We Know You Remember

Tove Alsterdal 

WHEN a teenage girl disappeared without a trace from a small rural town twenty-three years ago, a local boy confessed to raping and killing her and was banished from the close-knit Swedish community.

But now Olof Hagström, who was only fourteen at the time and too young to be charged, is back… and on the day of his return, his father is found stabbed to death in his bath. It’s a disturbing case that will come too close to home for police detective Eira Sjödin who has dark secrets in her own family.

Welcome to the chilling, thrilling, claustrophobic world created by Tove Alsterdal (pictured below), the smart and sassy Swedish crime sensation whose dazzling talents are billed as ‘one of Sweden’s best-kept secrets’ and who has won both the Glass Key Award for Best Nordic Crime Novel and Best Swedish Crime Novel of the Year. Noted for her immaculate prose, propulsive storytelling, page-turning evocation of rural Sweden, and superb characterisation, Alsterdal’s debut novel for an English-speaking audience – superbly translated by Alice Menzies – leaves readers guessing from start to finish.

And what a mesmerising case it is… set against the lush backdrop of the forested and rocky landscape of the High Coast of northern Sweden, Alsterdal’s thriller sweeps readers into a small township where the decades-old mystery of missing teenager Lina Stavred still sends powerful shockwaves through the tight-lipped, guilt-ridden residents.

Everyone in the Kramfors area of Ådalen remembers the summer night twenty-three years ago when 16-year-old Lina Stavred went missing. At first, the police investigation seemed like a dead end… there was no body, no crime scene and no murder weapon.

But then local boy Olof Hagström – known to have some learning difficulties – confessed to raping and strangling Lina. Her body was never found and Olof was never convicted. Instead, he was sent away to a special children’s home, his family declined all contact with him, the case was closed and the records sealed.

Now 37-year-old Olof has reappeared at his family’s house and he knows instantly that something is amiss. The front door key, hidden under a familiar stone, is still there. Inside, there’s a panicked dog, a terrible stench, water pooling on the floor and the widowed father Olaf has not seen or spoken to in decades is dead in the bath tub.

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For police detective Eira Sjödin, the investigation of this suspicious death resurrects long-forgotten nightmares. She was only nine when Olof confessed to the brutal crime but she knows all too well that the case left a mark on the town’s collective memory – a wound that never quite

The Happiest Man on Earth: The Beautiful Life of an Auschwitz Survivor

Eddie Jaku

‘Life can be beautiful if you make it beautiful.
 It is up to you.’

AUSCHWITZ  survivor Eddie Jaku lived for over a century and knew what it was like to stare evil in the face… so why did he consider himself to be the happiest man on Earth?

If the years of Covid-19 has dented your optimism and made you fear for the future, take a leaf out of the remarkable Eddie’s inspirational memoir and discover his moving, timely and powerful messages about the malignant nature of hatred, and the force for good that comes from gratitude, tolerance and kindness.

Eddie (pictured below), a German-born Jew who was incarcerated in the two deadly concentration camps of Buchenwald and Auschwitz, and survived against the odds, found a new life in Australia after the war and for decades never talked about his Holocaust experiences because, if truth be known, he was still hurting from losing almost everyone he had ever loved.

But, through the years of happy marriage to his wife Flore, fatherhood and on to the joys of being a grandparent, the urge to tell his story grew stronger inside Eddie until the time came when he felt he had a duty to help educate the world about the dangers of hate. 

Born in Leipzig in East Germany in 1920, Abraham Salomon Jakuowicz, later known as Eddie Jaku, and who died in October 2021 at the age of one hundred and one, sprung from a hardworking family that considered themselves ‘Germans first, Germans second, and then Jewish.’ Their religion did not seem as important as being good citizens and young Eddie was proud of his country. But his life changed forever in 1933 when Adolf Hitler came to power and brought with him a fierce wave of anti-Semitism.

Following in his engineer father’s footsteps, Eddie had a gift for all things mechanical and when he was turned out of school for being Jewish, he continued his engineering studies at another

CHILDREN'S BOOKS: The final whistle, super sleuths and an ungodly mystery

The remarkable story of a group of Preston girls who made footballing history reaches the final chapter, a pizza delivery boy heads off for a slice of sleuthing action in Japan, meet some unlikely heroes in the ancient Norse world, and discover the wonders of nature at night in an exciting selection of new children’s books

Age 9 plus
Dick, Kerr Girls:
All Together Now
Eve Ainsworth

WELCOME back into the lives of the team of ordinary working girls from Preston who made footballing history. The remarkable munitions workers from the Dick, Kerr factory in Strand Road – whose first match was played before an astonishing 10,000 spectators at Deepdale on Christmas Day in 1917 ­– take centre stage again in the final book of a thrilling Dick, Kerr Girls trilogy from Carnegie-nominated author Eve Ainsworth.

All Together Now – which follows on from Kicking Off! and The Perfect Shot – continues the feminist coming-of-age re-telling of events leading up to the formation of the famous Preston football team, which emerged at a time when women weren’t allowed to play professional football, but whose plucky members went on to play in front of crowds the size of today’s men’s Premier League teams.

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It’s 1920, and the team have a new member training with them. Martha – little sister to Hettie and Freddie – has finally been given her chance to swap street kickabouts with the local lads for the chance to play alongside the world’s best female footballers. But Martha has more to worry about than keeping up with the older girls. She’s dealing with new and confusing feelings. Things at home are hard and the future of women’s football in general is under threat. Are Martha’s dreams – both on and off the pitch – too far out of reach?

Meticulously researched and brimming with the excitement and determination of those footballing legends, this powerful and inspirational series has been a reminder of the obstacles these young women faced, and the release that sport offered them from the grind of their daily lives. From making new friendships and making history, Ainsworth’s storytelling celebration of a group of unforgettable women resonates loudly with today’s generation of aspiring female footballers.
(UCLan Publishing, paperback, £7.99)

Age 9 plus
Mark Anchovy: Pizza Power
William Goldsmith

NO youngster will want to miss a slice of the action when they get their hands on the third tasty tale of an adventure-loving pizza delivery boy who serves up a big portion of danger in his dual role as a private detective. Mark Anchovy is a brilliant middle-grade series from talented writer and illustrator William Goldsmith and it comes packed with comedy, capers, tall orders, mouth-watering mysteries… and food glorious food! Pizza delivery boy Colin Kingsley, aka Mark Anchovy, is on a new case for the Golden Spatula League, the greatest of all detective agencies and it only recruits children. He’s got a lot on his plate this time and it’s not just fishy pizza. He’s in Japan and his mission is to track down Lord Bobo, an English game show host who is missing. Worryingly, a bloodthirsty butler is after him and, more worryingly, he has a new apprentice to train… his sister, Alicia. Has the world’s busiest pizza detective bitten off more than he can chew? Goldsmith’s fully illustrated adventure dishes up madcap action, super sleuthing, a Japanese shower of laughs, and more puns than a school text book on English grammar! Ideal for pizza and adrenalin addicts, and anybody aiming to follow in the footsteps of Agatha Christie, Mark Anchovy is a delicious favourite on the middle-grade reading menu.
(Piccadilly Press, paperback, £6.99)

Age 9 plus
Vi Spy: Never Say Whatever Again
Maz Evans 

I SPY with my little eye… a daring (but D-minus!) girl tasked with saving the world! Welcome back to the fertile imagination of Maz Evans, author of the bestselling Who Let the Gods Out? books, and her hilarious super-sleuthing adventure series which stars a pint-sized super spy and a supporting cast of characters who cannot fail to win the hearts of readers young and old. Valentine (Vi) Day’s mum, Easter Day, is an ex- spy and is divorcing her dad, Robert Ford, who has now retired as one of the world’s most evil men. Divorce is tough for any kid but with her parents distracted, the real super-villains are having a field day. To save her family – and the planet – from evil domination, Vi has turned spy. But Vi is failing at top spy school Rimmington Hall even though the school motto is ‘Failure is Not an Option.’ To make matters worse, nearly-stepbrother Russell Sprout is an A* student. And worst of all, Vi’s shadowy nemesis Umbra is still at large. Can Vi unveil the arch-villain before she gets expelled and her parents ground her for ever? She’ll need the help of old friends and new, including nine-year-old super-hacker Missy Fit, and BFF Tamina who aims to save the world in a different way. Expect giggles and gasps galore as youngsters take a running jump into this full-on, comedy-laden story which includes memorable moments and gripping twists whilst gently tackling emotive issues like parental divorce and friendship problems.
(Chicken House, paperback, £6.99)

Age 8 plus
How to Be a Hero: A Gathering of Giants
Cat Weldon and Katie Kear

AN unlikely hero and an ungodly case to solve… in a comically convoluted ancient world? It can only be the final EPIC chapter of Cat Weldon’s hilarious series set in the strange and thrilling world of Norse Gods and Valkyries. This funny, fast-paced fantasy trilogy – superbly illustrated throughout by Katie Kear – explores how to be a friend and what it means to be a hero whilst delivering one long madcap adventure full of giggles galore. Unlikely hero Whetstone and banished Valkyrie Lotta are in hiding. Their quest to find the magic harp strings before Loki, the trickster God, can use them to bring chaos to the Nine Worlds has come to a dead end. And with the evil Valkyrie Glinting-Fire wreaking havoc on earth, nowhere is safe… especially when Lotta can’t control her strange new powers. So when they overhear that Whetstone’s mother, and the second harp string, are imprisoned in the land of the Frost Giants, Whetstone decides that in order to beat Loki, he’s going to have to act like a ‘proper’ hero and leave behind the thief he used to be. But with an army of giants, traitorous trolls, brainwashed Valkyries and dangerous long-lost secrets, how can Whetstone and Lotta hope to win when they can’t figure out how to be a hero and themselves at the same time? Reluctant readers, slapstick comedy fans, and young adventurers will be in heavenly Valhalla as they share the last round of adventures with lovable Lotta and discover not just what it means to be a hero but also how weird and wonderful the Norse Gods really are!
(Macmillan Children’s Books, paperback, £6.99)

Age 5 plus
Above and Below: Dusk till Dawn
Harriet Evans and Nie Jones

DISCOVER the wonders of nature at night in a spectacular lift-the-flap book full of colour, learning and fun. Young imaginations will be filled with enchantment and curiosity as they travel through the pages of this innovative and entertaining book from inventive publisher 360 Degrees. A non-fiction imprint of the Little Tiger Group, 360 Degrees offers a stimulating approach to presenting facts and Above and Below: Dusk till Dawn is another colourful, interactive creation full of split-page flaps to lift and amazing facts to discover. Journey from the woods at dusk to the lofty Himalayan Mountains and the sweltering deserts, and learn all about the natural world which thrives after the sun goes down. With its gently informative format, the book is full of fascinating facts about the animals and plants which exist in all kinds of climates and habitats, while the split pages allow readers to explore each landscape in a uniquely immersive way. See which night-time wildlife can be found in the open and which stay hidden within their shadowy habitats. Full of Harriet Evans’ bite-sized facts and all brought to vivid life by the enchanting, muted tones of Nie Jones’ beautiful illustrations, this is an exciting and child-friendly way to let youngsters see the world of wildlife at night, and the perfect book for bedtime reading.
(360 Degrees, hardback, £12.99)

Age 5 plus
Two Terrible Vikings and Grunt the Berserker
Francesca Simon and Steve May

IMAGINE a world where parents want you to be bad! Hack and Whack, the terrible twins, are the very worst Vikings in their village… and let’s face it, being the WORST at everything isn’t easy. For any mischievous child who wants to give anarchy a go, author Francesca Simon and illustrator Steve May’s vile Viking twin terrors are guaranteed to leave readers doubled up with sniggers and giggles. Set in the snowy fjords of a Viking kingdom, this hilarious series features the two manic misbehaving stars and delivers a delicious twin portion of laughter. In their second outing, Hack and Whack might have a rival for being the very worst in the village when a fierce and stinky berserker moves in next door. Will their brand new school help the twins outwit this villain and his vicious dog, Muddy Butt? And will Twisty Pants, Dirty Ulf and Elsa Gold-Hair help vanquish the foul fiend? Simon – best known for her universally popular Horrid Henry series – employs the best of her trademark whip-smart dialogue and wit, while May’s Dennis the Menace style of anarchic cartoon imagery is perfectly pitched for younger readers. Fast and furious, laugh-out-loud funny and wickedly clever, the Two Terrible Vikings are a dream read for your own little mischief-makers.
(Faber & Faber, paperback, £6.99)

Age 5 plus
Mike Falls Up
Candy Gourlay and Carles Ballesteros

WHEN picture books are too babyish and middle grade books too hard, just what can a young in-betweenie read? The answer is a highly illustrated, full-colour fiction range from the creative book boffins at Little Tiger Press. With their enchanting stories and highly illustrated glossy pages, these books are ideal for bridging the gap between picture books and chapter books for newly independent young readers. In Mike Falls Up, we meet Mike and his dog Bowow as they enjoy a lazy, hot afternoon in the Chocolate Hills when the ground beneath them cracks open… and Bowow jumps into the hole! Then a note flows up… ‘Birthday. Come now. Just fall up.’ With no time to wonder what it means, Mike jumps in and falls into some most topsy-turvy adventures! Shortlisted Carnegie Medal author Candy Gourlay delivers a joyous story celebrating the power of the unexpected, all brought to vivid life by Spanish illustrator Carles Ballesteros’ gallery of vibrant, colourful and action-filled illustrations. A fun book to read alone or to share with the family.
(Little Tiger Press, paperback, £5.99)

Age 3 plus
Octopants: The Missing Pirate Pants
Suzy Senior and Claire Powell

EVERYTHING seems to be going swimmingly for a little octopus until he tries to find a pair of underpants for his pal! Youngsters will be laughing all the way from the deep end as they dive into the long-awaited second book in the best-selling Octopants series from rhyming queen Suzy Senior and illustrator extraordinaire Claire Powell. This inspired pairing are back to win more hearts as we join Octopants, Pufferfish and their underwater pals on a pant-tastic adventure filled with pirates, parties and plenty of pants. Pufferfish has lost his pants. Where could those undies be? Ahoy there, Pirate! Step aboard – let’s join the search and see! Senior has a wonderful way with words and her funny, exuberant and clever rhyming romp leaps into glorious life alongside Powell’s vibrant, vivid and superbly colourful illustrations. Add on an eye-catching, shiny purple cover and lots of laughs with the joyful adventures and misadventures of a mixed-up, muddled-up mollusc, and this is underwater heaven for fun-loving youngsters.
(Little Tiger Press, paperback, £6.99)

Age one plus
Hello, Frog
Isabel Otter and Sophie Ledesma

LEAP across lily pads with a bouncy fog in this joyful and colourful journey through nature! Hello, Frog – a beautifully produced touch, feel and reveal board book – features tactile textures, exciting flaps and peek-through holes to encourage little learners to interact with the pages. So join Frog on his jungle journey, and say hello to lots of friendly creatures along the way, as he explores all kinds of wildlife, from a hummingbird and a snake to a monkey and a moth. The bold and bright illustrations of Sophie Ledesma bring the natural world to life while Isabel Otter’s simple but informative text, and the intriguing flaps, allow little learners to recognise other animals and plants too. The ideal fun and stimulating book to share with your toddlers.
(Little Tiger Press, board book, £7.99)

From birth
Dear Zoo
Rod Campbell

‘I WROTE to the zoo to send me a pet…’ Over the last 40 years, millions of copies of Rod Campbell’s much-loved, lift-the-flap book, Dear Zoo, have been sold worldwide and it is still as popular today as it was when it was introduced to families in 1982. And to celebrate Dear Zoo’s special 40^th anniversary, let your little ones dive into this imaginative gold-foiled board book which brings all those favourite zoo animals to spectacular life. Tots will love to open up the pages, lift the flaps and meet all the animals one by one, from the large grey elephant and the stripy zebra to the bouncy kangaroo and a big friendly hippo. But will they ever manage to send the perfect pet? This robust and hard-wearing board book contains a colourful menagerie of popular zoo animals and little ones can learn their names and then discover their different shapes and sizes as they turn the chunky pages and see what’s hiding under the sturdy flaps. Ingeniously simple, gorgeously illustrated and yet wonderfully clever, Dear Zoo is perfect for small hands and the ideal way to introduce children to the wonder and variety of wild animals.
(Macmillan, board book, £6.99)

The Man in the Bunker

Rory Clements 

AS a world torn apart by war struggles to pick up the pieces in August of 1945, there are disturbing rumours that Adolf Hitler might still be alive. Maverick Cambridge professor and spy Tom Wilde had thought his days of dangerous undercover missions with America’s intelligence service were over… but how can he settle for the peace if the former Führer’s death was just an elaborate hoax?

Former national newspaper journalist Rory Clements (pictured below) is giving the likes of Robert Harris and C.J Sansom a run for their money with his thrilling ‘what if’ historical novels starring a half-American, half-Irish history don braving death and danger to do his bit for peace and freedom. Not content to rest on his laurels after the outstanding success of his gripping John Shakespeare Tudor espionage series, currently in development for television, Clements has proved to be a consummate novelist of any chosen historical period with his acclaimed Tom Wilde books.

Clements’ work is always underpinned by extensive research and rich period detail, and this mid-20^th century series – covering both the war and now its uneasy aftermath – has won an army of fans with its fast-paced international mysteries, full of menace and intrigue, and featuring a stunning mix of real and fictional characters. Star player is undoubtedly Tom, an unconventional professor whose speciality is Sir Francis Walsingham and the Elizabethan secret service, and whose loves include his wife and young son, motorbiking, boxing, bird-watching … and espionage.

The Man in the Bunker – sixth book in this outstanding series which has included Corpus, Nucleus, Nemesis, Hitler’s Secret and A Prince and A Spy – sweeps us away to the late summer of 1945 when Cambridge is slowly regaining its mellow, peaceful pre-war character and Professor Tom Wilde is preparing for the Michaelmas term ahead.  

After three years as a spy with the Office of Strategic Services, America’s wartime intelligence agency, and working with a team of clever, charming and oddball operatives, Tom is ready to put the war behind him and enjoy time with his wife, Lydia, and five-year-old son, Johnny.

But behind the scenes, there are concerns that the peace could once again be shattered. Two OSS operatives, well known to Tom, have been assassinated in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps and fears are growing that Adolf Hitler did not die in his Berlin bunker. And when the enigmatic Philip Eaton, Tom’s contact man with MI6, knocks on his door, he knows immediately that his war might not yet be over. Although Hitler is said to have killed himself in the bunker, no body was found and many people believe he is alive. 

Meanwhile, newspapers are full of stories reporting sightings and theories, and even the Russian leader Stalin, whose own troops captured the bunker, has told American President Truman he believes the former Führer is not dead. Tom is dispatched to Germany with Lieutenant Mozes Heck, a Dutch Jew who escaped to England in 1940 and joined the British Army. Consumed by a ‘visceral loathing’ of the Nazis because none of his family survived the death camps, Heck is headstrong, reckless but effective under duress.

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In Germany, the two operatives find a country in ruins. Millions of refugees and holocaust survivors strive to rebuild their lives in displaced persons camps, and millions of German soldiers and SS men are held captive in primitive conditions in open-air detention centres. Everywhere,

The Unheard

Nicci French 

WHEN does a mother’s love for her child tip from natural protectiveness into dangerous paranoia? Feel the menace and share the frissons of fear as a brilliant writing team unleashes a new standalone thriller… a coruscating exploration of a guilt-ridden mother’s mind as she becomes convinced that her three-year-old daughter has witnessed a terrible crime.

Psychological suspense is firmly ingrained into the DNA of Nicci French, pseudonym for the extraordinary literary partnership of journalists Nicci Gerrard and Sean French (pictured below), the married couple whose twenty-three novels include the bestselling Frieda Klein series. And this superbly crafted new page-turner – brimming with nerve-jangling tension and a mesmerising sense of foreboding – sweeps readers into the life of a troubled single mother, still reeling from the split with her partner, and fast spiralling into a web of suspicion and obsessive behaviour.  

Part-time primary school teacher Tess Moreau’s number one priority has always been her three-year-old daughter Poppy. But since the separation from Poppy’s father Jason, who now has a new partner, Tess has felt guilt that Poppy, ‘so small, so vulnerable and trusting,’ has had to watch her world split in two.

Tess knows she cannot always be there to keep her daughter safe and is horrified that after a weekend with Jason, Poppy returns with a bundle of drawings which includes a disturbing black crayoned picture that is ‘simple and basic and violent.’

And when Poppy starts having bad dreams and repeating the phrase ‘He did kill. Kill and kill and kill,’ Tess becomes increasingly convinced that her frightened little girl has witnessed something terrible, something that her young mind is struggling to put into words and is impossible for Tess to understand. But no one will listen to Tess’s fears, telling her it’s only a child’s drawing. And when she eventually goes to the police to voice her concerns, a police inspector tells her that they cannot investigate because there is no suspicious death and just a crime that ‘doesn’t seem to exist.’

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Tess tries to tell herself that she is just being the kind of over-protective mother that she promised herself she would never be but instinct tells her that something ‘doesn’t feel right’ and she

The Split

Laura Kay

THE break-up of a long-term relationship might feel like a time to look back and regret what has been lost. But sometimes, an ending can be a beginning... the start of a journey of self-discovery where the possibilities of change are endless and the future might actually look fresh and exciting.

If your despondent heart needs a jolt back into action after two years of pandemic torpor, steep yourself in Laura Kay’s funny, uplifting and intensely human rom-com which has a refreshingly warm and wonderful gay love story at its core. 

Frustrated at the lack of representation of ‘queer love’ in rom-coms and how LGBTQ+ characters in romance stories are often presented as caricatures and tokens, Kay (pictured below) set out to write a novel of love, heartache, friendship and family underpinned by gay people who are palpably real. 

The result is The Split, a smart, contemporary tale which follows the fortunes and misfortunes of overweight, out-of-sorts Alexandra (Ally) Waters who, aged twenty-nine, is left homeless, jobless and alone after she is dumped by her girlfriend of seven years.

When her girlfriend Emily reveals she has been seeing another woman, Ally feels wounded and betrayed. Emily reckons they aren’t ‘right together’ any more and complains that Ally has been too passive, making it hard for Emily to be ‘the energy for two people.’

There’s only one place Ally can flee to… back home to Sheffield to stay with her widower dad who is ‘the physical embodiment of a lifeboat.’ Ally doesn’t pack much when she leaves but she does take the one thing that might soothe her pain and force her ex to speak to her again… Emily’s beloved cat, Malcolm.

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Back home, Ally indulges herself in her other love… baking and eating cakes. But her dad is determined to take her in hand and forces Ally into a ‘date’ with neighbour’s son Jeremy who went to school with Ally and recently broke up with his boyfriend Ben. And after wanting to be alone with her sorrows, Ally starts to enjoy spending time with Jeremy who has come up with a ridiculous plan to win back their former loves by running in a

CHILDREN'S BOOKS: Family time, super sleuths and a hero wolf

Enjoy a five-minute celebration of family time, share super adventures with a modern take on the Famous Five, meet a wolf who longs to be a hero, laugh out loud with the worst class in the world, and join an explosively funny monster hunt in this sparkling selection 

Age 4 plus
Britannica’s 5-Minute Really True Stories for Family Time
Stories by Alli Brydon, Catherine D. Hughes and Jackie McCann

WHAT do families all over the world eat for breakfast? If that intriguing thought tickles your curiosity taste buds, then tuck into this brilliant book crammed full of stories to share, entertain and educate… and all in less than five minutes.

There are thirty amazing stories to share with all the family in the second book of a clever and colourful series which comes from Britannica Books, a reference imprint for young readers, published in an exciting partnership between What on Earth Publishing and Encyclopaedia Britannica. Their mission is to inspire children’s curiosity and passion for learning, offering engaging non-fiction books that you can trust, with experts behind every page, and Britannica’s 5-Minute Really True Stories for Family Time certainly fits the bill.

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These fascinating true stories reveal the science and history behind family time activities. What did the world’s first playgrounds look like, where do different people take their holidays, and how did dinosaurs look after their babies? Through the pages of this fact-filled compendium, readers meet all types of families – both human and animal – and learn about the many ways they spend time together.

Discover fascinating facts on the workings of a bicycle, funeral traditions from around the world, playground science, family reunions, epic animal journeys, the history of swimming, the different ways we celebrate, welcoming a new baby, a world of birthdays, camping adventures and so much more. From tidy up time to cosying up with pets, and with up-to-the-minute, expert information and stunning, specially commissioned artwork by Anneli Bray, Vivian Mineker, Sophia Moore and Syklar, this joyful book is the perfect celebration of the everyday family time which has become such a central role in all our lives. And don’t miss the other fabulous book in the series, 5-Minute Really True Stories for Bedtime, with an audiobook read by Joanna Lumley.
(Britannica Books, hardback, £12.99)

Age 8 plus
The After School Detective Club: The Case of the Smuggler’s Curse
Mark Dawson and Ben Mantle

THEY might not yet be the ‘famous five,’ but the four members (and a dog called Sherlock!) of the After School Detective Club are certainly sleuthing in the footsteps of Enid Blyton’s eternally popular adventurers. Welcome to the first thrilling case for a new crime-cracking gang of youngsters who are set to do for Suffolk what the Famous Five did for Cornwall. The After School Detective Club is the brainchild of bestselling author Mark Dawson and award-winning illustrator Ben Mantle, and features a delightful modern twist on a classic favourite. Lucy, Max, Charlie and Joe aren’t looking for new friends because they have too many of their own problems to worry about. But when the four of them, and Charlie’s faithful dog, Sherlock, spot a phantom figure on Southwold beach one winter’s night, they are thrown together to unravel a mystery that none of them expected. The deeper they dig, the bigger the adventure becomes… motorboats and tracking devices, bedroom breakouts and daring sea rescues are all in a day’s work for the newly formed After-School Detective Club. But when their investigations lead them into trouble with the police, there is only one thing left to do – they must go undercover for a final showdown with a ruthless gang of smugglers. With danger, daring, detective work, friendships and fun, there is so much to enjoy in this thrill-a-minute new adventure series… and look out for the next case which is due to be investigated in June! 
(Welbeck Flame, paperback, £6.99)

Age 9 plus
The Hunt for the Nightingale
Sarah Ann Juckes and Sharon King-Chai

COPING with loss and bereavement is one of life’s greatest tests and it is this emotive subject that Sarah Ann Juckes tackles through the medium of nature in her stunning and sensitively conceived middle grade novel. Written as a sort of love letter to the natural world, The Hunt for the Nightingale is full of hope, heart and humanity, and comes packed with a gorgeous gallery of black and white bird drawings by Sharon King-Chai, an Australian-born, award-winning designer and illustrator. Ten-year-old Jasper has been waiting all spring for his beloved nightingale to return to his garden and sing. But it’s not there, and neither is his sister, Rosie. His parents seem sad and preoccupied so gathering his courage, his backpack and his treasured Book of Birds, Jasper sets out alone on a walk to find them both. The expedition takes Jasper through town and country, meeting a host of characters who are also searching for lost things. Helping his new friends, Jasper begins to see that he may not find what he is looking for when he reaches the journey’s end, but even in the darkest of moments, a nightingale’s song can be heard somewhere. Using the song of the nightingale – one of the most beautiful sounds on the planet – as her motif and her inspiration, Juckes reveals to youngsters the healing power of the natural world and its ability to bring hope for the future. Tear-jerking in its recognition of the pain of grief, and yet life-affirming in its beauty and heartfelt messaging, this is a story that shines brightly in life’s darkest corners.
(Simon & Schuster, paperback, £7.99)

Age 7 plus
Monster Doughnuts:
Cyclops on a Mission
Gianna Pollero and Sarah Horne

WHEN you’re a monster hunter, you might have to think outside the box to catch your prey. And when the box has doughnuts in it, your secret weapon could prove to be explosive! Welcome back to the adventures of tenth-generation, monster-hunting heroine Grace, the ingenious invention cooked up by sparkling new writer Gianna Pollero and illustrated by the award-winning Sarah Horne. Grace has a unique way of bumping off monsters… she and her sister run a bakery, Cake Hunters, where they make fabulous creations full of a special exploding baking powder that will get rid of any troublesome monster. And now Grace has a new and unlikely partner in crime… 360-year-old cyclops Mr Harris. Their new and perilous mission from the Secret Service is to rid the city of a pesky Bottom-Biter who is causing havoc. If only Mr Harris would stop just eating the monsters and honing his advanced patisserie skills in Grace’s bakery, what a team they will make! The hilarious Monster Doughnuts series has all the perfect ingredients for laughter-loving, sleuthing youngsters to enjoy… short chapters pitched perfectly for new and reluctant readers, sparkling dialogue, monsters, madness, and lots of crime-cracking action. Explosively funny!
(Piccadilly Press, paperback, £6.99)

Age 5 plus
The Worst Class in the
World Dares You!
Joanna Nadin and Rikin Parekh

THERE'S double trouble, and double the fun, in a two-in-one classroom adventure book that is set to take a star role in this year’s World Book Day Title. The Worst Class in the World series was cunningly created by award-winning author Joanna Nadin and illustrated by rising star Rikin Parekh. Highly illustrated throughout and featuring two hilarious, knockabout adventures in one book, these stories are ideal for children ready for their first chapter books. Head teacher Mrs Bottomley-Blunt thinks 4B is the worst class in the world. She says school is not about footling or fiddle-faddling or fun. It’s about learning and it’s high time 4B tried harder to excel at it. But best friends Stanley and Manjit didn’t literally mean to let free flying minibeasts in the classroom. And they really didn't literally mean to do a series of dares to become the Overlord of the Universe. These things just happened, even though they had foolproof plans to get away with it all! With a rich sprinkling of naughty-but-nice teacher and parent jokes to get young readers giggling, a bookload of classroom anarchy, and fast-paced action to keep the pages turning, this is a joyous and playful parody of school life in all its riotous, raucous glory!
(Bloomsbury Children’s Books, paperback, £5.99)

Age 3 plus
A Hero Called Wolf
Lucy Rowland and Ben Mantle

HEROES come in all shapes and sizes… but why are they are never, ever wolves? The creative king and queen of book-themed stories, author Lucy Rowland and illustrator Ben Mantle, play wolf with their inspirational and joyful take on adventures in a fairy tale world. Wolf used to be bad but now he loves reading and has made lots of new friends. There’s just one problem. The more he reads, the more he starts to realise something… every book has a hero. The heroes are handsome, tough and strong and, most importantly, the heroes are never, ever wolves. But when a giant comes stomping into the library one day, can Wolf find the courage to speak up? Because heroes don’t have to be handsome, tough and strong. Maybe true heroes are kind and brave… just like Wolf! Full of madcap fun, larger-than-life characters and the simple joys of reading and imagination, this playful, heart-warming story speaks loudly about being brave and kind, and finding the hero inside you. Written in Rowland’s trademark bouncy and addictive rhyme, and richly illustrated with an abundance of wit and warmth by Mantle, A Hero Called Wolf is the perfect book to empower your own little heroes!
(Macmillan Children Books, hardback, £12.99)

Age 3 plus
Colour and Me!
Michaela Dias-Hayes

COLOUR is the name of the game in a beautiful new picture book from author and illustrator Michaela Dias-Hayes who is on a mission to help and empower young children of colour. Colour and Me! champions children with brown skin through a bright, beautiful and heartwarming story. It stars a little girl learning to mix paints to make new colours and discovering that there is beauty in every single shade, particularly the colour brown which suits her perfectly. The book was inspired by a conversation shared between the author and her young son, and made her determined to create a book that would dispel negative feelings about skin colour. With a fun, rhyming story about self-confidence, colour, creativity and expressing and a rainbow of colours to enjoy in the little girl’s journey, this is an uplifting and gently inspirational introduction to the whole concept of colour.
(Owlet Press, paperback, £7.99)

A Terrible Kindness

Jo Browning Wroe

SINCE the day he was born, William Lavery has lived alongside death. A third generation undertaker in Birmingham, William recently gained top qualifications as an embalmer but on an evening in October 1966, just as his celebrations get underway, a coal mine landslide in the Welsh village of Aberfan will prove a life-defining tragedy.

If you thought a plot centred on the terrible events in Aberfan – in which 116 children and 28 adults died when a waste tip buried the village school and surrounding homes – would be too distressing and morbid, then you might need to reconsider when you turn the pages of Jo Browning Wroe’s remarkable debut novel.

Prepare to shed tears, but also to witness the selflessness, humanity and compassion that give succour to the soul, in this exquisitely wrought story which harnesses all the unimaginable pain and suffering of that dreadful disaster but then miraculously turns it into a life-enhancing experience.

Browning Wroe (pictured below) possesses the rather strange credential of growing up in a crematorium and, armed with her intimate knowledge of the death industry and an MA in Creative Writing, she brings us a truly unique and redemptive exploration of the immense healing power of love, care and kindness… and something much bigger and more resonant than a fictional retelling of the horrors of Aberfan.

It’s 19-year-old William Lavery’s big night… he’s dressed up to the nines for a black-tie dinner dance organised by the Institute of Embalmers in Nottingham, and he is accompanied by his girlfriend, ‘Glorious’ Gloria Finch, who hails from an undertaking family in London.

William, who works alongside his Uncle Robert, recently qualified with flying colours and is proud to be the youngest embalmer in the country. He regards it as a ‘difficult but honourable job’ which you do for little reward beyond your own sense of satisfaction.

But just as the guests sip their drinks and await the speeches, a telegram delivers news of a tragedy, an event that is so terrible that it will shock the nation. A coal pit landslide has buried over a hundred children at a school in Aberfan. Embalmers are needed urgently and William immediately volunteers to attend even though his uncle reminds him that it will be his first job as an embalmer and that he will see things he never forgets.

When he arrives, William is faced with harrowing and unimaginable scenes, and told in no uncertain terms: ‘We do our job. We do it well, we do it quickly and we leave… keep your head down and your heart hard. That’s your kindness.’ William has ‘a skill that nobody wants to need’ but his work that night will force him to think back to the child he once was… the boy chorister who won a scholarship to a Cambridge, the friendships he made as a boarder, the death of his father when he was only eight, the fractured relationship with his mother, and the losses he has worked so hard to forget.

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But the village’s ‘brokenness’ breaks William too, leaving a grim legacy of haunting dreams full of wrecked bodies, parents’ faces and wails of grief. It seems Aberfan has ‘scooped out the core of him’ and ‘catapulted it into the wild blue yonder.’ However, compassion can have surprising

Mrs England

Stacey Halls 

WHEN prestigious Norland nanny Ruby May is posted to West Yorkshire in 1904, she finds there’s something strangely amiss at mill owner Charles England’s isolated house, high up on the moors.

Why does the enigmatic Mrs England rarely make an appearance, why must the nursery door be locked at night, and why are the servants so hostile? If she is to discover the truth behind the mysteries at Hardcastle House, Ruby will have to confront her own demons first.

Harnessing the dark, atmospheric charms of the Brontës, the chilling vibes of Daphne du Maurier, and the social and marital interplay so beloved by Henry James, Lancashire author Stacey Halls brings us one of her most exciting, addictive and ambitious novels yet. Mrs England is the third historical novel from 33-year-old, Rossendale-born Halls who studied journalism at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston and has been flying high as an author since the publication of her stunning debut, The Familiars, which was set amidst the 17^th century witch trials at Lancaster Castle. And after a visit to Georgian London for her second novel, The Foundling, an emotional tale about motherhood, class, love and lies, Halls (pictured below)  moves into the early years of the 20^th century to bring us a searing, simmering and disturbing exploration of a marriage beset by power, control, menace and dark deception.

When Ruby May – the daughter of a Birmingham grocer – won a scholarship to train as a nanny at the famous Norland Institute, it opened up a career she might once never have imagined possible. But after two happy years working in London, Ruby has now been assigned to a family with four children in Yorkshire.

Charles and Lilian England are a wealthy couple from a powerful dynasty of mill owners and Ruby – herself the eldest of five children who often had to play ‘little mother’ to her siblings – hopes the move north will be the fresh start she needs.

But as she adapts to life at the isolated Hardcastle House, a place where the air is ‘cold and fresh as springwater’ and far away from the smoke and the dust of the city, it soon becomes clear there’s something not quite right about the beautiful, mysterious and distant Mrs England.

To Ruby, it’s a strange ‘upside-down world’ where the master has taken the place of the mistress. While Mr England, jovial and friendly, hands out orders about the children’s clothing and diets, his wife only visits the nursery on their birthdays, and drifts quietly about the house in her slippers as though she were ‘made of crepe.’ Ostracised by the other servants, ordered by Mr England to always lock the nursery door at night, and feeling increasingly lonely and uneasy, the nanny is forced to question everything she thought she knew after a series of strange events.

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And Ruby has her own guilty secrets… she doesn’t want to take holidays, she has no desire to visit her family, and she doesn’t like free time because it allows space for her mind to ‘wander’ where she doesn’t want it to stray. As events reach a dangerous climax in Hardcastle House, she

The Convict’s Wife

Libby Ashworth 

WHEN her husband is sentenced to transportation to Australia for swearing an illegal oath to the Luddites in 1812, Lancashire wife and mother Molly Holden faces a bleak future. Left with their baby daughter Annie to care for and with no income and no husband to protect her, Molly must find work if she is to keep both herself and her child from starving in the years ahead.

Libby Ashworth – who has written several historical novels and non-fiction books featuring fascinating corners of the county’s rich heritage under the name Elizabeth Ashworth – was born and raised in the Blackburn area and can trace her family back to the village of Whalley in the Middle Ages. 

Now a successful author of gripping historical sagas set in Lancashire’s industrial communities, Ashworth’s ancestors worked in the cotton industry as spinners and hand loom weavers through several generations and it was while researching her own family history that she realised there were many stories about ordinary working people that she wanted to tell. The Convict’s Wife is the first book of a new series from Canelo, an up-and-coming new publisher which was shortlisted for Independent Publisher of the Year at the 2021 British Book Awards and which takes the best from the old world of publishing and combines it with the best of the new.

This new series sprung from Ashworth’s curiosity about what happened to the wives of men who were transported to New South Wales in Australia, and her research uncovered the true story of Thomas Holden from Bolton and the letters he exchanged with his family when he was convicted at Lancaster Assizes.

Often reduced to tears by the letters, which revealed the thoughts of ‘a frightened young man,’ Ashworth  (pictured left) set about using Thomas Holden’s experiences as the inspiration for what promises to be a gripping and emotionally-powered saga series.

When weaver Thomas attends a secret night-time gathering of men sympathetic to the cause of the Luddites, who were opposed to the mechanisation of the factories, he only goes through curiosity but is soon much taken by the ‘atmosphere of hope and determination.’ However, one man at that meeting, Isaac Crompton, who lured Thomas and his father John to witness the get-together, is acting as a spy and has designs on bringing down Thomas, the man who Crompton believes stole Molly, the woman he loved and lost. And when the militia turn up at the meeting, Crompton deliberately points out Thomas to the soldiers who arrest him and charge him with swearing an illegal oath to the Luddites. 

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Despite the efforts of Molly and Thomas’s parents to get him freed, Thomas is convicted at Lancaster of being a Luddite on the word of Crompton and is sentenced to be transported to Australia for seven years. Bereft and alone, Molly tries everything she can to get her husband

Home

Penny Parkes

TEN years as a professional housesitter has sent Anna Wilson to some of the world’s most exotic locations. She readily admits that she’s ‘a person constantly braced for moving on’ but all Anna has ever really wanted is a home to call her own… will she be brave enough to finally put down roots?

Penny Parkes, author of a series of warm and witty rom-coms set around a doctors’ surgery in the Cotswolds, moves up a gear with this moving and deeply compassionate story starring a young woman struggling to overcome the psychological scars of her early years in foster care.

Armed with her trademark wit, insight and wisdom, Parkes (pictured below) explores the insecurities and emotional legacies of a childhood severely disrupted by being placed in the care system at the age of seven, and moving from one foster home to the next. The result is a beautiful, emotive and compelling journey alongside the heartbreakingly fragile but inspirationally courageous Anna as she slowly learns that a sense of belonging comes not necessarily from a place, but from the people you care for.

Thirty-year-old Anna is returning to Oxford – the city where she gained her degree – with her trusty ‘kit bag’ which is ‘never unpacked, just opened out for ease of access.’ She is combining her latest housesitting job at crumbling Gravesend Manor with the wedding of her best friend Kate Porter.

Her work lets her care for other people’s homes, pets and sometimes even neighbours, but it also gives her a place to call home – for a little while at least – and to ‘try on a different life for size’ with, most importantly, no attachment involved.

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So Anna lives vicariously when all she has ever really wanted is a home of her own, a proper one, filled with family and love and happy memories. The problem is that she doesn’t know where to start.

Growing up in foster care, Anna always envied her friends their secure and carefree lives, their certainty and confidence. They have been her support along the way, not least Kate, the university pal who has always doled out hugs in times

The Book of Magic

Alice Hoffman 

NO ONE can choose magic, it chooses you…  ‘it bloomed inside you blood and bones. And a curse, once spoken, could not be denied.’

Across three centuries, the women of a family of witches in Salem, Massachusetts, have been stalked by a deadly curse that has blighted both their lives and their loves, robbing them of their menfolk and casting a dark shadow over the fate of every generation of females. But as the ageing Jet Owens prepares for her last days on this earth, she is determined to do everything she can to change her family’s destructive destiny.

Alice Hoffman, master storyteller and literary practitioner of the dark arts, returns with the stunning and devastatingly beautiful conclusion to her much-loved Practical Magic series which has also included the extraordinary novels, Rules of Magic and Magic Lessons, and reinforced her reputation as one of the most accomplished contemporary writers of magical realism. In these stories, woven through with fierce and inspirational Owens women, the dark history of witchcraft and persecution, cruel betrayal, revenge and bittersweet redemption, Hoffman (pictured below) has swept her readers away on a series of enthralling and far-reaching adventures.

And in this bold, breathtaking and bewitching finale, we see the family curse turn full circle as the generations still standing after years of affliction travel from Paris to London to the green fields of the English countryside where their ancestor Maria Owens first practised the Nameless Art.

The Owens family has been cursed in matters of love for over three hundred years. Their ill fortune dates back to 1680 when Maria Owens, the first woman in the family to set foot in Massachusetts, miraculously escaped being hanged as a witch… but not before she called out a curse upon love. She believed that future generations of Owens women must avoid love for their own safety as they are bloodline witches genetically predisposed to magic, in possession of ‘sacred gifts’ and unable to escape their heritage. But the curse laid upon them by Maria has been a heavy and intolerable burden down the years because ‘curses are like knots, the more you struggle to be free, the tighter they become.’

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When beloved aunt Jet Owens, now in her eighties, hears the sound of the deathwatch beetle, she knows it is her own death knell, signalling that ‘the past was over and the future no longer existed,’ and that she has only seven days left to live. And with the time left to her, Jet is determined not to let fate ‘make the best of her’ but instead, to find a way to break the curse and the fate that has overshadowed her family for three centuries. But the curse is already at work. Unaware of the family’s witchcraft lineage and shielded from the truth by Sally, her fiercely protective mother, young Kylie Owens has fallen in love with Gideon Barnes.

As the curse strikes once again, Gideon’s fate hangs in the balance, spurring three generations of Owens to venture back to where it all began and use their gifts to break the spell that has marked

The Girl She Was

Alafair Burke

FIFTEEN years after she was left for dead on a roadside in New Jersey, the woman who calls herself Hope Miller still has no idea who she really is. And when Hope, who has no memory of her past, mysteriously goes missing, it will be left to her best friend, and a New York homicide detective, to find Hope and dig out the truth beneath some long-buried secrets.

Thriller writer Alafair Burke (pictured below) – whose gripping novels have grown out of her experience as a prosecutor in America’s police precincts and criminal courtrooms – has long played with the concept of a story featuring a case of rare and complete amnesia which would mean a person having to move forward without a sense of the past.

The result is The Girl She Was, a twisting, turning and addictive mystery about memory, friendship and secrets, and a welcome reunion with Burke’s well-known NYPD detective Ellie Hatcher, the shining star of a cop series much loved by crime fans. Written as a standalone, this intriguing page-turner – full of tantalising clues and wickedly clever red herrings – brings festering mysteries from Ellie’s own past into focus alongside the unfolding of Hope’s life before her traumatic brush with death.

Hope Miller is ‘a walking, talking, living, breathing real-life mystery.’ Fifteen years ago, she was found on the roadside in the small New Jersey town of Hopewell after being thrown from an overturned vehicle. Police could find no clue to her identity and she had no recollection of what had happened to her.

Doctors assumed her amnesia was a temporary side effect of her injuries but she never regained her memory. Hope eventually started a new life with a new name in the town that had welcomed her, but she always wondered what she may have left behind… or been running from.

Tired now of being known as ‘poor Hope,’ she is leaving New Jersey to start over once again in a place where she can blend in and be ‘normal,’ and has found a job that involves staging house viewings for a real estate agent in the Hamptons.

Manhattan defence lawyer Lindsay Kelly, Hope’s best friend in Hopewell and the one who found her after the accident, understands why Hope wants a new beginning but she worries how her friend will fare in her new East Hampton home, far away from everything and everybody she knows. And Lindsay’s worst fears are confirmed when she discovers Hope has vanished without a trace… the only lead is a drop of blood found where she was last seen. Even more ominously, the blood matches a DNA sample with a connection to a notorious Kansas murderer.

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With nowhere else to turn, Lindsay calls detective Ellie Hatcher, the daughter of the cop who dedicated his life to hunting that Kansas killer. Ellie has always believed there was more to the