132,615
edits
Changes
From TheBookbag
Jump to navigationJump to searchno edit summary
<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>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Matthew Condon0008517061|title=The Trout OperaDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=Judges Carrington and Thorpe recline in leather armchairs on Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the verandah future of Buckley's Crossing hotel his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and watch her daughter Diana, as moving in silence as together would mean a giant trout shuffles across the bridge. The Judges, despite their initial prominence lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and convincing back-story giving them a valid reason for being relaxing life to move in Buckley's Crossing, will with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not really concern us. this is the future she wants for herself and her daughter? They are there to represent a type: a visitor to small town Australia, a fisherman from For the city, a seeker after something moment they’re enjoying life in the Snowy that probably isn't fish. We shall, however, be concerned with present and putting the future on the giant troutback burner.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>038561506X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kate Morton1786482126|title=The Forgotten GardenJanus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=Just before Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the First World War a little girl site was found abandoned on going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the wharf after bones of a child beneath a dreadful sea voyage from England to Australiadoorway. There was no skull. She appears not to know her name – Was this a ritual killing or is unwilling to tell it – and all she will say is that a mysterious lady she calls the Authoress had promised to look after hermurder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. ThereIt's no trace difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as a result of her though and the little girl was taken in a by a friendly familyone night they spent together some three months ago. She forgot all about the events until many years later when her adopted father told her what had happenedHer condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330449605</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Van der Kiste0008551324|title=William and Mary: Heroes of the Glorious RevolutionThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=BiographyCrime|summary=At school I remember spending a lot of time on It's unusual for anyone from the Tudors and Hardie family to approach the early Stuarts – obviously great favourites of police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the history teacher other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and then galloping unceremoniously through he's prepared to tell the intervening years until we reached another ''meaningful'' period – police where the Victorian erabody of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. The importance of William This person, he promises, is someone big and Mary was completely overlooked in favour of a quick mention of it will be worth the fact that William wasn't in direct line of succession police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the throne remainder of his sentence and Mary had never wanted to marry him in the first placeget an early parole date. Their successorNot much to ask, Queen Anne I remember simply as is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn'tablest think so and she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>075094577X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Samuel Bonner0008405026|title=PlaygroundA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=35|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Jonah grew up It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in London their bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but his mother, getting increasingly worried there's something about social disintegration the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and increasing crimeher boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, has moved them up to NottinghamUna Burt) are less convinced.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0571379877|title=The Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=3. Jonah 5|genre=Crime|summary=Edward Jevons is a bright lad working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and halfway through a media course, but heStanza. Robert's finding it difficult to fit ina theatre director. He's also finding the new racial mix a problem self- there's palpable tension between black obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and brownuses Edward to run errands for him. Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days -skinned people on campus, and he often 's drunkenly confided how he feels alienated and to Robert. Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a bit relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the two of them kissing in a fish out of waterdark passageway. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1902835190</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Clare MorrallJo Callaghan|title=The Man Who DisappearedLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=I was drawn to this book straight away. Firstly, When a man is found crucified on the jacket cover is lovely. The subliminal message is read metop of a hill in Nuneaton, please read me. We are introduced DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the Kendall family; mothercase alongside her sidekick, father and three childrenthe AI detective Lock. All leading unremarkableIt's their first live case together, rather ordinary liveshaving previously been very successful with several cold cases. The father, FelixBut when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, works hard to provide for his family. He loves them all dearly. They all love him back. It Kat is suddenly struggling with a secure family unit. Until - completely out of the blue - he simply disappears. His family is distraught potential serial killer and mystified. We all know a very high profile case that draws a person cannot simply disappearlot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. But Felix Kendall has Will they be able to solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken himself off the radar. Whycase and, potentially, out of a career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340994274</amazonuk>139851120X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ellie Sandall1399613073|title=BirdsongMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson
|rating=4.5
|genre=For SharingThrillers|summary=One by one the birds land Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the branchfirst 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 cardiothoracic surgeon. Each Laura is a different species, each has different plumage, perfectionist and most importantly each has a different calltrauma doctor. The chorus of birdsong builds up and up and up until Anjali is the biggest bird free spirit of all lands on the branch, with his loud shriekgroup and she becomes a GP. Ah, but who When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's this about going to land on the branch with him?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405247371</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Joan Brady|title=Venom|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=David Marion isnend in tragedy. We don'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 know who suffered the speed and competency with which Marion dispatches said hitman and then disappears, seemingly, off tragedy or the face of the Earthconsequences. Dr. Helen Freyl is a physicist working for one of Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the largest pharmaceutical companies in the worldthree friends. She is alsoThis time, up until his disappearance, David Marionit's sometime lover and is grief-stricken to the point of distraction by his sudden absence from her life, as she believes him to be deadtheir teenage children who are involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0743267907</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Cathy Marie Buchanan 0241636604|title=The Day The Falls Stood StillTrading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical FictionAutobiography|summary=I imagined this title as If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you'Gone With re unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the Wind' sort of novel, a sagapin-esque historical romancestripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was familiar with a characterful heroine violence, poverty and pageinjustice. There was no posh public school on his CV -turning story line but he had been to the London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that necessitates reading late into the nightmost rich people expect poor people to be stupid. WellIt was his ability at what was, I wasn't disappointed in this paperback edition of the hardbackessentially, already a best-seller in the Ucard game which got him an internship with Citibank.S Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091925967</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Anu Stohner and Henrike Wilson1035021803|title=Charlotte and the WolvesThe Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller
|rating=3.5
|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Hot on It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the heels English country village where she grew up. She's back now because of a request for help from her adventure in [[Brave Charlotte by Anu Stohner and Henrike Wilson|Brave Charlotte]]beloved aunt, the brave little sheep is backCarole. She Freya's former mentor and Carole's as bold as everclose friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the older sheep have stopped worrying about her wild wayscircumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. Added into Arthur was the mix are a gang of teenage sheep who call themselves The Wolves and worry reason why Freya had not been back to the lambsvillage: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. When real wolf howls can be heard Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, but she has not by felt able to be near the shepherd man or Jack pursue the profession she loved. After the old sheepdogsplit, she worked in a cafe, it's down to Charlotte to save met and married James (on the rebound from the day againlove of her life, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408802589</amazonuk>
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover
|title=All Tomorrow's 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 shape of things to come.''
I'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 advantageous to me but I'm left with the feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of it is - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're 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.}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Hiawyn Oram and Sarah WarburtonSunny Singh|title=Rumblewick and the Dinner Dragons (The Rumblewick Letters)Hotel Arcadia
|rating=3.5
|genre=For SharingThrillers |summary=Haggy Aggy The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unscary witch and decides she wants to make friends with dragonsunnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Her cat Hiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, Rumblewick Spellwacker Mortimer Bkilling everyone on site, there is Sam, a little unsure of thiswartime photographer and Abhi, so writes the hotel manager. As Abhi continues to his friend Grimey try to care remotely for advice. Their correspondence fills this latest book the residents who are still alive in the hotel, he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what''Rumblewick Letters'' seriess happened through her photography. Although they only ever talk over the phone, following on from [[My Unwilling Witch (The Rumblewick Letters) their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by Hiawyn Oram|My Unwilling Witch]]the terrorists.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846160642</amazonuk>086154742X
}}
{{Frontpage|isbn=1529153298|title=The List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=It's 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'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 family 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.}}{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1398524085|title=Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Glenn DakinNicci 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 her daughter, Etty. are all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, is not. Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the body of Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in the river. It was an easy assumption for the police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the guilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1035906708|title=Candle Man: The Society of Unrelenting Vigilance Diva|author=Daisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensGeneral Fiction|summary=Birthdays for Theo are not exactly how we would recognise them. One blandWe tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, forgettable present from each of the three people who live in his householdDecember 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Some pink cake at Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas' to make it more manageable in the best of timesStates. A trip to the cemetery, with the butler making sure nobody else is When she was back in sight. But this one is different Athens - some person unknown leaves something supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for him. And her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by the time burglars break in, a mother who mercilessly exploited her and force Theo to leave the confines made no secret of his bedroom and find some of the secrets of the house, it is too late - Theo is set on a nightmarish trail between two warring forces, as the truths of his destinyher preference for her elder sister, his origins, and his hands, come to the foreJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405246766</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Christopher IsherwoodEdge|title=A Single ManBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=Literary FictionConfident Readers|summary=If youLucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the nickname of 've ever wanted to know what goes on inside someoneThe Black Hole's mind you. All big movie fans, they'll love this short novelre looking forward to lots of exciting films, and many, first published back in 1964. many snacks! We join George Falconer just at However, as the moment he awakes from sleep and witness his innermost thoughts as he goes movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about a typical day. It all sounds pretty dull and monotonous but what makes this exciting new film format is that George isnvery different, and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't just any old professor living even imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to the American Dreamnext, oh nocan they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the cinema, he's so detached from the banal normality of the world that he's almost outside of his own body at times.and to their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099548828</amazonuk>1839942738
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Celine KiernanRachel Greenlaw|title=The Poison Throne (Moorehawke Trilogy)Compass and Blade|rating=3.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=In ''The Poison Throne'' what had been a benevolent kingdom has become characterised by repression and torture (which I can hear the song of the book graphically describes)sea. The magical aspects call of the kingdom, its talking cats and ghosts, have been suppressed, while Alberondeep, the heir to the throne, has vanishedanswering beat in my heart. Wynter, along with Alberon's half brother Razi and his friend Christopher are increasingly at risk as they attempt to deal with this situation.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841498211</amazonuk>}}'
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jo BrandJames Sherwood Metts|title=The More You Ignore MePlanet Storyland|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=Alice is growing up in a cottage in Herefordshire with her gentle, hippy father and her mother, Gina, who spends her days standing around like a chain-smoking zombie because she is kept on medication and has been for years. Gina's first psychotic episode occured after Alice's birth. Then there was the episode Alice remembers, the day her mother climbed onto the roof, naked, holding Smelly the hamster, and refused to come down. From that day, the old Gina, boisterous and unconventional as she was, fell silent under the numbing impact of constant medication. Jo Brand tells the story of how Alice coped with the loneliness and worry of growing up with an ill mother. Most importantly, as I'm sure the teenage Alice would see it, we are shown the birth and life of her obsession with Morrissey of The Smiths. In his music she finds escapism and comfort and in him she finds a figure to adore. Her friends can't understand her fixation and her mother understands fixation a little too well (the local weatherman having been the object of one of her fervent obsessions). Morrissey sings with such sensitivity and angst that surely, Alice thinks, if she could just meet him and tell him her story he could help her and she could help him...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755322320</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Bee Rowlatt and May Witwit |title=Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad: The True Story of an Unlikely Friendship|rating=5|genre=Autobiography|summary=In early 2005, a BBC journalist emails an Iraqi woman to confirm and prepare for a telephone interview about day to day life in Baghdad, and about her thoughts on the forthcoming elections there. May's detailed and frank responses prompt more curiosity and questions from Bee, and a friendship develops between the two women. They tell each other about their work, relationships and family lives.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141038535</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Diana Wynne-Jones|title=Enchanted Glass|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Andrew Hope, Things have been a rather woolly professorbit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, learns often replacing jobs they're paid to do and other tasks that his magical grandfather has died, leaving him his house and his field-of-caretook time to accomplish. Andrew remembers some things from when he was a little boy, such Just as his grandfather leaving vegetables on the roof they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of the shed for someone, or somethingother, new ways to eat each night. He also remembers that there is something special about the beautifulspend time, old coloured glass above the kitchen door, but not exactly what that isalong came an awful pandemic. It seems he has forgotten a lot of what his grandfather taught himLife was pretty much shut down and, including the mystery of the field-of-care he has inherited. But along with the entrance of Aidan Cain, an orphanit, into his house and his life all the mysteries deepen. The two are drawn to each other, however, and slowly start to unravel the truth that surrounds themmany daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007320787</amazonuk>1736128426
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=James DelgadoMatthew Tree|title=Kamikaze: HistoryWe's Greatest Naval Disasterll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=HistoryLiterary Fiction|summary=When Mongol leaderTimothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, Khubilai Khan, achieved what a drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his Grandfather Genghis had artistic passions all failed to do in conquering China, he inherited the world's largest miserably and most sophisticated navywho had endless crises of self confidence. However, in attempting to utilise this So Tim applied himself to expand his empire further to Javastudies, Vietnam and mainly Japan, he lost the entire armada in a few short years. New marine archeological evidence from Japan, ironically with the site discovered in the 1990s in the construction of new defences from the weather, has raised questions on the traditional view that the defeat of the two Japanese invasion forces of 1274 and particlularly 1281 were solely due to the intervention of the weather cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and what Japanese culture claim was a Kamikaze (or ''divine wind'') summoned by the Godsset himself high but achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099532581</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=A G Slatter
|title=The Briar Book of the Dead
|rating=5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary='' There's a part of me that wants to keep this just to myself for however long I can. This secret magic of my own, all mine, at last. I just want to enjoy it for a while.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Conway and Melanie Williamson1529900360|title=The Great Nursery Rhyme DisasterGhost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Little Miss Muffet is fed up 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 help of being constantly scared by a spiderpsychologist only worked for a while. Finally, so she ups sticks and heads it was Robin, Delaware's partner, who nudged Milo into asking for a different page of help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the bookman she loved needed. The next case did look simple, to see if though. Two lovers were murdered in the characters swimming pool of another nursery rhyme will let her join a remote property inBel Air. She tries one rhyme after another, but things never quite work He was the heir to plan. Will an Italian shoe empire and she find a nursery rhyme that suits her is married to an extremely rich man and it's not the Italian. But which of them was the primary target?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a T?Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=3.5|genre=Animals and Wildlife|amazonuksummary=<amazonuk>0340945087</amazonuk>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=Alistair Duncan0861541774|title=The Norwood Author - Arthur Conan Doyle and the Norwood Years (1891 - 1894)A Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=BiographyCrime|summary=At the age of 32 Dr Arthur Conan Doyle moved from London to DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a house short holiday in South NorwoodSingapore to meet up with an old ally, at that time part of Surrey, in June 1891Guy Trueman. It found him at the stage when Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was torn between pursuing facing a man armed with a career as an eye specialist knife - and trying to make a living through his writing, after he had sold killed a few stories to magazinesGhurka. Shortly before the moveInitially, he had been confined faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to bed for three weeks with influenza, and while recovering from what had briefly threatened to be a fatal illness (or so light that suggested that he believed), he took the decision might have planned to abandon medicine in favour of becoming a full-time author. A few Sherlock Holmes stories had been published, but murder 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 Now he and could be facing the fictional detective were death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to become household nameshelp as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn't help Danny at all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312691</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jean UreAlexander McCall Smith|title=Ice LollyThe Perfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=It's The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the funeralonline apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Laurel - Lolly to those that love Ness has asked her - younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, as Ness is concentrating very hard and trying desperately planning to take a trip to Canada to turn into an ice lollyget away for a while. Ice lollies are frozen, you see Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and they don't feel so muchjumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. They can't miss people - mothers - who are gone And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and people the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who are still around can't hurt themquickly begin to charm. A frozen heart is Katie has no experience in running a sad thingbusiness, or in match-making, but itNess has full confidence in her abilities, and there's a safe thing. Auntie Ellen doesn't like the music at the servicealways her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, she thinks it's inappropriate. It isn't even to lend a hymn. But it was one of Laurel's mother's favourites, and Laurel think it's just perfect. Special. hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007281730</amazonuk>1846976596
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Wilcox0811771741|title=The Shangani PatrolInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=Historical FictionCrafts|summary=This is Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of the latest 'long, cosy afternoons in front of the fire' variety. The projects are divided by the adventures of Simon Fonthilltime they'll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, a cross between a Victorian James Bond ten to twenty hours and Indianna Jonesmore than twenty hours. Although one of a seriesAll the projects are attractive, it stands alone as a novelmodern and useable. ItI perhaps show my age when I wonder about 's steeped in the history (and theresocial-media-worthy projects' but that's a lot of it) of the late 19th century when Queen Victoria 'ruled the worldme being picky.'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755345614</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Philip WomackDean Koontz|title=The LiberatorsBad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensParanormal|summary=Ivo's parents have gone off on Benny is having a South American expeditionterrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. As Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the school holidaysthing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Ivo Benny is off the very last person to London deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to stay with some glamorous relatives. Aunt Lydia his house is a socialite and art expert new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who arranges exhibitions and parties has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for the great and the being a goodperson. Uncle Jago Spike is in finance going to take care of Benny, and there isnwill certainly take care of Benny't much about wheeling s enemies, if he, Benny, and dealing that he doesnHarper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny't know. They're fond of Ivo and the kind of guardians s wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they 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 and enjoy everything it has to offer. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0747595526</amazonuk>1662500491
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Emily GravettAdam Stower|title=Blue ChameleonMurray and Bun|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingConfident Readers |summary=The chameleon Murray is feeling blue because supposed to be a 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 lonelya bad magician's cat, so he goes and visits his favourite bun has been turned into a yellow banana, pink cockatoo, swirly snail, brown boothyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and so on. Each timethe catflap they both use can chuck them out, not only does he change his colour to match into the object or animalregular back garden, 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 Adventure|rating=3.5|genre=For Sharing|summary=Sid the cat has six owners in six different houses, world of frightening adventure and he munches his way through six dinners a daywhiffs. This big ol' greedyguts has time round it drops them into a great lifeViking land, but then one day his owners all decide they want to go on holiday. They consider putting him in where a catterytroll hunter is expected – well, but they have strange rules like one meal per catmuch bigger than Murray was, not six. They give it some thoughtto be honest, but he's turned up and eventually decide he'll have to all go on holiday together, taking Sid with them.do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340988940</amazonuk>0008561249
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jaclyn DolamoreB0C47LV1PC|title=Magic Under GlassFragility|author=Mosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=TeensLiterary Fiction|summary=Namira is Can you make 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 this. Performers like her mother were feted and respected and Namira grew up in a palace. In Lorianar, she lives in poverty, performing for drunken fools who donYo birthing person''t understand her art. joke? And then suddenlyif you could, she's freed from is the question should you make it? Or is the seedy music hall by Hollin Parryquestion if you did, a wealthy man and a member of Lorinar's Sorcerer Council. Parry has an automaton, a curiosity would it land? The catch is that plays the piano, and he wants Namira's unique voice to accompany itanswer for both could well be.... no. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408802120</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gaby Morgan (editor)1529431735|title=In My Sky at TwilightThe Winter Visitor|author=James Henry
|rating=4
|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Off It's February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the back of more surprising. He'd been exiled on the success of Stephenie MeyerCosta del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decade. The return has come about because he's [[Twilight by Stephenie Meyer|Twilight]] series there has been had a boom in vampire novels aimed at teenagersletter from his ex-wife, saying that she's ill and hasn't long to live. In My Sky at Twilight It's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is perhaps one of abducted, stripped to his underwear and sent to a watery grave in the most unusual books to come out boot of this craze as a stolen Ford Sierra. Is it is a collection of love poetry aimed at teenage fans of the series.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230745865</amazonuk>warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John BurdettAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=The Godfather Glorious Race of KathmanduMagical Beasts
|rating=4
|genre=CrimeConfident Readers|summary=Sonchai Jitpleecheep Eli is half 'farang' the son of a brothel madam and busy lad – by day an American GIapprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, but it's and in the latter rather than evening a helper at the former which is likely to hold up dessert cafe his promotion in the Thai police force, where he's a detectivegran owns and runs. He's also the part owner of a brothel where Eli lives with his mother, Nonglovely gran, too – for there is a generation missing in the madam in chargefamily. It's no problem for his bossA few short years ago, Colonel Vikorn, who has a few illegal interests of his own. HeEli's currently in competition with parents were both lost to the head of the armytitular race, General Zinna, to see who can raise the finance for a forty million dollar shipment of heroin which Sonchai's Kathmanduglobe-based guru has for sale.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0593055462</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Gary Blackwood|title=The Great Race: The Amazing Round-The-World Auto Race Of 1908|rating=5|genre=Children's Non-Fiction|summary=In 1908, Henry Ford's Model T hadn't yet brought cars trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the masses. The pioneers of world in the world company of automobiles were experimenting and discovering just what a magical beast. This has made the car could do, by driving right round the world. Except they didn't want race anathema to be pioneers. One of the competitors, Antonio Scarfoglio, put it so perfectly pair – but when he said 'We had set out a bad incident at the eatery leads to perpetuate an act of splendid follya confession from gran, not Eli knows his only hope is to open up a new way for men. We wished dare to be madmenenter what he most hates, not pioneerswith the sole aim the prize of magic at the end – the only thing to possibly save his gran.' Isn't that about the best quote you've ever read?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0810994895</amazonuk>0571382231
}}
