132,622
edits
Changes
no edit summary
<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.
Want to find out more [[About Us|about us]]? __NOTOC__
==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=1781129312Tom Percival|title=Sequin and Stitch|author=Laura Dockrill and Sara Ogilvie (illustrator)The Wrong Shoes
|rating=5
|genre=Dyslexia FriendlyConfident Readers|summary=Sequin loved her mum to bitsWill's life is difficult, but sometimes she got very cross with herin a multitude of ways. It wasnHe is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't that mum wouldnwork and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and his dad can't go outside their flat work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash- Sequin coped with that in- it was because she never pushed to get credit for what she didhand job on a building site and had an accident. Mum is a seamstress and she makes Throw into that mix the sort of clothes fact that you see on red carpets or at important weddingshis mum and dad are separated, and Will's life seems bleak in every direction. She's not the designer - they're the people who make And yet, he still has a lot tiny amount of money from the clotheshope. Mum He is good at art, and clings to the person who actually ''makes'' the garments and she's really talentedmoments of joy when he is drawing, but when people talk about that feel like a light at the dress or the suitend of a long, they talk about the designer. The seamstress is never mentioneddark tunnel.|isbn=1398527122
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=AkalaSylvie Cathrall|title=The Dark LadyA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=4.5|genre=TeensScience Fiction|summary=''For There are few greater joys than a street kid from the Devil's Gap, London's most notorious slum, life is short and tough. For Henry, a boy thief with brown skin inherited from a mother who abandoned him, life is tougher still. The Dark Lady enters his dreams at night. She seems book which lives up to represent a past, and possibly a future...''Henry and his friends, brother and sister Matthew and Mary, have various ways of getting by. Sometimes they pickpockets. Sometimes they rob the houses of the rich. It's crime or starve - but crime is dangerous and they risk the terrible punishments of Elizabethan England if they are caughtcompelling premise. Impossible choices. But there are pleasures too, and for Henry, the chief pleasure And this is the Globe Theatre and the plays one of William Shakespeare. Henry loves language and often makes up sonnets about what he sees around him and how he feelsthem. |isbn= 14449436930356522776
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Danny Dorling0008517061|title=SlowdownDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=Politics and SocietyCrime|summary= We are living in Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a time little uncertainty about the future of rapid changehis life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and we're worried about it. Dorling tells us that the latter is normalher daughter Diana, natural as moving in together would mean a lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and probably good for us. We are designed relaxing life to worry and move in with the current state of what we're doing in the world, we have much Livia or does Livia move to be worried Little Sky despite her reservations about. whether or not this is the future she wants for herself and her daughter? However, over For the moment they’re enjoying life in the next three-hundred-present andputting the future on the back burner.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1786482126|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich -some pages, if you can follow the arguments, it sets out in scientific detail why either we shouldnsite was going to hold seventy-five 't be as worried as we are, or in some cases that weluxury're worrying about apartments - when they discovered the wrong thingsbones of a child beneath a doorway. MostlyThere was no skull. Because mostlyWas this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, things are not changing Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as rapidly Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as we think a result of the one night they arespent together some three months ago. In factHer condition will be obvious before long, the rate of change in many things not least because Ruth is slowing down and the direction prone to sudden bouts of change will in some cases go into reversesickness.|isbn=0300243405
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn= M R Carey0008551324|title= The Book of KoliDevil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating= 4.5|genre= Science FictionCrime|summary= It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he''The Book s prepared to tell the police where the body of Koli'' a missing person is the first in a post-apocalyptic trilogyburied and who was responsible for her death. This person, titled ''The Rampart Trilogy''he promises, by Mis someone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants.R. Carey. The novel And what he wants is set in a world where nature has turned against humans. Trees move as fast as animals to crush their prey be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and then soak up their bloodto get an early parole date. Humans have eked out a small existence in isolated villages. They are primitive except for their reverence of Not much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn'old techt think so and she'. This is technology from s even prepared to do the old world other thing that seems to only work for Hardie demanded - make certain chosen people. However, Koli, a young woodsmith, uncovers a secret about this technology that will upend his life DS Max Craigie and take anyone who works with him on a perilous journeyis kept well away from what's happening.|isbn=0316477532
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=178112938X0008405026|title=Survival A Stranger in Space: The Apollo 13 Missionthe Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=David Long and Stefano Tambellini (illustrator)Jane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=Dyslexia FriendlyCrime|summary=It's fifty sixteen years since the Apollo 13 mission nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was launched from never found and the Kennedy Space Centre investigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in Floridatheir bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the story positioning of the bodies that journey remains one of the greatest survival stories of all timemakes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie''Survival in Spaces disappearance: The Apollo 13 Missionothers (such as Derwent'' is a brilliant retelling of what happeneds boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn= Grady Hendrix0571379877|title= The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying VampiresKellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating= 3.5|genre= HorrorCrime|summary= WomenEdward Jevons is a working-class young man, by and large, have always been the subjugated sex. Throughout historyobsessed with his upper-class friends, they have been confined to mere bit players who occasionally help hold up the powerful man Robert and let nothing stand in his wayStanza. Grady Hendrix Robert's new novel a theatre director. He''The Southern Book Clubs also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for him. Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and he's Guide drunkenly confided how he feels to Slaying VampiresRobert. Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but he' gives women their due. It s not like most men: Edward is an ode left to stumble upon the strong selfless housewife. Hendrix illustrates this by having two of them go toe to toe with kissing in a predatory male vampire who moves into their quiet cul de sacdark passageway.|isbn=1683691431
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0008149089Jo Callaghan|title=The Cutting Place (DS Maeve Kerrigan)|author=Jane CaseyLeave No Trace|rating=54
|genre=Crime
|summary=It was Kim Weldon who When a man is found the first bits of the body - she was a mudlarker crucified on the banks top of the Thames and when she turned over what looked like a stick she realised it was a handhill in Nuneaton, a right handDCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, in factthe AI detective Lock. DS Maeve Kerrigan and DI Josh Derwent It's team would later find three other body partstheir first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. Identification of the But when there is a second body was not going to be easyfound crucified a few days later, but eventually, it would be given Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a name - Paige Hargreaves, very high profile case that draws a twenty-eight-year-old freelance journalistlot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Her friendWill they be able to solve the case in time, Bianca Drummondor will Kat find herself taken off the case and, another journalistpotentially, said that she was working on out of a story which she reckoned would be explosive - and she hadn't been willing to share any of the details with Bianca.career?|isbn=139851120X
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Jenny Valentine1399613073|title=Hello NowMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensThrillers|summary= Jude reluctantly moves to a smallOlivia, quiet seaside town after her Mum Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and her most recent boyfriend split (making this their 13th post-breakup move) and settle into friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a bigcentury. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, old house overlooking the sea - which happens is a bonus when you aim to contain be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and a strange, old sitting tenant named Henry, who stays rooted in trauma doctor. Anjali is the free spirit of the house like group and she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they're at a ghost that just wondrug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to end in tragedy. We don't leave – know who suffered the tragedy or can'tthe consequences. As Jude settles into this new, seemingly mundane, reality she is consumed by a longing for her old life in London and anger at another forced change – but this Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the last time, she swearsthree friends. This world is quiettime, dull and yet suffocating for Jude. That is until the day Novo arrives, and her entire concept of the world changes foreverit's their teenage children who are involved.|isbn=0007466498
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B0867X8NW70241636604|title=Access PointThe Trading Game: A Confession|author=T R GabbayGary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersAutobiography|summary=When we first meet Ula Mishkin she's having something If you were to bring up an image of a professional success: using a device of her own invention shecity banker in your mind, you's helped a man who has been blind for decades re unlikely to see an image think of a hummingbirdsomeone like Gary Stevenson. She's thirtyA hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-six years old stripe suit and her life his background is about to change radically asthe East End, cycling homewhere he was familiar with violence, she's involved in an accident poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with a busnumbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It's two years before we meet her again and in the meantimewas his ability at what was, essentially, she's spent 392 days in a coma and now walks card game which got him an internship with a stickCitibank. A professional colleague persuades Ula that she should let out Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a spare bedroom to bring in some incometrader.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn= Ben Oliver1035021803|title= The LoopAntique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating= 3.5|genre= TeensCrime|summary= Set during It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the aftermath English country village where she grew up. She's back now because of a Third World War where methods of punishment request for criminal activities have been amped up to a horrific level by machineshelp from her beloved aunt, The Loop follows the precarious existence of adolescent Luka KaneCarole. In a world of Have Freya's former mentor and Have Nots where Alts [cyborgs] have power over RegularsCarole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, he is trapped inside a living hell with no chance of escapedead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. A detonator has Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been sewn inside his heart connecting him back to a trigger held by the guards who can end his life with one squeezevillage: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. Luka is taunted by limited access Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to his memories and relentlessly drained of energy through a gruelling daily torture ritualbe near the man or pursue the profession she loved. Doomed to Delay [ After the split, she worked in a risky medical trial where he is a guinea pig for Alts in place of execution] after Delay he is in despair. His prison is based cafe, met and married James (on the model of an infinity loop designed to make its inmates suffer. With rebound from the only glimmers love of hope being the rumours of rebellion outside her life, who was murdered) and Freya and the visits of sympathetic Alt guard Wren, can Luka ever be free? Why has he been imprisoned? What waits for him if he can break the loop?|isbn=1912626551James have now divorced.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn= Kirsty ApplebaumAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title= TroofriendAll Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating= 4.5|genre= Confident ReadersScience Fiction|summary= Are ''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.'' I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you tired 're eighteen. Well, I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of your childtechnology in my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with what's classmates constantly being horrible advantageous to them? Do you want your child to have some positive experiences me but I'm left with people? Introducing the new Jenson & Jenson Troofriend 560 Mark IV android! These statefeeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of it is -offrankly -quite frightening. Of course, I could research the-art machines are capable of emulating possibilities and the full range of human emotions probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without lying, stealing or bullying. Theyreally understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the perfect companion for any child! Any mention that these androids are beginning to develop real human feelings are just unsubstantiated rumours latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and have absolutely no basis who could deliver information in reality…right?|isbn=1788003470a way I could understand.
}}
{{Frontpage |isbnauthor=1529123941 Sunny Singh|title=The Silent Treatment |author=Abbie Greaves Hotel Arcadia|rating=43.5 |genre=General Fiction Thrillers |summary= When we meet Professor Frank Hobbs and his wife, Maggie, Frank The Hotel Arcadia is playing chess against his computer, although not very successfullya luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. MaggieHiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on the other handsite, has just taken some pills - eight of themthere is Sam, in fact - a wartime photographer and before long she will collapseAbhi, the hotel manager. When Frank rings As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the emergency services residents who are still alive in Oxford the hotel, he has forms a bit bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of a problem. He has her room to try to admit that he and Maggie havencapture what't actually spoken for a whiles happened through her photography. How long? WellAlthough they only ever talk over the phone, it's about six months since he spoke their friendship grows as Abhi tries to Maggie help her keep safe and he can't really say they both wait to see if it's likely that Maggie has tried to take her own lifethey will be rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists.|isbn=086154742X
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Rob Harrell1529153298|title=WinkThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=When Ross It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is diagnosed with a rare form of cancerPrime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, aged 12they've been murdered, his desperate attempts at school but to just be have 'normaldisappeared' become impossibledoesn't sound quite so frightening. Suddenly he is Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the cancer kid, and everything he does, how he looks, and how he behaves falls under the scrutiny of the other kids in schoolfamily 'Down South'. Ross When you're from Yorkshire, Down South isa frightening, understandablyforeign place, angrybest avoided. He is facing potential blindnessFor Miv, whilst dealing with an eye sealed in a permanent wink. He has gloopy eye medicine to try to help with the painmove would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, plus the need and she'll do anything to wear a hat at all times to protect his face due to the ongoing treatmentprevent that. With She's not worried about the sudden ghosting by one of his best friends, and a series of horrible memes dangers or that someone at school creates about Ross, nothing about his life is normal any more, and he has her Mum's stopped talking - to find new ways to deal with his feelings, and surviveanyone.|isbn=1471409147
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=17864855751398524085|title=Magpie LaneHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Lucy AtkinsNicci French
|rating=5
|genre=Crime
|summary=When we first meet Dee sheCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband's talking to Nick Law, the new college masterfiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Law's lately of the BBC Her children, sons Niall, Paul and he doesn't come with an entirely good reputation: he's a bit of a bully Ollie and Dee can sense something of that in their first conversationher daughter, Etty. She had been planning to return home to Scotland before taking on a new job as a nannyare all worried but - strangely - her husband, but somehow she finds herself going to see MariahAlec, the Danish wife of the masteris not. She's pregnant Shortly afterwards, Etty and looking for helpGreg, not with find the new baby but with the masterbody of Greg's daughter by his first wifefather, Duncan Ackerley, Anain the river. Felicity is selectively mute: she does talk It was an easy assumption for the police to her father, but to no one elsemake that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the guilt. The eight-year-old is grieving for her dead mother Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but get on with their lives and struggling at schoolwonder about what really happened.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Sally Magnusson1035906708|title=The Sealwoman's GiftDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical General Fiction|summary= There is a legend that God came We tend to visit Adam & Eve in the Garden. Eve had not finished bathing her children and ashamed think of those still not cleansedMaria Callas as Greek, but she attempted was born to hide them from the eyes of God, denying that she had more children that thoseGreek parents in Manhattan, already bathedNew York, that in December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she willing paraded for himwas thirteen. God Her original surname was not Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas' to be deceived, however, and decreed make it more manageable in the States. When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that what she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was sought to be hidden from raised under the eyes Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of God would henceforth be hidden from the eyes of manher preference for her elder sister, and so the Elves were born: the hidden folkJackie. They can see man, but man can only see them if they so choose.|isbn=1473638984
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Wendy Cheyne Christopher Edge|title=From the Auld Rock to a Hard PlaceBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=Historical FictionConfident Readers|summary= After the Jacobite defeat Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the Battle nickname of 'The Black Hole'. All big movie fans, they're looking forward to lots of Cullodenexciting films, and many, many Scottish estates were given 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 English lords. They were not kind the next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the cinema, and to their crofting tenantsreal 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. Many '' 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 mainland were cleared ruins – rescuing any survivors and while this did not happen much on any treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the islands such 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 Shetlandhe is secretive and with only coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the new exploitative conditions led many Shetlanders sea. With only nine days to leave - unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to port cities on the mainlandheart of the smuggler's territory, Mira must be determined to North America and even stop at nothing to Australia save the future of her home and New Zealandthe ones she holds most dear. |isbn= 18385917530008664730
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Ele FountainJames Sherwood Metts|title=LostPlanet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Lola lives in an Indian city with her father, and her brother, AmitThings have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. She lives with them in a nice apartment, AI and although they are not rich like some of the girls at schoolautomation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they have enough money 're paid to do and other tasks that took time to be comfortableaccomplish. Lola spends her time thinking about her school friends, Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and trying starting to fit in with themthink of other, until one daynew ways to spend time, suddenly, everything in her life changesalong came an awful pandemic. After taking a work trip away, Lola's father doesn't come home. They have nobody else to help, Life was pretty much shut down and as they wait day after day, Lola wonders what will become of them until, finallyalong with it, all the many daily social interactions on which they are evicted from their flat, and she and her brother find themselves forced to live on the streetsdepend so heavily.|isbn=178269255X1736128426
}}
{{Frontpage
|author= N K JemisinMatthew Tree|title= The City We Became'll Never Know|rating= 4.5|genre= Science Literary Fiction|summary= New York is being bornTimothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, the city has reached critical mass and has matured into a living almost-breathing entity drunk and is ready to make its way out into the world. Before it can be established, an ancient evil appears to attempt to destroy it just as it destroyed Atlantis chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and other forgotten places. The city is not alone through the birthing process, people who embody the values are selected to become the living embodiment had endless crises of the city, some cities have one, some have twelve and New York has sixself confidence. Together these human-embodiments must defeat the woman in white and save New York from very real destruction. But these are five different boroughs which don't always see eye So Tim applied himself to eyehis studies, it's a personality clash on an epic scale and unity is both critical cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and not remotely guaranteedset himself high but achievable ambitions.|isbn=0356512665B0CVFXPGP8
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0241446732A G Slatter|title=Our House is on Fire: Scenes The Briar Book of a Family and a Planet in Crisis|author=Malena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and Svante Thunbergthe Dead
|rating=5
|genre=Politics and SocietyFantasy|summary=The Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal'' 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. Malena Ernman was an opera singer and Svante Thunberg took on most '' Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the parenting Briar's, a family of their two daughterswitches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands. Then elevenThough she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is the first non-year-old Greta stopped eating 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 talking administration rather than spells and potions. When her sistergrandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the town's leader, Beataand Ellie takes her place beside her. As challenges come her way left, then nine years oldright and centre, struggled Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with what was happeningthe dead, putting her at the heart of a maelstrom of chaos. In such circumstancesReeling from one family secret to another, itEllie must decide who to trust and determine what to do as the Briar witches's natural to seek a solution close legacy, everything they have sacrificed to homesurvive, is under threat.|isbn=1803364548}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529900360|title=The Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but eventuallyhe felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, it became clear Sturgis was reluctant to the family ask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that they there were ''burnedonly open-out people on a burnedand-out planetshut cases which didn't need the help of a psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, it was Robin, Delaware's partner, 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. If they Two lovers were to find murdered in the swimming pool of a way remote property in Bel Air. He was the heir to live happily again their solution would need an Italian shoe empire and she is married to be radicalan extremely rich man and it's not the Italian. But which of them was the primary target?
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=178730101X1529395224|title=Keep Him CloseLetting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Emily KochSion 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 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
|title=A Nye of Pheasants
|author=Steve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Alice had two children: Benny (wellDCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, Benoîthas taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, actually) Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and Louishe killed a Ghurka. Lou's seventeen 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 hewouldn's just got his A level results t help Danny at all.}}{{Frontpage|author=Alexander McCall Smith|title=The Perfect Passion Company|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and he operating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and his brother are going look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to celebratecharm. Someone Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to find something 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 celebrate blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of the 'long, cosy afternoons in front of the fire' variety. The projects are divided by the letterstime they'll take to complete - less than five hours, Dfive to ten hours, D ten to twenty hours and Emore than twenty hours. Alice has always had a good relationship with nineteenAll the projects are attractive, modern and useable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-yearmedia-old Benny worthy projects' but itthat's me being picky.}}{{Frontpage|author=Dean Koontz|title=The Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=Paranormal|summary=Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. touch problematic with Lou Oh, and being honestsomeone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, heand it's not terribly likeablepossible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the very last person to 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 his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. The letters which kept coming Spike is going to my mind were ADHDtake care of Benny, and will certainly take care of 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 who exactly they are.|isbn=1662500491
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0241396840Adam Stower|title=Keeper|author=Jessica MoorMurray and Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeConfident Readers |summary=Katie Straw worked in the women's refuge Murray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and the women friendly cat, one who lived there liked is able to sleep and respected her. She treated them eat and eat and sleep and, well and seemed to have an understanding , whatever takes his fancy next of what they were going throughthe two. Why then did she jump from But he's a bad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the local suicide spot catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the river below? regular back garden, but into a world of frightening adventure and whiffs. There had been no signs that she This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was unhappy and she and her boyfriend seemed , to have been content together - and Noah has a decent alibi for the time when she diedbe honest, but what other explanation could there be for her death? The police are convinced that ithe's suicide, but the women who knew her believed otherwise.turned up and he'll have to do…|isbn=0008561249
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1838880658B0C47LV1PC|title=Murder at Enderley Hall (Miss Underhay)Fragility|author=Helena DixonMosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=CrimeLiterary Fiction|summary=ItCan you make a 's 'Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, is the summer of 1933 and Kitty Underhay question should you make it? Or is on her way to visit the family which she never knew she hadquestion if you did, at Enderley Hallwould it land? The catch is that the answer for both could well be.... Her grandmother, Mrs Treadwell, and Great Aunt Livvy are back at the Dolphin Hotel in Dartmouthno. Kitty gets easily bored working at the Dolphin - every day ''Fragility'' is much set as the same - but her real reason for going away is that she needs a break after her recent adventurescity of Portland, which involved three vicious murdersOregon, an arson attack and an attempt on her life.cautiously begins to emerge from the restrictions imposed during the covid pandemic
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=17886380261529431735|title=Where the Innocent Die (D I Ridpath)The Winter Visitor|author=M J LeeJames Henry
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=It was easy to assume that the death of 's February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the young Chinese girl at the Immigrant Removal Centre was suicidemore surprising. Her throat was cut, there was a lot of blood and the knife was He'd been exiled on the floor at the side of the bed, She was due to be deported that dayCosta del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decade. But... how did the knife get into the secure centre and why was the girlThe return has come about because he's room the only one which was unlocked? DI Thomas Ridpathhad a letter from his ex-wife, the coronersaying that she's officer, is sent ill and hasn't long to investigate and he quickly becomes suspicious, live. ThereIt's a snag though: the inquest hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is due abducted, stripped to open in a couple of days' time, the girl's parents are coming over from China his underwear and they want sent to take their daughter's body home with them. Ridpath has just five days to solve a watery grave in the caseboot of a stolen Ford Sierra. The coroner is disinclined to delay the inquest: for her, Is it's about giving closure a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to the parents.}}home?