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<metadesc>Expert , full book reviews & recommendations from most walks of literary life; fiction, biography, crimenon-fiction, cookery & children's books & self-published books plus author interviews & top tens.</metadesc>

Hello from The Bookbag, a site featuring books reviews and recommendations Reviews by readers 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 libraryWith author interviews, the charity shop features and the bookshoptop tens. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times thereYou'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 sure to us by publishers and we promise to tell find something 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 want to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] pagehere.Dig in!

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==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}}

|isbn=15294018010008517061|title=Grave's End (DS Alexandra Cupidi)Death in a Lonely Place|author=William ShawStig Abell|rating=4.5

|summary=Gram HickmanFormer Metropolitan Police detective, who worked for an estate agentJake Johnson, took 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, Angela BoothLivia and her daughter Diana, to as moving in together would mean a house which lot of compromise: does Jake give up his firm was marketing. Guildeford Hall was an old Kentish oast house off-grid and was on relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the market future she wants for millions of pounds. Gram was hoping that he could get Angela into bed herself and he'd brought a bottle of prosecco along. her daughter? It was when searching for somewhere to chill For the bottle that he found the body of a man moment they’re enjoying life in the freezer in present and putting the garage. DS Alexandra Cupidi and DC Jill Ferriter are future on the caseback burner.

|authorisbn= Ukamaka Olisakwe1786482126|title= Ogadinma Or, Everything Will Be All RightThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating= 4.5|genre= Literary FictionCrime|summary= The new novel by Ukamaka Olisakwe is a look at Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the trauma and heartache bones of being a woman in 1980s Nigeriachild beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. The title is It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn'Ogadinma Ort, Everything Will Be All Right''. Ogadinma that she is the eponymous heroine of the story. We are pregnant with her in every scene and it is her narrative voice that leads the story, although Olisakwe writes in the third person. This provides his child as a sense result of detachment for the reader and highlights the isolation of Ogadinmaone night they spent together some three months ago. She is exiled from her father's home and sent to Lagos where she Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is married prone to an older man named Tobe. Their marriage descends into violence and indignities and Ogadinma must utilise her resourcefulness to escapesudden bouts of sickness.|isbn=1911648160

|authorisbn=0008551324|title=Lun Zhang, Adrien Gombeaud, Ameziane and Edward Gauvin The Devil You Know (translatorD S Max Craigie)|titleauthor=Tiananmen 1989: Our Shattered HopesNeil Lancaster

|genre=Graphic NovelsCrime|summary=I never really followed It's unusual for anyone from the events of Tiananmen Square with much attention when it was playing out – someone in Hardie family to approach the second half of their teens police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other priorities, you know. I certainly didnBut Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he't know of s prepared to tell the police where the weeks body of protests a missing person is buried and hunger strikes from who was responsible for her death. This person, he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the students before police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the massacre remainder of his sentence and the birth of the Tank Man imageto get an early parole date. Not much to ask, I didnis it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't know how the area had long been a venue for political protest, think so and I didnshe't know more than a spit about s even prepared to do the people involved on either side. This book other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is practically flawless in giving a general browserkept well away from what's context for the whole season of protests back in 1989happening.|isbn=1684056993

|authorisbn= Joan He0008405026|title= Descendant of A Stranger in the CraneFamily (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey

|genre= FantasyCrime|summary=It''Heroes cannot be forged without villains''Princess Hesina of the kingdom of Yan has s sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never wanted found and the throneinvestigation ground to a halt. Instead of craving power Now, she has always considered the crown her inescapable duty mother, Helena, and shrank away from her father are dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the responsibilities positioning of being Queenthe bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. To her, What looked as though it has always been was going to be an open-and-shut case is now a distant, faraway futurecomplex double murder. Until Kerrigan is convinced that isthe explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, it isn'tUna Burt) are less convinced.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0571379877|title=The Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=3. When her beloved father suddenly dies, she 5|genre=Crime|summary=Edward Jevons is thrust into ruling. But contrary to the official reporta working-class young man, Hesina knows all is not as it seemsobsessed with his upper-class friends, her father didnRobert and Stanza. Robert't dies a theatre director. He was murdered's also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for him.Determined to seek the truth Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and discover her fatherhe's killer, Princess Hesina will stop at nothing drunkenly confided how he feels to find justice, even committing treasonRobert. Under 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 cover two of darkness, her feet lead her to them kissing in a soothsayer to learn what happened that day and who killed the Kingdark passageway.|isbn=1789094046

|author=Pat GrantJo Callaghan|title=The Grot: The Story of the Swamp City GriftersLeave No Trace

|genre=Graphic NovelsCrime|summary=Everything in this world runs When a man is found crucified on pedal-power, and that includes the punk bands. There are three pedallers at the front top of the Heath Robinson contraption taking our lead characters a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the ferry across case alongside her sidekick, the swamp to Falter CityAI detective Lock. It's their first live case together, where having previously been very successful with several cold cases. But when there is a mother and her two sons aim to set up second body found crucified a yoghurt factory. You could say that yoghurt would be the only culture aroundfew days later, for this Kat is suddenly struggling with a really rough-potential serial killer and-ready dump of a place, but everyone is interested in small things very high profile case that growdraws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. For the only money Will they be able to be had – solve the only fortunes to be found case in Falter City – come from algaetime, gunk or will Kat find herself taken off the case and other crud that – well, the use of it is never really made clear. Once therepotentially, the two brothers set themselves each up with a guide – Lippy, the more forward-thinking, industrious out of the two, with a besuited gent, Penn with a ballsy young teenaged girl with bright red hair. But which of the two will come off the worse as they make their own way in this dystopian, semi-Apocalyptic hellholecareer?|isbn=1603094660139851120X

|authorisbn= Ashley Poston1399613073|title= Bookish and the BeastMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating= 34.5|genre= TeensThrillers|summary= Set after Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the ExcelsiConfirst day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, we are introduced which is a bonus when you aim to Rosie Thorne, be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a Small Town, USA girl who has recently lost her mother perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Anjali is entering her final year the free spirit of high school. Things keep piling up for Rosie, the group and when she follows becomes a stray dog into what she thinks is an abandoned castle in her town, things just get worseGP. Rosie accidentally destroys When we first meet them they're at a rare book drug and with her motheralcohol-fuelled party and it's hospital and funeral costs she has no money going to cover 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 damagethree friends. She finds herself working for Vance Reigns This time, Hollywood royalty on it's their teenage children who are involved.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0241636604|title=The Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=If you were to bring up an image of a paparazzi escapecity banker in your mind, you're unlikely to repay think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the debtEast End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice.  For most Starfield superfans this would be a dream There was no posh public school on his CV - but Rosie soon realises Vance he had been to the London School of Economics. Stevenson is a jerk bright - extremely bright - and he isn't too fond has a facility with numbers which most of her eitherus can only envy. However He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It was his ability at what was, essentially, as the two are forced to get to know each othera card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, their guards begin to lower and they discover that maybe this situation might not be so terrible after allturned into permanent employment as a trader. |isbn=1683691938

|authorisbn=Justine Avery and Daria Yudina1035021803|title=Baby Trolls Get a Bad Rap (Underrated Babies Book 1)The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=43.5|genre=For SharingCrime|summary= It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up. HoratioShe's back now because of a request for help from her beloved aunt, Saul and Grizelda are three baby trolls who are fed up that everyone forgets about baby trollsCarole. They are ignored in books Freya's former mentor and TV shows Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and films in favour of their very scary grown upsthe circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. Our three heroes want equal rights for baby trolls Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. They want Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be seen near the man or pursue the profession she loved. After the split, she worked in a cafe, met and heard married James (on the rebound from the love of her life, who was murdered) and Freya and they've started a petition about it that they want you to signJames have now divorced. But how should they go about it? |isbn= B07XGN4LGY}}

|authorisbn= Samira AhmedAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title= Mad, Bad All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Dangerous to KnowStephen Oram (Editors)|rating= 3.5|genre=TeensScience Fiction|summary=''In Opening up new ways of thinking about the end, we all become storiesshape of things to come.''

Spending the summer 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 Paris sounds like a dream for most people, especially art-lovers, my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but Khayyam canI't relax and stop thinking about m left with the mess she left behind in Chicagofeeling that it's all getting away from me. On a chance encounter with a descendant Some of Alexandre Dumasit is - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, Khayyam finds herself on a historical journey with him to unveil I could research the truth about possibilities and the 19th century Muslim woman probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who may have crossed paths with Alexandre Dumas, Eugene Delacroix and Lord Byron. As the two teenagers travel the city knows what they not only discover themselves, but uncover 're talking about or the true story of the woman latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and why it was one that should never have been forgottenwho could deliver information in a way I could understand.|isbn=0349003556

|author= Hazel BarkworthSunny Singh|title= HeatstrokeHotel Arcadia|rating= 3.5|genre= CrimeThrillers |summary=''Too hot to sleepThe Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Too hot to think straight. Too hot to go back'' During a British heatwave 15-year-old Hiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, Lily Dixonkilling everyone on site, has left home and is reported missing. Rachel there is Sam, a teacher at Lily's school wartime photographer and Abhi, the mother of Mia, Lily's best friendhotel manager. As Lily's family and Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the police struggle hotel, he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to find any evidence that may lead be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of her room to Lily, Rachel takes it upon herself try to start looking for cluescapture what's happened through her photography. However Although they only ever talk over the phone, their friendship grows as the case goes on Rachel becomes fixated on finding Lily and finds herself crossing boundaries, breaking trust Abhi tries to help her keep safe and facing some impossible choices. Will they find Lily? Does Lily want both wait to be found? And see if they will life for Rachel ever be rescued before they are discovered by the same again?terrorists.|isbn=1472265602086154742X

|isbn=15387317381529153298|title=Simple Abundance: 365 Days to a Balanced and Joyful LifeThe List of Suspicious Things|author= Sarah Ban BreathnachJennie Godfrey

|genre=LifestyleGeneral Fiction|summary=Someone once said: itIt's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not self-indulgence, itwhat's worrying Miv's therapy! family, though. Women have been disappearing. I think Well, they were talking about shopping've been murdered, but it probably can be applied to most thingshave 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the family 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. In my caseFor Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, it applies and she'll do anything to writing prevent that. She's not worried about things because I want to, rather than because I can sell it the dangers or because Ithat her Mum've got something s stopped talking - to sellanyone.

|authorisbn=Frederic Gros1398524085|title=A Philosophy of WalkingHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French

|genre= Politics and SocietyCrime|summary= I confess I picked this one Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up from . Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, Etty. are all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, is not. Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the library body of Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in my pre-lockdown forage of random stuffthe river. Now I have It was an easy assumption for the police to go out an buy my own copy so make that I can turn down the pages I have marked Duncan had murdered Charlie and return to its varying wisdom then committed suicide when I need to. Some books draw you in slowlyhe couldn't stand the guilt. This one had me in the first two pages, wherein Gros explains why ''walking is The Salter children are not a sport'convinced but there's little else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.|isbn=1781688370

|isbn=085752612X1035906708|title=Rodham: What if Hillary hadn't Married Bill?Diva|author=Curtis SittenfeldDaisy Goodwin|rating=4.5

|summary=I was tempted We tend to read ''Rodham'' by the success think of Curtis Sittenfeld's ''American Wife''. That book wasn't marketed Maria Callas as being a portrait of Laura BushGreek, but the word ''thinly-veiled'' seemed she was born to occur very regularly Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in reviewsDecember 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. How would Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas'Rodham'' compare? Unfortunately, there is a difference: relatively little was known about Laura Bush, which gave the book a freshness which to make it more manageable in the first third of ''Rodham'' lacksStates. We've all heard the stories, read the books When she was back in Athens - about Hillary and particularly about Bill. It's still an interesting concept, though: how would Hillary have fared if supposedly so that she hadn't subsumed could get appropriate training for her own ambitions into Bill's career, if voice - she hadn't had to carry was raised under the burden Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of all Bill's baggage and if she hadn't left her own run at the presidency so late? Could she have done better without the Clinton surname?preference for her elder sister, Jackie.

|isbnauthor=0727889230Christopher Edge|title=The Red, Red Snow|author=Caro RamsayBlack Hole Cinema Club|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeConfident Readers|summary=In GlasgowLucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, Eric Callaghan a place that has the nickname of Inkermann Tattoo Parlour had been 'The Black Hole'. All big movie fans, they're looking forward to the ice show with his wifelots of exciting films, Geraldine and daughtermany, Lisa when he was stabbed in Planet Burger. many snacks! He died within minutesHowever, as the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, but his murder seemed motiveless and there were no cluesthey are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. He was a genuine man and a talented artist: those investigating his death had hit a dead end. There were two deaths But as they lurch from one film genre to investigate in the north of Scotland: it wasn't thought wise next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to involve the local murder team as someone on the Glen Riske police force was indirectly involved in the case. Christmas - cinema, and a lot of snow were rapidly approaching.to their real lives?|isbn=1839942738

|isbnauthor=B07S6DBCFTRachel Greenlaw|title=Little Girls Tell Tales|author=Rachel BennettCompass and Blade|rating=43.5|genre=CrimeTeens|summary=In 2004 Rosalie''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.'' Rosevear, Beth a remote and Dallin were walking in partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the boggy wetlands by Rosalie rocks and Dallin's cottageplundering the wrecks. Beth and DallinMira, both twelve-years-oldlike her mother before her, got ahead is one of ten-year-old Rosalie the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and it wasn't long before she realised any treasure that she was lostlies within. Trying But when the Council Watch lays a trap to find her way back end the wrecking, they capture the island's leader and Mira's father. Desperate to the main path she found save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a skeletonwreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and with only coordinates to guide her, but when she finally got sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. With only nine days to unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the road she could never find her way back watched streets of foreign islands to the bog when she'd seen heart of the body. Most people didnsmuggler't believe hers territory, putting Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the story down to future of her vivid imaginationhome and the ones she holds most dear.|isbn=0008664730

|isbnauthor=0008273790James Sherwood Metts|title=Remain Silent|author=Susie SteinerPlanet Storyland|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeConfident Readers|summary=When we first meet Matis Things have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and Dimitriautomation have been proceeding apace, Matis is in a bad way, vomiting and obviously traumatised. When heoften replacing jobs they's able re paid to speak he tells Dimitri do and other tasks that ''Lukas is dead''. Lukas was in his late teens and he and Matis had come took time to Cambridgeshire from Klaipeda in Lithuaniaaccomplish. They'd answered an advert offering good money and accommodation in return for their labour: Just as they could have a decent life ''were beginning to get used to all this technological change and'' send money home starting to think of other, new ways to their familiesspend time, along came an awful pandemic. SadlyLife was pretty much shut down and, along with it doesn't work out like that. When they arrive in , all the UK - many daily social interactions on an old, uncomfortable bus, - which they're dropped at a filthy house where several men have to share rooms and sleep on dirty mattresses on the floor. It's modern slavery, which isn't uncommon amongst agricultural workersdepend so heavily.|isbn=1736128426

|author=Amin MaaloufMatthew Tree|title=The DisorientedWe'll Never Know

|summary= Adam has lived in Paris for years, speaks French Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more easily than his native Arabic. In fact, he hasn't been back to be different from his homeland for 25 years. An old friend is dying…or as Adam prefers to think of him a former-friend, perhaps not as harsh as an ex-friendfather, or maybe. The falling out was a long time ago, drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and Adam's partner has no idea what it was about, even so she urges him to go knowing that he'll regret not doing sowho had endless crises of self confidence. Not knowing whether he's going because he needs or wants So Tim applied himself tohis studies, or simply because he was asked, he's on the next planecultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions. |isbn=B07ZQSK9CYB0CVFXPGP8

|author=Anstey HarrisA G Slatter|title=Where We BelongThe Briar Book of the Dead

|genre=General FictionFantasy|summary= I've always believed ' There's a part of me that places and buildings absorb what happens within them and reflect it back; wants to keep this is how we just to myself for however long I can tell that . This secret magic of my own, all mine, at last. I just want to enjoy it for a sacred space is sacredwhile. Cate Morris believes a similar thing, she believes that ''A house absorbs happiness Within a remote mountain pass, it blooms into far away from the wallpaperworld, lies Silverton; a town under the wood protection of the window frames, the bricks: thatBriar's how it becomes , a homefamily of witches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands.'' She Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is having these thoughts the first non-witch to be born into her family for generations and as such since she packs up 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's leader, and Ellie takes her place beside her home. She has As challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to leave. A combination communicate with the dead, putting her at the heart of a maelstrom of circumstances means that is not only redundant but also homelesschaos. With nowhere else Reeling from one family secret to goanother, she has called on her late husbandEllie must decide who to trust and determine what to do as the Briar witches's family for help. Just for a few weekslegacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat.|isbn=14711738361803364548

|isbn=17874776811529900360|title=A Shooting at Chateau Rock (A Bruno, Chief of Police Novel)The Ghost Orchid|author=Martin WalkerJonathan Kellerman

|summary=It was a couple of days after old Drianthadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's funeral fault that Bruno Courrèges got an angry phone call from Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his sonhelp on difficult cases. GastonHis assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn's father had sold t need the family farm in order to buy an insurance policy which he had used to secure help of a life of luxury at an expensive retirement home near Sarlat, owned by psychologist only worked for a Russian oligarchwhile. Before he even got to go there he diedFinally, it was Robin, apparently of a heart attackDelaware's partner, and who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the retirement home collected man she loved needed. The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the proceeds swimming pool of a remote property in Bel Air. He was the policy heir to an Italian shoe empire and Gaston she is married to an extremely rich man and Claudette Driant were left with just the contents of it's not the farmhouseItalian. The family hadn't exactly fallen out, but Gaston lived some way away and Claudette had fallen out But which of favour when she announced that she them was gay, but they weren't expecting to be almost completely disinherited.the primary target?

|isbn=B083Z3ZZ611529395224|title=Broken Silence (DS Nikki Parekh 2)Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Liz MistrySion 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

|summary=When we first DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet him Stefan Marcovici has been up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in the UK a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with his daughter Maria for a whileknife - and he killed a Ghurka. He Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came expecting to work light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the man. Now he could be facing the death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn't help Danny at all.}}{{Frontpage|author=Alexander McCall Smith|title=The Perfect Passion Company|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a gardener more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and Maria was look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to be get away for a nannywhile. Stefan ends Katie is coming out of a break up doing slave labour in with a chicken factory: you can imagine what happens 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 eighteenEdinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-year-old girl.making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|isbn=1846976596

|authorisbn=Justine Avery and Daria Yudina0811771741|title=This Book Is Alive! (Living Book)InstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman

|genre=For SharingCrafts|summary= Books Melissa Leapman's ''wantInstaKnits for Baby'' you gives us a collection of knits from toys to read them! They're not intimidating or standoffish or particular about readersblankets. Books ''want'' to Some will be read. This is quick knits - others are of the key message in Justine Avery's latest offeringlong, cosy afternoons in front of the fire''This Book Is Alive!''variety. By anthropomorphising The projects are divided by the relationship between book and young reader, shetime they's sending an invitation ll take to all complete - pick me upless than five hours, read mefive to ten hours, be my friendten to twenty hours and more than twenty hours. All the projects are attractive, we can go on a journey togethermodern and useable. It I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's a great message, don't you think?|isbn= 1948124416me being picky.}}

|isbnauthor=0241984653Dean Koontz|title=I Made a Mistake|author=Jane CorryThe Bad Weather Friend

|genre=ThrillersParanormal|summary=We know from Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the very beginning that there's a tragedy about last person to happendeserve all this bad luck. On He is a January evening on nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a very crowded platform 3 of Waterloo Underground station new friend, a man falls bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under an oncoming trainattack from nefarious forces for being a good person. That man Spike is Matthew Gordon. Much later we see Poppy Page in the witness box going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of a crown courtBenny's enemies, if he, Benny, getting and Harper (a very rough ride from the prosecuting barristerwaitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=1662500491

|author= Maryse CondéAdam Stower|title= The Wondrous Murray and Tragic Life of Ivan and IvanaBun|rating= 4.5|genre= Literary FictionConfident Readers |summary= We live in Murray is supposed to be a post-world: post-colonialismhumble, post-modernismtidy and friendly cat, post-truth. The list goes on. There are numerous works that utilise the prefix post- in their categorisationone who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, but perhaps none more so than Maryse Condé. In her new novelwell, ''The Wondrous and Tragic Life whatever takes his fancy next of Ivan and Ivanathe two. But he's a bad magician's cat, Condé writes with fervour about so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the scars left by colonialism on catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the countries to which it latched itself. Ivan and Ivana are twins born in Guadelouperegular back garden, but into a French overseas department. They grow up with intense world of frightening adventure and passionate feelings for each otherwhiffs. As they grow 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 move overseas, the ravages of a post-colonial society drive them apart with tragic consequences.he'll have to do…|isbn=16428606970008561249

|authorisbn= Abi ElphinstoneB0C47LV1PC|title= Jungle Drop (The Unmapped Chronicles)Fragility|author=Mosby Woods|rating= 4|genre= Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary= Abi Elphinstone has said that she connects with her world-building through her characters. In an interview with [Books For Keeps]Can you make a ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, she described visualising her characters "wearing head torches which gradually reveal is the question should you make it? Or is the world they are seeing to her and to question if you did, would it land? The catch is that the readeranswer for both could well be." Just ... no. ''Fragility'' is set as the darkness city of a mine is cut through by a spear of light so too do quarrelsome Fox and Fibber get their first glimpse of the phantasmagorical glow-in-the-dark realm of Jungle Drop when they Portland, Oregon, cautiously begins to emerge through the mouth of a Dragon on from the Here and There Express. Running from restrictions imposed during the opprobrium of their demanding and selfish parents, they must address what is in their hearts to find what they seek.|isbn= 1471173682covid pandemic

|isbn=B084VNRRD61529431735|title=Killing Mind (D I Kim Stone)The Winter Visitor|author=Angela MarsonsJames Henry|rating=54

|summary=It looked very like 's February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the more surprising. He'd been exiled on the Costa del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a suicidedecade. The return has come about because he's had a letter from his ex-wife, saying that she's ill and hasn't long to live. It's hard to begin withfeel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, that was how both DI Kim Stone stripped to his underwear and Keats, sent to a watery grave in the pathologist called itboot of a stolen Ford Sierra. It was only later that Stone Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?}}{{Frontpage|author=Alex Bell and her team realised that when Samantha Brown cut her throatTim McDonagh|title=The Glorious Race of Magical Beasts|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, hers was not and in the only hand holding evening a helper at the knifedessert cafe his gran owns and runs. It was murderEli lives with his lovely gran, too – for there is a generation missing in the family. SammyA few short years ago, Eli's parents. Myles and Kate were both lost to the titular race, a little bit reluctant to say what their daughter had been doing recently. The property globe-trotting adventure where she was found was less homely than most hotel rooms: her mother was about all entrants have to accuse her husband navigate the world in the company of saying that Sammy was ready..a magical beast. But This has made the race anathema to the pair – but when a bad incident at the eatery leads to a confession from gran, Eli knows his only hope is to dare to enter what was Sammy ready ''for'' and where was their other daughterhe most hates, Sophie?with the sole aim the prize of magic at the end – the only thing to possibly save his gran.|isbn=0571382231