==General fiction==
__NOTOC__
{{newreview
|author=Anita Shreve
|title=Rescue
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=When we meet Peter Webster he's a rookie paramedic who takes an emergency call to help a drunk driver who's been badly injured in a car crash. It was touch and go as to whether or not Sheila Arsenault made it, but she did and afterwards Webster can't get her out of his thoughts. Every instinct tells him that he shouldn't get involved with her – that it'll mean trouble – but perhaps it was the long, shining, dark hair that tipped the balance and Webster is involved in an intense love affair. He's also involved in Sheila's life – for better or for worse.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408700735</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Manu Joseph
|summary=Edward Middleton seems like a pretty decent guy. He always stops to buy a Big Issues from Billy, a local homeless man and he takes his elderly widowed neighbour shopping once a week. These are some of the reasons why his girlfriend, Sam, loves him so much. One night, after a friend's wedding, Sam asks Ed if he would also like to get married to which Ed enthusiastically replies 'yes'. However, the following morning, whilst nursing his hangover, he cannot work out if it was a hypothetical question or an actual proposal. His best mate Dan is no help at all and is quite incredulous that anyone should ever want to marry Ed.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847395244</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=William Styron
|title=The Suicide Run
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=A WW2 naval soldier, guarding a prison island for those found guilty at courtmartials, is forced to wonder if he is winning his own battles against those arriving and leaving. A soldier remembers calming memories, and those causing tension, as he rests up before action. And for a highly-charged young man, there may be too much risk to be found in his high-octane downtime.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099532220</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Molly Carr
|title=The Sign of Fear
|rating=3
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Meet Mary Watson - a distant second to John Watson, who of course was a distant second to Sherlock Holmes. Fed up with staying at home while her new husband spends too much time at 221b Baker Street, or away with Holmes sleuthing, she gets to dabble her own feet in the underworld waters when a certain Professor Moriarty comes calling.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907685006</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jon Stephen Fink
|title=A Storm In The Blood
|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=''A Storm In The Blood'' is based on a true story involving the police force and the government of the day trying to suppress racial tensions in early 20th century London. It has resonance for our modern times as we grapple with similar situations and problems.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956544517</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Allegra Goodman
|title=The Cookbook Collector
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=''The Cookbook Collector'' is all about emotions. Concentrating on two, young, American women who are vastly different in many areas of their lives and also on their outlook on life, Goodman digs deeper to find out what makes them tick - what makes them get up in the morning.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848875398</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Craig Smith
|title=Cold Rain
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Life was pretty good for Dr David Albo. He'd just had fifteen months away from his job as an associate professor of English at a university in the mid-western USA. He lived on a plantation-style farmhouse with a beautiful and intelligent wife and a step-daughter who adored him. He was even going back to work in the expectation that he might well be offered a full professorship in the not-too-distant future and just to put the icing on the cake he's been clear of alcohol for two years. Yes; life was very good.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>190580234X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Anna Gavalda
|title=Consolation
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=We meet Charles, the main character right at the start. And straight away, it's no secret that, as a middle-aged professional (he's an architect and a successful one at that) he's jaded. Been-there, done-that and got-the-bloody-tee-shirt just about sums him up pretty well. He's acquired (somehow) a beautiful, witty and clever partner and also a step-daughter whom he adores. As the story deepens, I soon acknowledged that the step-daughter seems to be about the only true love in his life. He's luke-warm about the rest of his family and that includes his partner and his ageing parents. Is this man going through some mid-life crisis, would be an obvious question to ask.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099531925</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Sam Hawken
|title=The Dead Women of Juarez
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Although the story related here is a work of fiction, the situation is based on fact. The Mexican border city of Juárez has a shocking problem with female homicides (usually young and invariably pretty). Official statistics put the number of murders at 400 since 1993 while, we are told, residents believe that the true number of disappeared women is closer to 5000. But attention to this problem is diverted by drug crime, although the two may not be entirely unrelated. Anything that raises public awareness of this terrible situation, such as Hawken's book, is to be encouraged.
So much for the fact, what about the fiction?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184668773X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Pamela Klaffke
|title=Snapped
|rating=3
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=They say that a good idea is to write about what you know. Well, Klaffke seems to have heeded that piece of advice. She writes here about a fictional fashion writer called Sara B (note the pretentious second capital letter) who is the central character. And although Sara B is now in her middle years, she's still acting like a teenager. She's got the younger boyfriend/lover, got the latest fashion look which she can deftly put her stamp on, got the invites to the best parties in the best venues with the must-be-seen-with minor celebrities. But - is she happy? I know, it seems a silly question, but is it?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778304337</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Diane Chamberlain
|title=Breaking the Silence
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=As I've reviewed several of Chamberlain's previous books and enjoyed them, I was looking forward to getting stuck in to this one. We meet the central character; wife and mother to five-year-old Emma, Laura. She's distraught. Her father (Emma's grandfather) has just passed away but his dying wish has really upset Laura. It's a strange request and she doesn't know what to make of it. She confides in her husband thinking that two heads are better than one. He's a brilliant academic and could give some much-needed advice. But he doesn't. In fact, he behaves like a five-year-old himself and almost has a tantrum. Odd. Now poor Laura's doubly confused, upset and doesn't know how to handle her grief. Tough times.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778304140</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Lola Shoneyin
|title=The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives is one of those books that you read with a smile on your face. It's full of gloriously unsavoury characters caught in a terrible web of deceit. We are promised 'four women, one husband and a devastating secret' and it delivers on all three counts. Sure the secret is quite well signposted and Shoneyin doesn't really make much of an effort to divert the reader from putting two and two together, although it takes wife number four, Bolanle, an inordinate amount of time for the penny to drop, but it's not about discovering the deception - it's about the glorious journey of how things unfold.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846687497</amazonuk>
}}
