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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.

<!-- Stowell Linda Jones -->

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===[[The Dragon in the Library Deadwood Hall by Louie Stowell and Davide Ortu (Illustrator)Linda Jones]]===

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

In late December Dylan Beaumont and his sister Emily were on their way to spend the week before Christmas at their grandfather's house. It is was snowing heavily and you could sense that their parents were becoming annoyed at the bickering in the start back of the summer holidays and Kit has planscar. These plans involve climbing trees Emily was rather brusque with her nine-year-old brother's behaviour, but then that's your prerogative when you're a grown-up eleven year old. The snow was getting muddy and being outside. Her friends, Josh heavier and Alita, on the other hand want to go to the library. Kit hates reading and can't see journey longer when Emily opened the point car window just a couple of books at all but is very reluctantly persuaded to go with the others to the local libraryinches. Once there the children meet the librarian There was a dreadful smell and Kit makes an incredible discovery; the librarian is Dylan saw a wizard! Even more incrediblyhorrible, Kit is a wizard too and she and her friends have an important tasksnake-like figure clawing at the car window. They must save the library…and save the world! [[The Dragon in the Library Deadwood Hall by Louie Stowell and Davide Ortu (Illustrator)Linda Jones|Full Review]]

<!-- Stuart MacBride Denzil Meyrick -->

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===[[All That's Dead A Breath on Dying Embers (Logan McRae 12DCI Daley) by Stuart MacBrideDenzil Meyrick]]===

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

It seemed like a good idea. Logan Few government trade missions arrive by luxury liner, but the cruise ship ''LazarusGreat Britain' McRae was back at work after a year off sick. He'd been stabbed is berthed in the line of duty Kinloch harbour and recovery had been slow: he still had some painon board are high-powered international delegates. His first case was It's hard to be a simple one - just to ease him back into avoid the suspicion that it's not ''entirely'' about work - but it turned out to be anything butas the billionaires, entrepreneurs and their civil service minders tour the country, golfing and sightseeing with their entourage of security personnel. Professor WilsonIt's an event which DCI Daley hopes will pass quickly, a high-profile anti-independence campaigner has gone missing, apparently abducted from particularly as his homeformal uniform is far too tight for comfort, but nothing was left behind except some bloodstains. In much the same way that Brexit is dividing people south of the border, thereit's going to be a war between not long before one of the pro- crew members and anti-independence factions in Scotland - and the police are not above being involveda local bird watcher go missing. [[All That's Dead A Breath on Dying Embers (Logan McRae 12DCI Daley) by Stuart MacBrideDenzil Meyrick|Full Review]]

<!-- Louise Voss James -->

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===[[The Last Stage Starlight Watchmaker by Louise VossLauren James]]===

[[image:4.5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:CrimeDyslexia Friendly|Dyslexia Friendly]], [[:Category:Teens|CrimeTeens]]

If you were looking back to when it began you'd have to say that it was before 1995. Meredith Vincent (that wasn't her name then) had gone to Greenham Common on her seventeenth birthday, dressed as This is a teddy beardyslexia-friendly, to protest about nuclear weaponsscience fiction novella for young adults. It was whilst she was there that she met Samanthatells the tale of Hugo, fell head over heels in love with her an unwanted and went to live in rather lonely android, who makes a squat in Londonliving for himself mending time-travel watches. When one of his clients demands that his broken watch be mended, leaving behind her A levelsHugo realises there is a mystery to be solved, her recently-widowed mother - and her twin brother, Pete, is only too ready to look after herhelp. Samantha was there occasionally but Meredith was drawn An exciting journey of discovery unfolds, which takes Hugo out of his drab attic workroom and into forming a band scary adventure with some amazing new friends, exploring regions of the boys from the squat and against all the odds Cohen went on planet never before known to become a sensation and it wasn't long before Meredith was living in a mansion rather than the squatexist. [[The Last Stage Starlight Watchmaker by Louise VossLauren James|Full Review]]

<!-- Ian Mathie Stuart MacBride -->

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===[[Wild Child: Growing Up a Nomad Cold Granite (Logan McRae) by Ian MathieStuart MacBride]]===

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

For Ian Mathie fans there DS Logan McRae is good just back from a year's sick leave after he was attacked by a killer. He's just about OK and bad news. Ian has come up with he's supposed to be easing himself back into the swing of the missing link job in his narrative, the story of a very unusual childhood (yes, the very years that made him the amazing man he became). The bad – well itgentle way - until three-year-old David Reid's hardly news two years later – body is that the book is published posthumouslydiscovered in a ditch. As always, He'd been missing for some time and itcame as no surprise that he was dead but he's beautifully written, with many exciting momentsthe first of several child murders. What I most enjoyed was To add to the complications the feeling that many of police even have a body but no child reported missing. A serial killer, a child killer and abuser, is on the questions loose in Ian Mathie's later books Aberdeen and the press are answered in missing no opportunity to bay for blood. As if that wasn''Wild Child'' with t bad enough there seems to be a leak from within Force Headquarters: a satisfying clunk. Seemingly all local journalist, Colin Miller, quickly finds out everything that's now left in the drawer is unpublishablehappening. [[Wild Child: Growing Up a Nomad Cold Granite (Logan McRae) by Ian MathieStuart MacBride|Full Review]]

<!-- Martin Walker Angela Marsons -->

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===[[The Body in the Castle Well Child's Play (A Bruno, Chief of Police NovelD I Kim Stone) by Martin WalkerAngela Marsons]]===

Claudia Muller was an American, studying art history and being mentored by an eminent French art historian and Resistance war hero in Limeuil in Perigord. She was beautiful, wore designer clothes and was well-liked by everyone. She didn't parade her wealth, or her fatherThere's White House connections. In fact, her closest friend was a man recently released from prisonprologue and we know that we're dealing with someone who is very disturbed. So when she left a lecture saying that she felt illThe descriptions are horrifying, and her body was later found at but worst of all is the bottom coldness of the castle well it seemed that the likeliest explanation was that this had been a dreadful accident with the only people to blame being the builders who had left the well unsealedkiller. [[The Body in the Castle Well Child's Play (A Bruno, Chief of Police NovelD I Kim Stone) by Martin WalkerAngela Marsons|Full Review]]

<!-- Nayeri Chiang -->

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===[[The Ungrateful Refugee Exhalation by Dina NayeriTed Chiang]]===

[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Politics and SocietyScience Fiction|Politics and SocietyScience Fiction]], [[:Category:BiographyShort Stories|BiographyShort Stories]]

Here in Over the West, we see news reports about immigrants on past twenty-eight years Ted Chiang has published fifteen science fiction short stories. These magnificent stories have won twenty-seven major science fiction awards so if you are a regular basis – science fiction fan it is likely that you have already come across some media welcoming them, some scaremongering about themof the work by Ted Chiang. But all I cannot speak highly enough of those this collection of short stories , they are so wide ranging in their themes and so beautifully written by journalists – almost always western, and almost always, no matter how deep the investigative journalism they carry out, outsiders to the world and the situations that refugees find themselves inChiang has written an absolute masterpiece of a collection. ItIf you come across Chiang's rare that we find out the journeys from the refugees themselves – and work before, take this is a rare opportunity to do that, in this intelligent, 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-oldso now. Trust me; your imagination will be grateful.[[The Ungrateful Refugee Exhalation by Dina NayeriTed Chiang|Full Review]]

<!-- Douglas Lindsay Lawrence -->

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[[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] ==[[:Category:Crime|CrimeRose, Interrupted by Patrice Lawrence]]===

The body of 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 and there was no sign of how the body had got into the well[[image:4star. The owners of the property are adamant that the well was sealed when they went to open it, but DI Ben Westphall would be entitled to have his doubts. Belle McIntosh holds some strange views, particularly about the way that the government is controlling everyone through drugs which are added to the water supply which led to her wanting to reinstate the well. Her wife, Catriona Napier, is more moderate, but doesn't seem to have a lot of knowledge about what's going on on the fa jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[Boy in the Well (DI Westphall 2) by Douglas Lindsay: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]]<!-- Nick Louth Kate Atkinson -->

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===[[The Body in the Mist Started Early, Took My Dog (Jackson Brodie) by Nick LouthKate Atkinson]]===

[[image:4star5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] 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's ideas of an impulse purchase out of the water one morning. 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. The difficulty of a purchase like this is knowing what to do next and Tracy's humdrum life is replaced with one of stress, fear and an overwhelming love for four-year-old Courtney. [[Started Early, Took My Dog (Jackson Brodie) by Kate Atkinson|Full Review]]

Muriel Hinkley was walking her dog when she found the body on a quiet country lane<!-- 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, just south of ExmoorForest Boy by Chloe Daykin]]=== [[image:5star. jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers]] Maya has to escape. She didn’t recognise him - no one would for a long time as it was obvious that he’d been 's on the victim of run in a hit-country she doesn't know andhas no idea who to trust. Raul is escaping too -runtravelling back to his home where a terrible tragedy happened, ready to stir up trouble. He had no face - most When their paths collide in the middle of it was smeared on the road jungle, the sparks begin to fly. As modern world corruption meets the magic and when D I Jan Talantire came legends of ancient times, can Maya draw on her hidden light to look at find the body she realised that there was absolutely nothing on him which would allow for identification. All way through to the labels had been cut out of his clothes and there was no wallet and no phone. Hi was Mister Nobody. truth? [[The Body in the Mist Fire Girl, Forest Boy by Nick LouthChloe Daykin|Full Review]]

<!-- Denise Mina Angela Marsons -->

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===[[Conviction Child's Play (D I Kim Stone) by Denise MinaAngela Marsons]]===

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

ItThere'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 a prologue 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 we know that her husband was at the top of the stairs, dressed as though for a holiday rather than the work clothes shewe'd been expecting - and he was carrying a suitcase. He and Estelle were leaving together - and they were taking Anna's two daughters re dealing with them. There was another problem which neither Hamish nor Estelle knew aboutsomeone who is very disturbed. Anna wasn't actually Anna McDonald. She was Sophie BukaranThe descriptions are horrifying, but worst of all is the woman who had been involved in coldness of the rape case against four footballerskiller. [[Conviction Child's Play (D I Kim Stone) by Denise MinaAngela Marsons|Full Review]]

<!-- Donnelly Gregory -->

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| style=''"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''"|===[[Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly]]===

[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] ==[[:Category:Fantasy|FantasyI Hold Your Heart by Karen Gregory]]===

''People will not forget[[image:4. Or forgive5star. An ugly girl is too great an offense...the world is made for men. An ugly girl can never be forgiven.''jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]]

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'Stepsisters pretty good at it too. Home life is busy - Gemma'' tells s brother Michael has a chance at a football career and the gripping story of Cinderellawhole family, propelled by Gemma's rather over-invested dad, is supporting him with everything they'uglyve got. Gemma hasn' stepsistert had a serious boyfriend yet, so when the handsome Aaron appears and an instant attraction fizzles between them, IsabelleGemma is keen to see where romance could lead.. We've been told this fairy-tale over and over again throughout our lives and know the characters well. But have you ever wondered what happened to the sisters after Cinderella married the Prince? Or why the sisters disliked her so much? [[Stepsister I Hold Your Heart by Jennifer DonnellyKaren Gregory|Full Review]] <!-- Gilly Macmillan Davis -->

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===[[The Nanny What's That in Dog Years? by Gilly MacmillanBen Davis and Julia Christians]]===

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

We know George 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, George has noticed that something wrong is happening: he's starting to slow down a body is being dumped in deep waterlittle. The rower pulls away and rows back A visit to the boat house vets leaves George worried that Gizmo might not be around for very much longer, and then she walks back so he begins to Lake Hallwrite Gizmo a bucket list, of all the adventures that they can still have together in Gizmo's last days. As you begin reading you suspect that you know who has been killed and But are they his last days? And who dumped the body, but be patient: all will be revealed before too long. help George to stay calm when Gizmo is gone? [[The Nanny What's That in Dog Years? by Gilly MacmillanBen Davis and Julia Christians|Full Review]]

<!-- Weaver Hlad -->

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===[[No One The Long Flight Home by Tim WeaverA L Hlad]]===

[[image:3star4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:ThrillersHistorical Fiction|ThrillersHistorical Fiction]]

Long after September 1940 - as WWII rages on, bombs rain down on Britain, destroying the police have given up homes and lives of a people on cold missing persons casesthe edge. In Epping Forest, David Raker picks them up Susan Shepherd and tracks them downher grandfather Bertie live together raising homing pigeons with the birds proving a comfort for Susan following the loss of her parents. He's called These pigeons are more than just birds to Susan though – in each one, and especially in Duchess, she sees a particularly disturbing case where distinct personality and forms a small village of nine people all vanished overnight two years agoclose bond. Raker and his associate must delve in Meanwhile, young pilot Ollie Evans leaves Maine to the lives of these people head to work out how Britain and why nine people have gone missingjoin the Royal Air Force. They are being threatened to stop but something about Working with the mystery keeps drawing Raker further inNational Pigeon Service, he soon meets Susan and is tasked with air-dropping hundreds of homing pigeons into German-occupied France, putting him in personal perilwhere many will not survive. As the mission is planned, the bond between Ollie and Susan grows stronger, but when Ollie's plane is downed behind enemy lines, it may be Duchess who provides an unexpected lifeline and ensures that hope of a reunion for Susan and Ollie remains… [[No One The Long Flight Home by Tim WeaverA L Hlad|Full Review]]

<!-- Marrs Peter Wohlleben -->

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===[[Walks In The Passengers Wild by John MarrsPeter Wohlleben and Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp (Translator)]]===

[[image:4.5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science FictionAnimals and Wildlife|Science FictionAnimals and Wildlife]], [[:Category:ThrillersPolitics and Society|ThrillersPolitics and Society]]

In ''An instruction manual for the forest'' is how Wohlleben's publisher described the near futureidea for this book, self-drive cars are and that's basically what it is – although right at the norm - a convenient and easy way of transport. However, when someone hacks into end the systems of eight self-drive cars, their passengers are set on author says that it is not intended to be a fatal collision course. As everyday commutes turn into terror-filled journeysreference book, the public have to judge who should survivebut an appetiser. But with every aspect of these passangers being examined by the public - will they turn out to be what they seem? [[Walks In The Passengers Wild by John MarrsPeter Wohlleben and Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp (Translator)|Full Review]]

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

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===[[If You Could Go Anywhere A Nearly Normal Family by Paige ToonM T Edvardsson and Rachel Wilson-Boyles (translator)]]===

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

Angie is someone who always wanted We're going to travelhear this story through the viewpoints of three different people: Adam Sandell, his wife, but itUlrika and his daughter Stella. Adam's taken her 27 years to leave the small mining town a pastor in south Australia which has been the only home Church of Sweden and Ulrika is a lawyer. Stella is, well, just difficult. You sense that she's ever known. She doesn't do things by half though, always been difficult and once there have even been occasions when Ulrika has let slip that she does feel able to go (following a family death) she leaves not only the townwishes that Stella was more like her best friend, the state Amina Bešic - and no one has ever said that if they don't think that the country, but also other person is better. We first meet the continent, family on Stella's 18th birthday and finds herself following in her motherwe get a sense of Adam's footsteps and heading controlling nature. Permission has to Italybe given for a glass of wine for Stella at the celebration meal. [[If You Could Go Anywhere A Nearly Normal Family by Paige ToonM T Edvardsson and Rachel Wilson-Boyles (translator)|Full Review]]

<!-- Nick Griffiths Green -->

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===[[Mayhem in the Archipelago The House of Light by Nick GriffithsJulia Green]]===

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

In Latvia the conspirators meet in Bonnie is growing up on a rather unpleasant locationslightly strange island, living with her grandfather, but it's their plans which matter to them. In Moscow two men delight in all the uncertainty in the Baltic. In Washington the Undersecretary is a womanscavenging for food, but and rubbish that has washed up on the personal pressures on beach that she and her are the same as the men in Moscow are obliged grandfather can use to suffermake things. In Stockholm three members There is some sort of SÄPOban against anyone else landing on the island, the Swedish Secret Serviceand lots of suspicion around those who live there, know that the time has come for them to make including a movegreat fear of anyone who gets sick. They'd talk moreBut when Bonnie is on the beach one day and discovers not only an intact boat, but their wives would get difficult and there's a young boy cowering beneath, rather pleasing tart which mustn't be missedthan turn him in to the authorities she takes him home and hides him, smuggling him boiled eggs and blankets in the shed whilst she tries to figure out what to do. [[Mayhem in the Archipelago The House of Light by Nick GriffithsJulia Green|Full Review]]

<!-- Neal Foster -->

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[[image:5star.jpg|link===Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]], [[Watchwords by Philip Neal:Category:Teens|Teens]]===

[[image:4starIn many ways Felix is a typical boy in Year 7, enjoying playing games on his PS4 and hanging out with his friend Jake at the weekend. However Felix is struggling at school. He is not a problem child but he does have a problem. His ADHD makes it hard for him to concentrate, he keeps getting into trouble and his grades are slipping. When his Mum suggests that he spends more time with his grandfather Felix is horrified. Ever since Grandma died his Granddad has been grumpy and more eccentric than before. All he wants to do is sit in the dark and play chess. Felix knows that this will be extremely boring. But sometimes we learn valuable lessons where we least expect to and perhaps Granddad and Felix can help each other.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short StoriesCheck Mates by Stewart Foster|Short StoriesFull Review]] This satisfying collection of short stories has a provenance at least as beguiling as the provenance of the antique watches that inspired it.

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 Jane O'Connor -->

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===[[Fall Down Dead (Cooper and Fry) Needlemouse by Stephen BoothJane O'Connor]]===

[[image:4star5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:CrimeGeneral Fiction|CrimeGeneral Fiction]], [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]]

DS Dev Sharma We first meet Sylvia Penton on her birthday and her boss, the Prof, is delighted - if delight taking her out to lunch. This is her favourite day of the right word to apply to a murder case - but heyear, not because it's got a result when the husband her birthday but because of a murder victim is found with the knife, standing over the body, and admitting special time she gets to spend with the murderman she loves. DI Ben Cooper He's told her that he and his wife are going to divorce - Martha is concerned with a suspicious death on Kinder Scout. A party of walkers apparently having an affair - and Sylvia is convinced that the New Trespassers Walking Group - got lost in the fog Prof will then declare his love and problems arose when one of the party was injuredthey can be together. The group split up to find help, or at least a mobile signal, but when theyShe hasn't fully constructed 're rescued theytogether're one short and the body of Faith Matthew was found at the bottom of Kinder Downfall. It looked like a dreadful accidentin her own mind - she envisages it as romantic, but Cooper wasnher imagination hasn't happy about yet progressed to the way sexual part of the body had fallenrelationship. Things are not always as they seem There's time though - in either caseshe's only been the prof's PA for fifteen years. [[Fall Down Dead (Cooper and Fry) Needlemouse by Stephen BoothJane O'Connor|Full Review]] <!-- Casey Cep Various-->

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| style="''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"''|===[[Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud and the Last Trial of Harper Lee Return to Wonderland by Casey CepVarious Authors]]===

[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:True CrimeConfident Readers|Confident Readers]], [[:Category:Short Stories|True CrimeShort Stories]]

Sometimes you begin reading In following a young girl called Alice down the rabbit hole a few years ago, when the first book she was in [[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (150th Anniversary Edition) by Lewis Carroll and before you've got to the bottom Anthony Browne|hit 150 years of the first page you know age]], I found that I didn't really find too much favour with it's going to be brilliant. You sense The wacky-for-the author's effortless grasp -sake-of her subject matter -it did not gel, and you already know that her use of words is almost surgical in its precisionI don't remember loving it more as a child. The hands holding you are safe, which considering that But I would suggest I am the perfect audience for this is a book about two subjects where facts are in . I had every chance to enjoy these short supplystories that come at the core from a tangent, is somewhat surprisingthat show the benefits of the oblique glance. Our first subject is I'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 Reverend Willie Maxwellwhole Twilight saga (although that remains just a hunch, for obvious reasons). Over seven yearsFor another thing, six people close there was every reason to the Reverend had diedexpect some kind of greatness here – with Carroll much loved by millions, surely pieces written with Maxwell benefiting substantially from insurance policies which he'd taken out on their lives. that love in mind could only provide for success after success? [[Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud and the Last Trial of Harper Lee Return to Wonderland by Casey CepVarious Authors|Full Review]]

<!-- Weir Elphinstone -->

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| style="''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"''|===[[Six Tudor Queens: Anna of Kleve, Queen of Secrets Rumblestar (The Unmapped Chronicles) by Alison WeirAbi Elphinstone]]===

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

Poor, frumpy Anne of Cleaves always gets a raw deal by history, of all Rumblestar follows the wives haphazard adventures of Henry VIII she is the one anxious 11-year-old Casper Tock who timetables his every movement, makes countless to do lists and is known for being rejectedhounded by wealthy bullies with the absurdly humorous and appropriate names of Candida Cashmere Jumps and Leopold Splattercash. Anne Boleyn and Katheryn Howard were the sexy onesHe stumbles across a magic portal by accident just like Lucy of Narnia fame, Jane the dutiful one who delivered meets a son, Katherine of Aragon clung on to feisty girl troubled by her crown past and Katharine Parr clung on to her life but poor frumpy Anne of Cleaves just rolled over and moved alongis plunged into a perilous quest. Not any more! Alison Weir presents us with In a different view kingdom where the dark mythological forces of this young woman who saw Midnights threaten the opportunity weather Marvels (equated here to live an independent life and took itthe miracle of nature) conjured by magical creatures, only unlikely heroes can battle against evil. [[Six Tudor Queens: Anna of Kleve, Queen of Secrets Rumblestar (The Unmapped Chronicles]) by Alison WeirAbi Elphinstone|Full Review]]

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[[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] ==[[:Category:Crime|CrimeThe Evil Occupants of Easingdale Castle by Ray Filby]]===

We're in Stoke on Trent. A group of young women who study at Dunwood Academy are running the cross-country course. One of them - Lauren Ansell - stops behind to tie her shoelace and is murdered, to the shock and devastation of her friends. Twins Courtney and Caitlin Piggott, Sophie Bishop and Teagan Cole cling together for support - or do do as much as they can given that their parents are understandably reluctant to let them out of their sight. One of the parents is journalist Simon Cole, boyfriend of DS Grace Allendale, who is charged with investigating the murder under the guidance of DI Nick Carter. It's a struggle to keep their professional lives separate[[image:4star. jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[Tick Tock by Mel Sherratt:Category:Teens|Full ReviewTeens]]

Jason likes chess. He's pretty good at it too - a level eight on his computer programme, with level ten being Grand Master level. He's also good at systems, having contributed to the relational database that has streamlined his school's administration. Jason's school, Easingdale Comprehensive, is very big on technology and its head, Mr Johnston, is keen to 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 flair for software and has recommended lots of curriculum-enhancing apps. And Bill is a talented programmer... [[The Evil Occupants of Easingdale Castle by Ray Filby|Full Review]]  <!-- Mark Billingham Caz Frear -->

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===[[Their Little Secret Stone Cold Heart by Mark BillinghamCaz Frear]]===

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

There are times when two people come together and DC Cat Kinsella is back at the Met after a secondment to the whole is greater than London Mayor's Office: the sum of hours were good but the parts as in job was boring. She's grateful to be back with the case ofold team - her partner DS Luigi Parnell, say, Morecambe boss DCI Kate Steele and WiseDC Rénee Akwa. Sometimes two people come together and we get She's still not prepared to say anything about the identity of her boyfriend: the knowledge that she'Folie à Deux'' - s in a relationship with Aiden Doyle, the brother of a murder victim and moreover a shared psychotic disorder murder with which produces devastating consequencesher father might have had some involvement could finish her career. One Kinsella and Parnell are called to the discovery of the prime examples is Ian Brady and Myra Hindley. But - I'm getting ahead body of myself as our story started with a suicide. A middle-aged young woman had been gulled out of £75: Naomi Lockhart was Australian,000 just twenty-two years old and her body was discovered by a man called Patrick Jenkinsher flat mate, Kieran Drake, but once he had the money he disappeared and ghosted his former lover. She threw herself in front of a tube trainan ex-offender. [[Their Little Secret Stone Cold Heart by Mark BillinghamCaz Frear|Full Review]]