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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=Jessie LittleTom Percival|title=The Hoozles: My Magical TeddyWrong Shoes|rating=45
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Willow and her brother Freddie have gone to stay Will's life is difficult, in Summertown with their Aunt Suzy whilst their parents are away for the summera multitude of ways. Aunt Suzy owns a toy shop in townHe is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and she makes her own special Hoozle soft toys. Willow and Freddie each doesn't have a Hoozle of their own that their Aunt made enough money for them - Willow has Toby even the teddy bear most basic of things like food, and Freddie has Wobbly his dad can't work because he lost his job at the Lioncollege, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. Willow loves Toby dearly, but it isn't until she is staying with her aunt Throw into that she discovers mix the fact that Toby can come to life his mum and talk to her dad are separated, and she can talk to him! Will's life seems bleak in every direction. And so begins yet, he still has a summer full tiny amount of magical adventures for Willow hope. He is good at art, and clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the Hoozlesend of a long, dark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0571247911</amazonuk>1398527122
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Daniel D VictorSylvie Cathrall|title=The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Seventh BulletA Letter to the Luminous Deep
|rating=5
|genre=CrimeScience Fiction|summary=In 1911, author, journalist and celebrated dandy David Graham Phillips was shot multiple times by Harvard educated musician Fitzhugh Coyle Goldsborough, who then committed suicideThere are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. The journalist had received on the morning And this is one of his death a threatening telegram signed with his own name, but had shrugged it off as during his career as a 'muckraker', to use the term coined for him by Theodore Roosevelt, he'd made many enemiesthem.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184856676X</amazonuk>0356522776
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jennie Rooney0008517061|title=The Opposite of FallingDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=Historical FictionCrime|summary=It is 1862 and when wealthy Liverpool girl Ursula Bridgewater finds herself single and restless after her fiancée Henry Springton leaves her for another womanFormer Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, she soon turns to travel as a means of escape and sets off on her first expedition. But she has agreed to stay friends with Henry and cannot quite escape him completely as they continue to write to each othersettled into his rustic life at Little Sky. Ten years later and Ursula has travelled all over There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the world and is about to embark on a trip around America, but this time she decides to take a companion.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701182687</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=K J Parker|title=The Folding Knife|rating=5|genre=Fantasy|summary=Bassianus Arcadius Severus – call him Basso – is a man future of many talents. All but guaranteed a his life of ease as with his birthrightvet girlfriend, he instead finds himself driven to excelLivia and her daughter Diana, first as an executive trustee moving in together would mean a lot of compromise: does Jake give up his father’s bank, off-grid and then relaxing life to move in the realm of politics. His rise with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the zenith of public life is meteoric, fuelled by ambition, ruthlessness, future she wants for herself and above all his ability to turn any defeat into a resounding victory. But with her daughter? For the Republic – and Basso’s own position and even moment they’re enjoying life – under threat from enemies old in the present and new, will his fall prove equally thunderous? Welcome to ''The Folding Knife'', putting the future on the latest fantasy epic from K.Jback burner. Parker.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841495123</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jean Reidy and Genevieve Leloup1786482126|title=Too Pickly!The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's [[Too Purply! by Jean Reidy and Genevieve Leloup|Too Purply!]] with food. That about sums it updifficult as Ruth knows, but for those of you who havenNelson doesn't already fallen in love , that she is pregnant with Jean Reidy's tale his child as a result of getting dressedthe one night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, ''Too Pickly!'' looks at a little boy (and his hamster) deciding what not least because Ruth is prone to eat. Dish by dish, he rejects them for being too pickly, too wrinkly, too burpy, too stringy, and so on, until he finds the one that's just rightsudden bouts of sickness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408807114</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Andrew Grant0008551324|title=Die Twice The Devil You Know (David TrevellyanD S Max Craigie)|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=The title is very much at home and in keeping with the thriller genre and it's both eye-catching and also has a perfectly reasonable explanation which comes right at the very end of the story. I must admit to thrillers generally not being my most favourite reading material. Some can be a bit flashy, a bit trashy even. But not this novel. Right from the start I felt I was in for a good, intelligent read. There were pointers to this all over the place. For starters, David Trevellyan has a nice line in witty humour. There are numerous snazzy one-liners. It all went down very well.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230747582</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Louise Doughty|title=Whatever You LoveNeil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=Two police officers knock on LauraIt's door. They break unusual for anyone from the news Hardie family to her that her 9 year old daughter Betty approach the police. Neither side likes or has been run over any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and killed. Bettyhe's friend Willow prepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is in hospitalburied and who was responsible for her death. Immediately This person, he promises, I was drawn into this story is someone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of a motherhis sentence and to get an early parole date. Not much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's worst nightmare coming truehappening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571254756</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Linda Strachan0008405026|title=Dead Boy TalkingA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=45|genre=TeensCrime|summary=''They say it takes about 25 minutes to bleed to death. I want to scream and yell but thereIt's no sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one here to hear me summer night. She was never found and I... I can't breath enough the investigation ground to yell anywaya halt. I'm going to die here Now, her mother, Helena, all on my ownand her father are dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there'' Josh is lying in s something about the snow in an alleyway in a pool positioning of his own bloodthe bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. He stabbed one of his best mates yesterday, and now What looked as though it's happened was going to him. He knows he's dying be an open-and his thoughts turn to how this could possibly have happened. He wonders where Skye -shut case is and what she's doingnow a complex double murder. He hopes Danny Kerrigan is ok. And, as he goes over the events of convinced that the day before, which culminated explanation lies in his stabbing Ranj, his missing brother Gary keeps intruding into the picture. Why did he go? And did his parents' obsession with GaryRosalie's disappearance play a part in what: others (such as Derwent's happened? |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905537204</amazonuk>boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jonathan Lee0571379877|title=Who Is Mr Satoshi?The Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet
|rating=3.5
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=The novel opens somewhere in the Home Counties and Rob Fossick Edward Jevons is attending a working-class young man, obsessed with his motherupper-class friends, Robert and Stanza. Robert's funerala theatre director. The event in itself is extremely distressing He's also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and also depressing uses Edward to run errands for him; factor . Edward has been in that love with Stanza since their university days - and he's become drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a bit of a recluse lately and I could feel the sheer loneliness creeping into Robrelationship had begun between them but he's very bones. Lee describes not like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the event as 'Zimmer frames, bifocals, trifocals, two of them kissing in a dark grey coats with yawning shoulderspassageway. The apparatus of old age.'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0434020419</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Hazel McHaffieJo Callaghan|title=Remember RememberLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=The story starts at When a man is found crucified on the end and works back top of a hill in time. This works extremely well as we see Doris ManneringNuneaton, motherDCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, grandmother and great-grandmother now living in a residential homethe AI detective Lock. The decision to It'put mother' into a home was verys their first live case together, having previously been very difficult and had been put off time and time againsuccessful with several cold cases. We come to realize But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that this was draws a heart-wrenching decisionlot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. The daughter and carer, JessicaWill they be able to solve the case in time, or will always be asking Kat find herself if she'd done taken off the right thingcase and, made the right decision for the right reasons. A veritable minefield. And here is where many an ethical dilemma lies for many families in real-life similar situations.potentially, out of a career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1906817294</amazonuk>139851120X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Samantha Mackintosh1399613073|title=Kisses for LulaMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=34.5|genre=TeensThrillers|summary=Girls do worryOlivia, about all sorts Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of thingsa century. And one Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Anjali is the free spirit of the things group and she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they enjoy worrying about most is whether or not they are passing the milestones on life's journey re at the same time as everyone else. The fact that they combine this with loud demands to be treated to be an individual is a major reason for stress-related hairdrug and alcohol-loss fuelled party and gibbering it's going to end in parentstragedy. Lula is no exception here We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. Her sixteenth birthday is approaching fast This time, and unless she gets kissed before then (by pretty well anyone: sheit's desperate) she is convinced she will be jinxed for lifetheir teenage children who are involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405249625</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Benedict Gummer0241636604|title=The Scourging AngelTrading Game: The Black Death in the British IslesA Confession|author=Gary Stevenson
|rating=4.5
|genre=HistoryAutobiography|summary=The mid-fourteenth century was If you were to bring up an unsettled time for Englandimage of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. It was an age which saw A hoodie and jeans replaces the first phases of pin-stripe suit and his background is the protracted Hundred Years’ War East End, where he was familiar with Franceviolence, poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the Scottish war London School of independence, Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with numbers which came most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to an end with the capture of King David IIbe stupid. As if these events were not enoughIt was his ability at what was, essentially, in 1346 there was the first case of a man in Europe contracting card game which got him an unknown disease that rapidly swept across the continentinternship with Citibank. Eventually, claiming the lives of millions, and one medieval chronicler noted that 'the bodies looked like this turned into permanent employment as a macabre lasagne: corpses piled row upon row separated only by layers of dirt'trader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099548836</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Colin Cotterill1035021803|title=Love Songs From A Shallow GraveThe Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=43.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Dr Siri Paiboun is about It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to celebrate his seventy-fourth birthday but it looks as though it might be his lastthe English country village where she grew up. Instead She's back now because of being at home with Madam Daenga request for help from her beloved aunt, his wife of three months, heCarole. Freya's former mentor and Carole's in jailclose friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. It's Arthur was the reason why Freya had not your average run-of-been back to the-mill jail eithervillage: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. Siri is chained Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to some lead piping and conditions are not exactly five starbe near the man or pursue the profession she loved. Meanwhile Phosy After the split, she worked in a cafe, met and Dtui are having marriage problems whilst he struggles to investigate married James (on the rebound from the deaths love of three womenher life, all skewered by an epee who was murdered) and their thighs showing a letter engraved with a knifeFreya and James have now divorced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849160457</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=Joanna Simmons and Jay CurtisSunny Singh|title=The Aargh to Zzzz of Parenting: An Alternative GuideHotel Arcadia|rating=43.5|genre=Home and FamilyThrillers |summary='All The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in all, having kids is an intense rollercoaster rideunnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. It plunges up and downHiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, and there’s lots of screaming and vomiting involved.' So that pretty much sums it up. Advertised as: 'a comprehensively unhelpfulkilling everyone on site, advice-free look at life'there is Sam, the authors talk about Antecedents a wartime photographer and BehaviourAbhi, without (fortunately) going too deeply into the Consequences of several dozen baby-related topicshotel manager. But this definitely isn’t As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the rocket science of hotel, he forms a parenting manualbond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, or 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 touchy-feely of a misery memoirphone, rather a blackly comic gallop round pragmatic parenthood, instantly recognizable 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 anyone who’s been through the mill themselvesterrorists.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>022408626X</amazonuk>086154742X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Niven1529153298|title=The AmateursList of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Gary Irvine only wants two things out of lifeIt's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly... ) HeShe'd like to s not what's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have children and he wants to reduce his golf handicapbeen disappearing. Nothing extraordinary thereWell, you might think except for the fact that his wifethey've been murdered, Pauline, is planning but to leave him for a self-made carpet millionaire and Gary is a dreadful golferhave 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. His handicap is eighteen – but IMiv's upset because she'm not entirely certain how he got it down s overheard that her father wants to that level in move the first placefamily 'Down South'. His family doesnWhen you't give him much solace eitherre from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. His brother Lee is on For Miv, the fringes of the local criminal underworld move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and hasnshe't the wit ll do anything to keep himself out of trouble with Ranta Campbell, the local overlordprevent that. Ranta could be quite likeable if it wasnShe't for his penchant for a certain type of violence designed to keep s not worried about the others in line rather than dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to teach the victim a lessonanyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099516667</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kevin Brooks1398524085|title=iBoyHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French
|rating=5
|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Tom Harvey is wandering along after school on his way to meet Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up with his friend Lucy when he hears his name called from up high in one of the tower blocks on his estate. He doesn't have time to look up before everything goes up Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, Etty. are all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, is not. Waking up in hospital days later Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, Tom discovers he has fragments find the body of a shattered iPhone embedded Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in his brainthe river. And still worse, his friend Lucy has been gang-raped in a brutal attack It was an easy assumption for the police to make that Tom Duncan had been so closed to walking in 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 onwith their lives and wonder about what really happened. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141326107</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Daniel Waters1035906708|title=Passing Strange (Generation Dead)|rating=4|genre=Teens|summary=Karen DeSonne, the sexiest zombie amongst the many differently biotic teenagers in Oakvale, gets a turn at centre stage in the latest in Daniel Waters's ''Generation Dead'' series. Karen has always worn a disguise. When she was alive, her various camouflages hid the crippling depression that engulfed her so often and eventually led to her suicide. Now she's dead, make up, hair dye and blue contact lenses enable her to "pass" as a living girl. She talks fluently and her movements are fluid, unlike most of her differently biotic peers, whose pauses, stutters and jerky movements mark them out for all to see. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847389600</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewDiva|author=Adam Ross|title=Mr PeanutDaisy Goodwin|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The main couple who We tend to take centre stage here are called David and Alice Pepin. They live a kind think of comfortableMaria Callas as Greek, middle-class life but she was born to Greek parents in busy and bustling Manhattan. After more than a decade of generally happy married life together, they want New York, in December 1923 and only moved to take the next step and have a familyAthens when she was thirteen. Easy to say Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but things don't quite work out according her father changed it to plan. We are taken on various 'darkCallas' journeys within their marriageto make it more manageable in the States. These are situations which most 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 us can identify with. Some of these situations are painful, stressfulher preference for her elder sister, unhappyJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224087738</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kirsty RobinsonChristopher Edge|title=Grass StainsBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=Women's FictionConfident Readers|summary=Being Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the editor nickname of a style magazine has its perks: free tickets'The Black Hole'. All big movie fans, they're looking forward to lots of exciting films, and many, free gigsmany snacks! However, endless partiesas the movie starts, alcohol and drugs. And they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is what Louisavery different, and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn's life consists of – one continuous binget even imagine. Louisa spends her life going But as they lurch from one party film genre to anotherthe next, but it's not all it's cracked up can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to be the cinema, and her life is starting to fall apart.their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>009954119X</amazonuk>1839942738
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=DO DoddRachel Greenlaw|title=JewCompass and Blade|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=A man regains consciousness to find himself stifled. Pushing and pulling at the weight on top of him, he gradually realises the horrific truth. He's in a mass grave and he's covered with bodies. He has no memory of who he is or how he came to be there. He struggles out. He finds a uniform and he puts it on3. He takes a gun and he buckles 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 charge. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1842433512</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Keith Gray|title=Losing It|rating=5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Doing it for ''I can hear the song of the first time.sea.The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart. you know, ''Losing'' It. It.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Camilla Reid and Ailie BusbyJames Sherwood Metts|title=Lulu's LooPlanet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=For SharingConfident Readers|summary=We've Things have been here before, as Lulu introduced us to her [[Lulu's Shoes by Camilla Reid a bit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and Ailie Busby|shoes]]automation have been proceeding apace, [[Luluoften replacing jobs they's Clothes by Camilla Reid re paid to do and Ailie Busby|clothes]] and [[Lulu's Christmas by Camilla Reid and Ailie Busby|Christmas]]other tasks that took time to accomplish. Here, she's kind enough Just as they were beginning to get used to show us all that goes on with her loo, nappies this technological change and potty. As beforestarting to think of other, there are plenty of interesting flaps new ways to lift spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and things to explore, along with it, all the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408802651</amazonuk>1736128426
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Maria EdgeworthMatthew Tree|title=HelenWe'll Never Know|rating=34.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Sweet-tempered Helen Stanley has been left penniless and homeless after her uncle's death. Soon her best friend Cecilia writes Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to encourage Helen to come and live with her and her new husbandbe different from his father, General Clarendon at Clarendon Park. Helen soon finds herself settled in to Clarendon Park and reacquaints herself with Cecilia and more importantly with Cecilia's mother, Lady Davenant, who considers Helen a daughter, and even prefers her to Cecilia.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956003893</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Nicholas Shakespeare|title=Inheritance|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=Andy Larkham's life and career are going nowhere. He works for a small publishing house, Carpe Diem, that specialises in publishing self-help books, his fiancée is about to dump him and he has no money drunk and mountains of debt. And that's before we begin to talk about his dysfunctional family. His only real role model was the Montaigne-loving teacher, Stuart Furnivall, chronic underachiever whose funeral he is late for. But an unexpected inheritance dreams of £17 million has a habit being exceptional at any 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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846553156</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Pamela Fudge|title=A Change For The Better|rating=4|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Jo Farrell had spent his artistic passions all her life caring for other people. After she lost her alcoholic husband failed miserably and her demanding, hypochondriac mother she who had time for herself, but when she looked in the mirror she wasn't particularly impressed by what she saw. The middle-aged, slightly plump woman with grey curls reminded her endless crises of her mother and the clothes she was wearing did little to help eitherself confidence. It was something odd which helped her So Tim applied himself to change. The very scruffy man from downstairs (the sort you would cross the road to avoid) came to borrow a newspaper his studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and somehow they got talking about what needed to be done to change her lifeset himself high but achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0709090609</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=Peter James1529900360|title=Dead Like YouThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Brighton is faced with a serial rapist who appears 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 have a fetish ask for shoes his help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and- after shut cases which didn't need the rapehelp of a psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, it was Robin, he removes the womanDelaware's shoes and takes them with himpartner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. Detective Superintendent Roy Grace is immediately reminded of a previous unsolved case She knew that he the involvement was involved something that the man she loved needed. The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in several years before, during which the swimming pool of a young girl disappeared, never to be foundremote property in Bel Air. It He was precisely at that time that Grace's own wife, Sandy, disappeared the heir to an Italian shoe empire and, although he she is now having a child with another woman, he has never been able married to forget Sandy. If the rapist has reared his ugly head again, why has he chosen to do so after so long? Could an extremely rich man and it be a copycat rapist? And will Grace's memories not the Italian. But which of Sandy help him to find some clue as to her disappearancethem was the primary target?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230706878</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Giorgio Faletti1529395224|title=I KillLetting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands
|rating=3.5
|genre=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.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=0861541774
|title=A Nye of Pheasants
|author=Steve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Monte Carlo: not generally DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a place associated man armed with moderation a knife - and temperance he killed a Ghurka. Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the man. Now he could be facing the death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any kind interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and therefore probably the perfect setting for a killing spree by a serial killer with a particular fetish for extreme souvenir gatheringwouldn't help Danny at all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849012954</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Eliza GrahamAlexander McCall Smith|title=JubileeThe Perfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=As the village celebrates the Queen's Golden Jubilee two people can't help but think back The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the Silver Jubileeonline apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Evie Winter and Ness has asked her niece Rachel have vivid memories of the day when Evie's daughter Jessamy wandered off younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the mystery of her disappearance has never been solvedbusiness, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. She was eleven years old, brightKatie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, athletic and loved by her mother and cousinso jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. There would seem And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to be no explanation as an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to why she might have disappeared of her own free will 44 Scotland Street and no evidence that she was abductedthe Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Life Katie has carried onno experience in running a business, or in match-making, but it Ness has not been the same. It has not been easy.full confidence in her abilities, and there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0330509268</amazonuk>1846976596
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jamie Rix0811771741|title=The Incredible Luck of Alfie PluckInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersCrafts|summary=Poor Alfie PluckMelissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to blankets. He lives with his two aunts who Some will be quick knits - others are grotesquely disgustingof the 'long, and who call him their Household Drudge. They reminded me cosy afternoons in front of some of Roald Dahlthe fire's most appalling creationsvariety. Compared The projects are divided by the time they'll take to Alfie's auntscomplete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, Harry Potter's Dursley relatives ten to twenty hours and more than twenty hours. All the projects are warm attractive, modern and friendlyuseable. Alfie is decidedly down on luckI perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's me being picky.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444001019</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anna DaleDean Koontz|title=Magical MischiefThe Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersParanormal|summary=Mr Hardbattle runs Benny is having a dusty old bookshop where magic terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has moved in. Its smell puts customers off delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it regularly causes chaos such as 's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the books rearranging themselves of their own accordvery last person to deserve all this bad luck. But this bookseller He is a nice man who doesn’t want to disturb the magic too much by getting person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the vacuum cleaner, and on the whole they get used delivery to each other. Now though, he his house is facing a huge rent increase. Enter two customersnew friend, young Arthur and Miss Quinta bad weather friend called Spike, who agree has been sent to help him find since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a nice new home for the magicgood person. Spike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and to help look after the shop while Mr Hardbattle travels to visit some people Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who have answered an advert offering the magic a new homeexactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408800438</amazonuk>1662500491
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michael RobothamAdam Stower|title=Bleed For MeMurray and Bun|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionConfident Readers |summary=An ex-detective Murray is found dead in supposed to be a pool of blood in his teenager's bedroom. She runs from the scene of the crime. Is this the easiest cut-humble, tidy and-dried case ever? This novel friendly cat, one who is told in the first person by the investigating psychologistable to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, Professor Joe O'Loughlin. He's got a lot going on in whatever takes his life right nowfancy next of the two. His health is not good so But he's to keep popping pills to try and get through another working day. Hea bad magician's also newly separated and cat, so his daughters seem to talk favourite bun has been turned into a completely different language. He feels old hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and very ragged round the edges. Into this mixcatflap they both use can chuck them out, he discovers that not into the teenager everyone is talking aboutregular back garden, the teenager who's been discussed but into a world of frightening adventure and described as whiffs. This time round it drops them into a cold-blooded killerViking land, where a troll hunter is his daughterexpected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but he's best friend. Could his life get any worse, turned up and he thinks. Yes. Big-time.'ll have to do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847442188</amazonuk>0008561249
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Cathy HopkinsB0C47LV1PC|title=Million Dollar MatesFragility|author=Mosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=TeensLiterary Fiction|summary=ItCan you make a 's nine months since Jess Hall's mother died and sheYo birthing person'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 the job of general manager at Number 1joke? And if you could, Porchester Park. These apartments are not just up-market they're where is the A-listers live and after some initial reluctance about leaving Gran Jess question should you make it? Or is excited. 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 house question if you did, would it land? The catch is that goes with the jobanswer for both could well be... Everyone at school envies here and it looks as though she's living the dream.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847387578</amazonuk>}}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?