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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]].<!-- Vaughn -->{{Frontpage|-author=Sylvie Cathrall| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|A Letter to the Luminous Deep[[image:0751568228.jpg|linkrating=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0751568228/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 5| stylegenre="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|Science Fiction===[[Across the Void by S K Vaughn]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|linksummary=Category:There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of them.|isbn= 0356522776}}{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science FictionFrontpage|Science Fiction]]isbn=0008517061|title=Death in a Lonely PlaceSea epics? So 20th century. Try a space epic. [[Across the Void by S K Vaughn|Full Review]] <!-- McLean -->author=Stig Abell|-rating=4| stylegenre="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|Crime[[image:1786076071.jpg|linksummary=http://wwwFormer Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786076071/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align 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 lot of compromise: top; textdoes Jake give up his off-align: left;"|===[[The Van Apfel Girls are Gone by Felicity McLean]]===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 future she wants for herself and her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and putting the future on the back burner.}}{{Frontpage[[image:4star.jpg|linkisbn=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers1786482126|Thrillers]], [[:Category:General Fictiontitle=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|General Fiction]]author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5When Tikka Molloy |genre=Crime|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was eleven and onegoing to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments -sixth years old, when they discovered the Van Apfel sisters disappearedbones of a child beneath a doorway. In the long hot summer of 1992 There was no skull. Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, in an isolated suburb of Australia surrounded by Bushland, the girls vanished during the schoolDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's Showstopper concert at the riverside amphitheatre. Did they run away? Were they taken? While the search for the sisters united the small communitydifficult as Ruth knows, they were never found. Returning home years laterbut Nelson doesn't, Tikka must make sense of that strange moment in time – she is pregnant with his child as a result of the summer that shaped herone night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, and the girls she never forgotnot least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness. [[The Van Apfel Girls are Gone by Felicity McLean|Full Review]]}}{{Frontpage<!-- Stowell -->|isbn=0008551324|-title=The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)| styleauthor="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"Neil Lancaster|rating=4.5[[image:1788000269.jpg|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788000269/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Crime| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Dragon It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in the Library by Louie Stowell prison and Davide Ortu (Illustrator)]]=== [[image:4he's prepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] This person, he promises, [[:Category:Emerging Readers|Emerging Readers]] It is someone big and it will be worth the start of the summer holidays and Kit has planspolice doing what he wants. These plans involve climbing trees, getting muddy and being outside. Her friends, Josh and Alita, on the other hand want And what he wants is to be transferred to go an open prison to serve the libraryremainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date. Kit hates reading Not much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and canshe't see the point of books at all but is very reluctantly persuaded s even prepared to go with do the others to the local library. Once there the children meet the librarian other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and Kit makes an incredible discovery; the librarian anyone who works with him is a wizard! Even more incredibly, Kit is a wizard too and she and her friends have an important taskkept well away from what's happening. They must save the library…and save the world! [[The Dragon in the Library by Louie Stowell and Davide Ortu (Illustrator)|Full Review]]}}<!-- Stuart MacBride -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=0008405026| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey[[image:0008208263.jpg|linkrating=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0008208263/ref5|genre=nosim?tagCrime|summary=thebookbag-21]]  | style="verticalIt's sixteen years since nine-align: top; textyear-align: left;"|===[[All That's Dead (Logan McRae 12) by Stuart MacBride]]=== [[image:5starold Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to a halt.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] It seemed like a good idea Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in their bed. Logan 'Lazarus' McRae was back at work after Initially, it looks like a year off sick. Hestraightforward murder/suicide but there'd been stabbed in s something about the line positioning of duty the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and recovery had been slow: he still had some painher boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. His first case What looked as though it was going to be a simple one an open- just to ease him back into work and- but it turned out to be anything butshut case is now a complex double murder. Professor Wilson, a high-profile anti-independence campaigner has gone missingKerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, apparently abducted from his home, but nothing was left behind except some bloodstainsUna Burt) are less convinced. In much the same way that Brexit is dividing people south of the border, there's going to be a war between the pro- and anti-independence factions in Scotland - and the police are not above being involved}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0571379877|title=The Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=3. [[All That's Dead (Logan McRae 12) by Stuart MacBride|Full Review]] <!-- Louise Voss -->5|-genre=Crime| stylesummary="width: 10%; verticalEdward Jevons is a working-align: top; textclass young man, obsessed with his upper-align: center;"|[[image:B07MWXBTV8class friends, Robert and Stanza.jpg|link=http://www Robert's a theatre director.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07MWXBTV8/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag He's also self-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Last Stage by Louise Voss]]=== [[imageobsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for him. 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 most men:4Edward is left to stumble upon the two of them kissing in a dark passageway.5star.jpg|link=Category:}}{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:CrimeFrontpage|Crime]]author=Jo Callaghan|title=Leave No TraceIf you were looking back |rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=When a man is found crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to when it began you'd have to say that it was before 1995the case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. Meredith Vincent (that wasnIt't her name then) had gone to Greenham Common on her seventeenth birthdays their first live case together, dressed as a teddy bear, to protest about nuclear weaponshaving previously been very successful with several cold cases. It was whilst she was But when there that she met Samanthais a second body found crucified a few days later, fell head over heels in love Kat is suddenly struggling with her a potential serial killer and went to live in a squat in London, leaving behind her A levels, her recently-widowed mother - and her twin brother, Pete, very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to look after hertheir AI Future Policing project. Samantha was there occasionally but Meredith was drawn into forming a band with Will they be able to solve the boys from case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the squat case and against all the odds Cohen went on to become , potentially, out of a sensation and it wasn't long before Meredith was living in a mansion rather than the squat. [[The Last Stage by Louise Vosscareer?|Full Review]]isbn=139851120X}}<!-- Ian Mathie -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=1399613073| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"Moral Injuries|author=Christie Watson[[image:1906852472|rating=4.jpg5|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1906852472/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Thrillers| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Wild Child: Growing Up Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a Nomad by Ian Mathie]]=== [[image:5starcentury.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]] For Ian Mathie fans there Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is good a perfectionist and bad newsa trauma doctor. Ian has come up with Anjali is the missing link in his narrative, free spirit of the story of group and she becomes a very unusual childhood (yes, the very years that made him the amazing man he became)GP. The bad – well it's hardly news two years later – is that the book is published posthumously. As always, When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's beautifully written, with many exciting momentsgoing to end in tragedy. What I most enjoyed was We don't know who suffered the feeling tragedy or the consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that many of will impact the questions in Ian Mathiethree friends. This time, it's later books their teenage children who are answered in ''Wild Child'' with a satisfying clunk. Seemingly all that's now left in the drawer is unpublishable. [[Wild Child: Growing Up a Nomad by Ian Mathie|Full Review]]involved.}}<!-- Martin Walker -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=0241636604| styletitle="widthThe Trading Game: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson[[image:1786485753.jpg|linkrating=http://www.amazon.co4.uk/dp/1786485753/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 5| stylegenre="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"Autobiography|summary===[[The Body If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in the Castle Well (A Brunoyour mind, Chief you're unlikely to think of Police Novel) by Martin Walker]]=== [[image:4starsomeone like Gary Stevenson.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] Claudia Muller A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was an Americanfamiliar with violence, studying art history poverty and being mentored by an eminent French art historian and Resistance war hero in Limeuil in Perigordinjustice. She There was beautiful, wore designer clothes and was wellno posh public school on his CV -liked by everyone. She didn't parade her wealth, or her father's White House connectionsbut he had been to the London School of Economics. In fact, her closest friend was Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a man recently released from prisonfacility with numbers which most of us can only envy. So when she left a lecture saying He also realised that she felt ill, and her body most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It was later found his ability at the bottom of the castle well it seemed that the likeliest explanation was that this had been what was, essentially, a dreadful accident card game which got him an internship with the only people to blame being the builders who had left the well unsealedCitibank. Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader. [[The Body in the Castle Well (A Bruno, Chief of Police Novel) by Martin Walker|Full Review]]}}<!-- Nayeri -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=1035021803| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller[[image:1786893452.jpg|linkrating=http://www3.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786893452/ref5|genre=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Crime| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Ungrateful Refugee by Dina Nayeri]]=== [[image:4It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up. She's back now because of a request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Politics Freya's former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and Society|Politics and Society]]the circumstances seem suspicious, [[:Category:Biography|Biography]] Here in to say the West, we see news reports about immigrants on a regular basis – some media welcoming them, some scaremongering about themleast. But all of those stories are written by journalists – almost always western, and almost always, no matter how deep Arthur was the investigative journalism they carry out, outsiders reason why Freya had not been back to the world and the situations that refugees find themselves in. It's rare that we find out the journeys from the refugees themselves – and this is a rare opportunity to do thatvillage: Arthur, in this intelligentshe feels, powerful and moving work by Dina Nayeri -someone who was born let her down badly. Even though they were in the middle of a revolution in Iranbusiness together as antique hunters, fleeing she has not felt able to America as a ten-year-oldbe near the man or pursue the profession she loved. 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.[[The Ungrateful Refugee by Dina Nayeri|Full Review]] <!-- Douglas Lindsay -->}}{{Frontpage|-isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover| styletitle="widthAll Tomorrow's Futures: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|Fictions that Disrupt[[image:1473696945.jpg|linkauthor=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1473696945/ref=nosim?tagBenjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=thebookbag-21]] 5| stylegenre="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"Science Fiction|summary===[[Boy in ''Opening up new ways of thinking about the Well (DI Westphall 2) by Douglas Lindsay]]=== [[image:3shape of things to come.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] The body of a nine-year-old boy was found at the bottom of a well which had been sealed for two hundred years - but the boy had only been dead for less than two days and there was no sign of how the body had got into the well. The owners of the property are adamant that the well was sealed when they went to open it, but DI Ben Westphall would be entitled to have his doubts. Belle McIntosh holds some strange views, particularly about the way that the government is controlling everyone through drugs which are added to the water supply which led to her wanting to reinstate the well. Her wife, Catriona Napier, is more moderate, but doesn't seem to have a lot of knowledge about what's going on on the fa [[Boy in the Well (DI Westphall 2) by Douglas Lindsay|Full Review]] <!-- Nick Louth -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:B07P9G9T5B.jpg|link=‪http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07P9G9T5B/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21‬]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Body in the Mist by Nick Louth]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] Muriel Hinkley was walking her dog when she found the body on a quiet country lane, just south of Exmoor. She didn’t recognise him - no one would for a long time as it was obvious that he’d been the victim of a hit-and-run. He had no face - most of it was smeared on the road and when D I Jan Talantire came to look at the body she realised that there was absolutely nothing on him which would allow for identification. All the labels had been cut out of his clothes and there was no wallet and no phone. Hi was Mister Nobody. [[The Body in the Mist by Nick Louth|Full Review]] <!-- Denise Mina -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1911215256.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1911215256/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Conviction by Denise Mina]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] It's strange how the worst of days can start in such an ordinary, mundane way. And so it was for Anna McDonald as she sorted out gym kit and packed lunches for her two daughters. It didn't begin to go wrong until she opened the door to her best friend, Estelle and realised that her husband was at the top of the stairs, dressed as though for a holiday rather than the work clothes she'd been expecting - and he was carrying a suitcase. He and Estelle were leaving together - and they were taking Anna's two daughters with them. There was another problem which neither Hamish nor Estelle knew about. Anna wasn't actually Anna McDonald. She was Sophie Bukaran, the woman who had been involved in the rape case against four footballers. [[Conviction by Denise Mina|Full Review]] <!-- Donnelly -->|-| style=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:1471407977.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1471407977/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''|===[[Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]] ''People will not forget. Or forgive. An ugly girl is too great an offense...the world is made for men. An ugly girl can never be forgiven.'' ''Stepsister'' tells the gripping story of Cinderella's 'ugly' stepsister, Isabelle. We've been told this fairy-tale over and over again throughout our lives and know the characters well. But have you ever wondered what happened to the sisters after Cinderella married the Prince? Or why the sisters disliked her so much? [[Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly|Full Review]] <!-- Gilly Macmillan -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1780899831.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1780899831/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Nanny by Gilly Macmillan]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] We know that something wrong is happening: a body is being dumped in deep water. The rower pulls away and rows back to the boat house and then she walks back to Lake Hall. As you begin reading you suspect that you know who has been killed and who dumped the body, but be patient: all will be revealed before too long. [[The Nanny by Gilly Macmillan|Full Review]] <!-- Weaver -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0241370116.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0241370116/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[No One Home by Tim Weaver]]=== [[image:3star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] Long after the police have given up on cold missing persons cases, David Raker picks them up and tracks them down. He's called to a particularly disturbing case where a small village of nine people all vanished overnight two years ago. Raker and his associate must delve in to the lives of these people to work out how and why nine people have gone missing. They are being threatened to stop but something about the mystery keeps drawing Raker further in, putting him in personal peril. [[No One Home by Tim Weaver|Full Review]] <!-- Marrs -->|-| style=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:1785038885.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1785038885/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''|===[[The Passengers by John Marrs]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] In the near future, self-drive cars are the norm - a convenient and easy way of transport. However, when someone hacks into the systems of eight self-drive cars, their passengers are set on a fatal collision course. As everyday commutes turn into terror-filled journeys, the public have to judge who should survive. But with every aspect of these passangers being examined by the public - will they turn out to be what they seem? [[The Passengers by John Marrs|Full Review]] <!-- Toon -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:147117946X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/147117946X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[If You Could Go Anywhere by Paige Toon]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]] Angie is someone who always wanted to travel, but it's taken her 27 years to leave the small mining town in south Australia which has been the only home she's ever known. She doesn't do things by half though, and once she does feel able to go (following a family death) she leaves not only the town, the state and the country, but also the continent, and finds herself following in her mother's footsteps and heading to Italy. [[If You Could Go Anywhere by Paige Toon|Full Review]] <!-- Nick Griffiths -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1789018307.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789018307/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Mayhem in the Archipelago by Nick Griffiths]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] In Latvia the conspirators meet in a rather unpleasant location, but it's their plans which matter to them. In Moscow two men delight in all the uncertainty in the Baltic. In Washington the Undersecretary is a woman, but the personal pressures on her are the same as the men in Moscow are obliged to suffer. In Stockholm three members of SÄPO, the Swedish Secret Service, know that the time has come for them to make a move. They'd talk more, but their wives would get difficult and there's a rather pleasing tart which mustn't be missed. [[Mayhem in the Archipelago by Nick Griffiths|Full Review]] <!-- Neal -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1794467440.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1794467440/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[Watchwords by Philip Neal]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]] This satisfying collection of short stories has a provenance at least as beguiling as the provenance of the antique watches that inspired it. Philip Neal lost a watch. It was a watch he was fond of and had been told was like a 1930s Cartier. Instead of mourning its loss, he began to collect vintage watches that resembled it. And that's how he became a watch collector. An eBay purchase led him to the Antique Watch Company watch repairers in Clerkenwell. The eBay purchase was a fake, but the friendship that grew between the buyer and the repairer of watches was not and the seed of an idea for a book was born. [[ Watchwords by Philip Neal |Full Review]] <!-- Stephen Booth -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0751567647.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0751567647/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Fall Down Dead (Cooper and Fry) by Stephen Booth]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] DS Dev Sharma is delighted - if delight is the right word to apply to a murder case - but he's got a result when the husband of a murder victim is found with the knife, standing over the body, and admitting to the murder. DI Ben Cooper is concerned with a suspicious death on Kinder Scout. A party of walkers - the New Trespassers Walking Group - got lost in the fog and problems arose when one of the party was injured. The group split up to find help, or at least a mobile signal, but when they're rescued they're one short and the body of Faith Matthew was found at the bottom of Kinder Downfall. It looked like a dreadful accident, but Cooper wasn't happy about the way the body had fallen. Things are not always as they seem - in either case. [[Fall Down Dead (Cooper and Fry) by Stephen Booth|Full Review]] <!-- Casey Cep -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1785150731.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1785150731/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:True Crime|True Crime]] Sometimes you begin reading a book and before you've got to the bottom of the first page you know that it's going to be brilliant. You sense the author's effortless grasp of her subject matter and you already know that her use of words is almost surgical in its precision. The hands holding you are safe, which considering that this is a book about two subjects where facts are in short supply, is somewhat surprising. Our first subject is the Reverend Willie Maxwell. Over seven years, six people close to the Reverend had died, with Maxwell benefiting substantially from insurance policies which he'd taken out on their lives. [[Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep|Full Review]] <!-- Weir -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1472227727.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1472227727/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]''

I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. 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| stylerating="vertical3.5|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 -align: top; textto 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 -align: left;"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.}}{{Frontpage|author=Christopher Edge|title=Black Hole Cinema Club|rating=4|genre=[[Six Tudor Queens: Anna 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 Kleve'The Black Hole'. All big movie fans, Queen they're looking forward to lots of Secrets by Alison Weir]]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, and to their real lives?|isbn=1839942738}}{{Frontpage|author=Rachel Greenlaw|title=Compass and Blade|rating=3.5|genre=Teens|summary=''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.''

[[image: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'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 a family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. With only nine days to unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the heart of the smuggler's territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and the ones she holds most dear.|isbn=0008664730}}{{Frontpage|author=James Sherwood Metts|title=Planet Storyland|rating=4.5star5|genre=Confident Readers|summary= Things have been a bit sticky for the 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, 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.jpg|linkisbn=Category:{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}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction{{Frontpage|author=A G Slatter|title=The Briar Book of the Dead|rating=5|genre=Fantasy|Historical Fiction]]summary='' There's a part of me that wants to keep this just to myself for however long I can. This secret magic of my own, all mine, at last. I just want to enjoy it for a while.''

PoorWithin a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, frumpy Anne lies Silverton; a town under the protection of Cleaves always gets the Briar's, a raw deal by history, family of all witches who protect the town and the wider world from the wives of Henry VIII 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 maelstrom of chaos. 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 known under threat.|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 being rejectedhis help on difficult cases. Anne Boleyn His assertions that there were only open-and Katheryn Howard -shut cases which didn't need the help of a psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, it 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. 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 it's not the Italian. But which of them was the primary target?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529395224|title=Letting the sexy onesCat Out of 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 footsteps, Jane particularly when he considered the dutiful one strain that being on-call put on his father's life. When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who delivered was a vet and 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 be a professional footballer.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0861541774|title=A Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet 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 sonGhurka. Initially, Katherine he faced a charge of Aragon clung on 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 crown younger cousin Katie if she could come and Katharine Parr clung on look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to her life but poor frumpy Anne get away for a while. Katie is coming out of Cleaves just rolled over a break up with a bad boyfriend, and moved alongso jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. Not any more! Alison Weir presents And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, 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 different view collection of knits from toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits - 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 more than twenty hours. All the projects are attractive, modern and useable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about '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 it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the very last person to deserve all this young woman bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who saw the opportunity has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Spike is going to live an independent life take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a waitress 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 took itBun|rating=4. [[Six Tudor Queens: Anna 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, well, whatever takes his fancy next of Klevethe two. But he's a bad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the regular back garden, Queen but into a world of Secrets by Alison Weirfrightening 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|Full Review]]summary= Can you make a ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, is the question should you make it? Or is the question if you did, would it land? The 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}}