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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=Joanne M HarrisSylvie Cathrall|title=A Pocketful of CrowsLetter to the Luminous Deep
|rating=5
|genre= Confident ReadersScience Fiction|summary= I have always been of the mind that once you're above picture-There are few greater joys than a book level and before you get which lives up to graphic sex & violence, there is no difference between books for children and books for adultsa compelling premise. There are good books and poor ones. And Joanne Harris does not produce poor ones. ''A Pocketful of Crows'' this is clearly aimed at the younger readers as witness the use one of the middle initial in the author's name to differentiate from her adult offers. Ignore that if you have loved anything from ''Chocolat'' onwards you will know that Harris is mistress of the modern fairy tale. This is no different. It is an utter delightthem.|isbn=14732221840356522776
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn= Maggie Tokuda-Hall0008517061|title= The Mermaid, the Witch and the Sea|rating= 5|genre= Teens|summary= On the pirate ship Dove, Flora the girl has assumed the identity of Florian the man in an attempt to fit Death in with the crew. Life is hard as a pirate, trust and empathy are the first things to be discarded, but anything has to be better than starving on the streets. Meanwhile, the young Lady Evelyn Hasegawa boards the Dove, headed off to be married to a military man she's never met on some far-flung colony of the Nipran Empire. Neither of them expects to be thrown together by fate, never mind fall in love…|isbn=1536204315}}{{FrontpageLonely Place|author=Frederic Beigbeder and Frank Wynne (translator)|title=A Life Without EndStig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=I looked at the calendar the other weekFormer Metropolitan Police detective, and disappointedly realised I have a birthday this year – I knowJake Johnson, yet another onehas settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. It won't be one There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the future of the major numbershis life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, but the time when I have the same number as Heinz varieties looms on the horizon. And then moving in together would mean a few lot of the big 0compromise: does Jake give up his off-numbers, grid and if all goes well, I'll be an OBE. (Which of course stands for Over Bloody Eighty.) Now if that's the extent of my mid-relaxing life crisis, I guess I have to be happy. Our author here doesn't use that exact phrase, but he might be said to be living one. Determined to find out how to prolong life for as long as he wants – he would like to see 400 – he hops right into bed move in with the assistant Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the first geneticist he interviews, future she wants for herself and they end up with a child, which is at least a way of continuing her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life of his genes, in the present and a motive to keep putting the future on goingthe back burner. But how can he get to not flick the 'final way out' switch, especially when foie gras tastes so nice?|isbn=1642860670
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Holly Jackson1786482126|title=Good Girl, Bad BloodThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=TeensCrime|summary=A month on from Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the explosive conclusion site was going to the Andie Bell mystery, a new normal has settled over Little Kilton. Max Hastingshold seventy-five ' assault trial thunders on, Pippaluxury's viral podcast detailing her journey apartments - when they discovered the bones of discovering the truth about Andie and Sal's deaths has gained massive media attention, Cara and her sister Naomi are reeling from the realisation that their father, Elliot Ward, had murdered Sal Singh and kidnapped a girl he thought child beneath a doorway. There was Andie after she stumbled out of his house, bleeding, and disappeared into the nightno skull. As the town tries to heal again, six years on from the events of that night Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, tragedy strikes againDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. Jamie Reynolds, older brother to one of Pippa It's best friends has gone missing. And so, alongside her difficult life as a semi-famous eighteen-year-oldRuth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she is once again taken down pregnant with his child as a darkresult of the one night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, twisted path not least because Ruth is prone to discover the truthsudden bouts of sickness.|isbn=1405297751
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B084H8F2CF0008551324|title=The Body Under the BridgeDevil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Nick LouthNeil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=DCI Craig Gillard was annoyed It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to be pulled away from approach the funeral service police. Neither side likes or has any respect for a serving police officer, particularly when the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he discovered that he was 's prepared to take charge tell the police where the body of the enquiry into a missing womanperson is buried and who was responsible for her death. Beatrice Ulbricht was twenty-five years old This person, he promises, is someone big and a student of music at it will be worth the Royal College of Musicpolice doing what he wants. She had been due And what he wants is to be transferred to play with an open prison to serve the other members remainder of the Lysander String Quartet at the Church of St Martin-in-the-Fields but hadn't turned uphis sentence and to get an early parole date. Gillard didnNot much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't understand why his immediate involvement was necessary until Chief Constable Alison Rigby explained that Beatricethink so and she's father was Karleven prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded -Otto Ulbricht, Germanymake certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's Minister of Justicehappening.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn= Linda Scott0008405026|title= The Double X EconomyA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey
|rating=5
|genre= Politics and SocietyCrime|summary=It''Women 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, and her father are economically disadvantaged in every country dead in the world''their bed. It's Initially, it looks like a bold statement for an opening chapter, straightforward murder/suicide but itthere's far from hyperbole as something about the following pages explain. This book shines a light on what is happening in different places, and positioning of the impact on the local bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and world economyher boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What can looked as though it was going to be learnt from an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the great strides explanation lies in gender-equalising legislation in the west? What can be done about the selling of young women into marriageRosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, and what can chimpanzees and bonobos teach us about mothering?|isbn=0571353606Una Burt) are less convinced.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=0571379877|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.}}{{Frontpage|author=J Paul HendersonJo Callaghan|title=DaisyLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=This When a man is found crucified on the story top of Herod Sa hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. Pinkney It's their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. But when there is a rather unusual (yet somehow charming) man who 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 unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to solve the case in search time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of a woman called Daisycareer?|isbn=139851120X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1399613073|title=Moral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=Thrillers|summary=Olivia, whom he Laura and Anjali met on the first sees in an episode day of Judge Judy on television medical school and instantly falls in love with her! their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Rod Olivia is writing the novel of his questruthlessly ambitious, guided by an embittered ex-literary agent who which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is now clearing glasses in a pub for perfectionist and a livingtrauma doctor. Determined to find Anjali is the free spirit of the group and she becomes a GP. When we first meet Daisy, the book takes us through Rodthem they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's life, introduces us going to his 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 three friends. This time, and tells us of what happens in his quest for loveit's their teenage children who are involved.|isbn=0857303309
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=15446419230241636604|title=Ambassadors Do It After DinnerThe Trading Game: A Confession|author=Sandra AragonaGary Stevenson|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=ItIf you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you's tempting re unlikely to think that of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the diplomatic life pin-stripe suit and his background is privileged the East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and luxuriousinjustice. It might be privileged, There was no posh public school on his CV - but family connections tell me that it he had been to the London School of Economics. Stevenson is far from luxuriousbright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. Now you're not going He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to get many ambassadors telling you be stupid. It was his ability at what it's really like (it's not ''diplomatic'' to do sowas, you know)essentially, but the diplomatic spouse, the accompanying baggage, well, that's a card game which got him an entirely different matterinternship with Citibank. She (and it still usually is Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a 'she') can tell us exactly what goes ontrader.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=18388510111035021803|title=The SidemanAntique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=Caro RamsayC L Miller|rating=43.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=No one thought that it could happen and canIt't ''quite'' believe that it s twenty years since Freya Lockwood has: Costello has resigned from Police Scotlandbeen back to the English country village where she grew up. ItShe's all down to her pursuit back now because of George Haggerty whom she believes to be responsible a request for the murder of Abigail Haggerty (his wife) and Malcolm (help from her son)beloved aunt, Carole. Haggerty has a water-tight alibi (caught speeding by Police ScotlandFreya's former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, no less) is dead and the powers that be have told Costello circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to lay offthe village: Arthur, she's decided feels, let her down badly. Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to go her own way rather than be hampered by near the badgeman or pursue the profession she loved. She didn't even bother telling her long-time partnerAfter the split, DCI Colin Andersonshe worked in a cafe, that she was going. Since then there might have been met and married James (on the occasional text rebound from the love of herlife, but that's itwho was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B08774SJYNAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=The Greenbecker GambitAll Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Ben GraffBenjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=General Science Fiction|summary=''I suppose Opening up new ways of thinking about the odd fleeting sense shape of loneliness is a price all truly successful people must pay for our gifts. I tell myself that I do so willinglythings to come.''
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0008390169Sunny Singh|title=Silent Cry (Gaby Darin Book 1)|author=Jenny O'BrienHotel Arcadia
|rating=3.5
|genre=CrimeThrillers |summary=Alys Grant was only The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a few days old when her father took her out for the first timeterrorist group. Her motherHiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, Izzythere is Sam, was tired a wartime photographer and fell asleepAbhi, but when she woke a couple of hours later there was no sign of Charlie Dawson or Alysthe hotel manager. There was As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the hotel, he forms a hand-delivered postcard which simply said: bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what''I've got Alyss happened through her photography. Don't try Although they only ever talk over the phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and they both wait to find us, Charlie''see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists.|isbn=086154742X
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Holly Jackson1529153298|title=A Good Girl's Guide to MurderThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey
|rating=5
|genre=TeensGeneral Fiction|summary=5 years agoIt's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, the tiny town of Little Kilton was rocked when beautifulhonestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, popular Andie Bell disappeared without a tracethough. Women have been disappearing. Well, presumed they've been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Her boyfriend Salil Singh was everyone Miv's number 1 suspect – especially after Sal sent a upset because she'confession' text to his dad and died in an apparent suicide just days after s overheard that her disappearance. His guilt was sealed and the case was closed, so the town and its families tried father wants to move onthe family 'Down South'. Now Pippa When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is determined to prove that Sal was innocenta frightening, foreign place, with the help of his brother Ravibest avoided. What started out as an innocent school project quickly turns into something much more sinister For Miv, and Pippa begins to unearth the dark truth about the beautifulmove would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, innocent queen bee of Kilton Grammar School and what really happened all those years agoshe'll do anything to prevent that. But She's not worried about the closer she gets, the more dangerous it becomesdangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.|isbn=1405293187
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=17811293121398524085|title=Sequin and StitchHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Laura Dockrill and Sara Ogilvie (illustrator)Nicci French
|rating=5
|genre=Dyslexia FriendlyCrime|summary=Sequin loved Charlotte Salter was expected at her mum to bitshusband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, but sometimes she got very cross with Paul and Ollie and herdaughter, Etty. It wasn't that mum wouldn't go outside their flat are all worried but - Sequin coped with that strangely - it was because she never pushed to get credit for what she didher husband, Alec, is not. Mum is a seamstress Shortly afterwards, Etty and she makes Greg, find the sort body of clothes that you see on red carpets or at important weddings. SheGreg's not father, Duncan Ackerley, in the designer - they're river. It was an easy assumption for the people who police to make a lot of money from that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the clothesguilt. Mum is the person who actually ''makes'' the garments and sheThe Salter children are not convinced but there's really talented, little else they can do but when people talk get on with their lives and wonder about the dress or the suit, they talk about the designer. The seamstress is never mentionedwhat really happened.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Akala1035906708|title=The Dark LadyDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas' to make it more manageable in the States. When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her elder sister, Jackie.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Christopher Edge
|title=Black Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the nickname of 'The Black Hole'. All big movie fans, they're looking forward to lots of exciting films, and many, many snacks! However, as the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to the next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the cinema, and to their real lives?
|isbn=1839942738
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Rachel Greenlaw
|title=Compass and Blade
|rating=3.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=''For a street kid from I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the Devilanswering beat in my heart.'s Gap' Rosevear, London's most notorious sluma remote and partially forgotten island, life is short survives on luring ships into the rocks and toughplundering the wrecks. For HenryMira, a boy thief with brown skin inherited from a like her mother who abandoned himbefore her, life is tougher stillone of the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. The Dark Lady enters his dreams at night. She seems But when the Council Watch lays a trap to represent a pastend the wrecking, they capture the island's leader and possibly a futureMira's father...''Henry and his friendsDesperate to save him from death, brother Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and sister Matthew and Marywith only coordinates to guide her, have various ways she sets off in search of getting bya family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. Sometimes they pickpockets. Sometimes they rob 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 houses heart of the rich. Itsmuggler's crime or starve - but crime is dangerous and they risk territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the terrible punishments future of Elizabethan England if they are caught. Impossible choices. But there are pleasures too, and for Henry, the chief pleasure is the Globe Theatre her home and the plays of William Shakespeare. Henry loves language and often makes up sonnets about what he sees around him and how he feelsones she holds most dear. |isbn= 14449436930008664730
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Danny DorlingJames Sherwood Metts|title=SlowdownPlanet Storyland|rating=4.5|genre=Politics and SocietyConfident Readers|summary= We are living in Things have been a time of rapid changebit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, and weoften replacing jobs they're worried about it. Dorling tells us paid to do and other tasks that the latter is normal, natural and probably good for ustook time to accomplish. We are designed Just as they were beginning to get used to worry all this technological change and with the current state starting to think of what we're doing in the worldother, we have much new ways to be worried aboutspend time, along came an awful pandemic. However, over the next three-hundred-Life was pretty much shut down and-some pages, if you can follow the arguments, along with it sets out in scientific detail why either we shouldn't be as worried as we are, or in some cases that we're worrying about all the wrong things. Mostly. Because mostly, things are not changing as rapidly as we think many daily social interactions on which they are. In fact, the rate of change in many things is slowing down and the direction of change will in some cases go into reversedepend so heavily.|isbn=03002434051736128426
}}
{{Frontpage
|author= M R CareyMatthew Tree|title= The Book of KoliWe'll Never Know|rating= 4.5|genre= Science Literary Fiction|summary= ''The Book of Koli'' is the first in a post-apocalyptic trilogy, titled ''The Rampart Trilogy''Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, by M.R. Carey. The novel is set in a world where nature has turned against humans. Trees move as fast as animals to crush their prey drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and then soak up their blood. Humans have eked out a small existence in isolated villages. They are primitive except for their reverence who had endless crises of 'old tech'self confidence. This is technology from the old world that seems So Tim applied himself to only work for certain chosen people. Howeverhis studies, Koli, a young woodsmith, uncovers a secret about this technology that will upend cultivated his abilities rather than his life daydreams and take him on a perilous journeyset himself high but achievable ambitions.|isbn=0316477532B0CVFXPGP8
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=178112938XA G Slatter|title=Survival in Space: The Apollo 13 Mission|author=David Long and Stefano Tambellini (illustrator)Briar Book of the Dead
|rating=5
|genre=Dyslexia FriendlyFantasy|summary=It'' There's fifty years since the Apollo 13 mission was launched a part of me that wants to keep this just to myself for however long I can. This secret magic of my own, all mine, at last. I just want to enjoy it for a while.'' Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the Kennedy Space Centre in Floridaworld, but lies Silverton; a town under the story protection of that journey remains one the Briar's, a family of witches who protect the greatest survival stories of all timetown and the wider world from the Darklands. Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to be born into her family for generations and as such since she was young, her training as a steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the town'Survival in Space: The Apollo 13 Mission'' is s leader, and Ellie takes her place beside her. As challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, putting her at the heart of a brilliant retelling maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what happenedto do as the Briar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat.|isbn=1803364548
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn= Grady Hendrix1529900360|title= The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying VampiresGhost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman|rating= 54|genre= HorrorCrime|summary= It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. Women, by His assertions that there were only open-and large, have always been -shut cases which didn't need the subjugated sexhelp of a psychologist only worked for a while. Throughout history Finally, it was Robin, Delaware's partner, they have been confined to mere bit players who occasionally nudged Milo into asking for help hold up again. She knew that the involvement was something that the powerful man and let nothing stand she loved needed. The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a remote property in his wayBel Air. Grady Hendrix's new novel ''The Southern Book Club's Guide He was the heir to Slaying Vampires'' gives women their due. It an Italian shoe empire and she is married to an ode to extremely rich man and it's not the strong selfless housewifeItalian. Hendrix illustrates this by having But which of them go toe to toe with a predatory male vampire who moves into their quiet cul de sac.|isbn=1683691431was the primary target?
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=00081490891529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Cutting Place (DS Maeve Kerrigan)Secret Life of a Vet|author=Jane CaseySion Rowlands|rating=3.5|genre=Animals and Wildlife|summary=Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the strain that being on-call put on his father's life. When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the job for him. Before long, he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a child. If anything, he'd wanted to be a professional footballer.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0861541774|title=A Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=It was Kim Weldon who found the first bits of the body - she was a mudlarker on the banks of the Thames DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and when she turned over what looked like a stick she realised it was a handformer colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a right handshort holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in fact. DS Maeve Kerrigan and DI Josh Derwent's team a street brawl - he would later find three other body partsmaintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and he killed a Ghurka. Identification Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the body was not going to man. Now he could be easy, but eventually, it would be given a name - Paige Hargreaves, a twenty-eight-year-old freelance journalistfacing the death penalty. Her friend, Bianca Drummond, Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another journalist, said that she was working on police force could provoke a story which she reckoned would be explosive - diplomatic incident and she hadnwouldn't been willing to share any of the details with Biancahelp Danny at all.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Jenny ValentineAlexander McCall Smith|title=Hello NowThe Perfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensGeneral Fiction|summary= Jude reluctantly moves 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 smallmore personal, quiet seaside town after tailored service. Ness has asked her Mum younger cousin Katie if she could come and her most recent boyfriend split (making this their 13th post-breakup move) and settle into look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a big, old house overlooking the sea - which happens trip to Canada to contain get away for a while. Katie is coming out of a strangebreak up with a bad boyfriend, old sitting tenant named Henry, who stays rooted in and so jumps at the house like a ghost that just won't leave – or can'tchance to come home to Edinburgh. As Jude settles into And so begins this newstory from Alexander McCall Smith, seemingly mundanebringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, reality, she is consumed by a longing for her old life in London thanks to 44 Scotland Street and anger at another forced change – but this will be the last timeIsabel Dalhousie novels, she swearsbut with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. This world is quiet Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, dull and yet suffocating for Jude. That is until the day Novo arrivesbut Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's always her entire concept of the world changes forever.very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|isbn=00074664981846976596
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B0867X8NW70811771741|title=Access PointInstaKnits for Baby|author=T R GabbayMelissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=ThrillersCrafts|summary=When we first meet Ula Mishkin sheMelissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of the 'long, cosy afternoons in front of the fire' variety. The projects are divided by the time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and more than twenty hours. All the projects are attractive, modern and useable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's me being picky.}}{{Frontpage|author=Dean Koontz|title=The Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=Paranormal|summary=Benny is having something of a professional success: using terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a device of her own invention shereally weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it's helped 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 nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a man new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been blind sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for decades being a good person. Spike is going to see an image take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a hummingbird. Shewaitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's thirty-six years old wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=1662500491}}{{Frontpage|author=Adam Stower|title=Murray and Bun|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers |summary=Murray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and her life friendly cat, one who is about able to change radically assleep and eat and eat and sleep and, cycling homewell, shewhatever takes his fancy next of the two. But he's involved in an accident with a bus. Itbad magician's two years before we meet her again cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and in the meantimecatflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the regular back garden, she's spent 392 days in but into a coma world of frightening adventure and now walks with a stickwhiffs. A professional colleague persuades Ula that she should let out This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a spare bedroom troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to bring in some income.be honest, but he's turned up and he'll have to do…|isbn=0008561249
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|authorisbn= Ben OliverB0C47LV1PC|title= The LoopFragility|author=Mosby Woods|rating= 3.54|genre= TeensLiterary Fiction|summary= Set during Can you make a ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, is the question should you make it? Or is the aftermath of a Third World War where methods of punishment for criminal activities have been amped up to a horrific level by machinesquestion if you did, would it land? The Loop follows catch is that the precarious existence of adolescent Luka Kaneanswer for both could well be. In a world of Have and Have Nots where Alts [cyborgs] have power over Regulars, he is trapped inside a living hell with no chance of escape. A detonator has been sewn inside his heart connecting him to a trigger held by the guards who can end his life with one squeeze. Luka is taunted by limited access to his memories and relentlessly drained of energy through a gruelling daily torture ritual. Doomed to Delay [a risky medical trial where he is a guinea pig for Alts in place of execution] after Delay he is in despairno. His prison ''Fragility'' is based on set as the model city of an infinity loop designed Portland, Oregon, cautiously begins to make its inmates suffer. With emerge from the only glimmers of hope being the rumours of rebellion outside and restrictions imposed during the visits of sympathetic Alt guard Wren, can Luka ever be free? Why has he been imprisoned? What waits for him if he can break the loop?|isbn=1912626551covid pandemic
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|authorisbn= Kirsty Applebaum1529431735|title= TroofriendThe Winter Visitor|author=James Henry|rating= 4.5|genre= Confident ReadersCrime|summary= Are you tired of your childIt's classmates constantly being horrible to them? Do you want your child to have some positive experiences with people? Introducing February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the new Jenson & Jenson Troofriend 560 Mark IV android! These state-of-more surprising. He'd been exiled on theCosta del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decade. The return has come about because he's had a letter from his ex-art machines are capable of emulating the full range of human emotions without lyingwife, stealing or bullyingsaying that she's ill and hasn't long to live. They It're the perfect companion for s hard to feel any child! Any mention that these androids are beginning sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to develop real human feelings are just unsubstantiated rumours his underwear and have absolutely no basis sent to a watery grave in reality…rightthe boot of a stolen Ford Sierra. Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?|isbn=1788003470
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{{Frontpage |isbnauthor=1529123941 Alex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=The Silent Treatment |author=Abbie Greaves Glorious Race of Magical Beasts|rating=4.5 |genre=General Fiction Confident Readers|summary= When Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we meet Professor Frank Hobbs start by visiting with him, and in the evening a helper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. Eli lives with his wifelovely gran, Maggie, Frank too – for there is playing chess against his computer, although not very successfullya generation missing in the family. MaggieA few short years ago, on Eli's parents were both lost to the other handtitular race, has just taken some pills a globe- eight of them, trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in fact - and before long she will collapse. When Frank rings the emergency services in Oxford he has a bit company of a problemmagical beast. He This has made the race anathema to the pair – but when a bad incident at the eatery leads to admit that he and Maggie haven't actually spoken for a while. How long? Wellconfession from gran, it's about six months since he spoke Eli knows his only hope is to dare to Maggie and enter what he can't really say if it's likely that Maggie has tried most hates, with the sole aim the prize of magic at the end – the only thing to take her own lifepossibly save his gran.|isbn=0571382231
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