MUSTREADS

Out now in paperback

MY LIFE AND RUGBY by Eddie Jones (Macmillan £9.99, 432 pp)

ENGLISH rugby fans know Eddie Jones as a hard man capable of reducing burly prop forwards to whimpering jelly.

But his autobiography presents an altogether more complex character.

Eddie’s Australian soldier f ather, Ted, met hi s Japanese-American mother, Nell, when she was working as an interpreter in Japan after World War II.

As a teenager, Nell had been interned in America as an enemy al i en, and when the couple returned to Australia, she met racism and hostility with unwavering dignity.

‘ My uncompromising approach to my profession comes from my mother,’ Eddie writes.

This revealing chronicle of the highs and lows of an international career is illuminated by some very human moments, including the time when Kaori Araki, the sports psychologist of the Japanese rugby side, told Eddie-san that he was ‘too grumpy’.

THREE HOURS by Rosamund Lupton

(Penguin £8.99, 320 pp) THIS breathtaking thriller begins with ‘a moment of stillness, as if time itself is waiting’.

It is followed by a gunshot and three hours of terror and suspense, as unidentified gunmen i nvade a school in rural Somerset.

The headmaster, Matthew Marr, l i es s eri ousl y wounded in the library, tended by sixth-formers, Hannah and David.

Elsewhere, teachers try to shelter pupils, some of whom continue to rehearse a production of Macbeth.

Amid t he confusion, Detective Inspector Rose Polstein tries to identify who would perpetrate such an atrocity. Could it be disaffected pupils? A disgraced teacher?

As menacing messages on the internet promise a bloodbath, the school community unites to oppose the forces of evil with courage, resilience and love.

LOST by James Patterson and James O. Born (Arrow £7.99, 368 pp)

THE latest collaboration between James Patterson and J ames O. Born introduces a new and i mmensely likeable character — police detective Tom Moon.

Tom’s fondness for quoting philosophers reflects a calm temperament: ‘ From an early age, I’d learned to let most things go.’

But he is passionate about fighting crime in Miami ( Patterson and Born’s home city). Newly assigned to lead a FBI task force pursuing i nternational criminals, Moon and his team stop a Dutch people trafficker arriving at Miami airport accompanied by six children.

The arrest exposes a vicious trafficking ring run from Amsterdam by a ruthless pair of Dutch si sters, working with Russian gangsters.

Patterson and Born’s fast-paced and emotionally savvy bestseller brings humanity and wit to crime-fighting.