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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>
'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jane Yolen and Mark TeagueSylvie Cathrall|title=How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food?A Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=3.5|genre=For SharingScience Fiction|summary=[[How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? by Jane Yolen|How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?]] was There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a witty and visually creative tale of Very Bad Bedtime Behaviour for modern children enamoured of dinosaurscompelling premise. 'How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food?' continues the formula, And this time with table mannersis one of them.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007216092</amazonuk>0356522776
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Cynthia Kadohata0008517061|title=A Million Shades of GreyDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell|rating=3.54|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=At just twelveFormer Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, Tin is the youngest elephant handler in has settled into his villagerustic life at Little Sky. Ever since he can remember, Tin has dreamed There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the future of working his life with elephants and he loves his own elephantvet girlfriend, LadyLivia and her daughter Diana, to distraction, even spending most as moving in together would mean a lot of compromise: does Jake give up his nights sleeping by off-grid and relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her side. Tin reservations about whether or not this is much less keen on school, but his parents insist that he goes. Tin really can't see the point, as his sole ambition is to become a fully-fledged elephant trainer. His parents may talk about opportunities future she wants for herself and her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in the world outside his village but if they don't involve elephants, he's not interestedpresent and putting the future on the back burner. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>184738823X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Chloe Hooper1786482126|title=The Tall Man: Life and Death on Palm IslandJanus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=Politics and SocietyCrime|summary=Cameron Doomadgee – Mulrunji – Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was just thirty six years old going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when he they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was arrested on Palm Islandno skull. Quite why he was arrested was never clearWas this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. He wasnIt's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't drunk, although he had been drinking beer – and was walking along the road singing ''Who Let the Dogs Out?'' Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley felt that there was reason to arrest Mulrunji for creating she is pregnant with his child as public nuisance and he was taken to a result of the police stationone night they spent together some three months ago. What happened next was Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to be the subject sudden bouts of intense media speculation and legal proceedings over the coming years, but within forty five minutes Mulrunji was deadsickness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099520761</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Timothy W Ryback0008551324|title=Hitler's Private Library: The Books That Shaped His LifeDevil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=HistoryCrime|summary=As It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the fictional schoolboy hero Nigel Molesworth might have said, 'police. Neither side likes or has any fule kno' that Adolf Hitler was notorious respect for burning booksthe other. Nevertheless But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he was also an avid collector and passionate reader, as around 1200 surviving volumes once in his possession now in 's prepared to tell the Rare Book Division of police where the Library body of Congress, a missing person is buried and a smaller quantity in Brown University, Rhode Island, demonstratewho was responsible for her death. Among them were world literature classicsThis person, such as 'Robinson Crusoe', 'Uncle Tom's Cabin'he promises, is someone big and 'Gulliver's Travels'it will be worth the police doing what he wants. He also owned And what he wants is to be transferred to an edition of open prison to serve the collected works remainder of Shakespeare, in hand-tooled Moroccan leather with a gold-embossed eagle flanked by his initials on the spinesentence and to get an early parole date. Not much to ask, is it? The Bard, he once said, was greatly superior new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to Goethe do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and Schilleranyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099532174</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Druin Burch0008405026|title=Taking A Stranger in the MedicineFamily (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=Popular ScienceCrime|summary=In 1898, Burch points out that a new drug It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was developed never found and marketed for the treatment of tuberculosis by Bayer & Coinvestigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in their bed. TB is such an ancient enemy Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of man the bodies that there is apparently evidence of an earlier strain makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to be found an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Egyptian mummiesRosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced. }}{{Frontpage|isbn=0571379877|title=The German firm had discovered Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=Edward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and Stanza. Robert's a chemical that seemed to work welltheatre director. He's also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and patients entitled and indeed uses Edward to run errands for him. Edward has been in love with Stanza since their own staff, who were tested university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. seemed Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to respond well - it was named Heroin - and its addictive effects were at first missedstumble upon the two of them kissing in a dark passageway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845951506</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Gigi AmateauJo Callaghan|title=ChanceyLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Chancey's dam was Starry Night and her owner loved that horse so much that she wanted When a man is found crucified on the top of a foal who was exactly like hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside hersidekick, but when Chancey was born she was bitterly disappointed for instead of the black Appaloosa AI detective Lock. It's their first live case together, having previously been very successful with white marking Chancey was born albinoseveral cold cases. It was only his striped hooves which proved his breedingBut 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 draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. The owner was not big enough Will they be able to overcome her feelings solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and when she fell on hard times it was Chancey who was left , potentially, out in the field to suffer despite the fact that he was no longer of a young horse.career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>140632258X</amazonuk>139851120X
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sian Rees1399613073|title=Sweet Water and Bitter: The Ships That Stopped the Slave TradeMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson
|rating=4.5
|genre=HistoryThrillers|summary=The Act for Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the Abolition first day of the Slave Trade was passed in Britain in March 1807, medical school and the last legal British slave ship left Africa seven months latertheir friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Other countries were slow Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to follow suitbe a cardiothoracic surgeon. Everyone in Britain knew there would be resistance, Laura is a perfectionist and when a trauma doctor. Anjali is the free spirit of the abolitionist Granville Sharpe purchased land in Sierra Leone to group and she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they'repatriate' freed slaves, Ottobah Cugoana, re at a former slave living in London, asked if drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it was possible for 'a fountain s going to send forth both sweet water and bitterend in tragedy. We don' t know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Could Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the slave tradethree friends. This time, he wondered, be abolished from West Africa - when West Africa was its source?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845951174</amazonuk>it's their teenage children who are involved.
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sapphire0241636604|title=PreciousThe Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionAutobiography|summary=Precious Jones is If you were to bring up an image of a sixteen year old black girl from Harlem – well shecity banker in your mind, you's never actually been out re unlikely to think of Harlem – someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and when we meet her she's pregnant by her own father for his background is the second timeEast End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. Her first child There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a girl and she was born facility with Down's Syndromenumbers which most of us can only envy. With unconscious irony Precious calls her ''Little Mongo'' and leaves her He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to live with her grandmotherbe stupid. When her second pregnancy becomes obvious she's expelled from school and joins It was his ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an alternative education programmeinternship with Citibank. Precious really wants to learn and the book is the story of her journey from illiteracy to maturityEventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099548720</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dean Hale, Shannon Hale and Nathan Hale 1035021803|title=Calamity JackThe Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller
|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=It''I was born s twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to scheme'', declares our hero Jackthe English country village where she grew up. With flashbacks we see the young lad and She's back now because of a pixie friendrequest for help from her beloved aunt, larking about for revenge or small profitCarole. But when his motherFreya's bakery gets more former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and more into the redcircumstances seem suspicious, to say the size of least. Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the profit village: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to increasebe near the man or pursue the profession she loved. And when you add After the split, she worked in revenge against the local crime lord - a giant of a man - so does cafe, met and married James (on the size of rebound from the target love of the japeher life, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747587426</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sue GraftonAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=U is for UndertowAll Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=CrimeScience Fiction|summary=Several years ago I joined a funny little book group in London, and one ''Opening up new ways of thinking about the first books we read was a Sue Grafton alphabet bookshape of things to come. I had, up to this point, never read any crime fiction, foolishly feeling myself above such books, and so I was dubious about what I'd have to say about it. That book changed my literary life. I devoured it. I couldn't get enough! I immediately searched for all the other books in the series and read them quickly, one by one, swiftly followed by a delicious plunge into the world of Agatha Christie which gave me a joyously long reading list. And so now, years later, I find myself with the latest book in the alphabet series lying in my lap, a happy smile on my face as I found I read voraciously once again!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>023070932X</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Laurie Halse AndersonSunny Singh|title=ChainsHotel Arcadia|rating=43.5|genre=TeensThrillers |summary=Isabel and her sister Ruth are slaves. But they should be free - Miss Mary Finch left The Hotel Arcadia is a will luxury hotel in an unnamed city that said sohas suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. But Miss Mary Finch Hiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is dead Sam, a wartime photographer and her greedy nephew and heir denies all knowledge of Abhi, the willhotel manager. So Isabel and Ruth As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are sold still alive in the hotel, he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to the Locktons be cowed by events, and taken keeps on venturing out of her room to try to New Yorkcapture what's happened through her photography. The Revolutionary War is underway Although they only ever talk over the phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and New York is a dangerous place. The Locktons are loyalists, but the patriots they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are in control of discovered by the cityterrorists. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0747598061</amazonuk>086154742X
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lorraine Jenkin1529153298|title=Chocolate Mousse and Two SpoonsThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=4.5|genre=Women's General Fiction|summary=From the first sentence: It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv'With one hell of a crashs family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, Lettie Howell’s dinner service hit the wall…they've been murdered, I knew but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that I was going her father wants to enjoy this talemove the family 'Down South'. An opening thus full of expletive and resounding Welsh Voice immediately makes it clear who’s the boss and I can relaxWhen you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, knowing I’m in competent handsbest avoided. WelcomeFor Miv, Lorraine Jenkinthe move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to my handful of favourite chickprevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking -lit authorsto anyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1870206959</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tom Wolfe1398524085|title=The Bonfire of the VanitiesHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French
|rating=5
|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=In his own mind, bond trader Sherman McCoy is a 'Master of the UniverseCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. He has a pleasant wife Her children, a beautiful mistresssons Niall, Paul and Ollie and a sweet six year old her daughter, Etty. Henry Lamb are all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, is a black student from the projectsnot. Under normal circumstances Shortly afterwards, it's clear that McCoy's world Etty and LambGreg, find the body of Greg's world would never overlap. But when McCoy and his mistress Maria Ruskin end up lost father, Duncan Ackerley, in the Bronx, and river. It was an accident leads easy assumption for the police to Lamb being hit by McCoymake that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the guilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there's Mercedes, a chain of events start which will lead to his downfalllittle else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099548798</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michelle Harrison1035906708|title=The Thirteen CursesDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4.5|genre=TeensGeneral Fiction|summary=Red is backWe tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she's trapped was born to Greek parents in the fairy realm. Having swapped places with TanyaManhattan, she is bound thereNew York, but is still desperate in December 1923 and only moved to get both her and her brother back into the human worldAthens when she was thirteen. She must seek an audience with the fairy court, Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but the realm is full of deception and cruelty – her father changed it will be a challenge just to get there. And guess what happens when she gets there? She is set another challenge, twisted with 'Callas' to make it more manageable in the cruelty of the Unseelie (Boo! Hiss!) courtStates. Whilst the journey goes on, When she reflects on her past: the car crash was back in Athens - supposedly so that killed her parents and her time at the children's home. Meanwhile, Tanya has returned to Elvesden Manor she could get appropriate training for half term and let's just say that her ability to see fairies comes back into use when voice - she was raised under the new housekeeper and her pesky parrot land Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and Fabian and the whole Manor crew into trouble with the little people.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847384501</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|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 hole. She can see made no light at the end secret of the tunnel. And right from the starther preference for her elder sister, right from page one, we have a sense of the beautiful and poetic language of Cole-AdamsJackie. '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</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Nancy FarmerChristopher Edge|title=The Islands of the Blessed (Sea of Trolls Trilogy) Black Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=In this third adventureLucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, Jacka place that has the nickname of 'The Black Hole'. All big movie fans, a fourteen year old Saxon apprentice bardthey're looking forward to lots of exciting films, and Thorgilmany, a bad-tempered shield maidenmany snacks! However, follow as the Bard Dragon Tongue on a quest movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to quell the draugr - the malevolent spirit of a drowned mermaid mistakenly summoned next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to Jack's village the cinema, and who seeks revenge for her earlier ill treatment at human hands.to their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184738630X</amazonuk>1839942738
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sophie McKenzieRachel Greenlaw|title=The Hostage (Medusa Project)Compass and Blade
|rating=3.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Teenagers Nico''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, Kittythe answering beat in my heart.'' Rosevear, Ed a remote and Dylan were implanted with partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the Medusa gene when they were babieswrecks. Now they're adolescentsMira, like her mother before her, is one of the intended psychic abilities are coming seven who swim out to survey the foreruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. Nico has But when the power of telekinesis - he can move objects with his mind. Ed can read other peopleCouncil Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the island's leader and Mira's thoughtsfather. Dylan has an invisible protective shield Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and no weapon can harm with only coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. Kitty has visions that predict With 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 territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the futureof her home and the ones she holds most dear. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847385265</amazonuk>0008664730
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Garth NixJames Sherwood Metts|title=Into Battle (The Seventh Tower)Planet Storyland|rating=34.5|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary=We've made it to book five in Garth Nix's Seventh Tower series, so Things have been a quick recap: The Dark World is blocked from bit sticky for the Sun by an enchanted Veil created by TalEarthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they's forebears re paid to protect it from the creatures who inhabit Aenir - a spirit land full of magic do and magical beastsother tasks that took time to accomplish.Aenir is lit Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and warmed by the Sunstarting to think of other, new ways to spend time, but the Dark World uses sunstones - crystals grown along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and charged , along with light and heat in Aenir. Some inhabitants of it, all the Dark World - the Chosen - also bind some of Aenir's creatures to themselves as spiritshadows or spiritguardsmany daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007261233</amazonuk>1736128426
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Don FelderMatthew Tree|title=Heaven And Hell: My Life in the Eagles, 1974 - 2001We'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=EntertainmentLiterary Fiction|summary=In terms of record sales and income Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from live tourshis father, hardly anyone matched the Eagles' rate a drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of success during the 1970s. Yet the constant search to better themselves with each record, the in-fighting, the drugs being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and egos, soon got the better who had endless crises of themself confidence. They say it is tough at the topSo Tim applied himself to his studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and nobody is better equipped to tell the often painful story than their former guitarist Don Felderset himself high but achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0753826771</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John GrimsonA G Slatter|title=The Isle of Man: Portrait Briar Book of a Nationthe Dead
|rating=5
|genre=HistoryFantasy|summary=To many of us, the Isle of Man is probably best known for the Tynwald, the annual TT motorcycle races, and as '' There's a holiday resort. I must admit that my knowledge part of it extended little further than me that, and therefore found wants to keep this book invaluablejust to myself for however long I can. In these 550 pagesThis secret magic of my own, profusely illustrated with photographs and mapsall mine, at last. I imagine that few if any questions on the subject are left unanswered. John Grimson has lived there just want to enjoy it for nearly forty years, and as well as working with several of the island's local authorities, was active as a long-distance runner and cyclist until his early seventieswhile.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709081030</amazonuk>}}''
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Debby Holt1529900360|title=Recipe For ScandalThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=ThereIt hadn's evidently a market for scandalous tales, or else many a woment been Lt Milo Sturgis's weekly would have gone out of business by now, fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but this bookhe felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, though full of scandal, is slightly differentSturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. This isn His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't council estate scandal or even trashy celebrity scandalneed the help of a psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, itwas Robin, Delaware's juicypartner, who nudged 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, firmly middle class scandal though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a remote property in Bel Air. He was the type [[:Category:Zoe Heller|Zoë Heller]] might write about, heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to an extremely rich man and it's wickedly captivatingnot the Italian.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847396542</amazonuk> But which of them was the primary target?
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{{Frontpage|isbn=1529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=3.5|genre=Animals and Wildlife|summary=Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the strain that being on-call put on his father's life. When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the job for him. Before long, he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a child. If anything, he'd wanted to be a professional footballer.}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dana Fowley0861541774|title=How Could She?A Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=AutobiographyCrime|summary=From the age of five Dana Fowley was subjected to unimaginable sexual abuse DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and before long her sister would be subjected former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to more of the samemeet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. She Maik was raped by her mother's partner and taken to the homes of her grandparents where she involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was abused by them facing a man armed with a knife - and othershe killed a Ghurka. At other times she was forced Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to go light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the homes of other men where she was raped and abusedman. Did her mother not know what was going on? Now he could be facing the death penalty. Did she turn Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a blind eye? It was neither of thosediplomatic incident and wouldn't help Danny at all.}}{{Frontpage|author=Alexander McCall Smith|title=The Perfect Passion Company|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionHer mother was |summary=The Perfect Passion Company is a willing participant dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the abuse online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and organised much look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. Katie is coming out of ita break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>009952225X</amazonuk>1846976596
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Simon Robson0811771741|title=CatchInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=Literary FictionCrafts|summary=CatharineMelissa Leapman's husband Tom is away on business in Birmingham, and so Catharine awakes alone ''InstaKnits for the first time in their little cottage at the end Baby'' gives us a collection of their lane. They moved there a few months previously, and since then Catharine has spent her days quietly awaiting her husband's return knits from worktoys to blankets. She is sure that she Some will figure outbe quick knits - others are of the 'long, some day, what her purpose cosy afternoons in life isfront of the fire' variety. She thought it might be The projects are divided by the time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, five to have a babyten hours, but they have been trying for some time ten to twenty hours and it hasn't happened as yetmore than twenty hours. Meanwhile she waits, and thinksAll the projects are attractive, modern and waitsuseable. In the lounge stands her piano, a stark reminder of the life she didnI perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects't manage to realise because although she studied music she found, quite quickly, but 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 dayme being picky. 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>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Nick WadleyDean Koontz|title=Man + DogThe Bad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=HumourParanormal|summary=Throughout my life IBenny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it've lived with dogs s possible that whoever or deeply regretted whatever was inside is the fact thing that I lacked has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a canine companionnice person. A really nice person. Watching So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a dog – or better stillnew friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, the interaction between dogs – who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Spike is infinitely better than anything on television going to take care of Benny, and itwill certainly take care of Benny's sheer joy to see how man and dog interacts and howenemies, if he, so oftenBenny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they hold a mirror up to each otherare.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1564785521</amazonuk>1662500491
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jules StanbridgeAdam Stower|title=A Date in Your DiaryMurray and Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=Women's FictionConfident Readers |summary=Harry knows that Murray is supposed to be a woman needs humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the two. But he's a man like a fish needs a bicycle, but she also knows therebad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a difference between what we need hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and what we want – and she wants a bloke. More specificallythe catflap they both use can chuck them out, she wants a date for not into the latest in regular back garden, but into a string world of friend-frightening adventure and-family weddingswhiffs. This time round it drops them into a Viking land, a wedding where, thanks to a 'tricky' seating plantroll hunter is expected – well, she will be sitting on the same table as her most recent ex...and his new girlfriend. With no prospects in sightone much bigger than Murray was, Harry comes to the conclusion that internet dating might be the way to go. At besthonest, shebut he's turned up and he'll find a guy who ticks all her boxes and will joyfully accompany her have to the wedding before they live happily ever after, and at worst, well, she might get a story out of it, never a bad thing for a magazine journo.do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755347137</amazonuk>0008561249
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B0C47LV1PC
|title=Fragility
|author=Mosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary= Can you make a ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, is the question should you make it? Or is the question if you did, would it land? The catch is that the answer for both could well be.... no.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Helen Black1529431735|title=DishonourThe Winter Visitor|author=James Henry
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Modern lives. Lily Valentine It's February 1991 and Essex is heavily pregnant and trying to get her own law firm up and running (having been sacked from her previous job for a tendency to be a trifle too ''independent'bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' – or maybe just disorganised). Ryan is a boy from return all the sink estatesmore surprising. Thin, angry, rebellious, but with an ability to charm and He'd been exiled on the Costa del Sol as a serious talent wanted drug smuggler for art that gets lost in his gansta-speak and tendency to skive off school. Lailla and Aasha are good Muslim girlsa decade. HardThe return has come about because he's had a letter from his ex-workingwife, sober, appropriately dressed, dutiful saying that she's ill and hasn't long to their familieslive. TheyIt're also English teenagers, with a fair dose of what that normally implies. Jack s hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is a copper, overlooked for the interesting cases (like murder), good at child protection, in love with Lilyabducted, addicted stripped to the job, always trying his underwear and sent to do a watery grave in the right thing, and not always succeedingboot of a stolen Ford Sierra. His current clean-living and caring attitude is driving Lily Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to distraction.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847560725</amazonuk>home?
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Panos KarnezisAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=The ConventGlorious Race of Magical Beasts
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionConfident Readers|summary=Our Lady of Mercy Eli is a small convent on busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and in the Spanish sierra made up of evening a handful of devoted nuns who live their helper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. Eli lives simplywith his lovely gran, carrying out their daily duties like clockwork. However things change when too – for there is a suitcase containing a newborn baby is left mysteriously outside generation missing in the convent doorsfamily. The Mother Superior A few short years ago, Sister Maria InesEli's parents were both lost to the titular race, believes the baby to be a miracle and plans globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to keep him navigate the world in the convent, but the other sisters do not agreecompany of a magical beast. During This has made the events that follow the true characters of the nuns inside the convent are revealed and the peace that the sisters enjoy is stripped away race anathema to show the tension that has been bubbling away under the surface.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224079344</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Joe Meno|title=The Great Perhaps|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Jonathan Casper faints pair – but when he sees clouds. His wife Madeline worries about everything, not least the way a bad incident at the pigeons that she is studying are murdering each other. Their seventeen year old daughter Amelia wants eatery leads to overthrow the evil empire of capitalism and is making her own bomba confession from gran, while fourteen year old Thisbe Eli knows his only hope is looking for God and praying to him. Jonathan's fatherdare to enter what he most hates, seventy six year old Henry, is planning his disappearance. Jonathan and Madeline may be on with the sole aim the verge prize of splitting up, magic at the end – the only thing to the dismay of both daughterspossibly save his gran.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0330512471</amazonuk>0571382231
}}
