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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.

'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].'''<!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{Frontpage|isbn=1780724047|title=A Dictionary of Interesting and Important Dogs|author=Peter J Conradi|rating=4|genre=Pets|summary=I struggle to resist a book about dogs, but I did wonder why this one was so ''thin'': given that I've never encountered a dog who wasn't interesting or important - and probably both, I was expecting a massive tome. But ''A Dictionary of Interesting and Important Dogs'' is actually ''a rich compendium of the world's most significant and beloved dogs'' and it's certainly a rich treasure trove. We begin with Peter J Conradi's four collies: Cloudy, Sky. Bradley and Max. They're consecutive rather than simultaneous dogs, but what comes over is Conradi's love for each and every one of them. I knew that I was in safe hands.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1785769294|title=Man at the Window (Detective Cardilini)|author=Robert Jeffreys|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=It's when we read that a young boy is creeping reluctantly to a teacher's bedroom one October night that we realise something is badly wrong. Nowadays you ''might'' hope that something would be done about it fairly quickly but this was 1965 and child abuse was generally regarded as malicious mischief on the part of the child. The boy would be safe that night though - albeit in the most horrific fashion. When he reached Captain Edmund's bedroom he found the man dead on the floor, the top of his skull missing. The school's initial reaction was that this was a dreadful accident: there had been a cull of kangaroos in some nearby fields and it was obviously a stray bullet which had killed the Captain.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1786695227|title=Invisible in a Bright Light|author=Sally Gardner|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=The beginning of this excellent story will leave the reader more than a little confused: who is the man in the green suit, what is the Reckoning, and why are rows of people in a cave? But stick with it – Ms Gardner is very cleverly letting us experience the same disorientation as our heroine. We watch in dismay as the strange man, who seems to have no eyes, does his best to persuade her to answer his questions. But for some reason Celeste, despite her bewilderment, remains wary and gives nothing away.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1912374854|title=Violet|author=S J I Holliday|rating=3.5|genre=Thrillers|summary=I've never been but understand that travelling is all about meeting new people and forming instantaneous bonds with people in often chance situations. Well that's exactly what happens when the two main/only characters meet in a travel agency in Beijing - Carrie is unsuccessfully trying to get a refund on an extra ticket for the Trans-Siberian train and Violet is trying to unsuccessfully buy a ticket for the same sold-out journey. As the two team up, travelling through Mongolia, Serbia and into Russia, it could've been the start of a beautiful friendship but this a thriller after all so it quickly becomes a tale of obsession, manipulation and toxic friendships.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1912374838|title=Nothing Important Happened Today|author=Will Carver|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=Nothing Important Happened Today is a dark, twisted, difficult read. Stories about cults often are, but this is different; it's written with a sense of style that is quite unlike anything I've read before. I can't remember ever having read a novel with such an odd, distinctive narrative voice. While a slim and relatively small book, the slow-moving nature of the plot makes it feel far larger than its 276 pages.}}{{Frontpage|isbn= williamabbey|title=The Pursuit of William Abbey|author=Claire North|rating=3.5|genre=Paranormal|summary=When William Abbey fails to prevent the lynching of a young boy in 1880's South Africa, he finds himself cursed by the grieving mother. A naïve English Doctor, he slowly learns the weight of the curse upon him, as the shadow of the dead boy begins to follow him across the world. Never stopping, always growing – it crosses oceans and mountains in pursuit of William. As he finds himself unable to resist speaking the truths that he hears in others, he also learns that the dark shadow is deadly – and seeks to kill the one he loves the most…}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1643785036|title=The Wondrous Apothecary|author=Mary E Martin|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=Those who have known Alexander Wainwright, the landscape artist famous for his Turner prize winning ''The Hay Wagon'', and Rinaldo, renowned conceptual artist would say that they're chalk and cheese, if not sworn enemies. If you've watched the relationship, as has our narrator, art dealer Jamie Helmsworth, you'd have said that they were magnets, drawing and repulsing each other in equal measure. Wainwright was at the socially acceptable end of the artistic continuum, but with Rinaldo it was all too obvious that there was but a fine dividing line between conceptual art and public nuisance. As time has worn on, he's frequently been brought to the attention of the police. On this latest occasion we see him charged with arson and theft of ''The Hay Wagon''.}}{{Frontpage|author=Mary H.K. Choi|title=Permanent Record|rating=4|genre=Teens|summary=Pablo, a college drop-out, is working at a New York bodega. He's massively in debt, he's avoiding his mother, and he finds his joy in creating unusual snacks with random ingredients! Whilst working one evening, he's surprised to discover that the girl he is chatting with as he serves is a super-famous pop star and, as unlikely as it may seem, they start a relationship. With one character who is trying very hard not to be seen or noticed by anyone, and the other who is seen and followed and hounded by everyone all over the world, it's an interesting clash as they come together. This isn't just a love story though, and actually it's really just Pab's story, about the journey he takes in his life via his meet-up with Leanna Smart.|isbn=0349003459}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1609809319|title=Long-Haired Cat-Boy Cub|author=Etgar Keret, Aviel Basil and Sondra Silverston (translator)|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=One day a boy is in the zoo with his father, when the man gets called away on urgent business. The boy isn't hustled into a cab and taken home first, though, no – he's given hot dog money, and taxi money, and told to just stick around on his own and enjoy himself. Well, it's no surprise that the orphan-for-an-afternoon sensation the lad feels doesn't make him happy, and so he thinks of a species name for himself, and curls himself up into an empty cage, as if he were a new exhibit. And it's then the drama begins… }}{{Frontpage|isbn=1785785516|title=Fucking Good Manners|author=Simon Griffin|rating=4|genre=Lifestyle|summary=Manners maketh man, they say. It certainly makes life easier if everybody abides by a set of conventions, some of which are ages old and other which have evolved over time. Manners are not about how much to tip or how you should behave if you get an invitation to Buckingham Palace, they have nothing to do with class or financial status: they're about getting the basics right before we try to deal with more difficult matters. Of course we all have more relaxed manners when we're with family and friends, but it's best if we learn to distinguish between our public and private lives and to act appropriately. ''Fucking Good Manners'' aims to help us on the way.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008324859|title=Fowl Twins|author=Eoin Colfer|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Relax, everyone – our old friend Artemis may be off planet, but the baddies aren't getting away with skulduggery any time soon because they now have not one but two members of the Fowl family to contend with. Those cute little twins are now eleven (and, frankly, cute no longer) and in this, their first independent adventure, they meet a troll and without even trying manage to make two deadly enemies: a nobleman obsessed with immortality whatever the cost (to other people), and an unusual interrogator-nun. The boys are chased, kidnapped, arrested and even killed (though not for long), all with the help of one trainee fairy.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1472255798|title=The Bad Fire (Bob Skinner)|author=Quintin Jardine|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=Nine years ago local councillor Marcia Brown took her own life after being accused of shoplifting from a local supermarket. It's always been assumed that she couldn't live with the shame. People were surprised that she committed suicide just before the court case when she had been adamant that she would fight to clear her name. She said that she'd been set up because she was hot on the trail of corruption in the council. Her ex-husband has contacted Alex Skinner, Solicitor Advocate as well as retired Police Constable Bob Skinner's daughter, and asked that she look into clearing Brown's name: it's something which he feels that he has to do in memory of his son who was murdered recently.}}

{{Frontpage|isbn=B07X6GLQ3Q|class-"wikitable" cellpaddingtitle=See Them Run|author="15" <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->Marion Todd<!-- Ian Mathie -->|rating=4|-genre=Crime| stylesummary="widthD I Clare Mackay is still relatively new to St Andrew's: 10%; verticalshe was previously at Maryhill Rd station in Glasgow. She's left quite a lot behind including a relationship that wasn't going anywhere after Tom failed to support her when the chips were down. She also left a nasty situation, of her own making but not her fault, and St Andrew's is a fresh start. Not long into the job she's faced with a hit and run death and there's little doubt that it wasn't accidental -align: top; textthe card with the number five suggests murder. Andy Robb was married to Sandra. You could say that they had an open marriage but there seemed to be a lot of the 'open' and very little of the 'marriage' left -align: center;"on both sides, but would she want him dead?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1786540991|title=The Impossible Boy|author=Ben Brooks[[image:1906852472|rating=4.jpg5|genre=Confident Readers|linksummary=http://www''Oleg and Emma entered their den to find a cardboard spaceship standing where they usually sat. Slowly, the front door opened.amazonSmoke billowed out.coAnd out stepped a boy, dressed in a long coat with an even longer scarf, wound around his neck.uk/dp/1906852472/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]''

| style=''"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;My name's Sebastian Cole,"|===[[Wild Child: Growing Up a Nomad by Ian Mathie]]===the boy said, "But you already know that."''

[[image:5starAnd indeed they do.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]] For Ian Mathie fans there is good and bad news. Ian has come up with Ever since the missing link in his narrativesummer, when their friend Sarah's mother had moved her away, the story of Oleg and Emma have been unable to find a very unusual childhood (yes, the very years that made him the amazing man he became)new friend to take her place. The bad – well it's hardly news two years later – is that the book }}{{Frontpage|isbn=1447281357|title=Salvation Lost|author=Peter F Hamilton|rating=4|genre=Science Fiction|summary=In the twenty-third century, humanity is published posthumouslyenjoying a comparative utopia. As alwaysYet life on Earth is about to change, itforever. Feriton Kane's beautifully written, with many exciting moments. What I most enjoyed was investigative team has discovered the feeling that many of the questions in Ian Mathieworst threat ever to face mankind – and we's later books are answered in ''Wild Child'' with a satisfying clunkve almost no time to fight back. Seemingly all that's now left The supposedly benign Olyix plan to harvest humanity, in order to carry us to their god at the end of the drawer is unpublishableuniverse. [[Wild Child: Growing Up a Nomad by Ian Mathie|Full Review]] <!-- Martin Walker -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786485753And as their agents conclude schemes down on earth, vast warships converge above to gather this cargo.jpg|link=http://wwwSome factions push for humanity to flee, to live in hiding amongst the stars – although only a chosen few would make it out in time.amazonBut others refuse to break before the storm.co.uk/dp/1786485753/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-alignAs disaster looms, animosities must be set aside to focus on just one goal: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Body in wiping this enemy from the Castle Well (A Bruno, Chief face of Police Novel) by Martin Walker]]creation. Even if it means preparing for a future this generation will never see.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1471186393|title=Photographer of the Lost|author=Caroline Scott|rating=4.5[[image:4star.jpg|linkgenre=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:CrimeHistorical Fiction|Crime]] Claudia Muller was an American, studying art history and being mentored by an eminent French art historian and Resistance war hero in Limeuil in Perigordsummary=May 1921. She was beautiful, wore designer clothes and was well-liked by everyoneEdie receives a photograph through the post. She didn't parade her wealth, There is no letter or her father's White House connectionsnote with it. In fact, her closest friend was a man recently released from prisonThere is nothing written on the back of the photograph. So when she left It is a lecture saying that she felt illpicture of her husband, and her body was later found at the bottom of the castle well it seemed Francis. Francis has been missing for four years. Technically, he has been "missing, believed killed" but that the likeliest explanation was is not something that this had been a dreadful accident with young widow can believe. She hangs on the only people to blame being word 'missing', disbelieving the builders who had left the well unsealedword killed. [[The Body in the Castle Well (A Bruno, Chief of Police Novel) by Martin Walker|Full Review]]}}<!-- Nayeri -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=1783784350| styletitle="widthThis Golden Fleece: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"A Journey Through Britain's Knitted History|author=Esther Rutter[[image:1786893452.jpg|linkrating=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786893452/ref=nosim?tag5|genre=thebookbag-21]] History| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[It was December and Esther Rutter was stuck in her office job, writing to people she'd never met and preparing spreadsheets. The Ungrateful Refugee by Dina Nayeri]]=== [[image:4job frustrated her and even her knitting did not soothe her mind.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Politics January was going to be a time for making changes and Society|Politics she decided that she would travel the length and Society]]breadth of the British Isles with occasional forays abroad, [[:Category:Biography|Biography]] Here in discovering and telling the West, we see news reports about immigrants on a regular basis – some media welcoming them, some scaremongering about them. But all of those stories are written by journalists – almost always western, story of wool's history and almost always, no matter how deep it had made and changed the investigative journalism they carry out, outsiders to the world and the situations that refugees find themselves landscape. She'd grown up on a sheep farm in. ItSuffolk - ''s rare that we find out a free range child on the journeys from the refugees themselves – farm'' - and this is a rare opportunity learned to do thatspin, in this intelligent, powerful knit and weave from her mother and moving work by Dina Nayeri -someone who her mother's friend. This was born in the middle of a revolution in Iran, fleeing to America as a ten-year-old.[[The Ungrateful Refugee by Dina Nayeri|Full Review]]her blood.}} <!-- Douglas Lindsay -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=1401286208| styletitle="widthBlack Canary: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|Ignite|author=Meg Cabot and Cara McGee[[image:1473696945.jpg|linkrating=http://www3.amazon.co.uk/dp/1473696945/ref5|genre=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Confident Readers| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Boy Meet Dinah Lance. Frustrated that her policeman father will not allow her to try and follow in the Well (DI Westphall 2) by Douglas Lindsay]]=== [[image:3his footsteps, and seemingly lumbered with being a cheerleader at school, she is desperate to find her voice.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] The body of a nine-year-old boy was found But it's actually more a case of her voice finding her, as when she gets frustrated or plain dissed at the bottom of school her vocal outcry can shatter glass better than any opera singer. You could almost call it a weapon, or a well which had been sealed power. But in order for two hundred years - but the boy had only been dead for less than two days and her to call herself a superhero, there was no sign of how the body had got into the well. The owners of the property are adamant that the well was sealed when they went has to open it, but DI Ben Westphall would be entitled a whole path of steps for her to have his doubts. Belle McIntosh holds some strange views, particularly about the way that the government is controlling everyone through drugs take – one of which are added to the water supply which led to will be into her wanting to reinstate the well. Her wife, Catriona Napier, is more moderate, but doesnpast…}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1789017977|title=Ronnie and Hilda't seem to have s Romance: Towards a lot of knowledge about what's going on on the fa [[Boy in the Well (DI Westphall 2) by Douglas LindsayNew Life after World War II|Full Review]] <!-- Nick Louth -->author=Wendy Williams|-rating=4| stylegenre="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|History[[image:B07P9G9T5B.jpg|linksummary=‪http://wwwRonnie Williams was the son of Thomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) and Ethel Wall.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07P9G9T5B/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21‬]]  | style="vertical-align There's some doubt as to whether or not they were ever married or even Harry's birthdate: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Body he claimed to have been born in the Mist by Nick Louth]]=== [[image:4star1863, but he was already many years older than Ethel and he might well have shaved a few years off his age.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] Muriel Hinkley was walking her dog when she found For a while the family was quite well-to-do but disaster struck in the body on 1929 Depression and five-year-old Ronnie had to adjust to a quiet country lane, just south of Exmoorvery different lifestyle. She didn’t recognise him - no one would for a long time as it One thing he did inherit from his father was obvious that he’d been the victim of a hithis need to be well-andturned-runout and this would stay with him throughout his life. He had no face - most of it was smeared on joined the road and when D I Jan Talantire came to look army at the body she realised that there eighteen in 1942.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1542015421|title=The Royal Baths Murder|author=J R Ellis|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=When Damian Penrose was absolutely nothing on him which would allow for identification. All the labels had been cut out of his clothes and murdered there was no wallet and no phone. Hi shortage of suspects: he was Mister Nobodya deeply unpleasant man. [[The Body in In fact the Mist by Nick Louth|Full Review]] <!-- Denise Mina -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1911215256only surprising thing was that there wasn't more of a queue waiting to do the dirty deed. What was a bit of a headline maker was that Penrose was a crime writer and that he was strangled in the midst of Harrogate's crime writing festival.jpg|link=http://www He went for a swim at the Royal Baths and never returned, his body being found by the receptionist.amazon DCI Jim Oldroyd was the man tasked with investigating the crime. It would not be the only death, and it was only because of the quick actions of his sergeant, Andy Carter, that Oldroyd's was not one of them.co.uk/dp/1911215256/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]}}{{Frontpage| styleauthor="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"Daniel Kraus|title=Blood Sugar|rating=4|genre==[[Conviction by Denise Mina]]===General Fiction[[image:4star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] It's strange how the worst of days can start in such an ordinary, mundane wayThis is a difficult read. And so it was for Anna McDonald as she sorted out gym kit and packed lunches for her two daughters. It didnnot because of the dark subject matter – that't begin to go wrong until she opened the door to her best friend, Estelle and realised that her husband was at the top ll come later – but because of the stairsway in which it's told. This might put a lot of readers off, dressed as though for a holiday rather than the work clothes sheand to be honest it'd been expecting - and he was carrying a suitcasebe hard to blame them. He and Estelle were leaving together - and they were taking AnnaKraus tells the story in a distinctive voice unlike any other I's two daughters ve read; an erratic dialect with themheavy and frequent slang. There was another problem which neither Hamish nor Estelle knew aboutThe immediate effect is disorientating and distracting, and it takes some time to feel natural. Anna wasnIt's a struggle to acclimatise to Jody't actually Anna McDonald. She was Sophie Bukarans voice, to get acquainted with his mannerisms, but the woman who had been involved in story wouldn't be the rape case against four footballerssame without it, and somehow it works. It shouldn't, but it does. [[Conviction by Denise Mina|Full Review]] <!-- Donnelly -->|-isbn=1789091934| style=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:1471407977.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1471407977/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''|===[[Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]] ''People will not forget. Or forgive. An ugly girl is too great an offense...the world is made for men. An ugly girl can never be forgiven.'' ''Stepsister'' tells the gripping story of Cinderella's 'ugly' stepsister, Isabelle. 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 by Jennifer Donnelly|Full Review]] <!-- Gilly Macmillan -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1780899831.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1780899831/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Nanny by Gilly Macmillan]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] We know that something wrong is happening: a body is being dumped in deep water. 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 body, but be patient: all will be revealed before too long. [[The Nanny by Gilly Macmillan|Full Review]] <!-- Weaver -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0241370116.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0241370116/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[No One Home by Tim Weaver]]=== [[image:3star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] Long after the police have given up on cold missing persons cases, David Raker picks them up and tracks them down. 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 peril. [[No One Home by Tim Weaver|Full Review]] <!-- Marrs -->|-| style=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:1785038885.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1785038885/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''|===[[The Passengers by John Marrs]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] In the near future, self-drive cars are the norm - a convenient and easy way of transport. However, when someone hacks into the systems of eight self-drive cars, their passengers are set on a fatal collision course. As everyday commutes turn into terror-filled journeys, the public have to judge who should survive. But with every aspect of these passangers being examined by the public - will they turn out to be what they seem? [[The Passengers by John Marrs|Full Review]] <!-- Toon -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:147117946X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/147117946X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[If You Could Go Anywhere by Paige Toon]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]] Angie is someone who always wanted to travel, but it's taken her 27 years to leave the small mining town in south Australia which has been the only home she's ever known. She doesn't do things by half though, and once she does feel able to go (following a family death) she leaves not only the town, the state and the country, but also the continent, and finds herself following in her mother's footsteps and heading to Italy. [[If You Could Go Anywhere by Paige Toon|Full Review]] <!-- Nick Griffiths -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1789018307.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789018307/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Mayhem in the Archipelago by Nick Griffiths]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] In Latvia the conspirators meet in a rather unpleasant location, 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 woman, but the personal pressures on her are the same as the men in Moscow are obliged to suffer. In Stockholm three members of SÄPO, the Swedish Secret Service, know that the time has come for them to make a move. They'd talk more, but their wives would get difficult and there's a rather pleasing tart which mustn't be missed. [[Mayhem in the Archipelago by Nick Griffiths|Full Review]] <!-- Neal -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1794467440.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1794467440/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[Watchwords by Philip Neal]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]] 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 -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0751567647.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0751567647/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Fall Down Dead (Cooper and Fry) by Stephen Booth]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] DS Dev Sharma is delighted - if delight is the right word to apply to a murder case - but he's got a result when the husband of a murder victim is found with the knife, standing over the body, and admitting to the murder. DI Ben Cooper is concerned with a suspicious death on Kinder Scout. A party of walkers - the New Trespassers Walking Group - got lost in the fog and problems arose when one of the party was injured. The group split up to find help, or at least a mobile signal, but when they're rescued they're one short and the body of Faith Matthew was found at the bottom of Kinder Downfall. It looked like a dreadful accident, but Cooper wasn't happy about the way the body had fallen. Things are not always as they seem - in either case. [[Fall Down Dead (Cooper and Fry) by Stephen Booth|Full Review]] <!-- Casey Cep -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1785150731.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1785150731/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:True Crime|True Crime]] Sometimes you begin reading a book and before you've got to the bottom of the first page you know that it's going to be brilliant. You sense the author's effortless grasp of her subject matter and you already know that her use of words is almost surgical in its precision. The hands holding you are safe, which considering that this is a book about two subjects where facts are in short supply, is somewhat surprising. Our first subject is the Reverend Willie Maxwell. Over seven years, six people close to the Reverend had died, with Maxwell benefiting substantially from insurance policies which he'd taken out on their lives. [[Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep|Full Review]] <!-- Weir -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1472227727.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1472227727/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Six Tudor Queens: Anna of Kleve, Queen of Secrets by Alison Weir]]=== [[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. Anne Boleyn and Katheryn Howard were the sexy ones, Jane the dutiful one who delivered a son, 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 Weir|Full Review]] <!-- Mel Sherratt -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0008271070.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0008271070/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Tick Tock by Mel Sherratt]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] 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. [[Tick Tock by Mel Sherratt|Full Review]] <!-- Mark Billingham -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0751566977.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0751566977/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Their Little Secret by Mark Billingham]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] There are times when two people come together and the whole is greater than the sum of the parts as in the case of, say, Morecambe and Wise. Sometimes two people come together and we get ''Folie à Deux'' - a shared psychotic disorder which produces devastating consequences. One of the prime examples is Ian Brady and Myra Hindley. But - I'm getting ahead of myself as our story started with a suicide. A middle-aged woman had been gulled out of £75,000 by a man called Patrick Jenkins, but once he had the money he disappeared and ghosted his former lover. She threw herself in front of a tube train. [[Their Little Secret by Mark Billingham|Full Review]] <!-- Motayne -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:147367591X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/147367591X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Nocturna by Maya Motayne]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]], [[:Category:Teens|Teens]] A thief without a face, a prince who was never meant to be king, Finn and Alfie collide, as if thrown together by fate, to bring about a series of catastrophes and set in motion the release of a darkness that seeks to consume all the goodness and magic in the world. 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 by Maya Motayne|Full Review]] <!-- Eagle -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0571346308.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0571346308/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Secret Starling by Judith Eagle]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]]Clara has lived in the crumbling Braithwaite Manor owned by her guardian, Uncle Edward, since she was a baby. It has been a lonely life as her uncle is strict and forbidding and she has been home schooled. Her only friend is Cook who looks after Clara with kindness and tells her stories of her own family and their adventures. Clara has recently become aware that something is wrong as many of the prized possessions such as paintings and porcelain are disappearing and then cook is dismissed. Shortly afterwards Uncle Edward abandons Clara in the local village with a fistful of money and disappears. Clara is now totally alone. [[The Secret Starling by Judith Eagle|Full Review]] <!-- Leah Hazard -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786331608.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786331608/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Hard Pushed: A Midwife's Story by Leah Hazard]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Lifestyle|Lifestyle]], [[:Category:Politics and Society|Politics and Society]] Over the past few years we've had a rash (sorry - no pun intended) of books by medical practitioners. Doctors have been at the forefront, but ''Hard Pushed'' is the first book I've seen by a midwife. It's an unusual profession in that it's one of the few callings within the medical system where most of the patients are healthy and the only one where one person comes into the system and (for the most part) more than one goes out. It's an amazing thing to be able to do - to escort new life into the world - and an enormous responsibility. Leah Hazard came to it after a career in television and ''Hard Pushed'' is the story of her career as a midwife - and the title tells more than one story. [[Hard Pushed: A Midwife's Story by Leah Hazard|Full Review]] <!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->|}}