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<metadesc>Book review siteExpert, with books full book reviews from most walks of literary life; fiction, biographynon-fiction, crime, cookery and children's books & self-published books plus author interviews and & top tens.</metadesc><h1 id="mf-title">The Bookbag</h1>Hello from The Bookbag, a site featuring books from all the many walks of literary life - [[:Category:Fiction|fiction]], [[:Category:Biography|biography]], [[:Category:Crime|crime]], [[:Category:Cookery|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 [[:Category:Interviews|author interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[features]] page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] page.

Reviews by readers from all the many walks of literary life. With author interviews, features and top tens. You'll be sure to find something you'll want to read here. Dig in! Find us on [[File:facebook.gif|link=https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk|alt=Facebook]] [https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk '''Facebook'''], [[File:twitter.gif|link=http://twitter.com/TheBookbag|alt=Follow us on Twitter]] [http://twitter.com/TheBookbag '''Twitter'''], [[File:instagram_classic_logo.png|link=https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/|alt=Follow us on Instagram]] [https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/ '''Instagram'''] and [[File:LinkedIn.png|link=https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-bookbag-1b12a264/|alt=LinkedIn]] There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Reviews}}''' [[:Category:Reviews|reviews ]] at TheBookbag.

==Reviews of the The Best New Books==

{'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|class-"wikitable" cellpadding="15" <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->reviews of books about to be published]].<!-- Winthrop -->{{Frontpage|-author=Sylvie Cathrall| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"A Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=5[[image:Winthrop_Mercy.jpg|leftgenre=Science Fiction|linksummary=https://www.amazon.coThere are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of them.uk/gp/product/147367249X?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative|isbn=6738&creativeASIN=147367249X]]0356522776}}{{Frontpage| styleisbn="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"0008517061|title=Death in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell|rating=4|genre=[[The Mercy Seat by Elizabeth H Winthrop]]Crime|summary=== [[image:4Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] In an isolated Louisiana town There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the future of his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a young black prisoner sits in his dingy cell, staring at the shadow lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the window bars cast onto future she wants for herself and her daughter? For the concrete wall by the evening's dying sun rays. At midnight, he will be dead; strapped to a chair moment they’re enjoying life in the present and electrocuted for putting the future on the rape of a white girl, who later committed suicideback burner. He is resigned to his fate; it is futile to protest his innocence or to expect anyone to believe what really happened; after all, love between a black man and a white woman was never going to have a happy ending in a small town filled with small-minded people. [[The Mercy Seat by Elizabeth H Winthrop|Full Review]] <!-- Unsworth -->}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1786482126|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|-rating=4.5| stylegenre="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|Crime[[image:1788541677.jpg|linksummary=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788541677/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbagBuilders were demolishing an old house in Norwich -21]]  | style="verticalthe site was going to hold seventy-align: top; textfive 'luxury' apartments -align: left;"|===[[The Girl Who Thought Her Mother Was when they discovered the bones of a Mermaid by Tania Unsworth]]=== [[image:5starchild beneath a doorway. There was no skull.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] Stella Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's mother died when she was a little girl. Stella is growing up in a house with her daddifficult as Ruth knows, who is often awaybut Nelson doesn't, and her grandmother, who that she is starting to experience pregnant with his child as a result of the onset of dementiaone night they spent together some three months ago. This Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is all hard enough for a young girl, but at the same time Stella finds that she feels like rather an oddball, struggling prone to fit in at school, and as her grandmother begins to lose her grip on reality, Stella struggles with feeling very alone. When Stellasudden bouts of sickness.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008551324|title=The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=It's only school friend suddenly moves away, Stella struggles even moreunusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. She Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is desperate to find out what happened to her mum struggling in prison and to uncover her familyhe's secrets. [[The Girl Who Thought Her Mother Was prepared to tell the police where the body of a Mermaid by Tania Unsworth|Full Review]] <!-- Dixen -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1471406849missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. This person, he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants.jpg|link=http://www And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date.amazon.co.uk/dp/1471406849/ref=nosim Not much to ask, is it?tag=thebookbag The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded -21]]  | stylemake certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.}}{{Frontpage|isbn="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"0008405026|title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=[[Ascension by Victor Dixen]]==5|genre=Crime [[image:5star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] Six girls, six boys. Each in the two separate bays of It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to a single spaceshiphalt. They have six minutes each week to seduce Now, her mother, Helena, and to make their choices, under the unblinking eye of the on-board cameras. They her father are the contenders dead in the Genesis programmetheir bed. Initially, the worldit looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's craziest speed-dating show ever, aimed at creating something about the positioning of the first human colony on Marsbodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. Leonor, What looked as though it was going to be an 18 year old orphan, open-and-shut case is one of the chosen onesnow a complex double murder. She has signed up for glory. She has signed up for love Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced. She has signed up for a one-way ticket. Even if the dream turns to a nightmare, it is too late for regrets. [[Ascension by Victor Dixen|Full Review]]}}<!-- Kermani -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=0571379877| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|The Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet[[image:1788039971.jpg|linkrating=http://www3.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788039971/ref5|genre=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Crime| stylesummary="verticalEdward Jevons is a working-align: top; textclass young man, obsessed with his upper-align: left;"| ===[[The Toad Who Loved Tea by Faiz Kermani]]=== [[image:4starclass friends, Robert and Stanza. Robert's a theatre director. He's also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for him.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:For Sharing|For Sharing]] Tungtang is Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but he's not like other toads. She can't sit still, tongue protruding, and wait to catch a fly. Tungtang needs most men: Edward is left to be on stumble upon the move. Sometimes, she even hops right the way over to the rotten tree stump two of them kissing in her community of Muddy Rivera dark passageway. And she loves to regale her fellow toads with stories of her exploits. That is, until a mean old crow comes along and tells Tungtang that a real adventure would take her }}{{Frontpage|author=Jo Callaghan|title=Leave No Trace|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=When a lot further than a tree stump by a bridge everyone knows. Infuriated by man is found crucified on the crow and inspired by her grandfather's stories top of humans and ancient toad propheciesa hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, Tungtang decides on a Real Adventure and heads off to the town of Little CobblestoneAI detective Lock. It's their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. [[The Toad Who Loved Tea by Faiz Kermani|Full Review]] <!-- Fremantle -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0718180488.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0718180488/ref=nosim Will they be able to solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of a career?tag|isbn=thebookbag-21]]139851120X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1399613073| styletitle="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"Moral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating===[[The Poison Bed by E C Fremantle]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg5|linkgenre=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical FictionThrillers|Historical Fiction]]summary=Olivia, [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] The year is 1615 Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and celebrated couple Robert and Frances Carr have been arrested their friendship would keep them inseparable for murdera quarter of a century. She Olivia is youngruthlessly ambitious, beautiful, and which is a member of the notorious Howard familybonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. He Anjali is one the free spirit of the most powerful men in the kingdom, risen from nothing yet has the King's eargroup and she becomes a GP. Both of them are suspected but the crime is not as black When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and white as it seems's going to end in tragedy. Is Frances an innocent We don't know who suffered the tragedy or is she the witch so many believe her to consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be? Is Robert telling an eerily similar event that will impact the truth when he says he knows nothing of the murder? In between all these questions is King James I, for it is his secret that is at stakethree friends. This time, it's their teenage children who are involved. One of them is a killer, but who has committed the murder in question? [[The Poison Bed by E C Fremantle}}{{Frontpage|Full Review]]isbn=0241636604 <!-- Sebastian -->|title=The Trading Game: A Confession|-author=Gary Stevenson| stylerating="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|4.5[[image:1509855203.jpg|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1509855203/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Autobiography| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; textIf you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-align: left;"|===[[Ash Princess by Laura Sebastian]]=== [[image:4stripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]] ''My name is Theodosia Eirene Houzzara, Queen of Astrea, There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and I will endure this''. For the last decade, Theodosia he has lived at the fragile mercy a facility with numbers which most of her vicious enemiesus can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. From the day her beloved country, Astrea, It was his ability at what was invaded by the Kalovaxians and her mother, Queen of Flame and Furyessentially, was brutally murdered directly in front of hera card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, she has been forced this turned into permanent employment as a life of submission and desperate survivaltrader. [[Ash Princess by Laura Sebastian|Full Review]]}}<!-- Coulton -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=1035021803| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller[[image:1473669588|rating=3.jpg5|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1473669588/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Crime| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Falling Short by Lex Coulton]]=== [[image:4starIt's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] She's back now because of a request for help from her beloved aunt, [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], [[:Category:Women'Carole. Freya's Fiction|Womenformer mentor and Carole's Fiction]] Lex Coulton's debut novel is a story about mistakesclose friend, failuresArthur Crockleford, is dead and relationships. The main protagonistthe circumstances seem suspicious, Frances Pilgrimto say the least. Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, is a sixth form English teacher who has recently fallen out with her best friend Jacksonshe feels, a work colleague, and is grappling with the increasingly eccentric behaviour of let her motherdown badly. This relationship is complicated by Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the man or pursue the fact that Frances's father disappeared at sea when profession she was five years oldloved. After the split, she worked in a cafe, met and married James (on the rebound from the love of her life, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced. [[Falling Short by Lex Coulton|Full Review]]}}<!-- Silver -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover| styletitle="widthAll Tomorrow's Futures: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)[[image:178563075X.jpg|linkrating=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/178563075X/ref5|genre=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Science Fiction| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Aladdin Trial by Abi Silver]]=== [[image:5star''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] When elderly hospital patient Barbara Hennessy is found dead on the pavement outside the hospital, a police investigation is launched into whether she jumped or was pushed. Having just have surgery on her foot, there is sufficient grounds to think this was no accident, but the only suspect the police can link to the death is the hospital cleaner, a Syrian refugee, Ahmad Qabbani. Solicitor Constance Lamb and barrister Judith Burton reunite to defend Ahmad, but with an uncooperative hospital staff, Barbara's self interested children and Ahmad keeping secrets, it's going an increasingly difficult task to prove to the jury and the media, that he is innocent. [[The Aladdin Trial by Abi Silver|Full Review]] <!-- Ford -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1785653067.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1785653067/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[A Demon In Silver by R S Ford]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]] Take a fantasy world where gods once walked the land and magic influenced everything for millennia, where magic was power and the entire world was shaped around its influence. Then, overnight, that power was ripped away, sorcerers' died instantly and magic is never heard of again. Until now. A farm girl from the middle of nowhere has unleashed raw magic and the tribal leaders will stop at nothing to control her, using whatever means necessary. Can anyone save her, or will they need saving from her? [[A Demon In Silver by R S Ford|Full Review]] <!-- Dehnel -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786073579.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786073579/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Lala by Jacek Dehnel and Antonia Lloyd-Jones (translator)]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]] ''This is the mysterious nature of storytelling: the same start can also mean different endings, and different starts can lead to the same finale. It's all subordinate to the greater narrative, which starts somewhere in Kiev''. This beautiful book is exactly that, the mysterious art of storytelling. The wayward meanderings of memory, of tangents and digressions, of side notes and elaborations, but above all that of affection; for both the story and the storyteller. What makes us who we are if not our culture and heritage and in this book our narrator re-lives and re-tells the story of his heritage told to him by his grandmother. [[Lala by Jacek Dehnel and Antonia Lloyd-Jones (translator)|Full Review]] <!-- Drews -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1408349906.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1408349906/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[A Thousand Perfect Notes by C G Drews]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]]  ''What he wants most in the world is to cut off his own hands. At the wrist would be best.'' What child would think such a thing? Beck would think such a thing. The son of a talented pianist who became ill and could no longer play, Beck is the servant of his thwarted mother's ambitions. He must be the pianist now. And Beck's mother - the Maestro - makes him practise for hours every day. If he rebels in any way, his mother's response is violent. But Beck doesn't want to play Chopin. He wants to compose. Forbidden music fills his head but it's an impossible dream.[[A Thousand Perfect Notes by C G Drews|Full Review]]  <!-- Ruth Mancini -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1788543300.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788543300/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[In The Blood by Ruth Mancini]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] Bringing up a child on your own is difficult: when that child is severely disabled the obstacles are almost insurmountable and criminal defence lawyer Sarah Kellerman struggles on a daily basis. Ben is nearly five but still can't walk or talk and isn't toilet trained. His main way of communicating is to have a screaming tantrum, but he will watch ''Teletubbies'' - for hours on end. She has sympathy with Ellie when she's charged with trying to murder her son, firstly by poisoning him and them by removing the dialysis line with was circulating his blood to clean it. On the face of it there doesn't seem to be a lot of chance of fighting the charge - that's certainly what Sarah's boss thinks - but Sarah isn't quite so certain. [[In The Blood by Ruth Mancini|Full Review]] <!-- Winn -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Winn_Hello.jpg|left|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1785783475/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Hello, Shadowlands by Patrick Winn]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:True Crime|True Crime]] ''Hello, Shadowlands'' chronicles a booming crime wave in South East Asia. It illuminates everything from the meth industry in Myanmar to the abortion pill black market in the Philippines using both Winn's personal accounts and historical context. It is devastating to imagine the very real human lives that are swept up in this cloud of refuse, and how the West helped create it and is doing nothing to prevent it. [[Hello, Shadowlands by Patrick Winn|Full Review]] <!-- Todd --> |-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1472233123.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1472233123/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Hunted by G X Todd]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] ''Do you not sometimes think a storm is coming?'' ''Hunted'' continues where the ''Voices'' series left off, with our heroine on the run without anyone to defend her whilst the world around her is descending into chaos. Lacey, barely escaped with her life after the events of [[Defender by G X Todd|Defender]] and now she's being hunted. By a boy driven by a voice stealing away his sanity piece by piece and by another incapable of speech. Both are determined to find her at all costs and both are building up an army of followers to track her precise location before the other. [[Hunted by G X Todd|Full Review]] <!-- Booth -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1910611115.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1910611115/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Across the Divide by Anne Booth]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] ''I want all children to know that they CAN already make the world a better place, and that there are other people, now and in history and in fiction, who stand alongside them in this.''This is what author Anne Booth said about the inspiration behind her latest children's book and this thoughtful story about family, friendship and being brave enough to speak up for what you believe should help to achieve this. In Across the Divide she cleverly combines current issues regarding peace and conflict and the history of conscientious objectors during World War 1 in a moving portrayal of young people trying to make sense of the world and the decisions made by adults. [[Across the Divide by Anne Booth|Full Review]] <!-- Collishaw -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1787198812.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1787198812/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[A Child Called Happiness by Stephan Collishaw]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Mazowe Valley, 2011 – Natalie hears a sharp cry that she thinks at first might be a bird, but turns out to be a baby, abandoned to the birds on the kopje. She is there with her uncle and they take the child, back to his farm initially and then to a local village where it is taken in. They do not report it to the police. [[A Child Called Happiness by Stephan Collishaw|Full Review]] <!-- Paul Hughes -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:B07BW4QXJV.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07BW4QXJV/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Running Amok (DCI Spearing and DI Devlin Series Book 2) by Paul Hughes]]=== [[image:3star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] '''Caution: Mild spoilers for [[Beginning to End by Paul Hughes|Beginning to End]]''' DS Kevin Devlin has settled into his new job at Scotland Yard very quickly, although he didn't have much choice but to hit the ground running. When we last saw him quite a few of the rogue element at MI5 and others who were causing Spearing and Devlin difficulties were conveniently dead and as Spearing has gone missing, Devlin can't help but wonder if Spearting was involved in some way in bringing this convenient solution about. Whilst he might have wanted to search for Spearing, there's upheaval at the Yard: the new commissioner is offering deals to corrupt officers. They can leave with a year's pay in lieu of notice or they can be prosecuted. Unsurprisingly there are suddenly a lot of empty desks - and a promotion opportunity for Devlin. [[Running Amok (DCI Spearing and DI Devlin Series Book 2) by Paul Hughes|Full Review]] <!-- Slater -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1509842306.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1509842306/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[The Boy Who Lied by Kim Slater]]===''

[[image:5starI've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen.jpg Well, I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of technology in my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but I'm left with the feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of it is - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand.}}{{Frontpage|author=Sunny Singh|title=Hotel Arcadia|linkrating=Category:3.5|genre=Thrillers |summary=The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Hiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, a wartime photographer and Abhi, the hotel manager. As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the hotel, he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what's happened through her photography. Although they only ever talk over the phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists.|isbn=086154742X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529153298|title=The List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the family 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1398524085|title=Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, Etty. are all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, is not. Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the body of Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in the river. It was an easy assumption for the police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the guilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1035906708|title=Diva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas' to make it more manageable in the States. When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her elder sister, Jackie.}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:{{Frontpage|author=Christopher Edge|title=Black Hole Cinema Club|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|Confident Readers]]summary=Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the nickname of 'The Black Hole'. All big movie fans, they're looking forward to lots of exciting films, and many, many snacks! However, as the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to the next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the cinema, [[:Category:and to their real lives?|isbn=1839942738}}{{Frontpage|author=Rachel Greenlaw|title=Compass and Blade|rating=3.5|genre=Teens|Teens]]summary=''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.''

Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, is one of the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the island's leader and Mira'None s father. Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and with only coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search of them believed mea family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. Nobody believed I really couldn't remember With only nine days to unearth what happened might save her father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to my brother. I wanted the heart of the smuggler's territory, Mira must be determined to scream stop at them nothing to listensave the future of her home and the ones she holds most dear. Because, |isbn=0008664730}}{{Frontpage|author=James Sherwood Metts|title=Planet Storyland|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary= Things have been a bit sticky for the first Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of other, new ways to spend time in , along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and, along with it, all the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|isbn=1736128426}}{{Frontpage|author=Matthew Tree|title=We'll Never Know|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary= Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, a drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and who had endless crises of self confidence. So Tim applied himself to his studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions.|isbn= B0CVFXPGP8}}{{Frontpage|author=A G Slatter|title=The Briar Book of the Dead|rating=5|genre=Fantasy|summary='' There's a part of me that wants to keep this just to myself for however longI can. This secret magic of my own, long timeall mine, at last. I was actually telling the truthjust want to enjoy it for a while.''

Ed Clayton Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Briar's, a family of witches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands. Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to be born into her family for generations and as such since she was young, her training as a steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the town's leader, and Ellie takes her place beside her. As challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, putting her at the heart of a teller maelstrom of tall storieschaos. Reeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what to do as the Briar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat. He just can|isbn=1803364548}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529900360|title=The Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the help of a psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, it - even was Robin, Delaware's partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the man she loved needed. The next case did look simple, though he knows . Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a remote property in Bel Air. He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to an extremely rich man and everybody else knows that most it's not the Italian. But which of them was the primary target?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of what comes out the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=3.5|genre=Animals and Wildlife|summary=Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in his mouth is complete fantasy. It all started footsteps, particularly when Edhe considered the strain that being on-call put on his father's father life. When he was accused seventeen he took the opportunity of fraud doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and sent was convinced this was the job for him. Before long, he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a child. If anything, he'd wanted to prisonbe a professional footballer. Then mum}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0861541774|title=A Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=DCI Domenic Jejeune's mental health went close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to piecesmeet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and he killed a Ghurka. Then Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the man. Now he could be facing the death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn't help Danny at all.}}{{Frontpage|author=Alexander McCall Smith|title=The Perfect Passion Company|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. Katie is coming out of a break up with nobody a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing money into us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the houseIsabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a business, poverty or in match- realmaking, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, grindingWilliam, poverty to lend a hand…|isbn=1846976596}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0811771741|title=InstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman|rating=4|genre=Crafts|summary=Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits - set others are of the 'long, cosy afternoons in front of the fire' variety. The projects are divided by the time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and life became all more than twenty hours. All the projects are attractive, modern and useable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about scratching about for pennies 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's me being picky.}}{{Frontpage|author=Dean Koontz|title=The Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=Paranormal|summary=Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and visiting it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the food bank. All of this thing that has trashed his house! The thing is horribly shaming, so Benny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it any wonder turns out that Ed the delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has become been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a bit good person. Spike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a Billy Liarwaitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=1662500491}}{{Frontpage|author=Adam Stower|title=Murray and Bun|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers |summary=Murray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, hiding well, whatever takes his fancy next of the truth of two. But he's a bad magician's cat, so his home life in favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the hopes catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the power regular back garden, but into a world of imagination can frightening adventure and whiffs. This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but he's turned up and he'll have to do…|isbn=0008561249}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0C47LV1PC|title=Fragility|author=Mosby Woods|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary= Can you make a ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, is the question should you make it all disappear? [[Or is the question if you did, would it land? The Boy Who Lied by Kim Slater|Full Review]]catch is that the answer for both could well be.... no.

<!''Fragility'' is set as the city of Portland, Oregon, cautiously begins to emerge from the restrictions imposed during the covid pandemic}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529431735|title=The Winter Visitor|author=James Henry|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=It's February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the more surprising. He'd been exiled on the Costa del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decade. The return has come about because he's had a letter from his ex-wife, saying that she's ill and hasn't long to live. It's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his underwear and sent to a watery grave in the boot of a stolen Ford Sierra. Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?}}{{Frontpage|author=Alex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=The Glorious Race of Magical Beasts|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and in the evening a helper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – for there is a generation missing in the family. A few short years ago, Eli's parents were both lost to the titular race, a globe- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in the company of a magical beast. This has made the race anathema to the pair – but when a bad incident at the eatery leads to a confession from gran, Eli knows his only hope is to dare to enter what he most hates, with the sole aim the prize of magic at the end – the only thing to possibly save his gran.|isbn=0571382231}}