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<metadesc>Book review siteExpert, with books full book reviews from the many most walks of literary life - ; fiction, biography, crime, cookery and anything else that takes our fancy. There are also lots of author interviews and top tens.</metadesc>Hello from The Bookbag, a book review site, featuring books from all the many walks of literary life non- [[:Category:Fiction|fiction]], [[:Category:Biography|biography]], [[:Category:Crime|crime]], [[:Category:Cookery|cookery]] and anything else that takes our fancy. At Bookbag Towers the bookbag sits at the side of the desk. Itchildren's the bag we take to the library and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, & self-published books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often books sent to us by publishers and we promise to tell you exactly what we think about them. You might not want to read through a full review, so we'll give you a quick review which summarises what we felt about the book and tells you whether or not we think you should buy or borrow it. There are also lots of [[:Category:Interviews|plus author interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|& top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[features]] page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] page.</metadesc>
'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Carlo Collodi and Sara FanelliTom Percival|title=PinocchioThe Wrong Shoes|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Pinocchio, as you all know, Will's life is a little wooden puppetdifficult, who wants to be in a real boymultitude of ways. Heis bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes's very badly behaved, he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and always getting had an accident. Throw into troublethat mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's life seems bleak in every direction. Will And yet, he listen still has a tiny amount of hope. He is good at art, and clings to the advice moments of Gepettojoy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the cricket or end of a long, dark tunnel.|isbn=1398527122}}{{Frontpage|author=Sylvie Cathrall|title=A Letter to the fairy? Will he become real? What's it like if he doesn't break into Luminous Deep|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary= There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a Disney song every two minutes?compelling premise. And this is one of them.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1406317470</amazonuk>0356522776
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ursula Dubosarsky and Andrew Joyner0008517061|title=The Terrible PlopDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell|rating=3.54|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=The rabbits are sitting by Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the lakefuture of his life with his vet girlfriend, munching on cake Livia and carrots. An apple falls her daughter Diana, as moving in, with together would mean a terrible plop, lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and they scamper off scared. All the other animals join relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the stampede future she wants for herself and get as far away as they can from her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in the terrible plop. Bear is far too big present and grumpy to be scared, so he gets putting the littlest rabbit to show him just where future on the scariness liesback burner...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405251379</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Ward1786482126|title=The Comet's ChildJanus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Teenage Fin is rescued from his remote forest home by Ragg, Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the first man he has ever encounteredbones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Having such Was this a sheltered childhood has equipped Fin ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with the speech and education of a noblemanDCI Harry Nelson. It's son difficult as Ruth knows, but little idea about Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the real worldone night they spent together some three months ago. Other than relying on his instincts and resourcefulnessHer condition will be obvious before long, Fin has no way not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of knowing who to trust, or where he is bound as he leaves home with Raggsickness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905537123</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robert Jackson Bennett0008551324|title=Mr Shivers|rating=5|genre=Horror|summary=Marcus Connelly, a quiet, reserved and private man, has recently joined the mass of humanity travelling west in search of work. It's the Midwest in the 1930s and the Great Depression is in full swing. The dustbowl is a desperate place and there's none more desperate than Connelly. But Connelly doesn't need a job and he has a wife and a home. Connelly isn't missing prosperity; he's missing his daughter, and he's in search of the man who killed her. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841498572</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewDevil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Cross|title=CapturedLancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Kenny is dying - brain cancer is hitting him just as heIt's barely turning fortyunusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. As a result Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he compiles 's prepared to tell the police where the body of a short list of rights to wrong, missing person is buried and people to create closure withwho was responsible for her death. OneThis person, his ex-wifehe promises, might not is someone big and it will be easy, two concern a misguided sense of a guilt of oldworth the police doing what he wants. The fourth turns out And what he wants is to be a missing womantransferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date. Not much to ask, is it? The journey he takes in new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that redemptive exercise DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is not for the squeamishkept well away from what's happening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847373976</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=The Economist0008405026|title=The World of Business: From Valuable Brands and Games Directors Play to Bail-Outs and Bad Boys A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=Business and FinanceCrime|summary=For It's sixteen years I've been 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, Helena, and her father are dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a great fan of The Economiststraightforward murder/suicide but there's [[Pocket World in Figures 2010 by The Economist|Pocket World in Figures]] series with all something about the unbiased statistics which positioning of the average person could wantbodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. I was just a little nervous when I opened ''The World of Business'' – just in case What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is now a disappointment – but I needncomplex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent't have worrieds boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846681588</amazonuk>
}}
{{Frontpage|isbn=0571379877|title=The Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=Edward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and Stanza. Robert's a theatre director. He's 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 drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the two of them kissing in a dark passageway.}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rachel Renee RussellJo Callaghan|title=Dork DiariesLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=I do like When a blurb man is found crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to be accuratethe case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. It's their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. So But when I saw the back cover 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 this book state the obvious unwanted attention to me, "Diary of a Wimpy Kid for girls!", I could rest assuredtheir AI Future Policing project. I didn't relax fullyWill they be able to solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, howeverpotentially, for I'd read [[Rodrick Rules (Diary out of a Wimpy Kid) by Jeff Kinneycareer?|isbn=139851120X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1399613073|title=Moral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=Thrillers|summary=Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the blue one]] first day of those medical school and found it their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a bit feeblecentury. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and [[Diary a trauma doctor. Anjali is the free spirit of the group and she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they're at a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days by Jeff Kinney|the yellow one]] drug and alcohol-fuelled party and found it a bit fabulous, so I couldn's going to end in tragedy. We don't guarantee any feminine, pink variant would know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be worth my an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. This time, it's their teenage children who are involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847387411</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Val Doonican0241636604|title=My Story, My LifeThe Trading Game: Val Doonican - The Complete AutobiographyA Confession|author=Gary Stevenson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=In the 1960sIf you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, if Harold Wilson was the personification you're unlikely to think of politics someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the Beatles pin-stripe suit and his background is the collective icon of youth cultureEast End, Val Doonican where he was similarly at the very apex of light entertainmentfamiliar with violence, poverty and injustice. He may There was no longer have such a high profile – posh public school on his CV - but he's outlasted them bothhad been to the London School of Economics. Over four decades he has refused to bow to passing fads and fashions, remained true to himself, Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and in the process he has never really put a foot wrongfacility with numbers which most of us can only envy. As he says towards the end, 'When you find out He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It was his ability at what it is you do bestwas, and what the public wants from youessentially, then stick a card game which got him an internship with it, and do it as well as you canCitibank.' With the possible exception of his contemporary and long-time professional and personal friend Rolf HarrisEventually, it's difficult to think of another person in showbiz who comes across this turned into permanent employment as more genuinely likeable, and more a genuine case of 'what you see is what you get'trader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906779619</amazonuk>
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1035021803
|title=The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder
|author=C L Miller
|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up. She's back now because of a request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Freya's former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the man or pursue the profession she loved. After the split, she worked in a cafe, met and married James (on the rebound from the love of her life, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover
|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt
|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.''
I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Well, I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of technology in my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but I'm left with the feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of it is - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand.}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Su TongSunny Singh|title=The Boat to RedemptionHotel Arcadia|rating=3.5|genre=Literary FictionThrillers |summary=Ku Dongliang The 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 his fatherAbhi, Ku Wenxuanthe hotel manager. As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the hotel, are forced he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to live be cowed by events, and keeps on a barge on the river following Ku Wenxuanventuring out of her room to try to capture what's fall from gracehappened through her photography. Originally believed Although they only ever talk over the phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the son terrorists.|isbn=086154742X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529153298|title=The List of a revolutionary martyrSuspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, it is eventually proved that Mr Ku was honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so - as frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the family 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a resultfrightening, his position in society takes a nose-diveforeign place, best avoided. Dongliang suffers as a result of this For Miv, finding it hard to make friends within the barge community move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and on shoreshe'll do anything to prevent that. Then an orphaned girl moves onto She's not worried about the barges and finds a place in Dongliangdangers or that her Mum's apparently cold heartstopped talking - to anyone. Will she be able to take him out of himself? Or will she, too, turn her back on him?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>038561344X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Colin Cotterill1398524085|title=The Merry MisogynistHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Dr Siri Paiboun is now married to Madame Daeng Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Paul and despite the fact that they have a combined age of going on for a hundred Ollie and forty they're behaving like the newlyher daughter, Etty. are all worried but - strangely -weds they areher husband, Alec, is not. Even being the reluctant coroner for Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the Republic body of Laos can't dampen SiriGreg's enthusiasm for lifefather, Duncan Ackerley, in the river. Well, it can't until he makes It was an easy assumption for the gruesome discovery police to make that a man is wooing and wedding girls in various parts of the country Duncan had murdered Charlie and then murdering them on honeymoon and binding their bodies to trees. What committed suicide when he does to his victims leaves couldn't stand the morgue staff sickenedguilt. ThereThe Salter children are not convinced but there's a determination to find the man responsible little else they can do but get on with their lives and bring him to justicewonder about what really happened.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849160082</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nicola Davies1035906708|title=Gaia WarriorsDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=Children's Non-General Fiction|summary=The best way We tend to read this book is think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to treat it like a magazine: flip the pages Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and dip inonly moved to Athens when she was thirteen. I can guarantee that you will find something Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to catch your eye. Fashion addicts could start on page 136 'Callas'Dressing for the climate'', foodies may prefer page 124 ''Rock-star food''. The array of different typefaces and page colours to make it more manageable in the book very easy to browse, and the author excels at explaining difficult concepts in a straightforward wayStates. So certain sections When she was back in it Athens - supposedly so that she could be considered not just as get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for older children or teen readersher elder sister, but as an informative read for adults as wellJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406312347</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Iain BanksChristopher Edge|title=The Steep Approach to GarbadaleBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=Literary FictionConfident Readers|summary=It took me Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a while place that has 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 Iain Banks something about this new film format isvery different, most of all, a teller of tales - I would call him a story-teller had this term not became a compliment-cum-invective usually reserved for the Jeffrey Archers and Dan Browns of the modern publishing worldthey are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. This ability to tell stories - not to plot as much But as they lurch from one film genre to weave a yarn - combines with a penchant for creating appealing contexts for Banks' narratives the next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to unfold in (this gets magnificently realised in the world building of his [[:Category:Iain M Banks|Iain M. Banks]] alter-ego) cinema, and populating them with memorable, larger than life but usually short of caricature, characters.to their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0349119287</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=Ceci JenkinsonJames Sherwood Metts|title=Mirror Mischief (Oli and Skipjack's Tales of Trouble) Planet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Sid from Things have been a bit sticky for the pizza shop is on holiday in Africa Earthlings. AI and sheautomation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they's sent presents re paid to her two best customers, Oli Biggles do and Skipjack Haynesother tasks that took time to accomplish. Oli's present is a mirror Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and it's not just any mirror as it seems starting to think of other, new ways to have magical powersspend time, along came an awful pandemic. It Life was perhaps unfortunate that Vernon Surd, the mean maths teacher who punishes anyone who can't do fractions pretty much shut down and Slugger Stubbins, the school bully should be the ones at the wrong end of the magical powers but along with it seemed quite appropriate that , all the first should be transformed into a vulture and the second into a blue-faced baboonmany daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0571249698</amazonuk>1736128426
}}
|rating=4.5
|genre=BiographyLiterary Fiction|summary=Like the first Elizabeth Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more books than are strictly necessary have been written about Queen Victoria, but John Van der Kiste has taken the unusual step of using the men in her life to illuminate some dark corners which might other wise have remained unexplored. Of course the most famous man in her life, husband and Prince Consort Albert isn't 'son, servant or statesman' as promised by the title of the book, but he established a trend. Victoria, often regarded as a difficult woman to pleasebe different from his father, would always have a man in her life who would, to a greater or lesser extent, dominate her.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0750937882</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Maureen Emerson|title=Escape to Provence|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=In the 1920s two women, one American, one British, settled in the south of France, both for different reasons. Elisabeth Starr had left her home in Philadelphia after an unhappy childhood drunk and the death, possibly suicide, chronic underachiever whose dreams of her fiancé, a nephew being exceptional at any of the American President. Drawn to Paris, 'the chosen European city for the sophisticated his artistic passions all failed miserably and well-heeled who had endless crises of the New World', she worked as a nurse during the Great War, then moved to Provence where she made her home in an ancient stone house, the Castello, and took French citizenshipself confidence. Winifred (Peggy) Fortescue was the wife of the Royal Librarian at Windsor, who retired in 1926 with a knighthood and became a renowned (though hardly successful in financial terms) military historian. After the fall of the pound, it was hard for them So Tim applied himself to make ends meet in Englandhis studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and they were drawn to find a property in Provence partly by the lifestyle, partly by a favourable exchange rateset himself high but achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0955832101</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=Jonathan Hayes 1529900360|title=A Hard DeathThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=I havenIt hadn't read Jonathan Hayesbeen Lt Milo Sturgis' bestseller 'Precious Blood' so I s fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was a fresh reader, so reluctant to speakask for his help on difficult cases. His writing biography on assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the inside cover help of the book is impressivea psychologist only worked for a while. My expectations were highFinally, it was Robin, Delaware's partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. All She knew that the ingredients are in place for a good thrillerinvolvement was something that the man she loved needed. The location is The Everglades next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a remote property in FloridaBel Air. Brooding, enigmatic, awe-inspiring He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and where we all seem she is married to expect crocodiles to rear their heads out an extremely rich man and it's not the Italian. But which of them was the swampy waters every five minutes.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099538644</amazonuk>primary target?
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Colin Cotterill1529395224|title=Curse of Letting the Pogo Stick|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=Dr Siri Paiboun usually managed to control his reactions in front Cat Out of Judge Haeng, but occasionally he forgot himself and was more insolent than usual. This time the Laos national coroner (reluctant), communist (even more reluctantly) and shaman finds himself on a road trip with the judge and the Justice Department. Nurse Dtui (pregnant and married, although not in the usual order Bag: The Secret Life of events) is left to run the morgue along with Mr Geung, who might, or might not be a help, but probably not in the way that you might expect. As if that wasn't enough Nurse Dtui discovers a booby-trapped corpse, there's a geriatric hit-person on the loose and Siri is kidnapped.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849160112</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewVet|author=Nia Pritchard |title=More Than Just A Wedding|rating=2.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=If you like novels in which little happens as the story strolls towards its happy ending, then Nia Pritchard's sequel to 'More Than Just a Hairdresser' may suit you. If the Liverpudlian vernacular and setting pushes your buttons, then maybe you'll enjoy its light-hearted picture of Scouse life. My mother-in-law will probably love it. I'm sorry to say that it wasn't my cup of tea at all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906784124</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Tonya Hurley |title=GhostgirlSion Rowlands
|rating=3.5
|genre=TeensAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Charlotte Usher is desperate to be popularSiôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. She has spent the entire summer break transforming herself to try His father was a GP and fit in with the Rowlands didn'in' crowd all in an attempt t want to try and attract the attention of Damen, a popular and handsome jock. Yet even after all her hard work she still remains invisible at best, despised at worst. Finally, follow in a moment of tragic bad luckhis footsteps, Charlotte chokes on a gummy bear, alone in a classroom, and dies. This isn't particularly when he considered the end of the story however, it's actually just the beginning, because Charlotte isn't going to let the little inconvenience of strain that being dead get in her way...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755347714</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Anthony Horowitz |title=Crocodile Tears (Alex Rider)|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Fans of Anthony Horowitz' Alex Rider series have had a twoon-year wait for this installment of our young herocall put on his father's escapades and they are not going to be disappointedlife. He's fourteen year old now and not only is When he being targeted by a hitman, was seventeen he's also being pursued by took the opportunity of doing work experience with a journalist family friend who wants to tell was a vet and was convinced this was the nation all about the fact that MI6 are using one of his tender years to do their dirty workjob for him. The trouble is that Before long, he canwas at Liverpool University. It hadn't be positive that it was a sniper that caused the car - as with so many students - been his dream since he was in to skid off a Scottish road and land at the bottom of a Lochchild. And MI6 donIf anything, he't seem all that bothered about the journalist, unless, that is, Alex might be willing d wanted to find some simple information from a GM crop research centre, in which case they might be able to have a quiet word with the gentlemanprofessional footballer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406310484</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Cathi Unsworth 0861541774|title=Bad Penny BluesA Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Step into the seedy underbelly of London on the cusp of the Swinging Sixties. DCI Domenic Jejeune'Bad Penny Blues' is the story of the hunt for s close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a brutal serial killer targeting prostitutes short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in the west of the citya street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and he killed a Ghurka. Initially, at the time he faced a melting pot charge of immigrants from manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the Caribbean and Ireland, bohemian artists and media types, and even peersman. Carnaby Street was just becoming Now he could be facing the fashion centre of London death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and a new decade promised exciting possibilitieswouldn't help Danny at all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846686784</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Celia Friedman Alexander McCall Smith|title=The Wings of Wrath (The Magister Trilogy)Perfect Passion Company|rating=4|genre=Fantasy|summary=The first part of Celia Friedman's ''Magister'' trilogy was a wonderfully dark piece of fantasy. It contained some beasts you wouldn't be surprised to come across in a horror novel and stretched the idea of magic being a draining power to an interesting place psychologically. The second part, ''Wings of Wrath'' is more of a straight fantasy novel, lacking some of the horror elements that made the first part such a draw for me, but it's still a very good read.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841495336</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Bernard P Morgan and Rikin Parekh |title=The Lighthouse|rating=2|genre=For Sharing|summary=Bob the lighthouse keeper tries to warn the village of Quark that there's a big storm on the way. They don't listen to him, so Bob just sets about making preparations anyway. When the storm comes, the villagers are in a lot of trouble, but thankfully Bob is on hand to save the day.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312764</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Peter Blackstock |title=The Secret Symbol: The Original Masonic Documents Behind Dan Brown's Latest Bestseller|rating=3|genre=Spirituality and Religion|summary=Pop Quiz. What links Scott of the Antarctic, Jim Davidson, Churchill, and Rabbie Burns? Where and when might you come a cropper trying to spell Boaz, but starting with the B? And what has three stages - unless it's thirty-three, or even ten by the York system?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683734</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jonathan Buckley |title=Contact|rating=2.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Dominic Pattison's life began The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to veer off course badly on all the online apps in providing a Tuesday in Maymore personal, tailored service. It's 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 away for a fairly banal Tuesdaywhile. The kind Katie is coming out of Tuesday that Dominic probably experiences quite frequently. He feels a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the need chance to come home to tell us about it. In detailEdinburgh. Andso begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, sadlybringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, not in a particularly engaging style.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956003869</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jessica Porter |title=Sicilian Sunset|rating=3|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Sarah Livingstone's jewellery business was struggling but she was still annoyed when her father called James Ross for help. Sarah and James had had a relationship with some ten years earlier and Sarah really didn't want new characters who quickly begin to work with him, particularly after her marriagecharm. Most people thought that her husband's death Katie has no experience in running a plane crash had been the cruel end to a good marriage. Only a few knew that he had been about to leave business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her to live with another woman. Itabilities, and there's left Sarah always her very reluctant helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to get involved with any man.lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0709089430</amazonuk>1846976596
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sushila Anand 0811771741|title=Daisy: The Lives and Loves of the Countess of WarwickInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=BiographyCrafts|summary=Born Daisy Maynard Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of the 'long, cosy afternoons in 1861, front of the Countess of Warwick lived a colourful life by any standardsfire' variety. She was notoriously promiscuousThe projects are divided by the time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, a spendthrift who did not hesitate five to try and provoke a royal scandal ten hours, ten to shore up her parlous finances, twenty hours and although she relished her lifestyle to more than twenty hours. All the fullprojects are attractive, she spent several years fighting wholeheartedly for the pioneer socialists in Britainmodern and useable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's me being picky.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749909773</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Suzy Brownlee Dean Koontz|title=The Littlest Detective in LondonBad Weather Friend|rating=34.5|genre=Confident ReadersParanormal|summary=''The Littlest Detective in London'' Benny is the first in this series of childrenhaving a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it's books by Suzy Brownlee and will soon be followed by possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the continuing story of Clementine Cordelia Bird's exploits in Paris. thing that has trashed his house! The books are aimed at young girlsthing is, aged between around eight and fourteenBenny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. Clemmy (as she He is known) a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is nine years olda new friend, but looks youngera bad weather friend called Spike, due who has been sent to her help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being rather smalla good person. However Spike is going to take care of Benny, she makes up for this by being brave and inventive. We learn early on that her mother disappeared in mysterious circumstances will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and the books have the underlying theme of Clemmy trying to find her mum againHarper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0956122205</amazonuk>1662500491
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alex Hesz and Bambos Neophytou Adam Stower|title=Guilt Trip: From Fear to Guilt on the Green BandwagonMurray and Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=Politics and SocietyConfident Readers |summary=Did you know that HorlicksMurray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and friendly cat, that great one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep aidand, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the two. But he's a bad magician's cat, is sold in India as so his favourite bun has been turned into a start-hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the-day energy boost? Not another concoction under catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the same brandregular back garden, but the Exact Same Productinto a world of frightening adventure and whiffs. This time round 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 turned up and he'll have to do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>047074622X</amazonuk>0008561249
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=P C and Kristin Cast B0C47LV1PC|title=Tempted (House of Night)|rating=3|genre=Teens|summary=Last time we left Zoey, she'd just banished Kalona, an ancient fallen immortal, from the Tulsa House of Night, along with evil High Priestess Neferet. Stevie Rae's Red Fledglings were regaining their humanity, but Stark, second ever Red Vampire, was badly injured. Her official boyfriend was Erik, but she's re-Imprinted with Human, Heath, and Stark had pledged a Warrior's Oath to her.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905654804</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFragility|author=Jackie French and Bruce Whatley |title=Emily and the Big Bad BunyipMosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Can you make a 'Given 'Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, is the attention paid to relations between question should you make it? Or is the sexesquestion if you did, would it would land? The catch is that the answer for both could well be tempting to call The Group a forerunner of today's chick lit. It's not.'.. no.
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Charlie Huston 1529431735|title=My Dead Body (Joe Pitt Casebook)The Winter Visitor|author=James Henry
|rating=4
|genre=HorrorCrime|summary=Joe PittIt's New York February 1991 and Essex is one riddled with Vampyresbitingly cold, infected by a Vyrus that makes them drink blood and die in which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the sunmore surprising. It is also He'd been exiled on the Costa del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a wasteland of lawless tribes of Vampyres, gang warfare carving up Manhattan into territories, each with their own leaders, specialist workers, fighters, animositiesdecade. As we start book five, JoeThe return has come about because he's New York is actually had a subterranean one, as he hides letter from everyone in the sewers and tunnels, until the enterprise of a top dog character flushes him out, and tells Pitt to find his daughter ex- a messianic poster girl for the future of the city.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841496820</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Aeronwy Thomas |title=My Fatherwife, saying that she's Places: A portrait of childhood by Dylan Thomas' daughter|rating=3.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=Aeronwy Thomas was six years old when she and her family came to settle after a nomadic existence at Laugharne, on the Welsh coast, in 1949. Dylan used to broadcast regularly on the BBC, ill and while he continued to travel to London regularly for the purpose (as well as to carouse with friends in his old haunts), somewhere off the beaten track was a more suitable working environment.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849010056</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Graham Oakley|title=The Church Mouse|rating=4.5|genre=For Sharing|summary=Arthur the church mouse lives in peace with Sampson the meek church cat, but he gets lonely from time to time. He hits on a great idea: hehasn'll invite all the other mice of the town t long to come and live with them. The parson agrees, as long as they agree to do a few odd jobs around the place. Then one day, a burglar breaks in and there It's no-one around hard to stop him but Arthurfeel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, Sampson and the mice...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1840116102</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Keith Hern|title=Bangers and Mash|rating=4.5|genre=Home and Family|summary=Keith Hern found a small lump in stripped to his neck underwear and when the results of the tests came through he tried sent to put the appointment off as he had something more pressing to do, but the doctor was insistent. He knew then that he had cancer. The lump in his neck was, in fact, a secondary tumour with the primary being watery grave in the back boot of his tonguea stolen Ford Sierra. But for the secondary tumour the discovery of the primary might have been too late for successful treatment. Keith takes us through the discovery of his cancer, his reactions Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to the diagnosis, his treatment and the titular meal of bangers and mash – the first solid food which he had attempted for some time.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312772</amazonuk>}}home?