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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>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alan SkinnerSylvie Cathrall|title=Furnaces of ForgeA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=3.5|genre=TeensScience Fiction|summary=In this [[Blue Fire and Ice (The Land) by Alan Skinner|sequel]], it's almost as you were, except here the mysterious powers of the blue flame There are not being used by some outlander arsonist, but have been usurped by two inept young scientists from the Myrmidots, few greater joys than a book which lives up to fuel their industrya compelling premise. We can predict And this will prove a bad thing, but the breadth is one of the journey to capture the flame, and the efforts of all our returning characters to put things right might still be a surprisethem.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0955726859</amazonuk>0356522776
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mark Simpson0008517061|title=Alastair Sim: The Star of Scrooge and the Belles of St Trinian'sDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=BiographyCrime|summary=The mere mention of Alastair Sim conjures up visions of pictures made during the 1950s when Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a more gentle humour was little uncertainty about the order future of the day. Yet the man hated his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and did her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a lot of compromise: does Jake give up his best off-grid and relaxing life to avoid publicity, claiming that the person the public saw on screen revealed all that anybody needed move in with Livia or does Livia move to know Little Sky despite her reservations about him. whether or not this is the future she wants for herself and her daughter? How he would have fared twenty years later For the moment they’re enjoying life in the age of a more intrusive press, one cannot but wonderpresent and putting the future on the back burner.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0752453726</amazonuk>
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{{Frontpage|isbn=1786482126|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - 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.}}{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0008551324|title=The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Saci LloydNeil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he'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.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008405026|title=The Carbon Diaries 2017A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=TeensCrime|summary=It's been a sixteen years since nine-year since we read a diary entry -old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from Laura Brownher bed one summer night. We left her with a boyfriend She was never found and just about adjusted the investigation ground to a Britain 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 full throes positioning of carbon rationingthe bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. Her nu What looked as though it was going to be an open-punk band, and-shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent'dirty angels'', hadn't quite made its boss, but things were looking rather promising for its futureUna Burt) are less convinced. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340970162</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=P Robert Smith0571379877|title=Sunday Daffodil and Other Happy EndingsThe Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet
|rating=3.5
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=''Sunday Daffodil and Other Happy Endings'' Edward Jevons is the sort of book you finish a working-class young man, obsessed with the feeling that youhis upper-class friends, Robert and Stanza. Robert've just read something with s a million different meaningstheatre director. Don He't be surprised if you feel like you should start the whole thing again but s also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for him. Edward has been in love with your brain more fully engaged, Stanza since their university days - and perhaps he's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward thata relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the whole pointtwo of them kissing in a dark passageway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099535238</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dai Sijie Jo Callaghan|title=Once on a Moonless NightLeave No Trace|rating=3.54|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=A French female scholar, studying When a man is found crucified on the top of a hill in ChinaNuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself caught up in assigned to the search for a lostcase alongside her sidekick, sacred text that was inscribed on an ancient scrollthe AI detective Lock. The scroll was torn in two by Emperor Puyi years agoIt's their first live case together, and was losthaving previously been very successful with several cold cases. After falling in love But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a young grocer called Tumchooq 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 young woman becomes caught up case in tales within talestime, as she finds that Tumchooq's father found and translated half of or will Kat find herself taken off the missing scroll case and became obsessed with finding the other half, and soon Tumchooq too becomes embroiled in the search.potentially, out of a career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099521326</amazonuk>139851120X
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nicholas Stern1399613073|title=A Blueprint for a Safer Planet: How We Can Save the World and Create ProsperityMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Politics and SocietyThrillers|summary=The hardback edition Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of 'A Blueprint medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a Safer Planet' was published early in 2009 as an update to the 2006 Stern Review on the economics quarter of climate changea century. Now here Olivia is the paperback editionruthlessly ambitious, published too early which is a bonus when you aim to critique Copenhagen, but nonetheless an interesting readbe a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Stern 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 expert witness eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. This time, it's their teenage children who presents his evidence understandably for the layman; he is unemotional and very convincingare involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099524058</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robert Crawford0241636604|title=The BardTrading Game: Robert Burns - a biographyA Confession|author=Gary Stevenson
|rating=4.5
|genre=BiographyAutobiography|summary=If Shakespeare is Englandyou were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you's own Bard, re unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the comparatively shortlived Robert Burns – who lived pin-stripe suit and worked nearly two centuries later – fulfils his background is the equivalent role in Scottish iconography more than adequatelyEast End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. Yet as this very thorough biography demonstrates, there is much more There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the man than the wordsmith London School of 'Auld Lang Syne' Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and 'Weehe 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, sleekitessentially, cowrin'a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, tim'rous beastie'this turned into permanent employment as a trader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844139301</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alyxandra Harvey1035021803|title=My Love Lies BleedingThe Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller
|rating=3.5
|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Solange Drake hates being It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the only born female vampire. Not only does English country village where she have to put grew up with . She's back now because of a request for help from her pheromones making her irresistible 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 male vampiresthe village: Arthur, who all want to use she feels, let her down badly. Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to start their own vampire familiesbe near the man or pursue the profession she loved. After the split, she has worked in a prophecy looming over her headcafe, one that states a female Drake vampire will overthrow met and married James (on the rebound from the current ruler to become Queen love of the Vampiresher life, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408803402</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Terence MorganAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=The Master of BrugesAll Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Science Fiction|summary=Belgium, the fifteenth century. Hans is apprenticed to a master painter in ''Opening up new ways of thinking about the city shape of Brussels, until the old curmudgeon dies, and his studio falls apart. Luckily for Hans, a mistakenly drawn sketch, and a bizarre rescue from the gallows gives him a major boost - patronage, for both portraits and many religious images. With what might seem things to be a patchy diary - some years have five pages only, concerning but one month - we see his startling life journey, covering beguiling models, ghostly war scenes, and even the biggest intrigues of English royal courtcome.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230744125</amazonuk>}}''
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tom PalmerSunny Singh|title=Captain Fantastic (Football Academy)Hotel Arcadia|rating=43.5|genre=Confident ReadersThrillers |summary=Ryan The Hotel Arcadia is a changed boyluxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Since he got into hot water with manager Steve for bullying several books ago, and his captaincy of Hiding from the United U12s was threatenedterrorists who are rampaging through, he's been determined to get his socks firmly pulled up. He's worked really hard at redeeming himself too - both killing everyone on site, there is Sam, a wartime photographer and off Abhi, the pitchhotel manager. He's more than halfway towards becoming As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the best captain residents who are still alive in the teamhotel, 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 had. So when Craig's attitude suddenly nosedives and he starts playing dirty during games and being insolent during trainingtalk over the phone, Ryan feels a big responsibility their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help sort it outher keep safe and they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141324724</amazonuk>086154742X
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sarah Duncan1529153298|title=A Single to RomeThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=35|genre=Women's General Fiction|summary=Natalie It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is in love with MichaelPrime Minister. They (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been together for three yearsmurdered, but Michael to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants some spaceto move the family 'Down South'. He hasn’t said he doesn’t love her When you're from Yorkshire, so there Down South is still a chance he could come back… Then he goes and finds himself a new girlfriendfrightening, foreign place, best avoided. Devastated For Miv, Natalie consoles herself with the help of move would mean leaving her friendsbest friend, who persuade her to go speed dating. There she meets Guy, a friendly man, who like her is trying to get over someone – his new ex-wife Vanessa. But Guy is one of the nice onesSharon, and before she knows it, he has been invited 'll do anything to her friend’s wedding as Natalie’s dateprevent that. At least she won’t be going alone and Michael will be there. But her love life isn’t her only worry. Past actions have come to light She's not worried about the dangers or that have put her career in danger. At a loss, Natalie turns Mum's stopped talking - to Guy for help, who offers her the use of his flat in Romeanyone. A place to escape? Or a place to dwell? |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755345932</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Christopher Russell and Christine Russell1398524085|title=The Quest of the Warrior SheepHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French
|rating=5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Peter Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband'Mad Max' Maxwell has always been something of a dinosaur s fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and even he realises just how far adrift he her daughter, Etty. are all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, is when some not. Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the body of his sixth form students start receiving threatening messages on their mobilesGreg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in the river. He might prefer It was an easy assumption for the police to make a phone call or send a note that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when the need arises, but this isnhe couldn't stand the way of the younger generation and Maxwell discovers that heguilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there's going to have to climb a steep learning curve if he's to help his students through the problemlittle else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007664</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Linda Porter1035906708|title=Katherine the Queen: The Remarkable Life of Katherine ParrDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=BiographyGeneral Fiction|summary=Katherine Parr We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was the last born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and arguably the most fortunate of King Henry VIII's six wivesonly moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Apart from Anne of Cleves, the speedily divorced Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Flanders mareCallas', she was to make it more manageable in the only one to survive himStates. And while all six of the queens consort remain rather shadowy figures, this biography gives the impression When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was probably raised under the most intelligent Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and well-rounded personality made no secret of them allher preference for her elder sister, Jackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230710395</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=David KesslerChristopher Edge|title=MercyBlack Hole Cinema Club|rating=3.54|genre=CrimeConfident Readers|summary=In some waysLucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the first line nickname of this novel says it all: 'ItThe Black Hole's hard to sit still when your client is scheduled to die in fifteen hours. All big movie fans, they' re looking forward to lots of exciting films, and many, many snacks! From this moment onHowever, as the action comes thick and fastmovie starts, leaving the reader with barely the breath to murmer 'is it really probable they very quickly realise that all something about this was left 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 last daynext, can they figure out what on earth is going on?' HoweverWill they ever get back to the cinema, if you suspend your disbelief, then the author does deliver blockbuster plot twists and twirls that are very satisfactory. to their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847561829</amazonuk>1839942738
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lesley PearseRachel Greenlaw|title=StolenCompass and Blade
|rating=3.5
|genre=Women's FictionTeens|summary=The story of ''Stolen'' is an interesting oneI can hear the song of the sea. 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 call of the newspapersdeep, as the police hope to discover who she isanswering beat in my heart.''
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Thomas Trofimuk James Sherwood Metts|title=Waiting for ColumbusPlanet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionConfident Readers|summary=I was hooked instantly by Things have been a bit sticky for the titleEarthlings. OriginalAI and automation have been proceeding apace, thought-provoking, quirkyoften replacing jobs they're paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. The book revolves around a youngish man who has been admitted Just as they were beginning to an insane asylum (these two words alone make me want get used 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 pastthis technological change and starting to think of other, new ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. He's sporadically violent - Life was pretty much shut down and he says he is Christopher Columbus! As , along with it, all the Americans would say, go figuremany daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0330518844</amazonuk>1736128426
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Julie HighmoreMatthew Tree|title=The MessageWe'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=Women's Literary Fiction|summary=''The Message'' is very much Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, a twenty first century tale as it drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all hinges on a voicemail message made from a mobile phonefailed miserably and who had endless crises of self confidence. It is also based on the fact that it is very easy So Tim applied himself 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 his studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and then it has a shattering effect on her marriageset himself high but achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755343018</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8
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{{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=Isabel Ashdown1529900360|title=GlasshopperThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=ThirteenIt 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-yearand-old Jake is just like any other boy on shut cases which didn't need the cusp help of puberty: new music and Saturday jobs are at the top of his agenda, a psychologist only worked for a while girls are the strange exotic creatures that must be looked at but not touched (particularly his pretty Classics teacher). But behind closed doors Finally, it was Robin, Jake struggles to cope with his motherDelaware's ongoing battle with depression and alcoholismpartner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. His father moved out a few weeks ago She knew that the involvement was something that the man she loved needed. So has his older brother The next case did look simple, Matthewthough. That leaves Jake as Two lovers were murdered in the man swimming pool of a remote property in Bel Air. He was the house: the one who must remember heir to get him an Italian shoe empire and little brother, Andy, up in time for school in the morning; the one making toast for dinner; she is married to an extremely rich man and it's not the one keeping a watchful eye over his mother to make sure she doesn't get herself into any serious troubleItalian.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0954930975</amazonuk> But which of them was the primary target?
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kate Lum and Sue Hellard1529395224|title=Princesses Are Not PerfectLetting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands
|rating=3.5
|genre=For SharingAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Princesses Allie, Mellie Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Libby love bakingRowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, gardening and building respectivelyparticularly when he considered the strain that being on-call put on his father's life. The day before When he was seventeen he took the big summer party, they suddenly fancy opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a change vet and all swap jobswas convinced this was the job for him. With a hundred punnets of blueberries to pick Before long, he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a hundred cupcakes to makechild. If anything, and a hundred chairs to build, the children are going he'd wanted to be awfully disappointed if the princesses' new-found interests aren't successfula professional footballer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747599297</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Avivah Wittenberg-Cox and Alison Maitland0861541774|title=Why Women Mean Business|rating=5|genre=Business and Finance|summary=Do you want to improve your business? Make more profits? You probably need to look at the sector which makes 80% A Nye of purchasing decisions, is the majority of the talent and represents 59% of graduates. Women.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0470749504</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewPheasants|author=David Clayton|title=The Richard Beckinsale StorySteve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=BiographyCrime|summary=A generation probably knows Richard Beckinsale only from repeats on the UK Gold TV channelsDCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, and from occasional mentions Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in the context of 'how great a street brawl - he would have been if only…' later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and he killed a Ghurka. In 1978 The Sunday Times Magazine tipped the 30-year-old sitcom favourite as Initially, he faced a rising major star charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the 80s who would blossom into one of man. Now he could be facing the great all-round stage actorsdeath penalty. One year later, he was deadDomenic 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>0752454404</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Thomas AsbridgeAlexander McCall Smith|title=The Crusades: The War for the Holy LandPerfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=HistoryGeneral Fiction|summary=The word 'Crusades' 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 been misappropriated asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and often used in various other contexts over look after the passing yearsbusiness, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. In their original meaning they were Katie is coming out of a break up with a series of holy wars during the medieval era between the Christian and Muslim worldbad boyfriend, fighting for dominion over the Holy Land between 1095 and 1291 as so jumps at the defenders of western civilization formed expeditions travelling across the face of the known world chance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from EuropeAlexander McCall Smith, their sole aim being bringing us to conquer an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and defend an isolated swathe of territory centred on Jerusalemthe 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…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0743268601</amazonuk>1846976596
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=M R Hall0811771741|title=The DisappearedInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=CrimeCrafts|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 Valley. ItMelissa Leapman'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 InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a greater extent than she would care collection of knits from toys to admitblankets. SheSome will be quick knits - others are of the 's a feisty woman though and determined that shelong, cosy afternoons in front of the fire's going to do the job properlyvariety.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230709850</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Ann Pearlman|title= The Cookie Club|rating=5|genre=Womenprojects are divided by the time they's Fiction|summary=Chocolate bonbons with an almond glaze. Peanut butter cookies double dipped in chocolate. Coffee ll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and raisin hermit biscuitsmore than twenty hours. Crisp vanilla fingers with toasted almonds. Thin crunchy crisps flavoured with molasses All the projects are attractive, modern and gingeruseable. If youI perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects're even the slightest bit peckish after but that, I guarantee you'll be starving by the time you finish this wonderful book full of festive flavours me being picky.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847376843</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Carlo Collodi and Sara FanelliDean Koontz|title=PinocchioThe Bad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersParanormal|summary=Pinocchio, as you all know, Benny is having a little wooden puppet, who wants to be a real boyterrifically bad day. He's very badly behavedloses his job, he loses his fiancee, and always getting into troublehis house gets trashed. Will he listen 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 advice of Gepettothing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the cricket or the fairy? Will he become real? What's it like if he doesn't break into very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a Disney song every two minutes?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406317470</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Ursula Dubosarsky and Andrew Joyner|title=The Terrible Plop|rating=3nice person. A really nice person.5|genre=For Sharing|summary=The rabbits are sitting by So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the lake, munching on cake and carrots. An apple falls indelivery to his house is a new friend, with a terrible plopbad weather friend called Spike, and they scamper off scared. All the other animals join in the stampede and get as far away as they can who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from the terrible plopnefarious forces for being a good person. Bear Spike is far too big going to take care of Benny, and grumpy to be scaredwill certainly take care of Benny's enemies, so if he gets the littlest rabbit to show him just where the scariness lies.., Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405251379</amazonuk>1662500491
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John WardAdam Stower|title=The Comet's ChildMurray and Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Teenage Fin Murray is rescued from 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 remote forest home by Ragg, fancy next of the first man he has ever encounteredtwo. Having such But he's a sheltered childhood bad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has equipped Fin with been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the speech and education of regular back garden, but into a nobleman's son but little idea about the real worldof frightening adventure and whiffs. Other This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than relying on his instincts and resourcefulnessMurray was, Fin has no way of knowing who to trustbe honest, or where but he is bound as 's turned up and he leaves home with Ragg.'ll have to do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1905537123</amazonuk>0008561249
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{{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.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Neil Cross1529431735|title=CapturedThe Winter Visitor|author=James Henry|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Kenny is dying - brain cancer is hitting him just as heIt's barely turning forty. As a result he compiles a short list of rights to wrong, February 1991 and people to create closure with. OneEssex is bitingly cold, his ex-wife, might not be easy, two concern a misguided sense of a guilt of old. The fourth turns out to be a missing woman. The journey he takes in that redemptive exercise is not for the squeamish.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847373976</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=The Economist|title=The World of Business: From Valuable Brands and Games Directors Play to Bail-Outs and Bad Boys |rating=5|genre=Business and Finance|summary=For years I've been a great fan of The Economistwhich made Bruce Hopkins's [[Pocket World in Figures 2010 by The Economist|Pocket World in Figures]] series with return all the unbiased statistics which the average person could wantmore surprising. I was just a little nervous when I opened He''The World of Business'' – just in case it was going to be a disappointment – but I needn't have worried.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846681588</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Rachel Renee Russell|title=Dork Diaries|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=I do like a blurb to be accurate. So when I saw d been exiled on the back cover of this book state the obvious to me, "Diary of Costa del Sol as a Wimpy Kid wanted drug smuggler for girls!", I could rest assureda decade. 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>}} {{newreview|author=Val Doonican|title=My Story, My Life: Val Doonican - The Complete Autobiography|rating=4.5|genre=Autobiography|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 entertainment. He may no longer have such a high profile – but return has come about because 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 had a foot wrong. As he says towards the end, 'When you find out what it is you do best, and what the public wants letter from you, then stick with it, and do it as well as you can.' With the possible exception of his contemporary and longex-time professional and personal friend Rolf Harriswife, itsaying that she's difficult to think of another person in showbiz who comes across as more genuinely likeable, ill and more a genuine case of hasn'what you see is what you get'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906779619</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Su Tong|title=The Boat to Redemption|rating=3|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Ku Dongliang and his father, Ku Wenxuan, are forced t long to live on a barge on the river following Ku Wenxuan. It's fall from grace. Originally believed hard to be the son of a revolutionary martyr, it feel any sympathy when Hopkins is eventually proved that Mr Ku was not so - as a resultabducted, stripped to his position underwear and sent to a watery grave in society takes the boot of a nose-divestolen Ford Sierra. Dongliang suffers as Is it a warning from 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 Spanish gang or a place in Dongliang's apparently cold heart. Will she be able problem closer to take him out of himself? Or will she, too, turn her back on himhome?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>038561344X</amazonuk>}}