Difference between revisions of "Book Reviews From The Bookbag"

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===[[A Treachery of Spies by Manda Scott]]===
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===[[Unrest by Jesper Stein]]===
  
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]]
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[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]]
  
When Inspector Inès Picaut is called to investigate the horrific murder of a strikingly beautiful elderly lady, she's puzzled whilst the identity of the woman has been erased, it's clear that she has been killed in the same way that traitors to the resistance were executed in World War Two. Solving the mystery will lead Inès deep into the history of this woman – and back to a time when the men and women of 1940s France were engaged in a desperate, brutal fight for survival against their Nazi oppressors. As more and more secrets come to light, Inès discovers that there are many in the present who would rather their past stay buried and many who would kill to keep secrets safe… [[A Treachery of Spies by Manda Scott|Full Review]]
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DCI Steen is assigned a puzzling case – the tortured body of a man found in a cemetery in Copenhagen but left there during a riot – a riot that had the area swarming in police. How could anyone have been murdered and left in the open with so many police on site? Unless the killer is one of them… As the case becomes more and more complicated, it soon begins to take a toll on Steen's already troubled personal life. He won't stop until the killer is caught, whatever the consequences. But the consequences may turn out to be greater than expected especially for Axel himself… [[Unrest by Jesper Stein|Full Review]]
  
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===[[The Anomaly by Michael Rutger]]===
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===[[Rockstar Retirement Programme: How to retire like a rockstar by Dominic Watson]]===
  
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Horror|Horror]]
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[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Lifestyle|Lifestyle]]
  
Tomb Raider meets Indiana Jones within an X-Files episode, for the Youtube era. Join the intrepid (if rather inept) team of internet adventurers as they head out on yet another search for ''an anomaly'' only to (spoilers) actually find one. Imagine if, instead of being scared by their own acting, Derek Acorah and Yvette Fielding actually found something; that is the starting point of this book. Deep in a cave within the Grand Canyon our team of adventurers find themselves trapped in a Stephen King plot with added levels of paranoia and conspiracy thrown into the blend. [[The Anomaly by Michael Rutger|Full Review]]
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Even with a birthday fast approaching, I'm still a bit young to be reading about retirement. My next life change in the pipeline will be a big one, and it does involve leaving the 9 to 5 behind for a yacht and the silky blue waters of the Caribbean, but only for a year, and then I will be back, tanned and refreshed but barely 40 and with many working years still to come. Also, I like work. My job is interesting, I get to travel, what we do matters and it's not badly rewarded. So no, I'm not planning to retire just yet. But as the premise of this book is about planning (and if not now, then when?) I was still intrigued. [[Rockstar Retirement Programme: How to retire like a rockstar by Dominic Watson|Full Review]]
  
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===[[The Water Thief by Claire Hajaj]]===
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===[[Murder Mile (Jane Tennison 4) by Lynda La Plante]]===
  
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]]
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[[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]]
  
Nick is in the middle of wedding preparations when he decides to leave his fiancée behind in London and take up a post in some un-named west African country providing engineering support for the building of a children's hospital. He has no idea what he is getting himself into. [[The Water Thief by Claire Hajaj|Full Review]]
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It was February 1979 in the strike-ridden 'Winter of Discontent' when a body was discovered in Peckham.  It was to be the first of two bodies in two days, but the first - that of a young woman - would remain unidentified for some time.  The second - an older lady - was found in the boot of her car by her son.  Jane Tennison has been promoted to Sergeant and finds herself in the midst of an investigation hindered by press articles about police incompetence and pressure to get a quick result. Four days later and another body to add to the count, the police have named their suspect, but Tennison has her doubts. [[Murder Mile (Jane Tennison 4) by Lynda La Plante|Full Review]]
  
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===[[Beau Death (Peter Diamond Mystery) by Peter Lovesey]]===
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===[[Broken Ground by Val McDermid]]===
  
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]]
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[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]]
  
Children love wrecking balls, so the young lad wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to watch one hit a building through one of those very tempting holes in fencing which you find around building sitesThe problem was that when the dust settled a skeleton, sitting in an armchair and clad in clothes which looked to be a few hundred years old, was visible in the loft of the half-demolished building.  The lad's father ceased his explanations about kinetic energy and hurried the boy awayDetective Superintendent Peter Diamond was not so lucky.  Viewing the corpse from a cherry picker, an unfortunate adjustment to the controls left him eye to, er, eye socket with the corpse and the picture was caught by a press photographerIt was too good not to go viral. [[Beau Death (Peter Diamond Mystery) by Peter Lovesey|Full Review]]
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As the Officer in Charge of the Historic Cases Unit, DCI Karen Pirie rarely finds herself at the scene of the crime, but for once, she's in the right place at the right time when a body is dug up in the HighlandsInitially it looks as though the death dates back to WWII, but the fact that the dead man is wearing a pair of Nikes means that the case is Karen's.  A little while later she'd come to think that she'd been in the wrong place at the wrong time when she overheard a conversation in a cafeIntervening, she thought that she'd prevented a crime, but what she said would come back to haunt her. [[Broken Ground by Val McDermid|Full Review]]
  
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===[[Only Love Can Break Your Heart by Katherine Webber]]===
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===[[Half Moon Bay by Alice LaPlante]]===
  
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]]
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[[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]]
  
Though it's been 5 years since Mika died, Reiko still sees the ghost of her sister every day, forever 14. It's something that brings her comfort, but also a constant reminder that she has to make up for being one when there should have been two. She has to shine bright enough for both of them. When she befriends outsider Seth, he presents her with an escape. From her family, her friends, the grief and loss that continue to scar them all. Seth is instantly smitten with her. After all, who wouldn't fall for gorgeous, popular Reiko Smith-Mori? But while she falls in love with the escape that he represents from her grief, it's not so clear that she's falling in love with him. [[Only Love Can Break Your Heart by Katherine Webber|Full Review]]
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Half Moon Bay is a small town on the west coast of America, a little down from San Francisco. Jane has just moved there, to start a new life after losing everything when her teenage daughter was killed and her husband left her.  Although she has begun to find a little peace in the quiet, seaside town, one day a child goes missing, bringing back painful memories for Jane of her grief and loss and, also, rousing the suspicions of the local townsfolk that she is somehow involved in the disappearance. [[Half Moon Bay by Alice LaPlante|Full Review]]
  
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===[[Bone Talk by Candy Gourlay]]===
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===[[Phantom by Leo Hunt]]===
  
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]]
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[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]]  
  
Samkad is living high up in the mountainous Philippine jungle just as the nineteenth century turns to the twentieth. But Samkad has no idea about any of that. He has never met anyone from outside his own small tribe and his thoughts are focused on becoming a man. He's desperate for the Elders to permit him to join the ranks of the warriors who protect his tribe from their headhunting enemies, even though he knows it will mean leaving his childhood friend Little Luki behind. [[Bone Talk by Candy Gourlay|Full Review]]
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Sixteen-year-old Nova is an undercity dweller and a leecher - a futuristic kind of pickpocket who uses tech hacks to steal byts from hapless corps workers. The higher up in the city you live, the more sunlight you see and the easier your life. For leechers like Nova, four hundred storeys below the surface, life is tough. But with the help of the hacking program Phantom, invented by legendary anti-corps hacker the Moth, Nova can sneak up to the city, leech some byts and at least make rent. v[[Phantom by Leo Hunt|Full Review]]
  
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===[[Summerland by Hannu Rajaniemi]]===
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===[[All the Hidden Truths (Three Rivers) by Claire Askew]]===
  
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Dystopian Fiction|Dystopian Fiction]], [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Paranormal|Paranormal]]
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[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]]
  
Imagine a world in which death was no longer something to fear but something to aspire to. After discovery of the afterlife, the British Empire has extended its reach into Summerland, the Big Smoke for the recently deceased. In 1938 the British Empire is caught up in a race against Soviet spies and dealing with a mole buried deep in the heart of Summerland. When Rachel White, an ambitious SIS agent, becomes suspicious about the potential rogue agent, she must decide how far she is willing to go and how much she is willing to risk to uncover the truth. [[Summerland by Hannu Rajaniemi|Full Review]]
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As a news item, school shootings always terrify me:  the deaths are bad enough, but even the young people who survive are always going to be scarred by the fact  that this was done to them by one of their number. It doesn't end on the day, either.  School shootings cast a very long shadow.  May the 14th had the makings of being a normal day until Ryan Summers used three modified starting pistols to shoot thirteen fellow students - and one last bullet to kill himself.  We follow the story through the lives of three women: Moira Summers, the mother of the murderer, Helen Birch, the newly-promoted detective inspector who will investigate the killings and Ishbel Hodgekiss, the mother of one of the victims. [[All the Hidden Truths (Three Rivers) by Claire Askew|Full Review]]
  
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===[[Going To The Last: Short Stories About Horse Racing by K D Knight]]===
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===[[Garrison Girl (Attack on Titan) by Rachel Aaron]]===
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[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Dystopian Fiction|Dystopian Fiction]]
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''You want me to be like everyone else and spend my life hiding inside the walls where it's safe, but that's an illusion. So long as there are titans out there… no one is safe''
  
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]]
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In the dystopian world of Attack on Titan, humanity hides behind the safety of high impenetrable walls to keep out the enemies outside. Known as titans, these enemies are impossibly tall human like creatures, with sharp hungry teeth and regenerative powers. Difficult to kill and innumerable they roam the Earth looking for prey, and whilst the walls have always kept them out, that has begun to change… [[Garrison Girl (Attack on Titan) by Rachel Aaron|Full Review]]
  
In the opening story a man whose wife has deserted him visits Sandown with little money, but comes away with cash in his pocket - and his wife.  In ''A Grey Day'' an owner struggles with the problem of whether or not to run his horse in the Gold Cup when the ground is against him.  My favourite was ''The Story of H'', the story of Foinavon.  H is depicted as a kind horse who only wanted to please people.  After changing hands on various occasions he came to the yard of John Kempton.  H (or Foinavon) was entered in the Grand National and considered a no-hoper.  In one of the most dramatic runnings of the race, a pile up occured at the 23rd fence.  Foinavon, who had been many lengths adrift, cleared the fence and galloped to the line, winning the race at odds of 100/1. [[Going To The Last: Short Stories About Horse Racing by K D Knight|Full Review]]
 
  
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===[[The Island by M A Bennett]]===
  
===[[The Frog Who Was Blue by Faiz Kermani]]===
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[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
  
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:For Sharing|For Sharing]]
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A contemporary take on the savage classic ''Lord of the Flies'': a group of mismatched, modern-day teenagers must fight to survive on a deserted island. Link is a fish out of water. Newly arrived from America, he is finding it hard to settle into the venerable and prestigious Osney School. Who knew there could be so many strange traditions to understand? And what kind of school ranks its students by how fast they can run round the school quad - however ancient that quad may be? When Link runs the slowest time in years, he immediately becomes the butt of every school joke. And some students are determined to make his life more miserable than others... [[The Island by M A Bennett|Full Review]]
  
''Biriwita the blue frog longs to be accepted at Croak College, the most famous school for frogs in Malawi, but the other students all turn their backs on him. He is just too different!''
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Biriwita hails from Lake Ticklewater. Many creatures find a home there, including frogs. For some reason that nobody can remember, all the Lake Ticklewater frogs are blue. They think nothing of it. So, when Biriwita wins a place at Croak College, the first Ticklewater frog to manage such a feat, he is filled with excitement and his only worry is how much he will miss his friends and family.
 
[[The Frog Who Was Blue by Faiz Kermani|Full Review]]
 
 
 
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===[[Colour Me In by Lydia Ruffles]]===
  
===[[The Survival Game by Nicky Singer]]===
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[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]]
  
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:Dystopian Fiction|Dystopian Fiction]]  
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Reeling from a tragedy and unable to cope, unemployed actor Arlo decides to get on a plane and go somewhere new. [[Colour Me In by Lydia Ruffles|Full Review]]
  
Mhairi Anne Bain is fourteen years old and is on her way home to the Isle of Arran. But Mhairi's world has been ravaged by climate change and the mass movement of people and it is one defined by borders, checkpoints and soldiers with guns. Mhairi has made it across Africa and onto a plane to Heathrow  - which is more than can be said for Muma and Papa. She's even made it out of the detention centre at the airport. And during this journey, Mhairi has learned that you can't rely on anyone else and you can't allow anyone else to rely on you...  [[The Survival Game by Nicky Singer|Full Review]]
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===[[The Story Keeper by Anna Mazzola]]===
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===[[A Treachery of Spies by Manda Scott]]===
  
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]]
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[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]]
  
Audrey, a complex mix of flights of fancy and seriousness, wanting, needing, to be more than what everyone expects of her, escapes from the straightjacket of her home. Where every action, every thought, every yearning is controlled by her father, who only once in his life threw caution to the wind and married way beneath him for love. Now a widower and remarried, he has rigorously returned to upholding what is right, what is proper, the bastion of doing what is expected. [[The Story Keeper by Anna Mazzola|Full Review]]
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When Inspector Inès Picaut is called to investigate the horrific murder of a strikingly beautiful elderly lady, she's puzzled – whilst the identity of the woman has been erased, it's clear that she has been killed in the same way that traitors to the resistance were executed in World War Two. Solving the mystery will lead Inès deep into the history of this woman – and back to a time when the men and women of 1940s France were engaged in a desperate, brutal fight for survival against their Nazi oppressors. As more and more secrets come to light, Inès discovers that there are many in the present who would rather their past stay buried – and many who would kill to keep secrets safe… [[A Treachery of Spies by Manda Scott|Full Review]]
  
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===[[Four by Andy Jones]]===
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===[[The Anomaly by Michael Rutger]]===
  
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
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[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Horror|Horror]]
  
Friends are nice, and couple friends are doubly nice, giving you like minded people to spend time with. A pair of pairs, or a couple of couples. Married couple Sally and Al have known Mike for ages – Sally from university, Al through work. His new girlfriend Faye completes their foursome and though she doesn't have their shared history, she's a lot of fun – a bit younger than the rest of them, an actress and so on. [[Four by Andy Jones|Full Review]]
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Tomb Raider meets Indiana Jones within an X-Files episode, for the Youtube era. Join the intrepid (if rather inept) team of internet adventurers as they head out on yet another search for ''an anomaly'' only to (spoilers) actually find one. Imagine if, instead of being scared by their own acting, Derek Acorah and Yvette Fielding actually found something; that is the starting point of this book. Deep in a cave within the Grand Canyon our team of adventurers find themselves trapped in a Stephen King plot with added levels of paranoia and conspiracy thrown into the blend. [[The Anomaly by Michael Rutger|Full Review]]
  
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===[[An Italian Summer by Fanny Blake]]===
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===[[The Water Thief by Claire Hajaj]]===
  
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]]
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[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]]
  
Set against the backdrop of Rome and Naples, ten very different people meet on a small 'Taste of Italy' sightseeing trip. This is a story of family, friendships and relationships – my favourite. However, it was a departure from the usual formulaic chicklit I normally read focused on sassy independent female characters in their twenties or thirties. Here the characters are middle-aged with children in their twenties and rather than looking for love they are facing different life challenges of maintaining love, empty nest syndrome, and the loss of loved ones. Essentially it is a story of breaking out and new beginnings. [[An Italian Summer by Fanny Blake|Full Review]]
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Nick is in the middle of wedding preparations when he decides to leave his fiancée behind in London and take up a post in some un-named west African country providing engineering support for the building of a children's hospital. He has no idea what he is getting himself into. [[The Water Thief by Claire Hajaj|Full Review]]
  
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===[[Believe Me by J P Delaney]]===
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===[[Beau Death (Peter Diamond Mystery) by Peter Lovesey]]===
  
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]]
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[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]]
  
Claire Wright wanted to be an actress, but she was penniless and living in New York. She might have had a scholarship to cover her school fees, but she still had to find the money to live in one of the most expensive cities in the world. There was a solution, although it didn't provide a regular income: she became a decoy for a firm of divorce lawyers. The job was to trap straying husbands and tape them as they propositioned her. There were rules though: she couldn't hit on them directly - they had to proposition her. There was no intention to trap the innocent. [[Believe Me by J P Delaney|Full Review]]
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Children love wrecking balls, so the young lad wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to watch one hit a building through one of those very tempting holes in fencing which you find around building sites. The problem was that when the dust settled a skeleton, sitting in an armchair and clad in clothes which looked to be a few hundred years old, was visible in the loft of the half-demolished building. The lad's father ceased his explanations about kinetic energy and hurried the boy away.  Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond was not so lucky.  Viewing the corpse from a cherry picker, an unfortunate adjustment to the controls left him eye to, er, eye socket with the corpse and the picture was caught by a press photographer. It was too good not to go viral. [[Beau Death (Peter Diamond Mystery) by Peter Lovesey|Full Review]]
  
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===[[Hell's Unveiling by Laura Solomon]]===
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===[[Only Love Can Break Your Heart by Katherine Webber]]===
  
[[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]]
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[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]]
  
A little while ago I really enjoyed [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and I was delighted by the opportunity to read the sequel, ''Hell's Unveiling''. It's probably not much of a spoiler to say that Marsha bested the devil in ''Marsha's Deal'', but the devil is not one to take defeat lying down. He's out to wage war on Planet Earth and particularly on Marsha (who's thought of as a 'goody two shoes' in Hell). Although a strong person, she's vulnerable where her foster children are concerned. Daniel is framed for a crime he didn't commit and sent to juvenile detention and refused permission to return to live with Marsha. Then, of course there are all the other children who are not only targeted, but - worst of all - subverted to the devil's evil ends.  He's out to prey on their fears and weaknesses and as with many foster children, their self esteem is very fragileThis is no small-scale operation, either - the devil has set up a training complex on earth, complete with an elevator to Hell. [[Hell's Unveiling by Laura Solomon|Full Review]]
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Though it's been 5 years since Mika died, Reiko still sees the ghost of her sister every day, forever 14. It's something that brings her comfort, but also a constant reminder that she has to make up for being one when there should have been two. She has to shine bright enough for both of them. When she befriends outsider Seth, he presents her with an escape. From her family, her friends, the grief and loss that continue to scar them all. Seth is instantly smitten with her. After all, who wouldn't fall for gorgeous, popular Reiko Smith-Mori? But while she falls in love with the escape that he represents from her grief, it's not so clear that she's falling in love with him.  [[Only Love Can Break Your Heart by Katherine Webber|Full Review]]
  
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===[[A Necessary Murder by M J Tjia]]===
 
  
[[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime (Historical)|Crime (Historical)]]
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===[[Bone Talk by Candy Gourlay]]===
  
It's 1863 and a little girl has been found murdered at the family home in Stoke Newington. A few days later and a few miles across London, a man is found dead in a similar way outside the opulent townhouse of Heloise Chancey, courtesan and part-time detective. Could they be connected? And what, if anything, does either of them have to do with Heloise's maid, Amah Li Leen, and the troubling events in her past which are threatening to resurface?[[A Necessary Murder by M J Tjia|Full Review]]
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[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]]
  
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Samkad is living high up in the mountainous Philippine jungle just as the nineteenth century turns to the twentieth. But Samkad has no idea about any of that. He has never met anyone from outside his own small tribe and his thoughts are focused on becoming a man. He's desperate for the Elders to permit him to join the ranks of the warriors who protect his tribe from their headhunting enemies, even though he knows it will mean leaving his childhood friend Little Luki behind. [[Bone Talk by Candy Gourlay|Full Review]]
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===[[Apollo by Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and Mike Collins]]===
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===[[Summerland by Hannu Rajaniemi]]===
  
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:History|History]], [[:Category:Popular Science|Popular Science]]
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[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Dystopian Fiction|Dystopian Fiction]], [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Paranormal|Paranormal]]
  
This incredible graphic novel is a love letter to the Moon landings and the passion for the subject drips off every Apollo by Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and Mike Collins. This is a story we know well and because of this the authors take a few narrative shortcuts knowing that we can fill in the blanks. These shortcuts are the only downside to the book. If you've ever read a comic book adaptation of a film you will be familiar with the slight feeling that there are scenes missing and that dialogue has been trimmed. This is a graphic novel that could easily have been three times as long and still felt too short. [[Apollo by Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and Mike Collins|Full Review]]  
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Imagine a world in which death was no longer something to fear but something to aspire to. After discovery of the afterlife, the British Empire has extended its reach into Summerland, the Big Smoke for the recently deceased. In 1938 the British Empire is caught up in a race against Soviet spies and dealing with a mole buried deep in the heart of Summerland. When Rachel White, an ambitious SIS agent, becomes suspicious about the potential rogue agent, she must decide how far she is willing to go and how much she is willing to risk to uncover the truth. [[Summerland by Hannu Rajaniemi|Full Review]]
  
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===[[The War in the Dark by Nick Setchfield]]===
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===[[Going To The Last: Short Stories About Horse Racing by K D Knight]]===
  
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]], [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]]
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[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]]
  
Europe – 1963. The world is used to the constant tensions between the West and Russia, with the Cold War a seemingly never ending threat in the lives of everyday people. What they don't know however, is that the real cold war is fought on the borders of this world, far from prying eyes at the edges of the light. British Intelligence agent Christopher Winter is forced to flee London when an assassination attempt goes horribly wrong, and is forced into a tense, unwelcome alliance with the lethal Karina Lazarova. As the threats rise, Christopher finds himself caught in a quest for centuries old hidden knowledge – an occult secret that will give instant supremacy to whichever nation possesses it. Racing against the enemy, Christopher is taken from ruins in Bavaria through to the haunted Hungarian border, all in search of something unholy – born of the power of white fire and black glass. It's a world of treachery, blood and magic. A world at war in the dark. [[The War in the Dark by Nick Setchfield|Full Review]]
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In the opening story a man whose wife has deserted him visits Sandown with little money, but comes away with cash in his pocket - and his wife.  In ''A Grey Day'' an owner struggles with the problem of whether or not to run his horse in the Gold Cup when the ground is against him.  My favourite was ''The Story of H'', the story of Foinavon.  H is depicted as a kind horse who only wanted to please people.  After changing hands on various occasions he came to the yard of John Kempton.  H (or Foinavon) was entered in the Grand National and considered a no-hoper.  In one of the most dramatic runnings of the race, a pile up occured at the 23rd fence. Foinavon, who had been many lengths adrift, cleared the fence and galloped to the line, winning the race at odds of 100/1. [[Going To The Last: Short Stories About Horse Racing by K D Knight|Full Review]]
  
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===[[Run Wild by Gill Lewis]]===
 
  
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Dyslexia Friendly|Dyslexia Friendly]], [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]]
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===[[The Frog Who Was Blue by Faiz Kermani]]===
  
Meet Izzy and Asha. Bullied away from the local attempt at a skatepark, they find a huge waste ground in the shadow of a derelict gasometer to practise on, which they duly do, even though they have to drag Izzy's younger brother with them. The following day they all want to return, as does the brother's schoolfriend, despite – and of course because of – there being a huge wolf living in the site. Can the children survive living in the urban wilderness, alongside such obvious dangers? [[Run Wild by Gill Lewis|Full Review]]
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[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:For Sharing|For Sharing]]
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''Biriwita the blue frog longs to be accepted at Croak College, the most famous school for frogs in Malawi, but the other students all turn their backs on him. He is just too different!''
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 +
Biriwita hails from Lake Ticklewater. Many creatures find a home there, including frogs. For some reason that nobody can remember, all the Lake Ticklewater frogs are blue. They think nothing of it. So, when Biriwita wins a place at Croak College, the first Ticklewater frog to manage such a feat, he is filled with excitement and his only worry is how much he will miss his friends and family.  
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[[The Frog Who Was Blue by Faiz Kermani|Full Review]]
  
 
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Revision as of 13:12, 14 August 2018

The Bookbag

Hello from The Bookbag, a site featuring books from all the many walks of literary life - fiction, biography, crime, cookery and anything else that takes our fancy. At Bookbag Towers the bookbag sits at the side of the desk. It's the bag we take to the library and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often books sent to us by publishers and we promise to tell you exactly what we think about them. You might not want to read through a full review, so we'll give you a quick review which summarises what we felt about the book and tells you whether or not we think you should buy or borrow it. There are also lots of author interviews, and all sorts of top tens - all of which you can find on our features page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the recommendations page.

There are currently 16,084 reviews at TheBookbag.

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Reviews of the Best New Books

Read new reviews by category.

Read the latest features.

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Unrest by Jesper Stein

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Crime, Thrillers

DCI Steen is assigned a puzzling case – the tortured body of a man found in a cemetery in Copenhagen but left there during a riot – a riot that had the area swarming in police. How could anyone have been murdered and left in the open with so many police on site? Unless the killer is one of them… As the case becomes more and more complicated, it soon begins to take a toll on Steen's already troubled personal life. He won't stop until the killer is caught, whatever the consequences. But the consequences may turn out to be greater than expected – especially for Axel himself… Full Review

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Rockstar Retirement Programme: How to retire like a rockstar by Dominic Watson

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Lifestyle

Even with a birthday fast approaching, I'm still a bit young to be reading about retirement. My next life change in the pipeline will be a big one, and it does involve leaving the 9 to 5 behind for a yacht and the silky blue waters of the Caribbean, but only for a year, and then I will be back, tanned and refreshed but barely 40 and with many working years still to come. Also, I like work. My job is interesting, I get to travel, what we do matters and it's not badly rewarded. So no, I'm not planning to retire just yet. But as the premise of this book is about planning (and if not now, then when?) I was still intrigued. Full Review

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Murder Mile (Jane Tennison 4) by Lynda La Plante

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Crime

It was February 1979 in the strike-ridden 'Winter of Discontent' when a body was discovered in Peckham. It was to be the first of two bodies in two days, but the first - that of a young woman - would remain unidentified for some time. The second - an older lady - was found in the boot of her car by her son. Jane Tennison has been promoted to Sergeant and finds herself in the midst of an investigation hindered by press articles about police incompetence and pressure to get a quick result. Four days later and another body to add to the count, the police have named their suspect, but Tennison has her doubts. Full Review

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Broken Ground by Val McDermid

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Crime

As the Officer in Charge of the Historic Cases Unit, DCI Karen Pirie rarely finds herself at the scene of the crime, but for once, she's in the right place at the right time when a body is dug up in the Highlands. Initially it looks as though the death dates back to WWII, but the fact that the dead man is wearing a pair of Nikes means that the case is Karen's. A little while later she'd come to think that she'd been in the wrong place at the wrong time when she overheard a conversation in a cafe. Intervening, she thought that she'd prevented a crime, but what she said would come back to haunt her. Full Review

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Half Moon Bay by Alice LaPlante

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Crime, Thrillers

Half Moon Bay is a small town on the west coast of America, a little down from San Francisco. Jane has just moved there, to start a new life after losing everything when her teenage daughter was killed and her husband left her. Although she has begun to find a little peace in the quiet, seaside town, one day a child goes missing, bringing back painful memories for Jane of her grief and loss and, also, rousing the suspicions of the local townsfolk that she is somehow involved in the disappearance. Full Review

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Phantom by Leo Hunt

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Teens

Sixteen-year-old Nova is an undercity dweller and a leecher - a futuristic kind of pickpocket who uses tech hacks to steal byts from hapless corps workers. The higher up in the city you live, the more sunlight you see and the easier your life. For leechers like Nova, four hundred storeys below the surface, life is tough. But with the help of the hacking program Phantom, invented by legendary anti-corps hacker the Moth, Nova can sneak up to the city, leech some byts and at least make rent. vFull Review

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All the Hidden Truths (Three Rivers) by Claire Askew

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Crime

As a news item, school shootings always terrify me: the deaths are bad enough, but even the young people who survive are always going to be scarred by the fact that this was done to them by one of their number. It doesn't end on the day, either. School shootings cast a very long shadow. May the 14th had the makings of being a normal day until Ryan Summers used three modified starting pistols to shoot thirteen fellow students - and one last bullet to kill himself. We follow the story through the lives of three women: Moira Summers, the mother of the murderer, Helen Birch, the newly-promoted detective inspector who will investigate the killings and Ishbel Hodgekiss, the mother of one of the victims. Full Review

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Garrison Girl (Attack on Titan) by Rachel Aaron

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Dystopian Fiction

You want me to be like everyone else and spend my life hiding inside the walls where it's safe, but that's an illusion. So long as there are titans out there… no one is safe

In the dystopian world of Attack on Titan, humanity hides behind the safety of high impenetrable walls to keep out the enemies outside. Known as titans, these enemies are impossibly tall human like creatures, with sharp hungry teeth and regenerative powers. Difficult to kill and innumerable they roam the Earth looking for prey, and whilst the walls have always kept them out, that has begun to change… Full Review


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The Island by M A Bennett

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Teens, General Fiction

A contemporary take on the savage classic Lord of the Flies: a group of mismatched, modern-day teenagers must fight to survive on a deserted island. Link is a fish out of water. Newly arrived from America, he is finding it hard to settle into the venerable and prestigious Osney School. Who knew there could be so many strange traditions to understand? And what kind of school ranks its students by how fast they can run round the school quad - however ancient that quad may be? When Link runs the slowest time in years, he immediately becomes the butt of every school joke. And some students are determined to make his life more miserable than others... Full Review

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Colour Me In by Lydia Ruffles

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Teens

Reeling from a tragedy and unable to cope, unemployed actor Arlo decides to get on a plane and go somewhere new. Full Review

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A Treachery of Spies by Manda Scott

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Thrillers, Historical Fiction

When Inspector Inès Picaut is called to investigate the horrific murder of a strikingly beautiful elderly lady, she's puzzled – whilst the identity of the woman has been erased, it's clear that she has been killed in the same way that traitors to the resistance were executed in World War Two. Solving the mystery will lead Inès deep into the history of this woman – and back to a time when the men and women of 1940s France were engaged in a desperate, brutal fight for survival against their Nazi oppressors. As more and more secrets come to light, Inès discovers that there are many in the present who would rather their past stay buried – and many who would kill to keep secrets safe… Full Review

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The Anomaly by Michael Rutger

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Horror

Tomb Raider meets Indiana Jones within an X-Files episode, for the Youtube era. Join the intrepid (if rather inept) team of internet adventurers as they head out on yet another search for an anomaly only to (spoilers) actually find one. Imagine if, instead of being scared by their own acting, Derek Acorah and Yvette Fielding actually found something; that is the starting point of this book. Deep in a cave within the Grand Canyon our team of adventurers find themselves trapped in a Stephen King plot with added levels of paranoia and conspiracy thrown into the blend. Full Review

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The Water Thief by Claire Hajaj

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews General Fiction, Literary Fiction

Nick is in the middle of wedding preparations when he decides to leave his fiancée behind in London and take up a post in some un-named west African country providing engineering support for the building of a children's hospital. He has no idea what he is getting himself into. Full Review

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Beau Death (Peter Diamond Mystery) by Peter Lovesey

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Crime

Children love wrecking balls, so the young lad wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to watch one hit a building through one of those very tempting holes in fencing which you find around building sites. The problem was that when the dust settled a skeleton, sitting in an armchair and clad in clothes which looked to be a few hundred years old, was visible in the loft of the half-demolished building. The lad's father ceased his explanations about kinetic energy and hurried the boy away. Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond was not so lucky. Viewing the corpse from a cherry picker, an unfortunate adjustment to the controls left him eye to, er, eye socket with the corpse and the picture was caught by a press photographer. It was too good not to go viral. Full Review

1406369055.jpg


Only Love Can Break Your Heart by Katherine Webber

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Teens

Though it's been 5 years since Mika died, Reiko still sees the ghost of her sister every day, forever 14. It's something that brings her comfort, but also a constant reminder that she has to make up for being one when there should have been two. She has to shine bright enough for both of them. When she befriends outsider Seth, he presents her with an escape. From her family, her friends, the grief and loss that continue to scar them all. Seth is instantly smitten with her. After all, who wouldn't fall for gorgeous, popular Reiko Smith-Mori? But while she falls in love with the escape that he represents from her grief, it's not so clear that she's falling in love with him. Full Review

1788450175.jpg


Bone Talk by Candy Gourlay

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Confident Readers

Samkad is living high up in the mountainous Philippine jungle just as the nineteenth century turns to the twentieth. But Samkad has no idea about any of that. He has never met anyone from outside his own small tribe and his thoughts are focused on becoming a man. He's desperate for the Elders to permit him to join the ranks of the warriors who protect his tribe from their headhunting enemies, even though he knows it will mean leaving his childhood friend Little Luki behind. Full Review

1473203287.jpg


Summerland by Hannu Rajaniemi

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Dystopian Fiction, Science Fiction, Paranormal

Imagine a world in which death was no longer something to fear but something to aspire to. After discovery of the afterlife, the British Empire has extended its reach into Summerland, the Big Smoke for the recently deceased. In 1938 the British Empire is caught up in a race against Soviet spies and dealing with a mole buried deep in the heart of Summerland. When Rachel White, an ambitious SIS agent, becomes suspicious about the potential rogue agent, she must decide how far she is willing to go and how much she is willing to risk to uncover the truth. Full Review

1986586898.jpg


Going To The Last: Short Stories About Horse Racing by K D Knight

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Short Stories

In the opening story a man whose wife has deserted him visits Sandown with little money, but comes away with cash in his pocket - and his wife. In A Grey Day an owner struggles with the problem of whether or not to run his horse in the Gold Cup when the ground is against him. My favourite was The Story of H, the story of Foinavon. H is depicted as a kind horse who only wanted to please people. After changing hands on various occasions he came to the yard of John Kempton. H (or Foinavon) was entered in the Grand National and considered a no-hoper. In one of the most dramatic runnings of the race, a pile up occured at the 23rd fence. Foinavon, who had been many lengths adrift, cleared the fence and galloped to the line, winning the race at odds of 100/1. Full Review

1785899953.jpg


The Frog Who Was Blue by Faiz Kermani

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews For Sharing

Biriwita the blue frog longs to be accepted at Croak College, the most famous school for frogs in Malawi, but the other students all turn their backs on him. He is just too different!

Biriwita hails from Lake Ticklewater. Many creatures find a home there, including frogs. For some reason that nobody can remember, all the Lake Ticklewater frogs are blue. They think nothing of it. So, when Biriwita wins a place at Croak College, the first Ticklewater frog to manage such a feat, he is filled with excitement and his only worry is how much he will miss his friends and family. Full Review