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<metadesc>Book review siteExpert, with books full book reviews from most walks of literary life; fiction, biographynon-fiction, crime, cookery and children's books & self-published books plus author interviews and & top tens.</metadesc><h1 id="mf-title">The Bookbag</h1>Hello from The Bookbag, a site featuring books from all the many walks of literary life - [[: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. It'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, 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|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.

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'll want to read here. Dig in! Find us on [[File:facebook.gif|link=https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk|alt=Facebook]] [https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk '''Facebook'''], [[File:twitter.gif|link=http://twitter.com/TheBookbag|alt=Follow us on Twitter]] [http://twitter.com/TheBookbag '''Twitter'''], [[File:instagram_classic_logo.png|link=https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/|alt=Follow us on Instagram]] [https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/ '''Instagram'''] and [[File:LinkedIn.png|link=https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-bookbag-1b12a264/|alt=LinkedIn]] There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Reviews}}''' [[:Category:Reviews|reviews ]] at TheBookbag.

==Reviews of the The Best New Books==

{'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|class-"wikitable" cellpadding="15" <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->reviews of books about to be published]].<!-- James Wallman -->{{Frontpage|-author=Sylvie Cathrall| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"A Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=5[[image:0753552655.jpg|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0753552655/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Science Fiction| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of them.|isbn= 0356522776}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008517061|title=Death in a Lonely Place|author=[[Time and How to Spend It: The 7 Rules for Richer, Happier Days by James Wallman]]===Stig Abell|rating=4[[image:4star.jpg|linkgenre=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:LifestyleCrime|Lifestyle]] Most things you can replacesummary= Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, but one of the things which you simply can't replace is time. Even though we know this, we fail to use what we have wiselyhas settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. We have more leisure timeThere’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the future of his life with his vet girlfriend, but that's not how it feels: a high value is put on how we spend our working hoursLivia and her daughter Diana, but there's as moving in together would mean a low value on leisure. Unfortunately we now know how to work lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and not how relaxing life to ''live'': we need move in with Livia or does Livia move to ''learn'' how to spend our leisure time wisely Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the future she wants for herself and her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and James Wallman has taken putting the future on the onerous task of teaching us how to do this. [[Time and How to Spend It: The 7 Rules for Richer, Happier Days by James Wallman|Full Review]]back burner.}} <!-- Jonnes -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=1786482126| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths[[image:1609809173.jpg|linkrating=http://www.amazon.co4.uk/dp/1609809173/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 5| stylegenre="verticalCrime|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich -align: top; textthe site was going to hold seventy-align: left;"|===[[Eiffelfive 'luxury's Tower for Young People by Jill Jonnes]]=== [[image:5starapartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Children Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's Non-Fiction|Childrendifficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn's Non-Fiction]] Brash and elegant, sophisticated, controversial and vibrantt, that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the 1889 World's Fair in Paris encompassed the bestone night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, the worst and the beautiful from many countries and cultures. The French Republic laid out model villages from all their colonies, put on art shows, dance performances, food festivals and concerts not least because Ruth is prone to stun the sensessudden bouts of sickness. And towering above it all, the most popular and the most hated monument to French accomplishment and daring – the Eiffel Tower. [[Eiffel's Tower for Young People by Jill Jonnes|Full Review]]}}<!-- Johnson -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=0008551324| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster[[image:1471178471|rating=4.jpg5|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1471178471/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Crime| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Magnificent Mrs Mayhew by Milly Johnson]]=== [[image:4starIt's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:WomenBut Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's Fiction|Women's Fiction]] I liked this bookprepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. Whilst not necessarily a page-turner This person, this was a thoroughly enjoyable heart-warming read from the Queen of chick lithe promises, Milly Johnson. [[The Magnificent Mrs Mayhew by Milly Johnson|Full Review]] <!-- Kate Tough -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:034914365Xis someone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/034914365X/ref=nosim Not much to ask, is it?tag=thebookbag The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded -21]]make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.}}{{Frontpage| styleisbn="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"0008405026|title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=5|genre=[[Keep Walking Rhona Beech by Kate Tough]]===Crime[[image:4.5star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]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, [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]] Life has just hidden behind a corner and stuck a foot out as Rhona Beech came pasther father are dead in their bed. She and Mark had been together for nine years Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was beginning going to feel ''settled''be an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. Then Mark announced Kerrigan is convinced that he'd got a job the explanation lies in Canada and he was going whether Rhona wanted to come with him or not. The Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent'not'' bit of the sentence was the way it worked out and Rhona was left on her owns boss, Una Burt) are less convinced. Well, she wasn't completely on her own: she had friends and family, but it's not the same as having that special someone in your life, that someone who makes you part of a couple}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0571379877|title=The Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=3. So Rhona had to start again, rejoining 5|genre=Crime|summary=Edward Jevons is a world that bore little resemblance to the one she'd left nine years ago working-class young man, obsessed with his upper- class friends, Robert and thereStanza. Robert's a lot of difference between being in the middle of your twenties theatre director. He's also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and the middle of your thirtiesuses Edward to run errands for him. [[Keep Walking Rhona Beech by Kate Tough|Full Review]] <! Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days -- Kerry Watts -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786817926and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert.jpg|link=http://www Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the two of them kissing in a dark passageway.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786817926/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]}}{{Frontpage|author=Jo Callaghan| styletitle="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"Leave No Trace|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary==[[Heartlands (D I Jessie Blake) by Kerry Watts]]=== [[image:3When a man is found crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock.5star It's their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] The story had begun some twenty years earlier when two boys raped and killed Sophie Nicholl But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Jack Mackay was - on Will they be able to solve the face of it - from a decent familycase in time, but he was or will Kat find herself taken off the ringleader. Daniel Simpson was a followercase and, potentially, but he still raped Sophie and he could have stopped what happened but didn't. Sophie's body was found in out of a shallow grave by an enthusiastic cocker spaniel a few days later and the boys were arrested, tried and sentenced to five years in a young offenders institution. There were those who thought that the sentence was too lenientcareer?|isbn=139851120X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1399613073|title=Moral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=Thrillers|summary=Olivia, even for fifteen-year-old boys Laura and Sophie's elder brother, Tom, was one Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of thesea century. He wasn't going Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to let the matter restbe a cardiothoracic surgeon. [[Heartlands (D I Jessie Blake) by Kerry Watts|Full Review]] <!-- Hitchcock -->| Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Anjali is the free spirit of the group and she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1788004388fuelled party and it's going to end in tragedy.jpg|link=http://www We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788004388/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag Twenty-21]]five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. This time, it's their teenage children who are involved.}}{{Frontpage| styleisbn="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"0241636604| title=The Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=[[The Boy Who Flew by Fleur Hitchcock]]4.5|genre===Autobiography[[image:4.5star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]]   Athan Wilde earns some money If you were to supplement his familybring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you's meagre income by working for Mr Chen who is both mentor and friendre unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. Mr Chen's wonderful imagination A hoodie and sense of jeans replaces the future has led him to create some fantastic inventions for making life easier pin-stripe suit and work less back breaking. His latest endeavour his background is something on an entirely different levelthe East End, however - it's a.where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice... ''flying machine''! Imagine that! [[The Boy Who Flew by Fleur Hitchcock|Full Review]] <!There was no posh public school on his CV -but he had been to the London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - David Hewson extremely bright -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:178029106Xand he 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, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/178029106X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]}}{{Frontpage| styleisbn="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"1035021803|title===[[The Savage Shore by David Hewson]]Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=3.5|genre=Crime [[image:4star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] Reggio, in CalabriaIt's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up. ItShe's back now because of a strange placerequest for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Freya's former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, closer to Africa than Rome as Emmanuel kept reminding himselfsay the least. He Arthur was an illegal immigrant and like most of his kind he was simply looking for a way the reason why Freya had not been back to earn a decent living with a little dignitythe village: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. Back Even though they were in Nigeria he was an independent business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the man and now he is no better than or pursue the profession she loved. After the monkey who sits split, she worked in a cage cafe, met and married James (on the bar he tends. The area is ruled by rebound from the Mafia. Further afield there are the Camorra love of her life, who was murdered) and the Cosa Nostra, but here it's the 'Ndrangheta Freya and the local boss is known as Lo Spettro - the ghost - as heJames have now divorced.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=All Tomorrow's rarely seen, but he's one of the Bergamotti clan, but even Futures: Fictions that's not their real name. [[The Savage Shore by David HewsonDisrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|Full Review]] <!-- Cara Hunter -->rating=5|-genre=Science Fiction| stylesummary="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0241283493''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0241283493/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[No Way Out by Cara Hunter]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] It was the end of the Christmas holidays and Felix House in an elite area of Oxford was on fire. Two children were dragged from the inferno: one, a toddler, was pronounced dead at the scene and the other, a boy on the cusp of his teens, died in hospital some days later. But where were the parents? Were their bodies in what remained of the house and which was being steadily cleared, or had they left the children at home alone? For DI Adam Fawley it's one of his most disturbing cases. He's still not got over the death of ''his'' son and there's every sign that his marriage is on the rocks. For his team it's just a heartbreaking, exhausting case. [[No Way Out by Cara Hunter|Full Review]] <!-- Reeves -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1788312201.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788312201/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Women of Westminster: The MPs Who Changed Politics by Rachel Reeves]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Politics and Society|Politics and Society]] ''Women in Westminster have changed the culture of politics and the perception of what women can do'' ''Women of Westminster: The MPs Who Changed Politics'' chronicles the battles the 491 women who have been elected over the course of the past century have fought and highlights their victories. It is remarkable that the history of female Members of Parliament began in 1918, the same year in which women were first given the right to vote but a decade before all women were given suffrage on equal terms with men. Although Constance de Markievicz was the first female elected to Parliament, it was only in 1919 that Nancy Astor became the first women to take her seat in the House of Commons and pave the way for women of the future. It was not long after in 1924 that the first female MP, Margaret Bondfield, was appointed into a cabinet position and since then women MPs have endeavoured to fight gender inequality and campaign for female rights. Within 100 years there has been a gradual revolution of change in politics and to date Britain has been led by two female Prime Ministers. However, such great landmarks have overshadowed the other female MPs whose early achievements, which have paved the way for subsequent women politicians, are consistently overlooked. In ''Women of Westminster: The MPs Who Changed Politics'' Rachel Reeves brings the forgotten stories into the spotlight to document the history of British female political history from 1919 to 2019. [[Women of Westminster: The MPs Who Changed Politics by Rachel Reeves|Full Review]] <!-- Erskine -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786074923.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786074923/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Chemical Detectiveby Fiona Erskine]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] Dr Jaq Silver is a brilliant scientist with a healthy social life who loves her work and life. Whilst she is haunted by her past she won't let it define her. When she becomes entangled in a mystery, a mystery that could tie to some of the most horrific weapons on Earth, she doesn't hesitate and jumps straight in. We follow Jaq as she travels the world digging deeper and deeper into a rabbit-hole of intrigue and betrayal, never compromising and always seeking the truth. From the ski slopes of Eastern Europe, to the sunny climes of Portugal and even making a visit to that most glamourous of locations… rainy Teeside… this is a true thriller. [[The Chemical Detectiveby Fiona Erskine|Full Review]] <!-- Varenne -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0857058738.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0857058738/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Equator by Antonin Varenne and Sam Taylor (translator)]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] It strikes me that nobody can speak well of the Wild West outside the walls of a theme park. Our agent to see how bad it was here is Pete Ferguson, who bristles at the indignity of white man against Native 'Indian', who spends days being physically sick while indulging in a buffalo hunt, and who hates the way man – and woman, of course – can turn against fellow man at the bat of an eyelid. But this book is about so much more than the 1870s USA, and the attendant problems with gold rushes, pioneer spirits and racial genocide. He finds himself trying to find this book's version of Utopia, namely the Equator, where everything is upside down, people walk on their heads with rocks in their pockets to keep them on the ground to counter the anti-gravity, and where, who knows, things might actually be better. But that equator is a long way away – and there's a whole adventure full of Mexico and Latin America between him and it… [[Equator by Antonin Varenne and Sam Taylor (translator)|Full Review]] <!-- Collins -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1408888335.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1408888335/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[All the Invisible Things by Orlagh Collins]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]]   Vetty, her dad, and her little sister are about to move back to London and Vetty can't wait. The family has been staying with Aunt Wendy since the death of Vetty's mother several years ago. With the girls older and Aunt Wendy getting married, it's time to get back to their lives. Vetty, mostly, is looking forward to reconnecting with Pez. She and he were inseparable - spending all their time together and knowing each other inside out, without the need for words. Vetty could do with a friend like that right now, as her inner feelings of difference get ever stronger... [[All the Invisible Things by Orlagh Collins|Full Review]]<!-- Dahl -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1912374439.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1912374439/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Courier by Kjell Ola Dahl and Don Bartlett (translator)]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime (Historical)|Crime (Historical)]] Nazi-occupied Oslo, 1942. There, I've given the game away. For in a book that centres around a murder, I've told you who did it – the Nazis, surely? Well, that certainly has to remain to be seen in this volume, which splits its time between one of war, when a young woman sees her father arrested, and their store condemned as Jewish, and rushes to her best friend to help – not knowing she will never see her alive again, and the late 1960s, when great consternation is being felt. In this timeline, a maverick agent is back in town, one who might have been fingered for murdering that female victim, even though she and he lived together with their baby as a young family, except he was thought by all to have died in the War… [[The Courier by Kjell Ola Dahl and Don Bartlett (translator)|Full Review]] <!-- AMS -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1408711265.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1408711265/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Department of Sensitive Crimes by Alexander McCall Smith]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Long-time followers of The Bookbag will know I'm a die-hard fan of AMS. So you can imagine my excitement at reading a brand new book in a brand new series, described by the author himself as Scandi Blanc (as opposed to Scandi Noir)! Here we meet a new detective named Ulf Varg, who works in the Department for Sensitive Crimes, solving those crimes that perhaps fall outside the usual police parameters. This particular book deals with crimes including someone who is stabbed in the knee, the disappearance of an imaginary boyfriend, and a case of potential werewolves. They're the crimes that perhaps nobody else would bother to deal with, and I rather enjoyed them, especially the stabbing where you find that actually, you identify with the person who committed the crime, rather than the victim. [[The Department of Sensitive Crimes by Alexander McCall Smith|Full Review]] <!-- Lingane -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:B07NV8NY4Y.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07NV8NY4Y/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[The Rose, the Night, and the Mirror by Mark Lingane]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]]  Julian's family are getting pretty fed up with his perma-student status. They feel that the maths PHD candidate should start earning some money. To that end, they have managed to find him a job tutoring the children of a highly regarded politician. Julian bowls up at their strange, austere mansion with little in the way of expectation. Victor, the politician is not at home. But Esis, his wife, is. A beautiful but isolated woman, Esis shows little interest in her children and not much more in Julian. She directs him towards his room, the library in which he will teach the children, and the kitchen, whose chefbot will provide him with food. [[The Rose, the Night, and the Mirror by Mark Lingane|Full Review]]  <!-- Brandi -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1789550122.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789550122/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Into the River by Mark Brandi]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] Two boys, Ben and Fab, are growing up in a small town in Northern Australia in the late 80's. They do all the normal things that boys of that age do - go yabbying (fishing), play cricket, fight their battles at school and think about girls. Their family lives are different; Ben comes from a happy home, whilst Fab is the son of Italian immigrants who clearly have little money, and has a father who is very violent. Yet despite their differences, they are fiercely loyal to each other. So far, so normal. But with the arrival of a new neighbour for Ben, a man called Ronnie, things begin to change. Ronnie wants Ben to come over to do some odd jobs for him, and both Ben and Fab are increasingly uncomfortable about this. [[Into the River by Mark Brandi|Full Review]] <!-- Clark -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:034901082X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/034901082X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[In The Full Light of the Sun by Clare Clark]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] In 1930's Berlin, three people obsessed with art find themselves swept up into a scandal. Emmeline, a wayward young student, Julius, an anxious middle-aged art expert, and Rachmann, a mysterious art dealer, live in the politically turbulent Weimar Berlin, and soon find themselves whipped up into excitement over the surprise discovery of thirty-two previously unknown paintings by Vincent Van Gogh. Based on a true story and unfolding through the subsequent rise of Hitler and the Nazis, the discovery of the art allows these characters to explore authenticity, vanity and self-delusion. [[In The Full Light of the Sun by Clare Clark|Full Review]] <!-- Ireland -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1789090873.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789090873/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Dread Nation by Justina Ireland]]===''

[[image:5starI've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen.jpg 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.}}{{Frontpage|author=Sunny Singh|title=Hotel Arcadia|rating=3.5|genre=Thrillers |linksummary=Category:The 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, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, a wartime photographer and Abhi, the hotel manager. As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for 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's happened through her photography. Although they only ever talk over the phone, 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 the terrorists.|isbn=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.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1398524085|title=Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and 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=Diva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=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 'Callas' to make it more manageable in the States. When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her elder sister, Jackie.}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy{{Frontpage|author=Christopher Edge|title=Black Hole Cinema Club|Fantasy]]rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, [[:Category:Horrora place that has the nickname of 'The Black Hole'. All big movie fans, they're looking forward to lots of exciting films, and many, many snacks! However, as the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to the next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the cinema, and to their real lives?|Horror]]isbn=1839942738}}{{Frontpage|author=Rachel Greenlaw|title=Compass and Blade|rating=3.5|genre=Teens|summary=''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.''

Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, is one of the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the island's leader and Mira'Two s father. Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and with 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 after I to unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the heart of the smuggler's territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and the ones she holds most dear.|isbn=0008664730}}{{Frontpage|author=James Sherwood Metts|title=Planet Storyland|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary= Things have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of other, new ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was born … pretty much shut down and, along with it, all the dead rose up many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|isbn=1736128426}}{{Frontpage|author=Matthew Tree|title=We'll Never Know|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary= Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, a drunk and started chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and who had endless crises of self confidence. So Tim applied himself to walk on his studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions.|isbn= B0CVFXPGP8}}{{Frontpage|author=A G Slatter|title=The Briar Book of the Dead|rating=5|genre=Fantasy|summary='' There's a battlefield in 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 small town in Pennsylvania called Gettysburg while.''

Dread Nation narrates Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the unconventional life protection of the Briar's, a family of Jane McKeene 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 born days before 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 began , 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}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529900360|title=The Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=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 a psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, it was Robin, Delaware's partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the man she loved needed. The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a remote property in Bel Air. He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to walk an extremely rich man and it's not the streetsItalian. An event But which of them was the primary target?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=3.5|genre=Animals and Wildlife|summary=Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the strain that being on-call put on his father's life. When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the job for him. Before long, he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a child. If anything, he'd wanted to be a professional footballer.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0861541774|title=A Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=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 street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and he killed a Ghurka. Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the man. Now he could be facing the death penalty. 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.}}{{Frontpage|author=Alexander McCall Smith|title=The Perfect Passion Company|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in interrupting Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the civil war between online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the states altered American history foreverbusiness, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. In Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the changed worldchance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, minorities are forced into conscription thanks to 44 Scotland Street and under the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new Native characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's always her very helpful (and Negro Rerather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|isbn=1846976596}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0811771741|title=InstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman|rating=4|genre=Crafts|summary=Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits -education Act children others are placed of the 'long, cosy afternoons in combat schools where front of the fire' variety. The projects are divided by the time they are trained extensively 'll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to destroy twenty hours and more than twenty hours. All the dead once projects are attractive, modern and useable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's me being picky.}}{{Frontpage|author=Dean Koontz|title=The Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=Paranormal|summary=Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and for allhis house gets trashed. For Jane Oh, and other girls like hersomeone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, there Benny is however the opportunity very last person to 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 his house is a new friend, a better life by bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being employed as an attendanta good person. With deadly capabilities Spike is going to take care of Benny, and perfect etiquettewill certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, attendants protect those higher in society and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are valued above all else. [[Dread Nation by Justina Ireland|isbn=1662500491}}{{Frontpage|author=Adam Stower|title=Murray and Bun|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers |summary=Murray is 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 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 regular 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 expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but he's turned up and he'll have to do…|isbn=0008561249}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0C47LV1PC|title=Fragility|author=Mosby Woods|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|Full Review]]summary= Can you make a ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, is the question should you make it? Or is the question if you did, would it land? The catch is that the answer for both could well be.... no.

<!''Fragility'' is set as the city of Portland, Oregon, cautiously begins to emerge from the restrictions imposed during the covid pandemic}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529431735|title=The Winter Visitor|author=James Henry|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=It's February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the more surprising. He'd been exiled on the Costa del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decade. The return has come about because he's had a letter from his ex-wife, saying that she's ill and hasn't long to live. It's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his underwear and sent to a watery grave in the boot of a stolen Ford Sierra. Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?}}{{Frontpage|author=Alex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=The Glorious Race of Magical Beasts|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and in the evening a helper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – for there is a generation missing in the family. A few short years ago, Eli's parents were both lost to the titular race, a globe- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in the company of a magical beast. This has made the race anathema to the pair – but when a bad incident at the eatery leads to a confession from gran, Eli knows his only hope is to dare to enter what he most hates, with the sole aim the prize of magic at the end – the only thing to possibly save his gran.|isbn=0571382231}}