132,622
edits
Changes
no edit summary
[[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.
Want to find out more [[About Us|about us]]? __NOTOC__
'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].
{{Frontpage
|author=Sylvie Cathrall|title=A Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary= 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=B003A6W0FO0008517061|title=Can You Forgive HerDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary= Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the future of his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the future she wants for herself and her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and putting the future on the back burner.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1786482126|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Anthony TrollopeElly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=On Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the surface site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury'Can You Forgive Her?'' looks deceptively simple: it's apartments - when they discovered the story bones of one woman and two men who are vying with each other for her lovea child beneath a doorway. Alice Vavasor There was originally engaged to her cousin, George Vavasor but she broke off that engagement and later became engaged to John Greyno skull. When we first meet Alice she's on an extended tour of the continent Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with George Vavasor and his sister KateDCI Harry Nelson. It's obvious difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that there's still a great deal of chemistry between John and Alice - and Kate she is all for encouraging the relationship pregnant with his child as it would tie Alice to her. George wants Alice but it's a matter result of ''amour propre'' rather than love: he has little consideration for anyone other than himself and the original engagement had fallen through because of his infidelity and deceitfulnessone night they spent together some three months ago. This thread Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is the story prone to sudden bouts of a very complicated love affair and a woman who lacks confidence in her own judgement. You might not like Alice to start with but you will warm to hersickness.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Hannah Gold0008551324|title=The Last BearDevil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=AprilIt's father, a scientist, unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or has been given a job on a remote island called Bear Island, any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he accepts 's prepared to tell the police where the job deciding to take his daughter April with himbody of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. They live alone anywayThis person, since April's mother died some time beforehe promises, is someone big and he feels it will be educational for her to experience worth the island and all its natural beautypolice doing what he wants. April already has an affinity with nature, and she's excited And what he wants is to travel with her father, thinking of all the fun things they will be able transferred to experience together on an open prison to serve the island. But when they get there, her father finds that his work monitoring and recording the temperatures just takes up too much remainder of his time, sentence and so April is left to explore by herselfget an early parole date. Her father had reassured her that there were no longer any bears living on Bear Island, but one day April thinks she catches a glimpse of oneNot much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and so she sets out 's even prepared to find do the Bear, other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and then when she sees he anyone who works with him is injured, to befriend and help himkept well away from what's happening.|isbn=000841128X
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=14722761400008405026|title=What Will Burn A Stranger in the Family (Inspector McLeanMaeve Kerrigan 11)|author=James OswaldJane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=Crime
|summary=When Cecily SlaterIt's body sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found, she'd already been dead for and the investigation ground to a week - in a house fire in deserted woodland near Edinburghhalt. Heavy rain had washed away most of the evidenceNow, her mother, but DI Tony McLeanHelena, demoted and just returned from suspension, is reluctant to accept that this is nothing more than a careless accidenther father are dead in their bed. There were indications that Slater had been savagelyInitially, almost ritualistically beaten before the fire. But who would hate it looks like a ninety-year-old woman to straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the extent positioning of doing something like the bodies that? makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. She What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is now a virtual reclusecomplex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: who could she have upset to that extent?others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=000845552X0571379877|title=Where Ravens RoostThe Kellerby Code|author=Karin NordinJonny Sweet|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=Edward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and Stanza. Robert's a theatre director. 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. 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.}}{{Frontpage|author=Jo Callaghan|title=Leave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Inspector Kjeld Nygaard had been estranged from his father, Stenar, for more than When a decade but when he got man is found crucified on the rather muddled phone call from him saying that he'd seen top of a murder hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the barn on his land he didn't hesitate to drop everything and go to VarsundAI detective Lock. ActuallyIt's their first live case together, 'drop everything' rather overstates the situationhaving previously been very successful with several cold cases. Nygaard was on suspension following the shooting 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 suspect in the Aubuchon murder enquiry. There had been very high profile case that draws a complication: the Kattegat Killer turned out lot of unwanted attention to be Nils Hedin, Nygaard's best friendtheir AI Future Policing project. Still, Will they be able to solve the ten-hour drive from Gothenburg case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the south case and, potentially, out of Sweden to Varsund in the far north shouldn't be underestimated.a career?|isbn=139851120X
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=14711871791399613073|title=A Beautiful SpyMoral Injuries|author=Rachel HoreChristie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=Historical FictionThrillers|summary=Minnie is an 'ordinary' girl living an unexciting life in Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a leafy provincial suburbcentury. The book Olivia is set in the 1930s and Minnie ruthlessly ambitious, which is expected a bonus when you aim to live up to her mother's expectations be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and find a nice young man to marry, produce children and spend trauma doctor. Anjali is the rest free spirit of her days looking after her husband the group and their homeshe becomes a GP. Unfortunately, this isnWhen we first meet them they't what she wants to do re at all a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and neither does she want it's going to continue working as a secretaryend in tragedy. As a result of a chance meeting, she finds herself drawn into espionage, working for We don't know who suffered the secret service and effectively living a double life - attempting to infiltrate tragedy or the Communist Party of Great Britainconsequences. Minnie finds herself torn between what she perceives as her duty and Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends she has made - and likes - whilst working for the Communist Party. This time, it's their teenage children who are involved.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn= T L Huchu0241636604|title= The Library of the DeadTrading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating= 4.5|genre= TeensAutobiography|summary= Ropa Moyo is If you were to bring up an image of a ghostalkercity banker in your mind, using Zimbabwean magic (and a bit of Scottish pragmatism) you're unlikely to take messages from the dead think of Edinburgh for their living relativessomeone like Gary Stevenson. Ever since she dropped out of school A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, she's been using it to support not only herselfwhere he was familiar with violence, but her younger sister poverty and her aging grandmotherinjustice. However, there's an evil stalking There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the ruined streets London School of Edinburgh, targeting the city's childrenEconomics. Soon, Ropa Stevenson is pulled into the search for bright - extremely bright - and he has a missing boy at the request facility with numbers which most of his dead motherus can only envy. She will end up discovering an occult library and realise He also realised that the world of magic is far bigger and more dangerous than she ever could've imaginedmost rich people expect poor people to be stupid. Will she find the missing children and bring It was his ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an end to internship with Citibank. Eventually, this evil, or will it claim her too?|isbn= 1529039452turned into permanent employment as a trader.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1035021803|title=The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=Everina MaxwellC L Miller|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up. She's back now because of a request 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, to say the least. Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, 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. 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.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=WinterAll Tomorrow's OrbitFutures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary= Prince Kiem ''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.'' I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Well, I must confess that there have been more than a famous political disappointmentfew decades of technology in my lifetime. He I've kept up reasonably well with what's outgoing, carefreeadvantageous 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 |summary=The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has gotten into many drunken scandals suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Hiding from the past few yearsterrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, a wartime photographer and Abhi, the hotel manager. So when an important political alliance is 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 arranged – one that is supposed 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 prevent an interplanetary war – no one expects him help her keep safe and they both wait to see if they will be chosen for rescued before they are discovered by the role. Least of all himterrorists.|isbn=0356515885086154742X
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=18389520121529153298|title=The FavourList of Suspicious Things|author=Laura VaughanJennie Godfrey|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersGeneral Fiction|summary=The rejection by Oxford came as a bit of a shock to Ada Howell: she wasIt's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, after allhonestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, the daughter of the renowned author, Anthony Howell, who'd though. Women have been to this collegedisappearing. Well, she wasnthey't ve been murdered, but to have 'disappeared'actuallydoesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv' Howells upset because she's daughter: he'd married overheard that her mother after her birth and had then adopted her, so she was father wants to move the family 'chosenDown South' rather than just 'made', which was better really. And whilst weWhen you're being honestfrom Yorkshire, we might as well admit that 'renowned author' might be stretching the truth Down South is a little: his books degenerated into self-published poetry which Ada couldn't understandfrightening, foreign place, best avoided. StillFor Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, Ada had felt entitled and this was why she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that her godmotherMum's offer had come at such a brilliant timestopped talking - to anyone.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=C A Sacha1398524085|title=Legacy: A Political ThrillerHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=45|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary= Corporate boss Gene Finnegan has a plan to increase his already startling wealth and ensure his legacy: to bring the worldCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband's first emission-free car to market fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and dominate productionher daughter, Etty. The secret development project to enable thisare all worried but - strangely - her husband, BucephalusAlec, is already underway not. Shortly afterwards, Etty and Finnegan bankrolls US president Joseph Montgomery into a second term to help him carry it outGreg, find the body of Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in the river. Montgomery is also looking It was an easy assumption for a legacy the police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and one that does then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the guilt. The Salter children are not involve his controlling mother and her foundation, so grabs onto Finneganconvinced but there's Feed Africa programme little else they can do but get on with both handstheir lives and wonder about what really happened...|isbn=1800461976
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Martin Venning1035906708|title=The Primary ObjectiveDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=24.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary= Sometimes a book starts off slowlyWe tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but eventually draws you she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and only moved to caring about the characters or simply wanting to know what happens nextAthens when she was thirteen. Sometimes Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it doesnto 't. The basic premise is a good one – a clandestine organisation, operating as a charity, but funded by various governments around the world and partially (maybe, ICallas'm not sure) under the auspices of to make it more manageable in the UN, with the primary objective of keeping the peace, by any means possibleStates. Diplomacy is always the first option and sometimes one When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that needs to be carried out by third parties, but she could get appropriate training for situations when that looks unlikely to yield results Peace International maintains a callher voice -on list of field operatives, ex-military, medics, scientists or anyone else with she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a taste for adventure mother who mercilessly exploited her and willing to risk their life made no secret of her preference for the sake of ither elder sister, Jackie.|isbn=1800461100
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Francesca Simon and Steve MayChristopher Edge|title=Two Terrible VikingsBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=Emerging Confident Readers|summary=In Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a small Viking village there live two twinsplace that has the nickname of 'The Black Hole'. All big movie fans, they're looking forward to lots of exciting films, Hack and Whackmany, who are eager to be the very worst Vikings evermany snacks! Nothing can stop their mad maraudingHowever, as the movie starts, they cause havoc at a birthday party, chaos whilst tracking a trollvery quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, and undertake a grand journey they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to raid Bad Island with their friends! the next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? They Will they ever get up back to all kinds of mischief and naughty behaviour, along with their wolf-cub Bitey-Biteythe cinema, and to their crazy cast of friends.real lives?|isbn=05713494981839942738
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Helen FisherRachel Greenlaw|title=Space HopperCompass and Blade
|rating=3.5
|genre=General FictionTeens|summary=Faye lost her mum when she was very young''I can hear the song of the sea. She was raised by some elderly neighbours after her mum died from a cold that got worseThe call of the deep, and although they were kind and very good to her she of course missed her mum enormouslythe answering beat in my heart. So when, unexpectedly'' Rosevear, she discovers a time travel conduit (via an old space hopper box in her attic) that takes her back to the 70's remote and her mumpartially forgotten island, she revels in survives on luring ships into the chance to create some memories rocks and get to know plundering the woman who meant so much to herwrecks. The time travellingMira, howeverlike her mother before her, is neither easy nor safe, one of the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and Faye fears any treasure that her husband wonlies within. But when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the island't believe whats leader and Mira's happening and so lies father. Desperate to save him instead. The lies grow more tangledfrom death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and Faye begins with only coordinates to wonder if it's safe for guide her to return one last time to , she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the pastsea. Should she try With only nine days to see unearth what might save her father, as her mum one last time before journey takes her mumfrom the watched streets of foreign islands to the heart of the smuggler's deathterritory, or will it change Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her own future forever to attempt it?home and the ones she holds most dear.|isbn=14711886630008664730
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1787477800James Sherwood Metts|title=The Night Hawks (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly GriffithsPlanet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeConfident Readers|summary=The night hawks are metal detectorists Things have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're out on Blakeney Point where they suspect paid to do and other tasks that there's treasure took time to be foundaccomplish. Unfortunately, the youngest Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of the groupother, twenty-one-year-old Troy Evansnew ways to spend time, finds the body of a man floating on the incoming tidealong came an awful pandemic. After pulling Life was pretty much shut down and, along with it ashore, all the many daily social interactions on which they call the police. DCI Nelson thinks that it's probably the body of an asylum seeker but there's no evidence of any activity to be had from the coastguard. The dead man turns out to be Jem Taylor, a North Norfolk man recently released from prisondepend so heavily.|isbn=1736128426
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1529378648Matthew Tree|title=Slough House (Jackson Lamb 7)|author=Mick HerronWe'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersLiterary Fiction|summary=Someone is killing secret service agents, past and present, Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from the Slough House team. Jackson Lamb can't understand it. Wellhis father, what he actually can't understand is why, having seen them, anyone would bother. But the deaths are mounting up a drunk and something needs to be done. After all ''when things went awry on Spook Street, they generally went the full Chris Grayling.'' Over chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at Regent's Park, Diana Taverner is quietly jubilant about an operation which saw the perpetrator any of a Novichok poisoning in the UK (three people seriously injured his artistic passions all failed miserably and one dead) dispatchedwho had endless crises of self confidence. It isn't just the message that was sent: she's also delighted that she managed So Tim applied himself to fund the operation off the books. Some private money was brought in. She won't always be so jubilant about thishis studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions.|isbn= B0CVFXPGP8
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1838773428A G Slatter|title=The Art of Death|author=David Fennell|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=It was an art installation of the type which does appear in Trafalgar Square: a depiction of three homeless men in glass cabinets surrounded by liquid. Only this time it's not a depiction: these are the bodies of Billy Perrin, Stan Buxton and 34-year-old Noel Tipping. The installation is the work of @nonymous, underground artist and extreme version of Banksy. He's made a macabre promise: more will follow. In fact, we've already met the artist although not by name: he's been in the Lumberyard Cafe with his Moleskine notebook, Maki-e fountain pen, MacBook Air and iPhone. Elaine Kelly is there with her son, Jordan, and she's explaining to her best friend, Jackie Morris about the state Briar Book of her marriage. Actually, it doesn't take a lot of explaining: Frank's attentions are obvious on her face despite the foundation she's applied. Chau Ho is behind the counter. There's someone online, CassandraH, that the artist has his eye on, too.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1471191303|title=The Invisible|author=Tom PercivalDead
|rating=5
|genre=For SharingFantasy|summary='' There's a part of me that wants to keep this just to myself for however long I can. This is the story secret magic of Isobelmy own, all mine, at last. I just want to enjoy it for a little girl who made a big differencewhile. Isobel lived with her parents in a house - a very cold house, because her parents couldn't afford to put the heating on:'
Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Briar''Ice curled across the inside s, a family of witches who protect the window town and crept up the corner of wider world from the bedpostDarklands.'' The Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to be born into her family didn't go to the cinema or on holidays but they had each other for generations and as such since she was young, her training as a steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and they were happypotions. Then the day came when they couldnWhen her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie't afford s cousin Audra becomes the rent for Briar Witch, the house town's leader, and Ellie takes her place beside her. As challenges come her way left, right and they had to move centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, putting her at the far side heart of a maelstrom of the citychaos. This part of Reeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what to do as the city was coldBriar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, sad and lonely and Isobel felt invisibleis under threat.|isbn=1803364548
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=178089905X1529900360|title=SerpentineThe Ghost Orchid
|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=54
|genre=Crime
|summary=It wasnhadn't exactly the case been Lt Milo Sturgis 's fault that Alex Delaware had been dreaming about: a death from thirtybadly 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-six years ago and -shut cases which didn't need the daughter help of the woman who died wanted some answersa psychologist only worked for a while. She had money and money translated into clout and so the problem Finally, it was dropped onto MiloRobin, Delaware's toespartner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. Dorothy Swoboda She knew that the involvement was twenty-four years old when something that the man she died loved needed. The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a car which went off a cliff on Mulholland Drive and burst into flamesremote property in Bel Air. It turned out that He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she wasn't actually is married to the an extremely rich man with whom sheand it'd left her daughter but Dr Stanley R Barker, optometrist, was a good man and he took out adoption papers for Ellie - and she took his names not the Italian. Ellie But which of them was three when her mother left her with Dr Barker and she has nothing of her but one photograph of her mother and father and a necklace made of serpentine.the primary target?
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=00083793001529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Shadow ManSecret Life of a Vet|author=Helen FieldsSion Rowlands|rating=43.5|genre=ThrillersAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Fergus Ariss is Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in his late thirties and footsteps, particularly when he knows considered the strain that hebeing on-call put on his father's dyinglife. His body is giving up on him, his internal organs beginning to putrify but before When he dies was seventeen he wants took the opportunity of doing work experience with a wife, family friend who was a child vet and a brother. He's been on was convinced this was the lookout job for the perfect people and he's made certain preparationshim. The flat where the family will live is prepared and even windows with curtainsBefore long, and pictures in frames have been painted onto the walls. Angela Fernycroft he was to be his wifeat Liverpool University. Her husband, Cal, had taken the children It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a boy of seven and a girl of five, away for the weekendchild. UnfortunatelyIf anything, it doesnhe't go according d wanted to plan and Angela diesbe a professional footballer.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B08NZ4LV2R0861541774|title=Dark Memories (DS Nikki Parekh 3)A Nye of Pheasants|author=Liz MistrySteve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Peggy Dyson was DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in her sixties and hadn't worn wellSingapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. She Maik was involved in a drug addict and was living under the arches in Forster Square Station in Bradford. Her killer thought street brawl - he would later maintain that he was probably doing her facing a man armed with a favour by putting her out of her misery. DS Nikki Parekh knife - and DC Sajid Malik are on the casehe killed a Ghurka. Nikki can't quite understand why she's been sent an anonymous letter with Initially, he faced a press report charge of the death. It had been impossible manslaughter but evidence came to make any progress in the case and the note seemed light that suggested that he might have planned to taunt murder the policeman. Then another note arrived with a report of a seemingly unconnected Now he could be facing the death in Cambridgepenalty. The third death - in the street where Nikki lived Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as a child - brought any interference from another communication, with police force could provoke a further clue under the victim - diplomatic incident and Nikki was sure that there was something personal in the casewouldn't help Danny at all.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Anna CareyAlexander McCall Smith|title=This The Perfect Passion Company|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=The Perfect Passion Company is Not a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the Jess Showbusiness, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new 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=TeensCrafts|summary=Jess is a normal 90Melissa Leapman's teenage girl, just trying ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to navigate the usual stresses of school, and boys, and parent troublesblankets. But strange things seem to Some will be happening in her small town, with a mystery flu keeping lots quick knits - others are of people indoorsthe 'long, and a strange metal device, with an apple on it, that slips out cosy afternoons in front of her friendthe fire's bag, but that her friends just wonvariety. The projects are divided by the time they't talk ll take to her about. Jess feels like she might be hearing voicescomplete - less than five hours, and her sister (who is very ill) seems five to be responding ten hours, ten to her in strange ways sometimestwenty hours and more than twenty hours. Is there something going on beneath All the surface of Jessprojects are attractive, modern and useable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that' life?|isbn=1683691970s me being picky.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B08LKT7HSRDean Koontz|title=Murder in the Belltower (A Miss Underhay Mystery)|author=Helena DixonThe Bad Weather Friend|rating=34.5|genre=Crime (Historical)Paranormal|summary=In December 1933 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 inside is the remains of Elowed Underhay were discovered in thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the cellar of the Glass Bottle Public Housevery last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. Ezekiel Hamett was sought in connection with So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the murder of Elowed and delivery to his half-brotherhouse is a new friend, Denzil Hammetta bad weather friend called Spike, whose body was also discoveredwho has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Kitty UnderhaySpike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's long search for her motherenemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who disappeared in June 1916 was over. Now shefinds herself roped into Benny's determined that the man responsible for her murder will be brought to justicewild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=1662500491
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1782227741Adam Stower|title=Little Gold Ted|author=Vanessa Wiercioch, Poppy Satha Murray and Sasha SathaBun|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingConfident Readers |summary=One dayMurray is supposed to be a humble, Gold Ted falls into a puddle. It's quite a deep puddle tidy and the water friendly cat, one who is swirling. Poor Ted starts able to spin around sleep and around eat and is sucked down a drain on the side eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the streettwo. Finding himself down in the sewer, Ted starts to panic. But he's a bad magician'OH HELP ME PLEASE'' he cries s cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and alerts the attention of Reg catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the sewer ratregular back garden, who plucks him out but into a world of the dirty water using his canefrightening adventure and whiffs. This time round it drops them into a Viking land, which might look just where a bit like an old cricket bat. Reg troll hunter is a kind soul expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but he's turned up and he dries Ted off and warms him up with a nice bowl of broth.'ll have to do…|isbn=0008561249
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Rob KeeleyB0C47LV1PC|title=The Treasure in the TowerFragility|author=Mosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary= Rob Keeley is back! Hooray! We here at Bookbag Towers are always happy to read Can you make a new adventure from Rob - his stories combine fast pace and lots of action''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, an easy to read styleis the question should you make it? Or is the question if you did, an unerring eye would it land? The catch is that the answer for childrenboth could well be.... no. 's friendships and rivalries, and always a good dollop of naughty humour. They're all present here, in Fragility''The Treasure in is set as the Tower''. The chance purchase city of a book Portland, Oregon, cautiously begins to emerge from the restrictions imposed during a school trip sparks the whole adventure. Who can follow the clues best and find the treasure? Jess, her brother Mason and their friend Kessie through sheer persistence? Or spoiled brat Perdita with her money and tech gadgets and willingness to cheat?|isbn=1800461321covid pandemic
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=15291244171529431735|title=Before She DisappearedThe Winter Visitor|author=Lisa GardnerJames Henry|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=Frankie Elkin found Lani WhitehorseIt's body in her car at the bottom of February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the lakemore surprising. She knew that He'd been exiled on the twenty-two-year-old waitress wouldn't have left her three-year-old daughter and run awayCosta del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decade. Lani was the fourteenth missing person to be located by Frankie and now sheThe return has come about because he's moving on againhad a letter from his ex-wife, this time to Boston where theresaying that she's a strong Haitian community which was home ill and hasn't long to Angelique Lovelie Badeau until her disappearance eleven months agolive. Frankie, middle-aged and white, gets a job and accommodation at StoneyIt's bar hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his underwear and sets out sent to investigate a watery grave in the community which is just about exclusively blackboot of a stolen Ford Sierra. Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B08QDL5HDLAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=The Jeeves Collection, Vol 1|author=P G WodehouseGlorious Race of Magical Beasts
|rating=4
|genre=HumourConfident Readers|summary=In my youthEli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, I wasn't fond of PG Wodehouse: I've never been keen on upper-class twits and I was greedy. I wanted everything: I required brilliant plots, exceptional characters in the evening a helper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and laugh-out-loud humourruns. Age brought the realisation that you have to compromise and I came back to Wodehouse Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – for there is a different mindsetgeneration missing in the family. The humour is gentle and subtle: thereA few short years ago, Eli's never any malice in it. The characterisation is twoparents were both lost to the titular race, a globe-dimensional trotting adventure where women are concerned: there's little all entrants have to navigate the world in between old gorgons (Aunt Agatha, we're looking at you...) and young schemers such as Honoria Glossopthe company of a magical beast. The plots are superficial This has made the race anathema to the pair – but gently engaging. They're fun - and when a bad incident at the writing eatery leads to a confession from gran, Eli knows his only hope is exquisiteto 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
}}