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[[Category:General Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]]==General fiction==__NOTOC__{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Joe RevillJenny Lecoat|title=A Case of WitchcraftBeyond Summerland
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=As Holmes embarks Jean lives on a journey towards Jersey with her mother where they are celebrating the end of the occupation. During the Northern Isleswar, we are treated Jean's father was arrested for listening to a comprehensive background banned radio and soldiers took him away one night, leaving Jean and her mother waiting for years for news of him. As the British finally free the ways of witches all over Channel islands from the world; all points are pertinent Nazis, and the history war is fascinating as well as necessary. The introduction to the ways of witchcraft demonstrates the worldwide links finally over, their hopes rise that they will become highly significant laterfinally learn what became of him. Revill weaves in But will the relevant history and all its complications with easetruth come as a relief, and or will it raise further questions around what else happened during the war? Who was the informer who told the Nazis about the radio? And what other secrets have been kept throughout the novel flows in spite of having to accommodate this.occupation?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780920091</amazonuk>1846976537
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kevin GosselinOnyi Nwabineli|title=Hunt for the Blower BentleyAllow Me to Introduce Myself|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Connecticut innkeeper Faston Hanks is obsessive. HeAnuri spent her childhood on display to the world, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's very keen increasingly popular presence on food but itsocial media, where she posted every step of Anuri's cars – childhood for sponsorships and particularly old cars – which drive himinfluencer deals and, basically, monetary gain. This time he's involved Now Anuri is in the search for the only one of the fifty Blower Bentleys made which remains unaccounted for. SM3912 was originally purchased by Lord Brougham her twenties and Vaux she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and ownership can be traced to one D H Sessionsget her life back, after which suing her step-mother to take down the trail goes coldcontent about her. We know something which Faston doesn't know though – the Bentley came into the hands of Stephan SidlowAnuri is battling alcoholism, who was high up in the APR during World War IIfailing to start her PhD, by less than honest meansundergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. But then Sidlow was less than honest Most importantly, she is desperately worried about which side he was supporting in her little sister, who is the warnew focus of Ophelia's online empire. Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780920180</amazonuk>0861546873
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ernest Cline1529153298|title=Ready Player OneThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A short while agowoman? I mean, I stumbled across a highly enjoyable film called honestly...) She's not what'Fanboyss worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, about a bunch of but to have 'disappeared'Star Warsdoesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv' fans trying to break into George Lucass upset because she' mansion s overheard that her father wants to get a sneak preview of move the new filmfamily 'Down South'. I didnWhen you't pay much attention to re from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the name of the writermove would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, until I came across Ernest Clineand she'll do anything to prevent that. She's author bio in not worried about the dangers or that her Mum''Ready Player One'' and realised it was written by the same person. This immediately gave me high hopess stopped talking - to anyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846059372</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robert Harris1035906708|title=The Fear IndexDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=With the FTSE recording its biggest quarterly drop We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in yearsManhattan, turmoil on New York, in December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas' to make it more manageable in the bond markets and States. When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the prospect of economic meltdown Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and the possible disintegration made no secret of the euro zoneher preference for her elder sister, Robert Harris' new thriller couldn't be more timelyJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091936969</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tom BaleAlexander McCall Smith|title=Blood FallsThe Perfect Passion Company|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I read and reviewed Bale's [[Terror's Reach The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Tom Bale|Terror's Reach]]Ness and enjoyed itoperating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. What would I think of his latest? Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. Joe Katie is doing his level best coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the chance to live an unremarkable (almost invisible) life in Bristolcome home to Edinburgh. He uses his brawn And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to pay his modest bills for rent44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, food etcbut with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. But you could say, once Katie has no experience in running a copperbusiness, always a copper so his brain is not idleor in match-making, it's but Ness has full confidence in constant use. Whirring away in the background her abilities, and itthere's just as well. Joe soon senses imminent danger when a couple of blokes stroll byalways her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, stop and ask his gaffer to lend a couple of questions. Joe needs to be somewhere else - and fast.hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184809325X</amazonuk>1846976596
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=John O'ConnellDean Koontz|title=The Baskerville Legacy: A NovelBad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionParanormal|summary=1900Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a man on a ship coming back from the Boer War really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to edit his home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the Daily Express meets one of thing that has trashed his heroes in house! The thing is, Benny is the form of Arthur Conan Doylevery last person to deserve all this bad luck. With similar experiences and interests yet different enough to bounce off each other they take up the idea of collaborating on He is a plotnice person. When they do fix on time A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to do sohis house is a new friend, it leads to literary prospectsa bad weather friend called Spike, which lead who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a weekgood person. Spike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's research together on Dartmoorenemies, which leads to if he, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny''The Hound of the Baskervilles''. But perhaps in a way that only one of them intendeds wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1907595465</amazonuk>1662500491
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Syd MooreKatherine Howe|title=The Drowning PoolA True Account|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The book opens Hannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to live with a group of young women out on the townfamily who run an inn, letting their hair down and having funbeing made to work there from a young age. Moore describes all When she hears there is to be a hanging of them some pirates in a fresh the town, she decides to go and modern voice which I really likedwatch. It came across as Enthralled and horrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in a breath young boy's death at the hands of fresh airtwo vicious pirates. The storyShe hides away, Sarahso that they don't find and kill her too, and then to escape them completely she runs away to sea, dressing as a boy and joining the notorious Ned Low's story is told by Sarah herselfpirate ship as a cabin boy. But it's told from She soon finds herself in the perspective thick of looking back after it's all happened so things when there's lots of why-didn't-I-see-that-coming language. Hindsightis a mutiny on board, and from there we are caught up in a wordher rip roaring tale of life on the ocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847562663</amazonuk>0861547438
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Guillaume Musso1471180158|title=The Girl on PaperMaybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=This is Jamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, for a modern book for modern timesman who's a control freak with all the subtlety of a half brick. Jamie's son, Bo, 'has his problems'. I loved He's asthmatic and the reader-friendly layout with bigmore you read, bold type letting the reader know exactly where we were, more you'll suspect that he's on the autistic spectrum. Sometimes Jamie needs to take time off at short notice - she's a frequent flier in terms of storyline the local A&E and locationsometimes Bo's not fit enough to go to school. But Missed shifts or the story itself does jump about a lot need to be away on time to pick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and I suspect Musso wants put in the wrong. It was going to come to give a sense of urgency, a sense of frenetic energy at timeshead.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908313056</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Victoria HislopB0CKD1L5JL|title=The ThreadRadio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I read Petr is an orphan. Rescued by the strange, reclusive Bear, he is brought up far from bustling cities and enjoyed Hislopbusy human society, in the forests of Washington's 'The Island' so I was looking forward to reading this bookOlympic Peninsula. The Prologue is May 2007 After Bear dies and a brief sojourn in human company, and readers are treated to armed with only a vivid coastal description of the area which is to play such pirate radio transmitter, Petr goes on a big part in journey through the novel. Lines such as 'With forest, broadcasting the lifting hazestrange, Mount Olympus gradually emerged far away across the Thermaic Gulf and the restful blues of sea wild and sky shrugged off their pale shroudrarely heard voices he encounters.'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755377737</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=William GiraldiSarah Marsh|title=Busy MonstersA Sign of Her Own|rating=43.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Charles Homar loves his GillianAfter a bout of scarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. He's proved it to usSuddenly plunged into a world of silence, if not to everything about herlife changes. Living in a time when the use of sign language was seen as something only savages do, by going after her possessive, jealous state trooper of an ex with the intent Ellen is sent to kill - if only ended up rescuing a cat insteadschool where she is taught to lip read, but physically restrained from signing. But lo and beholdFrom here, she's declared she's off to discover ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the real love of her life - the giant squiddeaf and using a system called Visible Speech. Failing to stop this, Charlie spends too long with a Nessie obsessiveAt the same time, then goes Bell is working on a hunt of his own - for Bigfootother inventions and ideas, all the while, chapter by chapter, sending his narrative of the same to and Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a magazine as essays for one complicated tangle of those autobiographical, frivolous columnsespionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0393079627</amazonuk>1035401614
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nicholas SparksB0BC3YTCMR|title=The Best of MeGood Girls Die|author=Ayura Ayira|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Since watching the film of 'The Notebook' years ago I've always fancied reading some Nicholas Sparks books but never quite got around to it until I saw this, his newest offering. Here we have the tale of two childhood sweethearts whose love was always threatened by the fact that they were from opposite sides of the tracks - he from the rough, poor family that This story is forever on the wrong side of the law, and she from one of the better, respected families in the townnot for everyone. After life forces them apart they go on to live very different lives, but it seems that neither one has ever forgotten that early passion. Drawn back together for the funeral of an old friend they are both forced to look at the choices they've made in their lives and where they go to from here.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847443206</amazonuk>}}'
{{newreview|author=Marius Brill|title=How to Forget|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=If you are a fan Lavender Daniels was three weeks short of the BBC's 'Hustle' series, you will absolutely love Marius Brill’s 'How to Forget'her fifteenth birthday when The Incident happened. It’s She was a funnyvery bright student, clever and twisted tale of grifters and con tricks with a bit of magic thrown too nerdy if truth be told, and suffered from vitiligo - people were afraid to hug her in for good measurecase it's contagious. Brill gives us a cast of strange characters: there It's an ethically dubious brain scientist, not easy being a black girl whose skin is 84% white. She had a dodgy Derren Browncrush on seventeen-type TV celebrity whose interests are guarded by two violent year-old Reggie Anderson but somewhat hapless Hasidic Jewish thugs, never thought he would notice her. Then he did: Lavender was very good at math and Reggie asked if she would tutor him. She readily agreed: tutoring was something she gladly did at church: this was just an equally violent FBI agent extension. She went to his house and a female British copperhe raped her. At the heart of the story though is an apparently naïve British magician In shock, Peter, and she even allowed him to give her a supreme grifter, Kate, in whose life Peter finds himself entangledlift home.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857520717</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=S G Browne1472263936|title=FatedThe Figurine|author=Victoria Hislop
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Clever It was in 1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to Greece. She was alone: her mother, Greek by birth, had left the family home and very funnyrefused to return, this is but Mary and Hamish (Helena's parents) felt that it would be a pity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding her Greek heritage. Her trip to the family apartment in up-market Kolonaki would be the sort first of book where you immediately feel in safe hands. S.Gseveral annual visits. Browne has gone She grew to town (New York)love her grandmother and the family's maid, Dina, satirising just about every aspect but was wary - and frightened - of modern lifeher grandfather, retired general Stamatis Papagiannis. He was proud of his close connections to the Junta and expected his family to uphold his values but saw no reason to accommodate them. His prejudices included Helena's red hair and my reading was continually interrupted by bells clanging loudly in recognition in my headgreen eyes - inherited from her father's Scottish ancestors.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749954728</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Titania HardieDean Koontz|title=The House of the WindAfter Death|rating=43
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I loved the intriguing title Michael Mace, Head of the book and was hoping that Hardie explains it. She does: not only that but the wind element (no pun intended) is mentioned throughout Security, at regular intervals. A nice toucha top secret biological research facility, I thought and not overis among 55 people who die when a virus is released in a bio-played eitherhazard accident. The short Prologue describes Finding himself in a makeshift mortuary, covered in plastic, he has a young girl on sense that something very, very bad has happened to him – and only him – as he sits up and looks around at the eve shrouded bodies of her his dead friends and former colleagues. As he recovers his senses, he realises that there is something different about him; he can ''feel'terrible fate.' But fate seems to have changed its mind at the very last minuteeverything. And this strange/weird/scary event happens at the Casa al Vento - 'The House of the Wind'Everything''. Michael isn'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755346297</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jane Sanderson|title=Netherwood|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=The cover of Netherwood features a bold promise - t 'Perfect for fans of Downton Abbey'. The basic features of a reliable Michael'upstairs/downstairs' saga are all present; the landed gentry enjoying their estate, the staff servicing it and the locals, all relying on the fortunate family for their own incomeanymore.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0751547638</amazonuk>1662500467}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Khaled HosseiniB0BVDC2VWH|title=The Kite Runner (Graphic Novel)Grave Listeners|author=William Frank
|rating=4
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=A confession. If there's one book I'm not likely to read, it's that which everyone else is reading. If it turns into a hugely popular film for all the left-wing chattering classes to rave over, then that's just more grist to my mill – I'll always have a chance to catch up on it later on, even if I never take that opportunity. I'm not alone in acting like this – see a friend and colleague's similar admission when reviewing [[White Teeth by Zadie Smith]]. But at least, through the medium of the graphic novel, the book reviewing gods have conspired to let me see just what I'm missing, with this adaptation, by Italian artists, of a hugely successful – and therefore delayable – novel.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408815257</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
 
|author=Jennifer Haigh
|title=Faith
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=As a ''New York Times Bestseller'' I was expecting great things from this book; coupled with the fact that I really enjoy American fiction, I was itching to get reading. The story village is told from the perspective of Sheila, sister to Mike isolated and half-sister to Arthur (hepoor. It's normally called Art)surrounded by a Witching Forest. Art is And the priest villagers subsist largely by farming Uphegia plants - its bread-like fruit provides nutrition and who is at the centre its blossom provides herbal medicines. The black wood of the storm. We go back in time forest provides heat and discover a rather pious woman who has had a hard start to married life. She's now left to bring up her young sonwarmth, roofs on homes, Artand even gallows, on her ownif needed. But things pick up pretty quickly from here and as The fear of being buried alive is an attractive woman it's not long before she meets someone else. Two more children are born existential superstition in the village and they all settle down into that is the reason Volushka, a normaldrunken, self-indulgent, American family unitlazy lout of a man is tolerated.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007225091</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jaimy GordonB0BYF82CXT|title=Lord of Misrule|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=West Virginia, 1970. We're at a rundown race track, of the dusty kind rundown horses and their rundown owner/trainers fetch up living in, with the occasional race to interrupt the boredom. Into things comes a young upstart hoping to surprise all with his four unknown quantities and make a packet before fleeing. His girlfriend is here too to help out, and naively eager for success and knowledge, but old hands like Medicine Ed have seen it all before. Also in the background are some smallSemi-time gangsters who are not too keen at for once not knowing who is doing what and how races are going to be run and won.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857386697</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Alexander McCall Smith|title=Unusual Uses for Olive Oil: A Von Igelfeld Novel|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Following on from ''The 2½ Pillars of Wisdom'' which was a compilation of three shorter volumes, this book sees Professor Dr Von Igelfeld still dealing with his academic colleagues but also with the prospect of a love interest, a recently widowed lady, Frau Benz, who has inherited the large Schloss in Regensburg. Is love in the air? Or will his arch rival, Unterholzer interfere once again?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0316027545</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewDetached|author=Sophie Duffy|title=The Generation GameDeborah Stone
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Do you remember ''The Generation Game'' TV showBill and Amanda are living in a semi-detached house, with old Brucie stuck in a depressing rut of boredom and then Larry Grayson managing the mayhem? Where were you disappointment, when Charles Terry and Di got married? What about when Diana died? There's plenty of reminiscing to be done Fiona – glamorous, successful and very much in love – move in this book as Sophie Duffy takes us from next door. Despite their different outlooks on life, the 1960's couples befriend each other and life appears to 2006 through the life of her characterimprove for both pairs. But all is not what it seems, Philippa, in a book that fleets from funny, heartwarming moments to real sadnessand their increasingly interconnected relationships are fated for tragedy.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908248017</amazonuk>''
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Larry PontiusShalini Boland|title=Future KingThe Silent Bride
|rating=3
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=It's the near future Alice and King Charles III Seth are a match made in heaven. He is everything she has ascended the throne of the United Kingdom with Camilla as his Queen Consortbeen searching for; handsome, accomplished, clever, funny; total and utter husband-material. The country She is all he could possibly want in a mess with rampant inflationwife; beautiful, unemploymentsuccessful, a crumbling infrastructure confident… and riots: so the people have taken to calling this time ''The Troubles''. Such situations breed power-hungry politicians inevitable proposal is eagerly accepted by Alice and Prime Minister Alistair Saxon has plans to become the dictator of the countrywedding is planned and set. When the King refuses to give his assent to much-anticipated day arrives, Alice is walked down the Emergency Powers Actaisle by her father, Saxon beaming with pride and excitement as she surveys the congregation – their friends assembled to celebrate this joyful day and when Seth turns to face his fellow-conspirators kidnap approaching bride, Alice's world implodes because she has absolutely no idea who the man at the Royal family altar is, who is waiting for her to prevent Charles speaking against the EPAbecome his wife.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1463766297</amazonuk>1662507089
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kirsten Tranter1787636003|title=The Legacy|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=This is quite a chunky book so Tranter has given herself plenty of space and time to build up a nice level of suspense here as well as putting some flesh on the bones of her central characters. The book opens - towards the end Girls of the story. So we have firm, but platonic friends, Julia and Ralph both very concerned about their mutual friend, Ingrid. She supposedly died on 9/11 - but with no remains, no burial, their grief hasn't an outlet. They need (to quote that much used word) closure.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857380621</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewSummer|author=Joe Simpson|title=The Sound of GravityKatie Bishop|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Patrick is climbing in It was the Alps with his girlfriend. They are taking an unusual summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that she and difficult ascent, Caroline went backpacking around Greece and it is winterarrived on the island. A storm blows up. Whilst they are camping overnightRachel wasn't exactly innocent but she was, perhaps, naive, Patrick's girlfriend loses so when thirty-four-year-old Alistair Wright started to take an interest in her footing, she was flattered rather than wary. He manages It was quite a while before he made any sort of physical approach to catch her hand, and then by that time she slips through his fingers and falls into a chasmwas obsessed by him. The novel details Alistair worked for Henry Taylor, looking after his interests on the days island and hours in particular in the run-up to this tragedy, and bar where all the aftermath, both immediate and long termgirls either worked or partied.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224072641</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kevin WilsonAmanda Craig|title=The Family FangThree Graces
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Annie Fang and her brother Buster are back living at home with their parents Few styles of contemporary fiction interest me like the state- where they never thought they'd ever be again. But it has come to this of- her film actress career is on the rocks with -nation novel. There's something so utterly compelling about any writer who can catch hold of the kind atmosphere of self-destruction so much enjoyed by tabloid writers, the day and he - wellcapture it, hecrafting an image of the country as it stands in one particular moment. To say that Amanda Craig is skilled at doing this would be embarrassingly inadequate: she's here because practically synonymous with the genre of contemporary social fiction at this point. She has such a jumbo spud gun. Neither want life back at home, as throughout their childhood they were used by their parents - without much planning, without any consideration gift for weaving the ongoing issues of the day into the lives of feelings, or consent her characters in a way that feels natural and lived- in a whole career of performance art pieces, designed to enact a point of life or just cause havocnever making them ciphers for social commentary but instead fully realised people, grappling with issues far larger than themselves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1447202384</amazonuk>140871468X
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Philip Roth152915118X|title=NemesisPineapple Street|author=Jenny Jackson
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=1944''Pineapple Street'' is the story of three women: Sasha, Newark, New JerseyDarley and Georgiana. SummerDarley and George are sisters and Sasha is married to their brother Cord. Hot. Bucky CantorThey're Stocktons, only Sasha isn't a young Jewish man, is gym teacher and playground attendant-cum-sports instructor for the district, helping all those interested become fit young men, able to do what his eyesight prevents him from doing - serving in Stockton by birth so she isn't readily accepted into the forcestribe. Things would be fine if his girlfriend were closer at handThe problem's exacerbated when the clan matriarch, if it were coolerTilda, asks Cord and Sasha if there were no polio epidemic happeningthey'd like to move into the Pineapple Street property. But there isTilda and Chip have renovated and downsized to another property, a street or so away, and nobody knows what is causing itwhich they own. Is it flies? Is it a gang They won't need any of taunting Italian kids spreading it the furniture from neighbourhood to neighbourhood? Is it blacksPineapple Street, germs on money - is it so Sasha and Cord can move straight in fact Cantor himself. Nominally, draining all the youthful vigour from his charges under they had a blistering sun?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099542269</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Nina Bell|title=The Empty Nesters|rating=3|genre=General Fiction|summary=With their children all off to university (most from the same school year, plus an erroneous one who took a handy-for-the-sake-of-the-story gap year), itchoice but that wasn's all change for t the parents in this book – for Clover reality. Darley and George, and Laura and Tim, and Alice. Though some of Georgiana start to call Sasha 'the fathers are present, as yougold digger'd expect this is a tale told mainly from the eyes of the mothers. Clover and Laura have been friends forever, while Clover and Alice She's relationship is more recentliving in ''their'' family home. As for Laura and Alice, well They use it so often that they really donabbreviate it to 't get on, making life a little tricky at times for Clover, stuck somewhere in the middleGD'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751543667</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Susan HillEmily Critchley|title=The Shadows in the StreetOne Puzzling Afternoon
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=This is the fifth novel 84 year old Edie has lived in Susan Hill's series about the detective Simon Serraillersame small town for almost her whole life, but now she is facing a move as her son wants to move to another house and bring Edie to live with his family, as Edie is starting to lose her memory. Although you could probably follow However, Edie is tormented by the story without knowing memory of her childhood friend, Lucy, who went missing over 60 years ago, and the previous books I think it does help to have some background on who worry that there was a secret she was keeping for Lucy that somehow might be the thing that reveals the truth of what happened all the characters arethat time ago. I really love After 'seeing' Lucy in the high street, just as she was the way Hill weaves last time she saw her, she starts to find pockets of memories coming back to her story around some wonderful character studies. Simon And yet as she remembers the past, she is actually hardly forgetting more and more in this novel, and the focus instead is on her day to day life. Will she uncover the truth about Lucy'extras's disappearance before her move, with a lot of details being put into characters who will only be around for this particular novel but who live and breathe through it wonderfully well. before her memories are gone forever?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099499282</amazonuk>1804181250
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Madelaine Lucas
|title=Thirst for Salt
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary= ''Love, I'd read, was supposed to be a light and weightless feeling, but I had always longed for gravity''
Told from a retrospective view, a young woman unravels the year-long relationship that once defined her. Overlaid with later wisdom, the narrator relives the affair with a man twenty years her senior from its inception – the summer after finishing university – to its sorrowful end the summer after. Set against the backdrop of an isolated Australian coastal town ''Thirst for Salt'' details the 24-year-old narrator's deepening relationship with her older lover, depicting its all-consuming nature, how it changed her perspective on both romantic and familial relationships and how it altered her irrevocably.|isbn=0861546490}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jonathan Lewis0008506337|title=Into DustThe Garnett Girls|author=Georgina Moore|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The front cover graphics leave the reader love affair between Margo Garnett and poet Richard O'Leary was all-consuming, apparently on both sides. Margo was just sixteen when they fell in no doubt love. Richard was twenty-one and described by Margo's mother as 'an older man'. Her parents worried that this is Richard's influence would take her away from what they felt she could achieve - going to Oxford and having a thriller glittering career. In the event, they eloped and Richard took her away from the blurb Isle of Wight. Margo did go to Oxford and went on to become a well-respected journalist. The couple had three children: Rachel, Imogen and Sasha. Life was lived in London and holidays were spent at Sandcove, the back cover mentions family home on the troubles in Afghanistan, deadly bombs, sniffer dogs, so Isle of Wight. Even then the theme here is bang up doubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's mind: ''she would never be able to-date and many would possibly say, relevantleave him in charge''. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848092598</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview|author=Evelio Rosero|title=Good Offices|rating=3Then Richard left them.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Here is a church in Bogota nobody seems to want to leave. In part one it is a large group of the elderly, given a weekly, tasteless meal from the charitable funds, but bitterly refusing to quit the place, making our main character Tancredo fear for his passivity. In part two it is the congregation, as a rare need for a stand-in priest seems to be a blessing. And in part three it is that priest himself, stuck among the household of Tancredo, the girl who loves him, and chorus of three weird old women.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857050672</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Arnaldur Indridason1914585402|title=Operation NapoleonDashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In 1945 I reviewed David F Ross's book [[There's Only One Danny Garvey by David F Ross|There's Only One Danny Garvey]] a German bomber crashed on a glacier in Iceland. This might not have been quite so extraordinary were couple of years back and remember being absolutely floored by how powerful and affecting it not for the fact that there were both German and American officers on boardwas. Two of the passengers are killed in the crashIt was a gripping, emotionally wounding read, one sets off for help and four people remain, trapped in the plane, eventually freezing to death. Just before the end rereading my review of last century the glacier gave up the plane and the US army began an operation to remove the wreckage as secretly as possible, but two young Icelanders are caught up in what is going it my main takeaway was that I might not have lavished enough praise onit. One contacts his sister but before he can complete the call they are grabbed by the soldiers, brutally attacked and their bodies and snowmobiles dumped in a crevasse.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099535637</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Linda GillardLucy Ashe|title=Untying the KnotClara and Olivia
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=IThe year is 1933. The place? Sadler've often wondered why its Wells. Ballerinas Clara and Olivia are sisters, twins no less. Identical on the outside but not, we learn, on the inside. And not on stage, either. Because there's not axiomatic a lot that builds a man should stand by his woman dancer. Some things that can be taught or learnt although perhaps it couldn't be set discipline, attention to music quite so easily detail but Fay had failed to stand by her man. To make it worseand some things, that ''je ne sais quoi'', she was an army wife and they just that don't desert – and Magnus was come from the classroom. A stage presence, a charm, a hero. He'd been in bomb disposal and despite being blown up had briefed his number two about the bomb before he was taken off to hospital'joie de vivre''. He was goodThe difference between a hard-lookingworker, charismatic – and divorced. Fay knew that marrying Magnus had been a mistake – but she also admitted that the biggest mistake of all was divorcing himstar.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>B005JTAMQO</amazonuk>0861544080
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ulrika JonssonHeather Fawcett|title=The Importance Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Being MyrtleFaeries
|rating=4
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=title will help to draw readers in, I think. The blurb on the back cover suggests a cosy, domestic read. I was looking forward to it. We initially get all the sorry details leading up to Austin's untimely death. On the local bus, of all places, as he made his way to work. A kindly Italian/Australian man called Gianni sees it all happening (in fact Austin dies in his arms). We also get a lot of background info on Gianni, right at the very beginning, which I thought slowed up the story somewhat.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141043202</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Sheila Kohler
|title=Becoming Jane Eyre
|rating=2
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=There Emily Wilde is no denying that the Brontë family lived an interesting life. While some authors' lives are shrouded in mysteryexpert academic scholar on faerie lore, and she has travelled extensively, with their characters far better known than they themselves areand researched meticulously, thatto write her life's not really the case with the Brontës. Various biographers havework, over the years, provided a clear picture very first encyclopaedia of 19th century Yorkshire life thanks faeries. Whilst she is brilliant at research and speaking to a wealth of original letters and diaries preserved from the timefaeries, she is not so good with people. This makes Kohler's choice of topic slightly odd. Rather than an attempt to imagine So when she finds herself far, far North in the unknown lives small village of Hrafvsnik, having somehow offended the sistersvillage matriarch, it she is a cobbling together of facts not sure what she has done, nor how to redeem herself and assumptions that have been in put her final investigations for her book back on the public arena for some timeright track. For anyone Enter Wendell Bambleby, her dashingly handsome and insufferable rival who knows anything about the Brontësarrives unexpectedly, it really is nothing newall charm and delight, and thatmuch to Emily's a shamefrustration. But why is he here? What does he want? And what exactly is going on with the faerie folk around Hravsnik?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849010862</amazonuk>0356519120
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Phil Rickman1398515388|title=The Secrets of PainBoy and the Dog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=It's a freezing winter's night and a couple of the locals are driving home when they come across a strange and disturbing incident. They don't know what to make First of all, it but as was the SAS have a training presence earthquake, deep in the area Gomer ocean floor, which created the tsunami and Danny put it down to exercises and breath a sigh of reliefthis, in turn, caused the nuclear meltdown. It's anything for a quiet life round these parts The result was complete and thanks to Rickman's excellent writing, we soon see that these men, Gomer especially, are characters in themselvesutter devastation. Plenty The deaths were uncountable, and the loss of personalitylivelihoods was widespread. Once seen, difficult to forgetThe fact that many pets were separated from their owners came far down the list of priorities but - six months after the tsunami - Kazumasa Nakagaki discovered a dog outside a convenience store. And I didnHe wasn't want a dog person but the convenience store owner's comment that he would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to forget them. They also speak open his car door and Tamon the dog jumped in the local dialect which comes across very well indeed.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848872739</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Erin MorgensternChristopher Bowden|title=The Night CircusMr Magenta|rating=54
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The Night Circus moves from town to town; appearing with no warningChristopher Bowden's latest novel is a patient untangling of a seemingly ordinary woman's life, no announcementscarried out by her nephew after she has died. The attractions seem impossible – aunt who always provided a carousel with breathing animals, handkerchiefs that turn into birds in front of the watchful eyes of the audience, doors that appear safe harbour and disappear. In the middle of it all are Celia, the daughter of a famous illusionist, and Marco, the apprentice little bit of a mysterious magician. From indulgence to a young age the lovers have been destined to compete against each other using their unusual skills to win nephew had had a prize much more interesting life than that neither of them understands; nephew Stephen had ever realised and it seems to him an end that will leave only one standingobligation to find it all out.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184655523X</amazonuk>B0B6Z9VJDW
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dorothy B HughesJennifer Mason|title=The Expendable ManPartitions of Unity|rating=54
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Dorothy B Hughes (1904-93) took a journalism degree Here at Bookbag Towers, we first met Elizabeth Cromwell, dominatrix and unintentional detective in Kansas City[[Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by Jennifer Mason|Preposterous]], Missouri when she investigated and started her distinguished career with unravelled a prize-winning book series of poems. Her first hard-boiled thriller appeared in 1940 and it was followed by more than a dozen in the next decadedisappearances. Three were made into noir films and in 1944 Hughes went to Hollywood to assist Hitchcock on his film, In ''SpellboundPartitions of Unity''. Here , she met Ingrid Bergman and consequently Humphrey Bogart came sets her mind to buy the film rights to one of her novelssolving a murder...|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1903155584</amazonuk>B09LQR9FRF
}}
{{Frontpage|author=Will Carver|title=The Daves Next Door|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary= Five strangers come together in one moment as a suicide bomber prepares to detonate his vest on a London tube line. As their fates overlap, the story is told in backwards order, leading up to the fateful moment.|isbn= 1914585186}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Chuck PalahniukJennifer Mason|title=DamnedPreposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary='Are you there'A struggling poetry zine, a mom-and-pop mobile diner in the Northern California redwoods, a 400-meter hurdler who just missed the 2004 Olympics, Satan? Ita women's metrack coach with a yen for bullwhips, a billionaire with a state-of-the-art S&M dungeon, Madison'. I'm a spunkyman serving a life sentence in Alabama, lively tweenage girlan enigmatic signature, except I'm K(s, x), on a dead onecheap oil painting, and I'm an erotic art dealer in Hell, to my surpriseGeorgia... While I'm here I'll find out just where it  This is all those cold-calling telegraphers ring you from just while you're settling down to your evening meal, and where a sample of the world's wasted sperm cast of characters and discarded toenail clippings fetch upsettings in Preposterous. I'll have very hairy encounters with demons of Satan's and mankind's makingAs you can see, and with some superlative plotting and flashbacks I'll find a clearer approach to why I was put here in the first placekeeping up will be required! The basic premise of this mystery story goes like this...|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0224091158</amazonuk>B09STS96HS
}}
{{newreview|author=Emily Barr|title=The First Wife|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Lilybella Tatiana Blossom Button (who thankfully – for our sake as well as hers – goes by a simple Lily) has had an upbringing almost as unconventional as her name. Raised by her grandparents, we join her following their recent deaths and soon discover she is quite unlike most other 20 year olds. It’s going to be a brisk transition from a sheltered life in a small cottage, nursing elderly relatives to the Real World but with no money to speak off, she’ll have Move on to pull herself together, and quickly. Her background is an important part of Lily and contributes enormously to her trusting and a little immature personality that will later be her downfall. A few weeks later, though, and things are looking up. She has taken a room in a house where she is much more one of the family than just a lodger. She’s found some cleaning work and, even more exciting, one of her agency clients is a rather dashing ex-celeb and his beautiful, elegant wife. Yes, Lily’s star is definitely on the rise.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755351371</amazonuk>}}[[Newest Graphic Novels Reviews]]