132,741
edits
Changes
From TheBookbag
Jump to navigationJump to searchno edit summary
'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1784742775Max Boucherat|title=A Change The Last Life of Circumstance (Simon Serrailler)|author=Susan HillLori Mills|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeConfident Readers|summary=Drugs hadnWe meet Lori on the first evening she't really been that much of a problem s got the house to herself – no neighbour to pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work, just an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her lonesome. What could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in Lafferton and Detective Superintendent Simon Serrailler had thought of drugs ops as a bit of a waste of time. They still wereblanket fort, to a great extentshe has one main intention, but Serrailler knew and that something had is to be done. Children as young as nine were being recruited log on to transport Voxminer, the drugs world-building, critter-collecting game that is a hit in Lori's world. But first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, and the operation running the county lines was tightthen she finds something even more spooky. A mule might know For the name (although it probably wouldn't server she and her bestie and nobody else should be the correct one) able to enter shows signs of the person who was running him but he certainly wouldn't know anything about those higher tampering. When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and her safe place in the organisation. The police might catch game has been doctored – well, where is a few of the runners but they'd never get anywhere near those higher up.girl to turn?|isbn=0008666482
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=John GwynneJenny Lecoat|title=The Shadow Of The GodsBeyond Summerland|rating=54|genre=FantasyGeneral Fiction|summary=The Shadow Of The Gods is Jean lives on Jersey with her mother where they are celebrating the first installment end of the Bloodsworn Sagaoccupation. During the war, set in the era of the Vikings in the shadow of RagnarokJean's father was arrested for listening to a banned radio and soldiers took him away one night, when the Gods have battled leaving Jean and their bones lie scattered her mother waiting for years for all to seenews of him. This story is As the British finally free the Channel islands from the ultimate in High FantasyNazis, and John Gwynne certainly does justice to the genrewar is finally over, with mythical creatures, archaic language and battles galoretheir hopes rise that they will finally learn what became of him. This is But will the truth come as a thick bookrelief, with an intricate plot and fascinating characters that are woven together to create a wonderfully realistic and gritty world in which our heroes must do battle.or will it raise further questions around what else happened during the war? Who was the informer who told the Nazis about the radio? And what other secrets have been kept throughout the occupation?|isbn=03565142181846976537
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B09HTWX47X1529428289|title=Endless ObsessionA Grave in the Woods (A Bruno, Chief of Police Novel)|author=Dai HenleyMartin Walker
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=It's some years since we last caught up with Andy FloodBecause of various property transactions, formerly a DCI in people were searching for the Met grave but now a well-respected private investigatorwhen they found it, it came with three sets of bones. He's married They dated back to Laura, formerly his DS in the Murder Squad but now working in a forensics laboratory. Flood's daughters, Gemma World War II and Pippait fell to Bruno, have flown the nestChief of Police for St Denis, Pippa to Australia, from where she has very little contact with discover the identities of the family, bodies and Gemma to married lifeestablish whether or not a crime had been committed. SheAs if this isn's had mental problems since she was abducted many years ago but Andy and Laura hope that married life will provide t enough to worry about, the support she needsDordogne River - normally tranquil - is flowing at record levels. FloodIt's business is going well and not just the local autumn rains that was why he felt able have caused the problem: various dams upstream on another river have had to turn down release water and St Denis faces the case possibility of Lisa Blacka devastating flood.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Peter Papathanasiou152919640X|title=The StoningSuspect|author=Rob Rinder|rating=34.5|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=In a town sleazy enough to make sh*tholes elsewhere look glamorous in comparisonThe nation's favourite daytime TV presenter, a teacher has been transported across town at night in a shopping trolleyJessica Holby, was murdered live on television and sheit seems that there's been taped to a tree and she's had rocks bowled at her as if she were the world's tallest cricket stumpsonly one suspect. When she He's discovered by the town gossip everyone, including the local cops, are quite confident the culprit has come from the immigrant detention centre the place is reluctantly home celebrity chef Sebastian Brooks and his contract stated that he must not serve anything containing miso toJessica Holby. An arson attack on that shows the feeling – and it She's only fair, is the general opinion, for the occupants are often setting their own fires seriously allergic and carries an EpiPen in protest at their conditionscase of emergencies. Cue the arrival of George Manolis Everything seemed as normal - as normal as they can be in a busy, live television studio - and Brooks served a higher rank from the city, ragout to sort everything outHolby. Because such an aggrieved, insular community is really going Her EpiPen was nowhere to welcome a Greek-heritaged city boy laying down the law.be found and she was dead within minutes. It was soon clear that this was no accident.|isbn=1529416973
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B08Z8BMZ7H0008385068|title=The Mystery of HealingMidnight Feast|author=A P McGrathLucy Foley|rating=4.5|genre=Crime (Historical)Thrillers|summary=We meet Solon in Pergamon in the second century of the common era and heIt's midsummer on the physician on duty Dorset coast and guests gather at the munus - the games put on for the amusement of the populaceThe Manor. The remuneration isnIt't high but the work gives the doctor a feeling of virtue s their opening weekend and hones his skills: Solon splendid celebrations are promised. It''wants'' the warriors to lives all headed up by Francesca Meadows. ItThe Manor was her ancestral home and she's quite a spectacle: converted it into an impressive retreat for the magistri are wealthy and famous. Her husband, Owen, was the charge hands architect and when we first see them, they're sprinkling gold dust onto work is still ongoing on parts of the lions' manes to make them look more impressivesite. The sagitarii are the archers heat is oppressive and amongst the beastiarii guests are the condemned criminals who enemies as well as friends. Old scores are going to fight for their lives with the wild animals. Today, be settled and itwon's the crocodilest be long before a body is found.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Kate DiCamillo and Sophie BlackallAshley Hickson-Lovence|title=The Beatryce ProphecyWild East|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersTeens|summary=''Stories have joy and surprises Written in them''verse, we are told here. And none more so than in this wondrous is Ronny's story, which feels an instant classic with the freshness a young black fourteen year old boy from Hackney who suddenly has to move to Norwich and the agelessness it has in equal proportionstart at a mostly white school. We start with The move is initiated by Ronny's mum who is worried for Ronny's safety after a group of monkstragic event, the Order of the Chronicles of Sorrowingand so Ronny finds himself trying to settle in a new town, and the demonic goat that loves nothing more than upendinga new school, trampling on and biting the poor Brotherskeep himself out of trouble. Things change drastically when the beast takes a totally maternal approach He listens to a homeless girlmusic constantly, one who and has survived some trauma that has blocked her past from her memoryalways dreamed of being a rapper. Elsewhere sits a King But now, in this new school, his castleteacher encourages him to be part of a poetry writing workshop group and, desperate slowly, Ronny begins to find see the girlconnections between rap and poetry, for it is prophesied that a young child can unseat and the throne power of creativity and cause great changecrafting your words. Who foretold that revolution but the Order of the Chronicles of Sorrowing? But how can a simple, amnesiac lass ever prove a threat to anyone?|isbn=15295008930241645441
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B09FFJF8YS1635866847|title=You Can't Wear Panties! (No More Nappies!)The Lavender Companion|author=Justine Avery Jessica Dunham and Kate Zhoidik|rating=3.5|genre=For Sharing|summary=''For the big, grownup girls out there, the potty masters in training, "You Can't Wear Panties!" is a cry (the big-girl kind!) of toilet triumph and persevering panty pride.'' And so it is! This latest book from Justine Avery celebrates a little girl's final goodbye to nappies and pull-ups and graduation to "proper" pants by following her around as she proudly explains to her dog, her cat, her stuffed rabbit and her baby sibling that ''she'' can wear super-duper proper pants, while they cannot. Neither can the flowers, nor the fish, nor the birds. Boy's certainly can't. She's a big girl now and she wants everyone to know it!}} {{Frontpage|author=Nick Lake and Emily Gravett|title=Locked Out LilyTerry Barlin Vesci
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersLifestyle|summary=Lily isIt's strange, or was, or has been, very ill, and to give her parents relief shethe things that make you ''immediately''s been told to stay with her grandma feel that this is the book for a few daysyou. Before I started reading ''The parents need Lavender Companion'', I visited the relief as Lilyauthor's [https://www.pinelavenderfarm.com/ website] and there's baby sibling is just about to be born – a child Lily swears she hates already and wants nothing to do with. But on tracking back home for word picture of her parents (and her plush toy so she can sleep) she finds stony-eyed simulacra a slice of her parents, chocolate cake on the homepage. I don't eat cakes and the babedesserts -but I wanted that cake viscerally. (There's a recipe in-arms, already installed. These devilish interlopers need to be ousted to get the family back intactbook, even if itwhich I's not m avoiding with some difficulty!!) Then I started reading the family Lily wants – book and all she has I was told to help her make a mess of it. Notes in the task margins are some talking animals – Crow, Mole, Mouse and Snakesanctioned. You get to fold down the corners of pages. You suspect that smears of butter would not be a problem. I ''loved'' this book already.|isbn=1471194833
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Greg James and Chris SmithRob Keeley|title=The Great Dream RobberyChildish Spirits: 10th anniversary special edition|rating=54
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=MayaAround here, we're big fans of children's author Rob Keeley. He's father is a professor who invented an amazing dream machine. But something went wrongball of happy positivity, he understands children, and now he canwrites for their pleasure and enjoyment, not to lecture or hector. The ''Childish Spirits''t wake upseries is one of his greatest achievements. Or at least, thatIt's what Maya has been told. In a rather strange dream one night Maya makes sequence of ghost stories centring on Ellie, a new friend, and discovers that stalwart young girl who can cope with anything the only way to save spirit world throws at her dad may be by being asleep. Cue one madcap action adventure story where dreams , and reality collide...really...and there's everything from llamas and bananas, dream machines made from hairdresser cast-offsEdward, to a talking cat called Bin Bag!spoiled lordling and the first spirit Ellie encounters|isbn=024147051X1783064617
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1800464495Jenny Valentine|title= 100 Ways Us in 100 Days to Teach Your Baby Maths: Support All Areas of Your Baby’s Development by Nurturing a Love of Maths|author=Emma Smiththe Before and After|rating=4.5|genre=Children's Non-FictionTeens|summary=''Babies seem to be born with an amazing number sense: understanding shapes in the wombElk and Mab are best friends, being aware of quantities at seven hours old, assessing probability at six months oldor more than that even, and comprehending addition and subtraction at nine months old.'' Did you know this? I didn't! How about: ''Maths ability on entry to school their friendship is a strong predictor of later achievement, double that of literacy skillsonce in a lifetime connection.'' I didn't know this either! I think most parents are aware that giving your children a good start in literacy - reading stories, teaching pen grips, singing rhymes - gives They meet as children one day on a solid foundation when trip out but unfortunately they start school. But do we think the same way about maths, beyond counting? I don't think we doget each other's contact details at the time. But then chance brings them back together, in part because so many of us and they are afraid of mathsinseparable. But why are we? Most of us use maths in daily life without realising Something has happened though, something terrible and tragic, and now they must work through their grief, and it follows that giving our children a similar pre-school grounding will be just as beneficialtheir friendship, together.|isbn=1471196585
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1529379385Kieran Larwood and Joe Todd-Stanton|title=The Madness of Crowds (Chief Inspector Gamache)|author=Louise PennyDungeon Runners: Hero Trial|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeConfident Readers|summary=In Meet Kit. Like most of the Canadian village people in his world, it seems, he is an avid fan of Three PinesDungeon Running – the sport where a team of warrior, we're postmage and healer enter specially prepared, century-pandemic: old, magical mazes, and race to the exit, perhaps bothering with the scars are still there but life is starting to get back to normal. The villagers are beginning to return to treasure or the Bistro big bad and the Aubergepoints they grant you along the way. They're visiting each otherUnfortunately for Kit, the only thing he's homes seen of the latest race on the inn TV equivalent is that one team has been retired, eaten, and having friends and relatives to staya new trio of questors is needed. A young Sudanese woman who Possibly very unfortunately indeed for Kit, he has been nominated for taken to the goading from the Nobel Peace Prize is one such visitor token bully of his world and she soon proves that not all saints are necessarily pleasant people to be around - stumbled into declaring he'll enter as a bit like Vincent Gilbertteam. What chance does this friendless, known muscle-free-zone have in the village as the Asshole Saint.actually managing that, and how could he possibly hope to succeed?|isbn=1839945184
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor= B09F4CTKJRSaima Mir|title= Flights for Freedom|author= Steven BurgauerVengeance|rating=43.5|genre=Historical FictionThrillers|summary=It's I was instantly intrigued by the later stages premise of World War I and this novel – an organised crime syndicate in the United States has just entered the conflict. Petrol Petronus is north of England run by a young American who has signed up and joined the 17 Aero SquadronMuslim woman. This company The fact that it was the first US Aero Squadron to be trained second in Canada, the first to be attached to the RAF a series I hadn't read didn't stop me – I've jumped midway into a few series before (on page and screen) and the first to it needn't be sent into the skies to fight the Germans in active combata hindrance if it's good enough. But before And that can happenwasn't a problem here. Vengeance swiftly brings you up to speed, Petrol has to master flying the notoriously difficult but majestic Sopwith Cameland I never felt lost.|isbn=0861541561
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=183885410XStuart Douglas|title=The Dark Remains|author=William McIlvanney Lowe and Ian RankinLe Breton Mysteries - Death at the Dress Rehearsal
|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Bobby Carter was a lawyer During location filming for his 1970's sitcom 'Floggit and consigliere to one Leggit', leading man Edward Lowe stumbles across the dead body of a woman on the major crime families in nineteen seventies Glasgowedge of a reservoir. DC Jack Laidlaw is on The police seem happy to assign it as an accidental death, but something about the CID team charged with whole thing bothers Lowe, and he enlists the investigationhelp of a fellow actor, John Le Breton to help him investigate matters further. I say ''on They travel across the team'' but Laidlaw never really seems country during their days off filming, uncovering more possible murders and, seemingly, a link to be a part of itdeath during the Second World War. He does his own thing, goes his own way and ''The Dark Remains'' uncovers But is there really a link between the truth of why Bobby Carter's body was found behind one of Glasgow's seedier pubs.deaths? And will they manage to uncover who is responsible before more people lose their lives?|isbn=1803368209
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1942410255B0CYV674G2|title=Tokyo Zangyo Swanton Morley (Detective HiroshiJohn Tanner)|author=Michael PronkoDavid Blake|rating=43.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=''Zangyo: overtime work, often unpaid'' It's the cultureseemed like an open-and-shut case. A man, isn't it? The hours for which you're paid are really just covered in mud and blood - and carrying a statement of knife, comes into the minimum youpolice station shouting that he hasn'll be required to do: you'll work more hours to get t killed the job done and done to man. A body at the satisfaction bottom of bullies like Shigeru Onizuka. When a freshly dug grave at Swanton Morley church - he was found dead in front of Senden Central's headquarters in Tokyo there was nothing in the way of regret or grief, even been stabbed to death. DCI John Tanner is just back from his familyhoneymoon, but there was a mild curiosity as to whether he'd jumped from which coincided with the roof birth of the building or been assisted in his descentdaughter Samantha. Gossip revolves around the fact that You would think he left 'd be grateful for an easy answer but the roof at the exact same spot that an employee, Mayu Yamase, had committed suicide some three years earlierwords 'perverse' and 'John Tanner' were made for each other. SheHe'd accused Onizuka s sleep-deprived to the point of bullying her and forcing her falling asleep at work but he's determined to work an unreasonable amount of overtimekeep going - probably because he can't get any sleep at home.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=02414254251787333175|title=The Man Who Died TwiceYou Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Richard OsmanBenji Waterhouse|rating=4.5|genre=CrimePopular Science|summary=Elizabeth Best I was a little surprised when she received the letter. It came from a man whose body she had helped tempted to read ''You Don't Have to be Mad to pull from the Thames and who had never existed but then this Work Here'' after enjoying Adam Kay's first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is the sort of conundrum which retired spies have Going to deal with on Hurt}}, a regular basis. When she visits glorious mixture of insight into the sender workings of the letter (heNHS, humour and autobiography. 's moved into the Cooper's Chase Retirement Village) it comes as no surprise that itYou Don's someone with whom she has a long professional history - and who used t Have to be her husbandMad... He's made a bad mistake - something ' promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to do with a mask being removed within mental illness and the range work of a CCTV camera on psychiatrist. I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in this setting but the laughter is directed at a raid, situation rather than a missing twenty-million pounds in diamonds person and a few death threats. He's now in hiding it is always delivered with a young woman called Polly, who's his MI5 handler as well as being an incompetent waitressempathy and understanding.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Andrew SharpOnyi Nwabineli|title=The Chef, the Bird and the BlessingAllow Me to Introduce Myself|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary= Chef Mlantushi - Mozzy Anuri spent her childhood on display to the world, thanks to his employer her step- ismother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of Anuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, in his mindbasically, the head chef of a safari business catering to VIP guests in an unnamed African countrymonetary gain. Mozzy Now Anuri is earnest in her twenties and dedicated she is slowly trying to his task regain her confidence and he puts all of himself into creating fine cuisine dishes for the guests at BODto get her life back, suing her step-W safaris but his dream is mother to become take down the head chef of a restaurant in London or a big American citycontent about her. Even Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to win a Michelin starstart her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. He Most importantly, she is thwarted in this ambition by his bossdesperately worried about her little sister, Mr Bin (Ben to you and me) who incurs Mozzyis the new focus of Ophelia's disapproval for his scruffy waysonline empire. Can she save her sister, his uninterest in his guests and - shock, horror - his allowing of bush animals into perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the house.same time?|isbn=B09926MK8H0861546873
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Alex FoulkesDavid Chadwick|title=Rules for VampiresHeadload 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 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
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Tom Percival
|title=The Wrong Shoes
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary= Eleonore Von Motteberg (or Will'Leo' for short) s life is difficult, in a Vampiremultitude of ways. She drinks blood He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', she sleeps during he has the daywrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and she his dad can Grimwalk (turning into 't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a flock of bats to travel around, although not all of them remember to come back)building site and had an accident. Pretty cool stuff. Now, on Throw into that mix the night of her hundredth birthnight, she has to go out fact that his mum and hunt her first human. Howeverdad are separated, instead she ends up killing two humans by accident and burning down an orphanageWill's life seems bleak in every direction. Oops! And to make things worseyet, the ghosts he still has a tiny amount of one of the orphans hope. He is good at art, and clings to the evil master moments of the orphanage come back to haunt her. Sojoy when he is drawing, not only does Leo have to team up with that feel like a light at the friendly ghost Minna to stop the ghost end of the Orphanmaster before he becomes unstoppably powerfula long, she has to do it all while hiding it from her familydark tunnel. Did I mention vampires and ghosts hate each other? Yeah, there's a reason why there are rules for vampires…|isbn=147119955X1398527122
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Tori BovalinoSylvie Cathrall|title=The Devil Makes ThreeA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=4.5|genre=TeensScience Fiction|summary= Working all summer in her boarding school's library is the last thing Tess Matheson wants There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to do — especially when she gets a request for over a hundred books that she has to deliver herselfcompelling premise. What makes it worse And this is the man who requested the books: Mr Birch. The boarding school's headmaster, and a man Tess hates. As a petty act of revenge for making her find and deliver such a large request, Tess sticks post-it notes on each of the books, scribbled with the ugliest insults she can think of. They're never meant to reach him, one of course. Her plan is to get her anger out like this, and then take them all off before delivering them. No harm done… Or it would be, if someone hadn't delivered them for her.|isbn=17890981300356522776
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn= B09BG8V3Q60008517061|title= Who Needs Nappies? Not Me! (Everybody Potties!)Death in a Lonely Place|author= Justine Avery and Seema AmjadStig Abell|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingCrime|summary= ''Who Needs Nappies? Not Me!'' is Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the latest release future of his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, as moving in the ''Everybody Potties!'' series from Justine Avery. This series together would mean a lot of fun picture books aims compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to take Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the pain out of potty training children future she wants for herself and replace it with some fun. It's a worthy aim, as any frustrated parent will tell you. her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and putting the future on the back burner.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B098FFFBH91786482126|title=SnowcubThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Graham FulbrightElly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=FourteenBuilders were demolishing an old house in Norwich -yearthe site was going to hold seventy-old Rachel is her schoolfive 'luxury's animal rights project leader and she and her friend are producing apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a competition entry to highlight the way in which human beings exploit the animal worlddoorway. There was no skull. She gets Was this a great deal of support from her family: father Pip Harrisonritual killing or murder? Inevitably, a lecturer at Imperial CollegeDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, Londonbut Nelson doesn't, mother Kate and her twin, Nickthat she is pregnant with his child as a result of the one night they spent together some three months ago. Kate runs the family business, a toy shop called Cornucopia in PutneyHer condition will be obvious before long, which not least because Ruth is where we'll meet Rachel's main (if unsuspected) source prone to sudden bouts of information: five soft toyssickness.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn= Angharad Walker0008551324|title= The Ash HouseDevil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating= 4.5|genre= Confident ReadersCrime|summary= A new boy arrives at The Ash HouseIt's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. He doesn't know his name, Neither side likes or why he has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is there but struggling in prison and he is used 's prepared to tell the system, used to different places and different faces. He meets Dom who names him Sol and sets out to teach him police where the rules body of The Ash House. These rules centre on a variety of Nicenesses set out by the absent Headmastermissing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. All children must remember their Niceness This person, he promises, is someone big and complete their chores, working as a hive in it will be worth the smouldering shadows of The Ash Housepolice doing what he wants. But soon their easy peace And what he wants is shattered by to be transferred to an open prison to serve the arrival remainder of the Doctorhis sentence and to get an early parole date. By the end of the story Not much to ask, lives will be changed forever is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and The Ash House will never be she's even prepared to do the same againother thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.|isbn=1912626977
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Yancey Williams0008405026|title=Crosshairs of the Devil|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Award-winning crime writer Eddie Jablonski is getting on in years and, despite his strenuous objections and thanks to his daughter, finds himself living - or imprisoned, from Eddie's point of view - A Stranger in room 315 of the Garden of Eden nursing home, with only a trusty nursing aide, Jenkins, for palatable company. Nothing is going to keep Eddie from his stock-in-trade of writing though, so here, for his readers, are his wanderings through his life's work.|isbn=0986031658}} {{FrontpageFamily (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Philip Reeve|title=Utterly Dark and the Face of the DeepJane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=In It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to a word, richhalt. There is certainly an abundance of riches in this story set on a peculiar island called Wildsea Now, British but way westher mother, beyond the Scillies. There are troll people on itHelena, and sea-witchesher father are dead in their bed. Initially, and legends it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the Dark family bodies that has makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to keep watch for magical islands be an open-and their monster approaching from even further west, where no ship dare sail-shut case is now a complex double murder. The current Darks are the Watcher, Andrewe, who has to keep notes of activity from Kerrigan is convinced that the Hidden Lands, his brother Will who lives explanation lies in London with too much science in his head to worry about Rosalie's disappearance: others (such local yokel superstitions, and Andreweas Derwent's foundling daughter, who washed up out of the sea one day eleven years ago. But when Andrewe Dark drowns himselfboss, both his sullen brother and his curious ward Una Burt) are thrust into the world of protecting their island, like it or notless convinced.|isbn=1788452372
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Erling Kagge0571379877|title=Walking: One Step At A TimeThe Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=3.5|genre= LifestyleCrime|summary= Those who have read my reviews before will know that how much I loved Edward Jevons is a book is evidenced by the number of pages working-class young man, obsessed with corners turnedhis upper-class friends, so let me start this one with an apology to the Norfolk Library Service: sorry! I forgot it was your book not mineRobert and Stanza. In my defence, I will say that as Robert's a reader of this type of book there is something connective about noting where prior readers were inspired (provided it is subtle – Itheatre director. He'll allow creased cornerss also self-obsessed, but not scribbles – demanding, handsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for the latter we must buy our own copy – which I am about to do as soon as I have finished telling you why)him. Erligg Kagge is a Norwegian explorer who Edward has walked to the South Pole, the North Pole been in love with Stanza since their university days - and the summit of Everest. He knows a thing or two about walking. However, this isnhe't a travelogue about any of those epic journeys, it is instead a thoughtful exploration of what it means s drunkenly confided how he feels to walkRobert. It is Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a plenitude of unnumbered essays about walking. There is no relationship had begun between them but he'contents' page and I haven't counted. In small format paperback, each essay s not like most men: Edward is only a few pages long. Perhaps then, better thought left to stumble upon the two of as them kissing in a meditation rather than an essaydark passageway.|isbn=0241357705
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Ian Mark and Louis GhibaultJo Callaghan|title=Monster Hunting For BeginnersLeave No Trace|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Meet Jack. Now Jack knows very little about being fearless and nimble and quick, for he's When a slight boy, and although he wants for danger and peril and interesting things his dad refuses to let him out man is found crucified on the top of his sight. That's because Jack's mother knew all about monstersa hill in Nuneaton, and look what happened DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her – she died. Luckily or unluckily thensidekick, depending on your point of view, a giant ogre will threaten his aunt when Jack's father also goes AWOL, Jack will fluke the ogreAI detective Lock. It's deaththeir first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. But when there is a second body found crucified a dwarfish wizard-type will make him an apprentice monster hunterfew days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and he'll be given a book very high profile case that tells him all he needs draws a lot of unwanted attention to know about their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to solve the perils he always wanted closer contact with. The book's namecase in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of a career? ''Monster Hunting for Beginners''...|isbn=0755501942139851120X
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Keith Gray1399613073|title=The ClimbersMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersThrillers|summary=Sully Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Anjali is the best tree climber in free spirit of the villagegroup and she becomes a GP. He has what's known amongst the kids as When we first meet them they'reach'. But what happens when re at a new kid shows up in town? A new kid, called Nottingham, who clambers up some of the hardest trees with ease? Suddenly Sully is worried that his status is being threatened, drug and alcohol-fuelled party and not only that, that his chance it's going to name the final, unnamed big tree end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the park by being tragedy or the first to conquer it, might consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be snatched from his hands. How can Sully stop Nottingham? And an eerily similar event that will it cost him his best friend, or maybe even all of his impact the three friends. This time, to do so?|isbn=1781129991it's their teenage children who are involved.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Emma Carroll0241636604|title=The Week at World's EndTrading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersAutobiography|summary=FirstIf you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, the title. Weyou're in World's End Close, a mediocre set unlikely to think of houses, where Stevie (Vie to her friends) finds fun only with someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the family dog pin-stripe suit and with his background is the boy over the road. But we could also be at World's East End, because something taking a great chunk of the fun away is the fact that the Cuban Missile Crisis is kicking offwhere he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. The Soviet boats are getting blockaded as America tries There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to reduce the risk London School of nuclear missiles offshore, Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and not much else is able he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to make the newsbe stupid. That said It was his ability at what was, Vie has news of her own – Annaessentially, a secretive young woman hiding in their coal shedcard game which got him an internship with Citibank. Anna has Eventually, in no short time, taken this turned into permanent employment as a strong interest in the American airforce base behind the Close, said she'd locate something she wanted and leave, failed to leave, and implied her life was at risktrader. But surely this bit of intrigue has got nothing to do with what the Cold War is doing miles away?|isbn=0571364438
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Kiran Millwood Hargrave and Tom de Freston1035021803|title=Julia and the SharkThe Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=43.5|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Julia, our pre-teen heroine, It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been packed off with her parents and their cat from back to the family home in SW England to be lighthousekeepers English country village where she grew up. She's back now because of a request for a summerhelp from her beloved aunt, in the far NE of the Scottish islandsCarole. Here be VikingsFreya's former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, that kind of Scottish islandto say the least. Dad is going Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to be automating the lanternvillage: Arthur, which is his specialist thingshe feels, while mum will be leaving let her career down badly. Even though they were in algae behind business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to hunt be near the man or pursue the elusive Greenland sharkprofession she loved. And JuliaAfter the split, wellshe worked in a cafe, she will be homesick met and married James (on the rebound from the love of her life, who was murdered) and Freya and alone – until she suddenly finds company one nightJames have now divorced.|isbn=1510107789
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Freya SampsonAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=The Last LibraryAll Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=45|genre=General Science Fiction|summary=''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.'' I am always a little nervous to start a story about a library've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Well, since I am must confess that there have been more than a librarianfew decades of technology in my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but I always grit my teeth slightly at 'm left with the thought feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of the incoming cardiganit is -wearing, hair in a bun, catfrankly -owning, glasses on a chain stereotypes! In this storyquite frightening. Of course, I could research the main character, June, does put her hair in a bun, possibilities and she does own a cat (called Alan Bennett), the probabilities and she has barely any friends and spends her evenings eating the same Chinese takeaway meal once a week whilst end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading books alone! But I didnsomeone who knows what they't immediately throw re talking about or the book out of the window, because latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I found knew I was interested could trust and who could deliver information in June, and why she lived as she did. Her mum used to be a librarian at the village library, but when she got sick, June gave up on going to University and stayed at home to take care of her mum, as well as taking on a job as library assistant at the local library. And even though her mum sadly died some years ago, she is still working there, still eating her mum's favourite takeaway meal, and still reading her mum's old books. June is stuck, but little does she know, everything in her life is about the changeway I could understand.|isbn=183877369X
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0008370982Sunny Singh|title=Rock Paper Scissors|author=Alice FeeneyHotel Arcadia|rating=43.5|genre=Thrillers|summary=Amelia Wright The Hotel Arcadia is forty-two and it was the staff raffle at Battersea Dogs Home that gave her a weekend away luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a converted chapel in Scotlandterrorist group. Her husbandHiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, Adamkilling everyone on site, there is Sam, a wartime photographer and Abhi, isn't so keen on the ideahotel manager. Like AmeliaAs Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the hotel, he knows that their marriage has been under strain: he's forms a screenwriter bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and he's never shy keeps on venturing out of making it clear her room to Amelia that he'd prefer try to spend time with the novels hecapture what's hoping to adapt than with happened through herphotography. Amelia's annoyed that he never enquires about how her day has been - and working with Although they only ever talk over the dogsphone, many of whom have been abused, is never easy. Still - she's won the weekend away, even if it does mean driving for eight hours in her 1978 Morris Minor Traveller with Adam beside their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her in the passenger seat - keep safe and then doing they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the same thing to come back a couple of days laterterrorists.|isbn=086154742X
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Doug Johnstone1529153298|title=The Great SilenceList of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=45|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction|summary=For those whoIt's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, like methey've been murdered, havenbut to have 'disappeared' doesn't come across the Skelfs before, Isound quite so frightening. Miv'll risk a quick synopsis of whos upset because she's who – although Johnstone does a good job of bringing overheard that her father wants to move the backstory in without being heavy handed about itfamily 'Down South'. Skelf isn When you't some fantastic creaturere from Yorkshire, though it sounds as though it ought to be, it Down South is merely the surname of a family of undertakersfrightening, foreign place, best avoided. Undertakers and private investigators. Dorothy is For Miv, the matriarch – Californian by birth move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and instinct, she married a scot and ended up helping 'll do anything to run prevent that. She's not worried about the Edinburgh undertaking firm dangers or that had been in the family for generations. Recently widowed and now involved with a black Swedish police officer. Swedish by nationality. Scottish police. Daughter Jenny, 46, is haunted by her stillMum's stopped talking -living husband – a violent escaped prisoner. And grand-daughter is about to graduate with a first-class physics degree and join the academic staff next termanyone.|isbn=1913193837
}}
