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==Reviews of the The Best New Books==

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|authorisbn=Antony Wootten0008551375|title=Season of the Mammoth When Shadows Fall (BigShortsD S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary= Tannash and her brother Geb are waiting in great excitement for Leanne Wilson's body was found at the bottom of a Scottish mountain, seemingly the hunting party led by their uncle to returnresult of a tragic accident. They She're hoping for a feast d looked so happy, too, when she posted her intentions on Facebook. Her friends were relieved as she was just out of mammoth meatan unpleasant relationship, but it looked like she was living her best life now. Then it emerged that five other women had died in similar circumstances in the last year. Geb longs All were experienced climbers, properly equipped for the day he can join his uncle Gagba what they were doing and sensible people. None of the other warriors on 'what a hunting party and take part in their deeds of derring-stupid thing to do' explanations applied. But their father, the leader of the village, thinks that They were all alone when they also need an education; that knowledge died: DS Max Craigie is powercertain there's a killer on the loose.|isbn=1939269679

|author= Laura Lam and Elizabeth MayPaul B Preciado|title= Seven DevilsDysphoria Mundi|rating= 4.5|genre= Science FictionPolitics and Society|summary= Eris ''It is one never too late to embrace the revolutionary optimism of the foremost operatives childhood''  Through this hybrid text, consisting of the Novantaearias, letters, essays and autofiction, Preciado expresses his own hybrid self, and brings forth a resistance movement fighting against the ruthlessly expansionist Tholosian Empire – new sensorium as an Empire she was destined offering to inherit the new generation, a new feeling mechanism in her past life as Princess Discordia, whom everyone believed has been dead for yearswhich detachment is not considered a sign of political apathy. CloRather, an ace pilot for it is the Novantaeproportional, has a mission: hijack a Tholosian spacecraft valid response to gather information vital to the war effort. Although she's less than pleased to discover that her former friend Eris is her partner on this mission. Things get more interesting as 'the mission commences; aboard the ship epistemological and political crack we are three defectors with a secret that could potentially cripple the Empire. Eris's brother Damoclesliving through, and the runner-up heir to the Empire, is plotting to disrupt peace talks tension between Tholos emancipatory forces and conservative resistances that characterize our present'' which Preciado calls ''dysphoria mundi''. The whole text is framed against the last backdrop of the free alien species. It's a race against time Covid-19 pandemic as the rebels move that which has catalysed this revolution, when dysphoria began to put emerge on a stop Damoclesglobal scale, or as ''pangea covidica'' plans. Rather than taking this extreme dysphoria as a sign of weakness, or mistaking detachment or withdrawal for political paralysis, with millions of lives hanging in the balance…Preciado urges his readers to ''use dysphoria as your revolutionary platform''. |isbn=14732311401804271454

|author=Non PrattSamantha Harvey|title=Every Little Piece of My HeartOrbital|rating=4.5|genre=TeensGeneral Fiction|summary= Freya was a beautifulIn 2024, popular and complex girlSamantha Harvey won the Booker Prize for ''Orbital'', loved by many and seemingly stable a compact yet profound work that unfolds over a single day in her existence as a queen bee 16-year-old student, complete with best friend and the promise lives of the end of GCSEs just months away. But one day, on January 1st, she just... left. No explanation. No warning. No goodbye. No one heard from her since. A once active social profile left deserted. So, when her best friend Sophie receives a mysterious parcel from her 5 months after, she expects it to contain answers group of some kind, but is surprised to find astronauts aboard the parcel contains another layer addressed to International Space Station. Through a complete stranger, and then another layer to another person and another, each containing an item unique to them and Freya, connecting 4 strangers through her mystery and narrative lens that mirrors the promise of 'treasureastronauts' at the end of it all. With each parcelorbital perspective, Harvey invites readers to see our planet in a wholly new layer of the story and of Freya is unwrapped - and painful truths come to light that threaten to break bonds, both new and old. Can what's been broken be fixed? And why did Freya leave?|isbn=14063669431529922933

|isbn=178089922X295967572X|title=Invisible GirlPale Pieces|author=Lisa JewellG M Stevens

|genre=ThrillersLiterary Fiction|summary=''When you wear Our unnamed narrator is about to begin a hood, youtrain journey with his companion Django. Where they're invisiblegoing and what the purpose of this journey is, is uncertain.Django found the tickets ''on the floor somewhere' Saffyre Maddox ' and has persuaded our narrator to accompany him. Why not? Not much else is seventeenclear either -years-old but we are probably in the past as the pair travel to the station by coach and beautifulthe train is a steam locomotive.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008551324|title=The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. By her own admission, sheNeither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's a bit prepared to tell the police where the body of a boffinmissing 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 the remainder of his sentence and enjoying mathsto get an early parole date. Not much to ask, physics and biology at A level. is it? Life hasnThe new Deputy Police Constable doesn't been easy for her: most people who have been close to her have died think so and she's now living even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with her Uncle Aaron in an eighth-floor flathim is kept well away from what's happening. Something }}{{Frontpage|author=Jon Fosse and Damion Searls (translator) |title=Vaim|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=''really, really bad happenedAll was strange'' to her when she was ten and she self-harmed for a long time. Aaron organised psychological help and for three years Roan Fours was her therapist. He gently unpeeled . This haunting phrase encapsulates the layers pervading sense of her psycheotherworldliness which permeates this story set in Vaim, but somehow managed to miss that 'something reallya fictional fishing village in Norway which paradoxically could not feel more real for Jatgeir and Eline, really bad'. When two of the therapy ended Saffyre felt cast adrift, but she retained an interest protagonists caught in Roanits melancholic current.|isbn=1804271829

|isbn=18389510671035043092|title=The Nothing ManKilling Stones (Jimmy Perez)|author=Catherine Ryan HowardAnn Cleeves

|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=When we first meet Jim DoyleI can't have been the only person who was sad when Inspector Jimmy Perez [[Wild Fire (Shetland, he's about Book 8) by Ann Cleeves|left Shetland]] to get start a shocknew life on Orkney. HeIt's security at a supermarket and been seven years since we heard from him, but he's watching a woman who is acting suspiciouslynow living with Willow Reeves and their young son, James, as well as Cassie, the daughter of his former partner. She has a book tucked under her arm Willow's also his boss, and he wonders if she's planning to pay for it. Suddenly it drops to the floor with the spine splayed upwards. 'should'Nothing Man'' by Eve Blackbe on maternity leave, is but when the title. Why body of a popular islander, Archie Stout, is Jim shocked? Wellfound, Jim was - ''is'' - in the Nothing Man whoaftermath of a storm, until eighteen years ago raped and killedshe can't resist getting involved. The author of He'd been battered about the book was twelve years old when Jim raped her mother, and then killed her, her father and her sevenhead with a Neolithic stone -yearone of a pair -old sister, Annawhich had been stolen from a museum.

|author=Christina Hammonds ReedThea Lenarduzzi|title=The Black KidsTower|rating=4.5|genre=Teens Literary Fiction|summary=Christina Hammonds Reed''How unctuous are the fats of another's debut life, how dizzying their sugars in our bloodstream''. In this compelling novel , Thea Lenarduzzi assumes the identity of T, the protagonist of this tale. Just as T's story is set against being told, the backdrop story of a second protagonist is unveiled: Annie, the 1992 Los Angeles riots, daughter of a reaction to wealthy family in the absolution 19th century, who died of four police officers for beating tuberculosis after being locked in a black mantower, captures T's imagination. Annie's fate is, Rodney Kingabove all, nearly an enticing story to deathT. Told from the perspective of Ashley BennettIt is a story which she consumes avariciously, the novel follows her evolution from both in a silent bystander when confronted with matters quest for truth and knowledge, and in service of racemyth, to a woman finding her voice fable and embracing her heritagefantasy. |isbn=14711881911804271799

|isbnauthor=0751567426Claire-Louise Bennett|title=The Wicked Sister|author=Karen DionneBig Kiss, Bye-Bye

|genre=ThrillersLiterary Fiction|summary=When we first meet Rachel Cunningham she's an inpatient at the Newberry Regional Mental Health Center Everything in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. She's twenty-six and has been there for fifteen yearsthis book, however sweet or seemingly innocent, convinced that she accidentally killed her mother when she was eleven-years-old and that her father then took the gun is steeped in anguish and killed himselfdistortion. Her sisterEven a kiss, Dianausually a symbol of intimacy and closeness, just twenty-years-old, was left at becomes evidence of love lost. When the family homenarrator cries out internally, a lodge in the Upper Peninsula wilderness. Rachel's very bright 'come over here and although shekiss me,''s it is less an invitation than a voluntary patient at the Mental Health Center she remains there, feeling that desperate attempt to confirm her emotional numbness. The imagined recipient of this plea is what she deserves. PerhapsXavier, thoughher ex-partner, the circumstances are not as a ghost she remembersconjures to test her detachment.|isbn=1804271934

|isbn=15069094420008405026|title=The Worst Dogs: A Progressive Murder-MysteryStranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Matthew de Lacey DavidsonJane Casey|rating=45

|summary=It''The greatest hatred, like the greatest virtue s sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the worst dogsinvestigation ground to a halt. Now, is silent.'' The title of this enjoyable crime proceduralher mother, Helena, is from German romantic writer Jean Paul. But who and her father are the worst dogs dead in de Lacey Davidsontheir bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's latest novel and for whom is something about the hatred? This mystery will last all positioning of the way bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to the very last be an open-and carefully plotted pages but you will be thinking about unwarranted hatred all -shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the way through. It sounds uncomfortable - but it isnexplanation lies in Rosalie'ts disappearance: itothers (such as Derwent's honestboss, Una Burt) are less convinced.

|author=Rob BakerAnnie Ernaux and Alison L. Strayer (translator)|title=Toubab Tales: The Joys and Trials of Expat Life in AfricaOther Girl

|genre=TravelAutobiography|summary=''"Go to Mali," they saidWe were born from the same body. "The music is amazing," they said. "And you get ten hours of sunshine every day." So I did've never really wanted to think about this.''

Rob Baker Ernaux's work is an ethnomusicologistalways very candid and her tone transparent, but this raw epistolary text must be one of the most intimate accounts I've read. Ernaux writes in direct address to her sister, however, this letter will never reach her. ''A whatWhy?Because Annie Ernaux'' I hear you cry. Wells sister died of diphtheria at 6 years old, an ethnomusicologist studies music a few months before the vaccine was made compulsory in relation to cultureFrance, so rather like a folklorist studies and 2 years before the oral author was even born. The large and written story traditions relating instant void created by the jarring concept of writing to a culturean 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=B089CSNFT71804271845

|author=James PattersonMaxim Gorky and Bryan Karetnyk (translator)|title=Hawk: A Maximum Ride NovelReminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev|rating=43.5|genre=TeensBiography|summary=Hawk has been waiting on Biographies are often seen as the same street cornerform 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, every dayand offers a vibrant, for yearssubjective yet informed portrait of three of his literary contemporaries. She In the first section of this book, Tolstoy complains to his friend Gorky that: ''you write not of real life as it is waiting for her parents , but of what you yourself imagine it to come and get herbe. They left her there when she was just tinyWhom would it help to know how I see this tower, and although she's almost certain that they are never coming back for hersea, she continues to head back there each day, just in case. Hawk isnor that Tartar - why should it interest anyone? Of what use is it?''t your ordinary street urchin though...she has wingsWell, and Maxim Gorky shows exactly what can fly! Since she was abandoned she's been living with be gained from a group of other childrensubjective account, all with interesting characteristics of their own and together they've made their own family. But now the city is seemingly even more troubled than usual, there's a mysterious child-killer who has been brought to the prison next door giving us access to where the children livehow he saw Tolstoy, Chekhov and then Andreyev in such privileged detail that one day Hawk comes home to find her family has been taken awayalmost feels unworthy of it. Where have they been taken, and can Hawk rescue them before it's too late?|isbn=15291200041804271977

|isbn=17857656981529077745|title=Shed No TearsThe Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)|author=Caz FrearAnn Cleeves

|summary=In November 2012 Christopher Masters, A man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the body of a man who would become known as 'in the roommate killer'park near Rosebank, strangled three women in a fortnightcare home for troubled teens. When he The dead man was Josh - one of the care workers who was arrested he admitted due to work a shift the killingsnight before but who had never turned up. A fourth death was attributed D I Vera Stanhope is called in to him investigate the murder - that but her only clue is the disappearance of one of Holly Kemp - and on occasions, Masters admitted to the killingresidents, then he denied it fourteen-year- then admitted it, then denied itold Chloe Spencer. He played with the police, but there Some people believe that Chloe was sufficient evidence on the first three killings to put him away responsible for a long time and the CPS were not convinced about death but Vera thinks this is unlikely as the Holly Kemp casegirl's diary makes it clear that she adored Josh. There was no body and once Masters was murdered in prison, no hope of progressing the case furtherShe knows that she has to find Chloe to discover what happened to Josh.

|isbn=1473682401B0FK5LHKD9|title=The Turning Tide (Dandy Gilver)Colour of Memory|author=Catriona McPhersonChristopher Bowden

|genre=Crime (Historical)General Fiction|summary=Those who It's been three years since we last reviewed a book by favourite regular Christopher Bowden, so we were with us very glad to see a new novel arrive here at Bookbag Towers. Like all Bowden's stories, there's a mystery at the end heart of [[A Step So Grave (Dandy Gilver) by Catriona McPherson|A Step So Grave]] will remember that Donald was engaged to Mallory Dunnoch. They're now married and Mallory is having twins. When they arrive no one can doubt the charms 'The Colour of Lavinia Dahlia Cherry and her brother, Edward Hugh Lachlan Gilver. There are two drawbacks: theyMoney're noisy and they're staying with Dandy and Hugh. Dandy and her detective partner, Alec Osborne, had not taken up the chance to look into We like this running theme in an author's work - take a problem at the Cramond ferry when mystery but give it was offered to them twice before, but suddenly the possibility of being out of the house at Gilverton seems irresistibledifferent flavour and atmosphere each time.

|isbnauthor=B07WWSCGVSOlga Tokarczuk|title=The Lies You Told|author=Harriet TyceHouse of Day, House of Night

|genre=ThrillersLiterary Fiction|summary=Year six student Robin Spence isn't happy about having to start a new school. She'What's left the school she loved good of a world that keeps changing like that? How can one go on calmly living in New York and now sheit?'s going to Ashams in North London. It's very upmarket; places are rare as hens The title of this spellbinding work, ' teeth and as the pupils have all been there ''foreverHouse of Day, House of Night'', they have their established groupssomewhat 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. Robin's going to |isbn=1804271918}}{{Frontpage|isbn=henleyA|title=Ultimate Obsession|author=Dai Henley|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=Ex-DCI Andy Flood has been a Private Investigator for some time now, and he should be an outsiderdoing quite well financially. And why is this happening? WellUnfortunately, over a matter of his daughter's defence against a few days her parents' marriage fell apartmurder charge drained his savings. Andrew Spence is staying in New York - he works for a securities firm - and her motherHis wife, Sadie RoperLaura, has come back been trying to London persuade him to pick up her practice as a criminal barristerretire - ''maybe go travelling or go on cruises. That's easier said than done when youwhat 'ordinary people do','ve ' He's not been out entirely up front about the state of their savings. When Jack Durban tries to persuade him to take his case, it's the market place - and thought of the country - for more than ten yearsmoney he could make that convinces him that this is a miscarriage of justice that he really should put right.

|isbn=14087124151836284683|title=Cry BabyThe Big Happy|author=Mark BillinghamDavid Chadwick

|genre=CrimeDystopian Fiction|summary=It's June 1996 and football's European Championships are about to start in London. DS Tom Thorne Well! This is having a nightmare and it's one he has regularly. It relates to a case from ten years earlier when he ''knew'' that a man was guilty, but didn't take murder mystery unlike any action until the man's wife and three children had been murdered and the man had killed himself.other!

Cat Coyne and Maria Ashton are with their sons Kieron and Josh. ItI do love it when I open a book, it's a happy combination in that the boys are devoted nothing like I expected it to each other be, and - despite differences in the where and how they live - the women are best friendsit takes me on a wild ride. And that is just what happened with ''The boys are seven-year-old and they play on the swings in the park and then dash off Big Happy''. I don't want to play hide and seek in Highgate Wood. Josh was the one doing the hiding - ruin a similar experience for any of you reading but he returned tearfully I'll have to at least set the women: Kieron never came to find him and now he canscene. Once that't find Kierons done, I think you should simply experience this wonderfully original story for yourself.

|isbnauthor=B08CHJLNBSSally Rooney|title=Capturing Emilia|author=Brooke AdamsIntermezzo|rating=34.5|genre=Women's General Fiction|summary=He's Charles Devereaux, thirty-eight Sally Rooney has studied the chessboard of life and is something of a partner grandmaster at Wickham Jonesputting it into words. Her dialogue is gripping and so brilliantly frustrating, as her characters never quite say exactly what they feel. Among the Mayfair letting agents. She's Emiliamany relationships woven into this story, twenty-nine, librarian the central one for readers to unravel is the fraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and archivist in the heritage library next doorPeter Koubek. Emilia has read [[The Secret by Rhonda Byrne|The Secret]] but she's moved on from new age books like thatIvan, which leave you dependent on someone else's philosophies, to something a little deeper. Charles is more of a [[Personal by Lee Child|Jack Reacher]] man himselfsocially awkward chess prodigy, butcontrasts sharply with his older brother Peter, above all, he's shocked that Emilia reads ''The Guardian''. They're obviously not at all compatible, so why can Charles not get this woman out of his mind? She's not his usual type at all: it's obvious to his friendsa successful lawyer living in Dublin. And given that Emilia regularly feels repulsed by CharlesFollowing their father's superficiality, why does she feel drawn to him? The relationship's obviously passing after a non-starterlong battle with cancer, isnthe brothers't it?already strained relationship faces new trials.|isbn=0571365469

|isbn=15043213831036916375|title=Single, Again, and Again, and AgainJust a Liverpool Lad|author=Louisa PatemanPeter McArdle|rating=4.5

|summary=''You canJust a Liverpool Lad 't be happy ' is a collection of memories and fulfilled on your ownreflections from the years Peter McArdle spent growing up in and around Liverpool. Some are factual, such as the family history of a sea-going family, with the docks dominating lives. Other stories blend seamlessly into the what-might-have-been. You are not complete until you find It's a book to settle into and allow your mind to roam across your childhood memories, to think of simpler times when life seemed less constrained, despite the blitz that was a manconstant factor in McArdle's early years. I'd never heard of parachute mines before - but they were almost soundless and could appear after the all-clear was sounded.}}

{{Frontpage|isbn= 1836285493|title=The Double Life of a Wheelchair User|author=Rob Keeley|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary= Will is a keen player of video games, a conscientious student, a slightly annoying brother and a supportive friend. But most of all, he is an aspiring writer. English is his favourite lesson at his school, Marlowe Park, and one at which he excels. This was what Louisa Pateman was brought up to believe. It wasnhasn't unkind: it was simply the adults in her life advising her as to what they thought would be best for her. It was reinforced gone unnoticed by all those fairy tales where the girl (his headteacher, Mrs Howarth, and she's usually fairly young) is rescued by the handsome prince who then marries her so that they can live happily ever after. Few girls are lucky enough has suggested to be brought up ''without'' the expectation Will and his mum that they will marry and have children. It was he spends a belief and it would be many years before Louisa would conclude that ''couple of afternoons a belief is week at a choice''different school, Station Road, where his ability might be better extended.

|isbn=17873014351009473085|title=Dark WatersThe Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=G R HallidayAnthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)|rating=45|genre=CrimePolitics and Society|summary=Twenty-two-year-old Annabelle Whittaker made her second mistake when she opted Sometimes it's simpler to drive down the private road in Glen Turrit. It was explain a long road through some breath-taking scenery book by describing what it ''isn't'' and she could push the car that applies to its limits without fear of being caught speeding''The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?''. When If you're looking for an easy read which will deliver the blond child stepped out in front of her she instinctively jerked the steering wheel and hit a tree. When she came round after the accident she couldninside story about what ''really''t work out where she washappened on certain occasions, but it obviously wasnthen this isn't a conventional hospitalthe book for you. SheIf that's what you'd made her first mistake some time agore looking for, although the realisation wouldnI don't think Anthony Seldon's book, {{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, can be obvious to her bettered for those tumultuous years. It's a long timecompelling read and should be compulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to politics. She'd 'The Conservative Effect'' is an entirely different beast. It's the seventh book in a series which looks at the impact a government has made it and co-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the most important. This book follows the well-established format: a series of experts from various fields review the state of the nation when she chose to have her father buy her a pale blue BMW M4the coalition took over in 2010, the changes that occurred and the situation in 2024.

|author=Suzanne CollinsJenny Valentine|title=The Ballad of Songbirds Us in the Before and SnakesAfter|rating=4.5

|summary= Coriolanus Snow is refinedElk and Mab are best friends, charmingor more than that even, and one of the only surviving members of the affluent Snow family. But their world was destroyed by the warfriendship is a once in a lifetime connection. Their riches gone, his parents dead - and yet the facade must be maintained. As the 10th Hunger Games begins, Coriolanus and They meet as children one day on a trip out but unfortunately they don't get each other students of the Academy become the first Mentors of the tributes in 's contact details at the gamestime. This is his But then chance to prove himself to the world and secure his place in the Capitol for good. But when he is assigned a tribute with no hope - a girl from District 12 - he thinks all chances of winning (both for her brings them back together, and for him) they are goneinseparable. But Lucy Gray Baird proves herself to be a spark in his world Something has happened though, in a way he could never have imagined. As the Games commencesomething terrible and tragic, Lucy Gray fights for her life in the arena - but behind the scenes, in the slyand now they must work through their grief, complex and strangely dangerous world of the Capitoltheir friendship, Coriolanus is fighting for his life tootogether. Will she survive the Games? Will he? And what happens then?|isbn=07023001791471196585

|isbn=1787333175|title=You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji Waterhouse|rating=5|genre=Popular Science|summary=I was tempted to read ''You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here'' after enjoying Adam Kay's first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is Going to Hurt}}, a glorious mixture of insight into the workings of the NHS, humour and autobiography. ''You Don't Have to be Mad...'' promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to mental illness and the work of a psychiatrist. 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 person and it is always delivered with empathy and understanding. }}{{Frontpage|author=Sakinu AhronglongMariana Enriquez|title=A 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=Hunter SchoolThe Protest|author=Rob Rinder

|genre=AutobiographyCrime|summary= The flyleaf to this For a little collection tells us that while, it is a work of fiction. Thatlooked as though Sir Max Bruce, the country's possibly misleadingmost famous living artist, was not going to show up for the opening of his retrospective at the Royal Academy. I am not sure whether it is "fiction" Still, he arrived in the sense nick of time, complete with his two wives and six children, one of whom filmed what happened. Being an influencer, you tend to do things like that Ahronglong made , but it all upwas fortunate that there was a record of the protest. Lexi Williams, or whether it is as an intern at the blurb goes on RA, grabbed a spray can of blue paint from under a chair and proceeded to say spray Bruce in the face, whilst shouting ''recollections, folklore and autobiographical storiesStop the War''. It feels like the latter. It feels like the stories he tells about his experiences as a child, as seemed to be part of an adolescentongoing series of 'blue-face' attacks, as an adult are real and truebut this was different. But memory is a fickle thingThe can had been laced with cyanide, and maybe poetic licence has taken over here and there and maybe calling it fiction means that its safer and therefore more people will read it. More people shouldSir Max Bruce was dead.|isbn=1999791282

|author=Kat EllisAriel Saramandi|title=Harrow LakePortrait of an Island on Fire

|genre=TeensPolitics and Society|summary=When we first meet 17-year-old LolaIn this powerful collection of essays, daughter Saramandi seeks to legendary horror movie director Nolan Noxintradermally dissect the sociopolitical fabric of Mauritius, she is saying goodbye to New York City - by sneaking out and stealing from its residents. But when she is found tunneling deep into the wounds left by her father's assistant colonialism and forced slavery to come home, she arrives to find an unlocked door, a trail of blood, and her father dying in his studyexpose how these legacies still shape modern life. And so, while he recovers, she is sent off to live with her grandmother in Harrow Lake, Saramandi describes the small 1920s town in Indiana that served country at one stage as the location for the film that made her parents famous. But something about this place isn't right. There's rotting'', a darkness inside blunt yet apt metaphor for the people here. Secrets systemic decay brought about her mother and dark tales by the malignant forces of the town's cannibal monster 'Mister Jitters' fill every cornerracism, patriarchy, environmental degradation and disturbing happenings plague Lolagovernmental dysfunction. But with every passing hourEach essay in this collection serves as a kind of diagnostic, secrets long buried come painfully to light and she begins to think that these stories may not be stories at all, and something very real and sinister lurks in Harrow Lakecharting the various diseases afflicting the island state.|isbn=02413970491804271616

|author= Helly ActonPekka Harju-Autti|title= The ShelfLoveVortex and the Drakor's Curse|rating= 4|genre= Women's FictionFantasy|summary= When we meet Amy, sheIt's in the eighteenth century, a relationship with Jamietime of discovery and Britain is expanding its foreign trade. You can't really call it a partnershipCaptain Julius Hawthorne, an experienced Scottish sea captain, because things tend is sent to get done on the Andaman Islands in his endeavour. Along with his termsson, Peter, and their cat, but she's sticking around because she hopes she can change him. AhMichi, yesthey set off on a perilous voyage to these faraway lands. HavenThe islands are beautiful and stunning in their scenery and the islanders't we all been there? Things are looking up when he tells her leader, Aarav, is keen to pack for a surprise tripestablish good relations. Could this be it? Is he ''finally'' going to get down on one knee? Was the work (and the wait) worth it?|isbn=1838770879B0DS1VGHH3

|author= Justine Avery Helene Bessette and Daria YudinaKate Briggs (translator)|title= This Book Wants to Make You Laugh (Living Book)Lili is Crying|rating= 4.5|genre= For SharingLiterary Fiction|summary=This Living Book First published in 1953 in French, this novel is on a mission. What's timeless text which wrenches the mission? To make you laugh! I can't think hearts of many better missions than thatits readers just as Bessette wrenches words and sentences from their proper position on the page and positions them elsewhere, can you? Let's see how it does... .... welldisjointed, it opens up with a terrible joketruncated. A groany jokeLike the lives of her characters, an eye-roll joke. The joke isn't very funny but it is funny to see how enthusiastic and how generously this book wants to make you laugh - ''Oh, I'm terrible at jokes. Some books they are so good at them. I always wanted to help someone laughoften left tragically incomplete.'' |isbn= 194812453X1804271675

|isbnauthor=1529402271Tom Percival|title=Murder on the Moorland (Kitt Hartley Yorkshire Mysteries)|author=Helen CoxThe Wrong Shoes|rating=3.5|genre=CrimeConfident Readers|summary=DI Malcolm Halloran and Kitt HartleyWill's relationship life is developing nicely: they're even into difficult, in a spot multitude of bandage now, although the details are (mercifully) scantways. After a night of passion Halloran He is called away in bullied because he has 'the early hours of wrong shoes', he has the morning. Therewrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn's been a murder in Irendalet have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, where Halloran used to live and where his wife, Kamaladad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was strangled five years agoworking a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. There are sufficient details of Throw into that mix the current murder to make Halloran suspect fact that the man who murdered his wife - mum and dad are separated, and others - is Will's life seems bleak in some way involvedevery direction. And yet, despite being in prisonhe still has a tiny amount of hope. The DI heads off He is good at art, and clings to speak to Jeremy Kerrthe moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.|isbn=1398527122

|author= Mark DawsonSylvie Cathrall|title= The CleanerA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating= 45|genre= ThrillersScience Fiction|summary= Ruthless and coldly competent, John Milton There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of the British government's best assets – a contract killer with lethal instincts. Now, after ten years, he wants outthem. But his job isn't one you can just walk away from…|isbn=178739462X0356522776

|authorisbn=Angela Mack1786482126|title=I Am UnworthyThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=TeensCrime|summary= Isabel is determined Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to start freshhold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. Start again There was no skull. Sixth form will be different Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. Her tormentor It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't go to Gilleford Secondary School anymore. She can escape the hurt, the fear, and the person that she became. Josh is determined to keep going, even through pregnant with his child as a result of the rageone night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, the pain, and using his fists to solve any problem or situation. But he has secrets that threaten not least because Ruth is prone to tear him and his brothers apartsudden bouts of sickness. When Josh and Isabel's worlds collide, can they make their relationship work? Can they both finally be happy? Or will Josh's time run out?|isbn=B089FL7H4H

|author=Laura Imai MessinaGuadalupe Nettel and Rosalind Harvey (Translator)|title=The Phone Box at the End of the WorldAccidentals|rating=4.5|genre=Literary FictionShort Stories|summary= In This collection was truly enchanting in all senses of the northeast of Japanword: spellbinding with its fantastical, magical elements and charming in Inwate Prefecture a man installed a telephone box in his gardenits gentle portrayal of nature and human relationships. ''Inside there is an old black, telephone, disconnectedGuadalupe Nettel writes intelligently and precisely, her stories structured by a wisdom that carries voices into the wind.'' It is a real place, a necessary place, and I am pleased appears to see the IMPORTANT NOTE that the author attaches want to her story, that teach us something about the place is not a tourist destination, it is a sacred place, a place that must be left to those who really need itworld.|isbn=178658039X1804271470