Assaulting his massively guarded fortress-whose layers of defence include piranha, attack dogs and sharks deliberately given a taste for blood-would be one hell of a job even if Dexter had surprise on his side. But there are complications in high places. The CIA wants to use that Serbian killer as a stalking-horse in an elaborate operation against Al Qaeda, and issues an urgent warning that the avenger is coming. Dexter plans an elegant, witty and almost bloodless coup, a sting in the style of Leslie Charteris's Saint rather than a Bond-type frontal assault. With the whole country mobilised against him, though, what chance does he have? Dexter, and Forsyth, may surprise you. The author has a knack for making background information vitally interesting: potted life histories of the characters (including big wheels in the FBI and CIA) are almost as compulsively readable as the major action scenes. Surprises and unmaskings continue until the final pages of this superior thriller. -David Langford.

What is it that Wanda and Dave-the-Bread next door have got to hide? What's elderly Dr Tichborne up to with his binoculars? Why doesn't Sammy the pigman bother to wear his false teeth? And is the new young vicar really screened by the shrubs when he exercises starkers in the vicarage garden?From Mavis Cheek, prize-winning author of Pause Between Acts, Janice Gets Sexy and Three Men on a Plane, a laugh-out-loud tale of self-discovery, women's history (check out the epigraphs at the start of each chapter), the comforts of tradition and joys of progress-and the benefits of getting it wrong. Just occasionally. -Lisa Gee Angela Fytton (née Lister) is the perfect wife and mother. Involved and interested in her husband Ian's business, capable mother, utterly together housewife and-even after two children-demon, cellulite-free lover. So it's rather a shock to her system when she's dumped for the younger, determinedly helpless dentist Belinda (Binnie), who Ian meets when she trips over her stilettos in front of him at a conference. But Angela is a very resourceful woman and she's determined to get Ian back. Abandoning her two standard-issue selfish teenagers Claire and Andrew to their father and "fluffy" new stepmother (or more accurately, vice versa), she quits West London for the pure, spiritual country delights of Somerset; as she explains to Ian, Claire and Andrew over dinner, "You know, ancient forces drawing me back to my roots and all that. ". " Here, she believes, the people are unspoiled, honest and steeped in tradition. Or so she thinks. What is it that Wanda and Dave-the-Bread next door have got to hide? What's elderly Dr. Tichborne up to with his binoculars? Why doesn't Sammy the pigman bother to wear his false teeth? And is the new young vicar really screened by the shrubs when he exercises starkers in the vicarage garden? From Mavis Cheek, prize-winning author of Pause Between Acts, Janice Gets Sexy and Three Men on a Plane, a laugh-out-loud tale of self-discovery, women's history (check out the epigraphs at the start of each chapter), the comforts of tradition and joys of progress-and the benefits of getting it wrong. Just occasionally. Lisa Gee.

For Marcus, cool isn't even a possibility, let alone an issue. For starters, he's a victim at his new school. Things at home are pretty awful, too, since his musical therapist mother seems increasingly in need of therapy herself. All Marcus can do is cobble together information with a mixture of incomprehension, innocence, self-blame, and unfettered clear sight. As fans of Fever Pitch and High Fidelity already know, Hornby's insight into laddishness magically combines the serious and the hilarious. About a Boy continues his singular examination of masculine wish-fulfilment and fear. This time, though, the author lets women and children onto the playing field, forcing his feckless hero to leap over an entirely new-and entirely welcome-set of emotional hurdles.