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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, the charity shop 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.
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==Reviews of the The Best New Books==
'''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by category]]. '''<br>
'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].''' <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE--> '''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{Frontpage|author=Sylvie Cathrall|title=A Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary= There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of them.|isbn= 0356522776}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B07X6GLQ3Q0008517061|title=See Them RunDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Marion ToddStig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=D I Clare Mackay is still relatively new to St Andrew's: she was previously Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Maryhill Rd station in GlasgowLittle Sky. She's left quite There’s perhaps a lot behind including a relationship that wasn't going anywhere after Tom failed to support little uncertainty about the future of his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and her when the chips were down. She also left daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a nasty situation, 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 own making but reservations about whether or not her fault, and St Andrew's this is a fresh start. Not long into the job future she's faced with a hit wants for herself and run death her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and thereputting the future on the back burner.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1786482126|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 's little doubt that it wasnluxury't accidental apartments - when they discovered the card with the number five suggests murderbones of a child beneath a doorway. Andy Robb There was married to Sandrano skull. You could say that they had an open marriage but there seemed to be Was this a lot of the ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It'opens difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn' and very little t, that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the 'marriage' left - on both sidesone night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, but would she want him dead?not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=17865409910008551324|title=The Impossible BoyDevil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Ben BrooksNeil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=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 prison and he'Oleg and Emma entered their den s prepared to find tell the police where the body of a cardboard spaceship standing where they usually satmissing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. Slowly This person, he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the front door opened. Smoke billowed outpolice doing what he wants. And out stepped a boy, dressed in a long coat with what he wants is to be transferred to an even longer scarf, wound around open prison to serve the remainder of his necksentence and to get an early parole date. Not much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008405026|title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=It''"My names 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 halt. Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's Sebastian Cole," something about the positioning of the boy said, "But you already know bodies thatmakes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder." Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0571379877|title=The Kellerby Code|author=Jonny SweetAnd indeed they do|rating=3. Ever since the summer5|genre=Crime|summary=Edward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, when their friend SarahRobert and Stanza. Robert's a theatre director. He's mother had moved her awayalso self-obsessed, demanding, Oleg handsome and Emma have entitled and uses Edward to run errands for him. Edward has been unable in love with Stanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to find Robert. Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a new friend relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to take her placestumble upon the two of them kissing in a dark passageway.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1447281357Jo Callaghan|title=Salvation Lost|author=Peter F. HamiltonLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=Science FictionCrime|summary=In When a man is found crucified on the twenty-third centurytop of a hill in Nuneaton, humanity is enjoying a comparative utopia. Yet life on Earth is about DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to changethe case alongside her sidekick, foreverthe AI detective Lock. Feriton Kane It's investigative team has discovered the worst threat ever to face mankind – and we've almost no time to fight backtheir first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. The supposedly benign Olyix plan to harvest humanity But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, in order to carry us Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to their god at the end of the universeAI Future Policing project. And as their agents conclude schemes down on earth, vast warships converge above to gather this cargo. Some factions push for humanity to flee, Will they be able to live in hiding amongst solve the stars – although only a chosen few would make it out case in time. But others refuse to break before , or will Kat find herself taken off the storm. As disaster loomscase and, potentially, animosities must be set aside to focus on just one goal: wiping this enemy from the face out of creation. Even if it means preparing for a future this generation will never see.career?|isbn=139851120X
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=14711863931399613073|title=Photographer of the LostMoral Injuries|author=Caroline ScottChristie Watson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical FictionThrillers|summary=May 1921Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Edie receives Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a photograph through the postbonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. There Laura is no letter or note with ita perfectionist and a trauma doctor. There Anjali is nothing written on the back free spirit of the photographgroup and she becomes a GP. It is When we first meet them they're at a picture of her husband, Francisdrug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to end in tragedy. Francis has been missing for four yearsWe don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Technically, he has been "missing, believed killed" but Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that is not something that a young widow can believewill impact the three friends. She hangs on the word This time, it'missing', disbelieving the word killeds their teenage children who are involved.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=17837843500241636604|title=This Golden FleeceThe Trading Game: A Journey Through Britain's Knitted HistoryConfession|author=Esther RutterGary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=HistoryAutobiography|summary=It was December and Esther Rutter was stuck If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in her office jobyour mind, writing you're unlikely to people she'd never met and preparing spreadsheetsthink of someone like Gary Stevenson. The job frustrated her and even her knitting did not soothe her mind. January was going to be a time for making changes A hoodie and she decided that she would travel jeans replaces the length pin-stripe suit and breadth of his background is the British Isles East End, where he was familiar with occasional forays abroadviolence, discovering poverty and telling injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the story London School of wool's history and how it had made and changed the landscapeEconomics. She'd grown up on a sheep farm in Suffolk Stevenson is bright - '' a free range child on the farm'' extremely bright - and learned he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to spinbe stupid. It was his ability at what was, essentially, knit and weave from her mother and her mother's frienda card game which got him an internship with Citibank. This was in her bloodEventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=14012862081035021803|title=Black Canary: IgniteThe Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=Meg Cabot and Cara McGeeC L Miller
|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Meet Dinah LanceIt's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up. Frustrated that She's back now because of a request for help from her policeman father will not allow her to try beloved aunt, Carole. Freya's former mentor and follow in his footstepsCarole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and seemingly lumbered with being a cheerleader at schoolthe circumstances seem suspicious, she is desperate to find her voicesay the least. But it's actually more a case of her voice finding her Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, as when she gets frustrated or plain dissed at school feels, let her vocal outcry can shatter glass better than any opera singerdown badly. You could almost call it a weapon Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the man or a powerpursue the profession she loved. But After the split, she worked in order for her to call herself a superherocafe, there has to be a whole path of steps for her to take – one met and married James (on the rebound from the love of which will be into her past…life, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1789017977AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=Ronnie and HildaAll Tomorrow's RomanceFutures: Towards a New Life after World War IIFictions that Disrupt|author=Wendy WilliamsBenjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=45|genre=HistoryScience Fiction|summary=Ronnie Williams was ''Opening up new ways of thinking about the son shape of Thomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) and Ethel Wallthings to come. There's some doubt as to whether or not they were ever married or even Harry's birthdate: he claimed to I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Well, I must confess that there have been born in 1863, but he was already many years older more than Ethel and he might well have shaved a few years off his agedecades of technology in my lifetime. For a while the family was quite I've kept up reasonably well-with what's advantageous to-do me but disaster struck in I'm left with the 1929 Depression and fivefeeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of it is -yearfrankly -old Ronnie had to adjust to a very different lifestylequite frightening. One thing he did inherit from his father was his need to be well-turned-out Of course, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and this would stay with him throughout his lifeend up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. He joined the army at eighteen I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in 1942a way I could understand.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1542015421Sunny Singh|title=The Royal Baths Murder|author=J R EllisHotel Arcadia
|rating=3.5
|genre=CrimeThrillers |summary=When Damian Penrose was murdered there was no shortage of suspects: he was The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a deeply unpleasant manterrorist group. In fact Hiding from the only surprising thing was that terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there wasn't more of is Sam, a queue waiting to do wartime photographer and Abhi, the dirty deedhotel manager. What was As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the hotel, he forms a bit of a headline maker was that Penrose was a crime writer bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and that he was strangled in the midst keeps on venturing out of Harrogateher room to try to capture what's crime writing festivalhappened through her photography. He went for a swim at Although they only ever talk over the Royal Baths phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and never returned, his body being found they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the receptionist. DCI Jim Oldroyd was the man tasked with investigating the crime. It would not be the only death, and it was only because of the quick actions of his sergeant, Andy Carter, that Oldroyd's was not one of themterrorists.|isbn=086154742X
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Daniel Kraus1529153298|title=Blood SugarThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=This It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is a difficult readPrime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly... And ) She's not because of the dark subject matter – thatwhat'll come later – but because of the way in which its worrying Miv's toldfamily, though. Women have been disappearing. This might put a lot of readers off Well, they've been murdered, and but to be honest ithave 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv'd be hard s upset because she's overheard that her father wants to blame them. Kraus tells move the story in a distinctive voice unlike any other Ifamily 'Down South've read; an erratic dialect with heavy and frequent slang. The immediate effect When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is disorientating and distractinga frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and it takes some time she'll do anything to feel naturalprevent that. It She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's a struggle stopped talking - to acclimatise to Jodyanyone.}}{{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 voicefiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, to get acquainted with his mannerismssons 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 story wouldnbody of Greg't be s father, Duncan Ackerley, in the same without it, and somehow it worksriver. It shouldnwas 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 it doesget on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.|isbn=1789091934
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Don Behrend1035906708|title=Copernicus! What Have You Done?: ...and Other Interesting QuestionsDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=TriviaGeneral Fiction|summary= Hello! Would this review be okay if I simply said ''I LOVED THIS GLORIOUS LITTLE BOOK AND SO WILL YOUWe 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. FIN Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas'?! Because I didto make it more manageable in the States. And you will 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. |isbn=1789016770}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1925820025Christopher Edge|title=Once, I was Loved|author=Belinda LandsberryBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=For SharingConfident Readers|summary=TockLucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the toy rabbit, is in a box nickname of toys going to the charity shop'The Black Hole'. He realises that heAll big movie fans, they's not wanted any morere looking forward to lots of exciting films, but muses and many, many snacks! However, as the movie starts, they very quickly realise that it wasnsomething about this new film format is very different, and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't always this wayeven imagine. ''Once''But as they lurch from one film genre to the next, he says, ''I was loved''. can they figure out what on earth is going on? And he tells us of all Will they ever get back to the children who have loved him over the years.cinema, and to their real lives?|isbn=1839942738
}}
{{Frontpage
|author= Karina Sainz Borgo and Elizabeth Bryer (translator)Rachel Greenlaw|title= It Would Be Night in CaracasCompass and Blade|rating= 43.5|genre= Literary Fiction Teens|summary= ''It Would Be Night I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in Caracasmy heart.'' illuminates Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the everyday horrors rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, is one of modern day Venezuelathe seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. It begins with But when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the death of Adelaida Falconisland's mother leader and chronicles AdelaidaMira's coming father. Desperate to terms 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 new solitude , she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in this world and the sea. With only nine days to unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her attempts from the watched streets of foreign islands to escape itthe 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. Danger stalks 5|genre=Confident Readers|summary= Things have been a bit sticky for the shadows Earthlings. AI andautomation have been proceeding apace, in a society where the establishment is crumblingoften 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, who can you turn 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.|isbn=00629368671736128426
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0349423067Matthew Tree|title=The Body on the Train (Kate Shackleton Mysteries)|author=Frances BrodyWe'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime (Historical)Literary Fiction|summary=From Christmas Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to Easter a train ran be different from Leeds City Station to King’s Crosshis father, arriving before dawn so that the forced rhubarb it carried could be taken to Covent Garden. In early March 1929 one of the porters who was unloading the boxes discovered the body of a man, stripped naked drunk and with no means chronic underachiever whose dreams of identification. Scotland Yard hit a dead end being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and called on the services who had endless crises of Kate Shackleton in the hope that her knowledge and connections in Yorkshire would give them the lead they neededself confidence. Kate immediately found herself hamstrung: Commander Woodhead remembered her as a child So Tim applied himself to his studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and could not come to terms with the fact that she was now a woman experienced in dealing with murder. He was reluctant to give her all the information which the police heldset himself high but achievable ambitions.|isbn= B0CVFXPGP8
}}
{{Frontpage
|author= Stephen BaxterA G Slatter|title= World Engines: DestroyerThe Briar Book of the Dead|rating= 45|genre= Science FictionFantasy|summary= Hundreds '' There's a part of years in 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.'' Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the futureworld, on lies Silverton; a stagnating and almost empty Earthtown under the protection of the Briar's, a space shuttle pilot family of witches who protect the town and the wider world from the early days of the 21st century Darklands. Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is awoken from the cryogenic sleep he entered after first non-witch to be born into her family for generations and as such since she was young, her training as a devastating accidentsteward 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 he comes to terms with this new worldchallenges come her way left, he begins to realise that their history does not match what he remembers - right and that only he may be able centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to stop communicate with the coming catastrophe destined to destroy dead, putting her at the planetheart of a maelstrom of chaos. Until he meets a young woman Reeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who seems to trust and determine what to do as the Briar witches' legacy, everything they have a drive of her ownsacrificed to survive, and a plan..is under threat.|isbn=14732231721803364548
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=14063893311529900360|title=In the Key of CodeThe Ghost Orchid|author=Aimee LucidoJonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Emmy is moving with her parents halfway across AmericaIt 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 follow her fatherask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn's dreams t need the help of a big break in his music careerpsychologist only worked for a while. She leaves behind her friends and her school in Wisconsin Finally, it was Robin, and moves to CaliforniaDelaware's partner, knowing only what who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the man she has heard loved needed. The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a remote property in songsBel Air. Her struggle He was the heir to settle into her new life, make friends an Italian shoe empire and feel happy and confident again, she is agonisingly told in a way we can all relate married to. There are many new opportunities an extremely rich man and setbacks, taking the reader on a rollercoaster of emotions, but it isn't until Emmy joins a coding class using computer language that she begins to feel she might have a chance to feel like she truly belongss not the Italian. But which of them was the primary target?
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=15294022551529395224|title=A Body in Letting the Bookshop (Kitt Hartley Yorkshire Mysteries)Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Helen CoxSion 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, particularly when he considered the 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 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= Evie Bowes is very conscious of the scars on her faceDCI 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. They were acquired when she Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was rescued from facing a man armed with a knife - and he killed a Ghurka. Initially, he faced a car in charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the River Ouse by Inspector Halloranman. She’d been suspected of Now he could be facing the murder of her boyfriend, Owendeath 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 the process of clearing providing a more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her name younger cousin Katie if she could come and her best friendlook after the business, Kitt Hartley developed as Ness is planning to take a taste trip to Canada to get away for detectiona while. Kitt developed Katie is coming out of a break up with a taste for Inspector Halloran Toobad boyfriend, and so jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. 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 they’re taking it slowlywith some new characters who quickly begin to charm. WellKatie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, sort of slowly.and there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|isbn=1846976596
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn= Alexandra Christo0811771741|title= Into the Crooked PlaceInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman|rating= 4|genre= TeensCrafts|summary= In Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a world thriving with black magiccollection of knits from toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of the 'long, four young crooks embark on a quest 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 take down their criminal leader after they discover twenty hours and more than twenty hours. All the plot behind his dangerous new magicprojects are attractive, modern and useable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's me being picky.|isbn=1250318378
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Kathlaine C Gill and D Clark GillDean Koontz|title=Madness Between Light and DarkThe Bad Weather Friend|rating=34.5|genre=FantasyParanormal|summary=ItBenny 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 1912possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, and at New Hope Sanatorium, Christine Agnes Tupper Benny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is fast growing upa nice person. A really nice person. Abandoned there by parents So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who were ashamed of her hunchback, she's nevertheless grown up has been sent to an intelligent girl with help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good heartperson. Her encounters with the inhabitants Spike is going to take care of the asylum swiftly take her on a fascinatingBenny, thrilling and sometimes terrifying journey will certainly take care of self discoveryBenny's enemies, if he, allowing Agnes to prove thatBenny, even with and Harper (a twisted spine, her heart is in the right place!waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=16411107081662500491
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=190874572XAdam Stower|title=Letters from Tove|author=Tove Jansson (Author), Boel Westin (Editor), Helen Svensson (Editor), Sarah Death (Translator)Murray and Bun|rating=4.5|genre=AutobiographyConfident Readers |summary=Back at the beginning 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 the century I went on holiday to Nepaltwo. I met But he's a wonderful Finnish woman bad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and we became sort the catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the regular back garden, but into a world of friendsfrightening adventure and whiffs. I can't remember if This time round it was on that holiday or drops them into a Viking land, where a later troll hunter is expected – well, one that Paula told me I really had much bigger than Murray was, to read Tove Jansson. I do know that it was four years later that I finally acquired an English translation of The Summer Bookbe honest, and that I eagerly awaited the ''Sort Of'' translations of the rest of Janssonbut he's work turned up and devoured them as soon as I could get my hands on them.he'll have to do…|isbn=0008561249
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{{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? 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
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=17847427831529431735|title=The Benefit of Hindsight (Simon Serrailler)Winter Visitor|author=Susan HillJames Henry|rating=54
|genre=Crime
|summary=A superficial look would suggest to you that Simon Serrailer has been lucky It's February 1991 and - all things considered - his life Essex is as good as it could be. Hebitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins's back at work after a long break to recuperate from return all the violent incident which cost him his arm and almost his lifemore surprising. When heHe's not at work he's spending his time in d been exiled on the cathedral roof drawing the medieval angels which are being restored. There's talk of an exhibition of his drawings. Lafferton seems to be quite settled Costa del Sol as far as crime is concerned until one night when two local men open their front door to a couple seeking shelterwanted drug smuggler for a decade. ItThe return has come about because he's the usual story of had a brokenletter from his ex-down carwife, saying that she's ill and a phone which wonhasn't make a call. The man are generous and welcoming and have no suspicions that the couple are simply there long to plan a robberylive. It's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his underwear and sent to a serious error of judgement watery grave in the course boot of this investigation which will throw Simon Serrailler's future into doubta stolen Ford Sierra. Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=140638853XAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=Somebody Give This Heart a Pen|author=Sophia ThakurThe Glorious Race of Magical Beasts|rating=54|genre=AnthologiesConfident Readers|summary=Sophia Thakur's debut anthology Eli is a collection of poems that are all uniquebusy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, whether and in relation to their stylethe evening a helper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. Eli lives with his lovely gran, length or themetoo – for there is a generation missing in the family. The collection is split into four sections A few short years ago, titled 'growEli's parents were both lost to the titular race,'wait','break'and 'grow again', guiding you through a process which is one globe-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 foundations that pair – but when a bad incident at the anthology is built on. Each section begins with eatery leads to a foregrounded title page containing various small pieces of writing, ranging confession from a quote by a Nigerian playwrightgran, Eli knows his only hope is to African proverbs. This provides a nice introduction dare to enter what he most hates, with the section before you are immersed into sole aim the beautifully written and eloquent poems that Thakur has clearly put her heart and soul intoprize of magic at the end – the only thing to possibly save his gran.|isbn=0571382231
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