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<metadesc>Book review site, with books from the many 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>
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<metadesc>Expert, full book reviews from most walks of literary life; fiction, non-fiction, children's books & self-published books plus author interviews & top tens.</metadesc>
Hello from The Bookbag, a book review 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 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.
 
  
There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Reviews}}''' reviews at TheBookbag.
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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!
  
Want to find out more [[About Us|about us]]?
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==New Reviews==
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There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY: Reviews}}''' [[:Category:Reviews|reviews]] at TheBookbag.
'''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by genre]].'''
 
  
'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
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Want to find out more [[About Us|about us]]? __NOTOC__
__NOTOC__
 
{{newreview
 
|author=M J Trow
 
|title=Maxwell's Retirement
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Crime
 
|summary=Peter 'Mad Max' Maxwell has always been something of a dinosaur and even he realises just how far adrift he is when some of his sixth form students start receiving threatening messages on their mobiles.  He might prefer to make a phone call or send a note when the need arises, but this isn't the way of the younger generation and Maxwell discovers that he's going to have to climb a steep learning curve if he's to help his students through the problem.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007664</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Linda Porter
 
|title=Katherine the Queen: The Remarkable Life of Katherine Parr
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Biography
 
|summary=Katherine Parr was the last and arguably the most fortunate of King Henry VIII's six wives.  Apart from Anne of Cleves, the speedily divorced 'Flanders mare', she was the only one to survive him.  And while all six of the queens consort remain rather shadowy figures, this biography gives the impression that she was probably the most intelligent and well-rounded personality of them all.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230710395</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=David Kessler
 
|title=Mercy
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Crime
 
|summary=In some ways, the first line of this novel says it all: 'It's hard to sit still when your client is scheduled to die in fifteen hours.'  From this moment on, the action comes thick and fast, leaving the reader with barely the breath to murmer 'is it really probable that all this was left to the last day?'  However, if you suspend your disbelief, then the author does deliver blockbuster plot twists and twirls that are very satisfactory.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847561829</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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==The Best New Books==
|author=Lesley Pearse
 
|title=Stolen
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=The story of ''Stolen'' is an interesting one. David Mitchell is walking along a beach in Selsey, Sussex in May 2003, when he comes across a young woman – beautiful, half-drowned and barely alive. She is taken to hospital and her photo is featured in the newspapers, as the police hope to discover who she is.
 
  
Meanwhile, Dale, a female hairdresser, sees the photo and believes the girl to be Lotte, who she befriended on a cruise they were working on. Along with Dale's colleague Scott – who also knew Lotte – they visit the girl, but she has amnesia and seems to have forgotten almost everything.
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'''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by category]]. '''<br>
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718152859</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].'''
|author=Thomas Trofimuk
 
|title=Waiting for Columbus
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Literary Fiction
 
|summary=I was hooked instantly by the title. Original, thought-provoking, quirky.  The book revolves around a youngish man who has been admitted to an insane asylum (these two words alone make me want to shiver) in modern-day Spain.  The staff have their work cut out.  He doesn't remember his  name or anything at all about his past.  He's sporadically violent - and he says he is Christopher Columbus!  As the Americans would say, go figure.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330518844</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].
|author=Julie Highmore
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{{Frontpage
|title=The Message
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|author=Tom Percival
|rating=4.5
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|title=The Wrong Shoes
|genre=Women's Fiction
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|rating=5
|summary=''The Message'' is very much a twenty first century tale as it all hinges on a voicemail message made from a mobile phone. It is also based on the fact that it is very easy to send a message to one person when it is actually meant for someone else. This is what happens to Jen when she receives a message from her husband Robert. There is nothing particularly special about this message; that is until Jen realises that she is not the intended recipient and then it has a shattering effect on her marriage.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755343018</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Dugald Steer
 
|title=The Dragon Diary: Dragonology Chronicles Volume 2
 
|rating=3
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Daniel and Beatrice Cook are studying Dragonology with Dr Ernest Drake, and are awaiting the hatching of their very own dragon egg. But suddenly their parents have gone missing, an illness is killing dragons and it all smells of evil dragonologist, Alexandra Gorynytchka. Before they know it, the brother, sister and new dragon chick have to deliver Liber Draconis, the dragon diary, and St Petroc's chalice to Dr Drake in Hong Wei, which may hold the secret to the cure. As the back cover reads: ''The future of dragon kind hangs in the balance!''
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|summary=Will's life is difficult, in a multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', 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 had an accident.  Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has a tiny amount of hope. He is good at art, and clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0763634255</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1398527122
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Isabel Ashdown
 
|title=Glasshopper
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|summary=Thirteen-year-old Jake is just like any other boy on the cusp of puberty: new music and Saturday jobs are at the top of his agenda, while girls are the strange exotic creatures that must be looked at but not touched (particularly his pretty Classics teacher). But behind closed doors, Jake struggles to cope with his mother's ongoing battle with depression and alcoholism. His father moved out a few weeks ago. So has his older brother, Matthew. That leaves Jake as the man of the house: the one who must remember to get him and little brother, Andy, up in time for school in the morning; the one making toast for dinner; and the one keeping a watchful eye over his mother to make sure she doesn't get herself into any serious trouble.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0954930975</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Kate Lum and Sue Hellard
 
|title=Princesses Are Not Perfect
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=Princesses Allie, Mellie and Libby love baking, gardening and building respectively. The day before the big summer party, they suddenly fancy a change and all swap jobs. With a hundred punnets of blueberries to pick, a hundred cupcakes to make, and a hundred chairs to build, the children are going to be awfully disappointed if the princesses' new-found interests aren't successful.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747599297</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Sylvie Cathrall
|author=Avivah Wittenberg-Cox and Alison Maitland
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|title=A Letter to the Luminous Deep
|title=Why Women Mean Business
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Business and Finance
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|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=Do you want to improve your business?  Make more profits?  You probably need to look at the sector which makes 80% of purchasing decisions, is the majority of the talent and represents 59% of graduates.
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|summary= There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of them.
 
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|isbn= 0356522776
Women.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0470749504</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0008517061
|author=David Clayton
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|title=Death in a Lonely Place
|title=The Richard Beckinsale Story
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|author=Stig Abell
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Biography
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|genre=Crime
|summary=A generation probably knows Richard Beckinsale only from repeats on the UK Gold TV channels, and from occasional mentions in the context of 'how great he would have been if only…' In 1978 The Sunday Times Magazine tipped the 30-year-old sitcom favourite as a rising major star of the 80s who would blossom into one of the great all-round stage actors. One year later, he was dead.
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|summary= Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky.  There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the future of his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the future she wants for herself and her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and putting the future on the back burner.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0752454404</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1786482126
|author=Thomas Asbridge
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|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)
|title=The Crusades: The War for the Holy Land
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|author=Elly Griffiths
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=History
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|genre=Crime
|summary=The word 'Crusades' has been misappropriated and often used in various other contexts over the passing yearsIn their original meaning they were a series of holy wars during the medieval era between the Christian and Muslim world, fighting for dominion over the Holy Land between 1095 and 1291 as the defenders of western civilization formed expeditions travelling across the face of the known world from Europe, their sole aim being to conquer and defend an isolated swathe of territory centred on Jerusalem.
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|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorwayThere was no skull.  Was this a ritual killing or murder?  Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson.  It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the one night they spent together some three months ago.  Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0743268601</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0008551324
|author=M R Hall
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|title=The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)
|title=The Disappeared
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|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4
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|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary=We first met Jenny Cooper in [[The Coroner by M R Hall|The Coroner]] when she had just taken over as Coroner for Severn ValleyIt's now some months later and whilst she's settled into the job to some extent her relationship with her officer, Alison, is uneven and she's still shaky mentally and dependant on pills to a greater extent than she would care to admit. She's a feisty woman though and determined that she's going to do the job properly.
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|summary=It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the policeNeither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell 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 it will be worth the police doing what he wants.  And what he wants is to be transferred 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 new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230709850</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0008405026
|author=Ann Pearlman
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|title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)
|title=The Cookie Club
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|author=Jane Casey
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Women's Fiction
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|genre=Crime
|summary=Chocolate bonbons with an almond glaze. Peanut butter cookies double dipped in chocolate. Coffee and raisin hermit biscuits. Crisp vanilla fingers with toasted almonds. Thin crunchy crisps flavoured with molasses and ginger.   
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|summary=It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in their bedInitially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the bodies that makes 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's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.
 
 
If you're even the slightest bit peckish after that, I guarantee you'll be starving by the time you finish this wonderful book full of festive flavour.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847376843</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0571379877
|author=Carlo Collodi and Sara Fanelli
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|title=The Kellerby Code
|title=Pinocchio
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|author=Jonny Sweet
|rating=4.5
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|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident Readers
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|genre=Crime
|summary=Pinocchio, as you all know, is a little wooden puppet, who wants to be a real boy. He's very badly behaved, and always getting into trouble. Will he listen to the advice of Gepetto, the cricket or the fairy? Will he become real? What's it like if he doesn't break into a Disney song every two minutes?
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|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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406317470</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Jo Callaghan
|author=Ursula Dubosarsky and Andrew Joyner
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|title=Leave No Trace
|title=The Terrible Plop
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|rating=4
|rating=3.5
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|genre=Crime
|genre=For Sharing
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|summary=When a man is found crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. It's their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases.  But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project.  Will they be able to solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of a career?
|summary=The rabbits are sitting by the lake, munching on cake and carrots. An apple falls in, with a terrible plop, and they scamper off scared. All the other animals join in the stampede and get as far away as they can from the terrible plop. Bear is far too big and grumpy to be scared, so he gets the littlest rabbit to show him just where the scariness lies...
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|isbn=139851120X
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405251379</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1399613073
|author=John Ward
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|title=Moral Injuries
|title=The Comet's Child
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|author=Christie Watson
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
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|genre=Thrillers
|summary=Teenage Fin is rescued from his remote forest home by Ragg, the first man he has ever encounteredHaving such a sheltered childhood has equipped Fin with the speech and education of a nobleman's son but little idea about the real worldOther than relying on his instincts and resourcefulness, Fin has no way of knowing who to trust, or where he is bound as he leaves home with Ragg.
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|summary=Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a centuryOlivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon.  Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor.  Anjali is the free spirit of the group and she becomes a GP.  When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to end in tragedy.  We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequencesTwenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends.  This time, it's their teenage children who are involved.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905537123</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0241636604
|author=Robert Jackson Bennett
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|title=The Trading Game: A Confession
|title=Mr Shivers
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|author=Gary Stevenson
|rating=5
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|rating=4.5
|genre=Horror
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|genre=Autobiography
|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.  
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|summary=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 East End, where he was familiar with violence, 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 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841498572</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1035021803
|author=Neil Cross
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|title=The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder
|title=Captured
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|author=C L Miller
|rating=4.5
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|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary=Kenny is dying - brain cancer is hitting him just as he's barely turning fortyAs a result he compiles a short list of rights to wrong, and people to create closure withOne, his ex-wife, might not be easy, two concern a misguided sense of a guilt of oldThe fourth turns out to be a missing womanThe journey he takes in that redemptive exercise is not for the squeamish.
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|summary=It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew upShe'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 leastArthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, she feels, let her down badlyEven though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the man or pursue the profession she lovedAfter 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847373976</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover
|author=The Economist
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|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt
|title=The World of Business: From Valuable Brands and Games Directors Play to Bail-Outs and Bad Boys
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|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Business and Finance
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|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=For years I've been a great fan of The Economist's [[Pocket World in Figures 2010 by The Economist|Pocket World in Figures]] series with all the unbiased statistics which the average person could want. I was just a little nervous when I opened ''The World of Business'' – just in case it was going to be a disappointment – but I needn't have worried.
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|summary=''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846681588</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteenWell, 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.
|author=Rachel Renee Russell
 
|title=Dork Diaries
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=I do like a blurb to be accurateSo when I saw the back cover of this book state the obvious to me, "Diary of a Wimpy Kid for girls!", I could rest assured.  I didn't relax fully, however, for I'd read [[Rodrick Rules (Diary of a Wimpy Kid) by Jeff Kinney|the blue one]] of those and found it a bit feeble, and [[Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days by Jeff Kinney|the yellow one]] and found it a bit fabulous, so I couldn't guarantee any feminine, pink variant would be worth my time.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847387411</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Sunny Singh
|author=Val Doonican
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|title=Hotel Arcadia
|title=My Story, My Life: Val Doonican - The Complete Autobiography
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|rating=3.5
|rating=4.5
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|genre=Thrillers
|genre=Autobiography
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|summary=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 Abhi, the hotel managerAs Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the hotel, he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what's happened through her photographyAlthough 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 terrorists.
|summary=In the 1960s, if Harold Wilson was the personification of politics and the Beatles the collective icon of youth culture, Val Doonican was similarly at the very apex of light entertainmentHe may no longer have such a high profile – but he's outlasted them both.  Over four decades he has refused to bow to passing fads and fashions, remained true to himself, and in the process he has never really put a foot wrong.  As he says towards the end, 'When you find out what it is you do best, and what the public wants from you, then stick with it, and do it as well as you can.' With the possible exception of his contemporary and long-time professional and personal friend Rolf Harris, it's difficult to think of another person in showbiz who comes across as more genuinely likeable, and more a genuine case of 'what you see is what you get'.
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|isbn=086154742X
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906779619</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1529153298
|author=Su Tong
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|title=The List of Suspicious Things
|title=The Boat to Redemption
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|author=Jennie Godfrey
|rating=3
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|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
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|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Ku Dongliang and his father, Ku Wenxuan, are forced to live on a barge on the river following Ku Wenxuan's fall from grace. Originally believed to be the son of a revolutionary martyr, it is eventually proved that Mr Ku was not so - as a result, his position in society takes a nose-dive. Dongliang suffers as a result of this, finding it hard to make friends within the barge community and on shore. Then an orphaned girl moves onto the barges and finds a place in Dongliang's apparently cold heart. Will she be able to take him out of himself? Or will she, too, turn her back on him?
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|summary=It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister.  (A woman?  I mean, 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 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 frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>038561344X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1398524085
|author=Colin Cotterill
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|title=Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?
|title=The Merry Misogynist
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|author=Nicci French
|rating=4.5
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|rating=5
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary=Dr Siri Paiboun is now married to Madame Daeng and despite the fact that they have a combined age of going on for a hundred and forty they're behaving like the newly-weds they areEven being the reluctant coroner for the Republic of Laos can't dampen Siri's enthusiasm for lifeWell, it can't until he makes the gruesome discovery that a man is wooing and wedding girls in various parts of the country and then murdering them on honeymoon and binding their bodies to trees.  What he does to his victims leaves the morgue staff sickenedThere's a determination to find the man responsible and bring him to justice.
+
|summary=Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up.  Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, Etty. are all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, is notShortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the body of Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in the riverIt was an easy assumption for the police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the guiltThe Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849160082</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1035906708
|author=Nicola Davies
+
|title=Diva
|title=Gaia Warriors
+
|author=Daisy Goodwin
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
+
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The best way to read this book is to treat it like a magazine:  flip the pages and dip inI can guarantee that you will find something to catch your eye.  Fashion addicts could start on page 136 ''Dressing for the climate'', foodies may prefer page 124 ''Rock-star food''. The array of different typefaces and page colours make the book very easy to browse, and the author excels at explaining difficult concepts in a straightforward waySo certain sections in it could be considered not just as for older children or teen readers, but as an informative read for adults as well.
+
|summary=We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteenHer original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas' to make it more manageable in the StatesWhen she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could 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 her elder sister, Jackie.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406312347</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Christopher Edge
|author=Iain Banks
+
|title=Black Hole Cinema Club
|title=The Steep Approach to Garbadale
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
+
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=It took me a while to realise that Iain Banks is, 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 world. This ability to tell stories - not to plot as much as to weave a yarn - combines with a penchant for creating appealing contexts for Banks' narratives to unfold in (this gets magnificently realised in the world building of his [[:Category:Iain M Banks|Iain M. Banks]] alter-ego) and populating them with memorable, larger than life but usually short of caricature, characters.
+
|summary=Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a 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 something about this new film format is very different, and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to the next, can they figure out what on earth is going on?  Will they ever get back to the cinema, and to their real lives?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0349119287</amazonuk>
+
|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.''
  
{{newreview
+
Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, is one of the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the island's leader and Mira's father. Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and with only coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. With only nine days to unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the heart of the smuggler's territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and the ones she holds most dear.
|author=Malcolm Walker
+
|isbn=0008664730
|title=The Stone Crown
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Neither Emlyn nor Maxine feel completely at home in Yeaveburgh - yet they both have roots there. Emlyn's come back to the town in which he was born because his mother and sister, archaeologists, are working on a dig nearby. His father is in a care home, having suffered a nervous breakdown. Maxine returned to the town to live with her grandmother after her mother died of a heroin overdose. Emlyn is quiet and shy, a bit geeky, and lonely. Maxine is lonely too, but she'd never admit it. She's too spiky and defensive. They both feel like outsiders, and yet they both have a nagging sense that they are where they were meant to be.  
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406321516</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=James Sherwood Metts
|author=Ceci Jenkinson
+
|title=Planet Storyland
|title=Mirror Mischief (Oli and Skipjack's Tales of Trouble)
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Sid from the pizza shop is on holiday in Africa and she's sent presents to her two best customers, Oli Biggles and Skipjack Haynes. Oli's present is a mirror and it's not just any mirror as it seems to have magical powers.  It was perhaps unfortunate that Vernon Surd, the mean maths teacher who punishes anyone who can't do fractions and Slugger Stubbins, the school bully should be the ones at the wrong end of the magical powers but it seemed quite appropriate that the first should be transformed into a vulture and the second into a blue-faced baboon.
+
|summary= Things have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of other, new ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and, along with it, all the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571249698</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1736128426
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Eloisa James
 
|title=When the Duke Returns
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=''When the Duke Returns'', the newest volume in the 'Desperate Duchesses' series, continues the regency celebrity romp saga where [[Duchess by Night by Eloisa James|Duchess by Night]] left off.
 
 
 
The focus, this time, is on Isidore, the Duchess of Conway: hot-headed, hot-blooded and Italian to boot, she was married by proxy at the age of sixteen and is still a virgin seven years later. Isidore's cunning plot to entice back the husband she has never seen from his travels in Asia and Africa works perfectly and Simeon, His Grace Duke of Conway is now back in England, ready to claim his estate and, as Isidore presumes, ready to claim his beautiful wife.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340961104</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Matthew Tree
|author=John Van der Kiste
+
|title=We'll Never Know
|title=Sons, Servants and Statesmen: The Men in Queen Victoria's Life
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
+
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Like the first Elizabeth 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 please, would always have a man in her life who would, to a greater or lesser extent, dominate her.
+
|summary= Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, a drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and who had endless crises of self confidence. So Tim applied himself to his studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0750937882</amazonuk>
+
|isbn= B0CVFXPGP8
}}
 
 
 
{{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 and the death, possibly suicide, of her fiancé, a nephew of the American President.  Drawn to Paris, 'the chosen European city for the sophisticated and well-heeled 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 citizenship. 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 to make ends meet in England, and they were drawn to find a property in Provence partly by the lifestyle, partly by a favourable exchange rate.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955832101</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 +
{{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.''
  
{{newreview
+
Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Briar's, a family of witches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands. Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to be born into her family for generations and as such since she was young, her training as a steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the town's leader, and Ellie takes her place beside her. As challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, putting her at the heart of a maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what to do as the Briar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat.
|author=Keith Colquhoun
+
|isbn=1803364548
|title=Beyond Reason
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|summary=''Beyond Reason'' is a deceptively complex novel - a black comedy about the conflicts within religion. The main focus of the plot, Edward Bunyan, is a radical within the Church of England who is trying to take religion in a new (and rather amusing) direction in order to get the public interested in it again. Bunyan claims to have a direct link with God as well as spiritual powers, such as being able to levitate and read minds, which leave his colleague and old college friend, Reverend Ralph 'Marmy' Marmaduke, unsure about both his friendship with Bunyan and his own religious beliefs.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904529348</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1529900360
|author=Jonathan Hayes 
+
|title=The Ghost Orchid
|title=A Hard Death
+
|author=Jonathan Kellerman
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary=I haven't read Jonathan Hayes' bestseller 'Precious Blood' so I was a fresh reader, so to speak. His writing biography on the inside cover of the book is impressiveMy expectations were high. All the ingredients are in place for a good thriller.  The location is The Everglades in FloridaBrooding, enigmatic, awe-inspiring and where we all seem to expect crocodiles to rear their heads out of the swampy waters every five minutes.
+
|summary=It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the help of a psychologist only worked for a whileFinally, 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.  Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a remote property in Bel AirHe was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to an extremely rich man and it's not the Italian.  But which of them was the primary target?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099538644</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1529395224
|author=Colin Cotterill
+
|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet
|title=Curse of the Pogo Stick
+
|author=Sion Rowlands
|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime
 
|summary=Dr Siri Paiboun usually managed to control his reactions in front 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 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>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|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=Ghostgirl
 
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
|genre=Teens
+
|genre=Animals and Wildlife
|summary=Charlotte Usher is desperate to be popularShe has spent the entire summer break transforming herself to try and fit in with the 'in' crowd all in an attempt to try and attract the attention of Damen, a popular and handsome jockYet even after all her hard work she still remains invisible at best, despised at worstFinally, in a moment of tragic bad luck, Charlotte chokes on a gummy bear, alone in a classroom, and diesThis isn't the end of the story however, it's actually just the beginning, because Charlotte isn't going to let the little inconvenience of being dead get in her way...
+
|summary=Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentallyHis 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 himBefore long, he was at Liverpool UniversityIt hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a childIf anything, he'd wanted to be a professional footballer.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755347714</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=0861541774
|author=Anthony Horowitz
+
|title=A Nye of Pheasants
|title=Crocodile Tears (Alex Rider)
+
|author=Steve Burrows
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
+
|genre=Crime
|summary=Fans of Anthony Horowitz' Alex Rider series have had a two-year wait for this installment of our young hero's escapades and they are not going to be disappointedHe's fourteen year old now and not only is he being targeted by a hitman, he's also being pursued by a journalist who wants to tell the nation all about the fact that MI6 are using one of his tender years to do their dirty workThe trouble is that he can't be positive that it was a sniper that caused the car he was in to skid off a Scottish road and land at the bottom of a Loch.  And MI6 don't seem all that bothered about the journalist, unless, that is, Alex might be willing 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 gentleman.
+
|summary=DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy TruemanMaik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and he killed a Ghurka.  Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the manNow he could be facing the death penalty.  Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn't help Danny at all.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406310484</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Alexander McCall Smith
|author=Cathi Unsworth 
+
|title=The Perfect Passion Company
|title=Bad Penny Blues
+
|rating=4.5
|rating=4
+
|genre=General Fiction
|genre=Crime
+
|summary=The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and 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 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 charm.  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 lend a hand…
|summary=Step into the seedy underbelly of London on the cusp of the Swinging Sixties. 'Bad Penny Blues' is the story of the hunt for a brutal serial killer targeting prostitutes in the west of the city, at the time a melting pot of immigrants from the Caribbean and Ireland, bohemian artists and media types, and even peers. Carnaby Street was just becoming the fashion centre of London and a new decade promised exciting possibilities.
+
|isbn=1846976596
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846686784</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=0811771741
|author=Celia Friedman
+
|title=InstaKnits for Baby
|title=The Wings of Wrath (The Magister Trilogy)
+
|author=Melissa Leapman
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Fantasy
+
|genre=Crafts
|summary=The first part of Celia Friedman's ''Magister'' trilogy was a wonderfully dark piece of fantasyIt 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.
+
|summary=Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to blanketsSome will be quick knits - others are of the 'long, cosy afternoons in front of the fire' variety.  The projects are divided by the time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and more than twenty hours.  All the projects are attractive, modern and useable.  I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's me being picky.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841495336</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Dean Koontz
|author=Bernard P Morgan and Rikin Parekh
+
|title=The Bad Weather Friend
|title=The Lighthouse
+
|rating=4.5
|rating=2
+
|genre=Paranormal
|genre=For Sharing
+
|summary=Benny is having 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 possible 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.  Spike is going to take 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.
|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.
+
|isbn=1662500491
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312764</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Adam Stower
|author=Peter Blackstock 
+
|title=Murray and Bun
|title=The Secret Symbol: The Original Masonic Documents Behind Dan Brown's Latest Bestseller
+
|rating=4.5
|rating=3
+
|genre=Confident Readers
|genre=Spirituality and Religion
+
|summary=Murray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the twoBut he's a bad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the regular back garden, but into 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…
|summary=Pop QuizWhat 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?
+
|isbn=0008561249
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683734</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=B0C47LV1PC
 +
|title=Fragility
 +
|author=Mosby Woods
 +
|rating=4
 +
|genre=Literary Fiction
 +
|summary= Can you make a ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, is the question should you make it? Or is the question if you did, would it land? The catch is that the answer for both could well be.... no.
  
{{newreview
+
''Fragility'' is set as the city of Portland, Oregon, cautiously begins to emerge from the restrictions imposed during the covid pandemic
|author=Jonathan Buckley
 
|title=Contact
 
|rating=2.5
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|summary=Dominic Pattison's life began to veer off course badly on a Tuesday in May.  It's a fairly banal Tuesday.  The kind of Tuesday that Dominic probably experiences quite frequently.  He feels the need to tell us about it.
 
 
 
In detail. 
 
 
 
And, sadly, 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 some ten years earlier and Sarah really didn't want to work with him, particularly after her marriage.  Most people thought that her husband's death in a plane crash had been the cruel end to a good marriage. Only a few knew that he had been about to leave her to live with another woman.  It's left Sarah very reluctant to get involved with any man.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089430</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?

Revision as of 07:59, 8 May 2024

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Review of

The Wrong Shoes by Tom Percival

5star.jpg Confident Readers

Will's life is difficult, in a multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', 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 had an accident. Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has a tiny amount of hope. He is good at art, and clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel. Full Review

0356522776.jpg

Review of

A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall

5star.jpg Science Fiction

There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of them. Full Review

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Review of

Death in a Lonely Place by Stig Abell

4star.jpg Crime

Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the future of his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the future she wants for herself and her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and putting the future on the back burner. Full Review

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Review of

The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway) by Elly Griffiths

4.5star.jpg Crime

Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the one night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness. Full Review

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Review of

The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie) by Neil Lancaster

4.5star.jpg Crime

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's prepared to tell 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 it will be worth the police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred 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 new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening. Full Review

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Review of

A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11) by Jane Casey

5star.jpg Crime

It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the bodies that makes 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's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced. Full Review

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Review of

The Kellerby Code by Jonny Sweet

3.5star.jpg Crime

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. Full Review

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Review of

Leave No Trace by Jo Callaghan

4star.jpg Crime

When a man is found crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. It's their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of a career? Full Review

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Review of

Moral Injuries by Christie Watson

4.5star.jpg Thrillers

Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and 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 drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. This time, it's their teenage children who are involved. Full Review

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Review of

The Trading Game: A Confession by Gary Stevenson

4.5star.jpg Autobiography

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 East End, where he was familiar with violence, 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 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. Full Review

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Review of

The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder by C L Miller

3.5star.jpg Crime

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. Full Review

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Review of

All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt by Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)

5star.jpg Science Fiction

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. Full Review

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Review of

Hotel Arcadia by Sunny Singh

3.5star.jpg Thrillers

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 Abhi, the hotel manager. As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the hotel, he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what's happened through her photography. Although they only ever talk over the phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists. Full Review

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Review of

The List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey

5star.jpg General Fiction

It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, 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 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 frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone. Full Review

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Review of

Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter? by Nicci French

5star.jpg Crime

Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, Etty. are all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, is not. Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the body of Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in the river. It was an easy assumption for the police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the guilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened. Full Review

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Review of

Diva by Daisy Goodwin

4.5star.jpg General Fiction

We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas' to make it more manageable in the States. When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her elder sister, Jackie. Full Review

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Review of

Black Hole Cinema Club by Christopher Edge

4star.jpg Confident Readers

Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a 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 something about this new film format is very different, and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to the next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the cinema, and to their real lives? Full Review

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Review of

Compass and Blade by Rachel Greenlaw

3.5star.jpg Teens

I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.

Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, is one of the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the island's leader and Mira's father. Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and with only coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. With only nine days to unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the heart of the smuggler's territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and the ones she holds most dear. Full Review

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Review of

Planet Storyland by James Sherwood Metts

4.5star.jpg Confident Readers

Things have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of other, new ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and, along with it, all the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily. Full Review

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Review of

We'll Never Know by Matthew Tree

4.5star.jpg Literary Fiction

Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, a drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and who had endless crises of self confidence. So Tim applied himself to his studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions. Full Review

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Review of

The Briar Book of the Dead by A G Slatter

5star.jpg Fantasy

There's a part of me that wants to keep this just to myself for however long I can. This secret magic of my own, all mine, at last. I just want to enjoy it for a while.

Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Briar's, a family of witches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands. Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to be born into her family for generations and as such since she was young, her training as a steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the town's leader, and Ellie takes her place beside her. As challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, putting her at the heart of a maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what to do as the Briar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat. Full Review

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Review of

The Ghost Orchid by Jonathan Kellerman

4star.jpg Crime

It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the help of a psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, it was Robin, Delaware's 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. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a remote property in Bel Air. He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to an extremely rich man and it's not the Italian. But which of them was the primary target? Full Review

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Review of

Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet by Sion Rowlands

3.5star.jpg Animals and Wildlife

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. Full Review

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Review of

A Nye of Pheasants by Steve Burrows

4star.jpg Crime

DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and he killed a Ghurka. Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the man. Now he could be facing the death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn't help Danny at all. Full Review

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Review of

The Perfect Passion Company by Alexander McCall Smith

4.5star.jpg General Fiction

The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and 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 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 charm. 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 lend a hand… Full Review

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Review of

InstaKnits for Baby by Melissa Leapman

4star.jpg Crafts

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 front of the fire' variety. The projects are divided by the time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and more than twenty hours. All the projects are attractive, modern and useable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's me being picky. Full Review

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Review of

The Bad Weather Friend by Dean Koontz

4.5star.jpg Paranormal

Benny is having 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 possible 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. Spike is going to take 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. Full Review

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Review of

Murray and Bun by Adam Stower

4.5star.jpg Confident Readers

Murray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the two. But he's a bad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the regular back garden, but into 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… Full Review

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Review of

Fragility by Mosby Woods

4star.jpg Literary Fiction

Can you make a Yo birthing person joke? And if you could, is the question should you make it? Or is the question if you did, would it land? The catch is that the answer for both could well be.... no.

Fragility is set as the city of Portland, Oregon, cautiously begins to emerge from the restrictions imposed during the covid pandemic Full Review

{{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?