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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=Adam RossTom Percival|title=Mr PeanutThe Wrong Shoes|rating=3.5|genre=General FictionConfident Readers|summary=The main couple who tend to take centre stage here are called David and Alice Pepin. They live Will's life is difficult, in a kind multitude of comfortable, middle-class life in busy and bustling Manhattanways. After more than a decade of generally happy married life togetherHe is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', they want to take he has the next step wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have a family. Easy to say but enough money for even the most basic of things donlike food, and his dad can't quite work out according to planbecause he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. We Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are taken on various separated, and Will'dark' journeys within their marriages life seems bleak in every direction. These are situations which most And yet, he still has a tiny amount of us can identify withhope. Some He is good at art, and clings to the moments of these situations are painfuljoy when he is drawing, stressfulthat feel like a light at the end of a long, unhappydark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0224087738</amazonuk>1398527122
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kirsty RobinsonSylvie Cathrall|title=Grass StainsA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=45|genre=Women's Science Fiction|summary=Being the editor of There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a style magazine has its perks: free tickets, free gigs, endless parties, alcohol and drugscompelling premise. And that this is what Louisa's life consists one of – one continuous binge. Louisa spends her life going from one party to another, but it's not all it's cracked up to be and her life is starting to fall apartthem.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>009954119X</amazonuk>0356522776
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=DO Dodd0008517061|title=JewDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=A man regains consciousness to find himself stifledFormer Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. Pushing and pulling at There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the weight on top future of himhis life with his vet girlfriend, he gradually realises the horrific truth. He's Livia and her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a mass grave lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and he's covered relaxing life to move in with bodies. He has no memory of who he is Livia or how he came does Livia move to be there. He struggles out. He finds a uniform Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the future she wants for herself and he puts it on. He takes a gun her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and he buckles putting the future on its holster. He finds a man and a woman, naked on a bed. He shoots the man. He gets into a car and he drives into town, where he's greeted as the man in chargeback burner. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1842433512</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Keith Gray1786482126|title=Losing ItThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Doing it for Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the first time... you know, site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury'Losing'' Itapartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. It There was no skull. Sex. They talk about it Was this a lotritual killing or murder? Inevitably, teenagersDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. And eventually It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, they do it. But when is the right time? Where is the right place? Who that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the right person? Is everyone else doing it already? Will one night they be cheap if they do it too? Or spent together some three months ago. Her condition will they be left behind on the peripheries of all that's important in life? And there's so much eagerness in teenagers - obvious before long, not just for sex, but for everything. They sure do hate to wait. But sometimes, it's better to wait. The trick for the poor things, I suppose, least because Ruth is knowing when exactly prone to stop waiting. And when you've never done it, how on earth can you possibly know that?! Stepping into the breach come eight sudden bouts of my favourite writers in today's teen market, each with a story about virginitysickness. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849390991</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Camilla Reid and Ailie Busby0008551324|title=Lulu's LooThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=WeIt've been here before, as Lulu introduced us s unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to her [[Luluapproach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's Shoes by Camilla Reid prepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and Ailie Busby|shoes]]who was responsible for her death. This person, he promises, [[Lulu's Clothes by Camilla Reid is someone big and Ailie Busby|clothes]] it will be worth the police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and [[Luluto get an early parole date. Not much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn's Christmas by Camilla Reid t think so and Ailie Busby|Christmas]]. Here, she's kind enough even prepared to show us all do the other thing that goes on Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008405026|title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her loobed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, Helena, nappies and pottyher father are dead in their bed. As before Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there are plenty 's something about the positioning of interesting flaps the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to lift be an open-and things to explore-shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408802651</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Maria Edgeworth0571379877|title=HelenThe Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet
|rating=3.5
|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=SweetEdward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-tempered Helen Stanley has been left penniless class friends, Robert and homeless after her uncleStanza. Robert's deatha theatre director. Soon her best friend Cecilia writes to encourage Helen to come He's also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and live with her entitled and her new husband, General Clarendon at Clarendon Parkuses Edward to run errands for him. Helen soon finds herself settled Edward has been in to Clarendon Park and reacquaints herself love with Cecilia Stanza since their university days - and more importantly with Ceciliahe's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. Most men in Robert's mother, Lady Davenant, who considers Helen position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a daughter, and even prefers her relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to Ceciliastumble upon the two of them kissing in a dark passageway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956003893</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Nicholas ShakespeareJo Callaghan|title=InheritanceLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Andy LarkhamWhen a man is found crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. It's life and career are going nowheretheir first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. He works for But when there is a small publishing housesecond body found crucified a few days later, Carpe Diem, that specialises in publishing self-help books, his fiancée Kat is about to dump him suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and he has no money and mountains a very high profile case that draws a lot of debtunwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. And that's before we begin Will they be able to talk about his dysfunctional family. His only real role model was solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the Montaigne-loving teachercase and, Stuart Furnivallpotentially, whose funeral he is late for. But an unexpected inheritance out of £17 million has a habit of changing one's outlook on life. But while he trades self-help for help yourself, Andy also realises that he has inherited a mystery.career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846553156</amazonuk>139851120X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Pamela Fudge1399613073|title=A Change For The BetterMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=Women's FictionThrillers|summary=Jo Farrell had spent all her life caring Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for other peoplea quarter of a century. After she lost her alcoholic husband and her demanding Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, hypochondriac mother she had time for herself, but which is a bonus when she looked in the mirror she wasn't particularly impressed by what she sawyou aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. The middle-aged, slightly plump woman with grey curls reminded her Anjali is the free spirit of her mother the group and the clothes she was wearing did little to help eitherbecomes a GP. It was something odd which helped her When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to changeend in tragedy. The very scruffy man from downstairs (We don't know who suffered the sort you would cross tragedy or the road to avoid) came to borrow a newspaper and somehow they got talking about what needed to consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be done to change her lifean eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. This time, it's their teenage children who are involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709090609</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Cath Staincliffe0241636604|title=The Kindest ThingTrading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionAutobiography|summary=Imagine that your partner If you were to bring up an image of twenty or so years discovers that they are dying from a terminal disease. Now imagine that theycity banker in your mind, you've asked you re unlikely to help them to die a little sooner, on their own termsthink of someone like Gary Stevenson. What would you do? This A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the dilemma that faced Deborah andEast End, where he was familiar with violence, after she went ahead poverty and helped her husband Neil injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to die, she found herself charged the London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and standing trial for murder he has a facility with her own teenage daughternumbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It was his ability at what was, Sophieessentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, testifying against herthis turned into permanent employment as a trader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849012083</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Peter James1035021803|title=Dead Like YouThe Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=43.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Brighton is faced with a serial rapist who appears It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to have the English country village where she grew up. She's back now because of a fetish request for shoes - after the rapehelp from her beloved aunt, he removes the womanCarole. Freya's shoes former mentor and takes them with him. Detective Superintendent Roy Grace Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is immediately reminded of a previous unsolved case that he was involved in several years beforedead and the circumstances seem suspicious, during which a young girl disappeared, never to be foundsay the least. It Arthur was precisely at that time that Grace's own wifethe reason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, Sandyshe feels, disappeared andlet her down badly. Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, although he is now having a child with another woman, he she has never been not felt able to forget Sandybe near the man or pursue the profession she loved. If After the rapist has reared his ugly head againsplit, why has he chosen to do so after so long? Could it be she worked in a copycat rapist? And will Grace's memories cafe, met and married James (on the rebound from the love of Sandy help him to find some clue as to her disappearance?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230706878</amazonuk>life, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.
}}
{{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.''
I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Well, I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of technology in my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but I'm left with the feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of it is - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand.}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Giorgio FalettiSunny Singh|title=I KillHotel Arcadia
|rating=3.5
|genre=Thrillers
|summary=The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Hiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, a wartime photographer and Abhi, the hotel manager. As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the hotel, he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what's happened through her photography. Although they only ever talk over the phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists.
|isbn=086154742X
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1529153298
|title=The List of Suspicious Things
|author=Jennie Godfrey
|rating=5
|genre=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've been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the family 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1398524085
|title=Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?
|author=Nicci French
|rating=5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Monte Carlo: 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 generally a place associated with moderation . Shortly afterwards, Etty and temperance Greg, find the body of any kind Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in the river. It was an easy assumption for the police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and therefore probably then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the perfect setting for a killing spree by a serial killer guilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but get on with a particular fetish for extreme souvenir gatheringtheir lives and wonder about what really happened.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849012954</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Eliza Graham1035906708|title=JubileeDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=As the village celebrates the Queen's Golden Jubilee two people can't help We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but think back she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and only moved to the Silver JubileeAthens when she was thirteen. Evie Winter and Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her niece Rachel have vivid memories of the day when Eviefather changed it to 'Callas's daughter Jessamy wandered off and to make it more manageable in the mystery of her disappearance has never been solvedStates. She When she was eleven years old, bright, athletic and loved 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 mother and cousin. There would seem to be made no explanation as to why she might have disappeared secret of her own free will and no evidence that she was abducted. Life has carried onpreference for her elder sister, but it has not been the same. It has not been easyJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330509268</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jamie RixChristopher Edge|title=The Incredible Luck of Alfie PluckBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Poor Alfie Pluck. He lives with Lucas and his two aunts who friends are grotesquely disgustingall booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, and who call him their Household Drudge. They reminded me a place that has the nickname of some of Roald Dahl's most appalling creationsThe Black Hole'. Compared All big movie fans, they're looking forward to Alfie's auntslots of exciting films, and many, many snacks! However, as the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, Harry Potterand they are swept up into an adventure they couldn's Dursley relatives are warm and friendlyt even imagine. Alfie But as they lurch from one film genre to the next, can they figure out what on earth is decidedly down going on luck.? Will they ever get back to the cinema, and to their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444001019</amazonuk>1839942738
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anna DaleRachel Greenlaw|title=Magical Mischief|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Mr Hardbattle runs a dusty old bookshop where magic has moved in. Its smell puts customers off Compass and it regularly causes chaos such as the books rearranging themselves of their own accord. But this bookseller is a nice man who doesn’t want to disturb the magic too much by getting out the vacuum cleaner, and on the whole they get used to each other. Now though, he is facing a huge rent increase. Enter two customers, young Arthur and Miss Quint, who agree to help him find a nice new home for the magic, and to help look after the shop while Mr Hardbattle travels to visit some people who have answered an advert offering the magic a new home.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408800438</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Michael Robotham|title=Bleed For MeBlade|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=An ex-detective is found dead in a pool of blood in his teenager's bedroom. She runs from the scene of the crime. Is this the easiest cut-and-dried case ever? This novel is told in the first person by the investigating psychologist, Professor Joe O'Loughlin3. He's got a lot going on in his life right now. His health is not good so he's to keep popping pills to try and get through another working day. He's also newly separated and his daughters seem to talk a completely different language. He feels old and very ragged round the edges. Into this mix, he discovers that the teenager everyone is talking about, the teenager who's been discussed and described as a cold-blooded killer, is his daughter's best friend. Could his life get any worse, he thinks. Yes. Big-time.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847442188</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Cathy Hopkins|title=Million Dollar Mates|rating=45
|genre=Teens
|summary=It's nine months since Jess Hall's mother died and she's still finding it difficult to come to terms with what's happened. She and her brother Charlie have been living with Gran but all that's about to change. Jess' Dad has got I can hear the job song of general manager at Number 1, Porchester Park. These apartments are not just up-market they're where the A-listers live and after some initial reluctance about leaving Gran Jess is excitedsea. There's an Olympic-size pool where she can swim and both she and Charlie will be able to have their own rooms in The call of the house that goes with deep, the jobanswering beat in my heart. Everyone at school envies here and it looks as though she's living the dream.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847387578</amazonuk>}}'
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Iain PearsJames Sherwood Metts|title=Stone's FallPlanet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical FictionConfident Readers|summary=I read Iain PearsThings have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they' ''The Portrait'' a year or so ago re paid to do and loved it so I was really looking forward other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as they were beginning to get used to reading all this novel. The front cover is strikingly handsome technological change and hints starting to think of good things other, new ways to come between its coversspend time, along came an awful pandemic. The novel is divided up into sizeable chunks of three. Three different decades Life was pretty much shut down and three different locations. Pears then dips in and out of the main characters' lives, telling along with it, all the reader basically what makes them tickmany daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099516179</amazonuk>1736128426
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Zachary MasonMatthew Tree|title=The Lost Books of the OdysseyWe'll Never Know|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Zachary Mason suggests that Homer's ''Odyssey'' was merely one particular ordering of the events of Odysseus' return Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to Ithaca after the Trojan War. 'Echoes of other Odysseys', he suggests existbe different from his father, including a forty four-episode variation in a 'pre-Ptolomeic papyrus excavated from the desiccated rubbish mounds of Oxyrhnchus' drunk and this is what is 'translated' here. So we are presented with these forty four often very short stories that reconstruct elements chronic underachiever whose dreams of the Odyssey in a kind being exceptional at any of alternate reality, asking 'what if it were slightly different', his artistic passions all failed miserably and what emerges is a non-linear, mosaic who had endless crises of storiesself confidence. If Homer had decided So Tim applied himself to present his book in DVD formatstudies, these would be in the 'extras' of alternative 'takes' on things. The result is like a jazz riff on the original storiescultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0224090224</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.''
Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Briar's, a family of witches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands. Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to be born into her family for generations and as such since she was young, her training as a steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the town's leader, and Ellie takes her place beside her. As challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, putting her at the heart of a maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what to do as the Briar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat.|isbn=1803364548}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sherrilyn Kenyon1529900360|title=InfinityThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Nick GautierIt hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, scholarship kid teased Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his poverty help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and his mother-shut cases which didn't need the help of a psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, it was Robin, Delaware's job as a stripperpartner, finds life hard enough even before three of his friends try to kill him when he stops them from mugging an elderly couplewho nudged Milo into asking for help again. But when She knew that the involvement was something that the man who rescues him turns out to mix in seriously weird circles, things get really bizarreshe loved needed. If anything The next case did look simple, really bizarre is a massive understatementthough. Nick goes on to meet demons, zombies, shape changers, and Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a host of other mysterious beings, many of whom he already knew remote property in human form as his schoolmatesBel Air. He ends up on was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to an extremely rich man and it's not the frontline Italian. But which of a battle against zombies who are running riot in his home of New Orleans.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>190741021X</amazonuk>them was the primary target?
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mary Beard1529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The ParthenonSecret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=43.5|genre=HistoryAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Despite 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 proliferation strain that being on-call put on his father's life. When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of populist historians in print doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and on television, Professor Mary Beard continues to be a voice apartwas convinced this was the job for him. Her conversational style of writing belies the academic research Before long, he was at its heartLiverpool University. This is serious history written as engagingly It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a child. If anything, he'd wanted to be a detective storyprofessional footballer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683491</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Garrett Keizer0861541774|title=The Unwanted Sound A Nye of Everything We Want|rating=4.5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=What is noise? Do we count birdsong at sunrise as noise? And if so, what different term would we use to describe a jet aircraft taking off? Why do we respond so differently to the two? Even more intriguingly, would our response change if the birdsong woke us from an exhausted sleep but the aircraft was taking off to jet us on a long awaited holiday?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1586485520</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewPheasants|author=Mario Puzo|title=Six Graves to MunichSteve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=In the dying days of the Second World War Michael RoganDCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an American Intelligence officer was captured and tortured by a group of seven menold ally, most of whom were senior Gestapo officers trying to obtain the secrets which Rogan could give themGuy Trueman. His wife Maik was involved in another room a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and he could hear her screamskilled a Ghurka. Ten years laterInitially, when he had recovered from faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the appalling injuries man. Now he suffered he made up his mind that he would avenge could be facing the death of his wife at the hands of the seven menpenalty. It's no easy task Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as he doesnany interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn't even know who they arehelp Danny at all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184916276X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kishwar DesaiAlexander McCall Smith|title=Witness the NightThe Perfect Passion Company|rating=24.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The book opens on Perfect Passion Company is a disturbing dream sequence (or is it dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a memory?) that sets up more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the murder which business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to be get away for a while. Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the centre of this bookchance to come home to Edinburgh. DurgaAnd so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, a young girl living in Julundurbringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, is instructed by a mysterious male character thanks to return 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to the house from which she charm. Katie has just fledno experience in running a business, or in match-making, the house but Ness has full confidence in which her whole family lies dead- poisonedabilities, stabbed and partly scorched. There Durga is tied upthere's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, having been attacked and raped.to lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1905636857</amazonuk>1846976596
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michael Ridpath0811771741|title=Where the Shadows Lie (Fire and Ice)InstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=CrimeCrafts|summary=Magnus Jonson was in some difficulty in BostonMelissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to blankets. HeSome will be quick knits - others are of the 'd overheard another detective getting himself involved long, cosy afternoons in something illegal and when he reported this he found that even front of the good guys werenfire't terribly fond of him – and the others would prefer to see him dead before the case came to trialvariety. The solution was simple but unusual: Jonson was born in Iceland although heprojects are divided by the time they'd mostly grown up in Boston ll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and the police in Iceland wanted someone to give them some help in beefing up their murder squadmore than twenty hours. Jonson disappeared from BostonAll the projects are attractive, telling no one where he was going modern and resurfaced in Icelanduseable. Simple? NoI perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's me being picky.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848873972</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Douglas RushkoffDean Koontz|title=Life Inc: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take it BackThe Bad Weather Friend|rating=34.5|genre=Politics and SocietyParanormal|summary=The author of this book was mugged outside Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his apartment one Christmas Evehouse gets trashed. He posted Oh, and someone has delivered a note online really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to warn his neighbours to be extra carefulhome, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was promptly berated inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for doing something so public Benny it turns out that could potentially damage property values in the delivery to his local areahouse 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. This Spike is a thought-provoking snippetgoing to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if the whole book was like thishe, Benny, Iand Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny'm sure I would have been grippeds wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099516691</amazonuk>1662500491
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=David LaneAdam Stower|title=England 'Til I Die - A celebration of England's amazing supportersMurray and Bun|rating=34.5|genre=SportConfident Readers |summary=To start withMurray is supposed to be a humble, an admission. I am an English fan of footballtidy and friendly cat, but I am not a fan of England’s football squad. Hardly ever would I prefer one who is able to see the Three Lions triumphant. I never got into the habitsleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, partly because I never saw the singularly English habit whatever takes his fancy next of supporting the underdog as making any sense. Plus you'll never get me standing up and singing that awful tune before the matchtwo. But here are testimonies from twenty or so people who see things completely differently to me.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906796505</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=John Farndon|title=Do You Think Youhe're Clever?: The Oxbridge Questions|rating=3.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=My history of interviews with Oxbridge colleges forms s a very short dialogue. Me, to university admissions representative, bad magician''You don’t actually do media studies per ses cat, do you?'' He, ''No – our graduates run the media.'' Had I got so his favourite bun has been turned into a lot furtherhyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and sat in front of a potential tutorthe catflap they both use can chuck them out, I would have faced a question designed to bafflenot into the regular back garden, provoke, bewilder – or to inspire but into a flight world of intuitive intelligencefrightening adventure and whiffs. Thus is the media-running wheat separated from the media-consuming chaff. And thus This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is this book given its basis expected – sixty of the more remarkable questionswell, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, answered as our erudite author might but he's turned up and he'll have wished to answer them. do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184831132X</amazonuk>0008561249
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|rating=4
|genre=General Literary Fiction|summary=Jericho, (who's female by the way), is a beautiful young woman. She's curious about the outside world so like many before her, she's taken the brave step of sampling life in a big, bustling city. She returns to her home village with some rather pretentious airs ... and Can you make a rich suitor in tow. By sheer coincidence Jericho's mother had attended an interview in her past at her daughter's new boyfriendYo birthing person's family home. A veritable mansion with ' ... sweeping rooms that took longer than a river to cross.' What a lovely way of describingluxury in an essentially poor area of Africa. Everyone thinks joke? And if you could, is the next natural step is marriage and babies but question should you make it? Or is the question if you did, would itland?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844086275</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Peter Beaumont|title=The Secret Life of War: Journeys Through Modern Conflict |rating=5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=Peter Beaumont catch is that the Foreign Affairs editor at The Observeranswer for both could well be.. He joined the paper in 1989 and has spent much of the intervening time dealing with the kind of 'foreign affairs' that is better described as 'war reporting'. 'The Secret Life of War' is a distillation of his years in the field. It is a book ill-served by both its title and its cover, except maybe insofar as both might serve to sneak it onto the bookshelves of those who really need to read it, but probably wouldn't choose to do so were it more accurately wrappedno.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099520982</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sarah Rees Brennan1529431735|title=The Demon's CovenantWinter Visitor|author=James Henry
|rating=4
|genre=TeensCrime|summary=A few weeks after the events of [[The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan|The DemonIt's Lexicon]] February 1991 and Mae Essex is finally ungrounded. Determined to get on with 'normalbitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' life and forget return all the magic shemore surprising. He's lost since brothers Nick and Alan Ryves left, Mae is only interested in hitting the town and meeting up with Seb. Nice, normal Seb.Then Mae learns her brother Jamie has d been secretly meeting up with Gerald, the new leader of the Obsidian Circle. Afraid that Jamie is getting involved in dangerous things, Mae does the only thing she can and calls Alan.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847382908</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Gary Younge|title=Who Are We - And Should It Matter in the 21st Century?|rating=5|genre=Autobiography|summary=Journalist Gary Younge’s book draws heavily exiled on his articles for the Guardian newspaper, Costa del Sol as he mentions in his acknowledgements, but it isn’t just a collection of his journalism. Who Are We? is partly a memoir and partly wanted drug smuggler for a thoughtful and incisive exploration of the politics and political impact of identity, including race, gender, language groups, religion, sexuality in various countries around the worlddecade. He sets out to explore 'To what extent can our various identities be mobilized to accentuate our universal humanity as opposed to separating us off into various, antagonistic camps?'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670917036</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Keith Colquhoun|title=Five Deadly Words|rating=3|genre=General Fiction|summary=Five Deadly Words follows the story of charismatic former dictator Lucas, as The return has come about because he charms and 'collects' people during s had a letter from his exile in London. The story is seen mostly from the point of view of Helen Berlinex-wife, the bright young Detective Constable who is put in charge of Lucas' safety. Helen finds herself caught up in matters which become increasingly out of her depth as saying that she falls further into the former dictator's world.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904529496</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Liz Kessler|title=Philippa Fisher ill and the Stone Fairyhasn's Promise|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=In the third book of this enchanting series Liz Kessler manages to show both the delights and the sorrows of friendship: a topic which is eternally popular with young (and not so young) readers. Philippa has travelled with her father and mother to Ravenleigh t long to spend New Year with her new friend Robynlive. But she has only just arrived when disaster strikes. Daisy, her other best friend and fairy godsister (like a fairy godmother but the same age as you), realises Philippa It's mother hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is in dangerabducted, stripped to his underwear and tries sent to helpa watery grave in the boot of a stolen Ford Sierra. But in order to do so she has to break Is it a lot of rules, and warning from a series of catastrophes means Philippa ends up with Daisy in ATC (Above The Clouds), Spanish gang or a sector of the fairy world. And the other fairies don't realise who she is ... |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1842559966</amazonuk>}}problem closer to home?