the protest. Shortly afterwardsLexi Williams, Etty an intern at the RA, grabbed a spray can of blue paint from under a chair and Gregproceeded to spray Bruce in the face, find whilst shouting ''Stop the body of GregWar''s father, Duncan Ackerley, in the river. It was seemed to be part of an easy assumption for the police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldnongoing series of 'blue-face't stand the guiltattacks, but this was different. The Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but get on had been laced with their lives cyanide, and wonder about what really happenedSir Max Bruce was dead.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1035906708Ariel Saramandi|title=Diva|author=Daisy GoodwinPortrait of an Island on Fire
|rating=4.5
|genre=General FictionPolitics and Society|summary=We tend to think In this powerful collection of Maria Callas as Greekessays, but she was born Saramandi seeks to Greek parents in Manhattanintradermally dissect the sociopolitical fabric of Mauritius, New York, in December 1923 tunneling deep into the wounds left by colonialism and only moved slavery to Athens when she was thirteenexpose how these legacies still shape modern life. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to Saramandi describes the country at one stage as ''rotting'Callas' to make it more manageable in , a blunt yet apt metaphor for the systemic decay brought about by the Statesmalignant forces of racism, patriarchy, environmental degradation and governmental dysfunction. When she was back Each essay in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by this collection serves as a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret kind of her preference for her elder sisterdiagnostic, Jackiecharting the various diseases afflicting the island state.|isbn=1804271616
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{{Frontpage
|author=Christopher EdgePekka Harju-Autti|title=Black Hole Cinema ClubLoveVortex and the Drakor's Curse
|rating=4
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=It's the eighteenth century, a time of discovery and Britain is expanding its foreign trade. Captain Julius Hawthorne, an experienced Scottish sea captain, is sent to the Andaman Islands in his endeavour. Along with his son, Peter, and their cat, Michi, they set off on a perilous voyage to these faraway lands. The islands are beautiful and stunning in their scenery and the islanders' leader, Aarav, is keen to establish good relations.
|isbn=B0DS1VGHH3
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Helene Bessette and Kate Briggs (translator)
|title=Lili is Crying
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=First published in 1953 in French, this novel is a timeless text which wrenches the hearts of its readers just as Bessette wrenches words and sentences from their proper position on the page and positions them elsewhere, disjointed, truncated. Like the lives of her characters, they are often left tragically incomplete.
|isbn=1804271675
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|author=Tom Percival
|title=The Wrong Shoes
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Lucas and his friends are all booked Will's life is difficult, in for a movie marathon at their local cinemamultitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', a place that he has the nickname of wrong shoes because his dad can'The Black Holet work and doesn'. All big movie fanst have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, theyand his dad can're looking forward to lots of exciting filmst work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and many, many snacks! had an accident. However, as Throw into that mix the movie starts, they very quickly realise fact that something about this new film format is very differenthis mum and dad are separated, and they are swept up into an adventure they couldnWill't even imagines life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has a tiny amount of hope. But as they lurch from one film genre He is good at art, and clings to the nextmoments of joy when he is drawing, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to that feel like a light at the cinemaend of a long, and to their real lives?dark tunnel.|isbn=18399427381398527122
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|author=Rachel GreenlawSylvie Cathrall|title=Compass and BladeA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=3.5|genre=TeensScience Fiction|summary=''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.'' Rosevear, There are few greater joys than 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 book which lives up 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 fathercompelling premise. Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who And this is as charming as he is secretive and with only coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search one 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 dearthem.|isbn=00086647300356522776
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|authorisbn=James Sherwood Metts1786482126|title=Planet StorylandThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary= Things have been a bit sticky for Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs theysite was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury're paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as apartments - when they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think discovered the bones of other, new ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemica child beneath a doorway. Life There was pretty much shut down andno skull. Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, along Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with itDCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, all that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the many daily social interactions on which one night they depend so heavilyspent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness.|isbn=1736128426
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|author=Matthew TreeGuadalupe Nettel and Rosalind Harvey (Translator)|title=We'll Never KnowThe Accidentals
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionShort Stories|summary= Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his fatherThis collection was truly enchanting in all senses of the word: spellbinding with its fantastical, a drunk magical elements and chronic underachiever whose dreams charming in its gentle portrayal of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably nature and who had endless crises of self confidencehuman relationships. So Tim applied himself Guadalupe Nettel writes intelligently and precisely, her stories structured by a wisdom that appears to want to his studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitionsteach us something about the world.|isbn= B0CVFXPGP81804271470
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|authorisbn=A G Slatter0008551375|title=The Briar Book of the DeadWhen Shadows Fall (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre=FantasyCrime|summary='' ThereLeanne Wilson's a part of me that wants to keep this just to myself for however long I can. This secret magic body was found at the bottom of my own, all mine, at last. I just want to enjoy it for a while.'' Within a remote Scottish mountain pass, far away from seemingly the world, lies Silverton; result of a town under the protection of the Briartragic accident. She'sd looked so happy, too, a family of witches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands. Though when she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to be born into posted her family for generations and intentions on Facebook. Her friends were relieved as such since she was youngjust out of an unpleasant relationship, but it looked like she was living her training as a steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potionsbest life now. When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes Then it emerged that five other women had died in similar circumstances in the Briar Witch, the town's leaderlast year. All were experienced climbers, properly equipped for what they were doing and Ellie takes her place beside hersensible people. As challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers None of the rare ability to communicate with the dead, putting her at the heart of 'what a maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what stupid thing to do as the Briar witches' legacy, everything explanations applied. They were all alone when they have sacrificed to survive, died: DS Max Craigie is under threatcertain there's a killer on the loose.|isbn=1803364548
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