===[[Precept: A Novel by Matthew de Lacey Davidson]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]]
Nathan Whyte is tremendously excited about the arrival of Frederick Douglass in Ireland. And even more excited that his Quaker father, who is publishing the British edition of ''Narrative'', Douglass's memoir of his life as a slave, will be accompanying the famous black American abolitionist on his speaking tour. Nathan is deeply impressed by Douglass, who is a charismatic figure and a gifted orator. But Ireland will have as big an impact on Frederick Douglass as Frederick Douglass will have on it. We watch him through Nathan's eyes as he sees for himself the beginnings of the horrors of the potato famine and meets and befriends the famous Irish nationalist, Daniel O'Connell. [[Precept: A Novel by Matthew de Lacey Davidson|Full Review]]
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The USA, early 1980s. Charlie (or Charles, if he's feeling belligerent, and he often is) is being taken back to his home by his drop-out, slutty mother. The home is called a Cottage, and while the book doesn't guide us to understand it perfectly, it seems to mean he has a private room in a large self-contained bungalow, on a gated compound with round-the-clock adult supervision. There's a paddock with horses for the kids to ride, their own school – and all the adults are armed with Thorazine to calm the kids down. Charlie, despite his obvious bookish intelligence, is struggling to get to grips with why and how he's ended up where he is, but it must have something to do with his single parent mother being violent, and the fact he is no longer allowed to stay with his grandfather. This book is a slightly woozy look at his thoughts, as he tries to build a relationship with a girl in a different Cottage, and work out his lot. He certainly has a lot on his plate for a thirteen-year-old. [[Dyed Souls by Gary Santorella|Full Review]]
===[[The Reckoning by Yrsa Sigurdardottir and Victoria Cribb (translator)]]===
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]]
[[The Legacy: Children's House Book 1 by Yrsa Sigurdardottir and Victoria Cribb (translator)|Last time]], this series opened with a plot that derailed the careers of both its leads – Huldar the policeman, and child psychologist Freyja. Demoted and stuck with a kind of love/hate connection, they are left staring into space for want of something to happen. Huldar can even find some gruesome human remains the police have been tipped off about, but still isn't allowed to investigate them, so he settles for the drudge work involved in a threat found left in a school's time capsule. Even Freyja can be persuaded to stop twiddling her thumbs and help him out. It's the nature of these books that we know both plots will be connected somehow – but how, we will be asking, will either relate to the prologue, where a young girl was snatched ten years ago, and what is a modern family under threat to do with anything? [[The Reckoning by Yrsa Sigurdardottir and Victoria Cribb (translator)|Full Review]]