132,622
edits
Changes
From TheBookbag
Jump to navigationJump to searchno 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=Ananda DeviSylvie Cathrall|title=Eve Out of Her RuinsA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=45|genre=General Science Fiction|summary=At not even 200 pages, Eve Out of Her Ruins is one of the shortest books I've read in There are few greater joys than a long while, but it's one of the most dramatic. It's also told in book which lives up to a way that I can only describe as brutal: it spares nothing and pulls very few punches, the descriptions stark and unromanticcompelling premise.|isbn=0993009344}} {{Frontpage|author= Jonathan Stroud|title= The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne|rating= 4|genre= Teens|summary= Scarlett McCain And this is an outlaw, rejecting the draconian conformity of the Surviving Towns and Faith Houses to wander the wildlands between the Seven Kingdoms one of Britain, robbing banks and shooting other outlaws to keep herself alive. But then she meets Albert Browne, a dark boy with dark powers and a darker past. With mysterious militiamen hunting them down, they plan to flee to the mythical Free Isles of the London Lagoon. Together, they must brave man-eating wildlife, the cannibalistic Tainted and all the horrors of post-apocalyptic society to reach the Free Isles, but will they be any more accepted there than they are in the rest of Britain?|isbn=14063948150356522776
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B08R7LXQ9S0008517061|title=Remy: A book about believing Death in yourselfa Lonely Place|author=Mayuri Naidoo and Caroline SiegalStig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Remy is feeling miserable. He's let himself down ''again''Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. The school bully Jayden, together There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the future of his life with his sidekicks Ryan vet girlfriend, Livia and Brandonher daughter Diana, have been laughing at Remy, calling him names because he is short as moving in together would mean a lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and has small eyes. They are mean but they are relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not stupid. They are careful to wind up Remy when nobody can see this is the future she wants for herself and then push him just that little bit further when her daughter? For the other kids are around. So, when Remy reacts, it looks as though he was moment they’re enjoying life in the instigator. And then he gets into trouble at school present and putting the teachers don't believe him when he tries to explain what happenedfuture on the back burner.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B00474HVX41786482126|title=Phineas ReduxThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Anthony TrollopeElly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=ItBuilders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury's some time since we heard from [[Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope|Phineas Finn]]apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. Having succeeded in parliament and achieved a paying position he fell out with those who provided his income and returned to Ireland where he married Mary, his childhood sweetheartThere was no skull. He was fortunate to get Was this a job in Cork (ritual killing or Dublin - recollections may vary) and seemed settled into a life of domesticitymurder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. To bring Finn backIt's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, Trollope had to kill off poor Mary and Phineas emerges in London that she is pregnant with his child as a childless widower with a legacy from an aunt who died at just result of the right time one night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to allow the move to be possiblesudden bouts of sickness.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Dean Koontz0008551324|title=The Other EmilyDevil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=Our hero David Thorne is an author, who shares his life between the two US coasts. It's unusual for anyone from the western coast we're concerned with, a place he has Hardie family to return to, and a place he has to be able to leaveapproach the police. David lost contact with his partner there ten years ago, when she vanished from a remote road late at nightNeither side likes or has any respect for the other. HeBut Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's paying for contact with prepared to tell the man he thinks police where the only suspect, body of a lifer nowmissing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. This person, who went a bit Hannibal Lecterhe promises, is someone big and has a dozen and more unfound Jane Does on his recordit will be worth the police doing what he wants. David And what he wants is trying to pry be transferred to an open prison to serve the connection between the murderer remainder of his sentence and his girl from the man's mind, but to no availget an early parole date. HeNot much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's also having a recharge ready for his next hit novel when into even prepared to do the restaurant walks the sheer spitting image, the very embodiment, the virtual resurrection, of his loveother thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening. What is a man to do?|isbn=1542019958
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Charlie Carroll0008405026|title=The LipA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=It''Melody Janie Rowe'' s sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. even She was never found and the name is evocative of…probably of whatever we want it investigation ground to bea halt. Now, her mother, Helena, and maybe that's the pointher father are dead in their bed. To me the name sings of English folk musicInitially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but even in my use there's something about the positioning of the bodies that word English, I know I'm putting makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to be an emmet take on thingsopen-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. And Melody Janie Rowe Kerrigan is anti-emmetconvinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced. |isbn=1529334179
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Danny Wallace and Gemma Correll0571379877|title=The Day the Screens Went BlankKellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=3.5|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Meet Stella Edward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and her familyStanza. TheyRobert're just innocently trying to have s a Sunday evening in together, watching a film – using three different screens to watch three different things, mind – when ''poof'' everything goes blanktheatre director. And itHe's not just their home, but the entire southalso self-western village of Mousehole, and not just thatobsessed, either, but the whole country, if not world. Suddenly people are constantly on their phones – hoping they're first to get a screen backdemanding, handsome and not what they were constantly doing on them before. Toasters can toast, but TVs cannot do the V part of their job, entitled and no computer can show its computationsuses Edward to run errands for him. You might think this is going to be a social comedy about people stuck Edward has been in such a Luddite experience against love with Stanza since their will, but no. For the family finally remember Stellauniversity days - and he's grandma, and see if they can get across country drunkenly confided how he feels to herRobert. Hence this has to go down as a road-trip book. But not just Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that, a slapstick road-trip comedy. And more than that, too – for itrelationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the two of them kissing in a slapstick, high-drama, high-octane road-trip comedy with oodles of cuddly heart that kids of all ages will lovedark passageway.|isbn=1471196887
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1913193527Jo Callaghan|title=Bound (Detective Sam Shephard)|author=Vanda SymonLeave No Trace|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Dunedin was shocked when it heard of When a man is found crucified on the murder top of a wealthy and apparently respectable businessman out at Seacliff. His wife had been bound and gagged and placed so that she was forced hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to watch the murdercase alongside her sidekick, with the scene being discovered by AI detective Lock. It's their sonfirst live case together, Declan, when he returned home from an evening outhaving previously been very successful with several cold cases. The subsequent investigation would prove But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that John Henderson had been involved in some activities which might have been considered shady and certainly questionable if not illegaldraws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. His companyWill they be able to solve the case in time, Eros Global, manufactured and marketed ''vitamin-type supplements or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, wellpotentially, sexual enhancers, that kind out of thing'', as Henderson's employee, Blair Harvey-Boyd explained.a career?|isbn=139851120X
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=15291091161399613073|title=Call Me Red: A Shepherd's JourneyMoral Injuries|author=Hannah JacksonChristie Watson
|rating=4.5
|genre=LifestyleThrillers|summary=''I want Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the image first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a British farmer to simply be that quarter of a person who is proudly employed in feeding the nationcentury. I don't think that Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is too much a bonus when you aim to ask.'' The stereotypical farmer was probably born on the land where ''his'' family have farmed for generationsbe a cardiothoracic surgeon. He's probably grown up without giving much thought as to what he really wants to do: he knows that he'll be Laura is a perfectionist and a farmertrauma doctor. It's not always Anjali is the free spirit of the case though. Hannah Jackson was born group and brought up on the Wirral: she'd never set foot on becomes a commercial farm until she was twenty although she'd always had a deep love of animalsGP. Her original intention was that she would become When we first meet them they'Dr Jackson, whale scientistre at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it' and she was well on her way s going to achieving this when her life changed on a family holiday to the Lake Districtend in tragedy. She saw a lamb being born and, although We don'Hannah Jackson, farmer' lacked t know who suffered the tragedy or the kudos of her original intention, she knew consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that she wanted to be a shepherdwill impact the three friends. With the determination that youThis time, it'll soon realise is an essential part of her, she set about achieving her ambitions their teenage children who are involved.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=08575272310241636604|title=Dog DaysThe Trading Game: A Confession|author=Ericka WallerGary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionAutobiography|summary=George Dempsey is exceedingly angryIf you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. It's eight days since A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his wifebackground is the East End, Ellenwhere he was familiar with violence, died poverty and it's the first time that she's let him downinjustice. He's lost, bereft without her ( There was no posh public school on his CV - but he ''needs his wife, like a snail needs its shell'')had been to the London School of Economics. He misses their ordered life Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and rather than bringing him meals to leave on the doorstep, he'd much rather have has a good row facility with someonenumbers which most of us can only envy. He's particularly angry about the dachshund puppy which Helen brought home just three weeks before she died. She even dared also realised that most rich people expect poor people to contradict him when he told her that the dog wasn't stayingbe stupid. Now he's lumbered with a dog he doesn't want and a load of busybodies who are trying to interfere in It was his life. Worst of all is Bettyability at what was, essentially, who won't take no for a card game which got him an answerinternship with Citibank. Betty knits jumpers for LuckyEventually, her greyhound. Lucky spends this turned into permanent employment as a lot of time trying to escape from and destroy themtrader.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B003UH99X41035021803|title=The Eustace DiamondsAntique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=Anthony TrollopeC L Miller|rating=3.5|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=It was generally thought that Sir Florian Eustace had come to regret his marriage but he didn't live long enough for this s twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to become a problemthe English country village where she grew up. After his death, his wife, Lizzie - still only in her late teens - was in possession She's back now because of a very valuable diamond necklace request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Freya's former mentor and was determined that she would not hand it over to her husbandCarole's executors. She was adamant that Sir Florian had given it to her absolutelyclose friend, Arthur Crockleford, although is dead and the precise circumstances of seem suspicious, to say the giving varied from telling to tellingleast. Lady Eustace Arthur was the reason why Freya had not a woman been back to whom truth meant a great dealthe village: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. All that was important Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to her now, be near the man or pursue the profession she maintained, was her sonloved. AndAfter the split, she worked in a cafe, met and married James (on the rebound from the love of courseher life, her diamondswho was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1529047315AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=The LamplightersAll Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Emma StonexBenjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=ThrillersScience Fiction|summary=''A fisherman told him once Opening up new ways of thinking about the sea having two faces. You have shape of things to take them both, he said, the good and the bad, and never turn your back on either one of themcome.''
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Mary H K ChoiSunny Singh|title=YolkHotel Arcadia|rating=3.5|genre=Thrillers |summary=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 terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, a wartime photographer and Abhi, the hotel manager. As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the hotel, he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what's happened through her photography. Although they only ever talk over the phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists.|isbn=086154742X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529153298|title=The List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey
|rating=5
|genre=TeensGeneral Fiction|summary= Jayne Baek is a fashion student thatIt's barely getting by1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. She drinks (A woman? I mean, honestly. She smokes. She makes bad decisions about the men she sleeps with. ) She's an all-round messy character; and thatnot what's worrying Miv's her charmfamily, though. Women have been disappearing. June Well, on the other handthey've been murdered, is a complete contrast but to Jaynehave 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. She Miv's a typical older sister: upset because she's smartoverheard that her father wants to move the family 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, thinks she knows it allDown South is a frightening, foreign place, and has a successful jobbest avoided. She constantly criticises Jayne for For Miv, the move would mean leaving her life choicesbest friend, Sharon, and the two have barely kept in contact despite living in the same city for the past two years. This is until June finds out she's sick, and Jayne is the only person she can turn ll do anything toprevent that. The two sisters have to come together and decide how far they She'll go to save each others not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's lives – even if it means swapping identitiesstopped talking - to anyone.|isbn= 0349003696
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Saima Mir1398524085|title=The KhanHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French
|rating=5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Jia Khan has alway lived by the motto be twice as good as men Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and four times as good as white menher daughter, Etty. This has served are all worried but - strangely - her well in her rise through the criminal justice system husband, Alec, is not. Shortly afterwards, Etty and by Greg, find the time she is called home for her sisterbody of Greg's wedding after fifteen years father, Duncan Ackerley, in self-imposed exile, she is at the top of her gameriver. Returning to It was an easy assumption for the city of her birth, police to old scars make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and fresh wounds, Jia must confront her past and reconcile her visions for then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the future guilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but get on with her sense of honour their lives and dutywonder about what really happened.|isbn=1786079097
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=00083368301035906708|title=Two WrongsDiva|author=Mel McGrathDaisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersGeneral Fiction|summary=Sondra We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was on her way home after work born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she saw a young woman looking as though she was going to jump from the Clifton suspension bridgethirteen. She talks Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to her, and Sondra finally persuades Satnam 'Callas' to call her best friend and flatmate, Nevis Smithmake it more manageable in the States. Nevis is unworldly and rather reserved When she was back in Athens - and supposedly so that she can't understand why Satnam hasn't shared could get appropriate training for her problems with voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her. She thought they shared everything. Satnam is taken to hospital and Nevis calls made no secret of her preference for her mother, Honor. They've not been on good terms since a discovery Nevis made the previous summer but right nowelder sister, Nevis needs her motherJackie.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Andrea Bajani and Elizabeth Harris (translator)Christopher Edge|title=If You Kept a Record of SinsBlack Hole Cinema Club|rating=4.5|genre=Literary FictionConfident Readers|summary=This was an incredibly readable novella, but one that left me Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a little conflicted. We start as our hero arrives movie marathon at Bucharest airporttheir local cinema, and before we even know his gender or a place that has the nature nickname of the person he's addressing in his second person monologue of a narrationThe Black Hole'. All big movie fans, we see him picked up by his motherthey's chauffeurre looking forward to lots of exciting films, and carted off to do all many, many snacks! However, as the necessary introductions before said mother movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is buried the following day. The mother was a businesswoman, who clearly left northern Italy and settled in Romania with her (night-time and business) partnervery different, and feelings of abandonment they are still strongswept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. And so we flit But as they lurch from current (wellone film genre to the next, this came can they figure out in the original Italian in 2007, so moderately current) Bucharest, what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the lad's childhoodcinema, and see just what he has to tell her as a private farewell address.their real lives?|isbn=19398109651839942738
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Jane LightbourneRachel Greenlaw|title= My Cat Called RedCompass and Blade|rating= 43.5|genre=Emerging ReadersTeens|summary= Robin has red hair''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart. He hates it'' Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, is one of the freckles seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that go along with itlies within. HeBut when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the island's been bullied leader and mocked at school because of it. Mira''Ginger Minger! Carrots!'' Kids are means father. But red hair Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is not Robin's secretive and with only misery coordinates to guide her, she sets off in lifesearch of a family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. HeWith only nine days to unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the heart of the smuggler's already lost his dad territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to a mountaineering accident when his mum gets ill save the future of her home and is taken into hospital. She doesn't come home againthe ones she holds most dear.|isbn= 18382168120008664730
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B003L7TDMUJames Sherwood Metts|title=Phineas Finn|author=Anthony TrollopePlanet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionConfident Readers|summary=Phineas Finn is Things have been a bit sticky for the son of Dr Malachi FinnEarthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, a successful doctor in Killaloe in County Clare, who sent his son to London often replacing jobs they're paid to train as a lawyer. Phineas's interest is more in making influential friends than in becoming a lawyer do and one of them, Barrington Erle, suggests other tasks that he runs for Parliament in the forthcoming electiontook time to accomplish. His father is not entirely in favour of Just as they were beginning to get used to all this as members are not remunerated technological change and it would be up starting to him think of other, new ways to provide financial support for his son as well as funding his electionspend time, along came an awful pandemic. One of the doctor's patients is Lord Tulla who controls the borough of Loughshane Life was pretty much shut down and by this stroke of luck Finn is, eventuallyalong with it, elected by a small marginall the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|isbn=1736128426
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1838595031Matthew Tree|title=Crooked: Honest Criminality|author=Bronwen JohnWe'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersLiterary Fiction|summary=The con had seemed like a good one: tricking people into buying artwork supposedly by the new Banksy - and they should have made a decent profit Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from it. The problem was they were too successful: one of the marks had bought a few and then discovered that they were valueless. Henry Martin Holmes had fallen for a simple con and his father, celebrity criminal Harry Holmes, was determined that he a drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his family could not lose face like that. The grifters were going to pay. Ashia 'Ash' Cox artistic passions all failed miserably and Max 'Colorado' Ying needed to be got out who had endless crises of the countryself confidence. In the course of bringing this aboutSo Tim applied himself to his studies, Luke Gaines, Ash's foster father, lost cultivated his abilities rather than his lifedaydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions.|isbn= B0CVFXPGP8
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Hayley WebsterA G Slatter|title=Luna Rae is Not AloneThe Briar Book of the Dead
|rating=5
|genre=Confident ReadersFantasy|summary=Luna Rae has '' There's a part of me that wants to keep this just to myself for however long I can. This secret magic of my own, all mine, at last. I just moved housewant to enjoy it for a while.'' Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Briar's, a family of witches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands. Moving house Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is always trickythe first non-witch to be born into her family for generations and as such since she was young, her training as a steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, but especially when youthe town're ten years olds leader, and you miss your old homeEllie takes her place beside her. As challenges come her way left, right and you centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, putting her at the heart of a maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and your little sister determine what to do as the Briar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to start a new school survive, is under threat.|isbn=1803364548}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529900360|title=The Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but your mum seems he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to be out working all ask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the timehelp of a psychologist only worked for a while. Then thereFinally, it was Robin, Delaware's your dadpartner, who doesn't seem like he's coping so wellnudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the man she loved needed. The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a remote property in Bel Air. He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and so thereshe is married to an extremely rich man and it's no one to take care not the Italian. But which of them was the primary target?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of things but youa Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=3.5|genre=Animals and Wildlife|summary=Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. Everything feels different His father was a GP and strangeRowlands 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 mysteriouswas convinced this was the job for him. Before long, and he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as with so Luna finds many students - been his dream since he was a way of coping is by watchingchild. She turns detective and starts keeping an eye on her new neighbourhoodIf anything, but it turns out shehe's not the only one keeping watch!d wanted to be a professional footballer.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=17880060460861541774|title=A Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and he killed a Ghurka. Initially, 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 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
|isbnauthor=B003A6W0FOAlexander McCall Smith|title=Can You Forgive Her?|author=Anthony TrollopeThe Perfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=On The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the surface ''Can You Forgive Her?'' looks deceptively simple: it's the story of one woman and two men who are vying with each other for her loveonline apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Alice Vavasor was originally engaged to Ness has asked her younger cousin, George Vavasor but Katie if she broke off that engagement could come and later became engaged look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to John Greyget away for a while. When we first meet Alice she's on an extended tour Katie is coming out of the continent a break up with George Vavasor a bad boyfriend, and his sister Kateso jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. It's obvious that there's still a great deal of chemistry between John and Alice - And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and Kate is all for encouraging the relationship as it would tie Alice Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to hercharm. George wants Alice Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but itNess has full confidence in her abilities, and there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a matter of hand…|isbn=1846976596}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0811771741|title=InstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman|rating=4|genre=Crafts|summary=Melissa Leapman's ''amour propreInstaKnits for Baby'' rather than love: he has little consideration for anyone other than himself and gives us a collection of knits from toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of the original engagement had fallen through because 'long, cosy afternoons in front of his infidelity the fire' variety. The projects are divided by the time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and deceitfulnessmore than twenty hours. This thread is All the story of a very complicated love affair projects are attractive, modern and a woman who lacks confidence in her own judgementuseable. You might not like Alice to start with I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but you will warm to herthat's me being picky.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Hannah GoldDean Koontz|title=The Last BearBad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersParanormal|summary=April's father, Benny is having a scientistterrifically bad day. He loses his job, has been given a job on a remote island called Bear Islandhe loses his fiancee, and he accepts the job deciding to take his daughter April with himhouse gets trashed. They live alone anywayOh, since April's mother died some time beforeand someone has delivered a really weird, and he feels it will be educational for her disturbing coffin-sized object to experience the island and all its natural beauty. April already has an affinity with naturehis home, and sheit's excited to travel with her fatherpossible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, thinking of all Benny is the fun things they will be able very last person to experience together on the islanddeserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. But when they get there, her father finds So fortunately for Benny it turns out that his work monitoring and recording the temperatures just takes up too much of delivery to his timehouse is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, and so April who has been sent to help him since Benny is left to explore by herselfclearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Her father had reassured her that there were no longer any bears living on Bear Island, but one day April thinks she catches a glimpse Spike is going to take care of oneBenny, and so she sets out to find the Bearwill certainly take care of Benny's enemies, and then when she sees if he is injured, to befriend Benny, and help himHarper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=000841128X1662500491
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1472276140Adam Stower|title=What Will Burn (Inspector McLean)|author=James OswaldMurray and Bun|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeConfident Readers |summary=When Cecily Slater's body was found, she'd already been dead for a week - in Murray is supposed to be a house fire in deserted woodland near Edinburgh. Heavy rain had washed away most of the evidencehumble, but DI Tony McLean, demoted tidy and just returned from suspensionfriendly cat, one who is reluctant able to accept that this is nothing more than a careless accident. There were indications that Slater had been savagelysleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, almost ritualistically beaten before whatever takes his fancy next of the firetwo. But who would hate he's a bad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a ninety-year-old woman to hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the extent regular back garden, but into a world of doing something like that? frightening adventure and whiffs. She This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was a virtual recluse: who could she , to be honest, but he's turned up and he'll have upset to that extent?do…|isbn=0008561249
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=000845552XB0C47LV1PC|title=Where Ravens RoostFragility|author=Karin NordinMosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=CrimeLiterary Fiction|summary=Inspector Kjeld Nygaard had been estranged from his father, Stenar, for more than Can you make 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 and go to Varsund. Actually, Yo birthing person'drop everything' rather overstates joke? And if you could, is the situation. Nygaard was on suspension following question should you make it? Or is the shooting of a suspect in question if you did, would it land? The catch is that the Aubuchon murder enquiryanswer for both could well be.... no. There had been a complication: ''Fragility'' is set as the Kattegat Killer turned out to be Nils Hedincity of Portland, Nygaard's best friend. StillOregon, the ten-hour drive cautiously begins to emerge from Gothenburg in the south of Sweden to Varsund in restrictions imposed during the far north shouldn't be underestimated.covid pandemic
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=14711871791529431735|title=A Beautiful SpyThe Winter Visitor|author=Rachel HoreJames Henry
|rating=4
|genre=Historical FictionCrime|summary=Minnie It's February 1991 and Essex is an bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins'ordinaryreturn all the more surprising. He' girl living an unexciting life in d been exiled on the Costa del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a leafy provincial suburbdecade. The book is set in the 1930s and Minnie is expected to live up to her motherreturn has come about because he's expectations and find had a nice young man to marryletter from his ex-wife, produce children saying that she's ill and spend the rest of her days looking after her husband and their homehasn't long to live. UnfortunatelyIt's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, this isn't what she wants stripped to do at all his underwear and neither does she want sent to continue working as a secretarywatery grave in the boot of a stolen Ford Sierra. As Is it a result of warning from a chance meeting, she finds herself drawn into espionage, working for the secret service and effectively living Spanish gang or a double life - attempting problem closer to infiltrate the Communist Party of Great Britain. Minnie finds herself torn between what she perceives as her duty and the friends she has made - and likes - whilst working for the Communist Party.home?
}}
{{Frontpage
|author= T L HuchuAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title= The Library Glorious Race of the DeadMagical Beasts|rating= 4.5|genre= TeensConfident Readers|summary= Ropa Moyo Eli is a ghostalkerbusy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, using Zimbabwean magic (and in the evening a bit of Scottish pragmatism) to take messages from helper at the dead of Edinburgh dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – for their living relativesthere is a generation missing in the family. Ever since she dropped out of school A few short years ago, sheEli's been using it parents were both lost to support not only herselfthe titular race, but her younger sister and her aging grandmother. However, there's an evil stalking a globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in the ruined streets company of Edinburgh, targeting a magical beast. This has made the city's children. Soon, Ropa is pulled into race anathema to the search for pair – but when a missing boy bad incident at the request of eatery leads to a confession from gran, Eli knows his dead mother. She will end up discovering an occult library and realise that only hope is to dare to enter what he most hates, with the sole aim the world prize of magic is far bigger and more dangerous than she ever could've imagined. Will she find at the missing children and bring an end – the only thing to this evil, or will it claim her too?possibly save his gran.|isbn= 15290394520571382231
}}
