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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]].<!-- Rob Walker -->{{Frontpage|-author=Sylvie Cathrall| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"A Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=5[[image:1529104432X.jpg|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1529104432X/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=[[The Art of Noticing: Rediscover What Really Matters to You by Rob Walker]]===Stig Abell|rating=4[[image:4star.jpg|linkgenre=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:LifestyleCrime|Lifestyle]] The curse put on reviewers is that we get to read through a book which is really better dipped intosummary= Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, or read gradually and thoughts allowed to be provokedhas settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. And so it was with ''The Art of Noticing''. It's There’s perhaps a simple premise: little uncertainty about the pace future of modern his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and rapidity her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a lot of technological advances means that we are constantly overwhelmed compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and distracted. Rob Walker wants us relaxing life to be able move in with Livia or does Livia move to steal our attention back. Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the future she wants for herself and her daughter? He gives us his thoughts For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and putting the future on various areas of our lives and then provides 131 exercises to help us recover our attentionthe back burner. [[The Art of Noticing: Rediscover What Really Matters to You by Rob Walker|Full Review]]}}<!-- Lesley Thomson -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=1786482126| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths[[image:1786697246.jpg|linkrating=http://www4.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786697246/ref5|genre=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Crime| stylesummary="verticalBuilders were demolishing an old house in Norwich -align: top; textthe site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments -align: left;"|===[[The Playground Murders by Lesley Thomson]]=== [[image:4when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull.5star Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] Rachel Cater was having an affair with her boss It's difficult as Ruth knows, Chris Philipsbut Nelson doesn't, an auctioneerthat she is pregnant with his child as a result of the one night they spent together some three months ago. It wasHer condition will be obvious before long, she told her mother, love at first sightnot least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness. Her mother was more sceptical and wondered why, if it had been love at first sight, it had taken him so long }}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008551324|title=The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to do anything about itapproach the police. Still, more than anything, she wanted her daughter to be happyNeither side likes or has any respect for the other. That was what Rachel wanted too But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and it was why she went he's prepared to tell the police where the Philips' family home, determined to have body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. This person, he promises, is someone big and it all out in will be worth the openpolice doing what he wants. Instead she was stabbed fifteen timesAnd 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. Her lover was convicted of her murder. [[Not much to ask, is it? The Playground Murders by Lesley Thomson|Full Review]] <!-- Dare -->|new Deputy Police Constable doesn't 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.}}{{Frontpage| styleisbn="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"0008405026|title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)[[image:191303674X.jpg|linkauthor=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/I191303674X/refJane Casey|rating=nosim?tag5|genre=thebookbag-21]] Crime| stylesummary="verticalIt's sixteen years since nine-align: top; textyear-align: left;"| ===[[The Billion Pound Lie by Bill Dare]]=== [[image:4starold Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] Can you imagine what it would be like She was never found and the investigation ground to win a billion pounds? The UK's biggest ever lottery winners were a couple from Ayrshirehalt. Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in their bed. Initially, who won it looks like a £161 million EuroMillions jackpot a few years ago. Thatstraightforward murder/suicide but there's so much money that it landed them on the Sunday Times Rich List something about the positioning of the UK's thousand most wealthy peoplebodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. So a billion pounds. That's a lot, right? Can you imagine it? What would you do? Would you try looked as though it was going to remain anonymous? And, if you did, how would this affect your relationships with your nearest and dearest? What it would be like? How could you keep your friends an open-and family from knowing -shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that you were now one of the richest people explanation lies in the country? [[The Billion Pound Lie by Bill Dare|Full Review]]Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.}}<!-- Vaughn -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=0571379877| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"The Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet[[image:0751568228|rating=3.jpg5|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0751568228/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Crime| stylesummary="verticalEdward Jevons is a working-align: top; textclass young man, obsessed with his upper-align: left;"|===[[Across the Void by S K Vaughn]]=== [[image:4starclass friends, Robert and Stanza. Robert's a theatre director.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] Sea epics? So 20th century He's also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for him. Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. Try Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a space epic. [[Across relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the Void by S K Vaughn|Full Review]]two of them kissing in a dark passageway.}}<!-- McLean -->{{Frontpage|-author=Jo Callaghan| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|Leave No Trace[[image:1786076071.jpg|linkrating=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786076071/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 4| stylegenre="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|Crime===[[The Van Apfel Girls are Gone by Felicity McLean]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]]When a man is found crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] When Tikka Molloy was eleven and one-sixth years oldDCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the Van Apfel sisters disappearedAI detective Lock. In the long hot summer of 1992, in an isolated suburb of Australia surrounded by Bushland, the girls vanished during the school It's Showstopper concert at the riverside amphitheatre. Did they run away? Were they taken? While the search for the sisters united the small communitytheir first live case together, they were never foundhaving previously been very successful with several cold cases. Returning home years later, Tikka must make sense of 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 strange moment in time – draws a lot of the summer that shaped her, and the girls she never forgotunwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. [[The Van Apfel Girls are Gone by Felicity McLean|Full Review]] <!-- Stowell --> Will they be able to solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of a career?|-isbn=139851120X}}{{Frontpage| styleisbn="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"1399613073|title=Moral Injuries[[image:1788000269.jpg|linkauthor=http://www.amazonChristie Watson|rating=4.co.uk/dp/1788000269/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 5| stylegenre="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"Thrillers|summary===[[The Dragon in Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the Library by Louie Stowell first day of medical school and Davide Ortu (Illustrator)]]=== [[image:4their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, [[:Category:Emerging Readers|Emerging Readers]] It which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Anjali is the start free spirit of the summer holidays group and Kit has plansshe becomes a GP. These plans involve climbing trees, getting muddy When we first meet them they're at a drug and being outside. Her friends, Josh alcohol-fuelled party and Alita, on the other hand want it's going to go to the libraryend in tragedy. Kit hates reading and can We don't see know who suffered the point of books at all but is very reluctantly persuaded to go with the others to tragedy or the local libraryconsequences. Once there the children meet the librarian and Kit makes Twenty-five years later there will be an incredible discovery; eerily similar event that will impact the librarian is a wizard! Even more incredibly, Kit is a wizard too and she and her three friends have an important task. They must save the library…and save the world! [[The Dragon in the Library by Louie Stowell and Davide Ortu (Illustrator)|Full Review]] This time, it's their teenage children who are involved.}}<!-- Stuart MacBride -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=0241636604| styletitle="widthThe Trading Game: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson[[image:0008208263.jpg|linkrating=http://www4.amazon.co.uk/dp/0008208263/ref5|genre=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Autobiography| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[All ThatIf you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you's Dead (Logan McRae 12) by Stuart MacBride]]=== [[image:5starre 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 was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] It seemed like There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a good ideafacility with numbers which most of us can only envy. Logan 'Lazarus' McRae He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It was back his ability at work after what was, essentially, a year off sickcard game which got him an internship with Citibank. He'd been stabbed in the line of duty and recovery had been slow: he still had some painEventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader. His first case was }}{{Frontpage|isbn=1035021803|title=The Antique Hunter's Guide to be a simple one - just to ease him back into work - but it turned out Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to be anything butthe English country village where she grew up. Professor Wilson, a high-profile anti-independence campaigner has gone missing, apparently abducted She's back now because of a request for help from his homeher beloved aunt, but nothing was left behind except some bloodstainsCarole. In much the same way that Brexit is dividing people south of the border, thereFreya's former mentor and Carole's going to be a war between close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the pro- and anti-independence factions in Scotland - and least. Arthur was the police are reason why Freya had not above being involved. [[All That's Dead (Logan McRae 12) by Stuart MacBride|Full Review]] <!-- Louise Voss -->|-| style="widthbeen back to the village: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:B07MWXBTV8Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the man or pursue the profession she loved.jpg|link=http://www After the split, she worked in a cafe, met and married James (on the rebound from the love of her life, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07MWXBTV8/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]}}{{Frontpage|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover| styletitle="vertical-alignAll Tomorrow's Futures: top; text-align: left;"Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=5|genre==[[The Last Stage by Louise Voss]]===Science Fiction [[image:4.5star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] If you were looking back ''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to when it began youcome.'d have to say that it was before 1995. Meredith Vincent (that wasn't her name then) had gone to Greenham Common on her seventeenth birthday, dressed as a teddy bear, to protest about nuclear weapons. It was whilst she was there that she met Samantha, fell head over heels in love with her and went to live in a squat in London, leaving behind her A levels, her recently-widowed mother - and her twin brother, Pete, to look after her. Samantha was there occasionally but Meredith was drawn into forming a band with the boys from the squat and against all the odds Cohen went on to become a sensation and it wasn't long before Meredith was living in a mansion rather than the squat. [[The Last Stage by Louise Voss|Full Review]] <!-- Ian Mathie -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1906852472.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1906852472/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Wild Child: Growing Up a Nomad by Ian Mathie]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]] For Ian Mathie fans there is good and bad news. Ian has come up with the missing link in his narrative, the story of a very unusual childhood (yes, the very years that made him the amazing man he became). The bad – well it's hardly news two years later – is that the book is published posthumously. As always, it's beautifully written, with many exciting moments. What I most enjoyed was the feeling that many of the questions in Ian Mathie's later books are answered in ''Wild Child'' with a satisfying clunk. Seemingly all that's now left in the drawer is unpublishable. [[Wild Child: Growing Up a Nomad by Ian Mathie|Full Review]] <!-- Martin Walker -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786485753.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786485753/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Body in the Castle Well (A Bruno, Chief of Police Novel) by Martin Walker]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] Claudia Muller was an American, studying art history and being mentored by an eminent French art historian and Resistance war hero in Limeuil in Perigord. She was beautiful, wore designer clothes and was well-liked by everyone. She didn't parade her wealth, or her father's White House connections. In fact, her closest friend was a man recently released from prison. So when she left a lecture saying that she felt ill, and her body was later found at the bottom of the castle well it seemed that the likeliest explanation was that this had been a dreadful accident with the only people to blame being the builders who had left the well unsealed. [[The Body in the Castle Well (A Bruno, Chief of Police Novel) by Martin Walker|Full Review]] <!-- Nayeri -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786893452.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786893452/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Ungrateful Refugee by Dina Nayeri]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Politics and Society|Politics and Society]], [[:Category:Biography|Biography]] Here in the West, we see news reports about immigrants on a regular basis – some media welcoming them, some scaremongering about them. But all of those stories are written by journalists – almost always western, and almost always, no matter how deep the investigative journalism they carry out, outsiders to the world and the situations that refugees find themselves in. It's rare that we find out the journeys from the refugees themselves – and this is a rare opportunity to do that, in this intelligent, powerful and moving work by Dina Nayeri -someone who was born in the middle of a revolution in Iran, fleeing to America as a ten-year-old.[[The Ungrateful Refugee by Dina Nayeri|Full Review]] <!-- Douglas Lindsay -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1473696945.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1473696945/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Boy in the Well (DI Westphall 2) by Douglas Lindsay]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] The body of a nine-year-old boy was found at the bottom of a well which had been sealed for two hundred years - but the boy had only been dead for less than two days and there was no sign of how the body had got into the well. The owners of the property are adamant that the well was sealed when they went to open it, but DI Ben Westphall would be entitled to have his doubts. Belle McIntosh holds some strange views, particularly about the way that the government is controlling everyone through drugs which are added to the water supply which led to her wanting to reinstate the well. Her wife, Catriona Napier, is more moderate, but doesn't seem to have a lot of knowledge about what's going on on the fa [[Boy in the Well (DI Westphall 2) by Douglas Lindsay|Full Review]] <!-- Nick Louth -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:B07P9G9T5B.jpg|link=‪http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07P9G9T5B/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21‬]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Body in the Mist by Nick Louth]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] Muriel Hinkley was walking her dog when she found the body on a quiet country lane, just south of Exmoor. She didn’t recognise him - no one would for a long time as it was obvious that he’d been the victim of a hit-and-run. He had no face - most of it was smeared on the road and when D I Jan Talantire came to look at the body she realised that there was absolutely nothing on him which would allow for identification. All the labels had been cut out of his clothes and there was no wallet and no phone. Hi was Mister Nobody. [[The Body in the Mist by Nick Louth|Full Review]] <!-- Denise Mina -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1911215256.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1911215256/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Conviction by Denise Mina]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] It's strange how the worst of days can start in such an ordinary, mundane way. And so it was for Anna McDonald as she sorted out gym kit and packed lunches for her two daughters. It didn't begin to go wrong until she opened the door to her best friend, Estelle and realised that her husband was at the top of the stairs, dressed as though for a holiday rather than the work clothes she'd been expecting - and he was carrying a suitcase. He and Estelle were leaving together - and they were taking Anna's two daughters with them. There was another problem which neither Hamish nor Estelle knew about. Anna wasn't actually Anna McDonald. She was Sophie Bukaran, the woman who had been involved in the rape case against four footballers. [[Conviction by Denise Mina|Full Review]] <!-- Donnelly -->|-| style=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:1471407977.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1471407977/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''|===[[Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]] ''People will not forget. Or forgive. An ugly girl is too great an offense...the world is made for men. An ugly girl can never be forgiven.'' ''Stepsister'' tells the gripping story of Cinderella's 'ugly' stepsister, Isabelle. We've been told this fairy-tale over and over again throughout our lives and know the characters well. But have you ever wondered what happened to the sisters after Cinderella married the Prince? Or why the sisters disliked her so much? [[Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly|Full Review]] <!-- Gilly Macmillan -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1780899831.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1780899831/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Nanny by Gilly Macmillan]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] We know that something wrong is happening: a body is being dumped in deep water. The rower pulls away and rows back to the boat house and then she walks back to Lake Hall. As you begin reading you suspect that you know who has been killed and who dumped the body, but be patient: all will be revealed before too long. [[The Nanny by Gilly Macmillan|Full Review]] <!-- Weaver -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0241370116.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0241370116/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[No One Home by Tim Weaver]]=== [[image:3star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] Long after the police have given up on cold missing persons cases, David Raker picks them up and tracks them down. He's called to a particularly disturbing case where a small village of nine people all vanished overnight two years ago. Raker and his associate must delve in to the lives of these people to work out how and why nine people have gone missing. They are being threatened to stop but something about the mystery keeps drawing Raker further in, putting him in personal peril. [[No One Home by Tim Weaver|Full Review]] <!-- Marrs -->|-| style=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:1785038885.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1785038885/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''|===[[The Passengers by John Marrs]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] In the near future, self-drive cars are the norm - a convenient and easy way of transport. However, when someone hacks into the systems of eight self-drive cars, their passengers are set on a fatal collision course. As everyday commutes turn into terror-filled journeys, the public have to judge who should survive. But with every aspect of these passangers being examined by the public - will they turn out to be what they seem? [[The Passengers by John Marrs|Full Review]] <!-- Toon -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:147117946X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/147117946X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[If You Could Go Anywhere by Paige Toon]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]] Angie is someone who always wanted to travel, but it's taken her 27 years to leave the small mining town in south Australia which has been the only home she's ever known. She doesn't do things by half though, and once she does feel able to go (following a family death) she leaves not only the town, the state and the country, but also the continent, and finds herself following in her mother's footsteps and heading to Italy. [[If You Could Go Anywhere by Paige Toon|Full Review]] <!-- Nick Griffiths -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1789018307.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789018307/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Mayhem in the Archipelago by Nick Griffiths]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] In Latvia the conspirators meet in a rather unpleasant location, but it's their plans which matter to them. In Moscow two men delight in all the uncertainty in the Baltic. In Washington the Undersecretary is a woman, but the personal pressures on her are the same as the men in Moscow are obliged to suffer. In Stockholm three members of SÄPO, the Swedish Secret Service, know that the time has come for them to make a move. They'd talk more, but their wives would get difficult and there's a rather pleasing tart which mustn't be missed. [[Mayhem in the Archipelago by Nick Griffiths|Full Review]] <!-- Neal -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1794467440.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1794467440/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|

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.}}{{Frontpage|author=Sunny Singh|title=Hotel Arcadia|rating=[[Watchwords 3.5|genre=Thrillers |summary=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 Philip Neal]]a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her elder sister, Jackie.}}{{Frontpage|author=Christopher Edge|title=Black Hole Cinema Club|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a 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?|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.''

[[image:4starRosevear, 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'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 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.jpg|linkisbn=Category:{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 pretty much shut down and, along with it, all the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|isbn=1736128426}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short Stories{{Frontpage|author=Matthew Tree|Short Stories]]title=We'll Never Know |rating=4.5This satisfying collection |genre=Literary Fiction|summary= Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, a drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of short stories has a provenance being exceptional at least as beguiling as any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and who had endless crises of self confidence. So Tim applied himself to 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 provenance Dead|rating=5|genre=Fantasy|summary='' There's a part of the antique watches me that inspired 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 itfor a while.''

Philip Neal lost Within a watchremote 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}}{{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 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 Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=3.5|genre=Animals and Wildlife|summary=Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a watch 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 fond seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and had was convinced this was the job for him. Before long, he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as with so many students - been told his dream since he was like a 1930s Cartierchild. Instead of mourning its loss If anything, he began 'd wanted to collect vintage watches that resembled itbe a professional footballer. And that}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0861541774|title=A Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=DCI Domenic Jejeune's how 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 became killed a watch collectorGhurka. An eBay purchase led him Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the Antique Watch 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 watch repairers in Clerkenwell|rating=4. 5|genre=General Fiction|summary=The eBay purchase was Perfect Passion Company is a fakedating agency in Edinburgh, but run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the friendship that grew between the buyer online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the repairer business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. Katie is coming out of watches was not a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the seed of chance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an idea Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|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 book collection of knits from toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of the 'long, cosy afternoons in front of the fire' variety. The projects are divided by the time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and more than twenty hours. All the 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 his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was borninside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the 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 bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Spike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|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. [[ Watchwords by Philip Neal 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|Full Review]]title=Fragility|author=Mosby Woods|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary= Can you make a ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, is the question should you make it? Or is the question if you did, would it land? The catch is that the answer for both could well be.... no.

<!''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}}