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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=Mary HooperTom Percival|title=Fallen GraceThe Wrong Shoes
|rating=5
|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary=Grace Parkes Will's life is not yet sixteen when she loses her babydifficult, in a multitude of ways. Worse still, it He is 1861bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and Grace is unmarried. To doesn't have a baby out of wedlock is a shameful thing enough money for a girl in Victorian times, even if it is not by her own choice, and Grace has to cope all alone with the shame most basic of her condition things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the loss of her childcollege, not to mention was working a cash-in-hand job on a sister who needs constant care building site and their increasing povertyhad an accident. But ''Fallen Grace' Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will' s life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has a tiny amount of hope. He is not some nineteenth century version good at art, and clings to the moments of the misery memoir: Grace has resourcefulness and determination as well as beautyjoy when he is drawing, and her story moves that feel like a light at the end of a gripping pacelong, dark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0747599130</amazonuk>1398527122
}}
|rating=5
|genre=For SharingScience Fiction|summary=Once upon There are few greater joys than a time there was book which lives up to a little girl called Goldilockscompelling premise... You know the rest. ''Me and You'' flips the classic fairy tale around, telling it from the three bears' point And this is one of view. Nice idea, non? It is, but calling it a retelling merely scratches the surface..them.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0385614896</amazonuk>0356522776
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Gatward0008517061|title=The Dead (The Dark)Death in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Lazarus Stone is home alone - Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his father's away on business and his mother died in rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a car crash when he was just baby. He's lazing around, chatting on little uncertainty about the phone future of his life with his best mate Craigvet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, when as moving in together would mean a foul smell begins lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life to suffuse the house. Tracking it move in with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the lounge, he opens future she wants for herself and her daughter? For the door and discovers a skinless figure drenched moment they’re enjoying life in blood. Not a corpse - Red has crossed over from the other side with a message for Lazarus's father... Hell is full present and putting the future on the Dead are comingback burner. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340999691</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Miguel Syjuco1786482126|title=IlustradoThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=When the dead body of Filipino writer Crispin Salvador is found floating Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the Hudson River, apparently having committed suicide, his student and fellow Filipino, Miguel is suspicious that darker forces may have been behind his death, particularly site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when there is no sign of Salvador's latest manuscript that threatens to dish they discovered the dirt on the sleaze and corruption bones of the rich and powerful in his native Philippinesa child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. In order to investigate further Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Miguel decides to write a biography of his teacher and mentorDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. That It's the premise of this bookdifficult as Ruth knows, but it tells you almost nothing about the experience of reading it. This Nelson doesn't, that she is no straightforward narrative of pregnant with his child as a regular crime fiction. It's a kaleidoscope result of sometimes apparently disjointed writing that gradually comes the one night they spent together to create a story that only starts to come into focus about half way throughsome three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, but it's not until the final pages where the true picture least because Ruth is brilliantly revealedprone to sudden bouts of sickness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330510002</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Anna Kendall0008551324|title=Crossing OverThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=34.5|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Roger can cross over into It's unusual for anyone from the Country of Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the Deadother. To be able But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to do this he must be in pain, something his abusive Uncle, Hartah, takes full advantage tell the police where the body ofa missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. So they travel This person, Hartahhe promises, Roger is someone big and his Aunt Jo, from faire to faire making money from Roger’s talents and exploiting it will be worth the grievingpolice doing what he wants. Until, Hartah, takes them And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the searemainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date. It Not much to ask, is there that Roger gets dragged into helping Hartah it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and others wreck the Frances Ormund, a navy ship carrying precious cargo back she's even prepared to do the Queendomother 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>0575094257</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stefan Klein0008405026|title=Leonardo's Legacy: How Da Vinci Reinvented A Stranger in the WorldFamily (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Inspector Salvo Montalbano’s immediate reaction when Caterella rang him at home was that a dead man had been found somewhereIt's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. Cat soon puts him right though. It’s a woman. She’s been She was never found, naked but particularly clean and on the edge of the local rubbish tipinvestigation ground to a halt. Most of Now, her face had been blown awaymother, Helena, which was going to make identification particularly difficult. Two things were obvious though – she was particularly beautiful and she had a tattoo of a butterfly on her shoulder blade.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330507648</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=John Feinstein|title=Moment of Glory: The Year Tiger Lost His Swing and Underdogs Ruled the Majors|rating=4|genre=Sport|summary=Despite the picture of Tiger Woods on the dust jacket this book is only incidentally about himfather are dead in their bed. Between 2000 and 2002 Woods had dominated top-class golfInitially, winning six of the twelve majors. But heit looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's always after improvement and he sacked his swing coach and turned to someone new. The swing is something about the engine positioning of a golfer's game the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and tinkering with a good swing has major implicationsher boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. For Woods What looked as though it meant that he floundered out of the big money in 2003. For everyone else it meant that there were chances was going to be takenan open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. You might have expected Kerrigan is convinced that it would be the established stars who took advantageexplanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, but it wasn't to beUna Burt) are less convinced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847442455</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jackson Pearce0571379877|title=Sisters RedThe Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet
|rating=3.5
|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Scarlett March lives to hunt the Fenris Edward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper- the werewolves that took her eye class friends, Robert and savaged her body during Stanza. Robert's a brutal attack when she was just a young girltheatre director. He's also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for him. Scarlett managed Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to save her sister Rosie, Robert. Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but Grandma Oma died horrifically. Scarletthe's body not like most men: Edward is marked by scar after scar and left to stumble upon the scars never let her forgettwo of them kissing in a dark passageway. She lives and breathes the hunt, killing Fenris after Fenris and saving teenaged girl after teenaged girl. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444900587</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Chuck PalahniukJo Callaghan|title=Tell-AllLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Meet Katherine Kenton. A movie star of great renown, she's always When a man is found crucified on TV as someone famous - or the wife top of somebody who happens to be famous and malea hill in Nuneaton, whether they were actually ever wedded. She DCS Kat Frank finds herself has had copious real-life marriagesassigned to the case alongside her sidekick, making somebody out of a nobody on many an instancethe AI detective Lock. Her shelves of It'best lifetime' awards are groanings their first live case together, and their dusting is a job akin to painting the Forth bridgehaving previously been very successful with several cold cases. The person who dusts them But when there is narrator for this booka second body found crucified a few days later, but she does more than Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that. She is everything draws a lot of unwanted attention to "Miss Kathie" - general housekeeper, housemate, and string-pullertheir AI Future Policing project. But what might those strings Will they be being pulled for? When Katherine meets a new toyboy, and our narrator seems able to get solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the waycase and, potentially, to what purpose might this beout of a career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0224087150</amazonuk>139851120X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Andrew Lane1399613073|title=Young Sherlock Holmes: Death CloudMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=34.5|genre=TeensThrillers|summary=With his father overseas in Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the British Army, his mother unwell, first day of medical school and older brother Mycroft busy working their friendship would keep them inseparable for the governmenta quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, young Sherlock Holmes which is forced a bonus when you aim to spend his school holidays with his unknown uncle be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and aunta trauma doctor. Looking forward to days Anjali is the free spirit of doing whatever he wants, especially after meeting urchin Matty Arnatt, hethe group and she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's initially displeased when Mycroft hires him going to end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an American tutor – but eerily similar event that will impact the tutorthree friends. This time, Amyus Crowe, and his daughter Victoria end up teaming up with Sherlock to solve the mysterious deaths of two local men, and uncover a plot which could have far-reaching consequences…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>033051198X</amazonuk>it's their teenage children who are involved.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Anne O'Brien0241636604|title=Virgin WidowThe Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical FictionAutobiography|summary=The mighty Richard Neville, Earl If you were to bring up an image of Warwicka city banker in your mind, is famous throughout England as one you're unlikely to think of King Edward IV’s most trusted advisorssomeone like Gary Stevenson. But as Edward A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is lured towards another influential family when the East End, where he falls in love was familiar with Elizabeth Woodvilleviolence, Warwick responds by backing poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the alliance between Margaret London School of Anjou Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and King Louis XI he has a facility with numbers which most of France, aiming us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to put Margaret’s husband Henry VI back on the English thronebe stupid. A helpless pawn It was his ability at what was, Anne is torn away from the man she lovesessentially, who will grow up to become Richard IIIa card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, to be used this turned into permanent employment as political capital by her father and his allies as they try to regain the kingdom of Englanda trader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778303756</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Valerie Grove1035021803|title=So Much To TellThe Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=43.5|genre=BiographyCrime|summary=Kaye Webb’s career would be It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the envy English country village where she grew up. She's back now because of many a young bookwormrequest for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. From 1961 Freya's former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to 1978 say the least. Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, she ran Puffin Booksfeels, let her down badly. Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the children’s division of Penguinman or pursue the profession she loved. I still have some paperbacks from that time with “Kaye Webb – Editor” After the split, she worked in a cafe, met and married James (on the first page inside rebound from the front coverlove of her life, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846142008</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=Isobelle CarmodySunny Singh|title=Obernewtyn (Obernewtyn Chronicles)Hotel Arcadia|rating=43.5|genre=TeensThrillers |summary=A nuclear catastrophe called The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Hiding from the Great White destroyed most of the worldterrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, a wartime photographer and only those Abhi, the hotel manager. As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who lived are still alive in isolated parts of the countryside were able hotel, he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to survive be cowed by refusing all contact with radiation-infected refugees from the urban centresevents, and keeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what's happened through her photography. In time Although they only ever talk over the cities grew againphone, but the fear of outsiders their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and of those who were different remained and became a religion, composed in part of half-remembered elements of faiths from the time they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the apocalypseterrorists.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408806975</amazonuk>086154742X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Caryl Phillips1529153298|title=In the Falling SnowThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=We are introduced to the central character Keith right away It's 1979 and discover lots about himMargaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. His personal and professional CV is laid bare before us(A woman? I mean, honestly... ) HeShe's not what's worrying Miv's one mixed upfamily, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, middle-agedthey've been murdered, not-but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite-middle-class manso frightening. He appears Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to be rather weak-willed and almost seems to fall into situations, rather than choose to be part of themmove the family 'Down South'. When in his marital relationship (now on you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a downward spiral)frightening, foreign place, his wife most definitely wore the trousers. I found Keith a very infuriating personbest avoided. I wanted to take him by For Miv, the scruff move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and give him a good old shake and then shout she'll do anything to prevent that. She'wake up and smell s not worried about the coffee, before itdangers or that her Mum's too latestopped talking - to anyone.'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099539748</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1398524085|title=Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Mark NeilsonNicci French|rating=5|titlegenre=Crime|summary=The Valley Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, Etty. are all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, is not. Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the body of Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in the river. It was an easy assumption for the Vinespolice to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the guilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1035906708|title=Diva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The reader discovers that SophieWe tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, the central character is living in rural isolationDecember 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. SheHer original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas's supposed to be living make it more manageable in the dreamStates. She's separated from her husband and her two daughters are at boarding school When she was back in the UK. She's also now a oneAthens -woman organization. And supposedly so that she's failing practically and financially could get appropriate training for many reasons. Apparently, according to Neilson, there's her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a very small window in which to carry out the vital work mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of harvesting the grapes her preference for wine. We are also told at frequent intervals about the enigmatic 'Old Ones'. They are 'The timeless custodians of the vines.' I'm afraid I found their too-frequent references rather annoyingher elder sister, Jackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709090595</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anthony HorowitzChristopher Edge|title=Legends: Battles and QuestsBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Bringing things Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that are this old to an audience this young cannot be an easy feathas the nickname of 'The Black Hole'. Anthony Horowitz must be more than able. An old volume All big movie fans, they're looking forward to lots of retold legends exciting films, and fables from his typewriter in many, many snacks! However, as the 1980s has become a series of six booksmovie starts, rejigged on his computerthey very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, and presented very nicely by Macmillanthey are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. The first But as they lurch from one film genre to hit the shelves ([[Legends: Beasts and Monsters by Anthony Horowitz|Legends: Beasts and Monsters]]) was a successful gift to us of five stories of olden beasties and baddies. next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Here we Will they ever get a full half-dozenback to the cinema, and the quality is just as compelling.to their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0330510169</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.''
Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, is one of the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the island's leader and Mira's father. Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and with only coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. With only nine days to unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the heart of the smuggler's territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and the ones she holds most dear.|isbn=0008664730}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ali SparkesJames Sherwood Metts|title=Wishful ThinkingPlanet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=We first meet Kevin covered in sickThings have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. He doesnAI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they't travel well, re paid to do and his day out with his gran in the car isn't going other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as well as he might wish for. He doesn't really seriously wish for anything, but a diverting list they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of things he'd like – a better complexionother, a better chance with the school hottie, a Wiinew ways to spend time, etc – gets dropped into a streamalong came an awful pandemic. And lo Life was pretty much shut down and behold, along with it, all the god 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 wishesmany daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0192756117</amazonuk>1736128426
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ian MackenzieMatthew Tree|title=City of StrangersWe'll Never Know|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeLiterary Fiction|summary=Paul Metzger – mid thirtiesTimothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, with a drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed marriage, a broken relationship with his brother (miserably and who converted had endless crises of self confidence. So Tim applied himself to Judaism)his studies, and a dying father (who is an ex-Nazi). Straight away there are obvious flaws with cultivated his family dynamic. As abilities rather than his writing career fails to take off he's left to churn out thousands of words for articles that have no meaning to him, the dregs of the publishing world. His life isn't quite as daydreams and set himself high flying as he hoped. But then Paul gets offered a lucrative book deal; the one thing he has wanted for years. The only catch is he has to write about his fatherbut achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099531852</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Maggie O'FarrellA G Slatter|title=The Hand That First Held MineBriar Book of the Dead
|rating=5
|genre=General FictionFantasy|summary=Lexie Sinclair was sent down from university for the crime '' There's a part of going through a door reserved for men. She could not graduate until she apologised and me that wants to keep this she was not going to do. Home was not an option either but when she met the sophisticated Innes Kent she made up her mind just to go to London and make her way there. It was the nineteen fifties and Lexie and Innes made a life myself for themselves in Sohohowever long I can. In the present day Elina and Ted are struggling to recover from the difficult birth This secret magic of their first childmy own, all mine, at last. Elina is an artist and she’s finding I just want to enjoy it difficult to come to terms with being for a mother. Ted does his best to help but he is having to cope with disturbing visions and memories of his own childhood which don’t seem to agree with what he’s been told by his parents. The further he looks, the stranger are the links which he uncoverswhile.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>075530845X</amazonuk>}}''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Anthony Horowitz1529900360|title=Legends: Beasts and MonstersThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=When they say 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 is nothing new under the sun, they might use this book as evidence were only open-and- but theyshut cases which didn'd t need the help of a psychologist only be half-rightworked for a while. The legends of the sphinxFinally, it was Robin, Delaware's riddlepartner, and who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the capture of involvement was something that the gorgon's head, are as old as the Parthenon hillman she loved needed. The next case did look simple, but they have never been presented as they have herethough. They Two lovers were published murdered in the swimming pool of a similar fashion remote property in Bel Air. He was the 1980s, with a younger Anthony Horowitz offering a large compendium of folk stories, legends heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to an extremely rich man and tales of classical derring-doit's not the Italian. With the attention span But which of them was the current under-twelve, however, to be considered, his publishers have allowed a sprucing up, and a reformatting - one book has been turned into six, with a brace each year from now til conclusion.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330510150</amazonuk>primary target?
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Seth Grahame-Smith1529395224|title=Abraham Lincoln Vampire HunterLetting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands
|rating=3.5
|genre=HumourAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn'Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning t want to breathe freefollow in his footsteps, The wretched refuse of your teeming shoreparticularly when he considered the strain that being on-call put on his father's life.' That quote, on When he was seventeen he took the Statue opportunity of Liberty, doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was probably not designed with the inclusion of vampires in mindjob for him. But by some means or another North America is rife with the things – hiding in plain sightBefore long, he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as the older ones can bear sunlight, with the help of darkened glassesso many students - been his dream since he was a child. It might just come down to one eager young man to rid his new country of such thingsIf anything, on his way he'd wanted to something he’s be a bit more known forprofessional footballer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849014086</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lynn Shepherd0861541774|title=Murder at Mansfield Park|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Straight away the reader is plunged into the language of Austen's era, so dotted all over are such rather flowery phrases as ' ... conjugal felicity ...' and ' ... her family were not consumptive...' We are also introduced to a host of characters and although Shepherd has thoughtfully provided right at the beginning ''Names of the Principal Persons'', it does bombard and perhaps confuse the reader a little. I must admit to referring to this dratted list time and time again. It does break the flow at the beginning A Nye of the novel. But, several chapters in and you're right into the story thereafter.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905636792</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewPheasants|author=George Pelecanos|title=ShoedogSteve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=If you ever find yourself as DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a character short holiday in a work of fictionSingapore to meet up with an old ally, it’s probably best to avoid hitchhikersGuy Trueman. The chances are it’s going to turn out very badly for either the driver or the hitchhiker Maik was involved in a street brawl - or both. Constantine is he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a denim-clad, Marlboroknife -smoking, drifter and loner with he killed a strong sense of right and wrong who has just returned from Ghurka. Initially, he faced a period charge of travelling around manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the world and is heading south back home in man. Now he could be facing the US when he is picked up by death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a man named Polk, driving a muscle cardiplomatic incident and wouldn't help Danny at all. So what could possibly go wrong?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846687365</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Yotam OttolenghiAlexander McCall Smith|title=PlentyThe Perfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=CookeryGeneral Fiction|summary=I'm sure that there are many good reasons for buying The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the Guardian of online apps in providing a Saturday but I always enjoy Yotam Ottolenghi's New Vegetarian columnmore personal, tailored service. I'm not a vegetarian (nor, indeedNess has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, as Ness is Ottolenghi) but he has planning to take a way with vegetables whether they're trip to Canada to be served on their own or as an accompaniment which get away for a while. Katie is freshcoming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, full of flavour and excitingso jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. The background 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 food is 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 Israel her abilities, and Palestine with the regionthere's rich supply of vegetablesalways her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, pulses and grains.to lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0091933684</amazonuk>1846976596
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Barrie0811771741|title=Night-ScentedInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=CrimeCrafts|summary=Isabelle Arbaud is determined Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to make her mark blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of the 'long, cosy afternoons in front of the world of luxury brandsfire' variety. Most perfumes The projects are offdivided by the time they'll take to complete -shoots of established fashion houses (or celebrity namesless than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and more than twenty hours. All the projects are attractive, but let's not go down modern and useable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects'but that'' road)s me being picky.}}{{Frontpage|author=Dean Koontz|title=The Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=Paranormal|summary=Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, 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 his house straight to the topgets trashed. But – Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it would seem 's possible that someone whoever or whatever was inside is determined the thing that she won't succeed. has trashed his house! First on and then a second of her financial backers diedThe thing is, Benny is the first in circumstances which might have been very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a accident, but probably wasn'tnice person. A really nice person. About So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the second there could be no doubtdelivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Two bullet holes are fairly conclusive evidence Spike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a suspicious deathwaitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0956251811</amazonuk>1662500491
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Debbie MacomberAdam Stower|title=Hannah's ListMurray and Bun|rating=34.5|genre=Women's FictionConfident Readers |summary=It was Murray is supposed to be a year since Dr Michael Everett's wife Hannah died from ovarian cancer humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and , well, whatever takes his grief was still as painful as everfancy next of the two. He certainly wasn But he't ready for what his brother-in-law, Hannahs a bad magician's brothercat, handed him. It was so his favourite bun has been turned into a letter which Hannah had written some time before her death hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the catflap they both use can chuck them out, not only did she suggest that he should remarryinto the regular back garden, she went on to name three women she thought would make but into a good wife for himworld of frightening adventure and whiffs. Winter Adams This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was the chef who owned the café on blossom Street, Leanne Lancaster had been Hannahto be honest, but he's nurse, but who was Macy Roth?turned up and he'll have to do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0778303799</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.
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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?