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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=Ellie Sandall|title=Birdsong|rating=4.5|genre=For Sharing|summary=One by one the birds land on the branch. Each is a different species, each has different plumage, and most importantly each has a different call. The chorus of birdsong builds up and up and up until the biggest bird of all lands on the branch, with his loud shriek. Ah, but who's this about to land on the branch with him?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405247371</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Joan Brady|title=Venom|ratingThe Best New Books=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=David Marion isn't used to finding hitmen standing at his front door, though you wouldn't be able to tell that such a thing might be true, given the speed and competency with which Marion dispatches said hitman and then disappears, seemingly, off the face of the Earth.

Dr. Helen Freyl is a physicist working for one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. She is also, up until his disappearance, David Marion's sometime lover and is grief-stricken to the point of distraction ''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by his sudden absence from her life, as she believes him to be deadcategory]].|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0743267907'''</amazonukbr>}}

{{newreview'''Read [[:Category:Features|author=Cathy Marie Buchanan |title=The Day The Falls Stood Still|rating=4the latest features]].5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=I imagined this title as a 'Gone With the Wind' sort of novel, a saga-esque historical romance, with a characterful heroine and page-turning story line that necessitates reading late into the night. Well, I wasn't disappointed in this paperback edition of the hardback, already a best-seller in the U.S.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091925967</amazonuk>}}

'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anu Stohner and Henrike WilsonSylvie Cathrall|title=Charlotte and A Letter to the WolvesLuminous Deep|rating=3.5|genre=For SharingScience Fiction|summary=Hot on the heels of her adventure in [[Brave Charlotte by Anu Stohner and Henrike Wilson|Brave Charlotte]], the brave little sheep is back. She's as bold as ever, and the older sheep have stopped worrying about her wild ways. Added into the mix There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a gang compelling premise. And this is one of teenage sheep who call themselves The Wolves and worry the lambs. When real wolf howls can be heard, but not by the shepherd or Jack the old sheepdog, it's down to Charlotte to save the day againthem.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408802589</amazonuk>0356522776

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Hiawyn Oram and Sarah Warburton0008517061|title=Rumblewick and the Dinner Dragons (The Rumblewick Letters)Death in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell|rating=3.54|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Haggy Aggy is an unscary witch and decides she wants to make friends with dragons. Her catFormer Metropolitan Police detective, Rumblewick Spellwacker Mortimer BJake Johnson, is has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a little unsure uncertainty about the future of thishis life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, so writes as moving in together would mean a lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to his friend Grimey Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the future she wants for advice. Their correspondence fills this latest book herself and her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in the ''Rumblewick Letters'' series, following present and putting the future on from [[My Unwilling Witch (The Rumblewick Letters) by Hiawyn Oram|My Unwilling Witch]]the back burner.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846160642</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Glenn Dakin1786482126|title=Candle Man: The Society of Unrelenting Vigilance Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths

|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Birthdays for Theo are not exactly how we would recognise them. One bland, forgettable present from each of Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the three people who live in his household. Some pink cake at site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the best bones of timesa child beneath a doorway. A trip to the cemetery, with the butler making sure nobody else is in sightThere was no skull. But Was this one is different - some person unknown leaves something for hima ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. And by the time burglars break inIt's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, and force Theo to leave the confines of that she is pregnant with his bedroom and find some child as a result of the secrets of the houseone night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, it not least because Ruth is too late - Theo is set on a nightmarish trail between two warring forces, as the truths prone to sudden bouts of his destiny, his origins, and his hands, come to the foresickness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405246766</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Christopher Isherwood0008551324|title=A Single ManThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=If youIt've ever wanted s unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to know what goes on inside someoneapproach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's mind you'll love this short novel, first published back in 1964prepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. We join George Falconer just at the moment This person, he awakes from sleep promises, is someone big and witness his innermost thoughts as it will be worth the police doing what he goes about a typical daywants. It all sounds pretty dull And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and monotonous but what makes this exciting to get an early parole date. Not much to ask, is that George isnit? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't just any old professor living the American Dream, oh no, hethink so and she's so detached from even prepared to do the banal normality of the world other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that heDS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's almost outside of his own body at timeshappening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099548828</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Celine Kiernan0008405026|title=The Poison Throne A Stranger in the Family (Moorehawke TrilogyMaeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=35|genre=TeensCrime|summary=In It''The Poison Throne'' what had been a benevolent kingdom has become characterised by repression s sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and torture (which the book graphically describes)investigation ground to a halt. The magical aspects of the kingdom Now, its talking cats and ghostsher mother, have been suppressedHelena, while Alberonand her father are dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the heir bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to the throne, has vanishedbe an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. Wynter, along with AlberonKerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's half brother Razi and his friend Christopher boss, Una Burt) are increasingly at risk as they attempt to deal with this situationless convinced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841498211</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Emily Chan0571379877|title=Harvard Business School Confidential: Secrets of SuccessThe Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet

|genre=Business and FinanceCrime|summary=Harvard Business School has an almost unrivalled reputation for schooling some of the greatest business leaders (Edward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and George W Bush!)Stanza. Robert's a theatre director. Former graduate He's also self-obsessed, Emily Chandemanding, who went on handsome and entitled and uses Edward to work run errands for leading management consultancy Boston Consulting Group him. Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and who is now a director he's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a family direct investment business in Hong Kong, promises relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to offer stumble upon the secrets she learnt theretwo of them kissing in a dark passageway. Does she succeed?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0470822392</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jo BrandCallaghan|title=The More You Ignore MeLeave No Trace

|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Alice When a man is growing up in found crucified on the top of a cottage hill in Herefordshire with her gentleNuneaton, hippy father and DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her mothersidekick, Gina, who spends her days standing around like a chain-smoking zombie because she is kept on medication and has been for yearsthe AI detective Lock. Gina It's their first psychotic episode occured after Alice's birthlive case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. Then But when there was the episode Alice remembers, the day her mother climbed onto the roof, naked, holding Smelly the hamsteris a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and refused a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to come downtheir AI Future Policing project. From that dayWill they be able to solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the old Ginacase and, boisterous and unconventional as she waspotentially, fell silent under the numbing impact out of constant medicationa career?|isbn=139851120X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1399613073|title=Moral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=4. Jo Brand tells 5|genre=Thrillers|summary=Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the story first day of how Alice coped with the loneliness medical school and worry their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of growing up with an ill mothera century. Most importantlyOlivia is ruthlessly ambitious, as I'm sure which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Anjali is the teenage Alice would see it, we are shown free spirit of the birth group and life of her obsession with Morrissey of The Smithsshe becomes a GP. In his music she finds escapism When we first meet them they're at a drug and comfort alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to end in him she finds a figure to adoretragedy. Her friends canWe don't understand her fixation and her mother understands fixation a little too well (know who suffered the local weatherman having been tragedy or the object of one of her fervent obsessions)consequences. Morrissey sings with such sensitivity and angst Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that surelywill impact the three friends. This time, Alice thinks, if she could just meet him and tell him her story he could help her and she could help himit's their teenage children who are involved...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755322320</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Bee Rowlatt and May Witwit 0241636604|title=Talking About Jane Austen in BaghdadThe Trading Game: The True Story of an Unlikely FriendshipA Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4.5

|summary=In early 2005If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, a BBC journalist emails an Iraqi woman you're unlikely to confirm think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and prepare for a telephone interview about day to day life in Baghdadjeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and about her thoughts injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the forthcoming elections thereLondon School of Economics. May's detailed Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and frank responses prompt more curiosity and questions from Beehe has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It was his ability at what was, essentially, and a friendship develops between the two womencard game which got him an internship with Citibank. They tell each other about their work Eventually, relationships and family livesthis turned into permanent employment as a trader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141038535</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=Diana Wynne-Jones|title=Enchanted Glass|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Andrew Hope, a rather woolly professor, learns I've heard it said that his magical grandfather has died, leaving him his house and his field-of-care'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Andrew remembers some things from when he was Well, I must confess that there have been more than a little boy, such as his grandfather leaving vegetables on the roof few decades of the shed for someone, or something, to eat each nighttechnology in my lifetime. He also remembers that there is something special about the beautiful, old coloured glass above I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but I'm left with the kitchen door, but not exactly what feeling that isit's all getting away from me. It seems he has forgotten a lot Some of what his grandfather taught him, including the mystery of the fieldit is -offrankly -care he has inheritedquite frightening. But with Of course, I could research the possibilities and the entrance of Aidan Cain, an orphan, into his house probabilities and his life end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the mysteries deepenlatest conspiracy theorist. The two are drawn to each other, however, I needed people I knew I could trust and slowly start to unravel the truth that surrounds themwho could deliver information in a way I could understand.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007320787</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=James DelgadoSunny Singh|title=Kamikaze: History's Greatest Naval DisasterHotel Arcadia|rating=43.5|genre=HistoryThrillers |summary=When Mongol leaderThe 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, Khubilai Khankilling everyone on site, achieved what his Grandfather Genghis had failed to do in conquering Chinathere is Sam, a wartime photographer and Abhi, he inherited the world's largest and most sophisticated navyhotel manager. However, in attempting As Abhi continues to utilise this try to expand his empire further to Java, Vietnam and mainly Japancare remotely for the residents who are still alive in the hotel, he lost the entire armada in forms a few short years. New marine archeological evidence from Japan, ironically bond with the site discovered in the 1990s in the construction of new defences from the weatherSam who refuses to be cowed by events, has raised questions and keeps on the traditional view that the defeat venturing out of her room to try to capture what's happened through her photography. Although they only ever talk over the two Japanese invasion forces of 1274 phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and particlularly 1281 were solely due they both wait to the intervention of the weather and what Japanese culture claim was a Kamikaze (or ''divine wind'') summoned see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the Godsterrorists.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099532581</amazonuk>086154742X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sarah Bakewell1529153298|title=How to Live: A Life The List of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey

|genre=BiographyGeneral Fiction|summary=It'Chance … really the way things happens 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well,they' wrote Howard Beckve been murdered, the Chicago School sociologistbut to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. I visit Bookbag Towers with few preconceived ideas about Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the next book for reviewfamily 'Down South'. IWhen you'll allow myself to fall for re from Yorkshire, Down South is a quirky title or appealing coverfrightening, foreign place, despite only a smattering of interest in the subject matterbest avoided. Just occasionally this wayFor Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, I stumble on a golden nugget so fascinating and well-written she'll do anything to prevent that I realise how lucky I am to be a reviewer. IShe's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum'm so pleased s stopped talking - to have chanced upon this inviting biography of Montaigne by Sarah Bakewell!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701178922</amazonuk>anyone.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Conway and Melanie Williamson1398524085|title=The Great Nursery Rhyme DisasterHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=45|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Little Miss Muffet Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, Etty. are all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, is fed up not. Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the body of being constantly scared by a spiderGreg's father, Duncan Ackerley, so she ups sticks and heads in the river. It was an easy assumption for a different page of the book, police to see if make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the characters of another nursery rhyme will let her join inguilt. She tries one rhyme after another, The Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but things never quite work to planget on with their lives and wonder about what really happened. Will she find a nursery rhyme that suits her to a T?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340945087</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alistair Duncan1035906708|title=The Norwood Author - Arthur Conan Doyle and the Norwood Years (1891 - 1894)|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=At the age of 32 Dr Arthur Conan Doyle moved from London to a house in South Norwood, at that time part of Surrey, in June 1891. It found him at the stage when he was torn between pursuing a career as an eye specialist and trying to make a living through his writing, after he had sold a few stories to magazines. Shortly before the move, he had been confined to bed for three weeks with influenza, and while recovering from what had briefly threatened to be a fatal illness (or so he believed), he took the decision to abandon medicine in favour of becoming a full-time author. A few Sherlock Holmes stories had been published, but the man with the deerstalker and pipe had yet to make an impact on the reading public, and his creator could not yet call himself an established writer. Nevertheless, within the next few years he and the fictional detective were to become household names.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312691</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewDiva|author=Jean Ure|title=Ice LollyDaisy Goodwin

|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=It's the funeral. Laurel - Lolly We tend to those that love her - is concentrating very hard and trying desperately think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to turn into an ice lolly. Ice lollies are frozenGreek parents in Manhattan, you seeNew York, in December 1923 and they don't feel so muchonly moved to Athens when she was thirteen. They can't miss people - mothers - who are gone and people who are still around can't hurt them. A frozen heart is a sad thing, Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed itto 's a safe thing. Auntie Ellen doesnCallas't like to make it more manageable in the music at States. When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the service, she thinks it's inappropriate. It isn't even Nazi occupation by a hymn. But it was one mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of Laurel's mother's favouritesher preference for her elder sister, and Laurel think it's just perfectJackie. Special. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007281730</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=John WilcoxChristopher Edge|title=The Shangani PatrolBlack Hole Cinema Club

|genre=Historical FictionConfident Readers|summary=This is the latest Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the adventures nickname of 'The Black Hole'. All big movie fans, they're looking forward to lots of Simon Fonthillexciting films, a cross between a Victorian James Bond and Indianna Jones. many, many snacks! Although one of a seriesHowever, it stands alone as a novel. It's steeped in the history (movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, and therethey are swept up into an adventure they couldn's a lot of it) of t even imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to the late 19th century when Queen Victoria 'ruled next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the world.'cinema, and to their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755345614</amazonuk>1839942738

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Philip WomackRachel Greenlaw|title=The Liberators|rating=4.5|genre=Teens|summary=Ivo's parents have gone off on a South American expedition. As it's the school holidays, Ivo is off to London to stay with some glamorous relatives. Aunt Lydia is a socialite and art expert who arranges exhibitions and parties for the great and the good. Uncle Jago is in finance and there isn't much about wheeling and dealing that he doesn't know. They're fond of Ivo and the kind of guardians who are likely to practise some benign neglect, so what Ivo is really looking forward to about his stay is freedom - he intends to explore London Compass and enjoy everything it has to offer. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747595526</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Emily Gravett|title=Blue Chameleon|rating=5|genre=For Sharing|summary=The chameleon is feeling blue because he's lonely, so he goes and visits a yellow banana, pink cockatoo, swirly snail, brown boot, and so on. Each time, not only does he change his colour to match the object or animal, but he also contorts himself into a shape that matches them.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230704247</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Inga Moore|title=Six Dinner Sid - A Highland AdventureBlade

|summary=Namira is a trouser girl - a music hall performer. In Lorinar, she's regarded as a faintly risque curiosity but at home in Tiansher it wasn't like thisI can hear the song of the sea. Performers like her mother were feted and respected and Namira grew up in a palace. In LorianarThe call of the deep, she lives the answering beat in poverty, performing for drunken fools who don't understand her artmy heart. And then suddenly, she's freed from the seedy music hall by Hollin Parry, a wealthy man and a member of Lorinar's Sorcerer Council. Parry has an automaton, a curiosity that plays the piano, and he wants Namira's unique voice to accompany it. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408802120</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Michael Foreman|title=Why The Animals Came To Town|rating=3Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks.5|genre=For Sharing|summary=A young boy looks Mira, like her mother before her, is one of the seven who swim out of his bedroom window to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and sees any treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a parade of animals walking up his streettrap to end the wrecking, they capture the island's leader and Mira's father. They've come Desperate to show save him the deserts from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and ice capswith only coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. With only nine days to warn him unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the importance of taking care heart of Earth. Without the animalssmuggler's territory, he realises Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and the world would be a much more desolate placeones she holds most dear.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1406318019</amazonuk>0008664730

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Gaby Morgan (editor)James Sherwood Metts|title=In My Sky at TwilightPlanet Storyland|rating=4.5|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary=Off Things have been a bit sticky for the back of the success of Stephenie MeyerEarthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they's [[Twilight by Stephenie Meyer|Twilight]] series there has been a boom in vampire novels aimed at teenagersre paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. In My Sky at Twilight is perhaps one Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of the most unusual books other, new ways to come out of this craze as spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and, along with it is a collection of love poetry aimed at teenage fans of , all the seriesmany daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0230745865</amazonuk>1736128426

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=John BurdettMatthew Tree|title=The Godfather of KathmanduWe'll Never Know|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeLiterary Fiction|summary=Sonchai Jitpleecheep is half 'farang' the son of a brothel madam and an American GI, but it's the latter rather Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than the former which is likely to hold up be different from his promotion in the Thai police forcefather, where he's a detective. He's also the part owner drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of a brothel where his mother, Nong, is the madam in chargeartistic passions all failed miserably and who had endless crises of self confidence. It's no problem for So Tim applied himself to his bossstudies, Colonel Vikorn, who has a few illegal interests of cultivated his abilities rather than his own. He's currently in competition with the head of the army, General Zinna, to see who can raise the finance for a forty million dollar shipment of heroin which Sonchai's Kathmandu-based guru has for saledaydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0593055462</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Gary BlackwoodA G Slatter|title=The Great Race: The Amazing Round-The-World Auto Race Of 1908Briar Book of the Dead

|genre=Children's Non-FictionFantasy|summary=In 1908, Henry Ford'' There's Model T hadn't yet brought cars a part of me that wants to keep this just to the massesmyself for however long I can. The pioneers This secret magic of the world of automobiles were experimenting and discovering just what the car could domy own, all mine, by driving right round the worldat last. Except they didn't I just want to be pioneers. One of the competitors, Antonio Scarfoglio, put enjoy it so perfectly when he said 'We had set out to perpetuate an act of splendid folly, not to open up for a new way for men. We wished to be madmen, not pioneerswhile.' Isn't that about the best quote you've ever read?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0810994895</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=P J Reece|title=Roxy|rating=3.5|genre=Teens|summary=Maddie was at Aunt GretchenWithin a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Briar's funeral when , a family of witches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands. Though she got has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is the phone call first non-witch to tell be born into her that family for generations and as such since she was young, her father was in training as a coma steward revolved around letters and likely to dieadministration rather than spells and potions. This might sound like a double whammy but MaddieWhen her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the town's father had deserted leader, and Ellie takes her soon after place beside her birth (during which . As challenges come her mother died) way left, right and she was brought up by Aunt Gretchencentre, 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 never missed an opportunity to point out that she was an unwanted burdentrust and determine what to do as the Briar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1896580017</amazonuk>1803364548

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Richard North Patterson1529900360|title=The SpireGhost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman

|summary=When student Mark Darrow discovers 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 body help of a black fellow studentpsychologist only worked for a while. Finally, Angela Hallit was Robin, at Delaware's partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the foot of the spire in the centre of the college he attends, he little suspects involvement was something that his best friend will be charged with the murderman she loved needed. Now The next case did look simple, sixteen years later, Darrow is back, at though. Two lovers were murdered in the invitation of his mentor and now college provost, Lionel Farr, to become president of the college in order to rebuild its reputation after a case swimming pool of embezzlement has left the college in a precarious position (conveniently, Darrow has become an ace financial fraud lawyer remote property in the intervening years)Bel Air. As Darrow digs into what happened with He was the college finances, he also begins heir to look afresh at the trial of his friend an Italian shoe empire and questions if he really was guilty as charged. He also finds time she is married to start an emerging relationship with the provostextremely rich man and it's troubled, but beautiful, daughternot the Italian. Is the real killer still at large and are But which of them was the two crimes connectedprimary target?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230705650</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Pseudonymous Bosch1529395224|title=This Book is Not Good for YouLetting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands

|genre=Confident ReadersAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Cass is not having the best of time when it comes to secretsSiôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. ItHis father was a GP and Rowlands didn's all very well t want to follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the strain that being involved in a topon-secret society, designed to keep call put on his father's life. When he was seventeen he took the secret opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the most secretive secret everjob for him. Before long, but those pesky people called adults are keeping things from her as well - namely, her very originshe was at Liverpool University. Can MaxIt hadn't - as with so many students -Ernest and she wade through their junk store base and find the box she been his dream since he was delivered in? a child. Can they survive the mysterious clown school they end up visiting? And can they keep If anything, he'd wanted to be a mystical tuning fork from falling into the wrong hands?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409506312</amazonuk>professional footballer.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Russell Kirkpatrick0861541774|title=Beyond the Wall of Time (Broken Man)|rating=4|genre=Fantasy|summary=A couple of aspects have summed up Russell Kirkpatrick's ''Broken Man'' trilogy for me so far. There has been a fascinating story with some wonderful character building that has made it highly enjoyable. There have also been some of the most detailed maps I have ever seen in a fantasy series, offering more variation than I've seen in maps before and actually adding detail to some parts of the story, not merely acting as a guide. I was expecting more of the same from the final part, ''Beyond the Wall Nye of Time'' and very much looking forward to it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841496715</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewPheasants|author=David Hosp|title=Among ThievesSteve Burrows

|summary=In 1990DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, some valuable paintings were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Boston Singapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in the United Statesa street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and he killed a Ghurka. The police investigation failed Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to find them and many felt they were lost forevermurder the man. But soon Now he could be facing the paintings death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and their whereabouts would be impacting on many peoplewouldn's lives…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230707238</amazonuk>t help Danny at all.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=David ShieldsAlexander McCall Smith|title=Reality Hunger: A ManifestoThe Perfect Passion Company|rating=4.5|genre=Politics and SocietyGeneral Fiction|summary='The Novel Perfect Passion Company is Dead' a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, as Ness is not really what planning to take a novelist wants trip to read first on picking Canada to get away for a while. Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new book – story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but I persevered with Shields' manifesto and I'm glad I didsome new characters who quickly begin to charm. This is Katie has no experience in running a thought-provoking wake-up call that any artistbusiness, writer or bookin match-lover will enjoy.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>024114499X</amazonuk>1846976596

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Ian Rankin and Werther Dell'Edera 0811771741|title=Dark EntriesInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman

|genre=Graphic NovelsCrafts|summary=The producers Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of Dark Entries, the latest hit reality TV show, are worriedknits from toys to blankets. Yes the six housemates Some will be quick knits - others are there, present and correct, and are ready to be scared witless en route to of the one way out'long, and the brilliant prize that might await them somewhere cosy afternoons in front of the merry-go-round of horror that is their new homefire' variety. They The projects are already being scared witless, divided by phantoms - but thatthe time they's nothing ll take to do with the TV producers.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848563426</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Betty G Birney|title=Holidays According complete - less than five hours, five to Humphrey|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Humphrey the hamster is worried. Everywhere he turns his little pink ears he hears noises about the school being closed. How can he survive without all his adoring fans in room 26ten hours, ten to twenty hours and what is life like for a classroom pet without a classroom? more than twenty hours. Luckily, this is only All the summer holiday he is misunderstandingprojects are attractive, modern and what do you know - he will soon be meeting familiar faces, not at school, but at summer campuseable.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571250904</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Keith Mansfield|title=Johnny Mackintosh: Star Blaze|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Before I get into the review of this book, perhaps show my age when Iwonder about 'd like to suggest that if you havensocial-media-worthy projects't read Keith Mansfield's first Johnny Mackintosh book, [[Johnny Mackintosh and the Spirit of London by Keith Mansfield|The Spirit of London]], you go off and read the review of but that first and then go and read the book itself. It's a fantastic read. But because this is a sequel, there are obviously going to be some SPOILERS aheadme being picky.  So, done that have you?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849161267</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Chinua AchebeDean Koontz|title=The Education of a British-Protected ChildBad Weather Friend

|genre=AutobiographyParanormal|summary=This book Benny is having a collection of autobiographical essays by Nigerian writer Chinua Achebeterrifically bad day. He loses his job, whose best known work is the novel Things Fall Aparthe loses his fiancee, published in 1958and his house gets trashed. Topics covered include Nigerian Oh, Biafran and Igbo history and culturesomeone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, African literature and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the legacy of colonialism in thing that has trashed his country and house! The thing is, Benny is the rest of Africavery last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. Some of So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the essays are taken delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from guest lectures at universities around the world nefarious forces for being a good person. Spike is going to take care of Benny, and conference paperswill certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and others are written for this book, particularly many of the more personal pieces about AchebeHarper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's familywild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846142598</amazonuk>1662500491

 {{newreview|author=Norman Russell|title=The Calton Papers|rating=3.5|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=Philip Garamond had had an abiding interest in botany since his teens and when we first meet him he's on his way to Sotheby's intent on making a bid for the Calton Papers. Sir George Calton's papers include an unpublished account of Darwin's explorations on the Beagle, some letters and a geographical survey of the British Isles. Garamond's ambition had always been to own a botanical garden on Madeira, but he lacked the funds and the Calton Papers seemed to be as close as he would get to owning something special.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089546</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguie Adam Stower|title=Legacy Murray and Spellbound (Wicked)Bun

|genre=TeensConfident Readers |summary=Holly Cathers has returnedMurray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and this timefriendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, shewhatever takes his fancy next of the two. But he's more powerful than ever. The war between a bad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the House regular back garden, but into a world of Cahors witches frightening adventure and House of Deveraux warlocks still rages onwhiffs. This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but he's turned up and only one side will eventually triumph.he'll have to do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184738689X</amazonuk>0008561249

{{newreview|author=Kees van Deemter|title=Not Exactly - In Praise Of Vagueness|rating=3.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=How warm ''Fragility'' is a warm day? Or rather, given set as the weather at the momentcity of Portland, how chilly is a chilly day? Is it better to know I want a small helping of peasOregon, or cautiously begins to know that I want 82 peas? There are times when vagueness is more useful than being specific. Kees van Deemter makes this point, sharing many examples emerge from a number of fields, including maths, philosophy, linguistics and AI.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0199545901</amazonuk>the restrictions imposed during the covid pandemic

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Chris Wormell1529431735|title=One Smart FishThe Winter Visitor|author=James Henry|rating=54|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Many, many, many years agoIt's February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the more surprising. He'd been exiled on the ocean was full of amazing fishCosta del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decade. The most amazing fish was return has come about because he's had a boringletter from his ex-looking silver fishwife, who was smarter than all the others. He played chess (against himself), drew pictures saying that she's ill and performed playshasn't long to live. One day It's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, he decided stripped to see what life was like on land, so he invented feet his underwear and went for sent to a watery grave in the boot of a walkstolen Ford Sierra. Yep, you've guessed Is it: it's a picture book about evolution.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224083546</amazonuk>warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Stevie Davies|title=Into Suez|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=We are introduced to the main characters Ailsa and Joe Roberts and their young daughter, Nia. Joe is a down-to-earth Welshman who's been posted to Egypt with the RAF. They are making a new Alex Bell and exciting life for themselves amidst the heat and poverty of the Middle East. Ailsa is English, rather headstrong and clever. Her parents said she'd 'the brain of a boy.' There are two strands to the novel which interweave throughout: the 1950s which see the early married life of Joe and Ailsa and then there's the post-invasion of Iraq period when the grown-up Nia returns to Egypt to lay some ghosts, as it were.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906998000</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Norah VincentTim McDonagh|title=Voluntary Madness: My Year Lost and Found in the Loony Bin|rating=3.5|genre=Lifestyle|summary=''Voluntary Madness'' is journalist Norah Vincent's account of her visits to three mental health facilities in America. The first is an urban, public hospital that houses mainly homeless, psychotic patients, many Glorious Race of whom are addicted to drugs. In this hospital, the doctors are overworked and jaded and medication is always the answer. Soon, the author finds that her latent depression (which led her to do the book in the first place) is returning. The process of being institutionalised breaks her sense of self-worth down astonishingly fast. Indeed, she suggests that it is the lack of autonomy in institutional life, even for those patients who voluntarily commit themselves, that makes it so hard for them to rebuild independent lives when they finally leave the institution.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099513439</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Neal Shusterman|title=EverwildMagical Beasts|rating=54

|summary=Neal Shusterman continues his part zany adventure, part philosophical enquiry, and part coming-of-age story that began with Everlost in this follow-up that is perhaps even better than its predecessor. Everlost Eli is a kind of limbo and home to children - Afterlights - who have diedbusy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, but somehow missed the tunnel and in the light - wherever and whatever evening a helper at the light actually is. Adults never make it there, but significant or much-loved objects dessert cafe his gran owns and buildings sometimes doruns. Mary Hightower Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – for instance, there is so-called because she took up residence in New York a generation missing in the Twin Towersfamily. Mary thinks Everlost is A few short years ago, Eli's parents were both lost to the titular race, a wonderful place and she "saves" the Afterlights she finds by giving them repetitive but addictive tasks to fill eternity. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847387322</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Gabriel Weston|title=Direct Red|rating=5|genre=Autobiography|summary=Few people globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have the ability to convey navigate the minutiae of their profession world in ways which engage the reader, answer your unspoken questions and talk in such company of a way that you're neither patronised nor overburdened with jargonmagical beast. Gabriel Weston is one such This has made the race anathema to the pair – and ''Direct Red'' held me as though I was hypnotised for several hours. She's but when a surgeon and we're pulled into the intricacies of her world without bad incident at the need eatery leads to don mask and gown.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099520699</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=David Baldacci|title=True Blue|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=Jamie Meldon, ex-criminal-defence attorney, now in private practicea confession from gran, leaves Eli knows his office very late one night. He's met by the FBI. Very shortly afterwards Jamie Meldon is dead in a dumpster.  Mace Perry only hope is working out, trying to stay fit, trying dare to stay saneenter what he most hates, trying to stay alive long enough to get out jail in a couple with the sole aim the prize of days' time. Perry was a cop. Under-cover, maverick and darn good magic at her job. Until she ended up stoned on meth, busted for robbery, convicted and sent downthe end – the only thing to possibly save his gran.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0230706134</amazonuk>0571382231