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<metadesc>Book review site, with books from most walks of literary life; fiction, biography, crime, cookery and children's books plus author interviews and top tens.</metadesc><h1 id="mf-title">The Bookbag</h1>Hello from The Bookbag, a book review 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 author [[:Category:Interviews|author interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[Featuresfeatures]] page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] page.

There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Reviews}}''' reviews on the siteat TheBookbag.

Want to find out more [[About Us|about us]]?__NOTOC__

==Reviews of the Best New ReviewsBooks=='''For new reviews by genre [[:Category:New Reviews|click here]].'''

'''For new features Read [[Features:Category:New Reviews|click herenew reviews by category]].'''__NOTOC__{{newreview|author=Rick Yancey|title=The Monstrumologist: The Terror Beneath|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=In late 19th century America, young Will Henry has been the apprentice of the stern, forbidding Dr Warthrop since the death of his parents, who were also employed by the doctor. The twelve year old boy has seen many things in his service to the monstrumologist - a specialist in monsters - but nothing can prepare him for the fateful day when an elderly grave robber brings the doctor the twin corpses of a young girl and the headless creature with fangs in his chest who had tried to feast on her.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184738546X</amazonukbr>}}

'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].''' <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Stella WhitelawGrady Hendrix|title=Midsummer MadnessThe Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires|rating=45|genre=Women's FictionHorror|summary=You'll like Sophie Gresham. She wanted to be an actress but suffers from paralysing stage fright Women, by and when the side effects became too much for her she worked behind large, have always been the scenessubjugated sex. She's a very good prompt despite the fact that you need Throughout history, they have been confined to wrap mere bit players who occasionally help hold up very warmly to survive in the prompt corner she loves her job powerful man and most of the cast let nothing stand in the theatre companyhis way. ItGrady Hendrix's new novel ''The Southern Book Club's a bit of a shock though when she realises that the guest producer from New York Guide to Slaying Vampires'' gives women their due. It is Joe Harrison, an ode to the man she helped out when he had nothing to eat and nowhere to sleepstrong selfless housewife. Sophie was a little softer in those days – in the meantime she's had Hendrix illustrates this by having them go toe to develop toe with a protective shellpredatory male vampire who moves into their quiet cul de sac.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0709089147</amazonuk>1683691431

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Bonnie Greer0008149089|title=Obama MusicThe Cutting Place (DS Maeve Kerrigan)|rating=3|genre=History|summary=This is an interesting read, but unless I'm missing something, the focus of the book seems a little difficult to grasp. It's best if I start with the author's intentions as set out in her Prologue. It is a mixture of tales of her own life growing up on the South Side, she writes, interspersed with stories and observations about Obama, linking it with the music, musicians and music scene, past and present, including hip hop, country, classical, and rock'n'roll. All of these, she notes, were heard on the President's Inauguration Day. To them she adds the blues, gospel, soul and jazz of the South Side, when the people began to build the great institutions and great solidarity that enabled him to become the most powerful man on the planet.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906558248</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=P J Parrish|title=Dead of WinterJane Casey|rating=45

|summary=Loon Lake, Michigan is pictureIt was Kim Weldon who found the first bits of the body -postcard pretty – an idyll that sits serenely and snugly in she was a mudlarker on the midst banks of the Thames and when she turned over what looked like a stick she realised it was a pine-peppered winter wonderland. Louis Kincaid needs hand, a little serenity right hand, in his life fact. DS Maeve Kerrigan and on arrival in Loon Lake he feels almost as if he has come homeDI Josh Derwent's team would later find three other body parts. Life has Identification of the body was not been going to be easy for Kincaid, but eventually, it would be given a name - Paige Hargreaves, a twenty-eight-year-old freelance journalist. A troubledHer friend, unhappy child of mixed raceBianca Drummond, passed around various institutions and foster homesanother journalist, Louis figures said that if he is going she was working on a story which she reckoned would be explosive - and she hadn't been willing to put some integrity back into share any of the world, he will need to wear a badge to do itdetails with Bianca.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847391346</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Russell Celyn JonesJenny Valentine|title=The Ninth Wave (New Stories from the Mabinogion) Hello Now

|genre=Literary FictionTeens|summary=Pwyll rules Jude reluctantly moves to a medievalsmall, quiet seaside town after her Mum and her most recent boyfriend split (making this their 13th post-breakup move) and settle into a big, old house overlooking the sea -style fiefdom which happens to contain a strange, old sitting tenant named Henry, who stays rooted in the house like a post-climate change Walesghost that just won't leave – or can't. Life As Jude settles into this new, seemingly mundane, reality she is different in many ways - there's consumed by a new-but-longing for her old social order built on feudalism life in London and horsepower anger at another forced change – but this will be the last time, she swears. This world is the main means of transportquiet, dull and yet suffocating for Jude. But in many ways it's much That is until the same - people still fight one anotherday Novo arrives, towns still have sink estates, rich boys still have too much time on their hands and precious little meaning in their livesher entire concept of the world changes forever. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1854115146</amazonuk>0007466498

 {{newreview|author=Owen Sheers|title=White Ravens (New Stories from the Mabinogion)|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=In the old tale, Branwen is the sister of Bendigeidfran - the giant King of Britain. She marries the King of Ireland, who doesn't treat her well. She manages to send Bendigeidfran a message via a tamed starling and war and killings ensue. In this new tale, a young girl has just walked away from her brothers who, in the wake of the devastating foot and mouth outbreak, are despoiling their heritage by rustling and illegally slaughtering sheep. She meets an old man who tells her a story involving the superstitions about the ravens in the Tower of London, propaganda work during World War II, and an equally doomed love affair. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1854115030</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jennifer BohnetB0867X8NW7|title=Follow Your Star|rating=3.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=It's three years since Nanette Weston left Monaco. She'd been engaged to a Formula 1 racing driver and had lived the life of the wealthy but a serious car accident had ended all that. The accident could have killed her fiancé and she lost her driving licence because of the alcohol she'd consumed. Her slow recovery was hindered by the end of her engagement but she's found some contentment in being a nanny to two young children. When her friend and employer, Vanessa, remarries and takes an extended honeymoon in the Amazon Nanette is asked to take the children back to Monaco where their father lives.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089090</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewAccess Point|author=J T R Stephenson|title=Crooked Justice|rating=2.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Meet Barry Johns. You'll see him coming - he's five hundred pounds if he's an ounce. Just don't ever lend him money - he won't pay it back. A businessman with a share of a nightclub on Cyprus, he goes there for a customary break, and finds his sort-of moll-type sort-of girlfriend has been installed as the bar dancer. He manages to tread both on the toes of his local colleague and some Greek rivals. And when a rival in London chases him up for thousands of pounds owed he decides to pack up and shut up. It's a big stone that hides him, but he leaves a very awkward trail for everyone wanting to upturn it and get their revenge.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955855713</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Stephen Baker|title=They've Got Your Number|rating=4.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=If you are in the slightest bit paranoid, worry that ''Big Brother'' is always watching or like to believe that you are not a number, but a free man (or woman), then this may not be the book for you, as it will do nothing to dispel any of those worries. If, on the other hand, you think 'the mathematical modelling of humanity' sounds like one of the sexiest things ever, and are chomping at the bit to learn more about it, then you might well be interested in what Business Week journalist Baker has to say.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099507021</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Rebecca Tope|title=Fear in the CotswoldsGabbay

|genre=CrimeThrillers|summary=Thea Osborne is a house sitter by profession. When people go away we first meet Ula Mishkin she moves into their homes and looks after their animals and the property. This time it's winter and having something of a professional success: using a device of her own invention she's spending helped a month in the Cotswold village man who has been blind for decades to see an image of Hampnetta hummingbird. It wouldnShe't be a job for all of us but Thea delights in getting s thirty-six years old and her life is about to know the local people and the area. In the past change radically as, cycling home, she's also been involved with the police in solving various cases but it looks as though that might have come to an end as the relationship she had accident with DS Phil Hollis has crumbled. For the first time Thea feels like an outsider – and a foolish one - when she finds footsteps in the snow which lead to a body in a nearby fieldbus. When the police finally arrive the body has disappeared and the police obviously wonder if sheIt's imagined it all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007478</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Tad Tuleja|title=A Dictionary of Foreign Words two years before we meet her again and Phrases|rating=3|genre=Home and Family|summary=Take a look at in the cover design of this bookmeantime, and youshe'd be mistaken for thinking this was a trivia compendium for all those foreign words that have taken part s spent 392 days in our English language since whenever they crossed over from their original homes. But the title is definitely honest, for this is a dictionary book first, for reference, coma and a browser for the trivia buff second.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089562</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Anne Rice|title=Angel Time|rating=2.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Toby O'Dare is an extremely efficient hit man now walks with a passion for music, history and playing his beloved lutestick. He's also something of a lost soul having turned his back on God many years ago. One day while on a 'job' he is visited by an Angel who offers him A professional colleague persuades Ula that she should let out a chance at redemption. Toby agrees to become the Angel's human instrument and help save lives rather than take them. He is sent on an assignment spare bedroom to help a Jewish couple accused of murder bring in 13th Century Englandsome income.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701178140</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ian MortimerBen Oliver|title=1415: Henry V's Year of GloryThe Loop|rating=3.5|genre=HistoryTeens|summary=Set during the aftermath of a Third World War where methods of punishment for criminal activities have been amped up to a horrific level by machines, The medieval, in fact time-honouredLoop follows the precarious existence of adolescent Luka Kane. In a world of Have and Have Nots where Alts [cyborgs] have power over Regulars, view he is trapped inside a living hell with no chance of King Henry V as escape. A detonator has been sewn inside his heart connecting him to a trigger held by the guards who can end his life with one of England's greatest heroes was propagated though not originated squeeze. Luka is taunted by Shakespeare, limited access to his memories and again more recently relentlessly drained of energy through a gruelling daily torture ritual. Doomed to some extent by Olivier's portrayal Delay [a risky medical trial where he is a guinea pig for Alts in place of execution] after Delay he is in filmdespair. His prison is based on the model of an infinity loop designed to make its inmates suffer. At least one historian With the only glimmers of hope being the rumours of rebellion outside and the visits of sympathetic Alt guard Wren, can Luka ever be free? Why has called he been imprisoned? What waits for him ''if he can break the greatest man that ever ruled England''.loop?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0224079921</amazonuk>1912626551

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Deborah GregoryKirsty Applebaum|title=Dancing With The DeadTroofriend|rating=34.5|genre=Literary FictionConfident Readers|summary=I wanted Are you tired of your child's classmates constantly being horrible to read ''Dancing them? Do you want your child to have some positive experiences with people? Introducing the Dead'', because I'm interested in family history. The blurb on new Jenson & Jenson Troofriend 560 Mark IV android! These state-of-the back -art machines are capable of emulating the book also mentioned Gill – our heroine full range of human emotions without lying, stealing or bullying. They're the piece – was moving from Bristol (my current home) perfect companion for any child! Any mention that these androids are beginning to Lincolnshire (where I was born develop real human feelings are just unsubstantiated rumours and brought up). I felt with all these links, the novel could not fail to interest me – but this was not the case.have absolutely no basis in reality…right?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1904529305</amazonuk>1788003470

 {{newreviewFrontpage |authorisbn=Miss Read1529123941 |title=Christmas at Thrush GreenThe Silent Treatment |author=Abbie Greaves |rating=4.5 |genre=Women's General Fiction|summary=Set in When we meet Professor Frank Hobbs and his wife, Maggie, Frank is playing chess against his computer, although not very successfully. Maggie, on the rural village other hand, has just taken some pills - eight of Thrush Greenthem, this book is in fact - and before long she will collapse. When Frank rings the latest emergency services in Oxford he has a series surrounding familiar charactersbit of a problem. There is the feisty Ella Bembridge, who is finally having He has to admit that old age is creeping up as her eyesight failshe and Maggie haven't actually spoken for a while. Friends such as Dimity and Charles Henstock are concerned about her How long? Well, but she refuses to accept any help. Albert Piggott has decided it's time about six months since he spoke to retire now that his wife, Nelly, is a successful cafe owner Maggie and he can afford 't really say if it's likely that Maggie has tried to take care of him! And relative newcomer Phil Hurst and her husband are arranging the local nativity play, despite a number of set-backsown life. Will everything be in place for Christmas? And will independent Ella make a decision about her future?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409101592</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Matt and DaveRob Harrell|title=Yuck's Robotic BottomWink|rating=4.5

|summary=ItWhen Ross is diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, aged 12, his desperate attempts at school to just be 's concerned me for a while that itnormal's relatively easy to pick up early readers for girls – princessesbecome impossible. Suddenly he is the cancer kid, and everything he does, magic soft toyshow he looks, mermaids and pets abound – but there's how he behaves falls under the scrutiny of the other kids in school. Ross is, understandably, angry. He is facing potential blindness, whilst dealing with an eye sealed in a much smaller choice for boyspermanent wink. It's important too He has gloopy eye medicine to try to help with early readers that the content is ''interesting'' pain, plus the need to wear a hat at all times to protect his face due to the ongoing treatment. With the sudden ghosting by one of his best friends, and reading becomes more than just something which you ''have'' to do a series of horrible memes that someone at school creates about Ross, nothing about his life is normal any more, and moves into being fun. Matt he has to find new ways to deal with his feelings, and Dave have found the answer in Yucksurvive.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847382991</amazonuk>1471409147

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John E Smelcer1786485575|title=The Great DeathMagpie Lane|author=Lucy Atkins|rating=45|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=When we first meet Dee she'As Western Europeans settled Alaskas talking to Nick Law, they brought with them diseases against which the indigenous people had no natural immunitynew college master. At the beginning Law's lately of the twentieth century, fully two thirds BBC and he doesn't come with an entirely good reputation: he's a bit of all Alaska natives perished from a pandemic bully and Dee can sense something of measlesthat in their first conversation. She had been planning to return home to Scotland before taking on a new job as a nanny, smallpoxbut somehow she finds herself going to see Mariah, the Danish wife of the master. She's pregnant and influenza. No community was spared. In most caseslooking for help, half of a villagenot with the new baby but with the master's population died within a weekdaughter by his first wife, Ana. In some cases Felicity is selectively mute: she does talk to her father, there were but to no survivorsone else. It was the end of an ancient way of life. Natives still refer to the dreadful period as the Great Death The eight-year-old is grieving for her dead mother and struggling at school.'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1842709194</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Maxine BarrySally Magnusson|title=River DeepThe Sealwoman's Gift|rating=34.5|genre=Women's Historical Fiction|summary=Two young women both have There is a love of legend that God came to visit Adam & Eve in the ThamesGarden. Melisande Ray's beloved hotelEve had not finished bathing her children and ashamed of those still not cleansed, she attempted to hide them from the Ray eyes of Sunshine is on the river bankGod, denying that she had more children that those, already bathed, that she willing paraded for him. It's here that guests come who want God was not to be pampered deceived, however, and looked after in the way decreed that only the best hotels can do well, but when Wendell James checks in what was sought to be hidden from the hotel it's not pampering he's looking for. He's buying a piece eyes of land not far God would henceforth be hidden from the Ray eyes of Sunshine man, and he's sussing out so the Elves were born: the competitionhidden folk. There's something personal in there too – They can see man, but man can only see them if his new hotel means that the Ray of Sunshine goes under then that would be an added bonus. There's just a slight doubt in his mind when a red-haired maid catches his eyethey so choose.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0709088930</amazonuk>1473638984

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Joe GoresWendy Cheyne |title=Spade and ArcherFrom the Auld Rock to a Hard Place

|genre=CrimeHistorical Fiction|summary=Sam Spade decides, bravelyAfter the Jacobite defeat at the Battle of Culloden, many Scottish estates were given to set up his one-man detective agencyEnglish lords. It's the 1920s in San Francisco so we have the prohibition era and all that that entailsThey were not kind to their crofting tenants. Many locals, of course, choose to disobey on the law, stick two fingers up, so to speak mainland were cleared and while this did not happen much on the islands such as a result there's lots of bootleg liquor. Straight awayShetland, it's evident that Sam is a man of few words. He has the mannerisms of a cat new exploitative conditions led many Shetlanders to leave - stealthy, quick to port cities on his feet. He's also a compulsive chain-smokerthe mainland, but then again, most people were. In that era, holding a cigarette was an elegant, almost essential accessory. How times have changedto North America and even to Australia and New Zealand.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>140911323X</amazonuk>1838591753

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michael Morpurgo and Emma Chichester ClarkEle Fountain|title=The Best of TimesLost

|summary=Most children enjoy a good traditional tale Lola lives in an Indian city with her father, and this lovely book by Michael Morpurgo seems to have all the right ingredients – her brother, Amit. She lives with them in a handsome prince and a beautiful princess who fall in lovenice apartment, get married and live happily ever after. Or do although they? Sadly, are not long after Prince Frederico marries rich like some of the lovely Princess Serafinagirls at school, she becomes very sadthey have enough money to be comfortable. Nobody knows what has caused such great sadness Lola spends her time thinking about her school friends, but poor Prince Frederico is desperate and trying to find fit in with them, until one day, suddenly, everything in her life changes. After taking a cure for his wifework trip away, Lola's miseryfather doesn't come home. He tries everything in his power They have nobody else to help, and as they wait day after day, Lola wonders what will become of them until, finally, they are evicted from their flat, and she and eventually decides to offer his kingdom to anyone who can make her happy again before she dies of a broken heart. Lots of people come brother find themselves forced to live on the palace to try and help but in the end the solution is a simple one provided by some very kind travellersstreets.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405232552</amazonuk>178269255X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Shirley JacksonN K Jemisin|title=The City We Have Always Lived In The CastleBecame|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Science Fiction|summary=Mary Katherine Blackwood, also known as Merricat, New York is eighteenbeing born, the city has reached critical mass and lives with her older sister Constance in the family home where 'Blackwoods had always lived'. Merricat quickly draws the reader has matured into her world by a series of matter of fact but bizarre statements – her likes include her sister living almost-breathing entity and death cap mushroomsis ready to make its way out into the world. Before it can be established, an ancient evil appears to attempt to destroy it just as it destroyed Atlantis and everyone else in her family is deadother forgotten places. The wealthy Blackwood family has always kept city is not alone through the birthing process, people who embody the values are selected to become the house 'steady against living embodiment of the world'city, shutting out other peoplesome cities have one, some have twelve and they live near a villageNew York has six. Together these human-embodiments must defeat the woman in white and save New York from very real destruction. Merricat believes that But these are five different boroughs which don'The people of the village have t always hated ussee eye to eye, it', s a personality clash on an epic scale and unity is both critical and tells us that she hates them toonot remotely guaranteed.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141191457</amazonuk>0356512665

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Simon Weston0241446732|title=Nelson to the Rescue|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Nelson used to pull Mike the Milk's milk float, but he has now retired. He lives in the stable at the back of the dairy along with a couple Our House is on Fire: Scenes of tricky rats, Rhodri and Rhys, a pigeon who has no sense of direction, a frog who thinks he's a secret agent spy Family and an old racehorse who spends most of his time sleeping. Rhodri and Rhys find a mysterious message on Mike's fridge and the animals believe that Mike has been invited to Buckingham Palace to receive an MBE. Somehow our hero, Nelson, finds himself travelling down to London, pulling a ceremonial coach for Prince Charles as well as giving a TV interview about his experience.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848510454</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewPlanet in Crisis|author=Elizabeth Baines|title=Too Many MagpiesMalena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and Svante Thunberg|rating=45|genre=Literary FictionPolitics and Society|summary=Becoming a mother brings a whole new world The Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal. Malena Ernman was an opera singer and Svante Thunberg took on most of the parenting of fear into your lifetheir two daughters. Suddenly you see the danger in every situation, Then eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and fear talking and trepidation can be become your constant companionsher sister, Beata, then nine years old, struggled with what was happening. In this novellasuch circumstances, we meet a young mother who is married it's natural to seek a logical scientist. They attempt solution close to control their children's futures on a scientific basishome, growing their own fruit and vegetablesbut eventually, giving their children nothing sugary, eating no eggs for a whole year until any adverse affects from them were disproved. But after meeting with an enigmatic stranger our young mother begins it became clear to struggle as he introduces ideas of freedom into her world. She begins an affair with him, begins to let things slip at home and with the children, yet finds she is still continuously haunted by the sense of an everfamily that they were ''burned-present danger.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844717216</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Katherine May|title=Burning Out|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Violet has it all – out people on a wellburned-paid job, and a luxurious apartment all to herselfout planet''. Everything is catered for; her meals, her clothes, and her health are all how she would like them If they were to be. But the life she is leading is beginning to take its toll. On the verge of snapping, find a drained and somewhat out-of-sorts Violet, withdraws back way to her home town. There, she meets someone familiar, a ghost reminding her of how she used live happily again their solution would need to be ten years earlier – a young carefree girl, full of life. Only this isn't a ghost, but a girl living the life Violet once lived – exactly the same. Haunted by the past Violet realizes history is repeating itself and is convinced events will happen again. Events that will in turn haunt the girlradical.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906727392</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Amanda Downum178730101X|title=The Drowning CityKeep Him Close|author=Emily Koch

|genre=FantasyCrime|summary=In a nutshellAlice had two children: Benny (well, you're reading this because you're wondering whether The Drowning City is goodBenoît, bad or mediocre. You've probably glanced at the rating actually) and guessed the latterLouis. ILou'm afraid its seventeen and he's not quite that simple. This is a debut that provokes decidedly mixed feelingsjust got his A level results and he and his brother are going out to celebrate. I started off convinced that I was going Someone has to find something to love this book. The cover art is effortlessly coolcelebrate in the letters, the premise intriguingD, the characters laden with potential for greatness D and the backdrop is certainly evocativeE.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841498149</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Tove Jansson|title=The True Deceiver|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Most people of my age will have come across Jansson Alice has always had a good relationship with nineteen-year-old Benny but it's work unwittinglya touch problematic with Lou and being honest, via the televised renditions of the Moomin taleshe's not terribly likeable. The readers amongst us would then have been entranced a few years ago letters which kept coming to discover that at last Thomas Teal had set about the translation into English, first of The Summer Book and then of a collection of short stories which my mind were published as 'A Winter Book'ADHD. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0954899571</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Daniel Kehlmann 0241396840|title=Me and KaminskiKeeper|author=Jessica Moor

|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=After reviewing several long books, itKatie Straw worked in the women's been refreshing to read such a fluent yet pared down story as 'Kaminski refuge and the women who lived there liked and Me'respected her. In it, Sebastian Zollner, the obnoxious main character, shoves himself forward in a desperate attempt She treated them well and seemed to research a best seller which will re-ignite his career as have an art criticunderstanding of what they were going through. Kaminski, Why then did she jump from the local suicide spot into the proposed subject, river below? There had been no signs that she was unhappy and she and her boyfriend seemed to have been content together - and Noah has a fashionable painter long agodecent alibi for the time when she died, but nowwhat other explanation could there be for her death? The police are convinced that it's suicide, ancient and chronically ill, has virtually slid into oblivion. So the second-rate writer is on a loser unless he can dig up some juicy details to hook but the art world and general publicwomen who knew her believed otherwise.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847249892</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Louis Barfe1838880658|title=Turned Out Nice Again: The Story of British Light EntertainmentMurder at Enderley Hall (Miss Underhay)|author=Helena Dixon

|genre=EntertainmentCrime|summary=Light entertainment It's the summer of 1933 and Kitty Underhay is often looked down uponon her way to visit the family which she never knew she had, at Enderley Hall. Her grandmother, as if it's a bit naffMrs Treadwell, tepid and ignorableGreat Aunt Livvy are back at the Dolphin Hotel in Dartmouth. What's often forgotten Kitty gets easily bored working at the Dolphin - every day is much the same - but her real reason for going away is that it's hugely popularshe needs a break after her recent adventures, which involved three vicious murders, enjoyable an arson attack and much of it is of the highest qualityan attempt on her life. Louis Barfe's Turned Out Nice Again tells the complete story of British light entertainment.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843543818</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jim Helmore and Karen Wall1788638026|title=Oh No, Monster Tomato!Where the Innocent Die (D I Ridpath)|author=M J Lee

|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Marvin is entering It was easy to assume that the death of the young Chinese girl at the Great Grislygust Grow-OffImmigrant Removal Centre was suicide. Her throat was cut, but just like himthere was a lot of blood and the knife was on the floor at the side of the bed, his tomatoes aren She was due to be deported that day. But... how did the knife get into the secure centre and why was the girl't growing very big. He takes s room the only sensible course of actionone which was unlocked? DI Thomas Ridpath, the coroner's officer, is sent to investigate and he quickly becomes suspicious, There's a snag though: he sings his tomatoes the inquest is due to open in a songcouple of days' time, the girl's parents are coming over from China and they want to take their daughter's body home with them. Ridpath has just five days to solve the case. The results are spectacular. Victory coroner is surely within his graspdisinclined to delay the inquest: for her, it's about giving closure to the parents.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140524741X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joseph Delaney 1471166023|title=The Spook's Stories: Witches|rating=4|genre=Teens|summary='Warning: Not to be read after dark,' are the only words on the back of ''The Spook's Stories'', and on the inside flap, 'The Times' warns us that this book is 'seriously scary'...  The whole thing kicks-off relatively tamely, though, with a story about a young Spook Burnt Island (a sort of monster-hunterBen Kitto) who falls in love with a witch and is forced to bear the consequences when the witch's sister comes to stay and exhibits a taste for the neighbor-children.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0370329961</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Lisa Unger|title=Die For YouKate Rhodes|rating=34.5

|summary=BestThe 5th of November was D I Ben Kitto's thirty-selling novelist Isabel Connelly is married to successful video game designer Marcus Raine. Or so she thinks. But when her husband fails to return from work, she realises something is wrong. Going to his office to try to find out what happens to him, she gets attacked fifth birthday and ends up in hospitalthe occasion for the usual bonfire celebrations, while his co-workers are killedbut it would be marred this year by the discovery of Professor Alex Rogan's body on a bonfire. Things get worse for her, however, He'd obviously been alive when investigating detective Grady Crowe reveals that Marcus Raine has been dead for several years, he was put on the fire and the man she married was using can only have died a false identityterrible death. Infuriated The body was first discovered by Jimmy Curwen, better known on St Agnes as the betrayal, Bird Man because he speaks little or nothing and his only concern is the realisation that shewelfare of the birds he looks after. His instinct is to cover Rogan's been living a lie for the past five years, Izzy takes matters into her own hands body and sets out to find her husband and work out why he lied uses his sheepskin coat to her for so long. Ignoring police warningsdo this, she delves deeper and deeper into a nasty underworld, and finds a tale which has its roots in Prague and rivals anything she could have plotted in one of her novelswith the result that he's the prime suspect.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099522179</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lisa McMannElliot Reed|title=WakeA Key to Treehouse Living

|genre=TeensGeneral Fiction|summary=Janie This is seventeen the story of a young boy, William Tyce, who is being raised by his uncle after the death of his mother and studying hard for college. Shehis father's also working lots of hours at a local nursing home to earn money for college as abandonment. However, itisn's unlikely her alcoholic mother is going to provide much t told in the usual narrative way of resources. College Instead, the book is Janie's only chance at made up of glossary entries, written by William, as a life better than the one sheway of describing certain events, situations and emotions. It runs alphabetically, starting with ABSENCE, then moving to ALPHABETICAL ORDER. As I began to read I did find myself thinking 's lived so far and so you canwhat on earth?!'t blame her for being so single-minded in but I soon grew used to the pursuit of her goal. Only one thing stands style, and was instead caught up in her way..William's story.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847385036</amazonuk>1911545418

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jaclyn Moriarty Will Dean |title=The Spell Book of Listen TaylorBlack River |rating=3.5|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Listen Taylor's father has just moved Tuva Moodyson returns - and this third book in with his girlfriend and they are adopted into the Zing family, with all of its delightful eccentricities and unusual behaviour – the Zings meet every Friday night for dinner and then disappear Tuva Moodyson mystery series delves deep into the garden shed to work on the 'Zing Family Secret'. Marbie Zing is terrified of doing something wrong and losing Nathaniel and Listen. Her sister Fancy is becoming increasingly disillusioned with her home personal life, and returning her daughter's year two teacher is coming to terms with a break up. The stories the isolated town of these people come together to create a tale of life, love, Gavrik and ultimately, what being part of into a family means.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330446363</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=F G Cottam|title=The Magdalena Curse|rating=2desperate search for her missing best friend.5|genre=Horror|summary=Mark Hunter is With the sort of father who would do anything for his son. After losing his wife and daughter in a tragic accident, his surviving son Adam has become his whole world. And Adam is an exceptional child – beautiful, incredibly smart and mature beyond his ten years – only recently he's been channelling Midsommar sun blocked out by the voices dark pines of the dead. Plagued by horrific dreamsforest, able Tuva fights to speak Russian in the hours after he wakes, drawing occult symbols when he doodles, Hunter believes Adam save her friend. But who’ll be there to be possessed. Doctor Elizabeth Bancroft is sceptical, until she meets Adam, and witnesses the horrors the poor boy endures for herself.save Tuva?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340980982</amazonuk>1786077116

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jon Berkeley1782407480|title=Bird Love: The Lightning Key (Circus Trilogy)Family Life of Birds|author=Wenfei Tong and Mike Webster

|genre=Confident ReadersAnimals and Wildlife|summary=I shall start with was a word little perturbed when I looked at the blurb for ''Bird Love'' on a couple of on-line booksellers: ''exploring the sex life of advicebirds'' it said. When you're being hounded by a circus masterI very nearly passed over the book, and but a magician, for closer examination suggested that the book is about the soul of a tiger that's contained in a tiger's egg thatfamily life''s contained in the brain of your teddy bearbirds, and your best friend - a fallen angel - which is trying her best rather different. If the book was confined to make sure the other angels do not turn on sex life of birds, you would be missing an opportunity to understand how birds live day-to-day, bring up their families and cope in a big way - then you're probably living the third book in a fantasy trilogywild. Still - never mindNot only that, you have missed the angel's efforts will involve you entering treat of so many beautiful illustrations about a dream world wide variety of flight and cloud cities, birds which run through this book from the chase after your enemies will take you across first page to the world to desert oases and back, and friends new and old will be on board to helplast.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847384447</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sue TownsendCamilla Bruce|title=Adrian Mole: The Prostrate YearsYou Let Me In|rating=54

|summary=Adrian Mole is now 39¼ and livingEccentric, quite literally, in isolated romance novelist Cassandra Tipp has been missing for a pigsty, sharing an all too thin party wall with his parents year and working in a bookshop. It's not quite how life was supposed to turn outhas been pronounced legally dead by her lawyers. As he spends his days wrestling his strong willed 5 year old Gracie into Her will instructs her school uniform, trying to reassure glamorous wife Daisy that life in the provinces is not as bad as she would like to believe, niece and desperately attempting nephew to talk his mother out of enter her quest to appear on the vile ''Jeremy Kyle'' show, worrying over his increasingly frequent visits to the toilet is really the last thing he needs. And yet, home and find the worst is still key to come. Think a crumbling economy, redundancy, affairs, death, a family member challenging him their inheritance in the novel writing stakes and a query over the big C – it's going to be a tough year for the Moles, and there's little that ol' Adrian can do except sit back and watch his life spin out of control around him.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718153707</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Lauren Kate|title=Fallen|rating=4.5|genre=Teens|summary=A 17 year an old girl at a new school meets a mysterious and impossibly good-looking boy, who she's immediately drawn to. He seems determined to either ignore manuscript left in her or be outright rude to her, until he saves her life, and office: the two of them end up drawn together. This isnlast story she't Stephenie Meyer's ''Twilight'', but it certainly has striking similaritiesll ever tell.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0385738935</amazonuk>1787633179