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<h1 id="mf-title">The Bookbag</h1>
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.
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'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].''' <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1785785516Seishi Yokomizo and Louise Heal Kawai (translator)|title=Fucking Good Manners|author=Simon GriffinThe Honjin Murders
|rating=4
|genre=LifestyleCrime|summary=Manners maketh manTo many readers, they saythe phrase 'locked room murder mystery' is enough to make the book one to read; preferably quantified by the words 'clever' or 'good'. It certainly makes life easier if everybody abides by a set of conventionsFor those who need more, some of which are ages old and other which have evolved over timehere is the extra background – we're in rural Japan in the 1930s. Manners are The oldest son of an esteemed family is belatedly getting married, although the whole affair is really not about how much to tip or how you should behave if you get an invitation to Buckingham Palaceas ostentatious as it might be – hardly anybody has turned up, they have nothing to do what with class or financial status: it being arranged at great haste. they're about getting the basics right before we try to deal with more difficult mattersShe only has an uncle representing her family, for one thing. Of course we all Either way, the celebrations have more relaxed manners when we're with family and friendsgone ahead as planned, but it's best if we learn only for the wedded couple to be slashed to distinguish between our public and death in their private lives and to act appropriatelyannex before the sun rises on their marriage. ''Fucking Good Manners'' aims to help us on What with a man missing parts of his fingers being in the neighbourhood, and some mysterious use of a traditional musical instrument at the time of the crime, this case has a lot of the waypeculiar about it.|isbn=1782275002
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0008324859Cixin Liu|title=Fowl Twins|author=Eoin ColferDeath's End
|rating=5
|genre=Confident ReadersScience Fiction|summary=RelaxIf I'd been paying more attention when I picked this book up, everyone – our old friend Artemis may be off planet, but I would have put it back on the baddies arenshelf. Not because I didn't getting away with skulduggery any time soon want to read it, but because they now I'd have not one but two members figured out that it was the final part of a trilogy. Coming in part way through a saga is never the Fowl family easiest thing to contend with. Those cute little twins do and it's particularly true in science fiction because without knowing the back-story there are now eleven not just people whose names mean nothing to you (when it's assumed they will) but there are whole concepts that you won't understand. This latter is particularly true of Cixin Liu's work – his range is phenomenal. George R R Martin, who knows a thing or two about world-creation, described it as ''a unique blend of scientific andphilosophical speculation, franklyconspiracy theory and cosmology''. All of that and more.|isbn=1784971650}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1780894511|title=Die Alone|author=Simon Kernick|rating=4|genre=Thrillers|summary=Ray Mason is in prison awaiting trial for murder and he's in the vulnerable prisoner unit: as a cop he's something of a target, cute no longer) but the unit is not as secure as the inmates would have hoped and Mason is injured in this, their first independent adventure, they meet a troll riot. On his way to hospital he's broken free by armed men and without even trying manage an offer is made to him. He's to make two deadly enemies: a nobleman obsessed with immortality whatever assassinate the cost (man who is likely to other people)become the country's next prime minister and he'll then be given a new identity so that he can start afresh abroad. His captors say that they're MI6, and an unusual interrogator-nunbut Mason has his doubts. The boys His choices are chased, kidnapped, arrested limited though and even killed (though not for long), all with the help of one trainee fairyhe has personal reasons to believe that it would be better if Alastair Sheridan was dead.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1472255798Akwaeke Emezi|title=The Bad Fire (Bob Skinner)|author=Quintin JardinePet
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeTeens|summary=Nine years ago local councillor Marcia Brown took her own life after being accused The people of shoplifting from a local supermarket. It's always been assumed the town Lucille believe that she couldn't live with all the shamemonsters are gone. People Their children are raised to understand that they were surprised that she committed suicide just before saved by 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 angels, those who rid the trail town of corruption in the councilevil, and there are no monsters anymore. Her ex-husband has contacted Alex Skinner But one day, Jam accidentally cuts herself, Solicitor Advocate as well as retired Police Constable Bob Skinnerand bleeds a little onto one of her mother's daughterpaintings. The blood awakens a bizarre, terrifying-looking creature named Pet, who somehow comes to life and asked declares that she look into clearing Brown's name: it's something which he feels is here to hunt the monster. Though Jam tries to convince it that all the monsters are gone, Pet is certain that there is one, still, and that he has to do the monster is hiding in memory the home of his son who was murdered recentlyher best friend, Redemption.|isbn=0571355110
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=B07X6GLQ3Q1686751680|title=See Them RunMy Mummy does weird things / Maman fait des choses bizarres|author=Marion ToddAmelie Julien and Gustyawan
|rating=4
|genre=CrimeFor Sharing|summary=D I Clare Mackay Which child doesn't think that there mother is still relatively new to St Andrew, well, ''weird''s: she was previously at Maryhill Rd station ? It might be that in Glasgow. Shethe morning their mother doesn's left quite a lot behind including a relationship t like speaking much, when every self-respecting child knows that that wasnis when you't going anywhere after Tom failed re at your brightest with lots to support say? ''Why'' then does Mummy stick her when the chips were down. She also left a nasty situation, of fingers in her own making but not her fault, and St Andrew's is a fresh start. ears? Not long into the job she's faced with a hit and run death and Then there's little doubt that doing yoga in front of the television, which could be worrying if it wasn't accidental - so funny. We won't go into too much detail about what goes on in the bathroom and the colour changes which have occured when Mummy emerges and frankly, the card with less said the number five suggests murder. Andy Robb was married better about her reactions to Sandrayour artistic efforts on the wall. 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 - on both sidesI mean, but what else would she want him deadyou use paint for?
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1786540991Justine Avery and Liuba Syrotiuk|title=The Impossible Boy|author=Ben BrooksWhat Wonders Do You See... When You Dream?|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersFor Sharing|summary=''Oleg and Emma entered their den to find a cardboard spaceship standing where they usually sat. Slowly, the front door opened. Smoke billowed out. And out stepped a boy, dressed in a long coat with an even longer scarf, wound around his neck.The day has ended''<br> ''Hasn't it been splendid?'' <br>''"My nameBut now, it's Sebastian Coletime," the boy said, "But you already know that."to be sure'' <br>''For an entirely different adventure''<br>
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1447281357Michael Harris|title=Salvation Lost|author=Peter F HamiltonSolitude: In Pursuit of a Singular Life in a Crowded World|rating=45|genre=Science FictionLifestyle|summary=In This is not the twentybook I was expecting it to be. For some reason I expected it to be another self-third centuryhelp manual on how to find calm, humanity how to step outside the mainstream, but it is enjoying a comparative utopianot that at all. Yet life on Earth Instead of telling us how, it is more about to change, foreverthe ''why''. Feriton Kane's investigative team has discovered the worst threat ever to face mankind – and Harries examines how we've almost no time to fight back. The supposedly benign Olyix plan to harvest humanityre eroding solitude, in order which used to carry us to their god at the end be a natural part of the universe. And as their agents conclude schemes down on earthour human life, vast warships converge above to gather this cargoand why that matters. Some factions push for humanity to flee Of course he talks about how some people have found solitude and what has come of that, to live and eventually in hiding amongst the stars – although only a chosen few would make final chapter he talks about his own experience of having deliberately sought it out in time. But others refuse to break before the storm. As disaster looms, animosities must be set aside to focus on just one goal: wiping this enemy from but mostly he wanders down the face of creation. Even if it means preparing for a future alleys and by-ways that his thinking about this generation will never seelost art led him.|isbn=1847947662
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{{Frontpage
|rating=5
|genre=HistoryScience Fiction|summary=It was December and Esther Rutter was stuck Life in her office job, writing to people shethe near future's not all bad. We'd never met ve reversed global warming and preparing spreadsheetsfixed the collapsing bee population. The job frustrated her and We even her knitting did not soothe her mindcreated SPACE, a virtual-sensory universe where average guys like Theo Wilson can do almost anything they desire. But almost anything isn't enough for some. January was going Every day, normal people are being taken, their emotions harvested - and lives traded - to be a time create death-defying thrills for making changes and she decided that she would travel the length rich and breadth twisted. Now Theo’s mother has disappeared. And as he follows her breadcrumb trail of the British Isles with occasional forays abroadclues, discovering and telling the story of wool's history and how it had made and changed the landscape. Shehe'd grown ll come up on a sheep farm in Suffolk - '' a free range child on against the farm'' - and learned most dangerous SPACE has to spinoffer: vPolice, knit AI Bots and weave from anarchists - as well as a criminal empire that will kill to stop him finding her mother and her mother's friend. This was in her blood..|isbn=1409184641
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=14012862081609809378|title=Black Canary: IgniteThe Rabbits' Rebellion|author=Meg Cabot Ariel Dorfman and Cara McGeeChris Riddell|rating=34.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Meet Dinah Lance. Frustrated that her policeman father will not allow her to try and follow We're in his footstepsthe realm of the rabbits, only the foxes and seemingly lumbered with being a cheerleader at schoolwolves have taken over. King Wolf, His Wolfiness, she is desperate to find her voice. But ithas declared the rabbits don's actually more a case of her voice finding hert exist, as when she gets frustrated or plain dissed at school her vocal outcry can shatter glass better than any opera singerbut the pesky birds have spread rumours from awing that the bunnies are in fact still around. You could almost call it Demanding a weaponpropaganda spree, or King Wolf orders a powerhumble monkey to be his official portrait photographer, but whatever the poor innocent monkey prints out in his darkroom there is a distinct leporine hint. But Can King Wolf succeed in order for her proving himself victorious, can the rabbits show their continued existence to call herself a superhero, there has all who need to be a whole path know of steps for her to take it – one of which will be into her past…and what can the poor monkey caught in between do?
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1789017977Innosanto Nagara|title=Ronnie and Hilda's Romance: Towards a New Life after World War II|author=Wendy WilliamsM is for Movement
|rating=4
|genre=HistoryEmerging Readers|summary=Ronnie Williams was Set in Indonesia, in the son of Thomas Henry Williams (known not too distant past, this is a story about social change. Dealing with some difficult issues, such as Harry) political corruption and Ethel Wallnepotism, the book is neither boring nor preachy. There's some doubt as to whether or not they were ever married or even Harry's birthdate: he claimed to have been born in 1863It educates gently, with vibrant, challenging illustrations, but he was already many years older than Ethel and he might well have shaved a few years off his ageit portrays how social movements need people who will try, even when it seems that they will fail. For The message is a while the family was quite well-to-positive one; that in an increasingly uncertain world, we do but disaster struck in still have the 1929 Depression and five-year-old Ronnie had power to adjust to a very different lifestyle. One thing he did inherit from his father was his need to be well-turned-out and this would stay with him throughout his life. He joined the army at eighteen in 1942instigate change.|isbn=1609809351
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=15420154211780724047|title=The Royal Baths MurderA Dictionary of Interesting and Important Dogs|author=Peter J R EllisConradi|rating=3.54|genre=CrimePets|summary=When Damian Penrose I struggle to resist a book about dogs, but I did wonder why this one was murdered there was no shortage of suspectsso ''thin'': he was given that I've never encountered a deeply unpleasant man. In fact the only surprising thing was that there dog who wasn't more of interesting or important - and probably both, I was expecting a queue waiting to do the dirty deedmassive tome. What was But ''A Dictionary of Interesting and Important Dogs'' is actually ''a bit rich compendium of a headline maker was that Penrose was a crime writer the world's most significant and beloved dogs'' and that he was strangled in the midst of Harrogateit's crime writing festivalcertainly a rich treasure trove. He went for a swim at the Royal Baths and never returnedWe begin with Peter J Conradi's four collies: Cloudy, his body being found by the receptionistSky. DCI Jim Oldroyd was the man tasked with investigating the crimeBradley and Max. It would not be the only death, and it was only because of the quick actions of his sergeantThey're consecutive rather than simultaneous dogs, Andy Carter, that Oldroydbut what comes over is Conradi's was not love for each and every one of them. I knew that I was in safe hands.
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Daniel Kraus1785769294|title=Blood SugarMan at the Window (Detective Cardilini)|author=Robert Jeffreys|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=This It's when we read that a young boy is creeping reluctantly to a difficult readteacher's bedroom one October night that we realise something is badly wrong. And not because of the dark subject matter – that Nowadays you 'll come later – but because of the way in which it's told. This might put a lot of readers off, and to '' hope that something would be honest done about it'd be hard to blame them. Kraus tells fairly quickly but this was 1965 and child abuse was generally regarded as malicious mischief on the part of the story in a distinctive voice unlike any other I've read; an erratic dialect with heavy and frequent slangchild. The immediate effect is disorientating and distracting, and it takes some time to feel naturalboy would be safe that night though - albeit in the most horrific fashion. It When he reached Captain Edmund's a struggle to acclimatise to Jody's voice, to get acquainted with his mannerisms, but bedroom he found the story wouldn't be man dead on the same without itfloor, and somehow it worksthe top of his skull missing. It shouldn The school't, but s initial reaction was that this was a dreadful accident: there had been a cull of kangaroos in some nearby fields and it doeswas obviously a stray bullet which had killed the Captain.|isbn=1789091934
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Don Behrend1786695227|title=Copernicus! What Have You Done?: ...and Other Interesting QuestionsInvisible in a Bright Light|author=Sally Gardner
|rating=4.5
|genre=TriviaConfident Readers|summary= Hello! Would The beginning of this review be okay if I simply said ''I LOVED THIS GLORIOUS LITTLE BOOK AND SO WILL YOUexcellent 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. FIN''?! Because I didWe watch in dismay as the strange man, who seems to have no eyes, does his best to persuade her to answer his questions. And you willBut for some reason Celeste, despite her bewilderment, remains wary and gives nothing away. |isbn=1789016770}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=19258200251912374854|title=Once, I was LovedViolet|author=Belinda LandsberryS J I Holliday|rating=43.5|genre=For SharingThrillers|summary=Tock, 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 toy rabbit, two main/only characters meet in a travel agency in Beijing - Carrie is in unsuccessfully trying to get a box of toys going refund on an extra ticket for the Trans-Siberian train and Violet is trying to unsuccessfully buy a ticket for the charity shopsame sold-out journey. He realises that he's not wanted any moreAs the two team up, but muses that it wasn't always this way. ''Once''travelling through Mongolia, he saysSerbia and into Russia, it could''I was loved''. And he tells us ve been the start of a beautiful friendship but this a thriller after all the children who have loved him over the yearsso it quickly becomes a tale of obsession, manipulation and toxic friendships.
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn= Karina Sainz Borgo and Elizabeth Bryer (translator)1912374838|title= It Would Be Night in CaracasNothing Important Happened Today|author=Will Carver|rating= 4|genre= Literary General Fiction |summary= Nothing Important Happened Today is a dark, twisted, difficult read. Stories about cults often are, but this is different; it''It Would Be Night in Caracas'' illuminates the everyday horrors of modern day Venezuela. It begins s written with the death a sense of Adelaida Falconstyle that is quite unlike anything I's mother and chronicles Adelaidave read before. I can's coming to terms t remember ever having read a novel with her new solitude in this world and her attempts to escape itsuch an odd, distinctive narrative voice. Danger stalks the shadows While a slim andrelatively small book, in a society where the establishment is crumbling, who can you turn to? |isbn=0062936867slow-moving nature of the plot makes it feel far larger than its 276 pages.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=0349423067williamabbey|title=The Body on the Train (Kate Shackleton Mysteries)Pursuit of William Abbey|author=Frances BrodyClaire North|rating=43.5|genre=Crime (Historical)Paranormal|summary=From Christmas When William Abbey fails to Easter prevent the lynching of a train ran from Leeds City Station to King’s Crossyoung boy in 1880's South Africa, arriving before dawn so that he finds himself cursed by the forced rhubarb it carried could be taken to Covent Gardengrieving mother. In early March 1929 one A naïve English Doctor, he slowly learns the weight of the porters who was unloading curse upon him, as the boxes discovered shadow of the body of a mandead boy begins to follow him across the world. Never stopping, stripped naked always growing – it crosses oceans and with no means mountains in pursuit of identificationWilliam. Scotland Yard hit a dead end and called on As he finds himself unable to resist speaking the services of Kate Shackleton truths that he hears in the hope others, he also learns that her knowledge and connections in Yorkshire would give them the lead they needed. Kate immediately found herself hamstrung: Commander Woodhead remembered her as a child dark shadow is deadly – and could not come seeks to terms with kill the fact that she was now a woman experienced in dealing with murder. He was reluctant to give her all one he loves the information which the police held.most…
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn= Stephen Baxter1643785036|title= World Engines: DestroyerThe Wondrous Apothecary|author=Mary E Martin|rating= 4|genre= Science General Fiction|summary= Hundreds of years in Those who have known Alexander Wainwright, the futurelandscape artist famous for his Turner prize winning ''The Hay Wagon'', and Rinaldo, on a stagnating renowned conceptual artist would say that they're chalk and almost empty Earthcheese, if not sworn enemies. If you've watched the relationship, a space shuttle pilot from 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 early days socially acceptable end of the 21st century is awoken from the cryogenic sleep he entered after artistic continuum, but with Rinaldo it was all too obvious that there was but a devastating accidentfine dividing line between conceptual art and public nuisance. As he comes to terms with this new worldtime has worn on, he begins 's frequently been brought to realise that their history does not match what he remembers - and that only he may be able to stop the coming catastrophe destined to destroy attention of the planetpolice. Until he meets a young woman who seems to have a drive On this latest occasion we see him charged with arson and theft of her own, and a plan..''The Hay Wagon''.|isbn=1473223172
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1406389331Mary H.K. Choi|title=In the Key of Code|author=Aimee LucidoPermanent Record
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersTeens|summary=Emmy Pablo, a college drop-out, is moving with her parents halfway across Americaworking at a New York bodega. He's massively in debt, to follow her fatherhe's dreams of a big break in avoiding his music career. She leaves behind her friends mother, and her school he finds his joy in Wisconsincreating 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 moves to California, knowing only what she has heard in songsas unlikely as it may seem, they start a relationship. Her struggle With one character who is trying very hard not to settle into her new lifebe seen or noticed by anyone, make friends and feel happy the other who is seen and followed and confident again, is agonisingly told in a way we can hounded by everyone all relate to. There are many new opportunities and setbacks, taking over the reader on a rollercoaster of emotionsworld, but it 's an interesting clash as they come together. This isn't until Emmy joins just a coding class using computer language that she begins to feel she might have a chance to feel like she truly belongslove 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
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=15294022551609809319|title=A Body in the Bookshop (Kitt Hartley Yorkshire Mysteries)Long-Haired Cat-Boy Cub|author=Helen CoxEtgar Keret, Aviel Basil and Sondra Silverston (translator)|rating=3.5|genre=CrimeConfident Readers|summary= Evie Bowes One day a boy is very conscious of in the zoo with his father, when the scars man gets called away on her faceurgent business. They were acquired when she was rescued from The boy isn't hustled into a car in the River Ouse by Inspector Hallorancab 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. She’d been suspected of Well, it's no surprise that the orphan-for-an-afternoon sensation the murder of her boyfriend, Owenlad feels doesn't make him happy, and in the process so he thinks of clearing her a species name she for himself, and her best friendcurls himself up into an empty cage, Kitt Hartley developed as if he were a taste for detectionnew exhibit. Kitt developed a taste for Inspector Halloran Too, but they’re taking And it slowly. Well, sort of slowly.'s then the drama begins…
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn= Alexandra Christo1785785516|title= Into the Crooked PlaceFucking Good Manners|author=Simon Griffin|rating= 4|genre= TeensLifestyle|summary= In Manners maketh man, they say. It certainly makes life easier if everybody abides by a world thriving 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 black magicclass 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, four young crooks embark 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 a quest to take down their criminal leader after they discover the plot behind his dangerous new magicway.|isbn=1250318378
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Kathlaine C Gill and D Clark Gill0008324859|title=Madness Between Light and DarkFowl Twins|author=Eoin Colfer|rating=3.5|genre=FantasyConfident Readers|summary=ItRelax, everyone – our old friend Artemis may be off planet, but the baddies aren's 1912t 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 at New Hope Sanatoriumin this, Christine Agnes Tupper is fast growing up. Abandoned there by parents who were ashamed of her hunchbacktheir first independent adventure, she's nevertheless grown up they meet a troll and without even trying manage to an intelligent girl with make two deadly enemies: a good heart. Her encounters nobleman obsessed with immortality whatever the inhabitants of the asylum swiftly take her on a fascinatingcost (to other people), thrilling and sometimes terrifying journey of self discoveryan unusual interrogator-nun. The boys are chased, allowing Agnes to prove thatkidnapped, arrested and even killed (though not for long), all with a twisted spine, her heart is in the right place!|isbn=1641110708help of one trainee fairy.
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