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<metadesc>Book review siteExpert, with books full book reviews from the many most walks of literary life - ; fiction, biography, crime, cookery and anything else that takes our fancy. There are also lots of author interviews and top tens.</metadesc>Hello from The Bookbag, a book review site, featuring books from all the many walks of literary life non- [[: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. Itchildren's the bag we take to the library and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, & self-published books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often books sent to us by publishers and we promise to tell you exactly what we think about them. You might not want to read through a full review, so we'll give you a quick review which summarises what we felt about the book and tells you whether or not we think you should buy or borrow it. There are also lots of [[:Category:Interviews|plus author interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|& top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[features]] page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] page.</metadesc>

There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Reviews}}'by readers from all the many walks of literary life. With author interviews, features and top tens. You'll be sure to find something you' reviews at TheBookbagll want to read here.Dig in!

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==New There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY: Reviews==}}'''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by genre]]at TheBookbag.'''

'''Read Want to find out more [[FeaturesAbout Us|new featuresabout us]].'''? __NOTOC__{{newreview|author=Tom Wolfe|title=The Bonfire of the Vanities|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=In his own mind, bond trader Sherman McCoy is a 'Master of the Universe'. He has a pleasant wife, a beautiful mistress, and a sweet six year old daughter. Henry Lamb is a black student from the projects. Under normal circumstances, it's clear that McCoy's world and Lamb's world would never overlap. But when McCoy and his mistress Maria Ruskin end up lost in the Bronx, and an accident leads to Lamb being hit by McCoy's Mercedes, a chain of events start which will lead to his downfall.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099548798</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Michelle Harrison|title=The Thirteen Curses|ratingBest New Books=4|genre=Teens|summary=Red is back, but she's trapped in the fairy realm. Having swapped places with Tanya, she is bound there, but is still desperate to get both her and her brother back into the human world. She must seek an audience with the fairy court, but the realm is full of deception and cruelty – it will be a challenge just to get there. And guess what happens when she gets there? She is set another challenge, twisted with the cruelty of the Unseelie (Boo! Hiss!) court. Whilst the journey goes on, she reflects on her past: the car crash that killed her parents and her time at the children's home. Meanwhile, Tanya has returned to Elvesden Manor for half term and let's just say that her ability to see fairies comes back into use when the new housekeeper and her pesky parrot land her and Fabian and the whole Manor crew into trouble with the little people.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847384501</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview'''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|author=Kate Cole-Adams|title=Walking to the Moon|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=We meet the main character Jessica, or Jess as she is usually called, deep in an emotional black holenew reviews by category]]. She can see no light at the end of the tunnel. And right from the start, right from page one, we have a sense of the beautiful and poetic language of Cole-Adams. 'Time and I have a new arrangement. We leave each other alone.' And indeed time is not important in this novel. We have all the time in the world would probably be the motto of the medical staff - if they had one. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849161348'</amazonukbr>}}

{{newreview|author=Nancy Farmer'''Read [[:Category:Features|title=The Islands of the Blessed (Sea of Trolls Trilogy) |rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=In this third adventure, Jack, a fourteen year old Saxon apprentice bard, and Thorgil, a bad-tempered shield maiden, follow the Bard Dragon Tongue on a quest to quell the draugr - the malevolent spirit of a drowned mermaid mistakenly summoned to Jacklatest features]].'''s village and who seeks revenge for her earlier ill treatment at human hands.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184738630X</amazonuk>}}

'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sophie McKenzieSylvie Cathrall|title=The Hostage (Medusa Project)A Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=3.5|genre=TeensScience Fiction|summary=Teenagers Nico, Kitty, Ed and Dylan were implanted with the Medusa gene when they were babies. Now they're adolescents, the intended psychic abilities There are coming few greater joys than a book which lives up to the forea compelling premise. Nico has the power And this is one of telekinesis - he can move objects with his mind. Ed can read other people's thoughts. Dylan has an invisible protective shield and no weapon can harm her. Kitty has visions that predict the futurethem. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847385265</amazonuk>0356522776

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Garth Nix0008517061|title=Into Battle (The Seventh Tower)Death in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell|rating=3.54|genre=TeensCrime|summary=We've made it to book five in Garth Nix's Seventh Tower seriesFormer Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, so has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a quick recap: The Dark World is blocked from little uncertainty about the Sun by an enchanted Veil created by Tal's forebears to protect it from the creatures who inhabit Aenir - future of his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a spirit land full lot of magic compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and magical beasts.Aenir relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is lit the future she wants for herself and warmed by her daughter? For the Sun, but moment they’re enjoying life in the Dark World uses sunstones - crystals grown present and charged with light and heat in Aenir. Some inhabitants of putting the Dark World - future on the Chosen - also bind some of Aenir's creatures to themselves as spiritshadows or spiritguardsback burner. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007261233</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Don Felder1786482126|title=Heaven And Hell: My Life in the Eagles, 1974 - 2001The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths

|genre=EntertainmentCrime|summary=In terms of record sales and income from live tours, hardly anyone matched Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the Eaglessite was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' rate apartments - when they discovered the bones of success during the 1970sa child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Yet the constant search to better themselves Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with each recordDCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, the in-fightingbut Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the drugs and egos, soon got the better of themone night they spent together some three months ago. They say it is tough at the topHer condition will be obvious before long, and nobody not least because Ruth is better equipped prone to tell the often painful story than their former guitarist Don Feldersudden bouts of sickness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0753826771</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Grimson0008551324|title=The Isle of Man: Portrait of a NationDevil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre=HistoryCrime|summary=To many of us, It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the police where the Isle body of Man a missing person is probably best known buried and who was responsible for the Tynwaldher death. This person, the annual TT motorcycle raceshe promises, is someone big and as a holiday resortit will be worth the police doing what he wants. I must admit that my knowledge And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of it extended little further than that, his sentence and therefore found this book invaluableto get an early parole date. In these 550 pagesNot much to ask, profusely illustrated with photographs is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and maps, I imagine she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that few if any questions on the subject are left unanswered. John Grimson has lived there for nearly forty years, DS Max Craigie and as anyone who works with him is kept well as working with several of the islandaway from what's local authorities, was active as a long-distance runner and cyclist until his early seventieshappening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709081030</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ru Freeman0008405026|title=A Disobedient GirlStranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey

|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=''A Disobedient Girl'' follows two women struggling to retain control of their lives in the face of servitude. Latha is a servant girl to the affluent Vithanage family, whose daughter, Thara, is LathaIt's agesixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. As children, the girls are She was never found and the best of friends, but they are destined investigation ground to be separated by class, which is made painfully obvious when boys come into the picturea halt. Meanwhile Now, Biso serves a cruel and drunken husband who beats her mother, Helena, and terrorises her childrenfather are dead in their bed. Initially, one of whom is another manit looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's love child. Biso's husband murdered her lover in a hateful rage when he uncovered her affair and she realises something about the positioning of the bodies that she must escape his house if she makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her children are boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to livebe an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. Latha too seeks escape, but she finds it Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in the arms of TharaRosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boyfriend and this sets off a chain of events that will echo far into her futureboss, Una Burt) are less convinced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670917958</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Debby Holt0571379877|title=Recipe For ScandalThe Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=43.5|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=ThereEdward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and Stanza. Robert's evidently a market for scandalous tales, or else many a womentheatre director. He's weekly would have gone out of business by nowalso self-obsessed, but this bookdemanding, though full of scandal, is slightly differenthandsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for him. Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. This isn Most men in Robert't council estate scandal s position would stay away from Stanza or even trashy celebrity scandal, ittell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but he's juicy, firmly middle class scandal not like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the two of the type [[:Category:Zoe Heller|Zoë Heller]] might write about, and it's wickedly captivatingthem kissing in a dark passageway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847396542</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dana FowleyJo Callaghan|title=How Could She?Leave No Trace

|genre=AutobiographyCrime|summary=From When a man is found crucified on the age top of five Dana Fowley was subjected a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to unimaginable sexual abuse and before long the case alongside her sister would be subjected to more of sidekick, the sameAI detective Lock. She was raped by her motherIt's partner their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and taken a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to the homes of her grandparents where she was abused by them and otherstheir AI Future Policing project. At other times she was forced to go Will they be able to solve the homes of other men where she was raped and abused. Did her mother not know what was going on? Did she turn a blind eye? It was neither of those. Her mother was a willing participant case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the abuse case and organised much , potentially, out of it.a career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>009952225X</amazonuk>139851120X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Simon Robson1399613073|title=Catch|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Catharine's husband Tom is away on business in Birmingham, and so Catharine awakes alone for the first time in their little cottage at the end of their lane. They moved there a few months previously, and since then Catharine has spent her days quietly awaiting her husband's return from work. She is sure that she will figure out, some day, what her purpose in life is. She thought it might be to have a baby, but they have been trying for some time and it hasn't happened as yet. Meanwhile she waits, and thinks, and waits. In the lounge stands her piano, a stark reminder of the life she didn't manage to realise because although she studied music she found, quite quickly, that in spite of being passionate she lacked any kind of talent for it whatsoever. So, on this day, alone at home, Catharine finds herself tormented by the piano's presence and over-thinking every second of the day. She worries away at who she is, and what her life is, as her loneliness and the day itself unravel around her.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224090232</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewMoral Injuries|author=Nick Wadley|title=Man + DogChristie Watson

|genre=HumourThrillers|summary=Throughout my life I've lived with dogs or deeply regretted Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the fact that I lacked first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to be a canine companioncardiothoracic surgeon. Watching Laura is a perfectionist and a dog – or better still, trauma doctor. Anjali is the free spirit of the interaction between dogs – is infinitely better than anything on television group and she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's sheer joy going to see how man and dog interacts and howend in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. This time, so often, they hold a mirror up to each otherit's their teenage children who are involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1564785521</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jules Stanbridge0241636604|title=The Trading Game: A Date in Your DiaryConfession|author=Gary Stevenson

|genre=Women's FictionAutobiography|summary=Harry knows that If you were to bring up an image of a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicyclecity banker in your mind, but she also knows thereyou's a difference between what we need re unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and what we want – and she wants a bloke. More specifically, she wants a date for jeans replaces the latest in a string of friendpin-stripe suit and-family weddingshis background is the East End, a wedding wherehe was familiar with violence, thanks poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to a 'tricky' seating plan, she will be sitting on the same table as her most recent ex..London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and his new girlfriendhe has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. With no prospects in sight, Harry comes He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to the conclusion that internet dating might be the way to gostupid. At best, she'll find a guy who ticks all her boxes and will joyfully accompany her to the wedding before they live happily ever after, and It was his ability at worstwhat was, wellessentially, she might get a story out of itcard game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, never this turned into permanent employment as a bad thing for a magazine journotrader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755347137</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Diane Harker1035021803|title=House of SecretsThe Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller

|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Jane It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has had been back to grow the English country village where she grew up fast. Constantly moving She's back now because of a request for help from place her beloved aunt, Carole. Freya's former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to placesay the least. Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, she feels, never staying let her down badly. Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the man or pursue the profession she loved. After the same school for longsplit, she worked in a cafe, met and always reminded married James (on the rebound from the love of her motherlife, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=All Tomorrow's money worries, Jane longs for Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=''Opening up new ways of thinking about the kind shape of life where she can just be a kid, and not have things to deal with adult problemscome. ''

When sheI've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Well, I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of technology in my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with what's sent advantageous to stay at her sisterme but I'm left with the feeling that it's student digs, the Laurels, things go all getting away from bad to worseme. The Laurels Some of it is a decrepit Victorian Townhouse, freezing cold, with no food- frankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and to make matters worse, Janeend up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I's sister, Billa, doesnm reading someone who knows what they't even want her therere talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846243572</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Helen BlackSunny Singh|title=DishonourHotel Arcadia|rating=43.5|genre=CrimeThrillers |summary=Modern lives.  Lily Valentine The Hotel Arcadia is heavily pregnant and trying to get her own law firm up and running (having a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been sacked from her previous job for a tendency to be violently taken over by a trifle too ''independent'' – or maybe just disorganised)terrorist group.  Ryan is a boy Hiding from the sink estates. Thinterrorists who are rampaging through, angrykilling everyone on site, rebelliousthere is Sam, but with an ability to charm and a serious talent for art that gets lost in his gansta-speak wartime photographer and tendency to skive off school.  Lailla and Aasha are good Muslim girlsAbhi, the hotel manager. Hard-working, sober, appropriately dressed, dutiful As Abhi continues to try to their families. They're also English teenagers, with a fair dose of what that normally implies.  Jack is a copper, overlooked care remotely for the interesting cases (like murder), good at child protection, residents who are still alive in love with Lily, addicted to the jobhotel, always trying he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to do the right thingbe cowed by events, and not always succeedingkeeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what's happened through her photography. His current clean-living Although they only ever talk over the phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and caring attitude is driving Lily they both wait to distractionsee if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847560725</amazonuk>086154742X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Panos Karnezis1529153298|title=The ConventList of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=45

|summary=Our Lady of Mercy It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is a small convent on Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the Spanish sierra made up of family 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a handful of devoted nuns who live their lives simplyfrightening, foreign place, carrying out their daily duties like clockworkbest avoided. However things change when a suitcase containing a newborn baby is left mysteriously outside For Miv, the convent doors. The Mother Superiormove would mean leaving her best friend, Sister Maria InesSharon, believes and she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the baby dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to be a miracle anyone.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1398524085|title=Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and plans to keep him in the conventher daughter, Etty. are all worried but the other sisters do - strangely - her husband, Alec, is not agree. During the events that follow Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the true characters body of Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in the nuns inside the convent are revealed and river. It was an easy assumption for the peace that the sisters enjoy is stripped away police to show the tension make that has been bubbling away under Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the surfaceguilt. 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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224079344</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joe Meno1035906708|title=The Great PerhapsDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin

|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=Jonathan Casper faints when he sees clouds. His wife Madeline worries about everythingWe tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, not least the way the pigeons that but she is studying are murdering each other. Their seventeen year old daughter Amelia wants was born to overthrow the evil empire of capitalism and is making her own bombGreek parents in Manhattan, New York, while fourteen year old Thisbe is looking for God in December 1923 and praying only moved to himAthens when she was thirteen. Jonathan Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 's father, seventy six year old Henry, is planning his disappearanceCallas' to make it more manageable in the States. Jonathan When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and Madeline may be on the verge made no secret of splitting upher preference for her elder sister, to the dismay of both daughtersJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330512471</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Bruno VincentChristopher Edge|title=Grisly Tales from Tumblewater Black Hole Cinema Club

|summary=Daniel Dorey comes to ''I can hear the vast and decaying city song of Tumblewater with high hopesthe sea. He wants to study, become a surgeonThe call of the deep, work hard and make a better life for himself. But when the school he enrolled answering beat in turns out to be a deserted building, his money is swindled from him, and he's framed for breaking into a shop, hemy heart.'s ready to turn round and go back to the country. His last hope is to collect a volume of local stories for a back-alley publisher. One by one, he hunts down the tellers of these grisly tales and records their words, but it soon becomes evident that he's hiding a dark secret of his own...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330479512</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Dervla Murphy|title=The Island That Dared: Journeys in Cuba|rating=4|genre=Travel|summary=In her latest literary outingRosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the now elderly rocks and increasingly opinionated travel writer and veteran cyclist Dervla Murphy describes a series plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, is one of trips the seven who swim out to Cubasurvey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. The opening section deals with But when the Council Watch lays a family trip in late 2005. Readers who have followed Dervla's books from trap to end the beginning will have grown up with Rachelwrecking, they capture the authorisland's daughter, who accompanied her on a number of trips between the ages of five and eighteen. Now Dervla travels with Rachel leader and RachelMira's three young daughtersfather. Desperate to save him from death, Clodagh, Rose Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and Zeawith only coordinates to guide her, known for ease throughout she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the book as ''the Trio''sea. The middle section sees Dervla return alone With only nine days to spend several months trekking in places such unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the Sierra del Escambray mountains, and in watched streets of foreign islands to the final third heart of the booksmuggler's territory, Dervla returns Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the city future of Santa Clara for her home and the commemoration of the fortieth anniversary of the death of Ernesto ''Che'' Guevaraones she holds most dear.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>190601146X</amazonuk>0008664730

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Elizabeth KostovaJames Sherwood Metts|title=The Swan ThievesPlanet Storyland|rating=24.5|genre=Literary FictionConfident Readers|summary=1999 – A renowned painter, Robert Oliver, goes mad, attacking Things have been a painting with a knifebit sticky for the Earthlings. He's arrested, AI and sent to a psychiatrist who is also an artist. The psychiatrist, Andrew Marloweautomation have been proceeding apace, canoften replacing jobs they't get his patient re paid to talk do and other tasks that took time to him, but tries accomplish. Just as they were beginning to investigate what drove him get used to all this by talking technological change and starting to his wife and his girlfriendthink of other, and reading some letters Oliver seems obsessed with. 1879 – Beatrice de Clervalnew ways to spend time, aspiring artist, corresponds with her uncle-by-marriage Olivier Vignot, a more experienced painteralong came an awful pandemic. Their letters will be found by Robert Oliver, 120 years later, Life was pretty much shut down and will lead to his loss of sanity.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847442404</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Tim Bowler|title=Blade: Mixing It|rating=5|genre=Teens|summary=We last saw Blade back in the Beast - the city where it all began. In a last ditch attempt to rescue Jaz, the little girl along with whom he's made a genuine connectionit, he's worked the biggest scam of his life and he's risked taking up the knife again. He's also put himself back into the firing line of his greatest enemy, the Hawk. And he's had to make contact with all the police. Everything is closing in. But Blade doesn't just have a hostage, he also has experience, skill, knowledge and a willingness to risk everything..many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0192755994</amazonuk>1736128426

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Atiq RahimiMatthew Tree|title=The Patience Stone|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Set in Afghanistan, 'We'The Patience Stone'' is a partly allegorical tale of a Muslim wife tending to her comatose soldier husband who has been shot in the neck. As she cares for him, for the first time ever she is able to speak to him without fear of censorship and he becomes, for her, like the mythical Patience Stone to which you tell your troubles and when the stone finally bursts, you are free from your torments. But also this might mean the Apocalypse.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701184167</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Joyce Carol Oates|title=A Fair Maidenll Never Know

|summary=I've recently read the terrific short story collection ''The Female Of The Species'' also by Oates and couldn't wait Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to start her latest book. I felt sure that I was in for be different from his father, a literary treat - drunk and I waschronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and who had endless crises of self confidence. FirstlySo Tim applied himself to his studies, the book itself, a hardback with a beautifully nostalgic cover is a book lover's delightcultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847248586</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Pamela FreemanA G Slatter|title=Full Circle (Castings Trilogy)The Briar Book of the Dead|rating=45

|summary=Pamela Freeman's 'There'Castings'' trilogy is written in an unusual way for s a fantasy novel. It tells the story from the characters' points part of view, in a style more common me that wants to keep this just to the chick-lit novels of Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Reesmyself for however long I can. This interrupted the flow secret magic of the story quite noticeably in ''Blood Ties''my own, the first of the trilogyall mine, but didn't seem quite so much of a distraction in the second part, ''Deep Water''at last. Unfortunately, this time around I just want to enjoy it works against the story.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841497037</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=John Dickinson|title=WE|rating=5|genre=Teens|summary=Paul Munro has been disconnected from the World Ear in readiness for a mission that will last a lifetime. Sent to man a tiny station built at enormous effort and expense on a desolate moon in the outer reaches of our solar system, he will never be able to return. Gravity is one-tenth that of Earth and his flesh has wasted, his bones enbrittled without the strength of calciumwhile. ''If he stood on the Earth now... his skeleton would splinter under his weight.'' It took eight years to get there and the rest of his life stretches before him fearfully. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0385617895</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Jim Lahey |title=My Bread: Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the Revolutionary No-workworld, No-knead Method|rating=4.5|genre=Cookery|summary=Itlies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Briar's a long time since I did Home Economics at school, but a major part family of it was learning methodswitches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands. Though she has always wished for magic, which, I was assured would stand me in good stead Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to be born into her family for the rest of my life. A Victoria sponge generations and as such since she was young, her training as a careful progression of creaming steward revolved around letters and gently adding flour administration rather than spells and eggspotions. A white sauce had a couple When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the town's leader, and Ellie takes her place beside her. As challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, putting her at the heart of these methods, but essentially it meant working through a series maelstrom of instructions until they became second naturechaos. Bread was Reeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what to do as the worst requiring fermentingBriar witches' legacy, kneadingeverything they have sacrificed to survive, proving and then more kneading and risingis under threat.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0393066304</amazonuk>1803364548

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Amy V Fetzer and Shari Aaron1529900360|title=Climb the Green Ladder: Make Your Company and Career More SustainableThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman

|genre=Business and FinanceCrime|summary=With It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the abject failure help of the Denmark Climate Change Conference fresh in our mindsa psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, it is perhaps time to turn away from was Robin, Delaware's partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the politicians and man she loved needed. The next case did look back toward what we can dosimple, though.  The Conference may have finally got Two lovers were murdered in the likes swimming pool of the USA, India and China to acknowledge that they have to join a remote property in if we are going to save Bel Air. He was the planet as a benevolent place for our species heir to live, but there an Italian shoe empire and she is still too much posturing married to an extremely rich man and it's not enough commitmentthe Italian.  Clearly our governments and 'leaders' are not going to do this for us; we have to do it for ourselves.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>047074801X</amazonuk>But which of them was the primary target?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jaki Scarcello1529395224|title=Fifty and FabulousLetting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Best Years Secret Life of a Woman's LifeVet|author=Sion Rowlands

|genre=LifestyleAnimals and Wildlife|summary=When you open Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a package GP and find a bright pink book which proudly proclaims Rowlands didn'Fifty and Fabulous: t want to follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the best years of a womanstrain that being on-call put on his father's life' you can be forgiven for wondering if this is going to be another . When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of those books which recommends strenuous exercise regimes, strict diets and just doing work experience with a family friend who was a little nip vet and tuck under was convinced this was the chinjob for him. PersonallyBefore long, my heart sank becausehe was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a child. If anything, er, well, Ihe'm no longer fiftyd wanted to be a professional footballer. Were my fabulous years behind me?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906787603</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Will Birch0861541774|title=Ian Dury: The Definitive BiographyA Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows|rating=4.5|genre=BiographyCrime|summary=Ian Dury was always one of the most individualDCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, even contrary characters has taken a short holiday in the musical worldSingapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. In Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a branch of showbiz where people often relied on good looks as man armed with a short cut to stardom, knife - and he was no oil paintingkilled a Ghurka. During the pub rock eraInitially, he and his group, the Blockheads, ploughed faced a lonely furrow which owed more charge of manslaughter but evidence came to jazz-funk than rock'n'roll, and his songs extolled light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the virtues of characters from Billericay or Plaistow rather than those from Memphis or Californiaman. Alongside the young punk rock upstarts with whom Now he competed for inches in could be facing the rock press, he was comparatively middle-ageddeath penalty. As if that was not enough, in his own words childhood illness had left him Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a permanent 'raspberry ripplediplomatic incident and wouldn't help Danny at all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0283071036</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Glenn CooperAlexander McCall Smith|title=Book of SoulsThe Perfect Passion Company

|summary=Area 51 is not what you think it The Perfect Passion Company isa dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. No - all that UFO kerfuffle Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a smokescreen for the powers that be trip to hide even better the most unusual manuscript known Canada to (get away for a handful while. Katie is coming out of) mankind - a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the most unearthlychance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, singularbringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and unsettling bookthe Isabel Dalhousie novels, in thousands and thousands of volumesbut with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. All except one, which is about to come under the hammer Katie has no experience in running a London auction house. Our hero Will Piper must go very reluctantly on the trail of it and its secretsbusiness, a trail which will force him and others to become entangled with shadowy agentsor in match-making, who but Ness has full confidence in turn know the very day of all their enemyher abilities, and there's deaths.always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099534479</amazonuk>1846976596

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sharon Owens0811771741|title=The Seven Secrets of HappinessInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman

|genre=Women's FictionCrafts|summary=It was hard Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to think that life wasnblankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of the 't perfect for Ruby Olong, cosy afternoons in front of the fire'Neillvariety. She 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 Jonathan had an idyllic marriage more than twenty hours. All the projects are attractive, modern and useable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's me being picky.}}{{Frontpage|author=Dean Koontz|title=The Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=Paranormal|summary=Benny is having a beautiful hometerrifically bad day. There was a He loses his job in , he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a dress shop which she enjoyed really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and although she might not be close it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the very last person to her parents she had good friendsdeserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. It was Christmas Eve and So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the tree had just delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been delivered by sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a lovely man on behalf good person. Spike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of the garden centre when her world fell apart. Jonathan had been killed in Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a car crashwaitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141028564</amazonuk>1662500491

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alan SkinnerAdam Stower|title=Furnaces of ForgeMurray and Bun|rating=34.5|genre=TeensConfident Readers |summary=In this [[Blue Fire Murray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and Ice (The Land) by Alan Skinner|sequel]]friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, itwhatever takes his fancy next of the two. But he's a bad magician's almost as you werecat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, except here and the mysterious powers of catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the blue flame are not being used by some outlander arsonistregular back garden, but have been usurped by two inept young scientists from the Myrmidots, to fuel their industryinto a world of frightening adventure and whiffs. We can predict this will prove This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a bad thingtroll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, but the breadth of the journey to capture the flamebe honest, but he's turned up and the efforts of all our returning characters he'll have to put things right might still be a surprise.do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0955726859</amazonuk>0008561249

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mark SimpsonB0C47LV1PC|title=Alastair Sim: The Star of Scrooge and the Belles of St Trinian'sFragility|author=Mosby Woods

|genre=BiographyLiterary Fiction|summary=The mere mention of Alastair Sim conjures up visions of pictures made during the 1950s when Can you make a more gentle humour was ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, is the order of question should you make it? Or is the day. Yet the man hated and question if you did his best to avoid publicity, claiming would it land? The catch is that the person the public saw on screen revealed all that anybody needed to know about himanswer for both could well be.... How he would have fared twenty years later in the age of a more intrusive press, one cannot but wonderno.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0752453726</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Saci Lloyd|title=The Carbon Diaries 2017|rating=5|genre=Teens|summary=It's been a year since we read a diary entry from Laura Brown. We left her with a boyfriend and just about adjusted to a Britain in the full throes of carbon rationing. Her nu-punk band, ''dirty angelsFragility''is set as the city of Portland, hadn't quite made itOregon, but things were looking rather promising for its future. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340970162</amazonuk>cautiously begins to emerge from the restrictions imposed during the covid pandemic

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=P Robert Smith1529431735|title=Sunday Daffodil and Other Happy EndingsThe Winter Visitor|author=James Henry|rating=3.54|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=It''Sunday Daffodil s February 1991 and Other Happy EndingsEssex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins'return all the more surprising. He' is d been exiled on the sort of book you finish with the feeling Costa del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decade. The return has come about because he's had a letter from his ex-wife, saying that youshe's ill and hasn've just read something with a million different meaningst long to live. Don It't be surprised if you s hard to feel like you should start the whole thing again but with your brain more fully engagedany sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his underwear and perhaps that's sent to a watery grave in the whole pointboot of a stolen Ford Sierra.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099535238</amazonuk> Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dai Sijie Alex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=Once on a Moonless NightThe Glorious Race of Magical Beasts|rating=3.54|genre=Literary FictionConfident Readers|summary=A French female scholar, studying in China, finds herself caught up in the search for Eli is a lost, sacred text that was inscribed on busy lad – by day an ancient scroll. The scroll was torn apprentice in two the wondrous library we start by Emperor Puyi years agovisiting with him, and was lost. After falling in love with the evening a young grocer called Tumchooq helper at the young woman becomes caught up in tales within tales, as she finds that Tumchooq's father found dessert cafe his gran owns and translated half of the missing scroll and became obsessed runs. Eli lives with finding the other halfhis lovely gran, and soon Tumchooq too becomes embroiled – for there is a generation missing in the searchfamily.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099521326</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Nicholas Stern|title= A Blueprint for a Safer Planet: How We Can Save few short years ago, Eli's parents were both lost to the World and Create Prosperity|rating=4.5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=The hardback edition of 'A Blueprint for titular race, a Safer Planet' was published early in 2009 as an update globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the 2006 Stern Review on world in the economics company of climate changea magical beast. Now here is This has made the race anathema to the pair – but when a bad incident at the paperback editioneatery leads to a confession from gran, published too early Eli knows his only hope is to dare to critique Copenhagenenter what he most hates, but nonetheless an interesting read. Stern is an expert witness who presents with the sole aim the prize of magic at the end – the only thing to possibly save his evidence understandably for the layman; he is unemotional and very convincinggran.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099524058</amazonuk>0571382231