132,625
edits
Changes
no edit summary
'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Mary BeardTom Percival|title=It's A Don's LifeThe Wrong Shoes
|rating=5
|genre=LifestyleConfident Readers|summary=Professor Mary Beard, feisty Cambridge classics don, keeps an eye open for architectural detail wherever she goes. Even on holidayWill's life is difficult, she notices the changing urban landscape and records interesting parallels with ancient cities in her sparky bloga multitude of ways. She He is engaged in writing a detailed history of Pompeii and suddenly realisesbullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', whilst perambulating he has the backstreets of wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the Mexican city most basic of Oaxacan, that this is exactly what Pompeii must have been things like. She observes the low rise shopsfood, dirt tracks across dusty streets and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the close juxtaposition of rich college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and poorhad an accident. Impressive portals of grand residential properties tower above humble workshops, and this prompts her Throw into imaginative reconstruction. In her blog, from which this intriguing book is culled, she tells us about just how Oaxacan encourages her to ponder again that mix the curious cart ruts of Pompeii. She even finds walls splashed with political slogans fact that his mum and dad are just like Roman ''dipinti''. Indeedseparated, here in Mexico, the local library displays an edifying message in Spanish which originates in Ciceroand Will's speech life seems bleak in his Pro Archiaevery direction. And yet, he still has a tiny amount of hope. He is good at art, ''Science and letters are clings to the nourishment moments of youth and joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the diversion end of old agea long, dark tunnel.''|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846682517</amazonuk>1398527122
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kate TremayneSylvie Cathrall|title=The Loveday ConspiracyA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=45|genre=Historical Science Fiction|summary=Trevowan Manor has been the home of the Loveday family for generations. It will still be owned by There are few greater joys than a Loveday but St John Loveday lost the house on the throw of book which lives up to a dice before killing himself – and now his cousin Tristan has the housecompelling premise. St John's twin, Adam, vows that he will punish the man responsible. Amelia has been forced from Trevowan and And this is now living in a cottage with the other dispossessed women. As if this wasn't enough one of a problem, her son from her first marriage, Richard, has become even more than wayward and Amelia is forced to make a difficult choicethem.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755347676</amazonuk>0356522776
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Julian Barnes0008517061|title=Staring at the SunDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=Jean's first Incident involved Uncle LeslieFormer Metropolitan Police detective, hyacinths and golf tees. It's perhaps best forgottenJake Johnson, but Jean doesn't forget. Uncle Leslie figures large in her has settled into his rustic life - mostly on the golf course - until the War comes and he runs away to Americaat Little Sky. He's replaced by Tommy Prosser, There’s perhaps a grounded pilot who once saw little uncertainty about the sun rise twice in one day future of his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and excites her daughter Diana, as many questions moving in Jean as he ever answers. Tommy is replaced by Michael, together would mean a policeman, whom Jean eventually marries. He doesn't know why minks are excessively tenacious lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life and he doesn't much care. But Jean to move in with Livia or does. She cares much less 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 Dutch cap that Michael sent her off to obtain before moment they’re enjoying life in the wedding present and much less again for their rather disastrous adventures in putting the future on the bedroomback burner. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099540096</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alexandra Bruce1786482126|title=2012: Science or SuperstitionThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=34.5|genre=Popular ScienceCrime|summary=The fuss about 2012 has not started just recentlyBuilders 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. The first book to feature the story There was from no skull. Was this a Yale professorritual killing or murder? Inevitably, in 1966Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. WeIt've also had prog rock bands named after Popol Vuhs difficult as Ruth knows, the Maya creation myth. But but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as the crunch date a result of December 21st, 2012 - the winter solstice that year - nears, it's becoming a very big story indeedone night they spent together some three months ago. Even though it sounds absurd - the end of a 5,125-year Her condition will be obvious before long cycle of the Maya calendar, which started on August 13th, 3114BCE - or was judged not least because Ruth is prone to start then, when they came across this concept a couple sudden bouts of thousand years into that periodsickness. Surely they couldn't predict the future from their 'primitive' state with such accuracy?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1934708283</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jeff Kinney0008551324|title=Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog DaysThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=It is a truth universally acknowledged that school summer holidays are only enjoyable if you want 's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to enjoy summerapproach the police. Greg here doesnNeither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he't want s prepared to notice ittell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. This person, he promises, is someone big and would prefer it will be worth the police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to spend serve the remainder of his days curtains drawn, face glued sentence and to late night TV or a computer game, hand either clicking away at a controller or shovelling in snacksget an early parole date. The last thing he needs, thenNot much to ask, is his mother, on a it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she'family togetherness'' trip, s even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and on a budget, anyone who works with bad ideas of him is kept well away from what Greg should be doing instead's happening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141327650</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rick Yancey0008405026|title=The Monstrumologist: The Terror BeneathA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=45|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=In late 19th century AmericaIt'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, young Will Henry has been the apprentice of the sternHelena, and her father are dead in their bed. Initially, forbidding Dr Warthrop since it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the death positioning of his parents, who were also employed by the doctorbodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. The twelve year old boy has seen many things in his service What looked as though it was going to the monstrumologist be an open- a specialist in monsters and- but nothing can prepare him for the fateful day when an elderly grave robber brings the doctor the twin corpses of shut case is now a young girl and complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the headless creature with fangs explanation lies in his chest who had tried to feast on herRosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184738546X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stella Whitelaw0571379877|title=Midsummer MadnessThe Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=43.5|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=You'll like Sophie Gresham. She wanted to be an actress but suffers from paralysing stage fright Edward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and when the side effects became too much for her she worked behind the scenesStanza. SheRobert's a very good prompt despite the fact that you need to wrap up very warmly to survive in the prompt corner she loves her job and most of the cast in the theatre companydirector. ItHe's a bit of a shock though when she realises that the guest producer from New York is Joe Harrisonalso self-obsessed, demanding, the man she helped out when he had nothing to eat handsome and entitled and nowhere uses Edward to sleeprun errands for him. Sophie was a little softer Edward has been in those love with Stanza since their university days – in the meantime she- and he's had drunkenly confided how he feels to develop a protective shell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089147</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Bonnie Greer|title=Obama Music|rating=3|genre=History|summary=This is an interesting read, but unless I'm missing something, the focus of the book seems a little difficult to graspRobert. ItMost men in Robert's best if I start with the authorposition would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but he's intentions as set out in her Prologue. It not like most men: Edward is a mixture of tales of her own life growing up on the South Side, she writes, interspersed with stories and observations about Obama, linking it with left to stumble upon the music, musicians and music scene, past and present, including hip hop, country, classical, and rock'n'roll. All two of these, she notes, were heard on the President's Inauguration Day. To them she adds the blues, gospel, soul and jazz of the South Side, when the people began to build the great institutions and great solidarity that enabled him to become the most powerful man on the planetkissing in a dark passageway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906558248</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=P J ParrishJo Callaghan|title=Dead of WinterLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Loon Lake, Michigan When a man is picture-postcard pretty – an idyll that sits serenely and snugly in found crucified on the midst top of a pine-peppered winter wonderlandhill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. Louis Kincaid needs a little serenity in his life and on arrival in Loon Lake he feels almost as if he has come home. Life has not It's their first live case together, having previously been easy for Kincaidvery successful with several cold cases. A troubledBut when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, unhappy child of mixed race, passed around various institutions Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and foster homes, Louis figures a very high profile case that if he is going draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to put some integrity back into solve the worldcase in time, he or will need to wear Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of a badge to do it.career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847391346</amazonuk>139851120X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Russell Celyn Jones1399613073|title=The Ninth Wave (New Stories from the Mabinogion) Moral Injuries|author=Christie Watson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionThrillers|summary=Pwyll rules Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a medieval-style fiefdom in quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to be a post-climate change Walescardiothoracic surgeon. Life Laura is different in many ways - there's a new-but-old social order built on feudalism perfectionist and horsepower a trauma doctor. Anjali is the main means free spirit of transportthe group and she becomes a GP. But in many ways When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's much going to end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the same tragedy or the consequences. Twenty- people still fight one anotherfive years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. This time, towns still have sink estates, rich boys still have too much time on their hands and precious little meaning in it's their livesteenage children who are involved. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1854115146</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Owen Sheers0241636604|title=White Ravens (New Stories from the Mabinogion)The Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionAutobiography|summary=In If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the old taleEast End, where he was familiar with violence, Branwen is poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the sister London School of Bendigeidfran Economics. 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 a trader.}}{{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 giant King of BritainEnglish country village where she grew up. She marries the King 's back now because of Irelanda request for help from her beloved aunt, who doesnCarole. Freya's former mentor and Carole't treat 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 welldown badly. She manages Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to send Bendigeidfran be near the man or pursue the profession she loved. After the split, she worked in a message via a tamed starling cafe, met and married James (on the rebound from the love of her life, who was murdered) and Freya and war James have now divorced.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and killings ensueStephen Oram (Editors)|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jennifer BohnetSunny Singh|title=Follow Your StarHotel Arcadia
|rating=3.5
|genre=Women's FictionThrillers |summary=It's three years since Nanette Weston left MonacoThe Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. She'd been engaged to Hiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, a Formula 1 racing driver wartime photographer and had lived the life of Abhi, the wealthy but a serious car accident had ended all thathotel manager. The accident could have killed her fiancé and she lost her driving licence because of As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the alcohol she'd consumed. Her slow recovery was hindered hotel, he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by the end events, and keeps on venturing out of her engagement but sheroom to try to capture what's found some contentment in being a nanny to two young childrenhappened through her photography. When Although they only ever talk over the phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her friend and employer, Vanessa, remarries keep safe and takes an extended honeymoon in the Amazon Nanette is asked they both wait to take see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the children back to Monaco where their father livesterrorists.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0709089090</amazonuk>086154742X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=J R Stephenson1529153298|title=Crooked JusticeThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=2.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Meet Barry JohnsIt's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly... ) YouShe'll see him coming - hes not what's five hundred pounds if heworrying Miv's an ouncefamily, though. Women have been disappearing. Just donWell, they've been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't ever lend him money - he wonsound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the family 'Down South't pay it back. A businessman with When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a share of a nightclub on Cyprusfrightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, he goes there for a customary breakSharon, and finds his sortshe'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking -of mollto anyone.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1398524085|title=Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, Etty. are all worried but -type sortstrangely -of girlfriend has been installed as the bar dancerher husband, Alec, is not. He manages to tread both on Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the toes body of his local colleague and some Greek rivalsGreg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in the river. And when a rival in London chases him up It was an easy assumption for thousands of pounds owed he decides the police to pack up make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and shut upthen committed suicide when he couldn't stand the guilt. ItThe Salter children are not convinced but there's a big stone that hides him, little else they can do but he leaves a very awkward trail for everyone wanting to upturn it and get on with their revengelives and wonder about what really happened.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955855713</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stephen Baker1035906708|title=They've Got Your NumberDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular ScienceGeneral Fiction|summary=If you are in the slightest bit paranoid, worry that ''Big Brother'' is always watching or like We tend to believe that you are not a numberthink of Maria Callas as Greek, but a free man (or woman)she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, then this may not be the book for youNew York, as in December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it will do nothing to dispel any of those worries. If, on the other hand, you think 'Callas' to make it more manageable in the mathematical modelling of humanity' sounds like one of States. When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the sexiest things ever, Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and are chomping at the bit to learn more about itmade no secret of her preference for her elder sister, then you might well be interested in what Business Week journalist Baker has to sayJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099507021</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rebecca TopeChristopher Edge|title=Fear in the CotswoldsBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=CrimeConfident Readers|summary=Thea Osborne is Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a house sitter by profession. When people go away she moves into movie marathon at their homes and looks after their animals and local cinema, a place that has the property. This time itnickname of 's winter and sheThe Black Hole's spending a month in the Cotswold village of Hampnett. It wouldnAll big movie fans, they't be a job for all re looking forward to lots of us but Thea delights in getting to know the local people exciting films, and the area. many, many snacks! In the past she's also been involved with However, as the police in solving various cases but it looks as though movie starts, they very quickly realise that might have come to something about this new film format is very different, and they are swept up into an end as the relationship she had with DS Phil Hollis has crumbledadventure they couldn't even imagine. For the first time Thea feels like an outsider – and a foolish But as they lurch from one - when she finds footsteps in film genre to the snow which lead next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to a body in a nearby field. When the police finally arrive the body has disappeared cinema, and the police obviously wonder if she's imagined it all.to their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0749007478</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.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anne RiceJames Sherwood Metts|title=Angel TimePlanet Storyland|rating=24.5|genre=General FictionConfident Readers|summary=Toby O'Dare is an extremely efficient hit man with Things have been a passion bit sticky for musicthe Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, history often replacing jobs they're paid to do and playing his beloved luteother tasks that took time to accomplish. He's also something Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of a lost soul having turned his back on God many years ago. One day while on a 'job' he is visited by other, new ways to spend time, along came an Angel who offers him a chance at redemptionawful pandemic. Toby agrees to become Life was pretty much shut down and, along with it, all the Angel's human instrument and help save lives rather than take them. He is sent many daily social interactions on an assignment to help a Jewish couple accused of murder in 13th Century Englandwhich they depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0701178140</amazonuk>1736128426
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ian MortimerMatthew Tree|title=1415: Henry VWe's Year of Gloryll Never Know|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=The medieval, in fact time-honoured, view of King Henry V as one of England's greatest heroes was propagated though not originated by Shakespeare, and again more recently to some extent by Olivier's portrayal in film. At least one historian has called him ''the greatest man that ever ruled England''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224079921</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Deborah Gregory|title=Dancing With The Dead|rating=3
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=I wanted Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to read ''Dancing with the Dead''be different from his father, because I'm interested in family history. The blurb on the back a drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of the book also mentioned Gill – our heroine being exceptional at any of the piece – was moving from Bristol (my current home) to Lincolnshire (where I was born his artistic passions all failed miserably and brought up)who had endless crises of self confidence. I felt with all these linksSo Tim applied himself to his studies, the novel could not fail to interest me – cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set himself high but this was not the caseachievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1904529305</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=A G Slatter
|title=The Briar Book of the Dead
|rating=5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary='' There's a part of me that wants to keep this just to myself for however long I can. This secret magic of my own, all mine, at last. I just want to enjoy it for a while.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Matt and Dave1529900360|title=Yuck's Robotic BottomThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Ithadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's concerned me fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for a while his help on difficult cases. His assertions that itthere were only open-and-shut cases which didn's relatively easy to pick up early readers t need the help of a psychologist only worked for girls – princessesa while. Finally, magic soft toysit was Robin, mermaids and pets abound – but thereDelaware's a much smaller choice partner, who nudged Milo into asking for boyshelp again. It's important too with early readers She knew that the content is ''interesting'' and reading becomes more than just involvement was something which you ''have'' to do at school and moves into being funthat the man she loved needed. Matt and Dave have found the answer in Yuck.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847382991</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=John E Smelcer|title=The Great Death|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary='As Western Europeans settled Alaskanext case did look simple, they brought with them diseases against which the indigenous people had no natural immunitythough. At Two lovers were murdered in the beginning swimming pool of the twentieth century, fully two thirds of all Alaska natives perished from a pandemic of measles, smallpox, and influenzaremote property in Bel Air. No community He was spared. In most cases, half of a villagethe heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to an extremely rich man and it's population died within a weeknot the Italian. In some cases, there were no survivors. It But which of them was the end of an ancient way of life. Natives still refer to the dreadful period as the Great Death.'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1842709194</amazonuk>primary target?
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Maxine Barry1529395224|title=River DeepLetting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands
|rating=3.5
|genre=Women's FictionAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Two young women both have a love of the ThamesSiôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. Melisande RayHis father was a GP and Rowlands didn's beloved hotel, the Ray of Sunshine is on the river bank. It's here that guests come who t want to be pampered and looked after follow in the way that only the best hotels can do wellhis footsteps, but particularly when Wendell James checks in to he considered the hotel itstrain that being on-call put on his father's not pampering life. When he was seventeen he's looking took the opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the job forhim. He's buying a piece of land not far from the Ray of Sunshine and Before long, he's sussing out the competitionwas at Liverpool University. ThereIt hadn's something personal in there too – if t - as with so many students - been his new hotel means that the Ray of Sunshine goes under then that would be an added bonusdream since he was a child. ThereIf anything, he's just a slight doubt in his mind when d wanted to be a red-haired maid catches his eyeprofessional footballer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709088930</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joe Gores0861541774|title=Spade and ArcherA Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Sam Spade decides, bravely, to set up his one-man detective agency. ItDCI Domenic Jejeune's the 1920s in San Francisco so we have the prohibition era close friend and all that that entails. Many localsformer colleague, of courseDanny Maik, choose has taken a short holiday in Singapore to disobey the law, stick two fingers meet upwith an old ally, so to speak and as a result there's lots of bootleg liquorGuy Trueman. Straight away, it's evident Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that Sam is he was facing a man of few words. He has the mannerisms of armed with a cat knife - stealthy, quick on his feetand he killed a Ghurka. He's also Initially, he faced a compulsive chain-smoker, charge of manslaughter but then again, most people wereevidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the man. In that era, holding a cigarette was an elegant, almost essential accessoryNow he could be facing the death penalty. How times have changedDomenic 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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140911323X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michael Morpurgo and Emma Chichester ClarkAlexander McCall Smith|title=The Best of TimesPerfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=Most children enjoy The Perfect Passion Company is a good traditional tale dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and this lovely book by Michael Morpurgo seems operating as an alternative to have all the right ingredients – online apps in providing a handsome prince more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a beautiful princess who fall in lovetrip to Canada to get away for a while. Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, get married and live happily ever afterso jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. Or do they? Sadly And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, not long after Prince Frederico marries thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the lovely Princess SerafinaIsabel Dalhousie novels, she becomes very sadbut with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Nobody knows what Katie has caused such great sadnessno experience in running a business, or in match-making, but poor Prince Frederico is desperate Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to find lend a cure hand…|isbn=1846976596}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0811771741|title=InstaKnits for his wifeBaby|author=Melissa Leapman|rating=4|genre=Crafts|summary=Melissa Leapman's misery''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to blankets. He tries everything Some will be quick knits - others are of the 'long, cosy afternoons in his power and eventually decides front of the fire' variety. The projects are divided by the time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, five to offer his kingdom ten hours, ten to anyone who can make her happy again before she dies of a broken hearttwenty hours and more than twenty hours. Lots of people come to All the palace to try projects are attractive, modern and help useable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but in the end the solution is a simple one provided by some very kind travellersthat's me being picky.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405232552</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Shirley JacksonDean Koontz|title=We Have Always Lived In The CastleBad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionParanormal|summary=Mary Katherine BlackwoodBenny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, also known as Merricathe loses his fiancee, is eighteenand his house gets trashed. Oh, and lives with her older sister Constance in the family someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home where , and it'Blackwoods had always lived'. Merricat quickly draws s possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the reader into her world by a series of matter of fact but bizarre statements – her likes include her sister and death cap mushroomsthing that has trashed his house! The thing is, and everyone else in her family Benny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is deada nice person. A really nice person. The wealthy Blackwood family has always kept So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house 'steady against the world'is a new friend, shutting out other peoplea bad weather friend called Spike, and they live near who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a villagegood person. Merricat believes that 'The people Spike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of the village have always hated usBenny's enemies, if he, Benny, and tells us that she hates them tooHarper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141191457</amazonuk>1662500491
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Simon WestonAdam Stower|title=Nelson to the RescueMurray and Bun|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Nelson used Murray is supposed to pull Mike the Milk's milk float, but he has now retired. He lives in the stable at the back of the dairy along with be a couple of tricky ratshumble, Rhodri tidy and Rhysfriendly cat, a pigeon one who has no sense is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of direction, a frog who thinks the two. But he's a secret agent spy and an old racehorse who spends most of his time sleeping. Rhodri and Rhys find a mysterious message on Mikebad magician's fridge and the animals believe that Mike cat, so his favourite bun has been invited to Buckingham Palace to receive an MBE. Somehow our heroturned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, Nelsonand the catflap they both use can chuck them out, finds himself travelling down to Londonnot into the regular back garden, pulling but into a ceremonial coach for Prince Charles as well as giving a TV interview about his experience.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848510454</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Elizabeth Baines|title=Too Many Magpies|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Becoming a mother brings a whole new world of fear into your life. Suddenly you see the danger in every situation, frightening adventure and fear and trepidation can be become your constant companionswhiffs. In this novellaThis time round it drops them into a Viking land, we meet where a young mother who troll hunter is married expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to a logical scientist. They attempt to control their childrenbe honest, but he's futures on a scientific basis, growing their own fruit turned up and vegetables, giving their children nothing sugary, eating no eggs for a whole year until any adverse affects from them were disproved. But after meeting with an enigmatic stranger our young mother begins to struggle as he introduces ideas of freedom into her world. She begins an affair with him, begins 'll have to let things slip at home and with the children, yet finds she is still continuously haunted by the sense of an ever-present danger.do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1844717216</amazonuk>0008561249
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Katherine MayB0C47LV1PC|title=Burning OutFragility|author=Mosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Violet has it all – Can you make a well-paid job, and a luxurious apartment all to herself. Everything is catered for; her meals''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, her clothes, and her health are all how she would like them to be. But the life she is leading is beginning to take its toll. On the verge of snapping, a drained and somewhat out-of-sorts Violet, withdraws back to her home town. There, she meets someone familiar, a ghost reminding her of how she used to be ten years earlier – a young carefree girl, full of life. Only this isn't a ghost, but a girl living the life Violet once lived – exactly the same. Haunted by the past Violet realizes history is repeating itself and question should you make it? Or is convinced events will happen again. Events that will in turn haunt the girl.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906727392</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Amanda Downum|title=The Drowning City|rating=3.5|genre=Fantasy|summary=In a nutshell, you're reading this because question if you're wondering whether The Drowning City is gooddid, bad or mediocre. You've probably glanced at the rating and guessed the latter. I'm afraid would it's not quite that simple. This land? The catch is a debut that provokes decidedly mixed feelingsthe answer for both could well be. I started off convinced that I was going to love this book. The cover art is effortlessly cool, the premise intriguing, the characters laden with potential for greatness and the backdrop is certainly evocative.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841498149</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Tove Jansson|title=The True Deceiver|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Most people of my age will have come across Jansson's work unwittingly, via the televised renditions of the Moomin tales. The readers amongst us would then have been entranced a few years ago to discover that at last Thomas Teal had set about the translation into English, first of The Summer Book and then of a collection of short stories which were published as 'A Winter Book'no. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0954899571</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1529431735
|title=The Winter Visitor
|author=James Henry
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=It's February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the more surprising. He'd been exiled on the Costa del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decade. The return has come about because he's had a letter from his ex-wife, saying that she's ill and hasn't long to live. It's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his underwear and sent to a watery grave in the boot of a stolen Ford Sierra. Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?