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>
Want to find out more [[About Us|about us]]? __NOTOC__ ==The Best New Books== '''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by category]]. '''<br> '''Read [[:Category:Features|new the latest features]].'''__NOTOC__'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Mo SmithSylvie Cathrall|title=The Lazy Cook's Family FavouritesA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=4.5|genre=CookeryScience Fiction|summary=These days I get very nervous when I hear about books for 'lazy' cooks, or how to cheat when preparing meals. There's are few greater joys than a very simple reason for this: good food, prepared using seasonal ingredients book which don't break the budget needs skill and knowledge and neither are the prerogative of the lazy. Mo Smith might like us lives up to think that she's lazy, but take my word for it – she isn'ta compelling premise. She might have learned a few tricks for making good food quickly, but she's a woman who knows her onions and all sorts And this is one of other foodthem.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0749007826</amazonuk>0356522776
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Adam Blade0008517061|title=Creta the Winged Terror (Beast Quest)Death in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Our heroFormer Metropolitan Police detective, TomJake Johnson, is finding his fishing trip with has settled into his father bugged - literally - by a plague of sickening cockroach thingsrustic life at Little Sky. What's more, There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the whole land future of Avantia is suffering some form of horrid heatwave. Can Tomhis life with his vet girlfriend, recognising yet another threat to his country from the evil MalvelLivia and her daughter Diana, defeat his nemesis yet again - especially as said baddie has as moving in together would mean a new weapon of darkness a massive host lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the roaches, swarming as one giant monsterfuture she wants for herself and her daughter?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408307359</amazonuk> For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and putting the future on the back burner.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Karan Mahajan1786482126|title=Family PlanningThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=24.5|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Mr Rakesh Ahuja is Delhi's Mister of Urban Development and so far, has managed to do well Builders were demolishing an old house in his career. However, his family life is beginning Norwich - the site was going to take over hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - he already has thirteen children and when they discovered the bones of a fourteenth is on the waychild beneath a doorway. There was no skull. The eldest Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Arjun, now a teenager was born to Mr AhujaDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's first wifedifficult as Ruth knows, but up til nowNelson doesn't, Arjun that she is unaware pregnant with his child as a result of this factthe one night they spent together some three months ago. Sangita Ahuja, the Her condition will be obvious before long-suffering wife, not least because Ruth is aware that her relationship with Arjun may never be the same again. Meanwhile, Arjun is only interested in one thing - how prone to attract the attention sudden bouts of the gorgeous girl on his school bussickness. What will happen to the family when Mr Ahuja finally tells the truth?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099523299</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Fraser's Autographs0008551324|title=Collect Autographs: An Illustrated Guide to Collecting and Investing in AutographsThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Business and FinanceCrime|summary=There must be many It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the police where the body of us a missing person is buried and who have at one time had was responsible for her death. This person, he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an autograph book or something open prison to serve the remainder of the kind as children his sentence and asked friendsto get an early parole date. Not much to ask, relations or is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even celebrities prepared to 'do something', written to celebrities in the hope of obtaining a personally signed picture, or even waited patiently at a stage door after a play or concert eagerly clutching a theatre programme, record or CD sleeve other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and pen in handanyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0852597525</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Derrick Niederman0008405026|title=Number Freak: A Mathematical Compendium from 1 to 200Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=4.5|genre=Popular ScienceCrime|summary=This is a book that definitely does what it says on the tinIt's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. Our author has She was never found and the capacity investigation ground to grab each number between one a halt. Now, her mother, Helena, and two hundredher father are dead in their bed. Initially, and wring it for all its worth - all looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the special status it might have in our culture (more easy with seven than, say, 187), all positioning of the special properties it might possess (perfect, triangular, prime), bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as many other things mathematicians though it was going to be an open-and so on would find of interest-shut case is now a complex double murder. Luckily there Kerrigan is enough here to make convinced that the book well worth a browse for us who would not deem themselves number buffsexplanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>071563710X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sonali Fernando0571379877|title=Soul Mates: True Stories From The World of Online DatingKellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=23.5|genre=Home and FamilyCrime|summary=Internet dating Edward Jevons is no longer the new taboo it once was. These daysa working-class young man, whatever type of person you areobsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and whatever type of person youStanza. Robert's a theatre director. He're looking to meets also self-obsessed, you can take your pick from any number of sites. Yesdemanding, even 'Guardian' readers can log on handsome and entitled and look uses Edward to run errands for him. Edward has been in love specifically with, erm, other Stanza since their university days - and he'Guardian' readerss drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. To do so, they just have to click through to Most men in Robert'Guardian Soulmates', which is probably no different s position would stay away from 'Match.com' Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but he'Datingdirect', though might count s not like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the two of them kissing in a larger proportion of sandal wearing hippies among its membersdark passageway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>085265202X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Stephen HunterJo Callaghan|title=I, SniperLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=You don't often find novels or films based When a man is found crucified on the art top of a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the sniperAI detective Lock. Hiding out for hours motionless It's their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and then killing someone unseen from hundreds of yards away doesn't make for as interesting a story as very high profile case that draws a face lot of unwanted attention to face shoot outtheir AI Future Policing project. But with 'I, Sniper', Stephen Hunter has managed Will they be able to combine solve the art of case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the sniper with the art case and, potentially, out of the crime thriller in a decent read.career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847377777</amazonuk>139851120X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lucy Coats and Anthony Lewis1399613073|title=The Beasts in the Jar (Greek Beasts and Heroes)Moral Injuries|author=Christie Watson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersThrillers|summary=Atticus Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the sandalmaker first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is heading a bonus when you aim to the great storytelling competition in Troybe a cardiothoracic surgeon. On his way, he meets Laura is a perfectionist and a number trauma doctor. Anjali is the free spirit of people the group and, always eager for an opportunity to hone his skills, relates to she becomes a GP. When we first meet them tales from Ancient Greek myths they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and legendsit's going to end in tragedy. The beasts in We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the jar of consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the title? Pandora released them from what we mistakenly call her boxthree friends. This time, it's their teenage children who are involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444000659</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jed Mercurio0241636604|title=American AdultererThe Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionAutobiography|summary=IIf you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you've often wondered how history would have viewed Jack Kennedy if re unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, where he'd died a natural death rather than by an assassin's bulletwas familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. As an extension of that I've also thought that There was no posh public school on his CV - but he might not have lived that much longer had nature been allowed to take its coursethe London School of Economics. He's one of the mostStevenson is bright -writtenextremely bright -about Presidents of all time and finding he has a new angle – even 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, a fictional one – is not easycard game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, but Jed Mercurio has looked at Kennedy's adult life through the prism of his sexual peccadilloes and his healththis turned into permanent employment as a trader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099515873</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joe Treasure1035021803|title=BesottedThe Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=43.5|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=It is late August 1982, 's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the day when O level results come outEnglish country village where she grew up. Michael Cartwright already knows he has failed his exams and is dreading his parents finding out She's back now because of a request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. He, his twin brother Kieran (who has done very well) Freya's former mentor and their younger sisters are on the family holiday, staying with their motherCarole's parents in Kilrossclose friend, Arthur Crockleford, County Cork. To escape boredom is dead and his parents' angerthe circumstances seem suspicious, he wanders round to say the least. Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, where he meets Fergal Noonanshe feels, let her down badly. Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, training she has not felt able to be near the man or pursue the profession she loved. After the split, she worked in a priestcafe, met and lively Peggy O'Connor. He has his first kiss married James (on the rebound from the love of her life, who was murdered) and Freya and a bit more with Peggy. The family soon goes home to Cheltenham, but their brief visit to Ireland will James have far reaching significancenow divorced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330511726</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.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jeff SomersSunny Singh|title=The Eternal PrisonHotel Arcadia
|rating=3.5
|genre=Science FictionThrillers |summary=This book stands out in the high-energy, hard-edged sci-fi adventure/thriller genre, The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that it covers two stories at the same timehas suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. In one chapter we have Avery Cates, practically Hiding from the best gun-for-hire in his post-apocalyptic North Americaterrorists who are rampaging through, being told to kill one of the most protected and important people left in the worldkilling everyone on site, by otherthere is Sam, almost as important peoplea wartime photographer and Abhi, in the cruel mix of powerplays that make up the current politicshotel manager. In As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the other corner is Cateshotel, being thrown in prison - one of those basiche forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, hell-and keeps on-earth, surrounded by miles venturing out of desert, prisonsher room to try to capture what's happened through her photography. HereAlthough they only ever talk over the phone, too, he their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and they both wait to see if they will be told to do jobs for other people..rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841497053</amazonuk>086154742X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=A.Roger Ekirch 1529153298|title=Birthright: The True Story That Inspired KidnappedList of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=45|genre=HistoryGeneral Fiction|summary=They say truth It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is sometimes stranger than fictionPrime Minister. (A woman? I mean, and it is not unusual for novels to be based partly on facthonestly... ) So it was in the case of Robert Louis StevensonShe's not what's worrying Miv'Kidnappeds family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, but to have ', Sir Walter Scottdisappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the family 'Guy ManneringDown 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 at least three others, all of which can point she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the saga of James Annesley for inspirationdangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393066150</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Laila Lalami 1398524085|title=Secret SonHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=3.5|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband''Secret Son'' 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 story body of Youssef El-MekkiGreg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in the slum-dwelling teenage son of single mother Rachidariver. Youssef has always been told It was an easy assumption for the police to make that his father is dead, so Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he finds out his mother has lied to conceal couldn't stand the fact that he was born out of wedlock, he plunges headlong into an identity crisisguilt. He tracks down his real father, a wealthy businessman called Nabil Amrani who is surprisingly enthusiastic about his illegitimate son The Salter children are not convinced but there's arrival. Nabil has recently fallen out little else they can do but get on with his daughter their lives and he seizes this opportunity to mould Youssef into the obedient son he has always wantedwonder about what really happened.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670918296</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Bonnie Hearn Hill1035906708|title=Star Crossed: Aries RisingDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensGeneral Fiction|summary=Ordinary teen Logan McRae discovers an old book called We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Fearless AstrologyCallas'to make it more manageable in the States. Can the book help her and When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her friends get voice - she was raised under the boys they want, catch the vandals Nazi occupation by a mother who are shocking their school with pranks, mercilessly exploited her and win made no secret of her the approval of cantankerous English teacher Mr 'Frankenstein' Franklin? This is a novel written preference for teens – of course it canher elder sister, Jackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0762436700</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Gabrielle LordChristopher Edge|title=January (Conspiracy 365)Black Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary=Callum is wandering along home on New Year's Eve when crazed itinerant accosts him. ''They killed your father! They'll kill you! You must survive Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the next 365 days!nickname of '' The man is carted off in an ambulance, and Cal tries to shrug off the incident but itBlack Hole's not easy. How did the man know his name? How did he know that Cal All big movie fans, they's father was dead? Who could possibly want re looking forward to kill a run lots of exciting films, and many, many snacks! However, as the mill adolescent like him? What is the Ormond Singularity movie starts, they very quickly realise that the man kept shouting something about? And the thing this new film format isvery different, Caland they are swept up into an adventure they couldn's father had written t even imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to him shortly before returning home already in the throes of a fatal illness. His father was vague next, can they figure out what on detail, but earth is pretty sure he was going on ? Will they ever get back to something big. Could there be a connectionthe cinema, and to their real lives? |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340996447</amazonuk>1839942738
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Steve FeaseyRachel Greenlaw|title=Changeling: Blood WolfCompass and Blade|rating=43.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Trey is ''I can hear the song of the last living hereditary werewolf - or so he thinkssea. So when he discovers he has a long-lost uncleThe call of the deep, he shrugs off all objections from his vampire guardian, Lucien and catches the first available plane to Canadaanswering beat in my heart. When he arrives, he finds that not all werewolves are fearsome, forbidding and courageous creatures. And they're certainly not all family-friendly. His uncle is old, half-blind and alcoholic. He lives in filth and he couldn't give a fig for Trey. But there is a pack out there, and it's vicious, bloodthirsty and rapidly spinning out of control. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330470493</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Daren KingJames Sherwood Metts|title=Frightfully Friendly GhostiesPlanet Storyland|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Pamela Fraidy has gotten herself locked in Things have been a bit sticky for the attic with a leggy spiderEarthlings. Her fellow frightfully friendly ghosties are doing all AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they can to help her, but it's not easy re paid to pick up a key do and carry it up the stairs if you don't have a bodyother tasks that took time to accomplish. In the process Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of rescuing their friendsother, they also decide new ways to make friends spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and, along with it, all the still-alives who inhabit their house. The ghosties are fed up of the still-alives being many daily social interactions on which they depend so mean - running off screaming every time the ghosties say helloheavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847249930</amazonuk>1736128426
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Aravind AdigaMatthew Tree|title=The White TigerWe'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Balram Halwai, a Bangalore entrepreneur (of sorts) and a natural philosopher, hears that there is a planned visit from the Chinese leader Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to India to learn the source of Indian entrepreneurial talent. Balram knows that the story he will be told by the Indian leader will be a long way different from the true story of modern Indian lifehis father, a drunk and so resolves, over the course chronic underachiever whose dreams of seven nights, to write to the Chinese premier with the story being exceptional at any of his life artistic passions all failed miserably and his own journey from a poor son who had endless crises of a rickshaw driver self confidence. So Tim applied himself to the head of his own businessstudies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1843547228</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.''
Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Briar's, a family of witches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands. Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to be born into her family for generations and as such since she was young, her training as a steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the town's leader, and Ellie takes her place beside her. As challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, putting her at the heart of a maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what to do as the Briar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat.|isbn=1803364548}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jane Casey1529900360|title=The MissingGhost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=In 1992, Sarah FinchIt hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's twelve year old brother Charlie says fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to her ask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the help of a psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, it was Robin, Delaware'Tell mum I'll be back soons partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the man she loved needed.'' Sixteen years later The next case did look simple, his family are still waiting to find out what happened to himthough. Now Two lovers were murdered in her twenties, Sarah the swimming pool of a remote property in Bel Air. He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is teaching at a local private school while looking after her uncaring mother, who since Charliemarried to an extremely rich man and it's disappearance has slid into alcoholismnot the Italian.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091935997</amazonuk> But which of them was the primary target?
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Matthew Condon1529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Trout OperaSecret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=43.5|genre=Literary FictionAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Judges Carrington Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Thorpe recline in leather armchairs on the verandah of BuckleyRowlands didn's Crossing hotel and watch t want to follow in silence as a giant trout shuffles across his footsteps, particularly when he considered the bridge. The Judges, despite their initial prominence and convincing backstrain that being on-story giving them a valid reason for being in Buckleycall put on his father's Crossing, will not really concern uslife. They are there to represent When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a type: family friend who was a visitor to small town Australia, a fisherman from vet and was convinced this was the cityjob for him. Before long, a seeker after something in the Snowy that probably isnhe was at Liverpool University. It hadn't fish- as with so many students - been his dream since he was a child. We shall, however If anything, he'd wanted to be concerned with the giant trouta professional footballer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>038561506X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kate Morton0861541774|title=The Forgotten GardenA Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=Just before the First World War DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in a little girl street brawl - he would later maintain that he was found abandoned on the wharf after facing a man armed with a knife - and he killed a dreadful sea voyage from England to AustraliaGhurka. She appears not Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to know her name – or is unwilling light that suggested that he might have planned to tell it – and all she will say is that a mysterious lady she calls murder the Authoress had promised to look after herman. There's no trace of her though and Now he could be facing the little girl was taken in a by a friendly familydeath penalty. She forgot Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn't help Danny at all about the events until many years later when her adopted father told her what had happened.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330449605</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John Van der KisteAlexander McCall Smith|title=William and Mary: Heroes of the Glorious RevolutionThe Perfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Jonah grew up The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in London but his motherEdinburgh, getting increasingly worried about social disintegration run by Ness and increasing crimeoperating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Ness has moved them up asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to Nottinghamget away for a while. Jonah Katie is coming out of a bright lad and halfway through break up with a media coursebad boyfriend, but he's finding it difficult and so jumps at the chance to come home to fit inEdinburgh. He's also finding 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 racial mix characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a problem business, or in match- making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's palpable tension between black always her very helpful (and brown-skinned people on campusrather handsome) neighbour, William, and he often feels alienated and to lend a bit like a fish out of water. hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1902835190</amazonuk>1846976596
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Clare Morrall0811771741|title=The Man Who DisappearedInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=Literary FictionCrafts|summary=I was drawn Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to this book straight awayblankets. FirstlySome will be quick knits - others are of the 'long, cosy afternoons in front of the jacket cover is lovelyfire' variety. The subliminal message is read meprojects are divided by the time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, please read me. We are introduced five to the Kendall family; motherten hours, father ten to twenty hours and three childrenmore than twenty hours. All leading unremarkablethe projects are attractive, rather ordinary livesmodern and useable. The father, Felix, works hard to provide for his family. He loves them all dearly. They all love him back. It is a secure family unit. Until I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social- completely out of the blue media- he simply disappears. His family is distraught and mystified. We all know worthy projects' but that a person cannot simply disappear's me being picky. But Felix Kendall has taken himself off the radar. Why?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340994274</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ellie SandallDean Koontz|title=BirdsongThe Bad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=For SharingParanormal|summary=One by one the birds land on the branch. Each Benny is having a different speciesterrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, each has different plumageand his house gets trashed. Oh, and most importantly each someone has delivered a different call. The chorus of birdsong builds up and up and up until the biggest bird of all lands on the branchreally weird, with disturbing coffin-sized object to his loud shriek. Ahhome, but whoand it's this about to land on possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the branch with him?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405247371</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Joan Brady|title=Venom|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=David Marion isn't used to finding hitmen standing at thing that has trashed his front door, though you wouldn't be able to tell that such a house! The thing might be trueis, given Benny is the speed and competency with which Marion dispatches said hitman and then disappears, seemingly, off the face of the Earthvery last person to deserve all this bad luck. Dr. Helen Freyl He is a physicist working nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for one of Benny it turns out that the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. She is also, up until delivery to his disappearance, David Marion's sometime lover and house is grief-stricken to the point of distraction by his sudden absence from her life, as she believes him to be dead.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0743267907</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Cathy Marie Buchanan |title=The Day The Falls Stood Still|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=I imagined this title as a 'Gone With the Wind' sort of novelnew friend, a saga-esque historical romancebad weather friend called Spike, with who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a characterful heroine and page-turning story line that necessitates reading late into the nightgood person. Well, I wasn't disappointed in this paperback edition Spike is going to take care of the hardbackBenny, already a best-seller in the U.S.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091925967</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Anu Stohner and Henrike Wilson|title=Charlotte and the Wolves|rating=3.5|genre=For Sharing|summary=Hot on the heels will certainly take care of her adventure in [[Brave Charlotte by Anu Stohner and Henrike Wilson|Brave Charlotte]], the brave little sheep is back. SheBenny's as bold as everenemies, and the older sheep have stopped worrying about her wild ways. Added into the mix are a gang of teenage sheep who call themselves The Wolves and worry the lambs. When real wolf howls can be heardif he, but not by the shepherd or Jack the old sheepdogBenny, it's down to Charlotte to save the day again.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408802589</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Hiawyn Oram and Sarah Warburton|title=Rumblewick and the Dinner Dragons Harper (The Rumblewick Letters)|rating=3.5|genre=For Sharing|summary=Haggy Aggy is an unscary witch and decides she wants to make friends with dragons. Her cat, Rumblewick Spellwacker Mortimer B, is a little unsure of this, so writes to his friend Grimey for advice. Their correspondence fills this latest book in the waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny''Rumblewick Letters'' series, following on from [[My Unwilling Witch (The Rumblewick Letterss wild adventure) by Hiawyn Oram|My Unwilling Witch]]can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846160642</amazonuk>1662500491
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Glenn DakinAdam Stower|title=Candle Man: The Society of Unrelenting Vigilance Murray and Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensConfident Readers |summary=Birthdays for Theo are not exactly how we would recognise them. One blandMurray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and friendly cat, forgettable present from each of the three people one who live in is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his household. Some pink cake at the best fancy next of times. A trip to the cemetery, with the butler making sure nobody else is in sighttwo. But this one is different - some person unknown leaves something for him. And by the time burglars break inhe's a bad magician's cat, and force Theo to leave the confines of so his bedroom favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and find some of the secrets of catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the houseregular back garden, but into a world of frightening adventure and whiffs. This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is too late - Theo is set on a nightmarish trail between two warring forcesexpected – well, as the truths of his destinyone much bigger than Murray was, his originsto be honest, but he's turned up and his hands, come he'll have to the fore.do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405246766</amazonuk>0008561249
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Christopher IsherwoodB0C47LV1PC|title=A Single ManFragility|author=Mosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=If Can youmake a ''Yo birthing person've ever wanted to know what goes on inside someone's mind joke? And if you'll love this short novelcould, first published back in 1964. We join George Falconer just at is the question should you make it? Or is the moment he awakes from sleep and witness his innermost thoughts as he goes about a typical day. It all sounds pretty dull and monotonous but what makes this exciting question if you did, would it land? The catch is that George isn't just any old professor living the American Dream, oh answer for both could well be.... no, he's so detached from the banal normality of the world that he's almost outside of his own body at times.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099548828</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Emily Chan1529431735|title=Harvard Business School Confidential: Secrets of Success|rating=3.5|genre=Business and Finance|summary=Harvard Business School has an almost unrivalled reputation for schooling some of the greatest business leaders (and George W Bush!). Former graduate, Emily Chan, who went on to work for leading management consultancy Boston Consulting Group and who is now a director in a family direct investment business in Hong Kong, promises to offer the secrets she learnt there. Does she succeed?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0470822392</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewThe Winter Visitor|author=Jo Brand|title=The More You Ignore MeJames Henry
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Alice It's February 1991 and Essex is growing up in a cottage in Herefordshire with her gentlebitingly cold, 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 Alicewhich made Bruce Hopkins's birth. Then there was return all the episode Alice remembers, the day her mother climbed onto the roof, naked, holding Smelly the hamster, and refused to come downmore surprising. From that day, He'd been exiled on the old Gina, boisterous and unconventional Costa del Sol as she was, fell silent under the numbing impact of constant medicationa wanted drug smuggler for a decade. Jo Brand tells the story of how Alice coped with the loneliness and worry of growing up with an ill mother. Most importantly, as IThe return has come about because he'm sure the teenage Alice would see its had a letter from his ex-wife, we are shown the birth and life of her obsession with Morrissey of The Smiths. In his music saying that she finds escapism 's ill and comfort and in him she finds a figure hasn't long to adorelive. Her friends canIt't understand her fixation s hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his underwear and her mother understands fixation sent to a little too well (the local weatherman having been watery grave in the object boot of one of her fervent obsessions)a stolen Ford Sierra. 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, Is it a warning from a BBC journalist emails an Iraqi woman to confirm and prepare for Spanish gang or a telephone interview about day problem closer 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>home?
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Diana Wynne-JonesAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=Enchanted GlassThe Glorious Race of Magical Beasts
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Andrew Hope, a rather woolly professor, learns that his magical grandfather has died, leaving him his house and his field-of-care. Andrew remembers some things from when he was a little boy, such as his grandfather leaving vegetables on the roof of the shed for someone, or something, to eat each night. He also remembers that there is something special about the beautiful, old coloured glass above the kitchen door, but not exactly what that Eli is. It seems he has forgotten a lot of what his grandfather taught him, including busy lad – by day an apprentice in the mystery of the field-of-care he has inherited. But wondrous library we start by visiting with the entrance of Aidan Cainhim, an orphan, into his house and his life in the mysteries deepen. The two are drawn to each other, however, and slowly start to unravel evening a helper at the truth that surrounds them.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007320787</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=James Delgado|title=Kamikaze: History's Greatest Naval Disaster|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=When Mongol leader, Khubilai Khan, achieved what dessert cafe his Grandfather Genghis had failed to do in conquering China, he inherited the world's largest gran owns and most sophisticated navyruns. However, in attempting to utilise this to expand Eli lives with his empire further to Javalovely gran, Vietnam and mainly Japan, he lost the entire armada in too – for there is a few short years. New marine archeological evidence from Japan, ironically with the site discovered generation missing 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 and what Japanese culture claim was a Kamikaze (or ''divine wind'') summoned by the Godsfamily.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099532581</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Sarah Bakewell|title=How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer |rating=5|genre=Biography|summary='Chance … really the way things happenfew short years ago,Eli' wrote Howard Beck, the Chicago School sociologist. I visit Bookbag Towers with few preconceived ideas about the next book for review. I'll allow myself s parents were both lost to fall for a quirky title or appealing cover, despite only a smattering of interest in the subject matter. Just occasionally this waytitular race, I stumble on a golden nugget so fascinating and wellglobe-written that I realise how lucky I am to be a reviewer. I'm so pleased to trotting adventure where all entrants have chanced upon this inviting biography of Montaigne by Sarah Bakewell!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701178922</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=David Conway and Melanie Williamson|title=The Great Nursery Rhyme Disaster|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=Little Miss Muffet is fed up of being constantly scared by a spider, so she ups sticks and heads for a different page of the book, to see if navigate the characters of another nursery rhyme will let her join world in. She tries one rhyme after another, but things never quite work to plan. Will she find a nursery rhyme that suits her to a T?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340945087</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Alistair Duncan|title=The Norwood Author - Arthur Conan Doyle and the Norwood Years (1891 - 1894)|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=At the age company of 32 Dr Arthur Conan Doyle moved from London to a house in South Norwood, at that time part of Surrey, in June 1891magical beast. It found him at This has made the race anathema to the stage pair – but when he was torn between pursuing a career as an eye specialist and trying bad incident at the eatery leads to make a living through confession from gran, Eli knows his writing, after he had sold a few stories only hope is to magazines. Shortly before the move, he had been confined dare to bed for three weeks with influenza, and while recovering from enter what had briefly threatened to be a fatal illness (or so he believed)most hates, he took with the sole aim the decision to abandon medicine in favour prize of becoming a full-time author. A few Sherlock Holmes stories had been published, but magic at the man with end – the deerstalker and pipe had yet only thing to make an impact on the reading public, and possibly save 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>}} {{newreview|author=Jean Ure|title=Ice Lolly|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=It's the funeral. Laurel - Lolly to those that love her - is concentrating very hard and trying desperately to turn into an ice lolly. Ice lollies are frozen, you see, and they don't feel so much. 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, but it's a safe thing. Auntie Ellen doesn't like the music at the service, she thinks it's inappropriate. It isn't even a hymn. But it was one of Laurel's mother's favourites, and Laurel think it's just perfect. Specialgran. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007281730</amazonuk>0571382231
}}
