132,625
edits
Changes
no edit summary
[[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.
Want to find out more [[About Us|about us]]? __NOTOC__
'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].
{{Frontpage
|author=Saima MirSylvie Cathrall|title=The KhanA Letter to the Luminous Deep
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary= There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of them.
|isbn= 0356522776
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=0008517061
|title=Death in a Lonely Place
|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Jia Khan Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has alway lived by settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the motto be twice future of his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, as good as men moving in together would mean a lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and four times as good as white men. This has served her well relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her rise through reservations about whether or not this is the criminal justice system and by the time future she is called home wants for herself and her sister's wedding after fifteen years daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in self-imposed exile, she is at the top of her game. Returning to the city of her birth, to old scars present and fresh wounds, Jia must confront her past and reconcile her visions for putting the future with her sense of honour and dutyon the back burner.|isbn=1786079097
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=00083368301786482126|title=Two WrongsThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Mel McGrathElly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=Sondra Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was on her way home after work going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when she saw they discovered the bones of a child beneath a young woman looking as though she doorway. There was going to jump from the Clifton suspension bridgeno skull. She talks to herWas this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, and Sondra finally persuades Satnam to call her best friend and flatmate, Nevis SmithDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. Nevis is unworldly and rather reserved - and she canIt't understand why Satnam hasns difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't shared her problems , that she is pregnant with her. She thought his child as a result of the one night they shared everythingspent together some three months ago. Satnam Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is taken prone to hospital and Nevis calls her mother, Honor. They've not been on good terms since a discovery Nevis made the previous summer but right now, Nevis needs her mothersudden bouts of sickness.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=0008551324|title=Andrea Bajani and Elizabeth Harris The Devil You Know (translatorD S Max Craigie)|titleauthor=If You Kept a Record of SinsNeil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=This was an incredibly readable novella, but one that left me a little conflictedIt's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. We start as our hero arrives at Bucharest airport, and before we even know his gender Neither side likes or has any respect for the nature of the person other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's addressing in his second person monologue prepared to tell the police where the body of a narrationmissing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. This person, he promises, we see him picked up by is someone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his mothersentence and to get an early parole date. Not much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's chauffeur, and carted off even prepared to do all the necessary introductions before said mother other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is buried kept well away from what's happening.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008405026|title=A Stranger in the following dayFamily (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. The mother She was never found and the investigation ground to a businesswomanhalt. Now, her mother, Helena, who clearly left northern Italy and settled her father are dead in Romania with their bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her (nightboss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to be an open-time and business) partner, and feelings of abandonment are still strong-shut case is now a complex double murder. And so we flit from current (well, this came out in Kerrigan is convinced that the original Italian explanation lies in 2007Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, so moderately currentUna Burt) Bucharestare 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, to the ladobsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and Stanza. Robert's a theatre director. He's childhoodalso 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 see just what he has 's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell her as 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 private farewell addressdark passageway.|isbn=1939810965
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Jane LightbourneJo Callaghan|title= My Cat Called RedLeave No Trace|rating= 4|genre=Emerging ReadersCrime|summary= Robin has red hair. He hates itWhen a man is found crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, and the freckles that go along with itAI detective Lock. He It's their first live case together, having previously been bullied and mocked at school because of it. ''Ginger Minger! Carrots!'' Kids are meanvery successful with several cold cases. But red hair when there is not Robin's only misery in lifea 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. He's already lost his dad Will they be able to solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of a mountaineering accident when his mum gets ill and is taken into hospital. She doesn't come home again.career?|isbn= 1838216812139851120X
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B003L7TDMU1399613073|title=Phineas FinnMoral Injuries|author=Anthony TrollopeChristie Watson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionThrillers|summary=Phineas Finn is Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the son first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of Dr Malachi Finna century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a successful doctor in Killaloe in County Clare, who sent his son bonus when you aim to London to train as be a lawyercardiothoracic surgeon. Phineas's interest Laura is more in making influential friends than in becoming a lawyer perfectionist and one a trauma doctor. Anjali is the free spirit of them, Barrington Erle, suggests that he runs for Parliament in the forthcoming electiongroup and she becomes a GP. His father is not entirely in favour of this as members are not remunerated When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it would be up 's going to him to provide financial support for his son as well as funding his electionend in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. One of Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the doctorthree friends. This time, it's patients is Lord Tulla their teenage children who controls the borough of Loughshane and by this stroke of luck Finn is, eventually, elected by a small marginare involved.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=18385950310241636604|title=CrookedThe Trading Game: Honest CriminalityA Confession|author=Bronwen JohnGary Stevenson
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersAutobiography|summary=The con had seemed If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like a good one: tricking people into buying artwork supposedly by Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the new Banksy pin- stripe suit and they should have made a decent profit from ithis background is the East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. The problem There was they were too successful: one no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the London School of the marks had bought Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a few and then discovered facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that they were valuelessmost rich people expect poor people to be stupid. Henry Martin Holmes had fallen for a simple con and It was his fatherability at what was, celebrity criminal Harry Holmesessentially, was determined that he and his family could not lose face like thata card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1035021803|title=The grifters were going Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to paythe English country village where she grew up. Ashia She'Ashs back now because of a request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Freya' Cox s former mentor and Max Carole'Colorado' Ying needed s close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be got out of near the man or pursue the countryprofession she loved. In After the course of bringing this aboutsplit, Luke Gainesshe worked in a cafe, Ash's foster fathermet and married James (on the rebound from the love of her life, lost his lifewho was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Hayley WebsterAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=Luna Rae is Not AloneAll Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Confident ReadersScience Fiction|summary=Luna Rae has just moved house''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come. Moving house '' I've heard it said that 'technology' is always tricky, but especially when what happens after you're ten years oldeighteen. Well, and you miss your old home, and you and your little sister I must confess that there have to start been more than a new school but your mum seems to be out working all the timefew decades of technology in my lifetime. Then thereI've kept up reasonably well with what's your dad, who doesnadvantageous to me but I't seem like hem left with the feeling that it's coping so wellall getting away from me. Some of it is - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the possibilities and so therethe probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they's no one to take care of things but youre talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. Everything feels different I needed people I knew I could trust and strange, and mysterious, and so Luna finds who could deliver information in a way of coping is by watchingI could understand. She turns detective and starts keeping an eye on her new neighbourhood, but it turns out she's not the only one keeping watch!|isbn=1788006046
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B003A6W0FOSunny Singh|title=Can You Forgive Her?|author=Anthony TrollopeHotel Arcadia|rating=43.5|genre=Literary FictionThrillers |summary=On the surface ''Can You Forgive Her?'' looks deceptively simple: it's The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Hiding from the story of one woman and two men terrorists who are vying with each other for her loverampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, a wartime photographer and Abhi, the hotel manager. Alice Vavasor was originally engaged As Abhi continues to her cousin, George Vavasor but she broke off that engagement and later became engaged try to John Grey. When we first meet Alice she's on an extended tour of care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the continent hotel, he forms a bond with George Vavasor Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and his sister Kate. It's obvious that there's still a great deal keeps on venturing out of chemistry between John and Alice - and Kate is all for encouraging the relationship as it would tie Alice her room to try to her. George wants Alice but itcapture what's a matter of ''amour propre'' rather than love: he has little consideration for anyone other than himself and the original engagement had fallen happened through because of his infidelity and deceitfulnessher photography. This thread is Although they only ever talk over the story of a very complicated love affair phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and a woman who lacks confidence in her own judgement. You might not like Alice they both wait to start with but you see if they will warm to herbe rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists.|isbn=086154742X
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Hannah Gold1529153298|title=The Last BearList of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=AprilIt's father1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, a scientisthonestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, has though. Women have been given a job on a remote island called Bear Island, and he accepts the job deciding to take his daughter April with himdisappearing. They live alone anywayWell, since Aprilthey's mother died some time beforeve been murdered, and he feels it will be educational for her but to experience the island and all its natural beautyhave 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. April already has an affinity with nature, and Miv's upset because she's excited to travel with overheard that her father, thinking of all the fun things they will be able wants to experience together on move the islandfamily 'Down South'. But when they get thereWhen you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, her father finds that his work monitoring and recording the temperatures just takes up too much of his timeforeign place, and so April is left to explore by herselfbest avoided. Her father had reassured For Miv, the move would mean leaving her that there were no longer any bears living on Bear Islandbest friend, but one day April thinks she catches a glimpse of oneSharon, and so she sets out 'll do anything to find prevent that. She's not worried about the Bear, and then when she sees he is injured, dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to befriend and help himanyone.|isbn=000841128X
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=14722761401398524085|title=What Will Burn (Inspector McLean)Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=James OswaldNicci French
|rating=5
|genre=Crime
|summary=When Cecily SlaterCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband's body was found, she'd already been dead for a week - in a house fire in deserted woodland near Edinburghfiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Heavy rain had washed away most of the evidenceHer children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, Etty. are all worried but DI Tony McLean- strangely - her husband, demoted and just returned from suspensionAlec, is reluctant to accept that this is nothing more than a careless accidentnot. There were indications that Slater had been savagelyShortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the body of Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, almost ritualistically beaten before in the fireriver. But who would hate a ninety-year-old woman It was an easy assumption for the police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the extent of doing something like that? guilt. She was a virtual recluse: who could she have upset to that extent?The Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=000845552X1035906708|title=Where Ravens RoostDiva|author=Karin NordinDaisy Goodwin|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction|summary=Inspector Kjeld Nygaard had been estranged from his fatherWe tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, StenarNew York, for more than a decade but when he got the rather muddled phone call from him saying that he'd seen a murder in the barn on his land he didn't hesitate to drop everything December 1923 and go only moved to VarsundAthens when she was thirteen. Actually, Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'drop everythingCallas' rather overstates to make it more manageable in the situationStates. Nygaard When she was on suspension following the shooting of a suspect back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Aubuchon murder enquiry. There had been Nazi occupation by a complication: the Kattegat Killer turned out to be Nils Hedinmother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her elder sister, Nygaard's best friend. Still, the ten-hour drive from Gothenburg in the south of Sweden to Varsund in the far north shouldn't be underestimatedJackie.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1471187179Christopher Edge|title=A Beautiful Spy|author=Rachel HoreBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=Historical FictionConfident Readers|summary=Minnie is an Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the nickname of 'ordinaryThe Black Hole' girl living an unexciting life in a leafy provincial suburb. The book is set in the 1930s and Minnie is expected to live up to her motherAll big movie fans, they's expectations and find a nice young man re looking forward to marrylots of exciting films, produce children and spend many, many snacks! However, as the rest of her days looking after her husband and their home. Unfortunatelymovie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this isnnew film format is very different, and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't what she wants to do at all and neither does she want to continue working as a secretaryeven imagine. As a result of a chance meeting, she finds herself drawn into espionage, working for the secret service and effectively living a double life - attempting But as they lurch from one film genre to infiltrate the Communist Party of Great Britain. next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Minnie finds herself torn between what she perceives as her duty and Will they ever get back to the friends she has made - cinema, and likes - whilst working for the Communist Party.to their real lives?|isbn=1839942738
}}
{{Frontpage
|author= T L HuchuRachel Greenlaw|title= The Library of the DeadCompass and Blade|rating= 43.5|genre= Teens|summary= Ropa Moyo is ''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.'' Rosevear, a ghostalkerremote and partially forgotten island, using Zimbabwean magic (survives on luring ships into the rocks and a bit plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, is one of Scottish pragmatism) the seven who swim out to take messages from survey the dead of Edinburgh for their living relativesruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. Ever since she dropped out of schoolBut when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, shethey capture the island's leader and Mira's been using it father. Desperate to support not only herselfsave him from death, but her younger sister Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and with only coordinates to guide her aging grandmother, she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. HoweverWith only nine days to unearth what might save her father, there's an evil stalking as her journey takes her from the ruined watched streets of Edinburgh, targeting foreign islands to the heart of the citysmuggler's children. Soonterritory, Ropa is pulled into the search for a missing boy Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the request future of his dead mother. She will end up discovering an occult library her home and realise that the world of magic is far bigger and more dangerous than ones she ever could've imaginedholds most dear. Will she find the missing children and bring an end to this evil, or will it claim her too?|isbn= 15290394520008664730
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Everina MaxwellJames Sherwood Metts|title=Winter's OrbitPlanet Storyland|rating=4.5|genre=Science FictionConfident Readers|summary= Prince Kiem is Things have been a famous political disappointmentbit sticky for the Earthlings. HeAI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they's outgoing, carefree, re paid to do and has gotten into many drunken scandals over the past few yearsother tasks that took time to accomplish. So when an important political alliance is Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to be arranged – one that is supposed think of other, new ways to prevent spend time, along came an interplanetary war – no one expects him to be chosen for the roleawful pandemic. Least of Life was pretty much shut down and, along with it, all himthe many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|isbn=03565158851736128426
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1838952012Matthew Tree|title=The Favour|author=Laura VaughanWe'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersLiterary Fiction|summary=The rejection by Oxford came as Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, a bit drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of a shock his artistic passions all failed miserably and who had endless crises of self confidence. So Tim applied himself to Ada Howell: she washis studies, after all, the daughter cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions.|isbn= B0CVFXPGP8}}{{Frontpage|author=A G Slatter|title=The Briar Book of the renowned author, Anthony Howell, whoDead|rating=5|genre=Fantasy|summary='' There'd been s a part of me that wants to keep this collegejust to myself for however long I can. WellThis secret magic of my own, she wasnall mine, at last. I just want to enjoy it for a while.'t ''actually'' Howell Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Briar's daughter: he'd married , a family of witches who protect the town 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 mother after her birth family for generations and had then adopted her, so as such since she was 'chosen' young, her training as a steward revolved around letters and administration rather than just spells and potions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie'mades cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the town's leader, which was better reallyand Ellie takes her place beside her. And whilst we're being honestAs challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, we might as well admit that 'renowned author' might be stretching putting her at the truth heart of a little: his books degenerated into self-published poetry which Ada couldn't understandmaelstrom of chaos. StillReeling from one family secret to another, Ada had felt entitled Ellie must decide who to trust and this was why her godmotherdetermine what to do as the Briar witches's offer had come at such a brilliant timelegacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat.|isbn=1803364548
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=C A Sacha1529900360|title=Legacy: A Political ThrillerThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary= Corporate boss Gene Finnegan has a plan 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 increase ask for his already startling wealth help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and ensure his legacy: to bring -shut cases which didn't need the worldhelp of a psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, it was Robin, Delaware's first emission-free car to market and dominate productionpartner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the man she loved needed. The secret development project to enable thisnext case did look simple, Bucephalus, is already underway and Finnegan bankrolls US president Joseph Montgomery into though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a second term remote property in Bel Air. He was the heir to help him carry it out. Montgomery an Italian shoe empire and she is also looking for a legacy married to an extremely rich man and one that does not involve his controlling mother and her foundation, so grabs onto Finneganit's Feed Africa programme with both handsnot the Italian...|isbn=1800461976 But which of them was the primary target?
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Martin Venning1529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Primary ObjectiveSecret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=23.5|genre=General FictionAnimals and Wildlife|summary= Sometimes a book starts off slowly, but eventually draws you in to caring about the characters or simply wanting to know what happens nextSiôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. Sometimes it doesnHis father was a GP and Rowlands didn't. The basic premise is a good one – a clandestine organisationwant to follow in his footsteps, operating as a charity, but funded by various governments around particularly when he considered the world and partially (maybe, Istrain that being on-call put on his father'm not sure) under s life. When he was seventeen he took the auspices opportunity of the UN, doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the primary objective of keeping the peacejob for him. Before long, by any means possiblehe was at Liverpool University. Diplomacy is always the first option and sometimes one that needs to be carried out by third parties, but for situations when that looks unlikely to yield results Peace International maintains a call It hadn't -on list of field operatives, exas with so many students -militarybeen his dream since he was a child. If anything, medics, scientists or anyone else with he'd wanted to be a taste for adventure and willing to risk their life for the sake of itprofessional footballer.|isbn=1800461100
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Francesca Simon and Steve May0861541774|title=Two Terrible VikingsA Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=Emerging ReadersCrime|summary=In DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a small Viking village there live two twinsshort holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, Hack Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and Whackhe killed a Ghurka. Initially, who are eager he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the man. Now he could be facing the very worst Vikings ever! death penalty. Nothing Domenic Jejeune can stop their mad marauding, do nothing to help as they cause havoc at a birthday party, chaos whilst tracking any interference from another police force could provoke a troll, diplomatic incident and undertake a grand journey to raid Bad Island with their friends! They get up to wouldn't help Danny at all kinds of mischief and naughty behaviour, along with their wolf-cub Bitey-Bitey, and their crazy cast of friends.|isbn=0571349498
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Helen FisherAlexander McCall Smith|title=Space HopperThe Perfect Passion Company|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Faye lost her mum when she was very young. She was raised by some elderly neighbours after her mum died from The Perfect Passion Company is a cold that got worsedating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and although they were kind and very good operating as an alternative to her she of course missed her mum enormouslyall the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. So when, unexpectedly, Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she discovers a time travel conduit (via an old space hopper box in her attic) that takes her back to could come and look after the 70's and her mumbusiness, she revels in the chance as Ness is planning to create some memories and get take a trip to know the woman who meant so much Canada to herget away for a while. The time travelling, however, Katie is neither easy nor safecoming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and Faye fears that her husband won't believe what's happening and so lies jumps at the chance to him insteadcome home to Edinburgh. The lies grow more tangledAnd so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, and Faye begins bringing us to wonder if it's safe for her an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to return one last time 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to the pastcharm. Should she try to see Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her mum one last time before her mumabilities, and there's deathalways her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, or will it change her own future forever to attempt it?lend a hand…|isbn=14711886631846976596
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=17874778000811771741|title=The Night Hawks (Dr Ruth Galloway)InstaKnits for Baby|author=Elly GriffithsMelissa Leapman|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeCrafts|summary=The night hawks are metal detectorists and theyMelissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby're out on Blakeney Point where they suspect that there's treasure gives us a collection of knits from toys to be foundblankets. Unfortunately, the youngest Some will be quick knits - others are of the group, twenty-one-year-old Troy Evans'long, finds the body cosy afternoons in front of a man floating on the incoming tidefire' variety. After pulling it ashoreThe projects are divided by the time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, they call five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and more than twenty hours. All the policeprojects are attractive, modern and useable. DCI Nelson thinks that itI perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects's probably the body of an asylum seeker but therethat's no evidence of any activity to be had from the coastguard. The dead man turns out to be Jem Taylor, a North Norfolk man recently released from prisonme being picky.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1529378648Dean Koontz|title=Slough House (Jackson Lamb 7)|author=Mick HerronThe Bad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersParanormal|summary=Someone Benny is killing secret service agents, past and present, from the Slough House teamhaving a terrifically bad day. Jackson Lamb can't understand it. WellHe loses his job, what he actually can't understand is whyloses his fiancee, having seen them, anyone would botherand his house gets trashed. But the deaths are mounting up Oh, and something needs someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to be done. his home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! After all ''when things went awry on Spook StreetThe thing is, they generally went Benny is the full Chris Graylingvery last person to deserve all this bad luck.'' Over at Regent's Park, Diana Taverner He is quietly jubilant about an operation which saw the perpetrator of a Novichok poisoning in the UK (three people seriously injured and one dead) dispatchednice person. A really nice person. It isn't just So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the message that was delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent: she's also delighted that she managed to fund the operation off the bookshelp him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Some private money was brought in. She wonSpike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny't always be so jubilant about thiss wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=1662500491
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1838773428Adam Stower|title=The Art of Death|author=David FennellMurray and Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeConfident Readers |summary=It was an art installation of the type which does appear in Trafalgar Square: Murray is supposed to be a depiction of three homeless men in glass cabinets surrounded by liquid. Only this time it's not a depiction: these are the bodies of Billy Perrinhumble, Stan Buxton tidy and 34-year-old Noel Tipping. The installation friendly cat, one who is the work of @nonymousable to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, underground artist and extreme version whatever takes his fancy next of Banksythe two. He But he's made a macabre promise: more will follow. In fact, we've already met the artist although not by name: hebad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has been in turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the Lumberyard Cafe with his Moleskine notebookcatflap they both use can chuck them out, Maki-e fountain pennot into the regular back garden, MacBook Air but into a world of frightening adventure and iPhonewhiffs. Elaine Kelly This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is there with her sonexpected – well, Jordanone much bigger than Murray was, and she's explaining to her best friendbe honest, Jackie Morris about the state of her marriage. Actually, it doesn't take a lot of explaining: Frankbut he's attentions are obvious on her face despite the foundation sheturned up and he's applied. Chau Ho is behind the counter. There's someone online, CassandraH, that the artist has his eye on, too.ll have to do…|isbn=0008561249
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1471191303B0C47LV1PC|title=The InvisibleFragility|author=Tom PercivalMosby Woods|rating=54|genre=For SharingLiterary Fiction|summary=This is the story of Isobel, Can you make a little girl who made a big difference. Isobel lived with her parents in a house - a very cold house, because her parents couldn't afford to put the heating on: 'Yo birthing person''Ice curled across joke? And if you could, is the inside of question should you make it? Or is the window and crept up question if you did, would it land? The catch is that the corner of the bedpostanswer for both could well be.... no.''
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=178089905X1529431735|title=SerpentineThe Winter Visitor|author=Jonathan KellermanJames Henry|rating=54
|genre=Crime
|summary=It wasn't exactly s February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the case Lt Milo Sturgis had more surprising. He'd been dreaming about: exiled on the Costa del Sol as a death from thirty-six years ago and the daughter of the woman who died wanted some answersdrug smuggler for a decade. She had money and money translated into clout and so the problem was dropped onto MiloThe return has come about because he's toes. Dorothy Swoboda was twentyhad a letter from his ex-four years old when wife, saying that she died in a car which went off a cliff on Mulholland Drive 's ill and burst into flameshasn't long to live. It turned out that she wasn't actually married s hard to the man with whom she'd left her daughter but Dr Stanley R Barkerfeel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, optometrist, was a good man and he took out adoption papers for Ellie - and she took stripped to his name. Ellie was three when her mother left her with Dr Barker underwear and she has nothing of her but one photograph sent to a watery grave in the boot of her mother and father and a necklace made of serpentinestolen Ford Sierra. Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0008379300Alex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=The Shadow Man|author=Helen FieldsGlorious Race of Magical Beasts
|rating=4
|genre=ThrillersConfident Readers|summary=Fergus Ariss Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in his late thirties and he knows that he's dying. His body is giving up on the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, his internal organs beginning to putrify but before he dies he wants a wife, a child and in the evening a brother. He's been on helper at the lookout for the perfect people dessert cafe his gran owns and he's made certain preparationsruns. The flat where the family will live is prepared and even windows Eli lives with curtains, and pictures in frames have been painted onto the walls. Angela Fernycroft was to be his wife. Her husbandlovely gran, Cal, had taken the children - too – for there is a boy of seven and a girl of five, away for generation missing in the weekendfamily. UnfortunatelyA few short years ago, it doesnEli't go according s parents were both lost to plan and Angela dies.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B08NZ4LV2R|title=Dark Memories (DS Nikki Parekh 3)|author=Liz Mistry|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=Peggy Dyson was in her sixties and hadn't worn well. She was the titular race, a drug addict and was living under globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the arches world in Forster Square Station in Bradford. Her killer thought that he was probably doing her a favour by putting her out the company of her misery. DS Nikki Parekh and DC Sajid Malik are on the case. Nikki can't quite understand why she's been sent an anonymous letter with a press report of the deathmagical beast. It had been impossible to make any progress in the case and This has made the note seemed race anathema to taunt the police. Then another note arrived with a report of pair – but when a seemingly unconnected death in Cambridge. The third death - in bad incident at the street where Nikki lived as eatery leads to a child - brought another communicationconfession from gran, Eli knows his only hope is to dare to enter what he most hates, with a further clue under the victim - and Nikki was sure that there was something personal in sole aim the prize of magic at the end – the caseonly thing to possibly save his gran.|isbn=0571382231
}}