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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=02413968400008517061|title=KeeperDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Jessica MoorStig Abell|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary= Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. 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: 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 back burner.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1786482126|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Katie Straw worked Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the womensite was going to hold seventy-five 's refuge and luxury' apartments - when they discovered the women who lived there liked and respected herbones of a child beneath a doorway. She treated them well and seemed to have an understanding of what they were going throughThere was no skull. Why then did she jump from the local suicide spot into the river belowWas this a ritual killing or murder? There had been no signs that she was unhappy and she and her boyfriend seemed to have been content together - and Noah has a decent alibi for the time when she diedInevitably, but what other explanation could there be for her death? Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. The police are convinced that itIt's suicidedifficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the women who knew her believed otherwiseone night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=18388806580008551324|title=Murder at Enderley Hall The Devil You Know (Miss UnderhayD S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|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's prepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. This person, he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date. 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'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 halt. Now, her mother, Helena Dixon, and her father are dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the bodies that makes 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 Sweet|rating=43.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=ItEdward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and Stanza. Robert's the summer of 1933 and Kitty Underhay is on her way to visit the family which she never knew she had, at Enderley Halla theatre director. Her grandmother He's also self-obsessed, Mrs Treadwelldemanding, handsome and entitled and Great Aunt Livvy are back at the Dolphin Hotel uses Edward to run errands for him. Edward has been in Dartmouthlove with Stanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. Kitty gets easily bored working at the Dolphin - every day 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 much left to stumble upon the same - but her real reason for going away is that she needs two of them kissing in a break after her recent adventures, which involved three vicious murders, an arson attack and an attempt on her lifedark passageway.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1788638026Jo Callaghan|title=Where the Innocent Die (D I Ridpath)|author=M J LeeLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=It was easy to assume that When a man is found crucified on the death top of a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the young Chinese girl at case alongside her sidekick, the Immigrant Removal Centre was suicideAI detective Lock. Her throat was cutIt's their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. But when there was is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a lot of blood 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 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 the knife was Anjali met on the floor at the side first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of the beda century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, She was due which is a bonus when you aim to be deported that daya cardiothoracic surgeon. ButLaura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor... how did Anjali is the knife get into free spirit of the secure centre group and why was the girl's room the only one which was unlocked? she becomes a GP. DI Thomas Ridpath, the coronerWhen we first meet them they's officer, is sent to investigate re at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and he quickly becomes suspicious, Thereit's a snag though: the inquest is due going to open end in a couple of daystragedy. We don' time, t know who suffered the tragedy or the girl's parents are coming over from China and they want to take their daughter's body home with themconsequences. Ridpath has just Twenty-five days to solve years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the casethree friends. The coroner is disinclined to delay the inquest: for herThis time, it's about giving closure to the parentstheir teenage children who are involved.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=14711660230241636604|title=Burnt Island (Ben Kitto)The Trading Game: A Confession|author=Kate RhodesGary Stevenson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. 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.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1035021803
|title=The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder
|author=C L Miller
|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=The 5th of November was D I Ben KittoIt's thirty-fifth birthday and twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the occasion for the usual bonfire celebrations, but it would be marred this year by the discovery of Professor Alex RoganEnglish country village where she grew up. She's body on back now because of a bonfirerequest for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. HeFreya'd obviously been alive when he was put on s former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the fire and can only have died a terrible deathleast. The body Arthur was first discovered by Jimmy Curwenthe reason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, better known on St Agnes she feels, let her down badly. Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the Bird Man because he speaks little man or nothing and his only concern is pursue the welfare of the birds he looks afterprofession she loved. His instinct is to cover Rogan's body After the split, she worked in a cafe, met and he uses his sheepskin coat to do this, with married James (on the result that he's rebound from the prime suspectlove of her life, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=All Tomorrow's 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 shape 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 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=Elliot ReedSunny Singh|title=A Key Hotel Arcadia|rating=3.5|genre=Thrillers |summary=The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Hiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, a wartime photographer and Abhi, the hotel manager. As Abhi continues to Treehouse Livingtry 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=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=This It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is the story of a young boyPrime Minister. (A woman? I mean, William Tyce, who is being raised by his uncle after the death of his mother and his fatherhonestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's abandonmentfamily, though. HoweverWomen have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, it isnbut to have 'disappeared' doesn't told in sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the usual narrative wayfamily 'Down South'. InsteadWhen you're from Yorkshire, the book Down South is made up of glossary entries, written by Williama frightening, as a way of describing certain eventsforeign place, situations and emotionsbest avoided. It runs alphabeticallyFor Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, starting with ABSENCESharon, then moving and she'll do anything to ALPHABETICAL ORDERprevent that. As I began to read I did find myself thinking She'what on earth?!' but I soon grew used to s not worried about the style, and was instead caught up in Williamdangers or that her Mum's storystopped talking - to anyone.|isbn=1911545418
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Will Dean 1398524085|title=Black River Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French
|rating=5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Tuva Moodyson returns - Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and this third book in the Tuva Moodyson mystery series delves deep into her personal lifedaughter, returning Etty. are all worried but - strangely - her to husband, Alec, is not. Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the isolated town body of Gavrik and into a desperate search Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in the river. It was an easy assumption for her missing best friend. With the Midsommar sun blocked out by police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the dark pines of the forest, Tuva fights to save her friendguilt. But who’ll be The Salter children are not convinced but there to save Tuva?|isbn=1786077116's little else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=17824074801035906708|title=Bird Love: The Family Life of BirdsDiva|author=Wenfei Tong and Mike WebsterDaisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=Animals and WildlifeGeneral Fiction|summary=I was a little perturbed when I looked at the blurb for ''Bird Love'' on a couple We tend to think of on-line booksellers: ''exploring the sex life of birds'' it said. I very nearly passed over the bookMaria Callas as Greek, but a closer examination suggested that the book is about the ''family life'' of birdsshe was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, which is rather differentin December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. If the book Her original surname was confined Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to the sex life of birds, you would be missing an opportunity 'Callas' to understand how birds live day-to-day, bring up their families and cope make it more manageable in the wildStates. Not only When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that, you have missed she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the treat of so many beautiful illustrations about Nazi occupation by a wide variety mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of birds which run through this book from the first page to the lasther preference for her elder sister, Jackie.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Camilla BruceChristopher Edge|title=You Let Me InBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Set Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the 1960nickname of 'The Black Hole's. All big movie fans, this is a mystery adventure storythey're looking forward to lots of exciting films, all about a little girl called Nell and her quest to find her nannymany, Perrine (Pear) who left her very suddenly and thenmany snacks! However, after keeping in touch regularly by postas the movie starts, disappeared completely from her lifethey very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, leaving Nell bereftand they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. There's everything in this story, with underground tunnels But as they lurch from one film genre to the playground of gangs of childrennext, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to travel and detective work, a mystery mould infecting Parisian bakeries, mysterious figures following Nell aroundthe cinema, and a set of truly dreadful parents!to their real lives?|isbn=05713468551839942738
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B083NMCSZXRachel Greenlaw|title=Little Doubt (D I Kelly Porter)|author=Rachel LynchCompass and Blade|rating=43.5|genre=CrimeTeens|summary=Ella Watson was in ''I can hear the wrong place at song of the wrong timesea. She was out running The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.'' Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the park when she was randomly attacked rocks and stabbed to deathplundering the wrecks. Her husbandMira, Thomaslike her mother before her, is one of the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and children, Jordan and Millie were devastated and Detective Superintendent Neil Ormond was outraged any treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a decenttrap to end the wrecking, middle-class woman should be they capture the victim of knife crimeisland's leader and Mira's father. Despite being Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a golfing partner of Thomas Jordan wreck survivor who is as charming as he declined is secretive and with only coordinates to distance himself from the case and told DI Kelly Porter guide her, she sets off in search of a family secret that he would be taking a great deal of interest lies buried deep in how the case was handledsea. He wasn't anywhere near With only nine days to unearth what might save her father, as interested when a second woman was stabbed her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to death a few hours later. Keira Bradley lived on the Beacon estate and Ormondheart of the smuggler's view seemed to territory, Mira must be that anyone living there should expect this sort of thing determined to happen. He could hardly bring himself stop at nothing to mention Keira's namesave the future of her home and the ones she holds most dear.|isbn=0008664730
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0571342353James Sherwood Metts|title=Rules for Perfect Murders|author=Peter SwansonPlanet Storyland|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeConfident Readers|summary=Malcolm Kershaw was Things have been a bit sticky for the co-owner Earthlings. AI and manager of the Old Devils Bookstore on Beacon Hill in Boston. The store specialises in crime novelsautomation have been proceeding apace, but Mal has given up reading crimeoften replacing jobs they're paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. His life's been pretty chaotic Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of late: It's five years since his wifeother, Claire Mallorynew ways to spend time, died along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and he's never really got over , along with it. She was driving whilst inebriated, having just been to see all the man with whom Kershaw suspected she was having an affair. His interest in crime fiction comes back when he's approached by Special Agent Gwen Mulvey. She's interested in a blog post he wrote a few years ago: '' My Eight Perfect Murders''many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|isbn=1736128426
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1786897148Matthew Tree|title=Bobby March Will Live Forever (Harry McCoy)|author=Alan ParksWe'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeLiterary Fiction|summary=In February 1964 Bobby March was on Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his way to London with fellow band members Tomfather, Scott, Barry a drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and Jamiewho had endless crises of self confidence. He'd had So Tim applied himself to get his father to sign the contract for The Beatkickersstudies, as Bobby wasn't old enough. And cultivated his abilities rather than his father had been reluctant - he'd have preferred Bobby to get an apprenticeship, for the regular money. By July 1973 Bobby is back in Glasgow. The Beatkickers didn't survive daydreams and March is on his own, set himself high but hardly thriving. There's an obvious drug habit. Meanwhile, the police are consumed by the search for a missing girl, Alice Kellyachievable ambitions.|isbn= B0CVFXPGP8
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane (editors)A G Slatter|title=Cursed: An Anthology The Briar Book of Dark Fairy Talesthe Dead|rating=4.5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Curses. They're there throughout tales ' There's a part of faery and other fantastical folk – people being cursed me that wants to do keep thisjust to myself for however long I can. This secret magic of my own, or not all mine, at last. I just want to be able to do thatenjoy it for a while. Children can be cursed'' Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, as can princesses on lies Silverton; a town under the verge protection of marryingthe Briar's, a family of witches who protect the town and older people toothe wider world from the Darklands. It seems in 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 way theresteward 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 no escaping itleader, and Ellie takes her place beside her. Which is why As challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, putting her at the theme heart of this book a maelstrom of short stories is such a standout – we may well think we know all there is chaos. Reeling from one family secret to know about this accursed character, that demonised placeanother, Ellie must decide who to trust and that other bewitched person. Wedetermine what to do as the Briar witches'd be very wronglegacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat.|isbn=17890915001803364548
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Sara Holland1529900360|title=HavenfallThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=TeensCrime|summary= Maddie Morrow is supposed to spending the summer with her Grandma Ellen. But It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after a visit to her mother in prisonAlex recovered, Maddie wants nothing more than Sturgis was reluctant to go to Havenfall to see her uncle, Marcusask for his help on difficult cases. It His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn's t need the help of a psychologist only place she feels truly at homeworked for a while. Maddie's father Finally, understandablyit was Robin, is not keen on Maddie spending time with her motherDelaware's family - because partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the crime Maddie's mum is languishing on death row for committing is man she loved needed. The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the murder swimming pool of Maddiea 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 brothernot the Italian...|isbn=1547603798 But which of them was the primary target?
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Baye Hartshorne1529395224|title=GhostedLetting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Treason House TrilogySecret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=43.5|genre=FantasyAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn'Julia Crawley has lost her job t want to follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the strain that being on-call put on his father''Celebrity'' magazine and so she decides to cut her losses and return home to s life. When he was seventeen he took the village opportunity of Monmouth Cove on doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the Jersey Shorejob for him. Before long, hoping to return to her harder hitting journalistic roots via local newshe was at Liverpool University. She It hadn'll be staying t - as with her grandmother so many students - been his dream since he was a woman always ready to help younger relatives in need of a handchild. There's only one problem with that: creepy Uncle Dex If anything, who doesnhe't always keep his hands d wanted to himselfbe a professional footballer.|isbn= B0829CP5BM}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=06486848060861541774|title=Clara Colby: The International SuffragistA Nye of Pheasants|author=John HollidaySteve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=BiographyCrime|summary=The path of Clara Dorothy BewickDCI Domenic Jejeune's life was probably determined when her family emigrated to the USA. At the time she was just three-years-old but because of some childhood ailment, she wasn't allowed to sail with her parents close friend and three brothers. Insteadformer colleague, she remained with her grandparentsDanny Maik, who doted on her and saw that she received has taken a good educationshort holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, both in and out of schoolGuy Trueman. She Maik was the only child involved in the household a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and her childhood was glorioushe killed a Ghurka. By contrastInitially, her family had become pioneer farmers in the mid-west he faced a charge of the United States and life was hard, as Clara was manslaughter but evidence came to find out when she and her grandparents eventually went light that suggested that he might have planned to join murder the familyman. Clara would only know her mother for a few months: she was married for fifteen years, had ten pregnancies, seven surviving children and died in childbirth not long after Clara arrivedNow he could be facing the death penalty. As the eldest girl, Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a heavy burden would fall on Clara diplomatic incident and Wisconsin was a rude awakeningwouldn't help Danny at all.
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{{Frontpage
|author=Kathleen Boucher and Sara ChadwickAlexander McCall Smith|title=Nine Ways to Empower TweensThe Perfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=''9 Ways to Empower Tweens'' The Perfect Passion Company is a self-help book for tweensdating agency in Edinburgh, setting out run by Ness and operating as an alternative to show them vital #lifeskillsall the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Don't groan! I know there Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a market glut trip to Canada to get away for a while. Katie is coming out of such books for a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we grown-ups already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and for young adults toothe Isabel Dalhousie novels, but there is with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a needful space business, or in an increasingly technological world accessible match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to younger and younger children for material for tweens too. lend a hand…|isbn= 02288188261846976596
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn= Katie Fforde0811771741|title= A Springtime AffairInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman|rating= 4|genre= Women's FictionCrafts|summary= IMelissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby''ve wanted gives us a collection of knits from toys to read author Katie Fforde for ages and this was pretty much exactly what I was expecting blankets. Some will be quick knits - a warmothers are of the 'long, cosy read focused on romanceafternoons 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, family ten to twenty hours and friendshipsmore than twenty hours. This provided two romances for All the price of oneprojects are attractive, modern and useable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but it was actually the family element as opposed to the romance that I really enjoyed's me being picky. |isbn=1780897561
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1838593187Dean Koontz|title=Guess What I Found in the Playground!|author=Victoria ThompsonThe Bad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=For SharingParanormal|summary=Tilly Benny is excitedhaving a terrifically bad day. She's just come dashing out of the classroomHe loses his job, he loses his fiancee, pigtails flapping behind her and a big grin on her facehis house gets trashed. Dad's come Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to collect her and her brother his home, and he '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 try to guess what she found in the playground today, although she concedes that he will never guessdeserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. Dad wants to know how school was, but ''obviously'' that's not importantA really nice person. Could Tilly have found more collectable things So fortunately for her scrap box? (Isn't Benny it turns out that so much more sensible than the delivery to his house is a scrap ''book''?) Wellnew friend, actuallya bad weather friend called Spike, Tilly did find exciting stuffwho has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. There are sequinsSpike is going to take care of Benny, glittered paper and all sorts will certainly take care of other things in her pocketBenny's enemies, if he, but thatBenny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's not what she wants Dad to guesswild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=1662500491
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{{Frontpage
|author= Becky Albertalli and Aisha SaeedAdam Stower|title= Yes No Maybe So Murray and Bun|rating= 4.5|genre= TeensConfident Readers |summary= ''We might give it our all Murray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and crash sleep and burn, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the two. But we might win. We might actually change things. And that maybe makes it still worth going for, donhe't you think?s a bad magician''Jaime s cat, so his favourite bun has been spending his summer helping his cousin with campaigning in time for turned into a special election. When his mother encourages him to go canvassinghyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, he and the catflap they both use can't think of anything worse. Howeverchuck them out, Jaime has always wanted to be a politician and decides there is no time like not into the present to conquer his fear of speaking to the public. Maya is regular back garden, but into a Pakistani-American Muslim girl who is having the worst summer world of her lifefrightening adventure and whiffs. Her parents are going through This time round it drops them into a separationViking land, she has zero plans for the summer to help take her mind off things and her only close friend where a troll hunter is permanently busy. To help occupy herexpected – well, her parents offer to buy her a car if she agrees to go canvassing. The pair could possibly be the worst canvassing duo in historyone much bigger than Murray was, as neither of them really want to be therehonest, but as the campaign goes on they discover that they care, a lot, about the election - he's turned up and maybe even about each other?he'll have to do…|isbn=14711846680008561249
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Gregg HurwitzB0C47LV1PC|title=Into The FireFragility|author=Mosby Woods|rating=54|genre=ThrillersLiterary Fiction|summary= Grant Merriweather Can you make a ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, is a forensic accountant. the question should you make it? Or ratheris the question if you did, waswould it land? The catch is that the answer for both could well be.. He was brought into an ER room after an alleged car crash, his friend pleading with the medics to keep him alive. He was needed alive just long enough to give up a name. His cousin, Maxno.|isbn=0718185501''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=15291243951529431735|title=When You See MeThe Winter Visitor|author=Lisa GardnerJames Henry
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=For Janet It's February 1991 and ChuckEssex is bitingly cold, it was a hiking break in which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the Appalachians in Georgia and pure chance that Chuck went off more surprising. He'd been exiled on the beaten track to find Costa del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a stickdecade. What The return has come about because he found was 's had a human bone letter from his ex-wife, saying that she's ill and SSA Kimberley Quincy was called in, along with Sergeant D D Warrenhasn't long to live. Both women were experienced It's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his underwear and sent to a watery grave in this type of rather gruesome work but they also called on the services boot of Keith Edgar, a computer analyst, and Flora Dane who brought something unique to the tablestolen Ford Sierra. Flora had been kidnapped and held for 472 days by the notorious killer, Jacob Ness. If Ness had anything to do with the current discoveries then what Flora had Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to say could be invaluable.home?
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1529009677Alex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=A Window Breaks|author=C M EwanThe Glorious Race of Magical Beasts|rating=3.54|genre=ThrillersConfident Readers|summary=Tom Sullivan 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 wife Rachel are having problemsgran owns and runs. It's not just Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – for there is a generation missing in the usual growing apart after more than a decade of marriagefamily. Their sonA few short years ago, MichaelEli's parents were both lost to the titular race, was killed a globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in the company of a car crash some months before: he was driving his father's Audi and at sixteen wasn't legally entitled to drivemagical beast. Not only did he kill himself This has made the race anathema to the pair – but when a bad incident at the car rammed into eatery leads to a treeconfession from gran, but he also killed Eli knows his girlfriend, fifteen-year-old Fiona Connor. Tom can't think about Michael without a sense of shame and guilt. Rachel only hope is broken, but she wants to forgive Michael. To give some spacedare to enter what he most hates, Tom's moved out with the sole aim the prize of magic at the end – the family home, but stresses only thing to possibly save his thirteen-year-old daughter, Holly, that it is only a trial separationgran.|isbn=0571382231
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