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Hello from The Bookbag<metadesc>Expert, a full book review site, featuring books reviews from all the many most walks of literary life ; fiction, non- [[: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. Itchildren's the bag we take to the library 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 & self-published 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 plus author [[:Category:Interviews|interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|& top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[Features]] page.</metadesc>
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{{newreview|author=Camilla Noli|title=The Mother's TaleBest New Books==|rating=4|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=''It is early eveningRead [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by category]]. I am suckling my infant son… We are picture perfect. Madonna and child''. '<br>
No doubt about it'''Read [[: a new mother totally smitten with her son. Zach is adorable. Quiet. Undemanding. A happy, generally relaxed, child. GorgeousCategory:Features|the latest features]]. '''
But Zach isn't her first-born. First there was Cassie. A child who entered the world screaming and has since learned exactly what power she can wring with such lungs. Not yet two years old, Cassie adores her father, but even him she manipulates. Her mother she terrorises''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409101584</amazonuk>}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=AQA 633360008517061|title=More Brilliant AnswersDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=TriviaCrime|summary=If you've got a question you can text those nice people Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at AQA 63336 and they'll do their best to provide you with a prompt and accurate answerLittle Sky. Over There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the last five years they've answered some twenty million questions future of his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and each autumn they publish her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a book lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the best future she wants for herself and most interesting of her daughter? For the year's answers. There's some fun to be had moment they’re enjoying life in this year's bookthe present and putting the future on the back burner.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683262</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Patrick O'Brien1786482126|title=You Are The First Kid On MarsJanus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=It is a sciBuilders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments -fi future when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no danger whatsoeverskull. Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with no technological breakdownDCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, and no fatal meteor strikebut Nelson doesn't, but that she is pregnant with his child as a result of course is only to be expected for this market. I say it more to highlight how well the book has been illustratedone night they spent together some three months ago. Digital airbrush techniques and more have taken the antiseptic sheen off the whole experienceHer condition will be obvious before long, but have still allowed for a great detail in the machinery, and also a lovely warmth in the face not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of the lad we're empathising withsickness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0399246347</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mary Naylus0008551324|title=The DresskeeperDevil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Things are pretty grim It's unusual for Pickyanyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. She Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is thirteen years old, being bullied at school, struggling in prison and has he's prepared to spend her weekends helping her single, working mum to take care tell the police where the body of her little brother a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her senile grandmotherdeath. One eveningThis person, at her Gran's househe promises, she goes up into is someone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the attic remainder of his sentence and tries on an old dress that she finds inside to get an old chestearly parole date. The dress turns out Not much to be magic, and she suddenly finds herself back in 17th Century Londonask, struggling with a strange man who is calling her 'Ameliait? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn' t think so and is trying to kill her. Picky ends up embroiled in Ameliashe's 17th century life as she tries even prepared to find out do the truth of other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is attempting to murder her, at the same time as trying to avoid arousing suspicion with her strange behaviour whenever she returns to the present daykept well away from what's happening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956122280</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Abbott Nez 0008405026|title=Cromwell Dixon's Sky-Cycle|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=Meet Cromwell Dixon. He's a real tinkerer, forever A Stranger in a barn or somewhere building something manically unusual. Luckily - although his long-suffering mother may disagree with that word - he's around at the birth of powered flight. Will his plans for a pedalled air machine work?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0399250417</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Sue Moorcroft|title=Starting Over|rating=4|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=The story opens when Tess bumps her old reliable car into a breakdown truck. That's rather convenient, since she isn't hurt, and the guy driving it is able to tow her to his garage, and then give her a lift to her new home. Naturally, since this is the 'chick-lit' genre, Tess and the truck-driver, who goes by the unlikely name of Ratty Family (an abbreviation of his surnameMaeve Kerrigan 11) feel mutual antipathy of the sort that's clearly going to lead, sooner or later, to strong attraction.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906931224</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Mary Beard|title=It's A Don's LifeJane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=LifestyleCrime|summary=Professor Mary BeardIt's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to a halt. Now, feisty Cambridge classics donher mother, keeps an eye open for architectural detail wherever she goes. Even on holidayHelena, she notices the changing urban landscape and records interesting parallels with ancient cities her father are dead in her sparky blogtheir bed. She is engaged in writing Initially, it looks like a detailed history of Pompeii and suddenly realises, whilst perambulating straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the backstreets positioning of the Mexican city of Oaxacan, bodies that this is exactly what Pompeii must have been like. She observes the low rise shops, dirt tracks across dusty streets makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and the close juxtaposition of rich and poorher boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. Impressive portals of grand residential properties tower above humble workshops, What looked as though it was going to be an open-and this prompts her into imaginative reconstruction-shut case is now a complex double murder. In her blog, from which this intriguing book Kerrigan is culled, she tells us about just how Oaxacan encourages her to ponder again the curious cart ruts of Pompeii. She even finds walls splashed with political slogans convinced that are just like Roman ''dipinti''. Indeed, here in Mexico, the local library displays an edifying message explanation lies in Spanish which originates in CiceroRosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's speech in his Pro Archiaboss, ''Science and letters Una Burt) are the nourishment of youth and the diversion of old ageless convinced.''|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682517</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kate Tremayne0571379877|title=The Loveday ConspiracyKellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=43.5|genre=Historical FictionCrime|summary=Trevowan Manor has been the home of the Loveday family for generationsEdward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and Stanza. It will still be owned by a Loveday but St John Loveday lost the house on the throw of Robert's a dice before killing himself – and now his cousin Tristan has the housetheatre director. St JohnHe's twinalso self-obsessed, Adamdemanding, vows that he will punish the man responsiblehandsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for him. Amelia Edward has been forced from Trevowan and is now living in a cottage love with the other dispossessed womenStanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. As if this wasnMost men in Robert't enough of s position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a problem, her son from her first marriage, Richard, has become even more than wayward and Amelia relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is forced left to make stumble upon the two of them kissing in a difficult choicedark passageway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755347676</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Julian BarnesJo Callaghan|title=Staring at the SunLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=Jean's first Incident involved Uncle LeslieWhen a man is found crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, hyacinths and golf teesthe AI detective Lock. It's perhaps best forgottentheir first live case together, but Jean doesn't forgethaving previously been very successful with several cold cases. Uncle Leslie figures large in her life - mostly on the golf course - until the War comes and he runs away to America. He's replaced by Tommy Prosser But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a grounded pilot who once saw the sun rise twice in one day potential serial killer and excites as many questions in Jean as he ever answers. Tommy is replaced by Michael, a policeman, whom Jean eventually marries. He doesn't know why minks are excessively tenacious very high profile case that draws a lot of life and he doesn't much careunwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. But Jean does. She cares much less for Will they be able to solve the Dutch cap that Michael sent her case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off to obtain before the wedding case and much less again for their rather disastrous adventures in the bedroom. , potentially, out of a career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099540096</amazonuk>139851120X
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alexandra Bruce1399613073|title=2012: Science or SuperstitionMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=34.5|genre=Popular ScienceThrillers|summary=The fuss about 2012 has not started just recentlyOlivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. The first book Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to feature the story was from be a Yale professor, in 1966cardiothoracic surgeon. We've also had prog rock bands named after Popol Vuh, the Maya creation mythLaura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. But as Anjali is the crunch date free spirit of December 21st, 2012 - the winter solstice that year group and she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol- nears, fuelled party and it's becoming a very big story indeedgoing to end in tragedy. Even though it sounds absurd - We don't know who suffered the end of a 5,125-year long cycle of tragedy or the Maya calendar, which started on August 13th, 3114BCE consequences. Twenty- or was judged to start then, when they came across this concept a couple of thousand five years into later there will be an eerily similar event that periodwill impact the three friends. Surely they couldnThis time, it't predict the future from s their 'primitive' state with such accuracy?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1934708283</amazonuk>teenage children who are involved.
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jeff Kinney0241636604|title=Diary of a Wimpy KidThe Trading Game: Dog DaysA Confession|author=Gary Stevenson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersAutobiography|summary=It is If you were to bring up an image of a truth universally acknowledged that school summer holidays are only enjoyable if city banker in your mind, you want 're unlikely to enjoy summerthink of someone like Gary Stevenson. Greg here doesn't want A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to notice it, the London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and would prefer he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to spend be stupid. It was his days curtains drawnability at what was, essentially, face glued to late night TV or a computer card gamewhich got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, hand either clicking away at this turned into permanent employment as a trader.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1035021803|title=The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up. She's back now because of a controller or shovelling in snacksrequest for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. The last thing he needsFreya's former mentor and Carole's close friend, thenArthur Crockleford, is his motherdead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the man or pursue the profession she loved. After the split, on she worked in a ''family togetherness'' tripcafe, met and married James (on a budgetthe rebound from the love of her life, with bad ideas of what Greg should be doing insteadwho was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141327650</amazonuk>
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover
|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt
|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.''
{{newreview|author=Rick Yancey|title=The Monstrumologist: The Terror Beneath|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=In late 19th century AmericaI've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Well, young Will Henry has I must confess that there have been the apprentice more than a few decades of the stern, forbidding Dr Warthrop since the death of his parents, who were also employed by the doctortechnology in my lifetime. The twelve year old boy has seen many things in his service I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but I'm left with the monstrumologist feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of it is - a specialist in monsters frankly - but nothing can prepare him for quite frightening. Of course, I could research the fateful day when an elderly grave robber brings possibilities and the doctor probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the twin corpses of a young girl latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and the headless creature with fangs who could deliver information in his chest who had tried to feast on hera way I could understand.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184738546X</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Stella WhitelawSunny Singh|title=Midsummer MadnessHotel Arcadia|rating=43.5|genre=Women's FictionThrillers |summary=You'll like Sophie GreshamThe Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. She wanted to be an actress but suffers Hiding from paralysing stage fright the terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, a wartime photographer and when Abhi, the side effects became too much for her she worked behind the sceneshotel manager. She's a very good prompt despite the fact that you need As Abhi continues to wrap up very warmly try to survive care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the prompt corner she loves her job hotel, he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and most keeps on venturing out of the cast in the theatre companyher room to try to capture what's happened through her photography. It's a bit of a shock though when she realises that Although they only ever talk over the guest producer from New York is Joe Harrisonphone, the man she helped out when he had nothing their friendship grows as Abhi tries to eat help her keep safe and nowhere they both wait to sleep. Sophie was a little softer in those days – in see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the meantime she's had to develop a protective shellterrorists.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0709089147</amazonuk>086154742X
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Bonnie Greer1529153298|title=Obama MusicThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=35|genre=HistoryGeneral Fiction|summary=This It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is an interesting readPrime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, but unless Ithey'm missing somethingve been murdered, the focus of the book seems a little difficult but to grasphave 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. ItMiv's best if I start with the authorupset because she's intentions as set out in overheard that her Prologuefather wants to move the family 'Down South'. It When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a mixture of tales of her own life growing up on the South Sidefrightening, she writesforeign place, interspersed with stories and observations about Obamabest avoided. For Miv, linking it with the musicmove would mean leaving her best friend, musicians and music sceneSharon, past and present, including hip hop, country, classical, and rockshe'n'rollll do anything to prevent that. All of these, she notes, were heard on the PresidentShe's Inauguration Day. To them she adds not worried about the blues, gospel, soul and jazz of the South Side, when the people began to build the great institutions and great solidarity dangers or that enabled him her Mum's stopped talking - to become the most powerful man on the planetanyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906558248</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=P J Parrish1398524085|title=Dead of WinterHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=45
|genre=Crime
|summary=Loon LakeCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Michigan is picture-postcard pretty – an idyll that sits serenely Paul and snugly in the midst of a pine-peppered winter wonderland. Louis Kincaid needs a little serenity in his life Ollie and on arrival in Loon Lake he feels almost as if he has come homeher daughter, Etty. Life has are all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, is not been easy for Kincaid. A troubledShortly afterwards, unhappy child Etty and Greg, find the body of mixed raceGreg's father, passed around various institutions and foster homesDuncan Ackerley, Louis figures in the river. It was an easy assumption for the police to make that if Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he is going to put some integrity back into couldn't stand the world, he will need to wear a badge to guilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do itbut get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847391346</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Russell Celyn Jones1035906708|title=The Ninth Wave (New Stories from the Mabinogion) Diva|author=Daisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=Pwyll rules a medieval-style fiefdom We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in a post-climate change Wales. Life is different Manhattan, New York, in many ways - there's a new-but-old social order built on feudalism December 1923 and horsepower is the main means of transportonly moved to Athens when she was thirteen. But in many ways Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed itto 's much Callas' to make it more manageable in the same States. When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - people still fight one anothershe was raised under the Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her elder sister, towns still have sink estates, rich boys still have too much time on their hands and precious little meaning in their livesJackie. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1854115146</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Owen SheersChristopher Edge|title=White Ravens (New Stories from the Mabinogion)Black Hole Cinema Club|rating=4.5|genre=Literary FictionConfident Readers|summary=In the old taleLucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, Branwen is a place that has the sister nickname of Bendigeidfran - the giant King of Britain'The Black Hole'. She marries the King of Ireland All big movie fans, who doesnthey't treat her well. She manages re looking forward to send Bendigeidfran a message via a tamed starling lots of exciting films, and war and killings ensue. In many, many snacks! However, as the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new talefilm format is very different, a young girl has just walked away from her brothers who, in the wake of the devastating foot and mouth outbreak, they are despoiling their heritage by rustling and illegally slaughtering sheepswept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. She meets an old man who tells her a story involving But as they lurch from one film genre to the superstitions about the ravens in next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the Tower of London, propaganda work during World War IIcinema, and an equally doomed love affair. to their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1854115030</amazonuk>1839942738
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jennifer BohnetRachel Greenlaw|title=Follow Your StarCompass and Blade
|rating=3.5
|genre=Women's FictionTeens|summary=It's three years since Nanette Weston left Monaco. She'd been engaged to a Formula 1 racing driver and had lived I can hear the life song of the wealthy but a serious car accident had ended all thatsea. The accident could have killed her fiancé and she lost her driving licence because call of the alcohol she'd consumed. Her slow recovery was hindered by deep, the end of her engagement but she's found some contentment answering beat in being a nanny to two young childrenmy heart. 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>}}''
{{newreview|author=J R Stephenson|title=Crooked Justice|rating=2Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Meet Barry JohnsMira, like her mother before her, is one of the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. You'll see him coming - heBut when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the island's five hundred pounds if heleader and Mira's an ouncefather. Just don't ever lend Desperate to save him money - he won't pay it back. A businessman from death, Mira makes a bargain with a share of a nightclub on Cyprus, wreck survivor who is as charming as he goes there for a customary breakis secretive and with only coordinates to guide her, and finds his sort-she sets off in search of moll-type sort-of girlfriend has been installed as a family secret that lies buried deep in the bar dancersea. He manages With only nine days to tread both on unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the toes watched streets of his local colleague and some Greek rivals. And when a rival in London chases him up for thousands foreign islands to the heart of pounds owed he decides to pack up and shut up. Itthe smuggler's a big stone that hides himterritory, but he leaves a very awkward trail for everyone wanting Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to upturn it save the future of her home and get their revengethe ones she holds most dear.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0955855713</amazonuk>0008664730
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Stephen BakerJames Sherwood Metts|title=They've Got Your NumberPlanet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular ScienceConfident Readers|summary=If you are in Things have been a bit sticky for the slightest bit paranoidEarthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, worry that often replacing jobs they''Big Brother'' is always watching or like re paid to believe do and other tasks that you are not a number, but a free man (or woman), then took time to accomplish. Just as they were beginning to get used to all this may not be the book for you, as it will do nothing technological change and starting to dispel any think of those worries. If, on the other hand, you think 'the mathematical modelling of humanity' sounds like one of the sexiest things evernew ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and are chomping at the bit to learn more about , along with it, then you might well be interested in what Business Week journalist Baker has to sayall the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099507021</amazonuk>1736128426
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rebecca TopeMatthew Tree|title=Fear in the CotswoldsWe'll Never Know|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeLiterary Fiction|summary=Thea Osborne is Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, a house sitter by profession. When people go away she moves into their homes drunk and looks after their animals and the property. This time it's winter and she's spending a month in the Cotswold village chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of Hampnett. It wouldn't be a job for his artistic passions all of us but Thea delights in getting to know the local people failed miserably and the area. In the past 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 who had with DS Phil Hollis has crumbledendless crises of self confidence. For the first time Thea feels like an outsider – and a foolish one - when she finds footsteps in the snow which lead So Tim applied himself to a body in a nearby field. When the police finally arrive the body has disappeared his studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and the police obviously wonder if she's imagined it allset himself high but achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0749007478</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tad Tuleja|title=A Dictionary of Foreign Words and PhrasesG Slatter|rating=3|genre=Home and Family|summary=Take a look at the cover design of this book, and you'd be mistaken for thinking this was a trivia compendium for all those foreign words that have taken part 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, 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 with a passion for music, history and playing his beloved lute. He's also something The Briar Book 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 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 to help a Jewish couple accused of murder in 13th Century England.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701178140</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Ian Mortimer|title=1415: Henry V's Year of GloryDead
|rating=5
|genre=HistoryFantasy|summary=The medieval, in fact time-honoured, view '' There's a part of King Henry V as one me that wants to keep this just to myself for however long I can. This secret magic of England's greatest heroes was propagated though not originated by Shakespearemy own, all mine, and again more recently at last. I just want to some extent by Olivier's portrayal in filmenjoy it for a while. At least one historian has called him ''the greatest man that ever ruled England''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224079921</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview|author=Deborah Gregory|title=Dancing With The Dead|rating=3|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=I wanted to read ''Dancing with Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Dead'Briar's, because I'm interested in a family history. The blurb on the back of witches who protect the book also mentioned Gill – our heroine of town and the piece – was moving wider world from Bristol (my current home) the Darklands. Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to Lincolnshire (where I be born into her family for generations and as such since she was born young, her training as a steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the town's leader, and brought up)Ellie takes her place beside her. I felt As challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with all these linksthe dead, putting her at the novel could not fail heart of a maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from one family secret to interest me – but this was not another, Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what to do as the caseBriar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1904529305</amazonuk>1803364548
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Miss Read1529900360|title=Christmas at Thrush GreenThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=Set in It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the rural village help of Thrush Greena psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, it was Robin, this book is Delaware's partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the latest man she loved needed. The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a series surrounding familiar charactersremote property in Bel Air. There is He was the feisty Ella Bembridge, who is finally having heir to admit that old age is creeping up as her eyesight fails. Friends such as Dimity an Italian shoe empire and Charles Henstock are concerned about her, but she refuses is married to accept any help. Albert Piggott has decided an extremely rich man and it's time to retire now that his wife, Nelly, is a successful cafe owner and can afford to take care not the Italian. But which of him! And relative newcomer Phil Hurst and her husband are arranging them was the local nativity play, despite a number of set-backs. Will everything be in place for Christmas? And will independent Ella make a decision about her futureprimary target?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409101592</amazonuk>
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Matt Sion Rowlands|rating=3.5|genre=Animals and DaveWildlife|titlesummary=YuckSiôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the strain that being on-call put on his father's Robotic Bottomlife. When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the job for him. Before long, he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a child. If anything, he'd wanted to be a professional footballer.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0861541774|title=A Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=ItDCI Domenic Jejeune's concerned me for close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a while that it's relatively easy short holiday in Singapore to pick meet up early readers for girls – princesseswith an old ally, magic soft toys, mermaids Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and pets abound – but there's he killed a much smaller choice for boysGhurka. It's important too with early readers Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that the content is ''interesting'' and reading becomes more than just something which you ''he might have'' planned to do at school and moves into being funmurder the man. Now he could be facing the death penalty. Matt Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and Dave have found the answer in Yuckwouldn't help Danny at all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847382991</amazonuk>
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=John E SmelcerAlexander McCall Smith|title=The Great DeathPerfect Passion Company|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary='As Western Europeans settled AlaskaThe Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, they brought with them diseases against which run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the indigenous people had no natural immunityonline apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. At the beginning of Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the twentieth centurybusiness, fully two thirds of all Alaska natives perished from as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a pandemic of measles, smallpox, and influenzawhile. No community was spared. In most cases, half Katie is coming out of a village's population died within break up with a weekbad boyfriend, and so jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. In some cases And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, there were no survivors. It was the end of bringing us to an ancient way of life. Natives still refer Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the dreadful period as the Great DeathIsabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1842709194</amazonuk>1846976596
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Maxine Barry0811771741|title=River Deep|rating=3.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Two young women both have a love of the Thames. Melisande Ray's beloved hotel, the Ray of Sunshine is on the river bank. It's here that guests come who want to be pampered and looked after in the way that only the best hotels can do well, but when Wendell James checks in to the hotel it's not pampering he's looking InstaKnits for. He's buying a piece of land not far from the Ray of Sunshine and he's sussing out the competition. There's something personal in there too – 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 eye.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709088930</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewBaby|author=Joe Gores|title=Spade and ArcherMelissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=CrimeCrafts|summary=Sam Spade decides, bravely, Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to set up his one-man detective agencyblankets. ItSome will be quick knits - others are of the 's the 1920s long, cosy afternoons in San Francisco so we have front of the prohibition era and all that that entailsfire' variety. Many locals, of courseThe projects are divided by the time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, choose five to disobey the law, stick two fingers upten hours, so ten to speak twenty hours and as a result there's lots of bootleg liquormore than twenty hours. Straight away, it's evident that Sam is a man of few words. He has All the mannerisms of a cat - stealthyprojects are attractive, quick on his feetmodern and useable. HeI perhaps show my age when I wonder about 's also a compulsive chainsocial-media-smoker, worthy projects' but then again, most people were. In that era, holding a cigarette was an elegant, almost essential accessory. How times have changed's me being picky.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140911323X</amazonuk>
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michael Morpurgo and Emma Chichester ClarkDean Koontz|title=The Best of TimesBad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersParanormal|summary=Most children enjoy Benny is having a good traditional tale terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and this lovely book by Michael Morpurgo seems to have all the right ingredients – a handsome prince his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a beautiful princess who fall in lovereally weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, get married and live happily ever after. Or do they? Sadlyit's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, not long after Prince Frederico marries Benny is the lovely Princess Serafina, she becomes very sadlast person to deserve all this bad luck. Nobody knows what has caused such great sadness, but poor Prince Frederico He is desperate to find a cure nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for his wife's misery. He tries everything in his power and eventually decides Benny it turns out that the delivery to offer his kingdom house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to anyone who can make her happy again before she dies of help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a broken heartgood person. Lots Spike is going to take care of people come to the palace to try Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and help but in the end the solution is Harper (a simple one provided by some very kind travellerswaitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405232552</amazonuk>1662500491
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Shirley JacksonAdam Stower|title=We Have Always Lived In The CastleMurray and Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionConfident Readers |summary=Mary Katherine BlackwoodMurray is supposed to be a humble, also known as Merricattidy and friendly cat, one who is eighteenable to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, and lives with her older sister Constance in whatever takes his fancy next of the family home where two. But he'Blackwoods had always liveds a bad magician'. Merricat quickly draws s cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the reader regular back garden, but into her a world by a series of matter of fact but bizarre statements – her likes include her sister frightening adventure and death cap mushroomswhiffs. This time round it drops them into a Viking land, and everyone else in her family where a troll hunter is dead. The wealthy Blackwood family has always kept the house 'steady against the world'expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, shutting out other peopleto be honest, but he's turned up and they live near a village. Merricat believes that he'The people of the village ll have always hated us', and tells us that she hates them too.to do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141191457</amazonuk>0008561249
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Simon WestonB0C47LV1PC|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 of tricky rats, Rhodri and Rhys, a pigeon who has no sense of direction, a frog who thinks he's a secret agent spy 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>}}{{newreviewFragility|author=Elizabeth Baines|title=Too Many MagpiesMosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Becoming Can you make a mother brings a whole new world of fear into your life. Suddenly ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, is the question should you see make it? Or is the danger in every situationquestion if you did, and fear and trepidation can would it land? The catch is that the answer for both could well be become your constant companions. In this novella, we meet a young mother who is married to a logical scientist. They attempt to control their children's futures on a scientific basis, growing their own fruit and vegetables, 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 to struggle  ''Fragility'' is set as he introduces ideas the city of freedom into her world. She begins an affair with himPortland, Oregon, cautiously begins to let things slip at home and with emerge from the children, yet finds she is still continuously haunted by restrictions imposed during the sense of an ever-present danger.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844717216</amazonuk>covid pandemic
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Katherine May1529431735|title=Burning OutThe Winter Visitor|author=James Henry
|rating=4
|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=Violet has it all – a well-paid job, It's February 1991 and a luxurious apartment all to herself. Everything Essex is catered for; her mealsbitingly cold, her clothes, and her health are which made Bruce Hopkins' return all how she would like them to bethe more surprising. But He'd been exiled on the life she is leading is beginning to take its tollCosta del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decade. On the verge of snapping, The return has come about because he's had a drained and somewhat outletter from his ex-of-sorts Violetwife, withdraws back saying that she's ill and hasn't long to her home townlive. There, she meets someone familiar It's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his underwear and sent to a ghost reminding her watery grave in the boot of how she used to be ten years earlier – a young carefree girl, full of lifestolen Ford Sierra. Only this isn't Is it a warning from a ghost, but Spanish gang or 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 girl.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906727392</amazonuk>problem closer to home?
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Amanda DownumAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=The Drowning CityGlorious Race of Magical Beasts|rating=3.54|genre=FantasyConfident Readers|summary=In Eli is a nutshellbusy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, you're reading this because you're wondering whether The Drowning City is good, bad or mediocre. You've probably glanced and in the evening a helper at the rating dessert cafe his gran owns and guessed runs. Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – for there is a generation missing in the latterfamily. I'm afraid itA few short years ago, Eli's not quite that simpleparents were both lost to the titular race, a globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in the company of a magical beast. This is has made the race anathema to the pair – but when a debut that provokes decidedly mixed feelings. I started off convinced that I was going bad incident at the eatery leads to love this book. The cover art a confession from gran, Eli knows his only hope is effortlessly coolto dare to enter what he most hates, with the premise intriguing, sole aim the prize of magic at the characters laden with potential for greatness and end – the backdrop is certainly evocativeonly thing to possibly save his gran.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841498149</amazonuk>0571382231
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tove Jansson178763681X|title=The True DeceiverKnife Skills for Beginners|author=Orlando Murrin|rating=54|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=Most people of my age will have come across Jansson's work unwittingly, via the televised renditions of the Moomin talesChef Paul Delamare took a teaching job at a residential cookery school in Belgravia. The readers amongst us would then have been entranced a few years ago He didn't really want to discover that at last Thomas Teal but celebrity chef Christian Wagner had set about the translation into English, first a way of The Summer Book getting both men and then of a collection of short stories which were published as women to do what he wanted. Paul 'A Winter Book'. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0954899571</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Daniel Kehlmann |title=Me and Kaminski|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=After reviewing several long books, itsomehow's been refreshing to read such a fluent yet pared down story as 'Kaminski and Megot the impression that he'. In it, Sebastian Zollner, d be at the obnoxious main character, shoves himself forward in a desperate attempt school to research a best seller which will re-ignite his career as an art critic. Kaminskiassist Paul, the proposed subject, was who had a fashionable painter long agobroken arm, but now, ancient it didn't turn out that way. The teaching - and chronically ill, has virtually slid into oblivionthe problems - are all his own. So the second-rate writer is on a loser unless The one thing he can dig hadn't expected was for someone to turn up some juicy details dead. Unfortunately, he was the person who discovered the body and everyone knows that the police consider that person to hook be the art world and general publicprime suspect.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847249892</amazonuk>
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