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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, the charity shop 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 [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].''' <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE--> '''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].

|author=Pat GrantSylvie Cathrall|title=The Grot: The Story of A Letter to the Swamp City GriftersLuminous Deep|rating=45|genre=Graphic NovelsScience Fiction|summary=Everything in this world runs on pedal-power, and that includes the punk bands. There are three pedallers at the front of the Heath Robinson contraption taking our lead characters to the ferry across the swamp to Falter City, where few greater joys than a mother and her two sons aim book which lives up to set up a yoghurt factorycompelling premise. You could say that yoghurt would be the only culture around, for And this is a really rough-and-ready dump one of a place, but everyone is interested in small things that growthem. For the only money to be had – the only fortunes to be found in Falter City – come from algae, gunk and other crud that – well, the use of it is never really made clear. Once there, the two brothers set themselves each up with a guide – Lippy, the more forward-thinking, industrious of the two, with a besuited gent, Penn with a ballsy young teenaged girl with bright red hair. But which of the two will come off the worse as they make their own way in this dystopian, semi-Apocalyptic hellhole?|isbn=16030946600356522776

|authorisbn= Ashley Poston0008517061|title= Bookish and the BeastDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell|rating= 3.54|genre= TeensCrime|summary= Set after the ExcelsiConFormer Metropolitan Police detective, we are introduced to Rosie ThorneJake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a Small Townlittle uncertainty about the future of his life with his vet girlfriend, USA girl who has recently lost her mother Livia and is entering her final year daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a lot of high school. Things keep piling compromise: does Jake give up for Rosie, his off-grid and when she follows a stray dog into what she thinks is an abandoned castle relaxing life to move in her town, things just get worse. Rosie accidentally destroys a rare book and with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her mother's hospital and funeral costs reservations about whether or not this is the future she has no money to cover the damage. She finds wants for herself working for Vance Reigns, Hollywood royalty on a paparazzi escape, to repay the debt.  For most Starfield superfans this would be a dream but Rosie soon realises Vance is a jerk - and he isn't too fond of her either. However, as daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in the two are forced to get to know each other, their guards begin to lower present and they discover that maybe this situation might not be so terrible after allputting the future on the back burner. |isbn=1683691938

|authorisbn=Justine Avery and Daria Yudina1786482126|title=Baby Trolls Get a Bad Rap The Janus Stone (Underrated Babies Book 1Dr Ruth Galloway)|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary= Horatio, Saul and Grizelda are three baby trolls who are fed up that everyone forgets about baby trolls. They are ignored in books and TV shows and films in favour of their very scary grown ups. Our three heroes want equal rights for baby trolls. They want to be seen and heard and they've started a petition about it that they want you to sign. But how should they go about it? |isbn= B07XGN4LGY}} {{Frontpage|author= Samira Ahmed|title= Mad, Bad and Dangerous to KnowElly Griffiths|rating= 34.5|genre=TeensCrime|summary=''In Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the end, we all become storiessite was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' Spending apartments - when they discovered the summer in Paris sounds like bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Was this a dream for most peopleritual killing or murder? Inevitably, especially art-loversDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Khayyam canNelson doesn't relax and stop thinking about the mess , that she left behind in Chicago. On a chance encounter is pregnant with his child as a descendant result of Alexandre Dumas, Khayyam finds herself on a historical journey with him to unveil the truth about the 19th century Muslim woman who may have crossed paths with Alexandre Dumasone night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, Eugene Delacroix and Lord Byron. As the two teenagers travel the city they not only discover themselves, but uncover the true story least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of the woman and why it was one that should never have been forgottensickness.|isbn=0349003556

|authorisbn= Hazel Barkworth0008551324|title= HeatstrokeThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating= 34.5|genre= Crime|summary=It''Too hot s unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to sleepapproach the police. Too hot to think straight. Too hot to go back'' During a British heatwave 15-year-old, Lily Dixon, Neither side likes or has left home and is reported missingany respect for the other. Rachel But Davie Hardie is a teacher at Lilystruggling in prison and he's school and prepared to tell the police where the mother body of Mia, Lily's best frienda missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. As Lily's family This person, he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the police struggle doing what he wants. And what he wants is to find any evidence that may lead be transferred to Lily, Rachel takes it upon herself an open prison to start looking for clues. However, as serve the case goes on Rachel becomes fixated on finding Lily remainder of his sentence and finds herself crossing boundariesto get an early parole date. Not much to ask, breaking trust is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and facing some impossible choices. Will they find Lily? Does Lily want she's even prepared to be found? And will life for Rachel ever be do the same again?|isbn=1472265602other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.

|isbn=15387317380008405026|title=Simple Abundance: 365 Days to a Balanced and Joyful LifeA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author= Sarah Ban BreathnachJane Casey

|genre=LifestyleCrime|summary=Someone once said: itIt's not selfsixteen years since nine-indulgenceyear-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in their bed. Initially, itlooks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's therapy! something about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. I think they were talking about shopping, but What looked as though it probably can was going to be applied to most thingsan open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. In my case, it applies to writing about things because I want toKerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, rather than because I can sell it or because I've got something to sellUna Burt) are less convinced.

|authorisbn=Frederic Gros0571379877|title=A Philosophy of WalkingThe Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=3.5|genre= Politics and SocietyCrime|summary= I confess I picked this one up from the library in my preEdward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-lockdown forage of random stuffclass friends, Robert and Stanza. Robert's a theatre director. Now I have to go out an buy my own copy so that I can turn down the pages I have marked He's also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and return to its varying wisdom when I need uses Edward torun errands for him. Some books draw you Edward has been in slowlylove with Stanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. This one had me Most men in the first two pages, wherein Gros explains why Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but he'walking s not like most men: Edward is not left to stumble upon the two of them kissing in a sport''dark passageway.|isbn=1781688370

|isbnauthor=085752612XJo Callaghan|title=Rodham: What if Hillary hadn't Married Bill?|author=Curtis SittenfeldLeave No Trace

|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=I was tempted When a man is found crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to read ''Rodham'' by the success of Curtis Sittenfeld's ''American Wife''case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. That book wasnIt't marketed as being a portrait of Laura Bushs their first live case together, but the word ''thinly-veiled'' seemed to occur having previously been very regularly in reviewssuccessful with several cold cases. How would ''Rodham'' compare? Unfortunately, But when there is a difference: relatively little was known about Laura Bushsecond body found crucified a few days later, which gave the book Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a freshness which the first third lot of ''Rodham'' lacksunwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. We've all heard Will they be able to solve the storiescase in time, read or will Kat find herself taken off the books - about Hillary case and particularly about Bill. It's still an interesting concept, though: how would Hillary have fared if she hadn't subsumed her own ambitions into Bill's careerpotentially, if she hadn't had to carry the burden out of all Bill's baggage and if she hadn't left her own run at the presidency so late? Could she have done better without the Clinton surnamea career?|isbn=139851120X

|isbn=07278892301399613073|title=The Red, Red SnowMoral Injuries|author=Caro RamsayChristie Watson

|genre=CrimeThrillers|summary=In GlasgowOlivia, Eric Callaghan Laura and Anjali met on the first day of Inkermann Tattoo Parlour had been to the ice show with his wife, Geraldine medical school and daughtertheir friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, Lisa which is a bonus when he was stabbed in Planet Burgeryou aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. He died within minutes, but his murder seemed motiveless Laura is a perfectionist and there were no cluesa trauma doctor. He was a genuine man Anjali is the free spirit of the group and she becomes a talented artist: those investigating his death had hit GP. When we first meet them they're at a dead drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to endin tragedy. There were two deaths to investigate in the north of Scotland: it wasnWe don't thought wise to involve know who suffered the local murder team as someone on tragedy or the Glen Riske police force was indirectly involved in consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the casethree friends. Christmas - and a lot of snow were rapidly approachingThis time, it's their teenage children who are involved.

|isbn=Pronko0241636604|title=Tokyo Traffic (Detective Hiroshi)The Trading Game: A Confession|author=Michael PronkoGary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeAutobiography|summary=There If you were three young womento bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, girls really if you wanted 're unlikely to be pedantic about their agesthink of someone like Gary Stevenson. Sukayana was Thai A hoodie and she'd come to Japan in jeans replaces the belief that she'd be able to pick up pin-stripe suit and his background is the documentation to get East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the StatesLondon School of Economics. Celeste was just fourteen Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and when we meet her she's already dead of he has a heart attack caused by an overdose facility with numbers which most of amphetaminesus can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. Then there's RatanaIt was his ability at what was, who's the de facto leader of the groupessentially, but she's disappeared too a card game which got him an internship with the group's passportsCitibank. Eventually, leaving Sukayana in the midst of this turned into permanent employment as a scene of carnage at the Jack and Jill Studios. The dead bodies are definitely not props thoughtrader.

|isbn=B07S6DBCFT1035021803|title=Little Girls Tell TalesThe Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=Rachel BennettC L Miller|rating=43.5

|summary=In 2004 Rosalie, Beth and Dallin were walking in It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the boggy wetlands by Rosalie and DallinEnglish country village where she grew up. She's cottageback now because of a request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Beth Freya's former mentor and DallinCarole's close friend, both twelve-years-oldArthur Crockleford, got ahead of ten-year-old Rosalie is dead and it wasn't long before she realised that she was lostthe circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. Trying to find her way Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the main path village: Arthur, she found a skeletonfeels, let her down badly. Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, but when she finally got has not felt able to be near the road she could never find her way back to man or pursue the bog when profession she'd seen the bodyloved. Most people didn't believe herAfter the split, she worked in a cafe, putting met and married James (on the rebound from the story down to love of her vivid imaginationlife, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.

|isbn=0008273790AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=Remain SilentAll Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Susie SteinerBenjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=45|genre=CrimeScience Fiction|summary=When we first meet Matis and Dimitri, Matis is in a bad way, vomiting and obviously traumatised''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come. When he's able to speak he tells Dimitri ' I've heard it said that 'technology'Lukas is dead'what happens after you're eighteen. Lukas was in his late teens and he and Matis had come to Cambridgeshire from Klaipeda Well, I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of technology in Lithuaniamy lifetime. TheyI'd answered an advert offering good money and accommodation in return for their labour: they could have a decent life ve kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but I'andm left with the feeling that it'' send money home to their familiess all getting away from me. Sadly, Some of it doesn't work out like thatis - frankly - quite frightening. When they arrive in Of course, I could research the possibilities and the UK - on an old, uncomfortable bus, - probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're dropped at a filthy house where several men have to share rooms and sleep on dirty mattresses on talking about or the floorlatest conspiracy theorist. It's modern slavery, which isn't uncommon amongst agricultural workersI needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand.

|author=Amin MaaloufSunny Singh|title=The DisorientedHotel Arcadia|rating=43.5|genre=Literary FictionThrillers |summary= Adam The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has lived in Paris for yearssuddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Hiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, speaks French more easily than his native Arabic. In factkilling everyone on site, he hasn't been back to his homeland for 25 years. An old friend there is dying…or as Adam prefers to think of him Sam, a former-friendwartime photographer and Abhi, perhaps not as harsh as an ex-friend, or maybethe hotel manager. The falling out was As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the hotel, he forms a long time agobond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and Adamkeeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what's partner has no idea what it was abouthappened through her photography. Although they only ever talk over the phone, even so she urges him their friendship grows as Abhi tries to go knowing that he'll regret not doing so. Not knowing whether he's going because he needs or wants help her keep safe and they both wait to, or simply because he was asked, he's on see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the next planeterrorists. |isbn=B07ZQSK9CY086154742X

|authorisbn=Anstey Harris1529153298|title=Where We BelongThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey

|summary= IIt've always believed that places and buildings absorb what happens within them s 1979 and reflect it back; this is how we can tell that a sacred space Margaret Thatcher is sacredPrime Minister. Cate Morris believes a similar thing(A woman? I mean, she believes that honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv'A house absorbs happinesss family, it blooms into the wallpaperthough. Women have been disappearing. Well, the wood of the window framesthey've been murdered, the bricks: thatbut to have 'disappeared' doesn's how it becomes a homet sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she' She is having these thoughts as she packs up s overheard that her home. She has father wants to leavemove the family 'Down South'. A combination of circumstances means that When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is not only redundant but also homelessa frightening, foreign place, best avoided. With nowhere else to go For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she has called on 'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that her late husbandMum's family for help. Just for a few weeksstopped talking - to anyone.|isbn=1471173836

|isbn=17874776811398524085|title=A Shooting at Chateau Rock (A Bruno, Chief of Police Novel)Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Martin WalkerNicci French|rating=45

|summary=It Charlotte Salter was a couple of days after old Driantexpected at her husband's funeral that Bruno Courrèges got an angry phone call from his sonfiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Gaston's father had sold the family farm in order to buy an insurance policy which he had used to secure a life of luxury at an expensive retirement home near SarlatHer children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, Etty. are all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, owned by a Russian oligarchis not. Before he even got to go there he diedShortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, apparently find the body of a heart attackGreg's father, and Duncan Ackerley, in the retirement home collected river. It was an easy assumption for the proceeds of the policy police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and Gaston and Claudette Driant were left with just the contents of then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the farmhouseguilt. The family hadnSalter children are not convinced but there't exactly fallen out, s little else they can do but Gaston lived some way away get on with their lives and Claudette had fallen out of favour when she announced that she was gay, but they weren't expecting to be almost completely disinheritedwonder about what really happened.

|isbn=B083Z3ZZ611035906708|title=Broken Silence (DS Nikki Parekh 2)Diva|author=Liz MistryDaisy 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.}}{{Frontpage|author=Christopher Edge|title=Black Hole Cinema Club

|genre=CrimeConfident Readers|summary=When we first meet him Stefan Marcovici has been Lucas and his friends are all booked in the UK with his daughter Maria for a whilemovie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the nickname of 'The Black Hole'. He came expecting All big movie fans, they're looking forward to work lots of exciting films, and many, many snacks! However, as a gardener the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, and Maria was to be a nannythey are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. Stefan ends up doing slave labour in a chicken factory: you But as they lurch from one film genre to the next, can imagine they figure out what happens on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the cinema, and to an eighteen-year-old girl.their real lives?|isbn=1839942738

|author=Justine Avery and Daria YudinaRachel Greenlaw|title=This Book Is Alive! (Living Book)Compass and Blade|rating=43.5|genre=For SharingTeens|summary= Books ''want'' you to read them! They're not intimidating or standoffish or particular about readersI can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart. Books ''want'' to be read.

This 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 key message 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 Justine Averythe 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 latest offeringterritory, ''This Book Is Alive!''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. By anthropomorphising 5|genre=Confident Readers|summary= Things have been a bit sticky for the relationship between book Earthlings. AI and young readerautomation have been proceeding apace, sheoften replacing jobs they's sending an invitation re paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as they were beginning to get used to all - pick me upthis technological change and starting to think of other, read menew ways to spend time, be my friendalong came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and, along with it, we can go all the many daily social interactions on a journey togetherwhich they depend so heavily. It's a great message, don't you think?|isbn= 19481244161736128426}}

|isbnauthor=0241984653Matthew Tree|title=I Made a Mistake|author=Jane CorryWe'll Never Know

|genre=ThrillersLiterary Fiction|summary=We know Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, a drunk and 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 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 very beginning that thereDead|rating=5|genre=Fantasy|summary='' There's a tragedy about part of me that wants to happenkeep this just to myself for however long I can. This secret magic of my own, all mine, at last. On I just want to enjoy it for a January evening on while.'' Within a very crowded platform 3 remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of Waterloo Underground station the Briar's, a man falls under an oncoming trainfamily of witches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands. That man Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is Matthew Gordonthe 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. Much later we see Poppy Page in When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the witness box 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 crown courtmaelstrom of chaos. Reeling from one family secret to another, getting a very rough ride from Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what to do as the prosecuting barristerBriar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat.|isbn=1803364548

|authorisbn= Maryse Condé1529900360|title= The Wondrous and Tragic Life of Ivan and IvanaGhost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman|rating= 4.5|genre= Literary FictionCrime|summary= We live in a post-world: post-colonialismIt hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, post-modernism, post-truth. The list goes Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help ondifficult cases. There are numerous works His assertions that utilise there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the prefix post- in their categorisationhelp of a psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, but perhaps none more so than Maryse Condé. In her new novelit was Robin, Delaware''The Wondrous and Tragic Life of Ivan and Ivana''s partner, Condé writes with fervour about who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the scars left by colonialism on involvement was something that the countries to which it latched itselfman she loved needed. The next case did look simple, though. Ivan and Ivana are twins born Two lovers were murdered in Guadeloupe, the swimming pool of a French overseas departmentremote property in Bel Air. They grow up with intense He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and passionate feelings for each other. As they grow up she is married to an extremely rich man and move overseas, it's not the ravages Italian. But which of a post-colonial society drive them apart with tragic consequences.|isbn=1642860697was the primary target?

|authorisbn= Abi Elphinstone1529395224|title= Jungle Drop (Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Unmapped Chronicles)Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating= 43.5|genre= Confident ReadersAnimals and Wildlife|summary= Abi Elphinstone has said that she connects with her world-building through her charactersSiôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. In an interview with [Books For Keeps], she described visualising her characters "wearing head torches which gradually reveal the world they are seeing to her His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the readerstrain that being on-call put on his father's life." Just as When he was seventeen he took the darkness opportunity of doing work experience with a mine is cut through by family friend who was a spear of light so too do quarrelsome Fox vet and Fibber get their first glimpse of was convinced this was the phantasmagorical glowjob for him. Before long, he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't -inas with so many students -the-dark realm of Jungle Drop when they emerge through the mouth of been his dream since he was a Dragon on the Here and There Expresschild. Running from the opprobrium of their demanding and selfish parents If anything, they must address what is in their hearts he'd wanted to find what they seekbe a professional footballer.|isbn= 1471173682

|isbn=B084VNRRD60861541774|title=Killing Mind (D I Kim Stone)A Nye of Pheasants|author=Angela MarsonsSteve Burrows|rating=54

|summary=It looked very like DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a suicide, and short holiday in Singapore to begin meet up withan old ally, that was how both DI Kim Stone and Keats, the pathologist called itGuy Trueman. It Maik was only involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that Stone and her team realised that when Samantha Brown cut her throat, hers he was not the only hand holding the facing a man armed with a knife. It was murder. Sammy's parents. Myles - and Kate were he killed a little bit reluctant to say what their daughter had been doing recentlyGhurka. The property where she was found was less homely than most hotel rooms: her mother was about Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to accuse her husband of saying light that suggested that Sammy was ready.he might have planned to murder the man. Now he could be facing the death penalty. But what was Sammy ready Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn''for'' and where was their other daughter, Sophie?t help Danny at all.

|author= Hana TookeAlexander McCall Smith|title= The UnadoptablesPerfect Passion Company|rating= 4.5|genre= Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary= In the winter of 1880The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, five babies are abandoned at run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the Little Tulip orphanage online apps in Amsterdamproviding a more personal, much to tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the annoyance of matron Gasbeek. Twelve years laterbusiness, Milou, the last of the five babies as Ness is planning to take a trip to be abandoned back in that winter, struggles Canada to work get away for a while. Katie is coming out the identity of her parents from the clues she was abandoned a break up with: a small coffin with claw-marks on the outsidebad boyfriend, a cat doll made by someone called Bram Poppenmaker and a velvet blanket. She, along with so jumps at the other four, patiently wait for Milou's parents chance to come back and take her hometo Edinburgh. However And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, when the five children are sold thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the dodgy merchant Meneer RotmanIsabel Dalhousie novels, they know they have but with some new characters who quickly begin to escapecharm. And so begins the adventure of Katie has no experience in running a lifetime as the Unadoptables join forces to reunite Milou with business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her parentsabilities, all the time being pursued by the Kinderbureau and Rotman…there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|isbn=02414174651846976596

|authorisbn= Alison Weir0811771741|title= Six Tudor Queens: Katheryn Howard The Tainted QueenInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman|rating= 4|genre= Historical FictionCrafts|summary= Melissa Leapman's 'Katheryn was seven when her mother died'InstaKnits for Baby''gives us a collection of knits from toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of the 'long, thus we cosy afternoons in front of the fire' variety. The projects are thrust into this tumultuous divided by the time in young Katherynthey's lifell take to complete - less than five hours, trying five to find a hometen hours, both figuratively ten to twenty hours and literallymore than twenty hours. All the projects are attractive, where she can grow modern and grieveuseable. Unfortunately, Katheryn is followed by bad luck and she learns an important lesson, she is too young, too poor and too unimportant to be of any value to anyone, I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but she is beautiful and surely, that will count for something in the end, won't it?|isbn=1472227778s me being picky.

|isbnauthor=1405946172Dean Koontz|title=The Glass House|author=Eve ChaseBad Weather Friend

|genre=Historical FictionParanormal|summary=Rita lost both her parents in Benny is having a car crash when she was just six years old: since then she's always craved a familyterrifically bad day. She'd lived with her grandmother in Torquay until she got a He loses his job as a nanny with the Harrington family in London, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Soon her engagement to FredOh, and someone has delivered a Torquay butcherreally weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, fell through and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the Harringtons became her familyvery last person to deserve all this bad luck. In 1971, after He is a fire at nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the London delivery to his houseis a new friend, Jeannie Harringtona bad weather friend called Spike, her childrenwho 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, 13-year-old Hera and 6-year-old Teddy, along with Rita went to the familywill certainly take care of Benny's house in the Forest of Dean. It wasn't ''quite'' dilapidatedenemies, if he, Benny, but it certainly wasnand Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny't the same standard as the London house had been before the fires wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=1662500491

|isbnauthor=0008386137Adam Stower|title=Just My Luck|author=Adele ParksMurray and Bun

|genre=ThrillersConfident Readers |summary=Elaine Winterdale took 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 fall for catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the landlordregular back garden, but into a world of frightening adventure and whiffs. Aged 37 This time round it drops them into a Viking land, she got where a suspended sentence because 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|summary= Can you make a faulty gas boiler had caused ''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 deaths city of 29Portland, 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-year-old Reveka Albu 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 her 2-year-old son Benkesent to a watery grave in the boot of a stolen Ford Sierra. Toma Albu 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, husband and fatherin 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, had found them a globe-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 returned homemost hates, with the sole aim the prize of magic at the end – the only thing to possibly save his gran.|isbn=0571382231