Changes

<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!

Find us on Twitter at [[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'''] and on Instagram at , [[File:instagram_classic_logo.png|link=https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/?hl|alt=en 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}}

|isbn=14736824010008517061|title=The Turning Tide (Dandy Gilver)Death in a Lonely Place|author=Catriona McPhersonStig Abell

|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=Those who were with us Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at the end of [[A Step So Grave (Dandy Gilver) by Catriona McPherson|A Step So Grave]] will remember that Donald was engaged to Mallory DunnochLittle Sky. They're now married and Mallory is having twins. When they arrive no one can doubt There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the charms future of Lavinia Dahlia Cherry his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and her brotherdaughter Diana, Edward Hugh Lachlan Gilver. There are two drawbacksas moving in together would mean a lot of compromise: they're noisy does Jake give up his off-grid and they're staying relaxing life to move in with Dandy Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the future she wants for herself and Hugh. her daughter? Dandy and her detective partner, Alec Osborne, had not taken up For the chance to look into a problem at moment they’re enjoying life in the Cramond ferry when it was offered to them twice before, but suddenly present and putting the possibility of being out of future on the house at Gilverton seems irresistibleback burner.

|isbn=B07WWSCGVS1786482126|title=The Lies You ToldJanus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Harriet TyceElly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=Year six student Robin Spence isn't happy about having to start a new school. She's left Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the school she loved in New York and now she's site was going to Ashams in North London. Ithold seventy-five 's very upmarket; places are rare as hensluxury' teeth and as apartments - when they discovered the pupils have all been there ''forever'', they have their established groupsbones of a child beneath a doorway. Robin's going to be an outsiderThere was no skull. And why is Was this happeninga ritual killing or murder? WellInevitably, over a matter of a few days her parents' marriage fell apartDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. Andrew Spence is staying in New York - he works for a securities firm - and her motherIt's difficult as Ruth knows, Sadie Roperbut Nelson doesn't, has come back to London to pick up her practice that she is pregnant with his child as a criminal barristerresult of the one night they spent together some three months ago. That's easier said than done when you've been out Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of the market place - and the country - for more than ten yearssickness.

|isbn=14087124150008551324|title=Cry BabyThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Mark BillinghamNeil Lancaster

|summary=It's June 1996 and football's European Championships are about unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to start in Londonapproach the police. DS Tom Thorne Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is having a nightmare struggling in prison and ithe's one he has regularlyprepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. It relates to a case from ten years earlier when This person, he ''knew'' that a man was guiltypromises, but didn't take any action until the man's wife and three children had been murdered is someone big and it will be worth the man had killed himself. Cat Coyne and Maria Ashton are with their sons Kieron and Joshpolice doing what he wants. It's a happy combination in that the boys are devoted And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to each other and - despite differences in serve the where remainder of his sentence and how they live - the women are best friendsto get an early parole date. Not much to ask, is it? The boys are seven-year-old new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and they play on the swings in the park and then dash off she's even prepared to play hide and seek in Highgate Wood. Josh was do the one doing the hiding other thing that Hardie demanded - but he returned tearfully to the women: Kieron never came to find make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him and now he canis kept well away from what't find Kierons happening.

|isbn=B08CHJLNBS0008405026|title=Capturing EmiliaA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Brooke AdamsJane Casey|rating=35|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=HeIt's Charles Devereaux, thirtysixteen years since nine-year-eight old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to a partner at Wickham Jones, the Mayfair letting agentshalt. She's EmiliaNow, her mother, twenty-nineHelena, librarian and archivist her father are dead in the heritage library next doortheir bed. Emilia has read [[The Secret by Rhonda Byrne|The Secret]] Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but she's moved on from new age books like that, which leave you dependent on someone elsethere's philosophies, to something a little deeper. Charles is more about the positioning of a [[Personal by Lee Child|Jack Reacher]] man himself, but, above all, he's shocked the bodies that Emilia reads ''The Guardian''makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. They're obviously not at all compatible, so why can Charles not get this woman out of his mind? She's not his usual type at all: What looked as though it's obvious was going to his friendsbe an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. And given Kerrigan is convinced that Emilia regularly feels repulsed by Charlesthe explanation lies in Rosalie's superficiality, why does she feel drawn to him? The relationshipdisappearance: others (such as Derwent's obviously a non-starterboss, isn't it?Una Burt) are less convinced.

|isbn=15043213830571379877|title=Single, Again, and Again, and Again …: What Do You Do When Life Doesn't Go to Plan?The Kellerby Code|author=Louisa PatemanJonny Sweet|rating=43.5|genre=AutobiographyCrime|summary=''You can't be happy Edward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and fulfilled on your ownStanza. You are not complete until you find Robert's a man''. This was what Louisa Pateman was brought up to believetheatre director. It wasnHe't unkind: it was simply the adults in her life advising her as s also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and uses Edward to what they thought would be best run errands for herhim. It was reinforced by all those fairy tales where the girl (sheEdward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and he's usually fairly young) is rescued by the handsome prince who then marries her so that they can live happily ever afterdrunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. Few girls are lucky enough to be brought up Most men in Robert''without'' the expectation s position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that they will marry and have children. It was a belief and it would be many years before Louisa would conclude that relationship had begun between them but he''a belief s not like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the two of them kissing in a choice''dark passageway.

|isbnauthor=1787301435Jo Callaghan|title=Dark Waters|author=G R HallidayLeave No Trace

|summary=Twenty-two-year-old Annabelle Whittaker made her second mistake when she opted to drive down When a man is found crucified on the private road top of a hill in Glen Turrit. It was a long road through some breath-taking scenery and she could push the car Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to its limits without fear of being caught speeding. When the blond child stepped out in front of case alongside her she instinctively jerked sidekick, the steering wheel and hit a treeAI detective Lock. When she came round after the accident she couldnIt't work out where she wass their first live case together, but it obviously wasn't a conventional hospitalhaving previously been very successful with several cold cases. She'd made her first mistake some time agoBut when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, although the realisation wouldn't be obvious Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to her for a long timetheir AI Future Policing project. She'd made it when she chose Will they be able to have her father buy her solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of a pale blue BMW M4.career?|isbn=139851120X

|authorisbn=Suzanne Collins1399613073|title=The Ballad of Songbirds and SnakesMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson

|genre=TeensThrillers|summary= Coriolanus Snow is refined, charmingOlivia, Laura and one of Anjali met on the only surviving members first day of the affluent Snow family. But medical school and their world was destroyed by the warfriendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Their riches gone Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, his parents dead - and yet the facade must which is a bonus when you aim to be maintaineda cardiothoracic surgeon. As the 10th Hunger Games begins, Coriolanus Laura is a perfectionist and other students of a trauma doctor. Anjali is the Academy become the first Mentors free spirit of the tributes in the games. This is his chance to prove himself to the world group and secure his place in the Capitol for goodshe becomes a GP. But when he is assigned When we first meet them they're at a tribute with no hope drug and alcohol- a girl from District 12 - he thinks all chances of winning (both for her fuelled party and for him) are gone. But Lucy Gray Baird proves herself it's going to be a spark in his world, end in a way he could never have imaginedtragedy. As We don't know who suffered the Games commence, Lucy Gray fights for her life in tragedy or the arena consequences. Twenty- but behind five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the scenesthree friends. This time, in the sly, complex and strangely dangerous world of the Capitol, Coriolanus is fighting for his life tooit's their teenage children who are involved. Will she survive the Games? Will he? And what happens then?|isbn=0702300179

|authorisbn=Sakinu Ahronglong0241636604|title=Hunter SchoolThe Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson

|summary= The flyleaf If you were to this little collection tells us that it is bring up an image of a work city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of fictionsomeone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. That's possibly misleading There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the London School of Economics. I am not sure whether it Stevenson is "fiction" in the sense bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that Ahronglong made it all upmost rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It was his ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, or whether it is this turned into permanent employment as the blurb goes on a trader.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1035021803|title=The Antique Hunter's Guide to say 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'recollectionss back now because of a request for help from her beloved aunt, folklore Carole. Freya's former mentor and autobiographical stories'Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. It feels like Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the latter. It village: Arthur, she feels like the stories he tells about his experiences as a child, let her down badly. Even though they were in business together as an adolescentantique hunters, as an adult are real and trueshe has not felt able to be near the man or pursue the profession she loved. But memory is After the split, she worked in a fickle thingcafe, met and maybe poetic licence has taken over here and there married James (on the rebound from the love of her life, who was murdered) and maybe calling it fiction means that its safer Freya and therefore more people will read it. More people shouldJames have now divorced.|isbn=1999791282

|authorisbn=Kat EllisAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=Harrow LakeAll Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=4.5|genre=TeensScience Fiction|summary=When we first meet 17-year-old Lola, daughter ''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to legendary horror movie director Nolan Nox, she is saying goodbye to New York City - by sneaking out and stealing from its residentscome. But when she '' I've heard it said that 'technology' is found by her fatherwhat happens after you's assistant and forced to come home, she arrives to find an unlocked doorre eighteen. Well, I must confess that there have been more than a trail few decades of blood, and her father dying technology in his studymy lifetime. And so, while he recovers, she is sent off I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to live me but I'm left with her grandmother in Harrow Lake, the small 1920s town in Indiana feeling that served as the location for the film that made her parents famousit's all getting away from me. But something about this place isn't rightSome of it is - frankly - quite frightening. There's a darkness inside Of course, I could research the people here. Secrets about her mother possibilities and dark tales of the townprobabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I's cannibal monster m reading someone who knows what they'Mister Jitters' fill every corner, and disturbing happenings plague Lolare talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. But with every passing hour, secrets long buried come painfully to light and she begins to think that these stories may not be stories at all, and something very real I needed people I knew I could trust and sinister lurks who could deliver information in Harrow Lakea way I could understand.|isbn=0241397049

|author= Helly ActonSunny Singh|title= The ShelfHotel Arcadia|rating= 43.5|genre= Women's FictionThrillers |summary= When we meet Amy, she's The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a relationship with Jamieterrorist group. You can't really call it a partnership Hiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, because things tend to get done killing everyone on his termssite, there is Sam, but she's sticking around because she hopes she can change him. Aha wartime photographer and Abhi, yesthe hotel manager. Haven't we all been there? Things As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are looking up when still alive in the hotel, he tells forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of her room to try to pack for a surprise tripcapture what's happened through her photography. Could this be it? Is he ''finally'' going Although they only ever talk over the phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to get down on one knee? Was the work (help her keep safe and they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the wait) worth it?terrorists.|isbn=1838770879086154742X

|authorisbn= Justine Avery and Daria Yudina1529153298|title= This Book Wants to Make You Laugh (Living Book)The List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating= 45|genre= For SharingGeneral Fiction|summary=This Living Book It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is on a missionPrime Minister. What's the mission (A woman? To make you laugh! I can't think of many better missions than thatmean, can you? Let's see how it doeshonestly... ) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been disappearing... well Well, it opens up with a terrible joke. A groany jokethey've been murdered, an eye-roll jokebut to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. The joke isn Miv's upset because she't very funny but it is funny to see how enthusiastic and how generously this book s overheard that her father wants to make move the family 'Down South'. When you 're from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. laugh - ''OhFor Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, Iand she'm terrible at jokes. Some books are so good at them. I always wanted ll do anything to help someone laughprevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum' |isbn= 194812453Xs stopped talking - to anyone.

|isbn=15294022711398524085|title=Murder on the Moorland (Kitt Hartley Yorkshire Mysteries)Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Helen CoxNicci French|rating=3.5

|summary=DI Malcolm Halloran and Kitt HartleyCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband's relationship is developing nicely: they're even into a spot of bandage nowfiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, although the details Etty. are (mercifully) scantall worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, is not. After a night of passion Halloran is called away in Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the early hours body of the morning. ThereGreg's been a murder in Irendalefather, where Halloran used to live and where his wifeDuncan Ackerley, Kamala, was strangled five years agoin the river. There are sufficient details of It was an easy assumption for the current murder police to make Halloran suspect that the man who Duncan had murdered his wife - Charlie and others - is in some way involved, despite being in prisonthen committed suicide when he couldn't stand the guilt. The DI heads off to speak to Jeremy KerrSalter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.

|authorisbn= Mark Dawson1035906708|title= The CleanerDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating= 4.5|genre= ThrillersGeneral Fiction|summary= Ruthless We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and coldly competent, John Milton is one of 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 British government's best assets – Nazi occupation by a contract killer with lethal instincts. Now, after ten yearsmother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her elder sister, he wants outJackie. But his job isn't one you can just walk away from…|isbn=178739462X

|author=Angela MackChristopher Edge|title=I Am UnworthyBlack Hole Cinema Club

|summary= Isabel is determined to start fresh''I can hear the song of the sea. Start againThe call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart. Sixth form will be different'' Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Her tormentor doesn't go Mira, like her mother before her, is one of the seven who swim out to Gilleford Secondary School anymoresurvey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. She can escape But when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the hurtwrecking, they capture the fearisland's leader and Mira's father. Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and with only coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the person she becamesea. Josh is determined With only nine days to keep goingunearth what might save her father, even through as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the rageheart of the smuggler's territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and the ones she holds most dear.|isbn=0008664730}}{{Frontpage|author=James Sherwood Metts|title=Planet Storyland|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary= Things have been a bit sticky for the painEarthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're paid to do and using his fists other tasks that took time to solve any problem or situationaccomplish. But he has secrets that threaten Just as they were beginning to get used to tear him all this technological change and his brothers apartstarting to think of other, new ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. When Josh Life was pretty much shut down and Isabel's worlds collide, can along with it, all the many daily social interactions on which they make their relationship work? Can they both finally depend so heavily.|isbn=1736128426}}{{Frontpage|author=Matthew Tree|title=We'll Never Know|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary= Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be happy? Or will Josh's time run out?different from his father, a drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and who had endless crises of self confidence. So Tim applied himself to his studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions.|isbn=B089FL7H4HB0CVFXPGP8

|author=Laura Imai MessinaA G Slatter|title=The Phone Box at the End Briar Book of the WorldDead

|genre=Literary FictionFantasy|summary= In the northeast '' There's a part of me that wants to keep this just to myself for however long I can. This secret magic of Japanmy own, in Inwate Prefecture a man installed all mine, at last. I just want to enjoy it for a telephone box in his gardenwhile. ''Inside there is an old black Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, telephonelies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Briar's, disconnecteda family of witches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands. Though she has always wished for magic, that carries voices Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to be born into the windher 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' It is a real places leader, a necessary and Ellie takes her placebeside her. As challenges come her way left, right and I am pleased centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to see communicate with the IMPORTANT NOTE that dead, putting her at the author attaches heart of a maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from one family secret to her storyanother, that Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what to do as the place is not a tourist destinationBriar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, it is a sacred place, a place that must be left to those who really need itunder threat.|isbn=178658039X1803364548

|isbn=B0859115X51529900360|title=Lies to Tell (DI Clare Mackay)The Ghost Orchid|author=Marion ToddJonathan Kellerman

|summary=When we meet up with DI Clare Mackay again sheIt hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's at Daisy Cottage 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. His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the outskirts help of St Andrews with her English Bull Terrier, Benjya psychologist only worked for a while. SheFinally, it was Robin, Delaware's just had a postcard from Geoffrey Dark and he's in Provincetownpartner, Cape Codwho nudged Milo into asking for help again. He wishes She knew that the involvement was something that the man she was thereloved needed. The next case did look simple, but Clare's struggling to think of what he ''actually'' is to her nowthough. Is he her boyfriend? Her ex-boyfriend? She can't work it out and thinks that Geoffrey probably can't eitherTwo lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a remote property in Bel Air. Work's about He was the heir to get very busy an Italian shoe empire and she canis married to an extremely rich man and it't work out why DCI Alastair Gibson has cancelled a meeting she'd arranged without discussing it with her firsts not the Italian. They're off somewhere top secret.But which of them was the primary target?

|isbn=17808998581529395224|title=To Tell You Letting the TruthCat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Gilly MacmillanSion Rowlands|rating=43.5|genre=CrimeAnimals and Wildlife|summary=When Lucy Bewley Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was nine-years-old she crept out of the house on the night of the summer solstice a GP and Rowlands didn't want to watch the pagan celebrations follow in Stoke Woods. Her four-year-old brotherhis footsteps, Teddy, would have woken particularly when he considered the house if she hadnstrain that being on-call put on his father't taken him with hers life. But in When he was seventeen he took the early hours opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the morningjob for him. Before long, Lucy returned home without Teddy, hoping that he would have got home before herwas at Liverpool University. He It hadn't and no one has seen him - as with so many students - been his dream sincehe was a child. LucyIf anything, he's story was crucial d wanted to the police investigation, but it keeps subtly changing. Lucy is being advised by her imaginary friend, Eliza Grey and Eliza says that there are certain things which Lucy must not tell the policebe a professional footballer.

|isbn=00082147000861541774|title=Cut to the Bone (DI Meg Dalton)A Nye of Pheasants|author=Roz WatkinsSteve Burrows

|summary=DI Meg Dalton DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and Ds Jai Sanghera are dealing former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with the case of a missing teenageran old ally, Guy Trueman. Violet Armstrong is wellMaik was involved in a street brawl -known as he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a vlogger knife - championing the cause of meat-eatingand he killed a Ghurka. She barbeques meat wearing only Initially, he faced a bikini and has attracted charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the attention of animal rights activistsman. The meat-eaters (they wear meat suits) are determined that Meg Dalton is corrupt and not running a decent investigation (''obviously'' she only got Now he could be facing the job because she's a woman) because she's a vegetariandeath penalty. As if the case wasn't enough, Meg's father is coming Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to stay with her despite having had little to do with her for fifteen years help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and Jai's convinced that his girlfriend, Suki, doesn't like his children and that she wants more, but he doesnwouldn'thelp Danny at all.

|isbnauthor=1784385166Alexander McCall Smith|title=The Third Reich in 100 Objects: A Material History of Nazi Germany|author=Roger MoorhousePerfect Passion Company|rating=4.5|genre=HistoryGeneral Fiction|summary=What The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the first image that comes online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to mind when you think of the Third Reich? Hitler? A swastika? The Nazi salute? The gate Canada to get away for a concentration camp? None of these are comfortable images but they are emblematic while. Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the Third Reich's fascist regime in all its iniquitychance to come home to Edinburgh. But And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some objects and images from that time may be less familiar new characters who quickly begin to youcharm. In this short volume Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, Roger Moorhouse but Ness has attempted full confidence in her abilities, and there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to illustrate the period of the Third Reich through one hundred of its material artefacts. lend a hand…|isbn=1846976596

|isbn=14091874380811771741|title=The First LieInstaKnits for Baby|author=A J ParkMelissa Leapman|rating=3.54|genre=ThrillersCrafts|summary=On the second Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of October 37-year-old barrister, Paul Reeve, returned home at 9 pm knits from toys to find his house in darkness and the front door openblankets. His wife was in Some will be quick knits - others are of the bedroom 'long, cosy afternoons in a state front of shock and in the bathroom there was a dead man who had been stabbed repeatedly in fire' variety. The projects are divided by the neck with Paultime they's paperll take to complete -knifeless than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and more than twenty hours. In that moment Paul takes a decision that will be irrevocable: he decides that he and Alice All the projects are not going to ring the police attractive, modern and tell the truthuseable. TheyI perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that're going to bury the body in woodland and go on as though nothing has happeneds me being picky.

|isbnauthor=1529401801Dean Koontz|title=Grave's End (DS Alexandra Cupidi)|author=William ShawThe Bad Weather Friend

|genre=CrimeParanormal|summary=Gram HickmanBenny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, who worked for an estate agenthe loses his fiancee, took and his girlfriendhouse gets trashed. Oh, Angela Boothand someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to a house which his firm home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was marketing. inside is the thing that has trashed his house! Guildeford Hall was an old Kentish oast house and was on The thing is, Benny is the market for millions of poundsvery last person to deserve all this bad luck. Gram was hoping that he could get Angela into bed and he'd brought He is a bottle of prosecco alongnice person. A really nice person. It was when searching So fortunately for somewhere to chill the bottle Benny it turns out that he found the body of delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a man in the freezer in the garagegood person. DS Alexandra Cupidi Spike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and DC Jill Ferriter Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are on the case.|isbn=1662500491

|author= Ukamaka OlisakweAdam Stower|title= Ogadinma Or, Everything Will Be All RightMurray and Bun|rating= 4.5|genre= Literary FictionConfident Readers |summary= The new novel by Ukamaka Olisakwe Murray is supposed to be a look at the trauma humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and heartache , well, whatever takes his fancy next of being a woman in 1980s Nigeriathe two. The title is But he's a bad magician'Ogadinma Ors cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, Everything Will Be All Right''. Ogadinma is the eponymous heroine of the story. We are with her in every scene and it is her narrative voice that leads the storycatflap they both use can chuck them out, although Olisakwe writes in not into the third person. This provides regular back garden, but into a sense world of detachment for the reader frightening adventure and highlights the isolation of Ogadinmawhiffs. She This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is exiled from her fatherexpected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but he's home turned up and sent to Lagos where she is married to an older man named Tobe. Their marriage descends into violence and indignities and Ogadinma must utilise her resourcefulness he'll have to escape.do…|isbn=19116481600008561249

|authorisbn=Lun Zhang, Adrien Gombeaud, Ameziane and Edward Gauvin (translator)B0C47LV1PC|title=Tiananmen 1989: Our Shattered HopesFragility|author=Mosby Woods|rating=4.5|genre=Graphic NovelsLiterary Fiction|summary=I never really followed Can you make a ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, is the events of Tiananmen Square with much attention when question should you make it was playing out – someone in ? Or is the second half of their teens has other prioritiesquestion if you did, you knowwould it land? The catch is that the answer for both could well be.... no. I certainly didn ''Fragility''t know of the weeks of protests and hunger strikes from the students before the massacre and is set as the birth city of the Tank Man imagePortland, I didn't know how the area had long been a venue for political protestOregon, and I didn't know more than a spit about cautiously begins to emerge from the people involved on either side. This book is practically flawless in giving a general browser's context for restrictions imposed during the whole season of protests back in 1989.|isbn=1684056993covid pandemic

|authorisbn= Joan He1529431735|title= Descendant of the CraneThe Winter Visitor|author=James Henry|rating=54|genre= FantasyCrime|summary=It's February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins'Heroes cannot be forged without villainsreturn all the more surprising. He''Princess Hesina of d been exiled on the kingdom of Yan has never Costa del Sol as a wanted the thronedrug smuggler for a decade. Instead of craving power, she The return has always considered the crown her inescapable duty and shrank away come about because he's had a letter from the responsibilities of being Queen. To herhis ex-wife, it has always been a distant, faraway future. Until saying that is, it isnshe's ill and hasn'tlong to live. When her beloved father suddenly dies, she is thrust into ruling. But contrary It's hard to the official report, Hesina knows all feel any sympathy when Hopkins is not as it seemsabducted, her father didn't die. He was murdered.Determined stripped to seek the truth his underwear and discover her father's killer, Princess Hesina will stop at nothing sent to find justice, even committing treason. Under a watery grave in the cover boot of darkness, her feet lead her to a soothsayer stolen Ford Sierra. Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to learn what happened that day and who killed the King.|isbn=1789094046home?

|author=Pat GrantAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=The Grot: The Story Glorious Race of the Swamp City GriftersMagical Beasts

|genre=Graphic NovelsConfident Readers|summary=Everything Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in this world runs on pedal-powerthe wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and that includes in the evening a helper at the punk bandsdessert cafe his gran owns and runs. There are three pedallers at the front of the Heath Robinson contraption taking our lead characters to the ferry across the swamp to Falter CityEli lives with his lovely gran, where too – for there is a mother and her two sons aim to set up a yoghurt factorygeneration missing in the family. You could say that yoghurt would be A few short years ago, Eli's parents were both lost to the only culture aroundtitular race, for this is a really roughglobe-and-ready dump trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in the company of a place, but everyone is interested in small things that growmagical beast. For This has made the only money race anathema to be had the pair – but when a bad incident at the only fortunes eatery leads to be found in Falter City – come a confession from algaegran, gunk and other crud that – well, the use of it Eli knows his only hope is never really made clear. Once thereto dare to enter what he most hates, the two brothers set themselves each up with a guide – Lippy, the more forward-thinking, industrious of sole aim the two, with a besuited gent, Penn with a ballsy young teenaged girl with bright red hair. But which prize of magic at the two will come off end – the worse as they make their own way in this dystopian, semi-Apocalyptic hellhole?only thing to possibly save his gran.|isbn=16030946600571382231