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<metadesc>Book review siteExpert, with books full book reviews from the many most walks of literary life - ; fiction, biography, crime, cookery and anything else that takes our fancy. There are also lots of author interviews and top tens.</metadesc>Hello from The Bookbag, a book review site, featuring books from all the many walks of literary life non- [[:Category:Fiction|fiction]], [[:Category:Biography|biography]], [[:Category:Crime|crime]], [[:Category:Cookery|cookery]] and anything else that takes our fancy. At Bookbag Towers the bookbag sits at the side of the desk. Itchildren's the bag we take to the library and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, & self-published books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often books sent to us by publishers and we promise to tell you exactly what we think about them. You might not want to read through a full review, so we'll give you a quick review which summarises what we felt about the book and tells you whether or not we think you should buy or borrow it. There are also lots of [[:Category:Interviews|plus author interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|& top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[features]] page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] page.</metadesc>
'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Bonnie Hearn HillSylvie Cathrall|title=Star Crossed: Aries RisingA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=4.5|genre=TeensScience Fiction|summary=Ordinary teen Logan McRae discovers an old There are few greater joys than a book called 'Fearless Astrology'which lives up to a compelling premise. Can the book help her and her friends get the boys they want, catch the vandals who are shocking their school with pranks, and win her the approval of cantankerous English teacher Mr 'Frankenstein' Franklin? This And this is a novel written for teens – one of course it canthem.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0762436700</amazonuk>0356522776
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gabrielle Lord0008517061|title=January (Conspiracy 365)Death in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Callum is wandering along home on New Year's Eve when crazed itinerant accosts himFormer Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. ''They killed your father! They'll kill you! You must survive There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the next 365 days!'' The man is carted 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 an ambulance, and Cal tries with Livia or does Livia move to shrug off the incident but it's Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not easy. How did the man know his name? How did he know that Cal's father was dead? Who could possibly want to kill a run of the mill adolescent like him? What this is the Ormond Singularity that the man kept shouting aboutfuture she wants for herself and her daughter? And For the thing is, Cal's father had written to him shortly before returning home already moment they’re enjoying life in the throes of a fatal illness. His father was vague present and putting the future on detail, but is pretty sure he was on to something bigthe back burner. Could there be a connection? |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340996447</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Steve Feasey1786482126|title=Changeling: Blood WolfThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Trey is Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the last living hereditary werewolf site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - or so he thinks. So when he discovers he has they discovered the bones of a child beneath a long-lost uncle, he shrugs off all objections from his vampire guardian, Lucien and catches the first available plane to Canadadoorway. There was no skull. When he arrives Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, he Dr Ruth Galloway finds that not all werewolves are fearsome, forbidding and courageous creaturesherself working with DCI Harry Nelson. And they It're certainly not all family-friendly. His uncle is olds difficult as Ruth knows, half-blind and alcoholic. He lives in filth and he couldnbut Nelson doesn't give , that she is pregnant with his child as a fig for Treyresult of the one night they spent together some three months ago. But there Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is a pack out there, and it's vicious, bloodthirsty and rapidly spinning out prone to sudden bouts of controlsickness. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330470493</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Cliff McNish0008551324|title=Savannah Grey: A Horror Story|rating=5|genre=Teens|summary=Savannah Grey is doing her best to settle into her latest foster placement - Annette is really nice; she's warm and kind and respects her adolescent charge's privacy. But Savannah has perenially itchy feet and she finds it difficult to make lasting relationships. She's never had a boyfriend and friendships are often fleeting. Nina is the only one that seems to stick around. Then her throat gets sore. Then Annette tells her that she's making odd noises at night. Savannah knows her body is changing and she's developing powers that she doesn't understand. Then the leaves start to swirl for no apparent reason and the birds to behave oddly. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1842551124</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Daren King|title=Frightfully Friendly Ghosties|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Pamela Fraidy has gotten herself locked in the attic with a leggy spider. Her fellow frightfully friendly ghosties are doing all they can to help her, but it's not easy to pick up a key and carry it up the stairs if you don't have a body. In the process of rescuing their friends, they also decide to make friends with the still-alives who inhabit their house. The ghosties are fed up of the still-alives being so mean - running off screaming every time the ghosties say hello.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847249930</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewDevil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Aravind Adiga|title=The White TigerNeil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=Balram Halwai, a Bangalore entrepreneur (of sorts) and a natural philosopher, hears that there is a planned visit It's unusual for anyone from the Chinese leader Hardie family to India to learn approach the source of Indian entrepreneurial talentpolice. Balram knows that Neither side likes or has any respect for the story other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he will be told by 's prepared to tell the Indian leader will be a long way from police where the true story body of modern Indian lifea missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. This person, he promises, is someone big and so resolves, over it will be worth the course of seven nights, police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to write an open prison to serve the Chinese premier with the story remainder of his life sentence and to get an early parole date. Not much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and his own journey from a poor son of a rickshaw driver she's even prepared to do the head of his own businessother thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843547228</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0008405026|title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)
|author=Jane Casey
|genre=Crime
|summary=In 1992, Sarah FinchIt's twelve sixteen years since nine-year -old brother Charlie says to Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her ''Tell mum I'll be back soonbed one summer night.'' Sixteen years later, his family are still waiting She was never found and the investigation ground to find out what happened to hima halt. Now , her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her twenties, Sarah boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is teaching at now a local private school while looking after her uncaring mother, who since Charliecomplex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance has slid into alcoholism: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091935997</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Matthew Condon0571379877|title=The Trout OperaKellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=43.5|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=Judges Carrington Edward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and Thorpe recline in leather armchairs on the verandah of BuckleyStanza. Robert's Crossing hotel and watch in silence as a giant trout shuffles across the bridgetheatre director. The Judges He's also self-obsessed, demanding, despite their initial prominence handsome and entitled and convincing back-story giving them a valid reason uses Edward to run errands for being him. Edward has been in Buckleylove with Stanza since their university days - and he's Crossing, will not really concern usdrunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. They are there to represent Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a typerelationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: a visitor Edward is left to small town Australia, a fisherman from stumble upon the city, two of them kissing in a seeker after something in the Snowy that probably isn't fishdark passageway. We shall, however, be concerned with the giant trout.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>038561506X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kate MortonJo Callaghan|title=The Forgotten GardenLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=Just before the First World War When a little girl was man is found abandoned crucified on the wharf after top of a dreadful sea voyage from England hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to Australiathe case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. It's their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. She appears not to know her name – or But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is unwilling to tell it – suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and all she will say is a very high profile case that draws a mysterious lady she calls the Authoress had promised lot of unwanted attention to look after hertheir AI Future Policing project. There's no trace of her though and Will they be able to solve the little girl was case in time, or will Kat find herself taken in off the case and, potentially, out of a by a friendly family. She forgot all about the events until many years later when her adopted father told her what had happened.career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0330449605</amazonuk>139851120X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Van der Kiste1399613073|title=William and Mary: Heroes of the Glorious RevolutionMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson
|rating=4.5
|genre=BiographyThrillers|summary=At Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school I remember spending and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a lot quarter of time on the Tudors a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Anjali is the early Stuarts – obviously great favourites free spirit of the history teacher group and then galloping unceremoniously through the intervening years until she becomes a GP. When we reached another first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it'meaningfuls going to end in tragedy. We don'' period – t know who suffered the tragedy or the Victorian eraconsequences. The importance of William and Mary was completely overlooked in favour of a quick mention of the fact Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that William wasn't in direct line of succession to will impact the throne and Mary had never wanted to marry him in the first placethree friends. Their successorThis time, Queen Anne I remember simply as 'tablesit's their teenage children who are involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>075094577X</amazonuk>
}}
|rating=4.5
|genre=For SharingAutobiography|summary=One by one If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the birds land 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 branchLondon School of Economics. Each Stevenson is a different species, each has different plumage, bright - extremely bright - and most importantly each he has a different callfacility with numbers which most of us can only envy. The chorus of birdsong builds up and up and up until the biggest bird of all lands on the branch He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It was his ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with his loud shriekCitibank. Ah Eventually, but who's this about to land on the branch with him?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405247371</amazonuk>turned into permanent employment as a trader.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joan Brady1035021803|title=VenomThe Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=43.5|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=David Marion isnIt't used s twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to finding hitmen standing at his front door, though you wouldnthe English country village where she grew up. She't be able to tell that such s back now because of a thing might be truerequest for help from her beloved aunt, given the speed Carole. Freya's former mentor and competency with which Marion dispatches said hitman and then disappearsCarole's close friend, seeminglyArthur Crockleford, off is dead and the face of circumstances seem suspicious, to say the Earthleast. Dr Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. Helen Freyl is a physicist working for one of Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the largest pharmaceutical companies in man or pursue the worldprofession she loved. She is alsoAfter the split, up until his disappearanceshe worked in a cafe, David Marion's sometime lover met and is grief-stricken to married James (on the rebound from the point love of distraction by his sudden absence from her life, as she believes him to be deadwho was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0743267907</amazonuk>
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover
|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt
|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anu Stohner and Henrike WilsonSunny Singh|title=Charlotte and the WolvesHotel Arcadia
|rating=3.5
|genre=For SharingThrillers |summary=Hot on the heels of her adventure The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in [[Brave Charlotte an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by Anu Stohner and Henrike Wilson|Brave Charlotte]]a terrorist group. Hiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, the brave little sheep there is back. She's as bold as everSam, a wartime photographer and Abhi, the older sheep have stopped worrying about her wild wayshotel manager. Added into As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the mix residents who are still alive in the hotel, he forms a gang of teenage sheep bond with Sam who call themselves The Wolves and worry the lambs. When real wolf howls can refuses to be heard, but not cowed by the shepherd or Jack the old sheepdogevents, itand keeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what's down happened through her photography. Although they only ever talk over the phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to Charlotte help her keep safe and they both wait to save see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the day againterrorists.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408802589</amazonuk>086154742X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Hiawyn Oram and Sarah Warburton1529153298|title=Rumblewick and the Dinner Dragons (The Rumblewick Letters)List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=3.5|genre=For SharingGeneral Fiction|summary=Haggy Aggy It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is an unscary witch and decides 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 make friends with dragonsmove the family 'Down South'. Her cat, Rumblewick Spellwacker Mortimer B When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a little unsure of thisfrightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, so writes and she'll do anything to his friend Grimey for adviceprevent that. Their correspondence fills this latest book in 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'Rumblewick Letterss 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' series, following t stand the guilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but get on from [[My Unwilling Witch (The Rumblewick Letters) by Hiawyn Oram|My Unwilling Witch]]with their lives and wonder about what really happened.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846160642</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Glenn Dakin1035906708|title=Candle Man: The Society of Unrelenting Vigilance Diva|author=Daisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensGeneral Fiction|summary=Birthdays for Theo are not exactly how we would recognise them. One blandWe tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, forgettable present from each of the three people who live in his householdDecember 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Some pink cake at Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas' to make it more manageable in the best of timesStates. A trip to the cemetery, with the butler making sure nobody else is When she was back in sight. But this one is different Athens - some person unknown leaves something supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for him. And her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by the time burglars break in, a mother who mercilessly exploited her and force Theo to leave the confines made no secret of his bedroom and find some of the secrets of the house, it is too late - Theo is set on a nightmarish trail between two warring forces, as the truths of his destinyher preference for her elder sister, his origins, and his hands, come to the foreJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405246766</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Christopher IsherwoodEdge|title=A Single ManBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=Literary FictionConfident Readers|summary=If youLucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the nickname of 've ever wanted to know what goes on inside someoneThe Black Hole's mind you. All big movie fans, they'll love this short novelre looking forward to lots of exciting films, and many, first published back in 1964. many snacks! We join George Falconer just at However, as the moment he awakes from sleep and witness his innermost thoughts as he goes movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about a typical day. It all sounds pretty dull and monotonous but what makes this exciting new film format is that George isnvery different, and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't just any old professor living even imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to the American Dreamnext, oh nocan they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the cinema, he's so detached from the banal normality of the world that he's almost outside of his own body at times.and to their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099548828</amazonuk>1839942738
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Celine KiernanRachel Greenlaw|title=The Poison Throne (Moorehawke Trilogy)Compass and Blade|rating=3.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=In ''The Poison Throne'' what had been a benevolent kingdom has become characterised by repression and torture (which I can hear the song of the book graphically describes)sea. The magical aspects call of the kingdom, its talking cats and ghosts, have been suppressed, while Alberondeep, the heir to the throne, has vanishedanswering beat in my heart. Wynter, along with Alberon's half brother Razi and his friend Christopher are increasingly at risk as they attempt to deal with this situation.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841498211</amazonuk>}}'
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jo BrandJames Sherwood Metts|title=The More You Ignore MePlanet Storyland|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=Alice is growing up in a cottage in Herefordshire with her gentle, hippy father and her mother, Gina, who spends her days standing around like a chain-smoking zombie because she is kept on medication and has been for years. Gina's first psychotic episode occured after Alice's birth. Then there was the episode Alice remembers, the day her mother climbed onto the roof, naked, holding Smelly the hamster, and refused to come down. From that day, the old Gina, boisterous and unconventional as she was, fell silent under the numbing impact of constant medication. Jo Brand tells the story of how Alice coped with the loneliness and worry of growing up with an ill mother. Most importantly, as I'm sure the teenage Alice would see it, we are shown the birth and life of her obsession with Morrissey of The Smiths. In his music she finds escapism and comfort and in him she finds a figure to adore. Her friends can't understand her fixation and her mother understands fixation a little too well (the local weatherman having been the object of one of her fervent obsessions). Morrissey sings with such sensitivity and angst that surely, Alice thinks, if she could just meet him and tell him her story he could help her and she could help him...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755322320</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Bee Rowlatt and May Witwit |title=Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad: The True Story of an Unlikely Friendship|rating=5|genre=Autobiography|summary=In early 2005, a BBC journalist emails an Iraqi woman to confirm and prepare for a telephone interview about day to day life in Baghdad, and about her thoughts on the forthcoming elections there. May's detailed and frank responses prompt more curiosity and questions from Bee, and a friendship develops between the two women. They tell each other about their work, relationships and family lives.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141038535</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Diana Wynne-Jones|title=Enchanted Glass|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Andrew Hope, Things have been a rather woolly professorbit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, learns often replacing jobs they're paid to do and other tasks that his magical grandfather has died, leaving him his house and his field-of-caretook time to accomplish. Andrew remembers some things from when he was a little boy, such Just as his grandfather leaving vegetables on the roof they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of the shed for someone, or somethingother, new ways to eat each night. He also remembers that there is something special about the beautifulspend time, old coloured glass above the kitchen door, but not exactly what that isalong came an awful pandemic. It seems he has forgotten a lot of what his grandfather taught himLife was pretty much shut down and, including the mystery of the field-of-care he has inherited. But along with the entrance of Aidan Cain, an orphanit, into his house and his life all the mysteries deepen. The two are drawn to each other, however, and slowly start to unravel the truth that surrounds themmany daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007320787</amazonuk>1736128426
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=James DelgadoMatthew Tree|title=Kamikaze: HistoryWe's Greatest Naval Disasterll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=HistoryLiterary Fiction|summary=When Mongol leaderTimothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, Khubilai Khan, achieved what a drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his Grandfather Genghis had artistic passions all failed to do in conquering China, he inherited the world's largest miserably and most sophisticated navywho had endless crises of self confidence. However, in attempting to utilise this So Tim applied himself to expand his empire further to Javastudies, Vietnam and mainly Japan, he lost the entire armada in a few short years. New marine archeological evidence from Japan, ironically with the site discovered in the 1990s in the construction of new defences from the weather, has raised questions on the traditional view that the defeat of the two Japanese invasion forces of 1274 and particlularly 1281 were solely due to the intervention of the weather cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and what Japanese culture claim was a Kamikaze (or ''divine wind'') summoned by the Godsset himself high but achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099532581</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=A G Slatter
|title=The Briar Book of the Dead
|rating=5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary='' There's a part of me that wants to keep this just to myself for however long I can. This secret magic of my own, all mine, at last. I just want to enjoy it for a while.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Conway and Melanie Williamson1529900360|title=The Great Nursery Rhyme DisasterGhost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Little Miss Muffet is fed up 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 being constantly scared by a spiderpsychologist only worked for a while. Finally, it was Robin, so she ups sticks and heads Delaware's partner, who nudged Milo into asking for a different page of help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the bookman she loved needed. The next case did look simple, to see if though. Two lovers were murdered in the characters swimming pool of another nursery rhyme will let her join a remote property inBel Air. She tries one rhyme after another, but things never quite work He was the heir to plan. Will an Italian shoe empire and she find a nursery rhyme that suits her is married to a Tan extremely rich man and it's not the Italian. But which of them was the primary target?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340945087</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alistair Duncan1529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Norwood Author Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=3.5|genre=Animals and Wildlife|summary=Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the strain that being on- Arthur Conan Doyle call put on his father's life. When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the Norwood Years (1891 job for him. Before long, he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - 1894)as with so many students - been his dream since he was a child. If anything, he'd wanted to be a professional footballer.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0861541774|title=A Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=BiographyCrime|summary=At the age of 32 Dr Arthur Conan Doyle moved from London to DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a house short holiday in South NorwoodSingapore to meet up with an old ally, at that time part of Surrey, in June 1891Guy Trueman. It found him at the stage when Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was torn between pursuing facing a man armed with a career as an eye specialist knife - and trying to make a living through his writing, after he had sold killed a few stories to magazinesGhurka. Shortly before the moveInitially, he had been confined faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to bed for three weeks with influenza, and while recovering from what had briefly threatened to be a fatal illness (or so light that suggested that he believed), he took the decision might have planned to abandon medicine in favour of becoming a full-time author. A few Sherlock Holmes stories had been published, but murder the man with the deerstalker and pipe had yet to make an impact on the reading public, and his creator could not yet call himself an established writer. Nevertheless, within the next few years Now he and could be facing the fictional detective were death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to become household nameshelp as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn't help Danny at all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312691</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jean UreAlexander McCall Smith|title=Ice LollyThe Perfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=It's The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the funeralonline apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Laurel - Lolly to those that love Ness has asked her - younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, as Ness is concentrating very hard and trying desperately planning to take a trip to Canada to turn into an ice lollyget away for a while. Ice lollies are frozen, you see Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and they don't feel so muchjumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. They can't miss people - mothers - who are gone And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and people the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who are still around can't hurt themquickly begin to charm. A frozen heart is Katie has no experience in running a sad thingbusiness, or in match-making, but itNess has full confidence in her abilities, and there's a safe thing. Auntie Ellen doesn't like the music at the servicealways her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, she thinks it's inappropriate. It isn't even to lend a hymn. But it was one of Laurel's mother's favourites, and Laurel think it's just perfect. Special. hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007281730</amazonuk>1846976596
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Wilcox0811771741|title=The Shangani PatrolInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=Historical FictionCrafts|summary=This is Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of the latest 'long, cosy afternoons in front of the fire' variety. The projects are divided by the adventures of Simon Fonthilltime they'll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, a cross between a Victorian James Bond ten to twenty hours and Indianna Jonesmore than twenty hours. Although one of a seriesAll the projects are attractive, it stands alone as a novelmodern and useable. ItI perhaps show my age when I wonder about 's steeped in the history (and theresocial-media-worthy projects' but that's a lot of it) of the late 19th century when Queen Victoria 'ruled the worldme being picky.'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755345614</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Philip WomackDean Koontz|title=The LiberatorsBad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensParanormal|summary=Ivo's parents have gone off on Benny is having a South American expeditionterrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. As 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 school holidaysthing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Ivo Benny is off the very last person to London 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 stay with some glamorous relatives. Aunt Lydia his house is a socialite and art expert new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who arranges exhibitions and parties has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for the great and the being a goodperson. Uncle Jago Spike is in finance going to take care of Benny, and there isnwill certainly take care of Benny't much about wheeling s enemies, if he, Benny, and dealing that he doesnHarper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny't know. They're fond of Ivo and the kind of guardians s wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are likely to practise some benign neglect, so what Ivo is really looking forward to about his stay is freedom - he intends to explore London and enjoy everything it has to offer. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0747595526</amazonuk>1662500491
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Emily GravettAdam Stower|title=Blue ChameleonMurray and Bun|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingConfident Readers |summary=The chameleon Murray is feeling blue because 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 lonelya bad magician's cat, so he goes and visits his favourite bun has been turned into a yellow bananahyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, pink cockatooand the catflap they both use can chuck them out, swirly snail, brown bootnot into the regular back garden, but into a world of frightening adventure and so onwhiffs. Each This timeround it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, not only does he change his colour to match the object or animalbe honest, but he also contorts himself into a shape that matches them.'s turned up and he'll have to do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0230704247</amazonuk>0008561249
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Inga MooreB0C47LV1PC|title=Six Dinner Sid - A Highland Adventure|rating=3.5|genre=For Sharing|summary=Sid the cat has six owners in six different houses, and he munches his way through six dinners a day. This big ol' greedyguts has a great life, but then one day his owners all decide they want to go on holiday. They consider putting him in a cattery, but they have strange rules like one meal per cat, not six. They give it some thought, and eventually decide to all go on holiday together, taking Sid with them.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340988940</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFragility|author=Jaclyn Dolamore|title=Magic Under GlassMosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=TeensLiterary Fiction|summary=Namira is Can you make a trouser girl - a music hall performer. In Lorinar, she's regarded as a faintly risque curiosity but at home in Tiansher it wasn't like this. Performers like her mother were feted and respected and Namira grew up in a palace. In Lorianar, she lives in poverty, performing for drunken fools who donYo birthing person''t understand her art. joke? And then suddenlyif you could, she's freed from is the question should you make it? Or is the seedy music hall by Hollin Parryquestion if you did, a wealthy man and a member of Lorinar's Sorcerer Council. Parry has an automaton, a curiosity would it land? The catch is that plays the piano, and he wants Namira's unique voice to accompany itanswer for both could well be. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408802120</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Michael Foreman|title=Why The Animals Came To Town|rating=3.5|genre=For Sharing|summary=A young boy looks out of his bedroom window and sees a parade of animals walking up his street. They've come to show him the deserts and ice caps, to warn him of the importance of taking care of Earth. Without the animals, he realises the world would be a much more desolate placeno.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406318019</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Burdett1529431735|title=The Godfather of KathmanduWinter Visitor|author=James Henry
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Sonchai Jitpleecheep is half It'farang' the son of a brothel madam s February 1991 and an American GIEssex is bitingly cold, but itwhich made Bruce Hopkins's return all the latter rather than more surprising. He'd been exiled on the former which is likely to hold up his promotion in the Thai police force, where he's Costa del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a detectivedecade. HeThe return has come about because he's also the part owner of had a brothel where letter from his motherex-wife, Nong, is the madam in chargesaying that she's ill and hasn't long to live. It's no problem for hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his boss, Colonel Vikorn, who has underwear and sent to a few illegal interests of his own. He's currently watery grave in competition with the head boot of the army, General Zinna, to see who can raise the finance for a forty million dollar shipment of heroin which Sonchai's Kathmandu-based guru has for salestolen Ford Sierra.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0593055462</amazonuk> Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Gary BlackwoodAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=The Great Glorious Race: The Amazing Round-The-World Auto Race Of 1908of Magical Beasts|rating=54|genre=Children's Non-FictionConfident Readers|summary=In 1908Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, Henry Ford's Model T hadn't yet brought cars to and in the evening a helper at the massesdessert cafe his gran owns and runs. The pioneers of Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – for there is a generation missing in the world of automobiles family. A few short years ago, Eli's parents were experimenting and discovering just what both lost to the car could dotitular race, by driving right round a globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the worldin the company of a magical beast. Except they didn't want This has made the race anathema to be pioneers. One of the competitors, Antonio Scarfoglio, put it so perfectly pair – but when he said 'We had set out a bad incident at the eatery leads to perpetuate an act of splendid follya confession from gran, not Eli knows his only hope is to open up a new way for men. We wished dare to be madmenenter what he most hates, not pioneerswith the sole aim the prize of magic at the end – the only thing to possibly save his gran.' Isn't that about the best quote you've ever read?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0810994895</amazonuk>0571382231
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