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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=Preston Rutt and Ben RedlichSylvie Cathrall|title=Tortoise vs. Hare - The Rematch!A Letter to the Luminous Deep
|rating=5
|genre=For SharingScience Fiction|summary=Harry 'The Hurricane' Hare has been licking his wounds since 'Steady' Eddie Tortoise beat him in the famous raceThere are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. It's time for a rematch, and Harry's been training hardAnd this is one of them. Eddie couldn't possibly win again, could he?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1845394186</amazonuk>0356522776
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jo Nesbo0008517061|title=Doctor Proctor's Fart PowderDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Lisa's best friend Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has moved awaysettled 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 neighbourhood bulliesJanus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Truls and Trym TraneDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, are causing havocthat she is pregnant with his child as a result of the one night they spent together some three months ago. Her dad condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is getting ready for Norwayprone to sudden bouts of sickness.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008551324|title=The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=It's Independence Day celebrationsunusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Oh, Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and therehe's an anaconda on prepared to tell the loose in police where the sewersbody of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. Then Nilly moves into her street This person, he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the two police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of them meet Doctor Proctor his sentence and discover his amazing fart powderto get an early parole date. Not much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847386539</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nicole Dryburgh0008405026|title=Talk to A Stranger in the HandFamily (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=45|genre=TeensCrime|summary=We first met Nicole Dryburgh in her book ''The Way I See It''s sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, which she wrote at eighteenHelena, and which detailed her battles with cancer and father are dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the loss positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her sightboss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. We loved the warts What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-all picture of her life shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that she gave us then, and so we were really pleased to see that shethe explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's written a second bookboss, Una Burt) are less convinced. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340996978</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ian Mathie0571379877|title=The Man of PassageKellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet
|rating=3.5
|genre=AutobiographyCrime|summary=Ian Mathie's association Edward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with Africa began when his father was posted to what was then Northern Rhodesia when Mathie was just four years oldupper-class friends, Robert and Stanza. School was in Robert's a convent theatre director. He's also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and was uses Edward to run by German and Italian nuns and errands for a while he was the only white child amongst a couple of hundred Africanshim. Even when Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and he was joined by others 's drunkenly confided how he was still part of an ethnic minority although 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 didn't realise it! He was taught in the local language and grew up with the local children. It was his home and was s not like most men: Edward is left to be stumble upon the centre two of his life for decades to comethem kissing in a dark passageway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955312418</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=K A S QuinnJo Callaghan|title=The Queen Must Die (Chronicles of the Tempus) Leave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=In this historical time-travelling extravaganza, Katie Berger-Jones-Burg (I know, it's When a mouthful, but stay with me) man is found crucified on the daughter top of Mimia hill in Nuneaton, an ex-girl band member who has been married three times, so far, hence Katie's hyphenated name. Katie has come home from school DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to find that Mimi has gone off with another manthe case alongside her sidekick, Dr Fishberg, and as she begins to stress about the potential new addition to her surname she crawls into her hidey-hole space beneath her bed to escape for a little whileAI detective Lock. Here she keeps her diary and her stash of books, and she curls up to read her latest book, a compilation of letters from Princess Alice, Queen VictoriaIt's youngest daughtertheir first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. She starts to feel But when there is a second body found crucified a bit sleepyfew days later, but Kat is suddenly startled awake by struggling with a flash potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a lot of lightunwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. She finds herself Will they be able to solve the case in Victorian Englandtime, underneath a sofa or will Kat find herself taken off the case and staring into the eyes , potentially, out of Princess Alice, who is just as startled as she is.a career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848873700</amazonuk>139851120X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robert Williams1399613073|title=Luke and JonMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionThrillers|summary=Luke's mum died 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 century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a car accident bonus when you aim to be a while ago and since then his father has let things gocardiothoracic surgeon. The house has been repossessed Laura is a perfectionist and they are forced to move to a new towntrauma doctor. The new place Anjali is falling down - it's all they can afford after the debts were paidfree spirit of the group and she becomes a GP. Neither Luke nor his father are really that bothered When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol- what can a house be when therefuelled party and it's no mum to fill it with her brightness and vivacity and love? The bottle of whisky that has begun going to live end in his fathertragedy. We don's hand though t know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Twenty- five years later there will be an eerily similar event thatwill impact the three friends. This time, it's a worry for Luke; that makes him feel rather sick insidetheir teenage children who are involved. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571249639</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Melanie Rose0241636604|title=Coming HomeThe Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Women's FictionAutobiography|summary=We meet the narrator If you were to bring up an image of this story drinking coffee from a thermos city banker in a layyour mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-bystripe suit and his background is the East End, on a cold grey day. All her worldly possessions are travelling where he was familiar with her in her carviolence, including her catpoverty and injustice. She has clearly made some momentous decision, and is There was no posh public school on her way his CV - but he had been to somewhere newthe London School of Economics. I assumed Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It was his ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as story unfolded, I'd learn more about her and where she was goinga trader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847561063</amazonuk>
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1035021803
|title=The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder
|author=C 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=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=Stephanie TillotsonSunny Singh|title=Cut on the BiasHotel Arcadia|rating=43.5|genre=Short StoriesThrillers |summary=If ''Cut on the Bias'' The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in your local bookshop, you will surely be won an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Hiding from the feisty coverterrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, a wartime photographer and Abhi, the hotel manager. Stories about women and their clothes As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are about identitystill alive in the hotel, he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, so and keeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what better start 's happened through her photography. Although they only ever talk over the phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and they both wait to a set of short stories than a fashion statement cover featuring see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the bags in which said clothes arrive home?terrorists.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1906784132</amazonuk>086154742X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nick Hornby1529153298|title=Juliet, NakedThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A cleverwoman? I mean, comic delight, pitch-perfect, astutely observed, particularly insightfulhonestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, must-readthough. CrumbsWomen have been disappearing. Whatever else is there Well, they've been murdered, but to say about Nick Hornbyhave 'disappeared's latest book that isndoesn't already plastered on this newly-published paperback edition? sound quite so frightening. I can only report that Miv's upset because she'Juliet,s overheard that her father wants to move the family 'Down South' . When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'Nakedll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum' bowled me over with yet another Hornby strikes stopped talking - to anyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141020644</amazonuk>
}}
{{Frontpage|isbn=1398524085|title=Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, Etty. are all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, is not. Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the body of Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in the river. It was an easy assumption for the police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the guilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.}}{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1035906708|title=Diva|author=Joanne OwenDaisy Goodwin|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|titlesummary=The Alchemist 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 AngelNazi 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
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=When JanLucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the nickname of 's parents die of the plagueThe Black Hole'. All big movie fans, he is sent they're looking forward to the great city lots of Vienna to live with his aunt and uncle. His uncle is a distinguished alchemistexciting films, andmany, hoping to take the boy's mind off his griefmany snacks! However, hires him as his apprentice. Jan loves the workmovie starts, learns they very quicklyrealise that something about this new film format is very different, and soon the two of them they are on the verge of perfecting a serum said swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to bring the dead back to life. But then his uncle is found deadnext, and Jan can they figure out what on earth is being whisked off going on? Will they ever get back to Prague by his vain and calculating aunt. She has her own plans for the serumcinema, and she will stop at nothing to accomplish them.their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444001507</amazonuk>1839942738
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Rachel Greenlaw
|title=Compass and Blade
|rating=3.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.''
Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, is one of the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the island's leader and Mira's father. Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and with only coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. With only nine days to unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the heart of the smuggler's territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and the ones she holds most dear.|isbn=0008664730}}{{Frontpage|author=James Sherwood Metts|title=Planet Storyland|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary= Things have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of other, new ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and, along with it, all the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|isbn=1736128426}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tom ConnollyMatthew Tree|title=The Spider TrucesWe'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=The title of this debut novel by Tom Connolly is enigmaticTimothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, mysterious. It draws the reader in - just like a fly to a spider's web. And in fairness 'The Spider Truces' does exactly what it say on the tin as the main character, Ellis, is obsessed drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and terrified in equal measure, who had endless crises of spidersself confidence. ... and when you live in an old houseSo Tim applied himself to his studies, as the O'Rourke family does, there are plenty of spiders cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and other creepy crawlies aboutset himself high but achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0956251528</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.''
Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Briar's, a family of witches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands. Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to be born into her family for generations and as such since she was young, her training as a steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the town's leader, and Ellie takes her place beside her. As challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, putting her at the heart of a maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what to do as the Briar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat.|isbn=1803364548}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=William Hussey1529900360|title=Witchfinder: Dawn of the DemontideThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Jake is a rather solitary person. HeIt hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's bright fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but bored by school he felt responsible and heeven after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the help of a psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, it was Robin, Delaware's obsessed with horror comicspartner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the man she loved needed. The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a remote property in Bel Air. He owns was the heir to an amazing collection Italian shoe empire and he knows all she is married to an extremely rich man and it's not the Italian. But which of them was the primary target?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of the stories Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=3.5|genre=Animals and myths Wildlife|summary=Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and folklores off by heartRowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the strain that being on-call put on his father's life. Little does When he realise that everything was seventeen he reads about is real, took the opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the Demontide is almost upon job for him. Before long, he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a child. If anything, he'd wanted to be a professional footballer.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0861541774|amazonuktitle=A Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=<amazonuk>0192731904</amazonuk>DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and he killed a Ghurka. Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the man. Now he could be facing the death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn't help Danny at all.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Mary Yukari WatersAlexander McCall Smith|title=The FavoritesPerfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=This story The Perfect Passion Company is set a dating agency in KyotoEdinburgh, Japanrun by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, starting in June 1978tailored service. Fourteen year old Sarah Rexford and Ness has asked her Japanese mother, Yoko, have younger cousin Katie if she could come back from and look after the US business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to stay with family Canada to get away for a few weekswhile. Sarah was born and brought Katie is coming out of a break up in Japan but has lived in the US with her mother a bad boyfriend, and white American father for five yearsso jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. She is very conscious of 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 differences between life in Kyoto and in Fielder's ButteIsabel Dalhousie novels, Californiabut with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Here Katie has no experience in Kyotorunning a business, the womenor in match-making, including Sarah and but Ness has full confidence in her mum, go shopping every day for foodabilities, and the food is there's always her very different – in an opening scenehelpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, Sarah is trying to explain lend a hand…|isbn=1846976596}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0811771741|title=InstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman|rating=4|genre=Crafts|summary=Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to her grandfather what she normally has for breakfast blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of the 'long, cosy afternoons in front of the USfire' variety. The projects are divided by the time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and becoming aware of more than twenty hours. All the gulf between her life in Japan projects are attractive, modern and in Californiauseable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's me being picky.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847392334</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Laura PowellDean Koontz|title=The Master of MisruleBad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensParanormal|summary=In the ArcanumBenny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, fortunes could be won and losthis house gets trashed. The bizarre otherworldOh, just the slightest shift away from our ownand someone has delivered a really weird, had been disturbing coffin-sized object to his home to a life-altering game of chance, power and intelligenceit's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, based on Benny is the tarotvery last person to deserve all this bad luck. Four teenaged Londoners had been witness to this, then playersHe is a nice person. A really nice person. But they'd found So fortunately for Benny it wanting, and to level the playing field, had thrown turns out the rulebook. With that, however, the referee delivery to his house is no morea new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, and the Lord of Misrule who has been sent to help him since Benny is in chargeclearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Free, too, Spike is going to smother all take care of Britain with his unique brand Benny, and will certainly take care of scratch-card lottery. Soon all humanity might be Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out of luckwho exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408302373</amazonuk>1662500491
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick Adam Stower|title=TimecatcherMurray and Bun|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Jessie Minahan Murray is supposed to be a pretty average fictional twelve year old girl: she has a dog side-kick named Duff humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and she craves adventure. One day, when her scatty mother has an urgent need for buttons Jessie discovers well, whatever takes his fancy next of the abandoned Dublin Button Factory in an old mill, now inhabited by two detectives. But he's a bad magician's cat, who have so his favourite bun has been turned into a bighyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the catflap they both use can chuck them out, big secret. She also meets G who is not your average fictional twelve year old boy - for oneinto the regular back garden, he's dead. His worst enemy is Greenwood – but into a large ghost who lives in the mill and is full world of rules. Greenwood is also involved in this big secret which Jessie frightening adventure and G soon discover is the Timecatcherwhiffs. It opens every seven years for three days and reveals the past - 'shadow days' and 'shadow people'. It This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is about expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to open again be honest, but he's turned up and there is a ghostly villain named Sullivan Ellzhe'mede who would do anything ll have to have the power source at its heart... do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1842556770</amazonuk>0008561249
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rose TremainB0C47LV1PC|title=TrespassFragility|author=Mosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Set in the hills of Southern FranceCan you make a ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, Trespass is a novel about sibling love and rivalry, disputed territory and ultimately revenge. In the French corner are Aramon Lunel, resident of question should you make it? Or is the Mas Lunelquestion if you did, and his sister Audrun who lives in a cottage in would it land? The catch is that the groundsanswer for both could well be.. In the English corner are Victoria Verey, a garden designer, and her partner, an untalented watercolourist, Kitty. The catalyst that brings these together is the arrival in France of Anthony Verey, Victoria's sister whose exclusive antiques business in London is failing and who decides to follow his sister in finding a new life in France. Aramon is tempted to sell his family Mas by the lure of 'foreign' money even if that means that his sister's house has to be destroyed to secure the dealno.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701177942</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Christi Phillips 1529431735|title=The Devlin DiaryWinter Visitor|author=James Henry|rating=34|genre=Historical FictionCrime|summary=It 's February 1991 and Essex is 1672 and Hannah Devlinbitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the more surprising. He'd been exiled on the Costa del Sol as a young widow with wanted drug smuggler for a skill for (illegally) practicing medicine finds herself being all but kidnapped by King Charles IIdecade. The return has come about because he's had a letter from his ex-wife, saying that she's advisors ill and forced hasn't long to use her skills live. It's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to treat his mistress, Louise de Keroualleunderwear and sent to a watery grave in the boot of a stolen Ford Sierra.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847393489</amazonuk> Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Pauline FiskAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=In the TreesThe Glorious Race of Magical Beasts|rating=4.5|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary=Since his mother diedEli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, Kid has been staying with Nadine and flipping burgers in the evening a fast food joint after schoolhelper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. It's not an exciting life Eli lives with his lovely gran, but he isn't unhappy. And then Nadine gets too – for there is a boyfriend and generation missing in the flat gets rather crampedfamily. And then a box of his mother A few short years ago, Eli's possessions arrives. Insideparents were both lost to the titular race, he finds a photo 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 father he's never met and pair – but when a bad incident at the eatery leads to a copy of his birth certificateconfession from gran, which tells him that Eli knows his father comes from Belize. And suddenly, Kid makes a decision. He's going nowhere fast in London, so he's going only hope is to head out dare to Belize and find enter what he most hates, with the sole aim the prize of magic at the man in end – the photo. He's on a plane within daysonly thing to possibly save his gran. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0571236200</amazonuk>0571382231
}}