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<metadesc>Book review siteExpert, with books full book reviews from the many most walks of literary life - ; fiction, biography, crime, cookery and anything else that takes our fancy. There are also lots of author interviews and top tens.</metadesc>Hello from The Bookbag, a book review site, featuring books from all the many walks of literary life non- [[:Category:Fiction|fiction]], [[:Category:Biography|biography]], [[:Category:Crime|crime]], [[:Category:Cookery|cookery]] and anything else that takes our fancy. At Bookbag Towers the bookbag sits at the side of the desk. Itchildren's the bag we take to the library and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, & self-published books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often books sent to us by publishers and we promise to tell you exactly what we think about them. You might not want to read through a full review, so we'll give you a quick review which summarises what we felt about the book and tells you whether or not we think you should buy or borrow it. There are also lots of [[:Category:Interviews|plus author interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|& top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[features]] page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] page.</metadesc>
'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Diane ChamberlainTom Percival|title=Before the StormThe Wrong Shoes|rating=45|genre=General FictionConfident Readers|summary=We're first introduced to LaurelWill's sonlife is difficult, Andy. He's in a teenager with some sort multitude of mental disorderways. Heis bullied because he has 's the pivotal character of wrong shoes', he has the story wrong shoes because his dad can't work and hedoesn's also t have enough money for even the undisputed star. I recently read most basic of things like food, and his dad can''Henry's Sisters'' by Cathy Lamb and decided that every family should have t work because he lost his job at the college, was working a Henry. Now I'll enlarge cash-in-hand job on that by saying that every family should have a Henry - or building site and had an Andyaccident. Both of these teenagers Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are 99% innocent separated, and adorable - itWill's that other 1% that is worryinglife seems bleak in every direction. Andy's descriptions of people And yet, places and situations are truly unique. He he still has a language all tiny amount of his ownhope. So immediatelyHe is good at art, as a reader, I was drawn right into and clings to the world moments of Andy and therefore right into joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the heart end of the storya long, dark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0778303381</amazonuk>1398527122
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=David MitchellSylvie Cathrall|title=The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de ZoetA Letter to the Luminous Deep
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Science Fiction|summary='The belly craves food, the tongue craves water, the heart craves love, and the mind craves stories.' This is the There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to satisfy that last cravinga compelling premise. It And this is rich in stories from the graphic opening chapter to the poignant closing lines. Everyone has a tale to tell and even minor characters are fleshed out with histories that amuse, horrify or enthral. Their stories made me think about how sometimes what at the time seems to be an insignificant choice can define the course of a life. Here the characters’ choices unleash a cascade one of consequencesthem. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340921560</amazonuk>0356522776
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mark Griffiths0008517061|title=The Lotus QuestDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=TravelCrime|summary=Mark Griffiths is one of Britain's leading plant expertsFormer Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. I know this because his brief biog in There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the front future of The Lotus Quest tells me so; just his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, as it tells me that he is the editor moving in together would mean a lot of The New Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary of Gardening 'the largest work on horticulture ever published'. His prior works list includes five other plant book credits, three of them for the RHS. I shall take all of this on trust, since attempts compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to find out more Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the author future she wants for herself and his background through her daughter? For the usual internet search mechanisms has failed miserably. He remains as elusive as moment they’re enjoying life in the sacred flower that is present and putting the subject of this latest work: future on the lotusback burner.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184595100X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ninni Holmqvist1786482126|title=The UnitJanus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Dorrit inhabits a world where society is split into two camps. Not male or female, or young or Builders were demolishing an old, but those who are Necessary and an asset house in Norwich - the site was going to their communities versus those who are Dispensable and hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a drain on civilizationdoorway. It’s not a birth right, nor a class firmly established from childhood, and everyone gets the chance to make a good go of it There was no skull. But, if you’re Was this a childless woman of 50, ritual killing or a childless man of 60murder? Inevitably, and not Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working in a ‘needed’ industry your time is upwith DCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, and you are quietlybut Nelson doesn't, and without any fuss, transported to that she is pregnant with his child as a Second Reserve Bank Unit for Biological Material (‘the Unit’) where you will spend result of the rest of your daysone night they spent together some three months ago. Here you Her condition will participate in any number of psychological and physiological experimentsbe obvious before long, donate cells for research and give up your body parts one by one as Needed people require them, until the day not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of your final donation when you ultimately and rather ironically become a valuable member of society by losing your lifesickness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1851687440</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Archie Brown0008551324|title=The Rise and Fall of CommunismDevil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=HistoryCrime|summary=It'A source 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 hope a missing person is buried and who was responsible for a radiant future or…the greatest threat on 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 face 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 earthother thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.}}Whichever of these descriptions you would apply to Communism you will find Archie Brown{{Frontpage|isbn=0008405026|title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=It's detailed sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and largely objective study enlightening the investigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, Helena, and engrossingher father are dead in their bed. On one level Initially, this is it looks like a chronological description straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of how a political force grew the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to dominate be an open-and-shut case is now a third of complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the worldexplanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's population then virtually disappeared within a period of boss, Una Burt) are less than a centuryconvinced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845950674</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Seth Hunter0571379877|title=The Tide of WarKellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=43.5|genre=Historical FictionCrime|summary=The Tide of War Edward Jevons is the second book in a trilogy of historical fictionnovels by Seth Hunterworking-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, set in the 1790s Robert and recounts the adventures ofBritish naval captain Nathan PeakeStanza. Robert's a theatre director. In this book newly He's also self-promoted Peakeis sent obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and uses Edward to the Caribbean run errands for him. Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to command Robert. Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a British frigate, the Unicorn,relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to hunt for stumble upon the French warship, the Virginietwo of them kissing in a dark passageway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755357612</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lynne Reid BanksJo Callaghan|title=I, HoudiniLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Houdini When a man is not your usualfound crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, commonplace hamsterthe AI detective Lock. Oh noIt's their first live case together, he having previously been very successful with several cold cases. But when there is a hamster on second body found crucified a missionfew days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a mission potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to escape! their AI Future Policing project. From his very 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?|isbn=139851120X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1399613073|title=Moral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=Thrillers|summary=Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first glorious taste day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of freedom he spends his life inventing ways a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to escape be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and scurrying away (usually straight into a heap trauma doctor. Anjali is the free spirit of trouble) the group and she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they're at every possible opportunitya 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 is his taletime, related entirely from his own, rather conceited, point of viewit's their teenage children who are involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007341539</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Andrew Matthews and Tony Ross0241636604|title=The Merchant Of Venice (Shakespeare Stories)Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersAutobiography|summary=BassanioIf you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you's got re unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the hots for Portia, pin-stripe suit and she for him. His friendhis background is the East End, Antoniowhere he was familiar with violence, borrows money from Shylock so Bassanio can woo herpoverty and injustice. Antonio is usually well There was no posh public school on his CV -off, but all his money he had been to the London School of Economics. Stevenson is tied up 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 ships ability at the moment. Due to past rivalrieswhat was, essentially, Shylock demands that Antonio pay a card game which got him back an internship with a pound of flesh if he can't come up with the moneyCitibank. Meanwhile Eventually, Portia is putting various suitors to the testthis turned into permanent employment as a trader. As someone wise once said elsewhere, the course of true love never did run smooth.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408305046</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Caryl Hart and Sarah Horne1035021803|title=Rhino? What Rhino?The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller
|rating=3.5
|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=The rhino was lonely and bored and It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the zoo, so he squeezes between the bars and heads out into the great, wide worldEnglish country village where she grew up. Being She's back now because of a rhinorequest for help from her beloved aunt, his manners arenCarole. Freya't quite up to scratch, so he gets into all sorts of scrapes s former mentor and japes as he steals peopleCarole's clothes close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and foodthe circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. Other poor animals get Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the blamevillage: Arthur, she feels, so let her down badly. Even though they decide were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to have be near the man or pursue the profession she loved. After the split, she worked in a word with cafe, met and married James (on the rhino to set him back on rebound from the right pathlove of her life, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340981393</amazonuk>
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover
|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt
|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Andrew Weale and Margaret ChamberlainSunny Singh|title=The Newt In The SuitHotel Arcadia|rating=43.5|genre=For SharingThrillers |summary=There's one newt The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a suitterrorist group. Hiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, a wartime photographer and he's looking very dapperAbhi, the hotel manager. He's joined by two snazzy-looking flies As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in tiesthe hotel, three cockatoos in high-heeled shoeshe forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and so keeps on up venturing out of her room to try to tencapture what's happened through her photography. Yep Although they only ever talk over the phone, this is a counting book with lots of well-dressed animals going about their businessfriendship 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.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340988673</amazonuk>086154742X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michelle Lovric1529153298|title=The Book List of Human SkinSuspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey
|rating=5
|genre=Historical General Fiction|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'Ye canve been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't take sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the slither out ovva snake.family 'Down South' So says Gianni, valet in a wealthy eighteenth century Venetian household. The master When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a merchantfrightening, divides his time between Italy and Peruforeign place, where he deals in silverbest avoided. But For Miv, the merchant isnmove would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she't the serpent - his son Minguillo isll do anything to prevent that. On the night an earthquake ripped through Peru and deposited fanatical nun Sor Loreta at She's not worried about the convent in Arequipa, Minguillo was born - a serpent in his familydangers or that her Mum's midst. His own mother couldn't bear to nurse him and his father went into denial, making more and more frequent trips stopped talking - to a South American home free of sociopathic progenyanyone. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>140880588X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Glenn Murphy1398524085|title=Science: Sorted! Evolution, Nature and StuffHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French
|rating=5
|genre=Children's Non-FictionCrime|summary=Ever wanted to know about evolutionCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, nature Paul and stuff? UnsurprisinglyOllie and her daughter, Etty. are all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, this is not. Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the book for you. If youbody of Greg're interested s father, Duncan Ackerley, in [http://wwwthe river.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0330508938?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0330508938 space, black holes It was an easy assumption for the police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and stuff], then Glenn Murphy has also written a sister book in the ''Science: Sorted!'committed suicide when he couldn' series packed full of all t stand the information you'd want to knowguilt. It The Salter children are not convinced but there's all written little else they can do but get on with the fabulous quality that made [[Why is Snot Green? by Glenn Murphy|Why is Snot Green?]] such a must-readtheir lives and wonder about what really happened.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330508946</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Hayley Long1035906708|title=Lottie Biggs is (Not) DesperateDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4.5|genre=TeensGeneral Fiction|summary=Lottie BiggsWe tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, who's but she was born to Greek parents in her mid-teens is recovering from what's described as a 'mental disorder of a reasonably significant nature'. She's having counselling from Blake (from Manhattan, New Zealand) who has some rather unusual turns of phrase and looks like Johnny DeppYork, but without the pirate make-up. All in all December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she's doing quite wellwas thirteen. Gareth Stingecombe is still the love of Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her life and father changed it to 'Callas' to seal make it more manageable in the bond even tighter she gets a Saturday job in his mother's hairdressing salonStates. This might, or might not, turn out to be a mistake given what the mother-When she was back inAthens -lawsupposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice -to-be thinks constitutes she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a trendy hairstylemother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her elder sister, Jackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>033047975X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Simon DawsonChristopher Edge|title=The Self-Sufficiency Bible: Window Boxes to Smallholdings - Hundreds of Ways to Become Self-SufficientBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=When Halo is Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a babymovie marathon at their local cinema, a centaur finds her crawling up a beach, the sole survivor of a shipwreck. This scene shows, right from the first page, the courage and determination which characterise her during the course of this book. No one place that has any idea who this human child is, but the golden owl amulet and the curious tattoo on her forehead suggest she is special. She is adopted by the family and for ten years she and her centaur brother Arko lead an idyllic life on the island of Zakynthos. But ten years later Halo is kidnapped by fishermen and sold into slavery. She escapes and disguises herself as a boy because as a girl she can have little or no respect, and no freedom nickname of action. Still disguised as a boy she lives with the Spartans, falls in love, and is given clues to her true identity by the famous Oracle at Delphi.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141328304</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=John Welshman|title=Churchill's Children: The Evacuee Experience in Wartime Britain |rating=4|genre=History|summary=As a little girl I was fascinated by stories from the second world warBlack Hole'. My Nan would tell me tales of her work doing weldingAll big movie fans, my mumthey's uncle had re looking forward to lots of exciting adventure stories from his years in the RAFfilms, and the book Carrie's War was one I returned to again and again. many, many snacks! So I was intrigued by this title which looks at However, as the stories of thirteen children and adults through World War Twomovie starts, from the first wave of evacuations through to the end of the war.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0199574413</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jeannie Machin|title=My Lady Domino|rating=3|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Adele Russell serves behind the counter in a haberdashers and lives over the shop. It wasn't always like they very quickly realise that though as it's only a few years since she was a wealthy heiress engaged to marry an earlsomething about this new film format is very different, but after her father's financial ruin and his death in a fire her fiancé broke off the relationship and Adele was lucky to be taken in by her old nurse. Itthey are swept up into an adventure they couldn's taken some time to come to terms with what happened and Adele has reconciled herself to her lowly position until she finds an invitation to a masked ballt even imagine. What harm would there be in her wearing her mother's ball gown and domino, just for a taste of how things used to be?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089988</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Sue Rulliere|title=Cinema Blue|rating=4|But as they lurch from one film genre=General Fiction|summary=Frankie is a twenty nine year old woman living in Paris and working in a supermarket while she tries to put her life back together after a split from her husband. The splitthe next, and can they figure out what led up to it, was clearly distressing, and exactly what happened on earth is revealed through a series of flashbacks going on? Will they ever get back to the time when Frankie was Francesca, whose life was controlled by her husband, JP. The news that JP has had an accident throws Frankie into confusioncinema, because it seems that he turned to drink after she left him and she blames herself. In the meantime, Frankie is entering into a relationship with the enigmatic Antoine, who appears to be doing something rather strange in the flat below hers. Will Frankie be able to retain her new identity? Will the relationship with Antoine go anywhere, or is he just as bad for her as JP wastheir real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>190452947X</amazonuk>1839942738
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Rachel Greenlaw
|title=Compass and Blade
|rating=3.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Philip ArdaghJames Sherwood Metts|title=Trick Eggs and Rubber Chickens: Grubtown Tales Planet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=If you haven't Things have been to Grubtown before, then feel welcomea bit sticky for the Earthlings. As newly arrived lorry driver John Jones finds outAI and automation have been proceeding apace, itoften replacing jobs they's a place of exceedingly silly names for people – Blue-Ridge Handheld my favourite so far – re paid to do and exceedingly silly things happening for exceedingly silly reasonsother tasks that took time to accomplish. One of those silly things is John Jones arriving into town with a giant octopus on the back Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of his lorry – a realother, live onenew ways to spend time, destined for the brand new aquarium along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and carwash. Another, coinciding, silly thingalong with it, is all the mayor having a huge festival day for the opening of his new home, many daily social interactions on which he has just finished knittingthey depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0571247938</amazonuk>1736128426
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Elif ShafakMatthew Tree|title=The Forty Rules of LoveWe'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=This is a sixth novel Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from best-selling Turkish author, Elif Shafak. Set in twelfth century Anatoliahis father, two famous characters from Islamic history meet in a gorgeously real worlddrunk 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. A delicate contemporary US love story is wrapped around the richSo Tim applied himself to his studies, meaty historical fictioncultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions. Don't be misled by the dodgy-sounding title!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0670918733</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=A G Slatter
|title=The Briar Book of the Dead
|rating=5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary='' There's a part of me that wants to keep this just to myself for however long I can. This secret magic of my own, all mine, at last. I just want to enjoy it for a while.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Val Harris1529900360|title=Sea Creatures|rating=3.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Rowena Moon and her husband Brendan lived on the Cornish coast with their three children, Jenna, Charlie and Olivia. Brendan was an artist – and a reasonably successful one. Rowena ran a local café and the children had the freedom of the local beach. It sounds like, and probably was, an idyllic childhood until one day Rowena disappeared without warning and without explanation. It was devastating and affected each of the children in different ways as they grew up. Twenty two years later the five are reunited and the mystery of their past unravels.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955599741</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewThe Ghost Orchid|author=Bobbie Darbyshire|title=Love, Revenge and Buttered SconesJonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Three people are travelling on a train heading to Inverness. Their destination is the townIt hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's library where the book group meets on the last Friday of each month. They each have their own reasons for going fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but none of them realise that the weekend is going he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to have far reaching consequences ask for them allhis help on difficult cases.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905207379</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Sandra Heath|title=A Commercial Enterprise|rating=3.5|genre=Women His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn's Fiction|summary=Caroline is t need the help of a Lexham, but she's not one of ''the'' Lexhams as her father made psychologist only worked for a rather unfortunate marriagewhile. In consequence sheFinally, it was Robin, Delaware's rather surprised to be invited to the reading of her uncle's willpartner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She didn't know him, had no expectations and probably wouldn't have gone to London if knew that the involvement was something that the man she hadn't been trying to escape the attentions of a pressing suitorloved needed. The journey there is tryingnext case did look simple, but she's rescued by Sir Hal Seymour who gives her though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a lift remote property in his carriageBel Air. It might have got Caro He was the heir to the reading on time, but an Italian shoe empire and she made is married to an enemy extremely rich man and it's not the Italian. But which of his mistress who had hopes of becoming his wife.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>070908997X</amazonuk>them was the primary target?
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jaye Wells1529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Mage in Black (Sabina Kane)Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands
|rating=3.5
|genre=FantasyAnimals and Wildlife|summary=After betraying the Dominae Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and siding with a Mage over Rowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the Vampires, Sabina Kane finds herself strain that being on-call put on the runhis father's life. Leaving behind everything she knows, she travels with Mage, Adam, to meet When he was seventeen he took the other half opportunity of her doing work experience with a family – her twin sisterfriend who was a vet and was convinced this was the job for him. Before long, Maisiehe was at Liverpool University. Though the Mages welcome her with open arms, Sabina, used to the cold, displeasure of her Dominae Grandmother, can It hadn't quite accept their open affection, or their conviction that she has - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a destinychild. Her only focus is on revenge If anything, developing her Mage powers so she can defeat her Grandmotherhe'd wanted to be a professional footballer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841497576</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lorrie Moore0861541774|title=A Gate At The StairsNye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=Bass-playingDCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, 20 year-has taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old Tassie Keltjin is studying an eclectic range of subjects (Geologyally, British Literature, Sufism, Soundtracks to War Movies and Wine Tasting) Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in post 9/11 USA when she lands a job as street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and he killed a child minder for chefGhurka. Initially, Sarah Bink who is adopting an African-American babyhe faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the man. A Gate at Now he could be facing the Stairs is at times death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a very funny diplomatic incident and wouldn't help Danny at others a sad reflection of growing up in modern Americaall.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>057119530X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Eleanor CattonAlexander McCall Smith|title=The RehearsalPerfect Passion Company|rating=4.5|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=If you are the type of person who wants their novels The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to start at all the beginningonline apps in providing a more personal, build character tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and plot before look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. Katie is coming to out of a break up with a satisfying 'they all lived happily ever after' endingbad boyfriend, then avoid this book and so jumps at all coststhe chance to come home to Edinburgh. You will hate it 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. But I cannot remember when I last enjoyed Katie has no experience in running a first time novel as much as this one. It is ambitiousbusiness, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, daring and complexthere's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, and yet it works beautifully.to lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847081398</amazonuk>1846976596
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Barbara Kingsolver0811771741|title=The Lacuna|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Ten years ago, Barbara Kingsolver's [[The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver|Poisonwood Bible]] revealed the grim politics in the Congo. The Lacuna has a similarly political theme, this time turning her focus on Mexico and the USA in the 1940s and 1950s.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>057125263X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewInstaKnits for Baby|author=Christine Dwyer Hickey|title=Last Train From LiguriaMelissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrafts|summary=The heroine in this novel is Bella. SheMelissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a rather unassuming young woman who has had a rather unassuming childhood collection of knits from toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits - save for others are of the 'long, cosy afternoons in front of the fact that she was motherless at an early age and her relationship with fire' variety. The projects are divided by the father is a little strainedtime they'll take to complete - less than five hours, five to say the least. Bella needs ten hours, ten to breathetwenty hours and more than twenty hours. So she leaves All the drizzle of England for the blue skies projects are attractive, modern and heat of Italyuseable. Her father has propelled her into I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects'gentle'' employment there. Shebut that's tentative about the whole thing but warms to it by degreesme being picky.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843549883</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=David EaglemanDean Koontz|title=Sum: Tales from the AfterlivesThe Bad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionParanormal|summary=For some reason I find myself unable to start this reviewBenny is having a terrifically bad day. So I'll mention this book starts with the endHe loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and see where we go from therehis house gets trashed. Of courseOh, and someone has delivered a really weird, thatdisturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the key – thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the very last person to deserve all this book does just bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that – starts with the end of our human life here on Earth (or wherever you happen delivery to be reading this) and posits forty possibilities of what happens thereafterhis house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, in the hereafterwho has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. ItSpike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's not so much 'Five People You Meet in Heaven' as 'Forty Heavens you Might Meet People Inenemies, 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.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847674283</amazonuk>1662500491
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=James LasdunAdam Stower|title=It's Beginning To HurtMurray and Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=Short StoriesConfident Readers |summary=It's Beginning Murray is supposed to Hurt be a humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is a collection able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of sixteen short stories, all bound together by the theme of hurt in various formstwo. It is James Lasdun But he's a bad magician's third collection of short stories cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, andthe catflap they both use can chuck them out, chances arenot into the regular back garden, if you are but into a fan world of the short story then you will 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 read something by him before.to do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099512327</amazonuk>0008561249
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=M J HylandB0C47LV1PC|title=This Is HowFragility|author=Mosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Things werenCan you make a ''Yo birthing person't going too badly for Patrick Oxtoby. He's intelligent and 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 at schoolbe.. Then his Gran died. He started getting pains in his shoulder and things rapidly went downhill from there. He drops out of university to become a mechanicno. By ''Fragility'' is set as the time we meet him as a 23-year-oldcity of Portland, he's become a loner who cannot communicate his feelings and who cannot seem to fit himself into society. Now his fiancee has left him (and you can see her point) and he finds himself in a seaside boarding house in an unnamed English townOregon, hoping cautiously begins to start a new life. Then, one night he commits an act of violence (you can see it coming) and his life goes emerge from bad to awful.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184767383X</amazonuk>the restrictions imposed during the covid pandemic
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{{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?