<p>The Labyrinth Year takes place mainly in Oxford, UK, and follows on from Baby, Baby (first in the Mullins Family Saga series), though it can be read as a stand alone novel. Jenny Guthrie Mullins spends a year in self-discovery, feeling her career as a mother-in-science challenged by husband Max (now a GP), whose demanding fundamentalist birth family require loyalties she&rsquo;s not been raised with. Meanwhile her artist step-sister Daisy (Daze) turns up to stir the mix and hunt for her biological mother. It all looks like a hopeless maze: can it actually become a purposeful labyrinth?</p><p>Mari Howard continues to use a snappy, economic style, and weave themes of today&rsquo;s cultural dilemmas and diversity, medical science, marriage, relationships, secular and faith beliefs, and the way we can twist them. She introduces the reader to the Mullinses&#39;&nbsp;children, Alice and Zoe, while managing to avoid an over-cute portraiture of pre-schoolers or any sentimental piety at a Retreat Centre. Brief descriptive details reveal that she conjures these portraits from her familiar world.</p><p>The action, when moving from the writer&rsquo;s home environment of Oxford, including its canal, Port Meadow, and the Perch Inn, takes us to Northumberland, West Cornwall, and a trip to Yosemite where Jenny has to take the place of her boss, and speak at a conference.</p><p><em>&lsquo;Once again &nbsp;Mari is prepared to&nbsp; tackle complex subjects with clarity , sensitivity and courage,&rsquo; </em>Bridget Plass, author of just re-printed &lsquo;<em>The Apple of his Eye&rsquo;</em>, who with husband Adrian runs retreats known for their honesty, thoughtfulness, and wit.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>