Joan's picks: Carrie Soto is Back and Killer in the Kremlin

Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid. She is HUGE on TikTok and a new book will be a big deal. It’s about the greatest tennis player there’s ever been, Carrie Soto, who retires but then is outraged when another player equals her record and decides to go back for one last Grand Slam to make sure she stays on top. It’s obviously set in the tennis world but I don’t think you have to be mad on tennis to enjoy it – it’s about grit and determination and ambition and what you sacrifice to realise it; and of course being Taylor Jenkins Reid there’s also a romantic interest.     Killer in the Kremlin by John Sweeney. The title is a clue to John Sweeney’s thoughts on Putin. He’s a war reporter who’s been to most of the world’s trouble hotspots but turns his attention to Putin, who he says had an awful childhood, was a poor performer at the KGB but set his sights on the top job and when he got it, engaged in Black Ops against his own people – for which he blamed Chechnya, which then empowered him to go to war against them which improved his popularity at home  – and details the very many people who have fallen foul of Putin and the methods he used to dispose of them (poisoned, shot, car and plane “accidents”, and the old falling out of a window trick (which someone did just the other day). It’s riveting.  LISTEN ABOVE    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.