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| − | | + | =='''13 JUNE'''== |
| − | == '''5 DECEMBER''' == | |
| | {{Frontpage | | {{Frontpage |
| − | |author=Seishi Yokomizo and Louise Heal Kawai (translator) | + | |isbn=1635866847 |
| − | |title=The Honjin Murders | + | |title=The Lavender Companion |
| − | |rating=4 | + | |author=Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci |
| − | |genre=Crime
| + | |rating=4.5 |
| − | |summary=To many readers, the phrase 'locked room murder mystery' is enough to make the book one to read; preferably quantified by the words 'clever' or 'good'. For those who need more, here is the extra background – we're in rural Japan in the 1930s. The oldest son of an esteemed family is belatedly getting married, although the whole affair is really not as ostentatious as it might be – hardly anybody has turned up, what with it being arranged at great haste. She only has an uncle representing her family, for one thing. Either way, the celebrations have gone ahead as planned, only for the wedded couple to be slashed to death in their private annex before the sun rises on their marriage. What with a man missing parts of his fingers being in the neighbourhood, and some mysterious use of a traditional musical instrument at the time of the crime, this case has a lot of the peculiar about it.
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| − | |isbn=1782275002
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| − | == '''11 DECEMBER''' ==
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| − | {{Frontpage
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| − | |isbn=B07XLM3SM6
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| − | |title=Murder at the Dolphin Hotel
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| − | |author=Helena Dixon
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| − | |rating=4 | |
| − | |genre=Crime (Historical)
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| − | |summary=Elowed Underhay was just twenty seven when she disappeared from Dartmouth in June 1916, leaving her daughter, Kitty, in the care of her grandmother. A great deal of money had been spent to find out what happened to her and the conclusion was that she was dead, mainly because there was no evidence to suggest otherwise. Kitty has come to terms with this and in 1933 she was running the Dolphin Hotel in Dartmouth with her grandmother, when her grandmother had to leave to look after her sister who was ill. She was reluctant to leave Kitty in charge - and Kitty could not understand why. She's always coped with the mix of holidaymakers, boating people and the naval college on the edge of town before - and she's done every job in the hotel. And she particularly cannot understand why her grandmother's friends have been roped in to keep an eye on things ''and'' why Captain Matthew Bryant has been hired to take charge of security at the hotel.
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| − | =='''31 DECEMBER'''==
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| − | {{Frontpage
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| − | |isbn=0753553236
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| − | |title=Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything
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| − | |author=B J Fogg
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| − | |rating=5
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| | |genre=Lifestyle | | |genre=Lifestyle |
| − | |summary=Go on, admit it - you're not quite perfect. You still have those odd, quirky even loveable (to you) habits which seem to annoy other people. Other people, of course, are sorely afflicted with some dreadful flaws which they could so easily correct, if only they would make just a little bit of effort. Or put another way, I get cross with myself because I forget to do things or do some actions more than I should and no matter how I try to make what seem to be quite monumental changes I never quite seem to get to grips with the concepts. I constantly fail and then I get cross with myself for failing. Lack of willpower is another burden to add to the list. | + | |summary=It's strange, the things that make you ''immediately'' feel that this is the book for you. Before I started reading ''The Lavender Companion'', I visited the author's [https://www.pinelavenderfarm.com/ website] and there's a picture of a slice of chocolate cake on the homepage. I don't eat cakes and desserts - but I wanted that cake viscerally. (There's a recipe in the book, which I'm avoiding with some difficulty!!) Then I started reading the book and I was told to make a mess of it. Notes in the margins are sanctioned. You get to fold down the corners of pages. You suspect that smears of butter would not be a problem. I ''loved'' this book already. |
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| − | =='''7 JANUARY 2020'''==
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| − | {{Frontpage
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| − | |author=Leigh Bardugo, Louise Simonson and Kit Seaton
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| − | |title=Wonder Woman: Warbringer: The Graphic Novel
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| − | |rating=3
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| − | |genre=Teens
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| − | |summary=Diana, being unique on her island, is the victim of a lot of taunts, and claims of nepotism. It's only her unique status, and her mother being Queen, that has her with any standing at all, her naysayers declare – even though she has clearly fought to be a strong young woman. Perhaps too strong for the island, however – for every Wonder Woman origin story has her quickly leaving home for the World of Men, and this Diana is the heroine of yet another Wonder Woman origin story. A shipwreck disturbs her leading performance in a running race, but the survivor she drags from the waters is only going to disturb a lot more...
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| − | |isbn=1401282555
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| − | }}
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| − | | |
| − | =='''9 JANUARY'''==
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| − | {{Frontpage
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| − | |isbn=1786075695
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| − | |title=When the Dead Come Calling (Burrowhead Mysteries 1)
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| − | |author=Helen Sedgwick
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| − | |rating=5
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| − | |genre=Crime
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| − | |summary=It began with the discovery of a body under the swings in the children's playground. It was Dr Alexis Crosse and he was found by PC Simon Hunter, who loved him deeply, but who had reason to mistrust him. Crosse was a psychotherapist who grew up in Greece, but such professions are misunderstood in Burrowhead (along with foreigners), a community which regards anyone not born and brought up there as an outsider. DI Georgie Strachan is an outsider - you've only got to look at her skin to realise that, and her husband, Fergus, well, he's a little strange too, not entirely ''here''.
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| − | <!-- Sarah Alderson -->
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| − | [[image:1473681847.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1473681847/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | |
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| − | ===[[In Her Eyes by Sarah Alderson]]===
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| − | [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]]
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| − | Ava lives a charmed life, but those things sometimes rub other people up the wrong way. One evening she returns from a night out with a friend, and before she can finish her bedtime routine, her home, and her life, are under attack: masked men have broken in and are demanding money from her husband, while her young daughter cowers beside him. In the scuffle than ensues, Ava is hurt, badly. When she wakes up in hospital she can barely remember what happened, but she knows it was life-changing. With her daughter still fighting for her life in a room down the corridor, Ava has a lot to contend with as she tries to recover, wills her daughter to recover, and attempts to piece together what happened and why. [[In Her Eyes by Sarah Alderson|Full Review]]
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| − | {{Frontpage
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| − | |author= Catherine Steadman
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| − | |title= Mr Nobody
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| − | |rating= 4
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| − | |genre= Thrillers
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| − | |summary= Don't you just hate it when people are multi-talented? Author Catherine Steadman is both a successful actress and writer, with this her second novel. I think in a way her acting background shows in her writing as to my mind the 'fight scene' at the end was somewhat unrealistic – you know the kind where the hero has been hurt so many times that it's virtually impossible they'd still be alive let alone able to fight off an attacker. The story also unfolded at a steady pace throughout until the ending which felt overstuffed in a frenetic bid to wrap everything up in the last few chapters. It was almost as if the author wanted to keep the suspense until the last possible moment (which I liked) but then was somewhat left with too much to do in the closing stages.
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| − | |isbn=1984890646
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| − | }}
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| − | |}
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| − | | |
| − | =='''15 JANUARY'''==
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| − | {{Frontpage
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| − | |author=Tanya Landman
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| − | |title=Jane Eyre: a Retelling
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| − | |rating=5
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| − | |genre=Teens
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| − | |summary=A young woman, fresh from living with horrid relatives who could care less about her, and years in a dreary school, moves into Thornfield Hall with only one intent – to have something like the life she wants – and with only one job, to tutor a young half-French girl, whose father is almost always absent. When he does turn up he seems to be dark, brooding and troubled – but that's nothing compared to the darker, more broody and even more troubled secret in the house. Yes, if you know Jane Eyre then you know the rest – but if you don't, for whatever reason, this is a wonderful book to turn to.
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| − | |isbn=1781129126
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| | }} | | }} |
| | + | =='''4 JULY'''== |
| | {{Frontpage | | {{Frontpage |
| − | |author=Penny Chrimes | + | |author=Max Boucherat |
| − | |title=Tiger Heart | + | |title=The Last Life of Lori Mills |
| | |rating=4.5 | | |rating=4.5 |
| | |genre=Confident Readers | | |genre=Confident Readers |
| − | |summary=''Fly never meant to end up in the cage with a man-eating tiger. She just saw her chance to skedaddle, and she took it. And even when the cloud of soot cleared and she saw the golden eyes of a killer staring into hers, she still didn't turn round and climb back up the chimney straightaway. 'Cos there was worse waiting for her back on the roof.''What an opener! And there's plenty more to come!|isbn=1510107045 | + | |summary=We meet Lori on the first evening she's got the house to herself – no neighbour to pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work, just an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her lonesome. What could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in a blanket fort, she has one main intention, and that is to log on to Voxminer, the world-building, critter-collecting game that is a hit in Lori's world. But first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, and then she finds something even more spooky. For the server she and her bestie and nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of tampering. When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and her safe place in the game has been doctored – well, where is a girl to turn? |
| | + | |isbn=0008666482 |
| | }} | | }} |
| − |
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| − | =='''23 JANUARY'''==
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| | {{Frontpage | | {{Frontpage |
| − | |isbn=0241985110
| + | |author=Jenny Lecoat |
| − | |title=All the Rage (D I Fawley)
| + | |title=Beyond Summerland |
| − | |author=Cara Hunter
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| − | |rating=4.5
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| − | |genre=Crime
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| − | |summary=A very beautiful, but extremely distressed teenage girl was picked up by a minicab driver on the outskirts of Oxford. She didn't want to go to the police station or the hospital: she just wanted to be taken home. The driver wasn't so certain though - and after dropping the girl at home he went to the police, which is why DI Adam Fawley found himself talking to Faith Appleford and her mother. Both were adamant that this was nothing more than an April Fool's joke which had gone wrong. No crime had been committed and Faith didn't want to take the matter any further. Fawley and his team weren't prepared to leave it at that and they began investigating. What they found strange was that Faith Appleford didn't seem to have much of a history.
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| − | }}
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| − | {{Frontpage
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| − | |author=Rory Clements
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| − | |title=Hitler's Secret
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| − | |rating=3.5
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| − | |genre=Thrillers
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| − | |summary=So, Hitler had a secret? Two, if you include the reproductive detail mentioned in a certain sing-song aspersion. But this is a secret that is counter to that, and in fact is a secret that Hitler himself doesn't even know about. His neice, Geli Raubal, the attractive young woman he seemed to be very close to in the early 1930s, had had his daughter behind his back. Protected under a false identity ever since, the girl is completely ignorant of her past, and the truth is a very rare thing. Martin Bormann, the 'gatekeeper' to Hitler and his right hand man, knows – and is desperately intent on wiping the slate clean and removing all connected with her existence from the Reich. So it's down to Tom Wilde, an American history professor at Oxbridge, to go in and extract her, in this most shadowy race against time.
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| − | |isbn=1838770275
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| − | }}
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| − | | |
| − | =='''6 FEBRUARY'''==
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| − | | |
| − | {{Frontpage
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| − | |author= Holly Rivers
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| − | |title= Demelza and the Spectre Detectors
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| − | |rating= 5
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| − | |genre= Confident Readers
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| − | |summary= Demelza loves science - she loves it so much that she's been known to stay up late to work on her peculiar inventions! But Demelza discovers she has inherited a distinctly un-scientific set of skills: Spectre Detecting. Like her grandmother, she can summon the ghosts of the dead. But when Grandma is kidnapped by a mysterious villain, she knows Spectre Detecting has something to do with it. Only Demelza and her pasty best friend, Percy, can solve the deadly mystery ...
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| − | |isbn=1912626039
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| − | }}
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| − | | |
| − | =='''3 MARCH'''==
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| − | | |
| − | {{Frontpage
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| − | |author=Sara Holland | |
| − | |title=Havenfall | |
| | |rating=4 | | |rating=4 |
| − | |genre=Teens | + | |genre=General Fiction |
| − | |summary= Maddie Morrow is supposed to spending the summer with her Grandma Ellen. But after a visit to her mother in prison, Maddie wants nothing more than to go to Havenfall to see her uncle, Marcus. It's the only place she feels truly at home. Maddie's father, understandably, is not keen on Maddie spending time with her mother's family - because the crime Maddie's mum is languishing on death row for committing is the murder of Maddie's brother... | + | |summary=Jean lives on Jersey with her mother where they are celebrating the end of the occupation. During the war, Jean's father was arrested for listening to a 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 Channel islands from the Nazis, and the war is finally over, their hopes rise that they will finally learn what became of him. But will the truth come as a relief, 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 occupation? |
| − | |isbn=1547603798
| + | |isbn=1846976537 |
| − | }}
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| − | {{Frontpage
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| − | |author=Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane (editors)
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| − | |title=Cursed: An Anthology of Dark Fairy Tales
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| − | |rating=4.5
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| − | |genre=Fantasy
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| − | |summary=Curses. They're there throughout tales of faery and other fantastical folk – people being cursed to do this, or not to be able to do that. Children can be cursed, as can princesses on the verge of marrying, and older people too. It seems in a way there's no escaping it. Which is why the theme of this book of short stories is such a standout – we may well think we know all there is to know about this accursed character, that demonised place, and that other bewitched person. We'd be very wrong.
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| − | |isbn=1789091500
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| − | =='''12 MARCH'''==
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| − | | |
| − | {{Frontpage
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| − | |author=Will Dean
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| − | |title=Black River
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| − | |rating=5
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| − | |genre=Crime
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| − | |summary=Tuva Moodyson returns - and this third book in the Tuva Moodyson mystery series delves deep into her personal life, returning her to the isolated town of Gavrik and into a desperate search for her missing best friend. With the Midsommar sun blocked out by the dark pines of the forest, Tuva fights to save her friend. But who’ll be there to save Tuva?
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| − | |isbn=1786077116 | |
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| | <!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE --> | | <!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE --> |
| − | | + | You can work your way through the newest review, category by category, starting [[Newest Animals and Wildlife Reviews|here]]. |
| | [[Category:Non-Fiction]] | | [[Category:Non-Fiction]] |
| | [[Category:Fiction]] | | [[Category:Fiction]] |
| | [[Category:Children's Books]] | | [[Category:Children's Books]] |
