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<metadesc>Book review siteExpert, with books full book reviews from most walks of literary life; fiction, biographynon-fiction, crime, cookery and children's books & self-published books plus author interviews and & top tens.</metadesc><h1 id="mf-title">The Bookbag</h1>Hello from The Bookbag, a site featuring books from all the many walks of literary life - [[:Category:Fiction|fiction]], [[:Category:Biography|biography]], [[:Category:Crime|crime]], [[:Category:Cookery|cookery]] and anything else that takes our fancy. At Bookbag Towers the bookbag sits at the side of the desk. It's the bag we take to the library, the charity shop and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often books sent to us by publishers and we promise to tell you exactly what we think about them. You might not want to read through a full review, so we'll give you a quick review which summarises what we felt about the book and tells you whether or not we think you should buy or borrow it. There are also lots of [[:Category:Interviews|author interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[features]] page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] page.
Reviews by readers from all the many walks of literary life. With author interviews, features and top tens. You'll be sure to find something you'll want to read here. Dig in! Find us on [[File:facebook.gif|link=https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk|alt=Facebook]] [https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk '''Facebook'''], [[File:twitter.gif|link=http://twitter.com/TheBookbag|alt=Follow us on Twitter]] [http://twitter.com/TheBookbag '''Twitter'''], [[File:instagram_classic_logo.png|link=https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/|alt=Follow us on Instagram]] [https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/ '''Instagram'''] and [[File:LinkedIn.png|link=https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-bookbag-1b12a264/|alt=LinkedIn]] There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Reviews}}''' [[:Category:Reviews|reviews ]] at TheBookbag.
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==Reviews of the The Best New Books==
'''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by category]]. '''<br>
'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].''' <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE--> '''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1786485575Tom Percival|title=Magpie Lane|author=Lucy AtkinsThe Wrong Shoes
|rating=5
|genre=CrimeConfident Readers|summary=When we first meet Dee sheWill's talking to Nick Lawlife is difficult, the new college masterin a multitude of ways. LawHe is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes's lately of , he has the BBC wrong shoes because his dad can't work and he doesn't come with an entirely good reputation: he's a bit have enough money for even the most basic of a bully things like food, and Dee his dad can sense something of that 't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in their first conversation. She had been planning to return home to Scotland before taking -hand job on a new job as a nanny, but somehow she finds herself going to see Mariah, the Danish wife of the masterbuilding site and had an accident. She's pregnant Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and looking for helpdad are separated, not with the new baby but with the masterand Will's daughter by his first wifelife seems bleak in every direction. And yet, Anahe still has a tiny amount of hope. Felicity He is selectively mute: she does talk to her fathergood at art, but and clings to no one else. The eight-year-old the moments of joy when he is grieving for her dead mother and struggling drawing, that feel like a light at schoolthe end of a long, dark tunnel.|isbn=1398527122
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Sally MagnussonSylvie Cathrall|title=The Sealwoman's GiftA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Science Fiction|summary= There is are few greater joys than a legend that God came book which lives up to visit Adam & Eve in the Gardena compelling premise. Eve had not finished bathing her children and ashamed And this is one of those still not cleansed, she attempted to hide them from the eyes of God, denying that she had more children that those, already bathed, that she willing paraded for him. God was not to be deceived, however, and decreed that what was sought to be hidden from the eyes of God would henceforth be hidden from the eyes of man, and so the Elves were born: the hidden folk. They can see man, but man can only see them if they so choose.|isbn=14736389840356522776
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Wendy Cheyne 0008517061|title=From the Auld Rock to Death in a Hard Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=Historical FictionCrime|summary= After the Jacobite defeat Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the Battle future of Cullodenhis life with his vet girlfriend, many Scottish estates were given 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 English lords. They were Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not kind to their crofting tenants. Many on this is the mainland were cleared future she wants for herself and while this did not happen much on her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in the islands such as Shetland, present and putting the new exploitative conditions led many Shetlanders to leave - to port cities future on the mainland, to North America and even to Australia and New Zealandback burner. |isbn= 1838591753
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Ele Fountain1786482126|title=LostThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Lola lives in Builders were demolishing an Indian city with her father, and her brother, Amit. She lives with them old house in a nice apartment, and although Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they are not rich like some discovered the bones of the girls at school, they have enough money to be comfortablea child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Lola spends her time thinking about her school friendsWas this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, and trying to fit in Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with them, until one day, suddenly, everything in her life changesDCI Harry Nelson. After taking a work trip away, LolaIt's father difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't come home. They have nobody else to help, and that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the one night they wait day after day, Lola wonders what spent together some three months ago. Her condition will become of them untilbe obvious before long, finally, they are evicted from their flat, and she and her brother find themselves forced not least because Ruth is prone to live on the streetssudden bouts of sickness.|isbn=178269255X
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn= N K Jemisin0008551324|title= The City We BecameDevil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating= 4.5|genre= Science FictionCrime|summary= New York is being born, It's unusual for anyone from the city has reached critical mass and has matured into a living almost-breathing entity and is ready Hardie family to make its way out into approach the worldpolice. Before it can be established, an ancient evil appears to attempt to destroy it just as it destroyed Atlantis and Neither side likes or has any respect for the other forgotten places. The city But Davie Hardie is not alone through struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the birthing process, people who embody police where the values are selected to become the living embodiment body of the citya missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. This person, some cities have onehe promises, some have twelve is someone big and New York has sixit will be worth the police doing what he wants. Together these human-embodiments must defeat And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the woman in white remainder of his sentence and save New York from very real destructionto get an early parole date. But these are five different boroughs which don't always see eye Not much to eyeask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's a personality clash on an epic scale even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and unity anyone who works with him is both critical and not remotely guaranteedkept well away from what's happening.|isbn=0356512665
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=02414467320008405026|title=Our House is on Fire: Scenes of a A Stranger in the Family and a Planet in Crisis(Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Malena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and Svante ThunbergJane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=Politics and SocietyCrime|summary=The Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normalIt's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. Malena Ernman She was an opera singer never found and Svante Thunberg took on most of the parenting of their two daughtersinvestigation ground to a halt. Then eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and talking and Now, her sistermother, BeataHelena, then nine years old, struggled with what was happeningand her father are dead in their bed. In such circumstancesInitially, itlooks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's natural to seek a solution close to home, but eventually, something about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it became clear was going to the family that they were ''burnedbe an open-and-out people on shut case is now a burned-out planetcomplex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent'. If they were to find a way to live happily again their solution would need to be radicals boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=178730101X0571379877|title=Keep Him CloseThe Kellerby Code|author=Emily KochJonny Sweet
|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Alice had two children: Benny (wellEdward Jevons is a working-class young man, Benoîtobsessed with his upper-class friends, actually) Robert and LouisStanza. LouRobert's seventeen and hea theatre director. He's just got his A level results also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and he entitled and his brother are going out uses Edward to celebraterun errands for him. Someone Edward has to find something to celebrate been in the letters, D, D love with Stanza since their university days - and Ehe's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. Alice has always had Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a good relationship with nineteen-year-old Benny had begun between them but ithe'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=When a man is found crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. touch problematic with Lou and being honest, heIt's not terribly likeabletheir first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. The letters which kept coming But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to my mind were ADHDtheir AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of a career?|isbn=139851120X
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=02413968401399613073|title=KeeperMoral Injuries|author=Jessica MoorChristie Watson
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeThrillers|summary=Katie Straw worked in Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the women's refuge 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 bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Anjali is the free spirit of the women who lived there liked group and respected hershe becomes a GP. She treated When we first meet them well they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and seemed it's going to end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. This time, it's their teenage children who are involved.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0241636604|title=The Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=If you were to have bring up an understanding image of what they were going througha city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. Why then did she jump from A hoodie and jeans replaces the local suicide spot into pin-stripe suit and his background is the river below? East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been no signs that she was unhappy and she and her boyfriend seemed to have been content together the London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and Noah he has a decent alibi for the time when she diedfacility 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, but what other explanation could there be for her death? a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. The police are convinced that it's suicideEventually, but the women who knew her believed otherwisethis turned into permanent employment as a trader.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=18388806581035021803|title=The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder at Enderley Hall (Miss Underhay)|author=Helena DixonC L Miller|rating=43.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the summer English country village where she grew up. She's back now because of 1933 a request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Freya's former mentor and Kitty Underhay Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is on her way dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to visit the family which village: Arthur, she never knew she hadfeels, at Enderley Halllet her down badly. Her grandmother Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, Mrs Treadwell, and Great Aunt Livvy are back at she has not felt able to be near the man or pursue the Dolphin Hotel in Dartmouthprofession she loved. Kitty gets easily bored working at After the Dolphin - every day is much the same - but her real reason for going away is that split, she needs worked in a break after her recent adventurescafe, which involved three vicious murders, an arson attack met and an attempt married James (on the rebound from the love of her life, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1788638026AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=Where the Innocent Die (D I Ridpath)All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=M J LeeBenjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=45|genre=CrimeScience Fiction|summary=It was easy ''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to assume come.'' I've heard it said that the death of the young Chinese girl at the Immigrant Removal Centre was suicide'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Her throat was cutWell, I must confess that there was have been more than a lot few decades of blood and the knife was on the floor at the side of the bed, She was due to be deported that daytechnology in my lifetime. But... how did the knife get into the secure centre and why was the girlI's room the only one which was unlocked? DI Thomas Ridpath, the coronerve kept up reasonably well with what's officer, is sent advantageous to investigate and he quickly becomes suspicious, Thereme but I's a snag though: m left with the inquest is due to open in a couple of days' time, the girlfeeling that it's parents are coming over all getting away from China and they want to take their daughter's body home with themme. Some of it is - frankly - quite frightening. Ridpath has just five days to solve Of course, I could research the case. The coroner is disinclined to delay possibilities and the inquest: for her, itprobabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they's re talking about giving closure to or the parentslatest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1471166023Sunny Singh|title=Burnt Island (Ben Kitto)|author=Kate RhodesHotel Arcadia|rating=43.5|genre=CrimeThrillers |summary=The 5th of November was D I Ben Kitto's thirty-fifth birthday Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Hiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, a wartime photographer and Abhi, the occasion hotel manager. As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the usual bonfire celebrationsresidents who are still alive in the hotel, but it would he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be marred this year cowed by the discovery events, and keeps on venturing out of Professor Alex Roganher room to try to capture what's body on a bonfirehappened through her photography. He'd obviously been alive when he was put on Although they only ever talk over the fire and can only have died a terrible death. The body was first discovered by Jimmy Curwenphone, better known on St Agnes their friendship grows as the Bird Man because he speaks little or nothing and his only concern is the welfare of the birds he looks after. His instinct is Abhi tries to cover Rogan's body help her keep safe and he uses his sheepskin coat they both wait to do this, with the result that he's see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the prime suspectterrorists.|isbn=086154742X
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Elliot Reed1529153298|title=A Key to Treehouse LivingThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=This It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is the story of a young boyPrime Minister. (A woman? I mean, William Tyce, who is being raised by his uncle after the death of his mother and his fatherhonestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's abandonmentfamily, though. HoweverWomen have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, it isnbut to have 'disappeared' doesn't told in sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the usual narrative wayfamily 'Down South'. InsteadWhen you're from Yorkshire, the book Down South is made up of glossary entries, written by Williama frightening, as a way of describing certain eventsforeign place, situations and emotionsbest avoided. It runs alphabeticallyFor Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, starting with ABSENCESharon, then moving and she'll do anything to ALPHABETICAL ORDERprevent that. As I began to read I did find myself thinking She'what on earth?!' but I soon grew used to s not worried about the style, and was instead caught up in Williamdangers or that her Mum's storystopped talking - to anyone.|isbn=1911545418
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Will Dean 1398524085|title=Black River Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French
|rating=5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Tuva Moodyson returns - Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and this third book in the Tuva Moodyson mystery series delves deep into her personal lifedaughter, returning Etty. are all worried but - strangely - her to husband, Alec, is not. Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the isolated town body of Gavrik and into a desperate search Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in the river. It was an easy assumption for her missing best friend. With the Midsommar sun blocked out by police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the dark pines of the forest, Tuva fights to save her friendguilt. But who’ll be The Salter children are not convinced but there to save Tuva?|isbn=1786077116's little else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=17824074801035906708|title=Bird Love: The Family Life of BirdsDiva|author=Wenfei Tong and Mike WebsterDaisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=Animals and WildlifeGeneral Fiction|summary=I was a little perturbed when I looked at the blurb for ''Bird Love'' on a couple We tend to think of on-line booksellers: ''exploring the sex life of birds'' it said. I very nearly passed over the bookMaria Callas as Greek, but a closer examination suggested that the book is about the ''family life'' of birdsshe was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, which is rather differentin December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. If the book Her original surname was confined Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to the sex life of birds, you would be missing an opportunity 'Callas' to understand how birds live day-to-day, bring up their families and cope make it more manageable in the wildStates. Not only When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that, you have missed she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the treat of so many beautiful illustrations about Nazi occupation by a wide variety mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of birds which run through this book from the first page to the lasther preference for her elder sister, Jackie.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Camilla BruceChristopher Edge|title=You Let Me InBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionConfident Readers|summary= EccentricLucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, isolated romance novelist Cassandra Tipp a place that has been missing for the nickname of 'The Black Hole'. All big movie fans, they're looking forward to lots of exciting films, and many, many snacks! However, as the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to the next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the cinema, and to their real lives?|isbn=1839942738}}{{Frontpage|author=Rachel Greenlaw|title=Compass and Blade|rating=3.5|genre=Teens|summary=''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.'' Rosevear, a year remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and has been pronounced legally dead by plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her lawyers, is one of the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. Her will instructs her niece But when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the island's leader and nephew Mira's father. Desperate to enter her home save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and find the key with only coordinates to their inheritance guide her, she sets off in an old manuscript left 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 office: home and the last story ones she'll ever tellholds most dear.|isbn=17876331790008664730
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Judith EagleJames Sherwood Metts|title=The Pear AffairPlanet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Set in Things have been a bit sticky for the 1960Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they's, this is a mystery adventure story, all about a little girl called Nell re paid to do and her quest other tasks that took time to find her nanny, Perrine (Pear) who left her very suddenly and then, after keeping in touch regularly by post, disappeared completely from her life, leaving Nell bereftaccomplish. There's everything in Just as they were beginning to get used to all this story, with underground tunnels as the playground technological change and starting to think of gangs of childrenother, new ways to travel spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and detective work, a mystery mould infecting Parisian bakeriesalong with it, mysterious figures following Nell around, and a set of truly dreadful parents!all the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|isbn=05713468551736128426
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Matthew Tree|title=We'll Never Know|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary= Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, a drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and who had endless crises of self confidence. So Tim applied himself to his studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions.|isbn=B083NMCSZXB0CVFXPGP8}}{{Frontpage|author=A G Slatter|title=Little Doubt (D 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 Kelly Porter)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}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529900360|title=The Ghost Orchid|author=Rachel LynchJonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Ella Watson was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She was out running in the park when she 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 randomly attacked and stabbed reluctant to deathask for his help on difficult cases. Her husband, Thomas, and children, Jordan and Millie His assertions that there were devastated only open-and Detective Superintendent Neil Ormond was outraged that a decent, middle-class woman should be shut cases which didn't need the victim help of knife crimea psychologist only worked for a while. Despite being a golfing Finally, it was Robin, Delaware's partner of Thomas Jordan he declined to distance himself from , who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the case and told DI Kelly Porter involvement was something that he would be taking a great deal of interest in how the case was handledman she loved needed. He wasn't anywhere near as interested when a second woman was stabbed to death a few hours laterThe next case did look simple, though. Keira Bradley lived on Two lovers were murdered in the Beacon estate and Ormond's view seemed to be that anyone living there should expect this sort swimming pool of thing to happena remote property in Bel Air. He could hardly bring himself was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to mention Keiraan extremely rich man and it's namenot the Italian. But which of them was the primary target?
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=05713423531529395224|title=Rules Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=3.5|genre=Animals and Wildlife|summary=Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the strain that being on-call put on his father's life. When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the job for Perfect Murdershim. 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|title=A Nye of Pheasants|author=Peter SwansonSteve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Malcolm Kershaw was the co-owner DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and manager of the Old Devils Bookstore on Beacon Hill in Boston. The store specialises in crime novelsformer colleague, Danny Maik, but Mal has given taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up reading crimewith an old ally, Guy Trueman. His life's been pretty chaotic of late: It's five years since his wife, Claire Mallory, died Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and he's never really got over itkilled a Ghurka. She was driving whilst inebriatedInitially, having just been he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to see murder the man with whom Kershaw suspected she was having an affair. His interest in crime fiction comes back when Now he's approached by Special Agent Gwen Mulveycould be facing the death penalty. She's interested in Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a blog post he wrote a few years ago: '' My Eight Perfect Murders'diplomatic incident and wouldn't help Danny at all.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1786897148Alexander McCall Smith|title=Bobby March Will Live Forever (Harry McCoy)|author=Alan ParksThe Perfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction|summary=In February 1964 Bobby March was on his way The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to London with fellow band members Tomall the online apps in providing a more personal, Scott, Barry and Jamietailored service. He'd had Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get his father to sign the contract away for The Beatkickersa while. Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, as Bobby wasn't old enoughand so jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. And his father had been reluctant - he'd have preferred Bobby so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to get an apprenticeshipEdinburgh we already love, for thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the regular moneyIsabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. By July 1973 Bobby is back Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in Glasgow. The Beatkickers didnher abilities, and there't survive s always her very helpful (and March is on his ownrather handsome) neighbour, William, but hardly thriving. Thereto lend a hand…|isbn=1846976596}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0811771741|title=InstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman|rating=4|genre=Crafts|summary=Melissa Leapman's an obvious drug habit''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to blankets. MeanwhileSome will be quick knits - others are of the 'long, cosy afternoons in front of the police fire' variety. The projects are consumed divided by the search for a missing girltime they'll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and more than twenty hours. All the projects are attractive, Alice Kellymodern and useable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's me being picky.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane (editors)Dean Koontz|title=Cursed: An Anthology of Dark Fairy TalesThe Bad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=FantasyParanormal|summary=CursesBenny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. They're there throughout tales of faery Oh, and other fantastical folk – people being cursed someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to do thishis home, and it's possible that whoever or not to be able to do whatever was inside is the thing that. Children can be cursedhas trashed his house! The thing is, as can princesses on Benny is the verge of marrying, and older people toovery last person to deserve all this bad luck. It seems in He is a way there's no escaping nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it. Which turns out that the delivery to his house is why the theme of this book of short stories a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is such clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a standout – we may well think we know all there good person. Spike is going to know about this accursed charactertake care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, that demonised placeBenny, and that other bewitched person. WeHarper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny'd be very wrongs wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=17890915001662500491
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|author=Sara HollandAdam Stower|title=HavenfallMurray and Bun|rating=4.5|genre=TeensConfident Readers |summary= Maddie Morrow Murray is supposed to spending the summer with her Grandma Ellen. But after be a visit humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to her mother in prisonsleep and eat and eat and sleep and, Maddie wants nothing more than to go to Havenfall to see her unclewell, Marcuswhatever takes his fancy next of the two. It But he's the only place she feels truly at home. Maddiea bad magician's fathercat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, understandablyand the catflap they both use can chuck them out, is not keen on Maddie spending into the regular back garden, but into a world of frightening adventure and whiffs. This time with her motherround it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but he's family - because the crime Maddieturned up and he's mum is languishing on death row for committing is the murder of Maddie's brother...ll have to do…|isbn=1547603798 0008561249
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|authorisbn=Baye HartshorneB0C47LV1PC|title=Ghosted: The Treason House TrilogyFragility|author=Mosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=FantasyLiterary Fiction|summary=Can you make a 'Julia Crawley has lost her job on 'Yo birthing person'Celebrity'' magazine and so she decides to cut her losses and return home to joke? And if you could, is the village of Monmouth Cove on question should you make it? Or is the Jersey Shorequestion if you did, hoping to return to her harder hitting journalistic roots via local newswould it land? The catch is that the answer for both could well be.... no. She ''Fragility'll be staying with her grandmother - a woman always ready to help younger relatives in need ' is set as the city of a hand. There's only one problem with that: creepy Uncle DexPortland, Oregon, who doesn't always keep his hands cautiously begins to himself.|isbn= B0829CP5BMemerge from the restrictions imposed during the covid pandemic}}
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|isbn=06486848061529431735|title=Clara Colby: The International SuffragistWinter Visitor|author=John HollidayJames Henry
|rating=4
|genre=BiographyCrime|summary=The path of Clara Dorothy BewickIt's life was probably determined when her family emigrated to February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the USAmore surprising. At He'd been exiled on the time she was just three-yearsCosta del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decade. The return has come about because he's had a letter from his ex-old but because of some childhood ailmentwife, saying that she wasn's ill and hasn't allowed long to sail with her parents and three brotherslive. InsteadIt's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, she remained with her grandparents, who doted on her stripped to his underwear and saw that she received sent to a good education, both in and out of school. She was the only child in the household and her childhood was glorious. By contrast, her family had become pioneer farmers watery grave in the mid-west boot of the United States and life was hard, as Clara was to find out when she and her grandparents eventually went to join the familya stolen Ford Sierra. Clara would only know her mother for Is it a few months: she was married for fifteen years, had ten pregnancies, seven surviving children and died in childbirth not long after Clara arrived. As the eldest girl, warning from a heavy burden would fall on Clara and Wisconsin was Spanish gang or a rude awakening.}}problem closer to home?