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Hello from The Bookbag, a site featuring books from all the many walks of literary life - [[: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. It's the bag we take to the library , the charity shop and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, 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|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.

<!-- Louise Voss Linda Jones -->

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===[[The Last Stage Deadwood Hall by Louise VossLinda Jones]]===

[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:CrimeConfident Readers|CrimeConfident Readers]]

If you In late December Dylan Beaumont and his sister Emily were looking back on their way to when it began you'd have to say that it was spend the week before 1995. Meredith Vincent (that wasnChristmas at their grandfather't her name then) had gone to Greenham Common on her seventeenth birthday, dressed as a teddy bear, to protest about nuclear weaponss house. It was whilst she was there snowing heavily and you could sense that she met Samantha, fell head over heels their parents were becoming annoyed at the bickering in love the back of the car. Emily was rather brusque with her and went to live in a squat in London, leaving behind her A levels, her recentlynine-widowed mother year- and her twin old brother's behaviour, Pete, to look after herbut then that's your prerogative when you're a grown-up eleven year old. Samantha The snow was there occasionally but Meredith was drawn into forming a band with getting heavier and the boys from journey longer when Emily opened the squat and against all the odds Cohen went on to become car window just a couple of inches. There was a sensation dreadful smell and it wasn't long before Meredith was living in Dylan saw a mansion rather than horrible, snake-like figure clawing at the squatcar window. [[The Last Stage Deadwood Hall by Louise VossLinda Jones|Full Review]]

<!-- Ian Mathie Denzil Meyrick -->

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===[[Wild Child: Growing Up a Nomad A Breath on Dying Embers (DCI Daley) by Ian MathieDenzil Meyrick]]===

[[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:AutobiographyCrime|AutobiographyCrime]]

For Ian Mathie fans there is good and bad news. Ian has come up with the missing link in his narrativeFew government trade missions arrive by luxury liner, but the story of a very unusual childhood (yes, the very years that made him the amazing man he became). The bad – well itcruise ship ''Great Britain''s hardly news two years later – is that the book is published posthumouslyberthed in Kinloch harbour and on board are high-powered international delegates. As always, it It's beautifully written, with many exciting moments. What I most enjoyed was hard to avoid the feeling suspicion that many of the questions in Ian Mathieit's later books are answered in not ''Wild Childentirely'' about work as the billionaires, entrepreneurs and their civil service minders tour the country, golfing and sightseeing with a satisfying clunktheir entourage of security personnel. Seemingly all that It's an event which DCI Daley hopes will pass quickly, particularly as his formal uniform is far too tight for comfort, but it's now left in not long before one of the drawer is unpublishablecrew members and a local bird watcher go missing. [[Wild Child: Growing Up a Nomad A Breath on Dying Embers (DCI Daley) by Ian MathieDenzil Meyrick|Full Review]]

<!-- Martin Walker James -->

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===[[The Body in the Castle Well (A Bruno, Chief of Police Novel) Starlight Watchmaker by Martin WalkerLauren James]]===

[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:CrimeDyslexia Friendly|CrimeDyslexia Friendly]], [[:Category:Teens|Teens]]

Claudia Muller was an AmericanThis is a dyslexia-friendly, science fiction novella for young adults. It tells the tale of Hugo, studying art history and being mentored by an eminent French art historian unwanted and Resistance war hero in Limeuil in Perigord. She was beautifulrather lonely android, wore designer clothes and was wellwho makes a living for himself mending time-liked by everyonetravel watches. She didn't parade her wealthWhen one of his clients demands that his broken watch be mended, or her father's White House connections. In factHugo realises there is a mystery to be solved, her closest friend was a man recently released from prisonand is only too ready to help. So when she left a lecture saying that she felt illAn exciting journey of discovery unfolds, which takes Hugo out of his drab attic workroom and her body was later found at the bottom of the castle well it seemed that the likeliest explanation was that this had been into a dreadful accident scary adventure with some amazing new friends, exploring regions of the only people planet never before known to blame being the builders who had left the well unsealedexist. [[The Body in the Castle Well (A Bruno, Chief of Police Novel) Starlight Watchmaker by Martin WalkerLauren James|Full Review]]

<!-- Nayeri Stuart MacBride -->

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===[[The Ungrateful Refugee Cold Granite (Logan McRae) by Dina NayeriStuart MacBride]]===

[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Politics and SocietyCrime|Politics and Society]], [[:Category:Biography|BiographyCrime]]

Here in the West, we see news reports about immigrants on DS Logan McRae is just back from a year's sick leave after he was attacked by a regular basis – some media welcoming them, some scaremongering killer. He's just about them. But all of those stories are written by journalists – almost always western, OK and almost always, no matter how deep the investigative journalism they carry out, outsiders he's supposed to be easing himself back into the world and swing of the situations that refugees find themselves job in a gentle way - until three-year-old David Reid's body is discovered ina ditch. It He'd been missing for some time and it came as no surprise that he was dead but he's rare that we find out the journeys from first of several child murders. To add to the complications the refugees themselves – police even have a body but no child reported missing. A serial killer, a child killer and this abuser, is a rare on the loose in Aberdeen and the press are missing no opportunity to do bay for blood. As if thatwasn't bad enough there seems to be a leak from within Force Headquarters: a local journalist, in this intelligentColin Miller, powerful and moving work by Dina Nayeri -someone who was born in the middle of a revolution in Iran, fleeing to America as a ten-year-oldquickly finds out everything that's happening.[[The Ungrateful Refugee Cold Granite (Logan McRae) by Dina NayeriStuart MacBride|Full Review]]

<!-- Douglas Lindsay Angela Marsons -->

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===[[Boy in the Well Child's Play (DI Westphall 2D I Kim Stone) by Douglas LindsayAngela Marsons]]===

[[image:3.5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]]

The body of There's a nine-year-old boy was found at the bottom of a well which had been sealed for two hundred years - but the boy had only been dead for less than two days prologue and there was no sign of how the body had got into the wellwe know that we're dealing with someone who is very disturbed. The owners of the property descriptions are adamant that the well was sealed when they went to open ithorrifying, but DI Ben Westphall would be entitled to have his doubts. Belle McIntosh holds some strange views, particularly about the way that the government worst of all is controlling everyone through drugs which are added to the water supply which led to her wanting to reinstate coldness of the wellkiller. Her wife, Catriona Napier, is more moderate, but doesn't seem to have a lot of knowledge about what[[Child's going on on the fa [[Boy in the Well Play (DI Westphall 2D I Kim Stone) by Douglas LindsayAngela Marsons|Full Review]]

<!-- Nick Louth Chiang -->

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===[[The Body in the Mist Exhalation by Nick LouthTed Chiang]]===

[[image:4star5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:CrimeScience Fiction|CrimeScience Fiction]], [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]]

Muriel Hinkley was walking her dog when she found Over the body on a quiet country lane, just south of Exmoorpast twenty-eight years Ted Chiang has published fifteen science fiction short stories. She didn’t recognise him These magnificent stories have won twenty- no one would for seven major science fiction awards so if you are a long time as science fiction fan it was obvious is likely that he’d been you have already come across some of the victim work by Ted Chiang. I cannot speak highly enough of this collection of short stories, they are so wide ranging in their themes and so beautifully written, Chiang has written an absolute masterpiece of a hit-and-runcollection. He had no face - most of it was smeared on the road and when D I Jan Talantire came If you come across Chiang's work before, take this opportunity to look at the body she realised that there was absolutely nothing on him which would allow for identification. All the labels had been cut out of his clothes and there was no wallet and no phonedo so now. Hi was Mister NobodyTrust me; your imagination will be grateful. [[The Body in the Mist Exhalation by Nick LouthTed Chiang|Full Review]]

<!-- Denise Mina Lawrence -->

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[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] ==[[:Category:Thrillers|ThrillersRose, Interrupted by Patrice Lawrence]]===

It's strange how the worst of days can start in such an ordinary, mundane way. And so it was for Anna McDonald as she sorted out gym kit and packed lunches for her two daughters. It didn't begin to go wrong until she opened the door to her best friend, Estelle and realised that her husband was at the top of the stairs, dressed as though for a holiday rather than the work clothes she'd been expecting - and he was carrying a suitcase. He and Estelle were leaving together - and they were taking Anna's two daughters with them. There was another problem which neither Hamish nor Estelle knew about. Anna wasn't actually Anna McDonald. She was Sophie Bukaran, the woman who had been involved in the rape case against four footballers[[image:4star. jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[Conviction by Denise Mina:Category:Teens|Full ReviewTeens]]

Rose and her brother Rudder have recently escaped from cult-like fundamentalist Christian sect, the Pilgrims, along with their mother. While Mum works endless hours at agency cleaning jobs trying to keep the rent paid on their tiny flat, Rose and Rudder are trying to navigate the worldly world. It's not easy when everything is new and the rigid rules you've always lived by are suddenly missing. [[Rose, Interrupted by Patrice Lawrence|Full Review]]<!-- Donnelly Kate Atkinson -->

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| style=''"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''"|===[[Stepsister Started Early, Took My Dog (Jackson Brodie) by Jennifer DonnellyKate Atkinson]]===

[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:FantasyCrime|FantasyCrime]]

I guess that most of us have made the odd impulse purchase but Tracy Waterhouse, security chief at the Merrion Centre in Leeds, blew most people''People will not forgets ideas of an impulse purchase out of the water one morning. Or forgive Seeing a known prostitute dragging a toddler through the shopping mall whilst cursing at her, Waterhouse followed the woman and bought the girl for £3000. An ugly girl The difficulty of a purchase like this is knowing what to do next and Tracy's humdrum life is too great replaced with one of stress, fear and an offense...the world is made overwhelming love for men. An ugly girl can never be forgivenfour-year-old Courtney.''[[Started Early, Took My Dog (Jackson Brodie) by Kate Atkinson|Full Review]]

<!-- Chloe Daykin -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0571349439.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0571349439/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Fire Girl, Forest Boy by Chloe Daykin]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers]] Maya has to escape. She''Stepsister'' tells s on the gripping story of Cinderellarun in a country she doesn's 'ugly' stepsister, Isabellet know and has no idea who to trust. We've been told this fairyRaul is escaping too -tale over and over again throughout our lives and know the characters well. But have you ever wondered what travelling back to his home where a terrible tragedy happened , ready to stir up trouble. When their paths collide in the sisters after Cinderella married middle of the Prince? Or why jungle, the sparks begin to fly. As modern world corruption meets the sisters disliked magic and legends of ancient times, can Maya draw on her so muchhidden light to find the way through to the truth? [[Stepsister Fire Girl, Forest Boy by Jennifer DonnellyChloe Daykin|Full Review]]

<!-- Gilly Macmillan Angela Marsons -->

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===[[The Nanny Child's Play (D I Kim Stone) by Gilly MacmillanAngela Marsons]]===

[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:ThrillersCrime|ThrillersCrime]]

We There's a prologue and we know that something wrong is happening: a body we're dealing with someone who is being dumped in deep watervery disturbed. The rower pulls away and rows back to the boat house and then she walks back to Lake Hall. As you begin reading you suspect that you know who has been killed and who dumped the bodydescriptions are horrifying, but be patient: worst of all will be revealed before too longis the coldness of the killer. [[The Nanny Child's Play (D I Kim Stone) by Gilly MacmillanAngela Marsons|Full Review]]

<!-- Weaver Gregory -->

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[[image:3star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] ==[[:Category:Thrillers|ThrillersI Hold Your Heart by Karen Gregory]]===

Long after the police have given up on cold missing persons cases, David Raker picks them up and tracks them down[[image:4. He's called to a particularly disturbing case where a small village of nine people all vanished overnight two years ago. Raker and his associate must delve in to the lives of these people to work out how and why nine people have gone missing. They are being threatened to stop but something about the mystery keeps drawing Raker further in, putting him in personal peril5star. jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[No One Home by Tim Weaver:Category:Teens|Full ReviewTeens]]

Gemma has just started her A levels at school. She's a keen student and she has a good, close set of friends. Gemma loves country music and in her spare time she enjoys writing and singing country songs. She's pretty good at it too. Home life is busy - Gemma's brother Michael has a chance at a football career and the whole family, propelled by Gemma's rather over-invested dad, is supporting him with everything they've got. Gemma hasn't had a serious boyfriend yet, so when the handsome Aaron appears and an instant attraction fizzles between them, Gemma is keen to see where romance could lead... [[I Hold Your Heart by Karen Gregory|Full Review]]<!-- Marrs Davis -->

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| style=''"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''"|===[[The Passengers What's That in Dog Years? by John MarrsBen Davis and Julia Christians]]===

[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science FictionConfident Readers|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Thrillers|ThrillersConfident Readers]]

In the near futureGeorge and Gizmo have been together ever since George was born. Gizmo has always been a fun, adventurous dog and a loyal friend, but just recently, self-drive cars are the norm - George has noticed that he's starting to slow down a convenient and easy way of transportlittle. However, when someone hacks into A visit to the systems of eight self-drive carsvets leaves George worried that Gizmo might not be around for very much longer, their passengers are set on and so he begins to write Gizmo a fatal collision course. As everyday commutes turn into terror-filled journeysbucket list, of all the public adventures that they can still have to judge who should survivetogether in Gizmo's last days. But with every aspect of these passangers being examined by the public - are they his last days? And who will they turn out help George to be what they seemstay calm when Gizmo is gone? [[The Passengers What's That in Dog Years? by John MarrsBen Davis and Julia Christians|Full Review]]

<!-- Toon Hlad -->

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===[[If You Could Go Anywhere The Long Flight Home by Paige ToonA L Hlad]]===

[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Women's Historical Fiction|Women's Historical Fiction]]

Angie is someone who always wanted to travelSeptember 1940 - as WWII rages on, bombs rain down on Britain, destroying the homes and lives of a people on the edge. In Epping Forest, but it's taken Susan Shepherd and her 27 years to leave grandfather Bertie live together raising homing pigeons with the small mining town in south Australia which has been birds proving a comfort for Susan following the only home she's ever knownloss of her parents. She doesn't do things by half These pigeons are more than just birds to Susan though– in each one, and once especially in Duchess, she does feel able to go (following sees a distinct personality and forms a family death) she close bond. Meanwhile, young pilot Ollie Evans leaves Maine to head to Britain and join the Royal Air Force. Working with the National Pigeon Service, he soon meets Susan and is tasked with air-dropping hundreds of homing pigeons into German-occupied France, where many will not only survive. As the townmission is planned, the state bond between Ollie and the countrySusan grows stronger, but also the continentwhen Ollie's plane is downed behind enemy lines, it may be Duchess who provides an unexpected lifeline and finds herself following in her mother's footsteps ensures that hope of a reunion for Susan and heading to Italy. Ollie remains… [[If You Could Go Anywhere The Long Flight Home by Paige ToonA L Hlad|Full Review]]

<!-- Nick Griffiths Peter Wohlleben -->

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| style="''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"''|===[[Mayhem in the Archipelago Walks In The Wild by Nick GriffithsPeter Wohlleben and Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp (Translator)]]===

[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:ThrillersAnimals and Wildlife|ThrillersAnimals and Wildlife]], [[:Category:Politics and Society|Politics and Society]]

In Latvia ''An instruction manual for the forest'' is how Wohlleben's publisher described the conspirators meet in a rather unpleasant locationidea for this book, but itand that's their plans which matter to them. In Moscow two men delight in all the uncertainty in the Baltic. In Washington the Undersecretary basically what it is a woman, but the personal pressures on her are – although right at the same as end the men in Moscow are obliged to suffer. In Stockholm three members of SÄPO, the Swedish Secret Service, know author says that the time has come for them it is not intended to make be a move. They'd talk morereference book, but their wives would get difficult and there's a rather pleasing tart which mustn't be missedan appetiser. [[Mayhem in the Archipelago Walks In The Wild by Nick GriffithsPeter Wohlleben and Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp (Translator)|Full Review]]

<!-- Neal M T Edvardsson and Rachel Wilson-Boyles -->

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[[image:4.5star.jpg|link===Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[Watchwords by Philip Neal:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]]===

[[imageWe're going to hear this story through the viewpoints of three different people:4starAdam Sandell, his wife, Ulrika and his daughter Stella.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]] This satisfying collection Adam's a pastor in the Church of Sweden and Ulrika is a lawyer. Stella is, well, just difficult. You sense that she's always been difficult and there have even been occasions when Ulrika has let slip that she wishes that Stella was more like her best friend, Amina Bešic - and no one has ever said that if they don't think that the other person is better. We first meet the family on Stella's 18th birthday and we get a sense of short stories Adam's controlling nature. Permission has to be given for a provenance glass of wine for Stella at least as beguiling as the provenance of the antique watches that inspired itcelebration meal.[[A Nearly Normal Family by M T Edvardsson and Rachel Wilson-Boyles (translator)|Full Review]]

Philip Neal lost a watch. It was a watch he was fond of and had been told was like a 1930s Cartier. Instead of mourning its loss, he began to collect vintage watches that resembled it. And that's how he became a watch collector. An eBay purchase led him to the Antique Watch Company watch repairers in Clerkenwell. The eBay purchase was a fake, but the friendship that grew between the buyer and the repairer of watches was not and the seed of an idea for a book was born. [[ Watchwords by Philip Neal |Full Review]] <!-- Stephen Booth Green -->

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===[[Fall Down Dead (Cooper and Fry) The House of Light by Stephen BoothJulia Green]]===

[[image:4star4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:CrimeConfident Readers|CrimeConfident Readers]]

DS Dev Sharma Bonnie is delighted - if delight is the right word to apply to growing up on a murder case - but he's got a result when the husband of a murder victim is found slightly strange island, living with the knifeher grandfather, scavenging for food, standing over and rubbish that has washed up on the body, beach that she and admitting her grandfather can use to the murdermake things. DI Ben Cooper There is concerned with a suspicious death some sort of ban against anyone else landing on Kinder Scout. A party of walkers - the New Trespassers Walking Group - got lost in the fog island, and problems arose when one lots of suspicion around those who live there, including a great fear of the party was injuredanyone who gets sick. The group split up to find help, or at least a mobile signal, but But when they're rescued they're Bonnie is on the beach one short day and the body of Faith Matthew was found at the bottom of Kinder Downfall. It looked like discovers not only an intact boat, but a dreadful accidentyoung boy cowering beneath, but Cooper wasn't happy about rather than turn him in to the way authorities she takes him home and hides him, smuggling him boiled eggs and blankets in the body had fallen. Things are not always as they seem - in either caseshed whilst she tries to figure out what to do. [[Fall Down Dead (Cooper and Fry) The House of Light by Stephen BoothJulia Green|Full Review]]

<!-- Casey Cep Foster -->

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===[[Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud and the Last Trial of Harper Lee Check Mates by Casey CepStewart Foster]]===

[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:True CrimeConfident Readers|True CrimeConfident Readers]], [[:Category:Teens|Teens]]

Sometimes you begin reading In many ways Felix is a book typical boy in Year 7, enjoying playing games on his PS4 and before you've got to the bottom of hanging out with his friend Jake at the first page you know that it's going to be brilliantweekend. You sense the author's effortless grasp of her subject matter and you already know that her use of words However Felix is almost surgical in its precisionstruggling at school. The hands holding you are safe, which considering that this He is not a problem child but he does have a book about two subjects where facts problem. His ADHD makes it hard for him to concentrate, he keeps getting into trouble and his grades are in short supply, slipping. When his Mum suggests that he spends more time with his grandfather Felix is somewhat surprisinghorrified. Ever since Grandma died his Granddad has been grumpy and more eccentric than before. Our first subject All he wants to do is sit in the Reverend Willie Maxwelldark and play chess. Over seven years, six people close Felix knows that this will be extremely boring. But sometimes we learn valuable lessons where we least expect to the Reverend had died, with Maxwell benefiting substantially from insurance policies which he'd taken out on their livesand perhaps Granddad and Felix can help each other. [[Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud and the Last Trial of Harper Lee Check Mates by Casey CepStewart Foster|Full Review]]

<!-- Weir Jane O'Connor -->

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===[[Six Tudor Queens: Anna of Kleve, Queen of Secrets Needlemouse by Alison WeirJane O'Connor]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]]

Poor, frumpy Anne of Cleaves always gets a raw deal by history, of all the wives of Henry VIII she is the one who is known for being rejected[[image:5star. Anne Boleyn and Katheryn Howard were the sexy ones, Jane the dutiful one who delivered a sonjpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], Katherine of Aragon clung on to her crown and Katharine Parr clung on to her life but poor frumpy Anne of Cleaves just rolled over and moved along. Not any more! Alison Weir presents us with a different view of this young woman who saw the opportunity to live an independent life and took it. [[Six Tudor Queens: Anna of Kleve, Queen of Secrets by Alison WeirCategory:Women's Fiction|Full ReviewWomen's Fiction]]

We first meet Sylvia Penton on her birthday and her boss, the Prof, is taking her out to lunch. This is her favourite day of the year, not because it's her birthday but because of the special time she gets to spend with the man she loves. He's told her that he and his wife are going to divorce - Martha is apparently having an affair - and Sylvia is convinced that the Prof will then declare his love and they can be together. She hasn't fully constructed 'together' in her own mind - she envisages it as romantic, but her imagination hasn't yet progressed to the sexual part of the relationship. There's time though - she's only been the prof's PA for fifteen years. [[Needlemouse by Jane O'Connor|Full Review]]<!-- Mel Sherratt Various-->

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| style="''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"''|===[[Tick Tock Return to Wonderland by Mel SherrattVarious Authors]]===

[[image:34.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:CrimeConfident Readers|CrimeConfident Readers]], [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]]

WeIn following a young girl called Alice down the rabbit hole a few years ago, when the first book she was in [[Alice're s Adventures in Stoke on TrentWonderland (150th Anniversary Edition) by Lewis Carroll and Anthony Browne|hit 150 years of age]], I found that I didn't really find too much favour with it. A group of young women who study at Dunwood Academy are running The wacky-for-the cross-country course. One sake-of them - Lauren Ansell - stops behind to tie her shoelace and is murderedit did not gel, to the shock and devastation of her friendsI don't remember loving it more as a child. Twins Courtney and Caitlin Piggott, Sophie Bishop and Teagan Cole cling together But I would suggest I am the perfect audience for support - or do do as much as they can given that their parents are understandably reluctant to let them out of their sightthis book. One of I had every chance to enjoy these short stories that come at the parents is journalist Simon Colecore from a tangent, boyfriend that show the benefits of DS Grace Allendale, who is charged with investigating the murder under the guidance of DI Nick Carteroblique glance. ItI've always preferred coming to an author's output through their least obvious, allegedly throw-away pieces, and it's the same with franchises – I'd more likely go for Bree Tanner's short novella than the whole Twilight saga (although that remains just a struggle hunch, for obvious reasons). For another thing, there was every reason to keep their professional lives separate. expect some kind of greatness here – with Carroll much loved by millions, surely pieces written with that love in mind could only provide for success after success? [[Tick Tock Return to Wonderland by Mel SherrattVarious Authors|Full Review]]

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| style="''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"''|===[[Their Little Secret Rumblestar (The Unmapped Chronicles) by Mark BillinghamAbi Elphinstone]]===

[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:CrimeConfident Readers|CrimeConfident Readers]]

There are times when two people come together and Rumblestar follows the whole is greater than the sum haphazard adventures of the parts as in the case ofanxious 11-year-old Casper Tock who timetables his every movement, say, Morecambe makes countless to do lists and Wise. Sometimes two people come together is hounded by wealthy bullies with the absurdly humorous and we get ''Folie à Deux'' - a shared psychotic disorder which produces devastating consequences. One appropriate names of the prime examples is Ian Brady Candida Cashmere Jumps and Myra HindleyLeopold Splattercash. But - I'm getting ahead of myself as our story started with He stumbles across a suicide. A middle-aged woman had been gulled out magic portal by accident just like Lucy of £75Narnia fame,000 meets a feisty girl troubled by her past and is plunged into a perilous quest. In a man called Patrick Jenkins, but once he had kingdom where the dark mythological forces of Midnights threaten the weather Marvels (equated here to the money he disappeared and ghosted his former lover. She threw herself in front miracle of a tube trainnature) conjured by magical creatures, only unlikely heroes can battle against evil. [[Their Little Secret Rumblestar (The Unmapped Chronicles]) by Mark BillinghamAbi Elphinstone|Full Review]]

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===[[The Evil Occupants of Easingdale Castle by Ray Filby]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]], [[:Category:Teens|Teens]]

A thief without Jason likes chess. He's pretty good at it too - a facelevel eight on his computer programme, with level ten being Grand Master level. He's also good at systems, a prince who was never meant having contributed to be kingthe relational database that has streamlined his school's administration. Jason's school, Finn Easingdale Comprehensive, is very big on technology and Alfie collideits head, as if thrown together by fateMr Johnston, is keen to bring about involve his pupils wherever they show promise. So Jason's friends have also helped out. Liz is great with hardware and helped with the school's card reader system. Becky has a series of catastrophes flair for software and set in motion the release has recommended lots of curriculum-enhancing apps. And Bill is a darkness that seeks to consume all the goodness and magic in the worldtalented programmer.. These two unlikely allies must try to put their own personal battles behind them and join forces to stop the evil from destroying everything they hold dear. [[Nocturna The Evil Occupants of Easingdale Castle by Maya MotayneRay Filby|Full Review]]

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===[[The Secret Starling Stone Cold Heart by Judith EagleCaz Frear]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]]

[[imageDC Cat Kinsella is back at the Met after a secondment to the London Mayor's Office:4the hours were good but the job was boring.5star She's grateful to be back with the old team - her partner DS Luigi Parnell, boss DCI Kate Steele and DC Rénee Akwa.jpg|link=Category She's still not prepared to say anything about the identity of her boyfriend:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]]Clara has lived in the crumbling Braithwaite Manor owned by her guardian, Uncle Edward, since knowledge that she was 's in a baby. It has been relationship with Aiden Doyle, the brother of a lonely life as her uncle is strict murder victim and forbidding and she has been home schooled. Her only friend is Cook who looks after Clara moreover a murder with kindness and tells which her stories of father might have had some involvement could finish her own family and their adventurescareer. Clara has recently become aware that something is wrong as many of the prized possessions such as paintings Kinsella and porcelain Parnell are disappearing and then cook is dismissed. Shortly afterwards Uncle Edward abandons Clara in called to the discovery of the local village with body of a fistful of money young woman: Naomi Lockhart was Australian, just twenty-two years old and disappears. Clara is now totally aloneher body was discovered by her flat mate, Kieran Drake, an ex-offender. [[The Secret Starling Stone Cold Heart by Judith EagleCaz Frear|Full Review]]