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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.

==Reviews of the The Best New Books==

'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].''' <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE--> '''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].

|author=Kathleen Boucher and Sara ChadwickSylvie Cathrall|title=Nine Ways A Letter to Empower Tweensthe Luminous Deep|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersScience Fiction|summary=''9 Ways to Empower Tweens'' is There are few greater joys than a self-help book for tweens, setting out which lives up to show them vital #lifeskillsa compelling premise. Don't groan! I know there And this is a market glut one of such books for we grown-ups and for young adults too, but there is a needful space in an increasingly technological world accessible to younger and younger children for material for tweens toothem. |isbn= 02288188260356522776

|authorisbn= Katie Fforde0008517061|title= A Springtime AffairDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell|rating= 4|genre= Women's FictionCrime|summary= I've wanted to read author Katie Fforde for ages and this was pretty much exactly what I was expecting - a warmFormer Metropolitan Police detective, cosy read focused on romanceJake Johnson, family and friendshipshas settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. This provided two romances for There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the price future of onehis life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, but it was actually the family element as opposed moving in together would mean a 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 future she wants for herself and her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and putting the future on the romance that I really enjoyedback burner. |isbn=1780897561

|isbn=18385931871786482126|title=Guess What I Found in the Playground!The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Victoria ThompsonElly Griffiths

|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Tilly is excited. She's just come dashing out of Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the classroom, pigtails flapping behind her and a big grin on her face. Dad's come site was going to collect her and her brother and he hold seventy-five 'luxury'has'' to try to guess what she found in apartments - when they discovered the playground today, although she concedes that he will never guessbones of a child beneath a doorway. Dad wants to know how school There was, but ''obviously'' that's not importantno skull. Could Tilly have found more collectable things for her scrap boxWas this a ritual killing or murder? (IsnInevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't , that so much more sensible than she is pregnant with his child as a scrap ''book''?) Well, actually, Tilly did find exciting stuffresult of the one night they spent together some three months ago. There are sequins, glittered paper and all sorts of other things in her pocketHer condition will be obvious before long, but that's not what she wants Dad least because Ruth is prone to guesssudden bouts of sickness.

|authorisbn= Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed0008551324|title= Yes No Maybe So The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating= 4.5|genre= TeensCrime|summary= It''We might give it our all and crash and burn. But we might wins unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. We might actually change things. And that maybe makes it still worth going for, don't you think?''Jaime Neither side likes or has been spending his summer helping his cousin with campaigning in time any respect for a special electionthe other. When his mother encourages him to go canvassing, But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he can't think of anything worse. However, Jaime has always wanted s prepared to be a politician and decides there is no time like tell the police where the present to conquer his fear body of speaking to the public. Maya a missing person is a Pakistani-American Muslim girl buried and who is having the worst summer of was responsible for her lifedeath. Her parents are going through a separation This person, he promises, she has zero plans for is someone big and it will be worth the summer police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to help take her mind off things and her only close friend is permanently busy. To help occupy her, her parents offer be transferred to buy her a car if she agrees an open prison to go canvassing. The pair could possibly be serve the worst canvassing duo in history, as neither remainder of them really want his sentence and to be thereget an early parole date. Not much to ask, but as is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the campaign goes on they discover other thing that they care, a lot, about the election Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and maybe even about each other?|isbn=1471184668anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.

|authorisbn=Gregg Hurwitz0008405026|title=Into The FireA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey

|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary= Grant Merriweather is 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 forensic accountanthalt. Or ratherNow, her mother, Helena, wasand her father are dead in their bed. He was brought into an ER room after an alleged car crashInitially, his friend pleading with it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the medics to keep him alivebodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. He What looked as though it was needed alive just long enough going to give up be an open-and-shut case is now a namecomplex double murder. His cousinKerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, MaxUna Burt) are less convinced.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=07181855010571379877|title=The Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=Edward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class 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. 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: Edward is left to stumble upon the two of them kissing in a dark passageway.

|isbnauthor=1529124395Jo Callaghan|title=When You See Me|author=Lisa GardnerLeave No Trace

|summary=For Janet and Chuck, it was When a man is found crucified on the top of a hiking break hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the Appalachians in Georgia case alongside her sidekick, the AI 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 pure chance a very high profile case that Chuck went draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the beaten track case and, potentially, out of a career?|isbn=139851120X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1399613073|title=Moral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=Thrillers|summary=Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to find be a stickcardiothoracic surgeon. What he found was Laura is a human bone perfectionist and SSA Kimberley Quincy was called in, along with Sergeant D D Warrena trauma doctor. Both women were experienced in this type Anjali is the free spirit of rather gruesome work but the group and she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they also called on 're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the services three friends. This time, it's their teenage children who are involved.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0241636604|title=The Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=If you were to bring up an image of Keith Edgar, a computer analystcity banker in your mind, and Flora Dane who brought something unique you're unlikely to the tablethink of someone like Gary Stevenson. Flora had been kidnapped A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and held for 472 days by his background is the notorious killerEast End, where he was familiar with violence, Jacob Nesspoverty and injustice. If Ness There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had anything been to do the London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with the current discoveries then what Flora had numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to say could be invaluablestupid. It was his ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader.

|isbn=15290096771035021803|title=A Window BreaksThe Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C M EwanL Miller

|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=Tom Sullivan and his wife Rachel are having problemsIt's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up. ItShe's not just the usual growing apart after more than back now because of a decade of marriagerequest for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Their son, Michael, was killed in a car crash some months before: he was driving his fatherFreya's Audi former mentor and at sixteen wasnCarole't legally entitled s close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to drivesay the least. Not only did he kill himself when Arthur was the car rammed into a treereason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, but he also killed his girlfriendshe feels, fifteen-year-old Fiona Connorlet her down badly. Tom can't think about Michael without a sense of shame and guilt. Rachel is brokenEven though they were in business together as antique hunters, but she wants has not felt able to forgive Michaelbe near the man or pursue the profession she loved. To give some spaceAfter the split, Tomshe 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.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=All Tomorrow's moved out Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=''Opening up new ways of thinking about the family homeshape of things to come.'' 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 stresses to his thirteenI'm left with the feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of it is -yearfrankly -old daughterquite frightening. Of course, Holly, that it is only 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 trial separationway I could understand.

|isbnauthor=0241985153Sunny Singh|title=The House on the Lake|author=Nuala EllwoodHotel Arcadia

|genre=Thrillers|summary=We know The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that something has gone wrong - badly wrong - when suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Hiding from the woman terrorists who was alone 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 house is taken away hotel, he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by the policeevents, but itand keeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what's going 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 a while rescued before we learn exactly what has happenedthey are discovered by the terrorists.|isbn=086154742X

|authorisbn=Struan Murray and Manuel Sumberac (illustrator)1529153298|title=Orphans The List of the TideSuspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey

|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary= In the last city on EarthIt'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, anyone can be the vessel of The Enemy - the god who drowned the world - who has come but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to wreak havoc on move the last of humanityfamily 'Down South'. When a mysterious boy you're from Yorkshire, Down South is pulled from the corpse of a whalefrightening, the citizens immediately believe him to be the Vessel - all except for young Ellie Lancasterforeign place, a girl inventorbest avoided. As For Miv, the ruthless Inquisition prepares move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to execute prevent that. She's not worried about the boy, Ellie must prove dangers or that he is innocent her Mum's stopped talking - even if it means revealing her deepest, darkest secrets..to anyone.|isbn=0241384435

|isbn=00082971691398524085|title=The Guest ListHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Lucy FoleyNicci French|rating=4.5

|summary=The boat trip out to Inis AmploirCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, off the Irish coastsons Niall, might have been enough to put some guests offPaul and Ollie and her daughter, Etty. are all worried but it was the wedding of the year- strangely - her husband, Alec, is not. Will Slater (television personalityShortly afterwards, if not yet a celebrity) was to marry Jules Keegan, online magazine publisherEtty and Greg, in find the ruined chapel on the island. The bridebody of Greg's sisterfather, OliviaDuncan Ackerley, would be her only bridesmaid and in the wedding planner and chef are Aoife and her husband, Freddyriver. They gave a huge discount to get It was an easy assumption for the couple police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the island, guilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but surely it would be worth it for the publicity?get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.

|isbn=B07ZGL6B1B1035906708|title=In Plain Sight (D I Clare Mackay)Diva|author=Marion ToddDaisy Goodwin

|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction|summary=It We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was a coincidence that Detective Sergeant Chris West born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and DI Clare Mackay were at the beach 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 baby was stolenStates. They were there When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the fun run 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=Confident Readers|summary=Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their attention was taken by local cinema, a place that has the NEFEW protesters who tried to disrupt the racenickname of 'The Black Hole'. TheyAll big movie fans, they're against looking forward to lots of exciting films, and many, many snacks! However, as the planned McIntosh Water bottled water plant 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 be constructed the next, can they figure out what on earth is going on Priory Marsh ? 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 firm is sponsoring sea. The call of the deep, the fun runanswering beat in my heart. It was Lisa Mitchell's scream which stopped everything' Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Her daughterMira, six-month-old Abilike her mother before her, had been taken from her pram whilst no is one was lookingof the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. ItBut 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 major incident when ''any'' child wreck survivor who is as charming as he is abducted but Abi needs regular medication because 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 problem: without itof the smuggler's territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and the ones she might have only forty-eight hours to liveholds most dear.|isbn=0008664730

|isbnauthor=1471180921James Sherwood Metts|title=Firewatching|author=Russ ThomasPlanet Storyland|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeConfident Readers|summary=Detective Sergeant Adam Tyler is in Things have been a bit sticky for the Cold Cas Review Unit at South Yorkshire Police Earthlings. AI and there are those who think that heautomation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they's lucky re paid to be there, given do and other tasks that he decked a superior officertook time to accomplish. He's there because Tyler came off worse in the exchange - there's a scar on his face Just as they were beginning to prove it - and the superior officer was forced get used to take early retirement. There's a suggestion too that Tyler's godmother (she's on the force too) has looked after him all this technological change and that his current boss is keen starting to have a tame gay think of other, new ways to put on the town hall steps come Pridespend time, along came an awful pandemic. Either wayLife was pretty much shut down and, he's therealong with it, but without anything really interesting to get his teeth intoall the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|isbn=1736128426

|author= A K LarkwoodMatthew Tree|title= The Unspoken NameWe'll Never Know|rating= 4.5|genre= FantasyLiterary Fiction|summary= What does it mean Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to betray someone? What if that someone is a god? Csorwe has been raised knowing that she would be sacrificed to her god on her fourteenth birthdaydifferent from his father, yet when the opportunity arises, she chooses to abandon everything she knows a drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and flee with her lifewho had endless crises of self confidence. Who can blame her? Her god's reach is limited and Csorwe intends So Tim applied himself to stay far beyond it, yet fate is a funny thing and when circumstances bring her back within the reach of her god Csorwe learns that her god remembers herhis studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and blames her very much indeedset himself high but achievable ambitions.|isbn=1250238900B0CVFXPGP8

|author= M A G Leonard and Sam SedgmanSlatter|title= The Highland Falcon ThiefBriar Book of the Dead|rating= 5|genre= Confident ReadersFantasy|summary= Harrison Beck'' 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, or Hal as he prefers at last. I just want to be calledenjoy it for a while.'' Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, isnlies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Briar't exactly pleased when his parents send him off with his uncle Nats, a travel writerfamily of witches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands. Though she has always wished for magic, on 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 long train journeysteward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. AlthoughWhen her grandmother suddenly dies, this isnEllie't any old train; this is s cousin Audra becomes the Highland FalconBriar Witch, the royal traintown's leader, and this is its last ever journey before it gets sent to a museumEllie takes her place beside her. A number of high-society figuresAs challenges come her way left, including film stars, millionaires right and aristocratscentre, will be on this train, so it is quite Ellie uncovers the event on rare ability to communicate with the social calendar. Howeverdead, when an expensive brooch is stolen, Hal realises that maybe this trip won't be as boring as he previously thoughtputting her at the heart of a maelstrom of chaos. As the passengers begin Reeling from one family secret to turn on each otheranother, Hal vows Ellie must decide who to get trust and determine what to do as the bottom of the mystery…before the train gets Briar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to the end of the linesurvive, is under threat.|isbn=15290130621803364548

|isbn=00082752461529900360|title=Perfect Kill (D I Callanach)The Ghost Orchid|author=Helen FieldsJonathan Kellerman

|summary=When Maggie Campbell realised It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that her son, BartAlex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was missing he was already 200 miles away and just waking from a chemically-induced sleepreluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. Maggie knew straight away His assertions that something was wrong. Bart might be twenty but he was considerate of his mother there were only open-and wouldn-shut cases which didn't have stayed out all night without letting her knowneed the help of a psychologist only worked for a while. BesidesFinally, it was Robin, he didnDelaware't have his phone with him and he wouldn't have gone far without s partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something thatthe man she loved needed. It's not long before Bart realises that he's aloneThe next case did look simple, trapped though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a shipping container remote property in Bel Air. He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and on his way she is married to France, where his fate has already been decidedan extremely rich man and it's not the Italian. But which of them was the primary target?

|authorisbn= Alyssa Sheinmel1529395224|title= What Kind Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of Girla Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating= 43.5|genre= Women's FictionAnimals and Wildlife|summary= '' Doing something when you're scared is braver than doing something when you're not'' When Mike Parker's girlfriend comes Siôn Rowlands fell into school with veterinary science accidentally. His father was a black eyeGP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, claiming particularly when he gave it to her, her whole world is tipped upside down. Her relationship has just ended and now sheconsidered the strain that being on-call put on his father's the talk of the schoollife. Mike When he was seventeen he took the most popular boy in school opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was always so in love with her, everyone knew thata vet and was convinced this was the job for him. Before long, so why did he do what he did? Some people believe her and some donwas at Liverpool University. It hadn't- as with so many students - been his dream since he was a child. If anything, but one thing is for sure, this isnhe't going d wanted to blow over any time soonbe a professional footballer.|isbn=0349003297

|authorisbn= Holly Rivers0861541774|title= Demelza and the Spectre DetectorsA Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows|rating= 54|genre= Confident ReadersCrime|summary= Demelza Clock is DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a scientist, often staying short holiday in Singapore to meet up late to work on her various gadgetswith an old ally, much to her Grandma Maeve's irritationGuy 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. However Initially, she has also inherited he faced a certain set charge of skills manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that are not especially scientific: Spectre Detecting, the ability he might have planned to summon murder the ghosts of man. Now he could be facing the recently deceaseddeath penalty. Under the guidance of her Grandma Maeve, Demelza begins Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to master her newfound skills. However, there is help as any interference from another police force could provoke a mysterious individual on the prowl, kidnapping young Spectre Detectors. Itdiplomatic incident and wouldn's up to Demelza and her best friend Percy to get to the bottom of this..t help Danny at all.|isbn=1912626039

|isbnauthor=1787477533Alexander McCall Smith|title=The Lantern Men (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly GriffithsPerfect Passion Company|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction|summary=Everything 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 changed 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 Dr Ruth Gallowaya while. She's no longer providing assistance to the police Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and isn't even working so jumps at the University of North Norfolkchance to come home to Edinburgh. She's lecturing at Cambridge and has moved And so begins this new story from her beloved Saltmarsh cottage Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to live 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with Dr Frank Barker in Cambridgesome new characters who quickly begin to charm. Her daughterKatie has no experience in running a business, Katieor in match-making, but Ness has settled into school better than she could ever have hoped and life is looking good. Settled. She can't help thinking about Harry Nelsonfull confidence in her abilities, Katie's father, because Katie sees him regularly and there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a close relationship with his family. You might ''almost'' think that Ruth's life is settling down.hand…|isbn=1846976596

|isbn=183895015X0811771741|title=A Bit of a Stretch: The Diaries of a PrisonerInstaKnits for Baby|author=Chris AtkinsMelissa Leapman|rating=54|genre=Politics and SocietyCrafts|summary=Documentary filmmakers donMelissa Leapman't usually get s ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of the run 'long, cosy afternoons in front of establishments within the Mountbattenfire' variety. The projects are divided by the time they'll take to complete -Windsor Hotel Groupless than five hours, but after getting involved in an illegal tax scheme five to fund his latest filmten hours, Chris Atkins was invited for a five-year stayten to twenty hours and more than twenty hours. The first nine months were spent in HMP Wandsworth, which is probably All the oldestprojects are attractive, largest modern and most dysfunctional prison in Europeuseable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's me being picky.

|isbn=1250168546|author=Sarah KozloffDean Koontz|title=A Queen In HidingThe Bad Weather Friend|rating=34.5|genre=FantasyParanormal|summary= World-building Benny is the backbone by which fantasy novels live having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and diehis house gets trashed. And what Oh, and someone has delivered a pleasurereally weird, thendisturbing 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 get deserve all this bad luck. He is a novel with world-building you actually want nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to delve into. Sarah Kozloff's debut novel presents his house is a startlingly rich and layered worldnew friend, with a complex history of connecting nations that seems certain bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to have more help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Spike is going to taptake care of Benny, and the characters are interesting – will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a little underdeveloped. But itwaitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's a world I could – and did – eagerly buy into, and the struggle of each Queen to discover and hone her magical talent felt very real and very aptwild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=1662500491

|isbnauthor=1543987877Adam Stower|title=Learn to Love: Guide to Healing Your Disappointing Love Life|author=Dr Thomas JordanMurray and Bun

|genre=LifestyleConfident Readers |summary=''Learn Murray is supposed to Love: Guide be a humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to Healing Your Disappointing Love Life'' is a book about love relationships rather than a book about love. The two greatest emotions are love sleep and eat and eat and grief sleep and love is , well, whatever takes his fancy next of the opposite of grief: ''if you lovetwo. But he's a bad magician's cat, Dr Thomas Jordan tells usso his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, ''you will inevitably grieve''. Your love relationships begin and the moment you're born and end only when you die. Whilst we all come catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the regular back garden, but into a world hoping to give of frightening adventure and receive love there are many people for whom love is not quite so simplewhiffs. Some people suffer multiple disappointments - sometimes repeating the same mistakes - and this eventually becomes resignation. For people who are making the same mistakes repeatedlyThis time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, self-preservationto be honest, in the form of resignation is a necessity.but he's turned up and he'll have to do…|isbn=0008561249

|authorisbn=Chris HautyB0C47LV1PC|title=Deep StateFragility|author=Mosby Woods|rating=34|genre=ThrillersLiterary Fiction|summary= Hayley Chill Can you make a ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, is the question should you make it? Or is a fighter. She the question if you did, would it land? The catch is every kind of fighter and that the answer for both could well-trained in most of thembe... She's army infantry and she boxes for fun – and she wins. Alwaysno. She wins because she  ''Fragility'' is focussed. She works hardset as the city of Portland, mentally and physicallyOregon, and she knows how cautiously begins to deal with emerge from the restrictions imposed during the pain. She covid pandemic}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529431735|title=The Winter Visitor|author=James Henry|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=It's February 1991 and Essex is not so much bitingly cold , which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the more surprising. He'd been exiled on the Costa del Sol as controlleda wanted drug smuggler for a decade. This fight is against someone The return has come about because he's had a letter from his ex-wife, saying that she is not expected 's ill and hasn't long to beatlive. And she It's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is being watchedabducted, stripped to his underwear and sent to a watery grave in the boot of a stolen Ford Sierra.|isbn=1471185605 Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?

|author=H G Parry Alex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=The Unlikely Escape Glorious Race of Uriah HeepMagical Beasts

|genre=General FictionConfident Readers|summary=Brothers Rob and Charley have struggled to see eye to eye for years - Rob Eli is a sensible lawyer who exists busy lad – by day an apprentice in the "normal" world - wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and Charley in the evening a man who helper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – for there is blessed with an ability he can't fully control - one which allows him to bring literary characters into a generation missing in the real worldfamily. After A few short years of protecting Charleyago, Rob wants to discharge his duties and leave Charley to his own devices - but circumstances soon take choices out of Eli's parents were both their hands. As literary characters begin lost to appear everywherethe titular race, it soon becomes clear that someone out there shares Charley's powers and intends a globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to use them for nefarious gainsnavigate the world in the company of a magical beast. Rob and Charley must team up This has made the race anathema to stop the madness - in pair – but when a battle bad incident at the eatery leads to win before theya 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 characters and end – the world reach The End…only thing to possibly save his gran.|isbn=03565137770571382231