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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.
There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Reviews}}''' reviews at TheBookbag.
'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].''' <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=168679262XChris Hauty|title=My Mummy does weird things / Maman fait des choses bizarres|author=Amelie Julien and GustyawanDeep State|rating=43|genre=For SharingThrillers|summary=Which child doesn't think that there mother Hayley Chill is a fighter. She isevery kind of fighter, and well, ''weird''? It might be that in the morning their mother doesn't like speaking much, when every self-respecting child knows that that is when you're at your brightest with lots to say? ''Why'' then does Mummy stick her fingers in her ears? Then there's doing yoga trained in front most of the television, which could be worrying if it wasn't so funnythem. We wonShe't go into too much detail about what goes on in the bathroom s army infantry and she boxes for fun – and the colour changes which have occured when Mummy emerges she wins. Always. She wins because she is focussed. She works hard, mentally and franklyphysically, and she knows how to deal with the less said the better about her reactions pain. She is not so much cold as controlled. This fight is against someone she is not expected to your artistic efforts on the wallbeat. I mean, what else would you use paint for?And she is being watched.|isbn=1471185605
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{{Frontpage
|author=Justine Avery and Liuba SyrotiukH G Parry |title=What Wonders Do You See... When You Dream?The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep
|rating=4
|genre=For SharingGeneral Fiction|summary=''The day has ended''<br>''Hasn't it been splendid?'' <br>''But now, it's time, Brothers Rob and Charley have struggled to be sure'' <br>''For an entirely different adventure'' <br> I hope you haven't forgotten how it feels see eye to be much too excited eye for bed. If you're years - Rob a sensible lawyer who exists in the "normal" world - and Charley a parent at least, you'll know how it man who is to persuade blessed with an excited small person that yes, it is in fact time for bed. ability he can''What Wonders DoYou Seet fully control - one which allows him to bring literary characters into the real world...'' sets out After years of protecting Charley, Rob wants to cater discharge his duties and leave Charley to these childrenhis own devices - but circumstances soon take choices out of both their hands. Instead of trying As literary characters begin to persuade them that night time is calm timeappear everywhere, it takes a slightly different tack. It tells them soon becomes clear that sleep is actually an exciting time: a time of dreams in which imagination takes over someone out there shares Charley's powers and has no limitintends to use them for nefarious gains. But Rob and Charley must team up to stop the trick madness - in accessing this wonderful and exciting worlda battle to win before they, is to get calm the characters and relaxed first so that you can easily fall asleep and open the door to it. world reach The End…|isbn=194812422X 0356513777
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Michael Harris1444776185|title=Solitude: In Pursuit of a Singular Life in a Crowded WorldHaven't they Grown|author=Sophie Hannah|rating=4.5|genre=LifestyleThrillers|summary= This is not the book I It was when Beth Leeson was expecting it ferrying her son, Ben, to bea football match that she found herself on Wyddial Lane in Hemingford Abbots. For some reason I expected it Actually, It's a little disingenuous to be another self-help manual say 'found herself' as Beth had made a deliberate detour on how to find calm, how to step outside the mainstream, but it is not grounds that at all. Instead she didn't find herself in this neck of telling us how, it is more about the woods very often and she was curious to see where a family who'd come into money had lived before they'why''d all lost contact twelve years ago. Harries examines how we're eroding solitude, which used to be And it might have gone no further than that had Beth not seen a natural part of our human life, car draw up and her friend Flora get out along with two children she called Thomas and why that mattersEmily. Of course he talks Beth remembered the names well - but these children were about how some people have found solitude three and what has come of that, five and eventually in the final chapter he talks about his own experience of having deliberately sought it out, but mostly he wanders down the alleys Flora's children - Thomas and byEmily -ways that his thinking about this lost art led himwould now be fifteen and seventeen.|isbn=1847947662
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Andy Briggs1529123763|title=Ctrl+SMiss Austen|author=Gill Hornby
|rating=5
|genre=Science Historical Fiction|summary= Life in the near futureIt's not all bad. We've reversed global warming long been known that Cassandra Austen burned most of the letters which she and fixed other members of the collapsing bee populationextensive Austen family had exchanged with or about her sister Jane. We even created SPACE, a virtual-sensory universe where average guys like Theo Wilson can do almost anything they desire. But almost anything isn What is not known is ''why''t enough for some. Every day, normal people are being taken, their emotions harvested - she did this and lives traded at this stage - to create more than two hundred years after Jane's death-defying thrills for the rich and twisteda definitive answer is unlikely to forthcoming. Now Theo’s mother Gill Hornby has disappeared. And as he follows her breadcrumb trail of clues, he'll come up against the most dangerous SPACE has to offer: vPolice, AI Bots and anarchists - as well as provided us with some possible answers in a criminal empire book that will kill proved to stop him finding her be far more emotionally complex than I was expecting. . .|isbn=1409184641
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1609809378Rory Clements|title=The RabbitsHitler' Rebellion|author=Ariel Dorfman and Chris Riddells Secret|rating=43.5|genre=Confident ReadersThrillers|summary=We're So, Hitler had a secret? Two, if you include the reproductive detail mentioned in the realm of the rabbitsa certain sing-song aspersion. But this is a secret that is counter to that, only the foxes and wolves have taken overin fact is a secret that Hitler himself doesn't even know about. King Wolf, His Wolfinessneice, has declared the rabbits don't existGeli Raubal, but the pesky birds have spread rumours from awing that attractive young woman he seemed to be very close to in the bunnies are in fact still aroundearly 1930s, had had his daughter behind his back. Demanding Protected under a propaganda spreefalse identity ever since, King Wolf orders a humble monkey to be his official portrait photographerthe girl is completely ignorant of her past, but whatever and the poor innocent monkey prints out in his darkroom there truth is a distinct leporine hintvery rare thing. Can King Wolf succeed in proving himself victoriousMartin Bormann, the 'gatekeeper' to Hitler and his right hand man, can knows – and is desperately intent on wiping the rabbits show their continued slate clean and removing all connected with her existence from the Reich. So it's down to all who need Tom Wilde, an American history professor at Oxbridge, to know of it – go in and what can the poor monkey caught extract her, in between do?this most shadowy race against time.|isbn=1838770275
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Innosanto Nagara0241985110|title=M is for MovementAll the Rage (D I Fawley)|author=Cara Hunter|rating=4.5|genre=Emerging ReadersCrime|summary=Set in IndonesiaA very beautiful, in but extremely distressed teenage girl was picked up by a minicab driver on the not too distant pastoutskirts of Oxford. She didn't want to go to the police station or the hospital: she just wanted to be taken home. The driver wasn't so certain though - and after dropping the girl at home he went to the police, which is why DI Adam Fawley found himself talking to Faith Appleford and her mother. Both were adamant that this is a story about social changewas nothing more than an April Fool's joke which had gone wrong. Dealing with some difficult issues, such as political corruption No crime had been committed and nepotism, Faith didn't want to take the book is neither boring nor preachymatter any further. It educates gently, with vibrant, challenging illustrations, Fawley and his team weren't prepared to leave it portrays how social movements need people who will try, even when it seems at that and they will failbegan investigating. The message is a positive one; What they found strange was that in an increasingly uncertain world, we do still Faith Appleford didn't seem to have the power to instigate changemuch of a history.|isbn=1609809351
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=17807240471529400279|title=A Dictionary of Interesting and Important DogsSix Wicked Reasons|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 JeffreysJo Spain
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Itwas early summer 2018 and Adam Latimer returned home to Spanish Cove after an absence of ten years. The family had thought him dead - in fact, that's when we read that a young boy is creeping reluctantly what the private detective his mother had insisted upon had told them. He was cagey about exactly where he'd been but he seemed content, if not happy, to a teacher's bedroom one October night that we realise something is badly wrongbe home. Nowadays you What brought him? Well, nine years ago his mother died and he'd seen the 'might'in memoriam'' hope that something would be done about it fairly quickly but in the paper: this was 1965 and child abuse was generally regarded as malicious mischief on the part of the childfirst he'd heard about what had happened. The boy would be safe that night though - albeit in the most horrific fashionHis three sisters and two brothers had mixed feelings about his return, but his father is delighted. When In fact, he reached Captain Edmund's bedroom determined to have a party. Only, with Frazer Latimer, what happens has to be about him. He has an announcement to make - it's nine years since Kathleen died and he found the man dead on the floor, the top of his skull missing's been lonely. The schoolHe's initial reaction was that this was met Ana, a dreadful accident: there had been a cull of kangaroos in some nearby fields Polish immigrant, and it was obviously a stray bullet which had killed the Captainthey're getting married.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1786695227Penny Chrimes|title=Invisible in a Bright Light|author=Sally GardnerTiger Heart
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=The beginning of this excellent story will leave ''Fly never meant to end up in the reader more than cage with a little confused: who is the man in the green suit, what is the Reckoning-eating tiger. She just saw her chance to skedaddle, and why are rows of people in a cave? But stick with she took it – Ms Gardner is very cleverly letting us experience . And even when the same disorientation as our heroine. We watch in dismay as cloud of soot cleared and she saw the strange man, who seems to have no golden eyesof a killer staring into hers, does his best to persuade her to answer his questionsshe still didn't turn round and climb back up the chimney straightaway. But 'Cos there was worse waiting for some reason Celeste, despite her bewilderment, remains wary and gives nothing awayback on the roof.''What an opener! And there's plenty more to come!|isbn=1510107045
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1912374854Tanya Landman|title=Violet|author=S J I HollidayJane Eyre: a Retelling|rating=3.5|genre=ThrillersTeens|summary=I've never been but understand that travelling is all A young woman, fresh from living with horrid relatives who could care less about meeting new people her, and forming instantaneous bonds years in a dreary school, moves into Thornfield Hall 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 one intent – to get a refund on an extra ticket for have something like the Trans-Siberian train life she wants – and Violet is trying with only one job, to unsuccessfully buy tutor a ticket for the same soldyoung half-out journeyFrench girl, whose father is almost always absent. As the two team When he does turn uphe seems to be dark, travelling through Mongoliabrooding and troubled – but that's nothing compared to the darker, Serbia more broody and into Russiaeven more troubled secret in the house. Yes, it could've been if you know Jane Eyre then you know the start of a beautiful friendship rest – but if you don't, for whatever reason, this is a thriller after all so it quickly becomes a tale of obsession, manipulation and toxic friendshipswonderful book to turn to.|isbn=1781129126
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1912374838T R Hendrick|title=Nothing Important Happened Today|author=Will CarverWhat if They Knew|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=Nothing Important Happened Today It's 2025. Underneath a lodge in the Blue Mountain resort in Pennsylvania, is a darksecret facility. Here, twisted, difficult read. Stories about cults often Dr Benton and his team aremaking some critical scientific advances on behalf of the Benefactor, but this is different; it's written with a sense of style that is quite unlike anything I've read beforetheir anonymous funder. I can't remember ever having read a novel with such an oddAlready, distinctive narrative voicethe team have succeeded in teleporting small primates from one place to another. While a slim and relatively small bookBut, unbeknownst to the slowBenefactor, Dr Benton has also coded for another type of teleportation altogether -moving nature of the plot makes it feel far larger than its 276 pagestravel through time. And he's ready to test.If successful, Benton has a very specific use for his technology in mind|isbn=1734277211
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor= williamabbeyCatherine Steadman|title=The Pursuit of William Abbey|author=Claire NorthMr Nobody|rating=3.54|genre=ParanormalThrillers|summary=When William Abbey fails to prevent the lynching of Don't you just hate it when people are multi-talented? Author Catherine Steadman is both a young boy in 1880's South Africasuccessful actress and writer, he finds himself cursed by the grieving motherwith this her second novel. A naïve English Doctor, he slowly learns I think in a way her acting background shows in her writing as to my mind the weight of 'fight scene' at the curse upon him, as end was somewhat unrealistic – you know the shadow of kind where the dead boy begins hero has been hurt so many times that it's virtually impossible they'd still be alive let alone able to follow him across fight off an attacker. The story also unfolded at a steady pace throughout until the world. Never stopping, always growing – it crosses oceans and mountains ending which felt overstuffed in a frenetic bid to wrap everything up in pursuit of Williamthe last few chapters. As he finds himself unable It was almost as if the author wanted to resist speaking keep the truths that he hears in others, he also learns that suspense until the dark shadow is deadly – and seeks last possible moment (which I liked) but then was somewhat left with too much to kill do in the one he loves the most…closing stages.|isbn=1984890646
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=16437850361473681847|title=The Wondrous ApothecaryIn Her Eyes|author=Mary E MartinSarah Alderson|rating=45|genre=General FictionThrillers|summary=Those who have known Alexander WainwrightAva lives a charmed life, but those things sometimes rub other people up the landscape artist famous for his Turner prize winning ''The Hay Wagon''wrong way. One evening she returns from a night out with a friend, and Rinaldobefore she can finish her bedtime routine, her home, renowned conceptual artist would say that they're chalk and cheeseher life, if not sworn enemiesare under attack: masked men have broken in and are demanding money from her husband, while her young daughter cowers beside him. If you've watched In the relationship, as has our narratorscuffle than ensues, art dealer Jamie HelmsworthAva is hurt, you'd have said that they were magnets, drawing and repulsing each other badly. When she wakes up in equal measure. Wainwright was at the socially acceptable end of the artistic continuumhospital she can barely remember what happened, but with Rinaldo she knows it was all too obvious that there was but life-changing. With her daughter still fighting for her life in a fine dividing line between conceptual art and public nuisance. As time room down the corridor, Ava has worn ona lot to contend with as she tries to recover, wills her daughter to recover, he's frequently been brought and attempts to the attention of the police. On this latest occasion we see him charged with arson piece together what happened and theft of ''The Hay Wagon''why.
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{{Frontpage
|author=Mary H.K. ChoiLeigh Bardugo, Louise Simonson and Kit Seaton|title=Permanent RecordWonder Woman: Warbringer: The Graphic Novel|rating=43
|genre=Teens
|summary=PabloDiana, a college drop-outbeing unique on her island, is working at the victim of a New York bodegalot of taunts, and claims of nepotism. HeIt's massively in debtonly her unique status, he's avoiding his and her motherbeing Queen, and he finds his joy in creating unusual snacks that has her with random ingredients! Whilst working one eveningany standing at all, he's surprised her naysayers declare – even though she has clearly fought to discover that the girl he is chatting with as he serves is be a super-famous pop star and, as unlikely as it may seem, they start a relationshipstrong young woman. With one character who is trying very hard not to be seen or noticed by anyonePerhaps too strong for the island, however – for every Wonder Woman origin story has her quickly leaving home for the World of Men, and the other who this Diana is seen and followed and hounded by everyone all over the world, it's an interesting clash as they come togetherheroine of yet another Wonder Woman origin story. This isn't just A shipwreck disturbs her leading performance in a love story thoughrunning race, and actually it's really just Pab's story, about but the survivor she drags from the journey he takes in his life via his meet-up with Leanna Smartwaters is only going to disturb a lot more...|isbn=03490034591401282555
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=16098093191786075695|title=Long-Haired Cat-Boy CubWhen the Dead Come Calling (Burrowhead Mysteries 1)|author=Etgar Keret, Aviel Basil and Sondra Silverston (translator)Helen Sedgwick
|rating=5
|genre=Crime
|summary=It began with the discovery of a body under the swings in the children's playground. It was Dr Alexis Crosse and he was found by PC Simon Hunter, who loved him deeply, but who had reason to mistrust him. Crosse was a psychotherapist who grew up in Greece, but such professions are misunderstood in Burrowhead (along with foreigners), a community which regards anyone not born and brought up there as an outsider. DI Georgie Strachan is an outsider - you've only got to look at her skin to realise that, and her husband, Fergus, well, he's a little strange too, not entirely ''here''.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Alastair Chisholm
|title=Orion Lost
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=One day Thirteen-year-old Beth and her parents board the transport ship Orion ready for a boy is in the zoo with his father, when the man gets called away new life on urgent businessEos Five. The boy Their new home is still being terra-formed and life there isn't hustled into a cab and taken home firstgoing to be easy, though, no – hebut it ''is''s given hot dog money, and taxi money, and told going to just stick around on his own and enjoy himselfbe a fresh start. WellAs Beth's mum puts it, it''There's no surprise that the orphan-a future waiting for-an-afternoon sensation the lad feels doesn't us. A chance to make him happyour own decisions, and so he thinks of a species name for himself, and curls himself up into an empty cage, as if he were a new exhibitcreate our own lives. And it's then the drama begins… '|isbn=1788005929
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=17857855160753553236|title=Fucking Good MannersTiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything|author=Simon GriffinB J Fogg|rating=45
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=Manners maketh manGo on, admit it - you're not quite perfect. You still have those odd, they sayquirky, even loveable (to you) habits that seem to annoy other people. It certainly makes life easier if everybody abides by a set Other people, of conventionscourse, are sorely afflicted with some dreadful flaws which they could so easily correct, if only they would make just a little bit of which are ages old and other which have evolved over timeeffort. Manners are not about how much Or put another way, I get cross with myself because I forget to tip do things or do some actions more than I should and no matter how you should behave if you I try to make what seem to be quite monumental changes I never quite seem to get an invitation to Buckingham Palace, they have nothing to do grips with class or financial status: they're about getting the basics right before we try to deal with more difficult mattersconcepts. Of course we all have more relaxed manners when we're I constantly fail and then I get cross with family and friends, but it's best if we learn to distinguish between our public and private lives and to act appropriatelymyself for failing. ''Fucking Good Manners'' aims Lack of willpower is another burden to add to help us on the waylist.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0008324859B T Keaton|title=Fowl Twins|author=Eoin ColferTransference|rating=54|genre=Confident ReadersScience Fiction|summary=RelaxBarrabus Madzimure is about to die, everyone – our old friend Artemis may be off stranded on a mining planetmillions of light-years from home, executed for high crimes against the Church, but the baddies arenruling body of Earth. Except he't getting away with skulduggery any time soon because they now have s not one but two members Barrabus Madzimure, he's Thaniel Kilraven in Barrabus Madzimure's body. Such is the magic of Transference, the Fowl family ability to contend with. Those cute little twins are now eleven (and, frankly, cute no longer) and in this, their first independent adventure, they meet transplant a person's soul or consciousness into a troll different body - and without even trying manage to make two deadly enemies: a nobleman obsessed with immortality whatever power that the cost (Church has exclusive control over. As if Thaniel doesn't have enough things to other people)worry about, and an unusual interrogator-nuna Church employee named Corvus has arrived from Earth to interrogate him. The boys are chased, kidnappedAll Thaniel wants is to see his family again, arrested and even killed (though not for long)he'll stop at nothing to accomplish this, all with but the help Church isn't going to give in without a hell of one trainee fairya fight...|isbn=B082WPHTHH
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1472255798Christine Brown|title=The Bad Fire (Bob Skinner)|author=Quintin JardineBucket Showers and Baby Goats: Volunteering in West Africa
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeTravel|summary=Nine years ago local councillor Marcia Brown took In the summer of 2008, this book's author was spending her own life after days working in an office job in the USA while spending her nights dreaming about being accused somewhere else, doing something else. Long story short, she ended up volunteering in Ghana, West Africa. Now coincidentally, in the summer of shoplifting from 2010, this review's author was spending ''her'' days working in an office job (albeit in the UK) while spending ''her'' nights dreaming about being somewhere else, doing something else, and ''she'' ended up just 3 countries away, volunteering in Sierra Leone, West Africa. So you can see why, when this book came up, said reviewer was delighted to have the opportunity to read and critique it.|isbn=171024299X}}{{Frontpage|author=Mark Lingane|title=Degrade (Tesla Expansion)|rating=4|genre=Teens|summary= ''Degrade'' opens as it means to go on - with inyerface, banging action. Poor Arid, alone in the desert since his parents were killed, has a local supermarketnarrow escape as two mega-rigs fight it out and his is pretty much destroyed. ItHe finds himself rescued by the mysterious-but-fascinating Ella and onboard the ''Moonlight'' under the suspicious eyes of its leader, Queen Bea. Bea's always been assumed eyes flash with recognition when he tells her his name - Arid Geiger - but before he can find out why that she couldnis, there's an assassination attempt and Arid is under suspicion and imprisoned. An escape facilitated by Ella - Queen Bea't live with s daughter - sees Arid and her other daughter, Frey, stranded in the shamedesert. People were surprised that she committed suicide ..|isbn= 099461649X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B07XLM3SM6|title=Murder at the Dolphin Hotel|author=Helena Dixon|rating=4|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=Elowed Underhay was just before the court case twenty-seven when she disappeared from Dartmouth in June 1916, leaving her daughter, Kitty, in the care of her grandmother. A great deal of money had been adamant that she would fight spent to find out what happened to clear her name. She said and the conclusion was that she'd been set up was dead, mainly because there was no evidence to suggest otherwise. Kitty has come to terms with this and in 1933 she was hot on running the trail of corruption Dolphin Hotel in the councilDartmouth with her grandmother when her grandmother had to leave to look after her sister who was ill. Her ex She was reluctant to leave Kitty in charge -husband has contacted Alex Skinner, Solicitor Advocate as well as retired Police Constable Bob Skinnerand Kitty could not understand why. She's daughteralways coped with the mix of holidaymakers, boating people and the naval college on the edge of town before - and asked that she look into clearing Brown's name: itdone every job in the hotel. And she particularly cannot understand why her grandmother's something which he feels that he friends have been roped in to keep an eye on things ''and'' why Captain Matthew Bryant has been hired to do in memory take charge of his son who was murdered recentlysecurity at the hotel.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B07X6GLQ3QSeishi Yokomizo and Louise Heal Kawai (translator)|title=See Them Run|author=Marion ToddThe Honjin Murders
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=D I Clare Mackay To many readers, the phrase 'locked room murder mystery' is still relatively new enough to St Andrewmake the book one to read; preferably quantified by the words 'clever' or 'good's: she was previously at Maryhill Rd station in Glasgow. SheFor those who need more, here is the extra background – we's left quite a lot behind including a relationship that wasn't going anywhere after Tom failed to support her when re in rural Japan in the chips were down1930s. She also left a nasty situation The oldest son of an esteemed family is belatedly getting married, of her own making but although the whole affair is really not as ostentatious as it might be – hardly anybody has turned up, what with it being arranged at great haste. She only has an uncle representing her faultfamily, and St Andrew's is a fresh startfor one thing. Not long into Either way, the celebrations have gone ahead as planned, only for the job she's faced with a hit and run wedded couple to be slashed to death and there's little doubt that it wasn't accidental - in their private annexe before the card with the number five suggests murdersun rises on their marriage. Andy Robb was married to Sandra. You could say that they had an open marriage but there seemed to be What with a lot man missing parts of his fingers being in the 'open' neighbourhood, and very little some mysterious use of a traditional musical instrument at the time of the 'marriage' left - on both sidescrime, but would she want him dead?this case has a lot of the peculiar about it.|isbn=1782275002
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1786540991Cixin Liu|title=The Impossible Boy|author=Ben BrooksDeath's End|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersScience Fiction|summary=If I'd been paying more attention when I picked this book up, I would have put it back on the shelf. Not because I didn'Oleg and Emma entered their den t want to find a cardboard spaceship standing where they usually sat. Slowlyread it, but because I'd have figured out that it was the front door opened. Smoke billowed outfinal part of a trilogy. And out stepped a boy, dressed Coming in partway through a long coat with an even longer scarf, wound around his neck.saga is never the easiest thing to do and it's particularly true in science fiction because without knowing the back-story there are not just people whose names mean nothing to you (when it' s assumed they will) but there are whole concepts that you won''"My namet understand. This latter is particularly true of Cixin Liu's Sebastian Colework – his range is phenomenal. George R R Martin," the boy saidwho knows a thing or two about world-creation, "But you already know that."described it as '' And indeed they do. Ever since the summera unique blend of scientific and philosophical speculation, when their friend Sarahconspiracy theory and cosmology''s mother had moved her away, Oleg . All of that and Emma have been unable to find a new friend to take her placemore.|isbn=1784971650
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=14472813571780894511|title=Salvation LostDie Alone|author=Peter F HamiltonSimon Kernick
|rating=4
|genre=Science FictionThrillers|summary=In Ray Mason is in prison awaiting trial for murder and he's in the twenty-third centuryvulnerable prisoner unit: as a cop, humanity he's something of a target, but the unit is enjoying not as secure as the inmates would have hoped and Mason is injured in a comparative utopiariot. Yet life on Earth On his way to hospital he's broken free by armed men and an offer is about made to change, foreverhim. Feriton Kane He's investigative team has discovered to assassinate the worst threat ever man who is likely to face mankind – become the country's next prime minister and wehe've almost no time to fight backll then be given a new identity so that he can start afresh abroad. The supposedly benign Olyix plan to harvest humanity His captors say that they're MI6, in order to carry us to their god at the end of the universebut Mason has his doubts. And as their agents conclude schemes down on earth, vast warships converge above His choices are limited though and he has personal reasons to gather this cargo. Some factions push for humanity to flee, to live in hiding amongst the stars – although only a chosen few believe that it would make 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 the face of creation. Even better if it means preparing for a future this generation will never seeAlastair Sheridan was dead.
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