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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=Anthony HorowitzTom Percival|title=Legends: Battles and QuestsThe Wrong Shoes|rating=45
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Bringing things that are this old to an audience this young cannot be an easy featWill's life is difficult, in a multitude of ways. Anthony Horowitz must be more than able. An old volume 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 retold legends things like food, and fables from his typewriter in dad can't work because he lost his job at the 1980s has become college, was working a series of six books, rejigged cash-in-hand job on his computer, a building site and presented very nicely by Macmillanhad an accident. The first to hit Throw into that mix the shelves ([[Legends: Beasts fact that his mum and Monsters by Anthony Horowitz|Legends: Beasts dad are separated, and Monsters]]) was Will's life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has a successful gift to us of five stories tiny amount of olden beasties and baddieshope. Here we get a full half-dozenHe is good at art, and clings to the quality moments of joy when he is just as compellingdrawing, that feel like a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0330510169</amazonuk>1398527122
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ali SparkesSylvie Cathrall|title=Wishful ThinkingA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersScience Fiction|summary=We first meet Kevin covered in sick. He doesn't travel well, and his day out with his gran in the car isn't going as well as he might wish for. He doesn't really seriously wish for anything, but There are few greater joys than a diverting list of things he'd like – book which lives up to a better complexion, a better chance with the school hottie, a Wii, etc – gets dropped into a streamcompelling premise. And lo and behold, the god this is one of that river, someone called Abandinus, comes to life, thinking he's got a worshipper at last, and might just be prepared to grant some wishesthem.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0192756117</amazonuk>0356522776
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ian Mackenzie0008517061|title=City of StrangersDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Paul Metzger – mid thirtiesFormer Metropolitan Police detective, with a failed marriageJake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a broken relationship little uncertainty about the future of his life with his brother (who converted to Judaism)vet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a dying father (who is an ex-Nazi). Straight away there are obvious flaws with his family dynamic. As lot of compromise: does Jake give up his writing career fails to take off he's left -grid and relaxing life to churn out thousands of words for articles that have no meaning move in with Livia or does Livia move to him, Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the dregs of future she wants for herself and her daughter? For the publishing world. His moment they’re enjoying life isn't quite as high flying as he hoped. But then Paul gets offered a lucrative book deal; in the present and putting the future on the one thing he has wanted for years. The only catch is he has to write about his fatherback burner.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099531852</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Maggie O'Farrell1786482126|title=The Hand That First Held MineJanus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Lexie Sinclair Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was sent down from university for going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the crime bones of going through a door reserved for menchild beneath a doorway. She could not graduate until she apologised and this she There was not going to dono skull. Home was not an option either but when she met the sophisticated Innes Kent she made up her mind to go to London and make her way thereWas this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It was the nineteen fifties and Lexie and Innes made a life for themselves in Soho. In the present day Elina and Ted are struggling to recover from the 's difficult birth of their first child. Elina as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she is an artist and she’s finding it difficult to come to terms pregnant with being his child as a motherresult of the one night they spent together some three months ago. Ted does his best to help but he Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is having prone to cope with disturbing visions and memories sudden bouts of his own childhood which don’t seem to agree with what he’s been told by his parentssickness. The further he looks, the stranger are the links which he uncovers.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>075530845X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sue Peebles0008551324|title=The Death of Lomond FrielDevil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Rosie was a successful radio presenter when her father, Lomond Friel, had a strokeIt's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Whether Neither side likes or not Rosie was always reckless has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and impulsive isnhe't entirely clear, but once she heard about s prepared to tell the police where the stroke she took body of a break from work missing person is buried and began to build her life around making a future who was responsible for herself and her fatherdeath. There are two problems here: Rosie isn't really all that capable of looking after herselfThis person, he promises, never mind her father is someone big and Lomond it will be worth the police doing what he wants. And what he wants is quietly plotting to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his own deathsentence and to get an early parole date. He might not be able Not much to speakask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to move very much, but he has plansdo 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>0701184302</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Anthony Horowitz0008405026|title=Legends: Beasts and MonstersA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=45|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=When they say there is nothing new under the sun, they might use this book as evidence It's sixteen years since nine- but they'd only be halfyear-rightold Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. The legends of She was never found and the sphinx's riddleinvestigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, Helena, and the capture of the gorgon's head, her father are as old as the Parthenon hill, but they have never been presented as they have heredead in their bed. They were published in Initially, it looks like a similar fashion in straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the 1980s, with a younger Anthony Horowitz offering a large compendium positioning of folk stories, legends the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and tales of classical derring-doher boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. With the attention span of the current under-twelve, however, What looked as though it was going to be considered, his publishers have allowed a sprucing up, an open-and -shut case is now a reformatting - one book has been turned into sixcomplex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, with a brace each year from now til conclusionUna Burt) are less convinced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330510150</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Seth Grahame-Smith0571379877|title=Abraham Lincoln Vampire HunterThe Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet
|rating=3.5
|genre=HumourCrime|summary='Give me your tiredEdward Jevons is a working-class young man, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe freeobsessed with his upper-class friends, The wretched refuse of your teeming shoreRobert and Stanza. Robert' s a theatre director. That quoteHe's also self-obsessed, on the Statue of Libertydemanding, was probably not designed with the inclusion of vampires in mindhandsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for him. But by some means or another North America is rife with the things – hiding Edward has been in plain sight, as the older ones can bear sunlight, love with the help of darkened glassesStanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. It might just come down 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 one eager young man to rid his new country stumble upon the two of such things, on his way to something he’s them kissing in a bit more known fordark passageway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849014086</amazonuk>
}}
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=If you ever find yourself as When a man is found crucified on the top of a character hill in a work of fictionNuneaton, it’s probably best DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to avoid hitchhikersthe case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. The chances are it’s going to turn out It's their first live case together, having previously been very badly for either the driver or the hitchhiker - or bothsuccessful with several cold cases. Constantine But when there is a denim-cladsecond body found crucified a few days later, Marlboro-smoking, drifter and loner Kat is suddenly struggling with a strong sense of right potential serial killer and wrong who has just returned from a period very high profile case that draws a lot of travelling around unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to solve the world and is heading south back home case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the US when he is picked up by a man named Polkcase and, potentially, driving out of a muscle car. So what could possibly go wrongcareer?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846687365</amazonuk>139851120X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Yotam Ottolenghi1399613073|title=PlentyMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson
|rating=4.5
|genre=CookeryThrillers|summary=I'm sure that there are many good reasons Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for buying the Guardian a quarter of a Saturday but I always enjoy Yotam Ottolenghi's New Vegetarian columncentury. I'm not a vegetarian (nor, indeedOlivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is Ottolenghi) but he has a way with vegetables whether they're bonus when you aim to be served on their own or as an accompaniment which a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Anjali is fresh, full the free spirit of flavour the group and excitingshe becomes a GP. The background 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 food is in Israel and Palestine with tragedy or the consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the regionthree friends. This time, it's rich supply of vegetables, pulses and grainstheir teenage children who are involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091933684</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Barrie0241636604|title=Night-ScentedThe Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeAutobiography|summary=Isabelle Arbaud is determined If you were to make her mark bring up an image of a city banker in the world your mind, you're unlikely to think of luxury brandssomeone like Gary Stevenson. Most perfumes are offA hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-shoots of established fashion houses (or celebrity namesstripe suit and his background is the East End, but let's not go down ''that'' road)where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but Isabelle has poached her rival's most talented perfumer and given him free rein to produce an irresistible scent which will take her upstart fashion house straight he had been to the topLondon School of Economics. But – it would seem that someone Stevenson is determined that she won't succeed. First on bright - extremely bright - and then he has a second facility with numbers which most of her financial backers died, the first in circumstances which might have been a accident, but probably wasn'tus can only envy. About the second there could He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be no doubtstupid. It was his ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Two bullet holes are fairly conclusive evidence of Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a suspicious deathtrader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956251811</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Debbie Macomber1035021803|title=HannahThe Antique Hunter's ListGuide to Murder|author=C L Miller
|rating=3.5
|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=It was a year 's twenty years since Dr Michael EverettFreya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up. She's wife Hannah died back now because of a request for help from ovarian cancer and his grief was still as painful as everher beloved aunt, Carole. He certainly wasn Freya't ready for what his brother-in-law, Hannahs former mentor and Carole's brotherclose friend, handed himArthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. It Arthur was a letter which Hannah the reason why Freya had written some time before her death and not only did been back to the village: Arthur, she suggest that he should remarryfeels, let her down badly. Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she went on has not felt able to name three women be near the man or pursue the profession she thought would make a good wife for himloved. Winter Adams was After the split, she worked in a cafe, met and married James (on the chef who owned rebound from the café on blossom Streetlove of her life, Leanne Lancaster had been Hannah's nurse, but who was Macy Roth?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778303799</amazonuk>murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Matthew YorkeAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=Pictures of LilyAll Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Science Fiction|summary=As soon as Georgia Myers turns eighteen, she is going ''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to find her biological parentscome. And she has lots of questions for them too; like where else might she have lived if she had not been given up and does she have any brothers and sisters? Mostly, however, Georgia just wants to ask ''why?''. Why was she given up for adoption? Why her?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849014124</amazonuk>}}
}}
|rating=3.5
|genre=Women's FictionThrillers |summary=Banking analystThe 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, Laura McGregor has her secret diary accidentally uploaded the hotel manager. As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the Internet. The diary contains hotel, he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of her thoughts about room to try to capture what's happened through her lacklustre relationship with atraderphotography. Although they only ever talk over the phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her attraction towards a “dirt-digging journalist” keep safe and massive discrepancies in they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the accounts of her new managerterrorists.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755352947</amazonuk>086154742X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joseph O'Connor1529153298|title=Ghost LightThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey
|rating=5
|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=An unknown voice introduces the reader to actress MollyIt's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. She doesn't know it but she will be dead fairly soon(A woman? I mean, honestly... ) ItShe's almost as if shenot what's talking to herself throughout the introduction pages. The language is Irish vernacular so thereworrying Miv's lots of good old Irish put-downsfamily, classic descriptions and call-a-spade-a-shovel languagethough. This richness and unmistakable lilt gives the reader a sense of placeWomen have been disappearing. AlbeitWell, they've been murdered, old Molly is almost living by her wits (which are varied and considerable) in the poorer areas of Londonbut to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Her conversations with the local people, whether itMiv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the inn-keeper or the local bobby on the beat are absolutely wonderfulfamily 'Down South'. She is one fine actress. I could not keep the smile When you're from my face when reading these conversational gems. For exampleYorkshire, Molly Down South is trying to have a polite conversation with the inn-keeper Mr Ballantine when they are rudely interrupted 'Men barrel in and out with their swearing and gruffness ... Why can they never sit easyfrightening, must they always emit noisesforeign place, and must the noises be deafening vowels?' Brilliantbest avoided. The sheer beauty in all of this is that MollyFor Miv, in the move would mean leaving her own private thoughtsbest friend, in her own headSharon, is giving off the most foul language of the lot of themand she'll do anything to prevent that. These conversations are also bitter-sweet. OShe'Connors not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's descriptions stopped talking - especially of people are superlative. He doesn't try too hard (which is a gift in itself) but gets his message over to the readeranyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0436205718</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jane Bowles1398524085|title=Two Serious LadiesHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=3.5|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=First published in 1943Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, this is the story of Christina Goering Paul and Ollie and Frieda Copperfield who her daughter, Etty. are two strained and constrained women who want to break freeall worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, although it is not entirely clear what it is they want to break free from. Society? The conventions of heterosexuality? The boredom of their female lives? AnywayShortly afterwards, Christina is a wealthy spinster who takes a companionEtty and Greg, Miss Gamelon, into her home where they settle into a routine find the body of being catty to each other. Soon ChristinaGreg's male friendfather, ArnoldDuncan Ackerley, moves in with them too, the river. It was an easy assumption for the police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and later then committed suicide when they all move to a falling-down house on an island they he couldn't stand the guilt. The Salter children are joined not convinced but there by Arnold's father who has walked out little else they can do but get on his wife. Christina leaves the house, trying to improve herself in some manner perhaps, but becoming a sort of prostitute, falling into relationships as a 'kept woman'. Mrs Copperfield, meanwhile, takes a trip to Panama with her husband. The couple drift apart as Frieda finds herself attracted to the seedy underworld of prostitution, drinking in bars their lives and brothels, falling for a prostitute named Pacifica and leaving her husband to move in with herwonder about what really happened.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956003850</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ian Ogilvy and Chris Mould1035906708|title=The Funfair of Fear! - A Measle Stubbs AdventureDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|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 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.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Christopher Edge
|title=Black Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=There is one thing Measle could really be called afraid of. Not the usual teenage things, like having a bath, no. He's lived through being inches high Lucas and stuck his friends are all booked in for a nightmarish train-set diorama with an evil cockroach and worse for companymovie marathon at their local cinema, and as a resultplace that has the nickname of 'The Black Hole'. All big movie fans, hethey's going re looking forward to be afraid lots of a wrathmonk – a warlock turned bad – such exciting films, and many, many snacks! However, as the one who put him there. So you'll pity him when it becomes obvious a gathering of wrathmonks movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, and they are forming, to get their revenge on Measleswept up into an adventure they couldn's newly-found familyt even imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to the next, can they figure out what are wrathmonks in turn afraid ofon earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the cinema, I hear you askand to their real lives? That's right – a garden gnome.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0192729713</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=Chris MouldJames Sherwood Metts|title=The Werewolf and the Ibis (Something Wickedly Weird)Planet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=The 'Something Wickedly Weird' series is Things have been a splendid mix of Gothic horror bit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and cartoon-style fun. The scrawny young heroautomation have been proceeding apace, young Stanley Buggles, who lives in a often replacing jobs they'darkened industrial town', re paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as the first page tells us, is plunged into an adventure from the moment he arrives (they were beginning to get used to all alonethis technological change and starting to think of other, as tradition dictates) at Crampton Rock. He has inherited his great-uncle's mansionnew ways to spend time, a vast old pile on along came an island linked to the mainland by a long winding footbridgeawful pandemic. The right atmosphere of isolation Life was pretty much shut down and claustrophobic unease is created immediately, especially when we learn that letters are only collected from along with it, all the island once a fortnight. Whatever is many daily social interactions on this island, Stanley will have to deal with it alonewhich they depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340931027</amazonuk>1736128426
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Katie FfordeMatthew Tree|title=A Perfect ProposalWe'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=Women's Literary Fiction|summary=I have read most of Katie Fforde's books and each and every one has proved Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be enjoyable different from his father, a drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and entertainingwho had endless crises of self confidence. A Perfect Proposal comes up So Tim applied himself to the same high standard andhis studies, having just finished reading it, it has left me wanting more! Her style is very relaxed cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and easy going and she always creates believable characters that you can't help caring aboutset himself high but achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846054494</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=Joanna Kavenna1529900360|title=The Birth of LoveGhost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=Literary FictionCrime|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 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 Birth next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of Love has four interwoven storylines about characters a remote property in different times, past, present Bel Air. He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to an extremely rich man and futureit's not the Italian. But which of them was the primary target?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The common theme is birthSecret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=3.5|amazonukgenre=<amazonuk>057124517X</amazonuk>Animals and Wildlife|summary=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.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Louis Sachar0861541774|title=The CardturnerA Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=TeensCrime|summary=DCI Domenic Jejeune''How are we supposed s close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to be partners? He can’t see the cards and I don’t know the rules!'' 17meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in a street brawl -yearhe would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife -old Alton Richards is shoehorned into becoming the driver and cardturner for his blind, octogenarian, bridge-playinghe killed a Ghurka. Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but above all rich, uncle by his grasping parents - who are up evidence came to their eyeballs in debt and light that suggested that he might have a weather eye on potential legaciesplanned to murder the man. Alton sighs but goes along with it Now he could be facing the death penalty. He's used Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to being told to call Lester Trapp his favourite uncle help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and hewouldn's used to his unrepentently mercenary parentst help Danny at all. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408808501</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sarah BlakeAlexander McCall Smith|title=The PostmistressPerfect Passion Company|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The reader Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in no doubt that providing a war is ragingmore personal, tailored service. 'And bombs were falling on CoventryNess has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, London and Kentas Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. Sleek metal pellets shaped like the blunt tipped ends Katie is coming out of pencils ...' The Americans howevera break up with a bad boyfriend, are carrying on with their daily lives regardless. They are completely unfazed and uninvolvedso jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. Apart And so begins this new story from one or twoAlexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, namely radio reporter Frankie. She reports from London as it happens thanks to 44 Scotland Street and she is gradually becoming more and more concerned that her fellow Americans will be called uponthe Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. But she seems to be Katie has no experience in running a lone voice blowing business, or in the wind. Alsomatch-making, as you may expectbut Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there are plenty of raised eyebrows as to why a woman is doing a man's job. She should be at the kitchen sink or having babiesalways her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, shouldn't she?to lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0670918687</amazonuk>1846976596
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ian Ogilvy and Chris Mould0811771741|title=The Train Set of Terror: A Measle Stubbs AdventureInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersCrafts|summary=You will feel sympathy Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Measle Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from the very start of this booktoys to blankets. Not only is he an orphanSome will be quick knits - others are of the 'long, and stuck friendless cosy afternoons in a horridly dingy house on the wrong side front of the train tracks, but he shares his life with its main torment - his guardian, Basil Tramplebonefire' variety. Basil makes no effort The projects are divided by the time they'll take to improve Measle or his lot complete - he does not educate himless than five hours, keeps Measle and his inheritance a great distance apartfive to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and feeds him slopmore than twenty hours. Measle would even like to have a bath now and again - but not in All the putrid brown projects are attractive, modern and green gunk coming from the tapsuseable. The only thing that redeems Basil at all is I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that he owns the world's best train set, one Measle would love to get to know a lot better. Unfortunately for Measle, he's about to get that wish granted..me being picky.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192729705</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tess CallahanDean Koontz|title=April and OliverThe Bad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=General FictionParanormal|summary=After spending their childhoods togetherBenny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, April and Oliver haven't seen each other for many yearshis house gets trashed. It 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 only after the death of April's little brother thing that they find their lives overlapping again. has trashed his house! April The thing is reckless, damaged, and struggling from one day Benny is the very last person to the next whereas Oliver deserve all this bad luck. He is mature and sensiblea nice person. A really nice person. He So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is now a law studentnew friend, engaged to the sweeta bad weather friend called Spike, gentle Bernadette who has been sent to help him since Benny is the antithesis of Aprilclearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Seeing AprilSpike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's life in tattersenemies, if he, Benny, Oliver tries to rescue her from and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself, yet the more entangled he becomes the more his own seemingly perfect life starts to fall apartroped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099537524</amazonuk>1662500491
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Pauline RowsonAdam Stower|title=The Suffocating Sea: A DI Horton Marine Mystery Crime NovelMurray and Bun|rating=34.5|genre=CrimeConfident Readers |summary=Anyone who loves murder mystery novels will know there Murray is supposed to be a big difference between a policeman humble, tidy and a copperfriendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and Pauline Rowson’s character DI Andy Horton in The Suffocating Sea is every bit a coppereat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the two. Tough on But he's a bad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the outsidecatflap they both use can chuck them out, soft on not into the inside Horton is just the chap to start nosing around regular back garden, but into a world of frightening adventure and whiffs. This time round it drops them into a suspicious fire on board Viking land, where a boat troll hunter is expected – at least that’s where it startswell, one much bigger than Murray was, because DI Horton is about to discover be honest, but he's turned up and he is more involved in the mystery than just as an investigating officer.'ll have to do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0955098246</amazonuk>0008561249
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tishani DoshiB0C47LV1PC|title=The Pleasure SeekersFragility|author=Mosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Essentially this is Can you make a love story between two people - Babo from Madras and Sian from small-town Wales. You ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could argue that two more disparate cultures would be hard to imagine. Factor in that , is the novel opens in question should you make it? Or is the headyquestion if you did, free love days of would it land? The catch is that the 1960s and a very entertaining story starts to unfoldanswer for both could well be.... no. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747590923</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=F G Cottam1529431735|title=The Waiting RoomWinter Visitor|author=James Henry
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=On the outskirts of ex rock star Martin StrideIt's country estate lies the disused Shale Point Station. Abandoned in the 1960s the railway line has been dug up and removed February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all that remains is the crumbling platform and eerie waiting roommore surprising. Martin is quick to employ BritainHe's top ghost hunter Julian Creed to investigate the strange and threatening occurrences of d been exiled on the waiting room that he and his children have witnessed – the sound and smell of Costa del Sol as a steam train, male voices singing a famous World War One song, and most frightening of all, the leering face of wanted drug smuggler for a soldier at the waiting room window. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444704214</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Robert McCrum|title=Globish: How the English Language Became the World's Language|rating=3.5|genre=History|summary=We British tend to forget just how insignificant we are. Tiny geographicallydecade. Tiny in population. Tiny, whatever we tell ourselves, on the world stage. Yet our language is spoken in various forms worldwide by approximately four billion people; The return has come about a third of the worldbecause he's population. How did ''had a letter from his ex-wife, saying thatshe's ill and hasn' happen? This is what Robert McCrum attempts t long to explainlive.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670916404</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Alison Murray|title=Apple Pie ABC|rating=4.5|genre=For Sharing|summary=Take one traditional rhyme ( It''A was an apple pies hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, B bit it...''), mix it up a bit with new words, add a pinch of sweet girl stripped to his underwear and sent to a dash watery grave in the boot of naughty dog, and you've got a recipe forstolen Ford Sierra... well, Is it a unbelievably cliched first line in warning from a review from me, but also Spanish gang or a super book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408308010</amazonuk>}}problem closer to home?