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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]].{{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=1529123941 0008517061|title=The Silent Treatment Death in a Lonely Place|author=Abbie Greaves Stig Abell|rating=4.5 |genre=General Fiction Crime|summary= When we meet Professor Frank Hobbs and his wifeFormer Metropolitan Police detective, MaggieJake Johnson, Frank is playing chess against has settled into his computer, although not very successfullyrustic life at Little Sky. Maggie, on There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the other handfuture of his life with his vet girlfriend, has just taken some pills - eight of themLivia and her daughter Diana, as moving in fact together would mean a lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off- grid and before long 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 will collapse. wants for herself and her daughter? When Frank rings For the emergency services moment they’re enjoying life in Oxford he has 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=Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a bit of child beneath a problemdoorway. He has to admit that he and Maggie haven't actually spoken for a whileThere was no skull. How longWas this a ritual killing or murder? WellInevitably, itDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's about six months since he spoke to Maggie and he candifficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't really say if it's likely , that Maggie has tried she is pregnant with his child as a result of the one night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to take her own lifesudden bouts of sickness.

|authorisbn=Rob Harrell0008551324|title=WinkThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster

|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=When Ross is diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, aged 12, his desperate attempts at school It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to just be 'normal' become impossibleapproach the police. Suddenly he Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is the cancer kid, struggling in prison and everything he does, how he looks, and how he behaves falls under 's prepared to tell the police where the scrutiny body of the other kids in schoola missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. Ross isThis person, understandablyhe promises, angryis someone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants. He And what he wants is facing potential blindness, whilst dealing with to be transferred to an eye sealed in a permanent wink. He has gloopy eye medicine open prison to try to help with serve the pain, plus the need to wear a hat at all times to protect remainder of his face due sentence and to the ongoing treatmentget an early parole date. With the sudden ghosting by one of his best friendsNot much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and a series of horrible memes she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that someone at school creates about Ross, nothing about his life is normal any more, DS Max Craigie and he has to find new ways to deal anyone who works with his feelings, and survivehim is kept well away from what's happening.|isbn=1471409147

|isbn=17864855750008405026|title=Magpie LaneA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Lucy AtkinsJane Casey

|summary=When we first meet Dee sheIt's talking to Nick Law, the new college mastersixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. Law's lately of She was never found and the BBC and he doesn't come with an entirely good reputation: he's investigation ground to a bit of a bully halt. Now, her mother, Helena, and Dee can sense something of that her father are dead in their first conversationbed. She had been planning to return home to Scotland before taking on a new job as Initially, it looks like a nanny, straightforward murder/suicide but somehow she finds herself going to see Mariah, there's something about the Danish wife positioning of the masterbodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. She's pregnant What looked as though it was going to be an open-and looking for help, not with -shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the new baby but with the masterexplanation lies in Rosalie's daughter by his first wife, Ana. Felicity is selectively mutedisappearance: she does talk to her fatherothers (such as Derwent's boss, but to no one else. The eight-year-old is grieving for her dead mother and struggling at schoolUna Burt) are less convinced.

|authorisbn=Sally Magnusson0571379877|title=The Sealwoman's GiftKellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=43.5|genre=Historical FictionCrime|summary= There Edward Jevons is a legend that God came to visit Adam & Eve in the Gardenworking-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and Stanza. Robert's a theatre director. Eve had not finished bathing her children He's also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and ashamed of those still not cleansed, she attempted uses Edward to hide them from the eyes of God, denying that she had more children that those, already bathed, that she willing paraded run errands for him. God was not to be deceived, however, Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and decreed that what was sought he's drunkenly confided how he feels to be hidden from the eyes of God Robert. Most men in Robert's position would henceforth be hidden 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 eyes two of man, and so the Elves were born: the hidden folk. They can see man, but man can only see them if they so choosekissing in a dark passageway.|isbn=1473638984

|author=Wendy Cheyne Jo Callaghan|title=From the Auld Rock to a Hard PlaceLeave No Trace

|genre=Historical FictionCrime|summary= After the Jacobite defeat at When a man is found crucified on the Battle top of Cullodena hill in Nuneaton, many Scottish estates were given DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to English lordsthe case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. They were not kind to It's their crofting tenantsfirst live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. Many on the mainland were cleared But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and while this did not happen much on the islands such as Shetland, the new exploitative conditions led many Shetlanders a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to leave - their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to port cities on solve the mainlandcase in time, to North America or will Kat find herself taken off the case and even to Australia and New Zealand. , potentially, out of a career?|isbn= 1838591753139851120X

|authorisbn=Ele Fountain1399613073|title=LostMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson

|genre=Confident ReadersThrillers|summary=Lola lives in an Indian city with her fatherOlivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and her brothertheir friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, Amitwhich is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. She lives with them in Laura is a nice apartment, perfectionist and although they are not rich like some a trauma doctor. Anjali is the free spirit of the girls at school, they have enough money to be comfortablegroup and she becomes a GP. Lola spends her time thinking about her school friends, When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and trying it's going to fit in with them, until one day, suddenly, everything end in her life changestragedy. After taking a work trip away, Lola's father doesnWe don't come homeknow who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. They have nobody else to help, and as they wait day after day, Lola wonders what Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will become of them untilimpact the three friends. This time, finally, they it's their teenage children who are evicted from their flat, and she and her brother find themselves forced to live on the streetsinvolved.|isbn=178269255X

|authorisbn= N K Jemisin0241636604|title= The City We BecameTrading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating= 4.5|genre= Science FictionAutobiography|summary= New York is being bornIf 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 city has reached critical mass and has matured into a living almostpin-breathing entity stripe suit and his background is ready to make its way out into the world. Before it can be establishedEast End, where he was familiar with violence, an ancient evil appears to attempt to destroy it just as it destroyed Atlantis poverty and other forgotten placesinjustice. The city is not alone through the birthing process, people who embody the values are selected There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to become the living embodiment London School of the city, some cities have one, some have twelve and New York has sixEconomics. Together these human Stevenson is bright - extremely bright -embodiments must defeat the woman in white and save New York from very real destructionhe has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. But these are five different boroughs which don't always see eye He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to eyebe stupid. It was his ability at what was, essentially, it's a personality clash on card game which got him an epic scale and unity is both critical and not remotely guaranteedinternship with Citibank. Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader.|isbn=0356512665

|isbn=02414467321035021803|title=Our House The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up. She's back now because of a request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Freya's former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, 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 man or pursue the profession she loved. After the split, she worked in a cafe, met and married James (on Fire: Scenes the rebound from the love of a Family her life, who was murdered) and Freya and a Planet in CrisisJames have now divorced.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Malena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg Benjamin Greenaway and Svante ThunbergStephen Oram (Editors)

|genre=Politics and SocietyScience Fiction|summary=The Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal. Malena Ernman was an opera singer and Svante Thunberg took on most ''Opening up new ways of thinking about the parenting shape of their two daughtersthings to come.'' I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Then eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and talking and her sisterWell, Beata, then nine years old, struggled 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 was happening. In such circumstances, it's natural advantageous to seek a solution close to home, me but eventually, it became clear to I'm left with the family feeling that they were it''burneds all getting away from me. Some of it is -out people on a burnedfrankly -out planetquite 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. If they were to find I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way to live happily again their solution would need to be radicalI could understand.

|isbnauthor=178730101XSunny Singh|title=Keep Him Close|author=Emily KochHotel Arcadia

|summary=Alice had two Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children: Benny (well, Benoîtsons Niall, actually) Paul and Ollie and Louisher daughter, Etty. Lou's seventeen and he's just got his A level results and he and his brother are going out to celebrateall worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, is not. Someone has to Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find something to celebrate in the lettersbody of Greg's father, DDuncan Ackerley, D and Ein the river. Alice has always It was an easy assumption for the police to make that Duncan had a good relationship with nineteen-year-old Benny but it's a touch problematic with Lou murdered Charlie and being honest, then committed suicide when hecouldn's not terribly likeablet stand the guilt. The letters which kept coming to my mind were ADHDSalter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.

|isbn=02413968401035906708|title=KeeperDiva|author=Jessica MoorDaisy Goodwin

|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction|summary=Katie Straw worked We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in the women's refuge December 1923 and the women who lived there liked and respected heronly moved to Athens when she was thirteen. She treated them well and seemed Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas' to have an understanding of what they were going throughmake it more manageable in the States. Why then did she jump from the local suicide spot into the river below? There had been no signs that When she was unhappy and she and her boyfriend seemed to have been content together back in Athens - and Noah has a decent alibi for the time when supposedly so that she died, but what other explanation could there be get appropriate training for her death? The police are convinced that it's suicide, but voice - she was raised under the women Nazi occupation by a mother who knew mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her believed otherwiseelder sister, Jackie.

|isbnauthor=1838880658Christopher Edge|title=Murder at Enderley Hall (Miss Underhay)|author=Helena DixonBlack Hole Cinema Club

|genre=CrimeConfident Readers|summary=ItLucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the nickname of 's the summer The Black Hole'. All big movie fans, they're looking forward to lots of 1933 exciting films, and Kitty Underhay is on her way to visit many, many snacks! However, as the family which she never knew she hadmovie starts, at Enderley Hall. Her grandmother, Mrs Treadwellthey very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, and Great Aunt Livvy they are back at the Dolphin Hotel in Dartmouthswept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. Kitty gets easily bored working at But as they lurch from one film genre to the Dolphin - every day next, can they figure out what on earth is much going on? Will they ever get back to the same - but her real reason for going away is that she needs a break after her recent adventurescinema, which involved three vicious murders, an arson attack and an attempt on her life.to their real lives?|isbn=1839942738

|isbnauthor=1788638026Rachel Greenlaw|title=Where the Innocent Die (D I Ridpath)|author=M J LeeCompass and Blade|rating=43.5|genre=CrimeTeens|summary=It was easy to assume that ''I can hear the song of the death sea. The call of the young Chinese girl at deep, the Immigrant Removal Centre was suicideanswering beat in my heart. Her throat was cut'' Rosevear, there was a lot of blood remote and the knife was partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the floor at rocks and plundering the side wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, is one of the bed, She was due seven who swim out to be deported survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that daylies within. But... how did when the knife get into Council Watch lays a trap to end the secure centre and why was wrecking, they capture the girlisland's room the only one which was unlocked? DI Thomas Ridpath, the coronerleader and Mira's officerfather. Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is sent to investigate and as charming as he quickly becomes suspicious, There's a snag though: the inquest is due secretive and with only coordinates to open guide her, she sets off in search of a couple of family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. With only nine days' timeto unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the girl's parents are coming over from China and they want watched streets of foreign islands to take their daughterthe heart of the smuggler's body home with them. Ridpath has just five days territory, Mira must be determined to solve the case. The coroner is disinclined stop at nothing to delay save the inquest: for future of her, it's about giving closure to home and the parentsones she holds most dear.|isbn=0008664730

|isbnauthor=1471166023James Sherwood Metts|title=Burnt Island (Ben Kitto)|author=Kate RhodesPlanet Storyland

|genre=CrimeConfident Readers|summary=The 5th of November was D I Ben Kitto's thirty-fifth birthday and the occasion Things have been a bit sticky for the usual bonfire celebrationsEarthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, but it would be marred this year by the discovery of Professor Alex Roganoften replacing jobs they's body on a bonfire. He'd obviously been alive when he was put on the fire re paid to do and can only have died a terrible deathother tasks that took time to accomplish. The body was first discovered by Jimmy Curwen, better known on St Agnes Just as the Bird Man because he speaks little or nothing they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and his only concern is the welfare starting to think of the birds he looks afterother, new ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. His instinct is to cover Rogan's body Life was pretty much shut down and he uses his sheepskin coat to do this, along with it, all the result that he's the prime suspectmany daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|isbn=1736128426

|author=Elliot ReedMatthew Tree|title=A Key to Treehouse LivingWe'll Never Know|rating=4.5|genre=General Literary Fiction|summary=This is the story Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, a drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of a young boy, William Tyce, who is being raised by his uncle after the death exceptional at any of his mother artistic passions all failed miserably and his father's abandonment. However, it isn't told in the usual narrative way. Instead, the book is made up of glossary entries, written by William, as a way who had endless crises of describing certain events, situations and emotionsself confidence. It runs alphabetically, starting with ABSENCE, then moving So Tim applied himself to ALPHABETICAL ORDER. As I began to read I did find myself thinking 'what on earth?!' but I soon grew used to the stylehis studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and was instead caught up in William's storyset himself high but achievable ambitions.|isbn=1911545418B0CVFXPGP8

|author=Will Dean A G Slatter|title=Black River The Briar Book of the Dead

|summary=Tuva Moodyson returns - It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and this third book in the Tuva Moodyson mystery series delves deep into her personal lifeeven after Alex recovered, returning her Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the isolated town help of Gavrik and a psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, it was Robin, Delaware's partner, who nudged Milo into a desperate search asking for her missing best friendhelp again. With She knew that the Midsommar sun blocked out by involvement was something that the dark pines man she loved needed. The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a remote property in Bel Air. He was the forest, Tuva fights heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to save her friendan extremely rich man and it's not the Italian. But who’ll be there to save Tuvawhich of them was the primary target?|isbn=1786077116

|isbn=17824074801529395224|title=Bird LoveLetting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Family Secret Life of Birdsa Vet|author=Wenfei Tong and Mike WebsterSion Rowlands|rating=43.5

|summary=I Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a little perturbed GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, particularly when I looked at he considered the blurb for ''Bird Love'' strain that being on a couple of -call put on-line booksellers: his father''exploring the sex s life of birds'' it said. I very nearly passed over When he was seventeen he took the book, but opportunity of doing work experience with a closer examination suggested that the book is about the ''family life'' of birds, which is rather different. If the book friend who was confined to the sex life of birds, you would be missing an opportunity to understand how birds live day-to-day, bring up their families a vet and cope in was convinced this was the wildjob for him. Not only thatBefore long, you have missed the treat of he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as with so many beautiful illustrations about students - been his dream since he was a wide variety of birds which run through this book from the first page child. If anything, he'd wanted to the lastbe a professional footballer.

|authorisbn=Camilla Bruce0861541774|title=You Let Me InA Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows

|genre=General FictionCrime|summary= EccentricDCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, isolated romance novelist Cassandra Tipp has been missing for taken a year short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and has been pronounced legally dead by her lawyershe killed a Ghurka. Her will instructs her niece and nephew Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to enter her home and find murder the man. Now he could be facing the key death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to their inheritance in an old manuscript left in her office: the last story shehelp as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn'll ever tellt help Danny at all.|isbn=1787633179

|author=Judith EagleAlexander McCall Smith|title=The Pear AffairPerfect Passion Company

|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=Set in the 1960's, this The Perfect Passion Company is a mystery adventure storydating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all about the online apps in providing a little girl called Nell and her quest to find her nannymore personal, Perrine (Pear) who left tailored service. Ness has asked her very suddenly younger cousin Katie if she could come and then, look after keeping in touch regularly by postthe business, disappeared completely from her lifeas Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, leaving Nell bereftand so jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. There's everything in And so begins this new storyfrom Alexander McCall Smith, with underground tunnels as the playground of gangs of childrenbringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to travel 44 Scotland Street and detective workthe Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a mystery mould infecting Parisian bakeriesbusiness, mysterious figures following Nell aroundor in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a set of truly dreadful parents!hand…|isbn=05713468551846976596

|isbn=B083NMCSZX0811771741|title=Little Doubt (D I Kelly Porter)InstaKnits for Baby|author=Rachel LynchMelissa Leapman

|genre=CrimeCrafts|summary=Ella Watson was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She was out running in the park when she was randomly attacked and stabbed Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to deathblankets. Her husband, Thomas, and children, Jordan and Millie were devastated and Detective Superintendent Neil Ormond was outraged that a decent, middleSome will be quick knits -class woman should be the victim others are of knife crime. Despite being a golfing partner of Thomas Jordan he declined to distance himself from the case and told DI Kelly Porter that he would be taking a great deal 'long, cosy afternoons in front of interest in how the case was handledfire' variety. He wasnThe projects are divided by the time they't anywhere near as interested when a second woman was stabbed ll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to death a few twenty hours and more than twenty hours later. Keira Bradley lived on All the Beacon estate projects are attractive, modern and Ormonduseable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 's view seemed to be social-media-worthy projects' but that anyone living there should expect this sort of thing to happen. He could hardly bring himself to mention Keira's nameme being picky.

|isbnauthor=0571342353Dean Koontz|title=Rules for Perfect Murders|author=Peter SwansonThe Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeParanormal|summary=Malcolm Kershaw was the co-owner Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and manager of the Old Devils Bookstore on Beacon Hill in Bostonhis house gets trashed. The store specialises in crime novelsOh, but Mal and someone has given up reading crime. His life's been pretty chaotic of late: It's five years since delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his wife, Claire Malloryhome, died and heit's never possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really got over itnice person. She was driving whilst inebriatedSo fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, having just who has been sent to see the man with whom Kershaw suspected she was having an affairhelp him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. His interest in crime fiction comes back when heSpike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's approached by Special Agent Gwen Mulvey. She's interested in a blog post enemies, if he wrote , Benny, and Harper (a few years ago: '' My Eight Perfect Murders'waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=1662500491

|isbnauthor=1786897148Adam Stower|title=Bobby March Will Live Forever (Harry McCoy)|author=Alan ParksMurray and Bun

|genre=CrimeConfident Readers |summary=In February 1964 Bobby March was on his way Murray is supposed to London with fellow band members Tombe a humble, Scotttidy and friendly cat, Barry one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and Jamie, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the two. HeBut he'd had to get s a bad magician's cat, so his father to sign favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the contract for The Beatkickersregular back garden, as Bobby wasn't old enoughbut into a world of frightening adventure and whiffs. And his father had been reluctant - This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but he's turned up and he'd ll have preferred Bobby to get an apprenticeshipdo…|isbn=0008561249}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0C47LV1PC|title=Fragility|author=Mosby Woods|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary= Can you make a ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, is the question should you make it? Or is the question if you did, would it land? The catch is that the answer for the regular moneyboth could well be.... By July 1973 Bobby is back in Glasgowno. The Beatkickers didn ''Fragility''t survive and March is on his ownset as the city of Portland, but hardly thriving. There's an obvious drug habit. MeanwhileOregon, cautiously begins to emerge from the police are consumed by restrictions imposed during the search for a missing girl, Alice Kelly.covid pandemic

|authorisbn=Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane (editors)1529431735|title=Cursed: An Anthology of Dark Fairy TalesThe Winter Visitor|author=James Henry|rating=4.5|genre=FantasyCrime|summary=Curses. TheyIt're there throughout tales of faery s February 1991 and other fantastical folk – people being cursed to do thisEssex is bitingly cold, or not to be able to do thatwhich made Bruce Hopkins' return all the more surprising. Children can be cursed, as can princesses He'd been exiled on the verge of marryingCosta del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decade. The return has come about because he's had a letter from his ex-wife, saying that she's ill and older people toohasn't long to live. It seems in a way there's no escaping it. Which hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is why abducted, stripped to his underwear and sent to a watery grave in the theme boot of this book of short stories is such a standout – we may well think we know all there is stolen Ford Sierra. Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to know about this accursed character, that demonised place, and that other bewitched person. We'd be very wrong.|isbn=1789091500home?

|author=Sara HollandAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=HavenfallThe Glorious Race of Magical Beasts

|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary= Maddie Morrow Eli is supposed to spending a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the summer wondrous library we start by visiting with her Grandma Ellenhim, and in the evening a helper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. But after Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – for there is a visit to her mother generation missing in prisonthe family. A few short years ago, Maddie wants nothing more than Eli's parents were both lost to go the titular race, a globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to Havenfall navigate the world in the company of a magical beast. This has made the race anathema to see her uncle, Marcus. It's the only place she feels truly pair – but when a bad incident at home. Maddie's fatherthe eatery leads to a confession from gran, understandablyEli knows his only hope is to dare to enter what he most hates, is not keen on Maddie spending time with her mother's family - because the crime Maddie's mum is languishing on death row for committing is sole aim the murder prize of Maddie's brother..magic at the end – the only thing to possibly save his gran.|isbn=1547603798 0571382231