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Review of Needle by Patrice Lawrence Teens Brave. Charlene, the 'heroine' of this piece is extremely hard for some people to like, characters and readers both. Kicked out of multiple homes and schools, she's fostering with a pleasant yoga tutor, Annie, and has taken up residence in her son Blake's old room while he's at uni. Such a tempestuous personality may be in need of a comfort blanket, you might perhaps think, and the creation of one such item is part of the plot here, as Charlene is a wonder knitter, and is making something full of love for her younger sister – a younger sister she's allowed contact with no more. We see Charlene prove her belligerence with a store detective, and then force people to give her two days off school, when she shouts someone down as expletively ignorant. And then... well, what exactly happens is not for me to say, only to remark how sharp and pointy those knitting needles can be... Full Review

Review of S.T.E.A.L.T.H.: Access Denied by Jason Rohan Confident Readers Arun and Sam have had little to do with Donna, a girl at their school. But things immediately change at the start of this extended sprint of a novel, when she insists Arun's house has become the attention of plain-clothes coppers and that they should bunk off school to find out why. And thus an unlikely trio of misfit young heroes is formed – Sam is really not Donna's idea of company, but he is the computer buff, Donna seems to know all the criminal ins and outs and survival skills, and Arun? Well, it's his lot to find out that all he based his family life on isn't true, and that his father – kidnapped that very morning – is involved in something quite unexpected. But how can this disparate trio hope to best MI6, kidnappers, people able to keep the truth about themselves secret for decades, and so much more? Full Review

Review of Black, White, and Gray All Over: A Black Man's Odyssey in Life and Law Enforcement by Frederick Reynolds Autobiography Corruption is not department, gender or race specific. It has everything to do with character. Period. One more body just wouldn't matter. The murder of George Floyd, a forty-six-year-old black man, on 25 May 2020 by Derek Chauvin, a forty-four-year-old police officer, in the US city of Minneapolis sent shock waves around the world. We rarely see pictures of a murder taking place but Floyd's death was an exception. The image of Chauvin kneeling on George's neck is not one which I'll ever forget and the protests which followed cannot have been unexpected. There was a backlash against the police - and not just in Minneapolis: whatever their colour or creed they were all tarred by the Chauvin brush. Full Review

Review of The Club by Ellery Lloyd Thrillers The party of the year turned into the murder mystery of the decade. Just off Littlesea, in Essex and a mile or so into the Blackwater Estuary, The Manor stood on an island. It was now known as Island Home, one of The Home Group's exclusive clubs and the opening weekend was going to be something special, even by Home's standards. Speedboats, helicopters and blacked-out SUVs were converging on the island, which was linked to the mainland by a causeway that was inaccessible at high tide. Home's CEO, Ned Groom, is determined that everything, everything will be perfect. Home has 5761 members: just 150 of them have received invites for the weekend. Those who have not been invited have not stopped ringing... Full Review

Review of Peach Blossom Spring by Melissa Fu Historical Fiction I loved the prelude to Peach Blossom Spring, a short chapter entitled Origins. Unfortunately it is the only truly poetic part of a book that I expected more from. Covering Chinese history from 1938 to 2005 as viewed through one family's perspective. When their home city is set ablaze during the war with Japan, a young mother (Meilin) and her four-year-old son (Renshu) are among those who flee. The story follows them on their journey across China, and in Renshu's case eventually to America. Full Review

Review of Faceless by Vanda Symon Thrillers In this book told from multiple viewpoints, several troubled people are thrown into the same story thanks to just one mis-step. Set in New Zealand, the first of our characters is Bradley, a middle aged man struggling with an overbearing boss, a weighty mortgage, and what he feels is an unappreciative wife. Then there’s Billy, a homeless teenage girl who is a street artist working as a prostitute sometimes in order to pay for the materials she needs. And then we have Max, who is also living on the streets and who keeps an eye on Billy. He is a shell of a man, barely able to take any care of himself, and yet we can sense that he was once something more than he is now. One night, Bradley finds himself half-crazed with stress and anxiety, driving down the street looking for a prostitute. He picks up Billy, and then with one thoughtless decision finds his life thrown into turmoil and a spiral away from the person he thought he was into someone very different. Full Review

Review of Cozy Knits: 30 Hat, Mitten, Scarf and Sock Projects from Around the World by Sue Flanders Crafts Just occasionally you encounter a book of knitting patterns which seems to meet your every need. Right now, it's bitterly cold and we're in the sandwich filling between two storms: I need socks, scarves, hats and mittens. They have to look stylish, keep me warm and be so cheerful that they make me feel better. If that sounds like a lot to ask, have a look at Cozy Knits: it has thirty designs for those necessary items and I don't think that there was one of them which I couldn't see myself wearing. We start with an introduction by Nancy Bush which gives some of the history of knitting. It's not essential but it's a nice extra. Full Review

Review of The Weight of Loss by Sally Oliver Literary Fiction Marianne is grieving. Traumatised after the death of her sister, she awakes to find strange, thick black hairs sprouting from the bones of her spine which steadily increase in size and volume. Her GP, diagnosing the odd phenomenon as a physical reaction to her grief, recommends she go to stay at Nede, an experimental new treatment centre in Wales. Yet something strange is happening to Marianne and the other patients at Nede: a metamorphosis of a kind. As Marianne's memories threaten to overwhelm her, Nede offers her release from this cycle of memory and pain—but only at a terrible price: that of identity itself. Full Review

Review of Bumblebee Grumblebee by David Elliott For Sharing I love a good board book! Bumblebee Grumblebee is aimed at quite a niche market: it's for the child who still enjoys board books (er, see my first sentence) but has mastered sufficient language skills to have realise that you can play with words and make something quite different from each one. We have the elephant who dons a tutu - and becomes a balletphant. The buffalo who has had a bath (complete with yellow duck) and then dries off with a hair drier becomes a fluffalo. The rhinoceros who drops his ice cream cone is a crynoceros (think about it!) The pelican who sits on his potty changes into a sm....... OK, let's not go there Some people are eating! Full Review

Review of Death at Friar's Inn by Rob Keeley Crime Nat Webber and Tom Barton were in the finals of the Moots to take place at The Honourable Society of Friar's Inn. For aspiring barristers, moots test the participants' knowledge of several areas of law as well as their advocacy skills: it's a great way of getting invaluable practice and of getting yourself noticed. Tom and Nat are from 'a provincial university' and they're almost looked down on because of this. The other contestants - Becca Decker-Hamilton and Lucia 'Mouse' Dawes have no such disadvantage and Becca has an abundance of confidence. Tom's £30 supermarket suit doesn't make him feel any better. Full Review

Review of City of the Dead by Jonathan Kellerman Crime When you drive large vehicles for a living, you're careful and it's not just about the way that you drive. You restrict your alcohol intake and if it's a trip that needs overnight stays you make certain you get your sleep. When you're taking a removals truck through a residential neighbourhood you head off at 5 a.m. when the roads are quieter, even if you have to wait up when you get to where you're going. And it was going well until the men hit something in Westwood Village, an upmarket neighbourhood of Los Angeles. The man was stark naked and couldn't be identified. Full Review

Review of I May Be Wrong by Bjorn Natthiko Lindeblad, Caroline Bankeler, Navid Modiiri and Agnes Bromme (Translator) Autobiography When the Dalai Lama adds his words to your frontispiece, I'm inclined to think it doesn't really matter how the rest of the world responds to your book. I know, having read the book in question, that Lindeblad would disagree with that thought. He knows (and at core so do I) that it matters very much how the rest of the world responds to this book, because it tells the truth as it is, in the early 21st century. Full Review

Review of The Patient (A DS Cross thriller) by Tim Sullivan Crime DS George Cross has an autistic spectrum disorder, quite probably Asperger's Syndrome. He can be rude, difficult and awkward with people, although it's never intentional. It's just that he thinks differently and social niceties simply don't occur to him. There's a reason why he's in Bristol's Major Crime Unit and it's that he has the best conviction rate with cases, ever. His partner is DS Josie Ottey: she regards Cross with affection (not an emotion he would recognise, or welcome being attached to himself) and even attempts to instil some of those missing social niceties into Cross's behaviour. Full Review

Review of Give Unto Others by Donna Leon Crime Commissario Guido Brunetti senses that Venice has changed. The pandemia stripped the city of its tourists for nearly two years and a lot of businesses have closed, most never to reopen. There's now a cascade of money as life begins again but even 125,000 deaths have not put an end to greed. The Mafias have liquidity problems: how on earth are they going to launder all the money which is coming their way? Whilst he's thinking about this, Brunetti encounters someone he's seen only occasionally since they were neighbours when he was a child. Elisabetta Foscarini has a problem and she'd like Brunetti's advice. Full Review

Review of Wrath by Marcus Sedgwick Teens Meet Fitz, a young Scottish lad full of frustration at himself. Lockdown is only just over, and he should be free to do what he wants, to go where he wants and with whom he wants, but he cannot stop himself from putting his foot in it when he talks to his best friend, Cassie. They were half of a desultory school band, but Cassie was also one hundred per cent the enigmatic – saying she could hear a subhuman hum coming from the earth. Is this connected with one of her eco-warrior parents saying the end of the world is already a done deal? Is it some spooky new kind of music she's dreaming of? Is she just bonkers? And can Fitz find out the truth? Well, not when Cassie has gone missing he can't... Full Review

Review of Knit 2 Socks in 1 by Safiyyah Talley Crafts If you've ever started knitting a pair of socks, finished the first one and either got bored by the idea of doing the same thing all over again, or started on the second sock and lost the first before you finished it, this is the book for you. Where is it that single socks go to hide? Safiyyah Talley has developed a system that allows you to knit two socks in one, divide them up and have a perfectly finished pair of socks. Sounds good? It's clever and well-thought-out. Full Review

Review of The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake Fantasy Dark, sharp, and highly inquisitive, The Atlas Six makes its publishing debut after becoming a Tik-Tok sensation. Full Review

Review of The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley Thrillers Things are not what they seem. It was a Friday and Jess Hadley was keen to get to her half-brother's flat in Paris. She'd come across from London on Eurostar, courtesy of the money she'd stolen from The Pervert's till in the Copacabana Bar in Brighton. It wasn't likely that the police would be on to her yet but she'd like to be somewhere safe and with food and drink inside her. She'd phoned Ben and got the address - 12 Rue des Amants - and he told her that the apartment was on the third floor. She's outside what's obviously a very upmarket building but she hasn't been able to get in touch with Ben. Full Review

Review of Nordic Knits by Sue Flanders Crafts I was so delighted by Sue Flanders' Cozy Knits that I didn't need any persuading at all to pick up her Nordic Knits. This delivers forty-four patterns inspired by textiles and local traditions from Norway, Sweden and Iceland. There are a few sweaters or jackets but the majority of patterns are for smaller items such as mittens, gloves, hats and bags. All are bright and cheerful and very cosy. Full Review

Review of The House in the Hollow (The Talbot Saga) by Allie Cresswell Historical Fiction We meet part of the Talbot family in Yorkshire in November 1811. Twenty-seven-year-old Jocelyn Talbot and her mother have travelled in some discomfort from their home at Ecklington, to the house in the hollow. The two women are angry with each other and Jocelyn is well aware of her mother's strengths and weaknesses: She is practiced at subterfuge, at concealing, beneath a facade of respectability, the deplorable truth. Hester is furious about Jocelyn's refusal to do as she was asked, which has precipitated this violent and unexpected removal. Then we are told of the birth of a child and, soon after, Hester Talbot departs, leaving Jocelyn in shame and isolation in Yorkshire. Full Review

Review of The Naked Don't Fear the Water by Matthieu Aikins Politics and Society It's easy to forget at times that The Naked Don't Fear the Water isn't actually fiction, because it reads very much like a well-paced thriller at times. This is not by any means a criticism, but rather a testament to how well Matthieu Aikins – a Canadian citizen who decided to accompany his friend as a refugee from Afghanistan through Europe – recounts a vast and at times painful journey. There are tense moments and gripping accounts of border crossings which had me on edge the whole way through. But it's written with a haunting and almost lyrical quality that allows the reader to perfectly envisage the environments and people described. Full Review

Review of Unhinged (Volume 3) (Blix and Ramm) by Jorn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger Crime This is the third book in a series of stories featuring Alexander Blix, a police officer, and Emma Ramm, a crime journalist. In this book we find that when one of Blix's colleagues, Kovic, uncovers a connection between several Oslo cases, she tries to contact her superior, Blix. Before she can reach him, however, she is murdered, and Blix's daughter Iselin who shares the same apartment, narrowly escapes being murdered too. We then find ourselves a few days later with Blix and Ramm, who are being interviewed by the National Criminal Investigation Service because Blix has shot and killed someone, and Ramm saw it all happen. What had Kovic discovered? And what did Blix and Ramm uncover that led to Blix killing someone? Full Review

Review of Age of Ash by Daniel Abraham Fantasy We meet Alys under the most northerly of Oldgate's four bridges, she has a knife in her hand and a meeting that she dreads. Meanwhile, the City of Kithamar is at a point in the turning of years when the worlds are at their thinnest and all things are possible. It is the night between the funeral of a Prince and the coronation of his successor. For a night the Kithamar is un-ruled. Full Review

Review of The Interview by C M Ewan Thrillers Kate Harding is going for an interview for her dream job at Edge Communications. It's the last interview of the day at one of London's newest office buildings and Edge have fitted out their part of the building to be something special. Maggie, Kate's recruitment agent, is keen to see that Kate approaches the interview in a good state of mind: Kate assumes that this is because Maggie will get a decent bonus if Kate gets the job - and she has to admit that life has not been easy for her recently. Full Review

Review of The Blood Tide (DS Max Craigie) by Neil Lancaster Crime Loch Torridon is the back of beyond: there's not even any light pollution which is why it was the perfect place to land illegal deliveries of drugs. Jimmy McLeish thought that he was onto a nice little earner, only to find that Macca, the man he thought he was working with, is dead. His remains would never be found. The delivery is hijacked by Davie and Callum. As the story progresses we'll get to know them quite well. Full Review

Review of Me and My Shadow by Deborah Stone General Fiction What happens when someone is pushed too far and they begin to lose their grip on reality? How would you cope if you felt that no one loved you? And how far would you go to be happy? Accompany Rachel as she tries to shake off the shadows of her past and attempts to repair decades worth of pain. Rachel is in a current conversation with her psychiatrist, who pushes her to recall her life from very young childhood onwards. But Rachel is combative with Doctor Blake, sometimes even contemptuous of her. You can see that it's not an easy therapeutic relationship. Rachel's recall of her life is in remarkable detail. She remembers each minor slight and each major betrayal in perfect detail with absolute and unforgiving clarity. Full Review

Review of The Locked Room (Dr Ruth Galloway) by Elly Griffiths Crime It was some time since her father had remarried but his wife was now keen to do some decorating and Dr Ruth Galloway volunteered to clear out her mother's belongings. She was intrigued by the discovery of a picture of her own house: it was an old photograph, taken in misty conditions and on the back it said 'dawn 1963', some years before Ruth was born. It was before her parents were married. When she returned to Norfolk she was determined to find out what was behind the photograph but Covid intervened and the country was in lockdown. Ruth and Kate are restricted to the cottage with Ruth attempting to home school Kate and continue with her university teaching duties. The good thing was meeting Zoe, the new tenant from next door whom they got to know whilst clapping for carers. Full Review

Review of Atomic Habits by James Clear Lifestyle I've said this before but there are some books that you seek out, some books that you stumble across and some books that drop into your life because you really MUST read them, like, right now! Atomic Habits is in the last category. Full Review

Review of The Woke Iliad by George Boreas General Fiction Helen is a popular activist. Or should we call her a popular influencer? Or perhaps a popular franchise owner? Anyway, Helen is so popular that the United States government has made her its Ambassador of Woke. Helen runs all sorts of initiatives on behalf of the government, including the Shaming Conference and the Permissible Entertainment Committee - for indoctrinating and legislating against summer fun for any who still knew how to have it. Ouch! Full Review

Review of The Wedding Murders by Sarah Linley Thrillers Libby Steele was hoping to get a permanent job with the newspaper and the case she was covering was her big chance. It was even more important to her than the celebrity wedding she was to attend the following day with her ex-rock star boyfriend, Matthew. She was leaving her seven-year-old son, Patrick with her sister, Emma, and heading off to a grand manor house hotel in the North Yorkshire countryside. Daniel Acroyd, television presenter and former member of the rock band was marrying Vicky and Libby suspected that the wedding wasn't quite as high-profile as had been suggested as there was no ban on photos or phones. Full Review

Review of Carried Away With the Carnival by Ed Boxall For Sharing It was one of those memories we treasure from our childhoods: an outing with our grandparents. They're there to undo all the good that parents do, so the trips out were always so much fun. A young boy was going to the carnival with his Grandad, who told him: It'll be brilliant, just remember, don't let go of my hand. Full Review

Review of The Long Weekend by Gilly Macmillan Thrillers It was a long drive to the weekend retreat in Northumbria, right up near the Scottish borders and to make it worse the three husbands had all - for one reason or another - had to delay making the trip until the Saturday morning. Jane and Ruth had known each other for a long time but Emily was a bit of an outsider. She and Paul had married only relatively recently and she was ten years younger than the other two women. The friendship of the group went back to school days. Paul had coached rugby at the school where Mark, Toby and Rob were pupils. Mark had married Jane, and Toby is Ruth's husband. And Rob? Well, Rob's dead. Full Review

Review of Never Work With Animals by Gareth Steel Animals and Wildlife I don't often begin my reviews with a warning but with Never Work With Animals it seems to be appropriate. Stories of a vet's life have proved popular since All Creatures Great and Small but Never Work With Animals is definitely not the companion volume you've been looking for. As a TV show the author would argue that All Creatures lacked realism, as do other similar programmes. Gareth Steel says that the book is not suitable for younger readers and - after reading - I agree with him. He says that he's written it to inform and provoke thought, particularly amongst aspiring vets. It deals with some uncomfortable and distressing issues but it doesn't lack sensitivity, although there are occasions when you would be best choosing between reading and eating. Full Review