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<metadesc>Book review siteExpert, with books full book reviews from the many most walks of literary life - ; fiction, biography, crime, cookery and anything else that takes our fancy. There are also lots of author interviews and top tens.</metadesc>Hello from The Bookbag, a book review site, featuring books from all the many walks of literary life 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, & self-published 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|plus 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.</metadesc>
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Shirley Jackson0008517061|title=The Haunting of Hill HouseDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=There was a time before Stephen King. There was time before ''The Shining''Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There was There’s perhaps a time when 'horror' was not rooted in bloodlittle uncertainty about the future of his life with his vet girlfriend, guts Livia and gore. I owe her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a slight apology lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life to Mr King, because along move in with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the future she wants for herself and her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and putting the gutsier side of future on the genre, I will own that he is a master at suspenseback burner.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141191449</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jill Tomlinson and Paul Howard1786482126|title=The Penguin Who Wanted To Find OutJanus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Otto Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the penguin lives on his fathersite was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury's feet at apartments - when they discovered the bottom bones of the worlda child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. He It's an inquisitive little thing and wants to know why they havendifficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't fallen off , that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the world. His dad explains that one night they won't Because I say sospent together some three months ago. Otto and his friend Leo gradually expand their horizons from their fathers' feet - they meet other penguin chicks Her condition will be obvious before long, get not least because Ruth is prone to know their aunts who watch them when their fathers are away, and eventually grow feathers so they're big enough to toboggan on their bellies and swim in the seasudden bouts of sickness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140523041X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ryan David Jahn 0008551324|title=Acts of ViolenceThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Kat Marino is stabbed on her way home from work. All she wanted was a hot bath after a hard dayIt's work. From this point unusual for anyone from the novel skips nimbly from one neighbour Hardie family to approach the next, all of whom are absorbed in their own dilemmaspolice. There Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the draftee with a sick mother, police where the nurse who thinks she has run over body of a baby, the woman missing person is buried and who suspects was responsible for her husband of cheating and othersdeath. We are shown what these characters were doing that eveningThis person, he promises, is someone big and how these events drag through to it will be worth the morningpolice doing what he wants. We are shown how in And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the midst remainder of their own interestinghis sentence and to get an early parole date. Not much to ask, poignant is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and dangerous concerns a woman is stabbed in she's even prepared to do the courtyard onto which all their windows look, through which windows they witness the attack, other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and how these people did nothinganyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230743595</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Josh Lacey0008405026|title=Two Tigers on a StringA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=45|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=BenIt's not too keen sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to be sharing his bedroom with his half-brothera halt. Now, her mother, Helena, Frankand her father are dead in their bed. But you don't have to be the hero of Initially, it looks like a detective adventure such as this book to know that as Frankstraightforward murder/suicide but there's mother has vanished from something about the face positioning of the Earth, Ben will let bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it lie was going to be an open-and- for shut case is now a whilecomplex double murder. Nor Kerrigan is it too surprising to see convinced that the four Misfitz together, on another caseexplanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, as they go on the hunt for the missing womanUna Burt) are less convinced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407109782</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Julia Williams0571379877|title=Last ChristmasThe Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=43.5|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=With Christmas fast approachingEdward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, what better way of getting in the spirit of things than by reading this excellent book that captures the joys Robert and stresses of the festive season so well? The reader follows four different people – Catherine Tinsall Stanza. Robert's a theatre director. He's also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and her husband Noel, Marianne Moore entitled and Gabriel Northuses Edward to run errands for him. Each of these characters have Edward has been in love with Stanza since their own reasons for university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but he's not really looking forward like most men: Edward is left to Christmas (mainly because of stumble upon the experience two of last Christmas) and these reasons slowly become apparent to the reader as the story progressesthem kissing in a dark passageway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847560865</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Nigel McCreryJo Callaghan|title=Core of EvilLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Violet Chambers becomes Daisy Wilson through an aromatic cup When a man is found crucified on the top of tea, flavoured with Christmas roses. '"There are all kinds of horrible things a hill in the Christmas rose," she saidNuneaton, watching DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to see whether Daisy could still hear the case alongside her. "Helleborin and hellebrin are both like digitalissidekick, which I've also used before, but there's saporin and protoanemonin as wellthe AI detective Lock. It's a their first live case together, having previously been very nasty cocktailsuccessful with several cold cases."' And now Daisy has met her rather sticky - and graphically effluent - end, and Violet has become Daisy, Daisy sets her sights on But when there is a second body found crucified a new townfew days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a new identity potential serial killer and, most importantly, a new victimvery high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Daisy has problems with her memory - Will they be able to solve the identities go back so far that sometimes she can barely remember who is she is nowcase in time, let alone all or will Kat find herself taken off the whos she's been beforecase and, potentially, and most certainly not the who with whom she began. out of a career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847243843</amazonuk>139851120X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Van der Kiste1399613073|title=Jonathan Wild: Conman and CutpurseMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=HistoryThrillers|summary=Born towards Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the end first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of the seventeenth a century Jonathan Wild was . Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to become the eighteenth century's most famous criminal, plying his trade in be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and a rather curious fashiontrauma doctor. He was born in Wolverhampton Anjali is the free spirit of parents described as ''mean but honest''the group and she becomes a GP. It seems likely that he When we first travelled to London as the servant of meet them they're at a lawyer where he was eventually to settle, leaving his wife drug and alcohol-fuelled party and child it's going to fend for themselvesend in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. It was whilst serving a term of imprisonment in Wood Street Compter Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that he mixed with will impact the cream of Londonthree friends. This time, it's criminal underclass and learned the rudiments of his tradetheir teenage children who are involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848682190</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=K M Grant0241636604|title=Paradise Red (Perfect Fire Trilogy)The Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=TeensAutobiography|summary=We are back If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in the south your mind, you're unlikely to think of France for someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the third pin-stripe suit and final time. In one corner, his background is the 'French'East End, where he was familiar with King Louis violence, poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his henchmen rampaging through, warring in CV - but he had been to the name London School of peaceEconomics. In another corner, the local people, struggling in the harsh environment Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and none too pleased to see their corner he has a facility with numbers which most of the world the location for religious wars, with the Cathar ''heretics'' us can only envy. He also presentrealised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. The lines are drawnIt was his ability at what was, essentially, in a realistically convoluted waycard game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, and this book will see one of our heroes cross one such line, just turned into permanent employment as other people make their own momentous decisions. It will take all the narrative skills of the land itself to get the story across to usa trader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847247075</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Camilla Noli1035021803|title=The MotherAntique Hunter's TaleGuide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=43.5|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=It''It is early evenings twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up. I am suckling my infant son… We are picture perfect. Madonna and child She''. No doubt about it: s back now because of a new mother totally smitten with request for help from her sonbeloved aunt, Carole. Zach Freya's former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is adorable. Quiet. Undemandingdead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. A happyArthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, generally relaxedshe feels, child. Gorgeous. But Zach isn't let her first-borndown badly. First there was CassieEven 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. A child who entered After the world screaming and has since learned exactly what power split, she can wring with such lungs. Not yet two years oldworked in a cafe, Cassie adores met and married James (on the rebound from the love of her fatherlife, but even him she manipulates. Her mother she terroriseswho was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409101584</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.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Patrick O'BrienSunny Singh|title=You Are The First Kid On MarsHotel Arcadia|rating=43.5|genre=For SharingThrillers |summary=It The Hotel Arcadia is a sci-fi future of no danger whatsoeverluxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Hiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, with no technological breakdownthere is Sam, a wartime photographer and no fatal meteor strikeAbhi, but that of course is only to be expected for this marketthe hotel manager. I say it more As Abhi continues to try to highlight how well care remotely for the book has been illustrated. Digital airbrush techniques and more have taken the antiseptic sheen off residents who are still alive in the whole experiencehotel, but have still allowed for he forms a great detail in bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what's happened through her photography. Although they only ever talk over the machineryphone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and also a lovely warmth in they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the face of the lad we're empathising withterrorists.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0399246347</amazonuk>086154742X
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mary Naylus1529153298|title=The DresskeeperList of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=45|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=Things are pretty grim for PickyIt's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. She is thirteen years old(A woman? I mean, being bullied at school, and has to spend her weekends helping her single, working mum to take care of her little brother and her senile grandmotherhonestly... ) One evening, at her GranShe's not what's worrying Miv's housefamily, she goes up into the attic and tries on an old dress that she finds inside an old chestthough. Women have been disappearing. The dress turns out to be magicWell, and she suddenly finds herself back in 17th Century Londonthey've been murdered, struggling with a strange man who is calling her but to have 'disappeared'Ameliadoesn' and is trying to kill hert sound quite so frightening. Picky ends up embroiled in AmeliaMiv's 17th century life as upset because she tries 's overheard that her father wants to find out move the truth of who family 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is attempting to murder hera frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, at the same time as trying to avoid arousing suspicion with move would mean leaving her strange behaviour whenever best friend, Sharon, and she returns 'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the present daydangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956122280</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Abbott Nez 1398524085|title=Cromwell Dixon's Sky-Cycle|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=Meet Cromwell Dixon. He's a real tinkerer, forever 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 workHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|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 (an abbreviation of his surname) 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 LifeNicci French
|rating=5
|genre=LifestyleCrime|summary=Professor Mary BeardCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, feisty Cambridge classics donsons Niall, keeps an eye open for architectural detail wherever she goes. Even on holiday, she notices the changing urban landscape Paul and Ollie and records interesting parallels with ancient cities in her sparky blogdaughter, Etty. She is engaged in writing a detailed history of Pompeii and suddenly realisesare all worried but - strangely - her husband, whilst perambulating the backstreets of the Mexican city of OaxacanAlec, that this is exactly what Pompeii must have been likenot. She observes the low rise shops Shortly afterwards, dirt tracks across dusty streets Etty and Greg, find the close juxtaposition body of rich and poor. Impressive portals of grand residential properties tower above humble workshops, and this prompts her into imaginative reconstruction. In her blogGreg's father, from which this intriguing book is culledDuncan Ackerley, she tells us about just how Oaxacan encourages her to ponder again in the curious cart ruts of Pompeiiriver. She even finds walls splashed with political slogans It was an easy assumption for the police to make that are just like Roman ''dipinti'Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the guilt. Indeed, here in Mexico, the local library displays an edifying message in Spanish which originates in Cicero The Salter children are not convinced but there's speech in his Pro Archia, ''Science little else they can do but get on with their lives and letters are the nourishment of youth and the diversion of old agewonder about what really happened.''|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682517</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kate Tremayne1035906708|title=The Loveday ConspiracyDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4.5|genre=Historical General Fiction|summary=Trevowan Manor has been the home We tend to think of the Loveday family for generations. It will still be owned by a Loveday Maria Callas as Greek, but St John Loveday lost the house on the throw of a dice before killing himself – she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and now his cousin Tristan has the houseonly moved to Athens when she was thirteen. St JohnHer original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas's twin, Adam, vows that he will punish to make it more manageable in the man responsibleStates. Amelia has been forced from Trevowan and is now living When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a cottage with the other dispossessed women. As if this wasn't enough mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of a problem, her son from preference for her first marriage, Richardelder sister, has become even more than wayward and Amelia is forced to make a difficult choiceJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755347676</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Julian BarnesChristopher Edge|title=Staring at the SunBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=Literary FictionConfident Readers|summary=JeanLucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the nickname of 'The Black Hole's first Incident involved Uncle Leslie, hyacinths and golf tees. It's perhaps best forgotten All big movie fans, but Jean doesnthey't forget. Uncle Leslie figures large in her life - mostly on the golf course - until the War comes and he runs away re looking forward to America. He's replaced by Tommy Prosserlots of exciting films, a grounded pilot who once saw the sun rise twice in one day and excites as many questions in Jean , many snacks! However, as he ever answers. Tommy the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is replaced by Michaelvery different, a policeman, whom Jean eventually marries. He doesn't know why minks and they are excessively tenacious of life and he doesnswept up into an adventure they couldn't much careeven imagine. But Jean does. She cares much less for as they lurch from one film genre to the Dutch cap that Michael sent her off next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to obtain before the wedding cinema, and much less again for to their rather disastrous adventures in the bedroom. real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099540096</amazonuk>1839942738
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Rachel Greenlaw
|title=Compass and Blade
|rating=3.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jeff KinneyJames Sherwood Metts|title=Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog DaysPlanet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=It is Things have been a truth universally acknowledged bit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're paid to do and other tasks that school summer holidays are only enjoyable if you want took time to enjoy summeraccomplish. Greg here doesn't want Just as they were beginning to get used to notice it, all this technological change and would prefer starting to spend his days curtains drawnthink of other, face glued new ways to late night TV or a computer gamespend time, hand either clicking away at a controller or shovelling in snacksalong came an awful pandemic. The last thing he needsLife was pretty much shut down and, then, is his motheralong with it, all the many daily social interactions on a ''family togetherness'' trip, and on a budget, with bad ideas of what Greg should be doing insteadwhich they depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141327650</amazonuk>1736128426
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Matthew Tree
|title=We'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary= Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, a drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and who had endless crises of self confidence. So Tim applied himself to his studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions.
|isbn= B0CVFXPGP8
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=A G Slatter
|title=The Briar Book of the Dead
|rating=5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary='' There's a part of me that wants to keep this just to myself for however long I can. This secret magic of my own, all mine, at last. I just want to enjoy it for a while.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stella Whitelaw1529900360|title=Midsummer MadnessThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=YouIt hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis'll like Sophie Gresham. She wanted to be an actress s fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but suffers from paralysing stage fright he felt responsible and when the side effects became too much even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for her she worked behind the sceneshis help on difficult cases. SheHis assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn's a very good prompt despite the fact that you t need to wrap up very warmly to survive in the prompt corner she loves her job and most help of the cast in the theatre companya psychologist only worked for a while. ItFinally, it was Robin, Delaware's a bit of a shock though when she realises partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the guest producer from New York is Joe Harrison, involvement was something that the man she helped out when he had nothing to eat and nowhere to sleeploved needed. The next case did look simple, though. Sophie was Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a little softer in those days – remote property in Bel Air. He was the meantime heir to an Italian shoe empire and sheis married to an extremely rich man and it's had to develop a protective shellnot the Italian.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089147</amazonuk> But which of them was the primary target?
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Bonnie Greer1529395224|title=Obama MusicLetting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=3.5|genre=HistoryAnimals and Wildlife|summary=This is an interesting read, but unless I'm missing something, the focus of the book seems a little difficult to graspSiôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. ItHis father was a GP and Rowlands didn's best if I start with t want to follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the authorstrain that being on-call put on his father's intentions as set out in her Prologuelife. It is a mixture of tales When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of her own life growing up on the South Side, she writes, interspersed doing work experience with stories a family friend who was a vet and observations about Obama, linking it with was convinced this was the music, musicians and music scene, past and present, including hip hop, country, classicaljob for him. Before long, and rock'n'rollhe was at Liverpool University. All of these, she notes, were heard on the PresidentIt hadn's Inauguration Dayt - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a child. To them she adds the bluesIf anything, gospel, soul and jazz of the South Side, when the people began he'd wanted to build the great institutions and great solidarity that enabled him to become the most powerful man on the planetbe a professional footballer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906558248</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=P J Parrish0861541774|title=Dead A Nye of WinterPheasants|author=Steve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Loon LakeDCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Michigan is picture-postcard pretty – Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an idyll that sits serenely and snugly old ally, Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in the midst of a pinestreet brawl -peppered winter wonderland. Louis Kincaid needs he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a little serenity in his life knife - and on arrival in Loon Lake he feels almost as if he has come home. Life has not been easy for Kincaidkilled a Ghurka. A troubledInitially, unhappy child he faced a charge of mixed race, passed around various institutions and foster homes, Louis figures manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that if he is going might have planned to put some integrity back into murder the world, man. Now he will need could be facing the death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to wear help as any interference from another police force could provoke a badge to do itdiplomatic incident and wouldn't help Danny at all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847391346</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Russell Celyn JonesAlexander McCall Smith|title=The Ninth Wave (New Stories from the Mabinogion) Perfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=Pwyll rules The Perfect Passion Company is a medieval-style fiefdom dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a post-climate change Waleswhile. Life Katie is different coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in many ways 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…|isbn=1846976596}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0811771741|title=InstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman|rating=4|genre=Crafts|summary=Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a newcollection of knits from toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits -but-old social order built on feudalism and horsepower is others are of the main means 'long, cosy afternoons in front of transportthe fire' variety. But in many ways it The projects are divided by the time they's much the same ll take to complete - people still fight one anotherless than five hours, towns still have sink estatesfive to ten hours, rich boys still have too much time on their hands ten to twenty hours and more than twenty hours. All the projects are attractive, modern and precious little meaning in their livesuseable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's me being picky. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1854115146</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Owen SheersDean Koontz|title=White Ravens (New Stories from the Mabinogion)The Bad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionParanormal|summary=In Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the old talething that has trashed his house! The thing is, Branwen Benny is the sister of Bendigeidfran - the giant King of Britainvery last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. She marries So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the King of Ireland, who doesn't treat her well. She manages delivery to send Bendigeidfran his house is a message via a tamed starling and war and killings ensue. In this new talefriend, a young girl bad weather friend called Spike, who has just walked away been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from her brothers who, in the wake nefarious forces for being a good person. Spike is going to take care of the devastating foot and mouth outbreakBenny, 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 will certainly take care of LondonBenny's enemies, if he, propaganda work during World War IIBenny, and an equally doomed love affairHarper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1854115030</amazonuk>1662500491
}}
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular ScienceConfident Readers |summary=If you are in the slightest bit paranoidMurray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and friendly cat, worry that ''Big Brother'' one who is always watching or like able to believe that you are not sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the two. But he's a numberbad magician's cat, but so his favourite bun has been turned into a free man (or woman)hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the catflap they both use can chuck them out, then this may not be into the book for youregular back garden, as it will do nothing to dispel any but into a world of those worriesfrightening adventure and whiffs. If This time round it drops them into a Viking land, on the other handwhere a troll hunter is expected – well, you think 'the mathematical modelling of humanity' sounds like one of the sexiest things evermuch bigger than Murray was, and are chomping at the bit to learn more about itbe honest, then you might well be interested in what Business Week journalist Baker has but he's turned up and he'll have to say.do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099507021</amazonuk>0008561249
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rebecca TopeB0C47LV1PC|title=Fear in the CotswoldsFragility|author=Mosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=CrimeLiterary Fiction|summary=Thea Osborne is Can you make a house sitter by profession. When people go away she moves into their homes and looks after their animals and the property. This time it's winter and she's spending a month in the Cotswold village of Hampnett. It wouldnYo birthing person''t be a job for all of us but Thea delights in getting to know joke? And if you could, is the local people and question should you make it? Or is the area. In the past she's also been involved with the police in solving various cases but question if you did, would it looks as though land? The catch is that might have come to an end as the relationship she had with DS Phil Hollis has crumbledanswer for both could well be... 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 field. When the police finally arrive the body has disappeared and the police obviously wonder if she's imagined it allno.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007478</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Anne Rice1529431735|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 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>}} {{newreviewThe Winter Visitor|author=Ian Mortimer|title=1415: James Henry V's Year of Glory|rating=5|genre=History|summary=The medieval, in fact time-honoured, view of King Henry V as one of England's greatest heroes was propagated though not originated by Shakespeare, and again more recently to some extent by Olivier's portrayal in film. 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 the Dead'', because I'm interested in family history. The blurb on the back of the book also mentioned Gill – our heroine of the piece – was moving from Bristol (my current home) to Lincolnshire (where I was born and brought up). I felt with all these links, the novel could not fail to interest me – but this was not the case.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904529305</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Miss Read|title=Christmas at Thrush Green
|rating=4
|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=Set in the rural village of Thrush GreenIt's February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, this book is which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the latest in a series surrounding familiar charactersmore surprising. There is He'd been exiled on the feisty Ella Bembridge, who is finally having to admit that old age is creeping up Costa del Sol as her eyesight failsa wanted drug smuggler for a decade. Friends such as Dimity and Charles Henstock are concerned The return has come about herbecause he's had a letter from his ex-wife, but saying that she refuses 's ill and hasn't long to accept any helplive. Albert Piggott has decided it It's time hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to retire now that his wife, Nelly, is a successful cafe owner underwear and can afford sent to take care a watery grave in the boot of him! And relative newcomer Phil Hurst and her husband are arranging the local nativity play, despite a number of set-backsstolen Ford Sierra. Will everything be in place for Christmas? And will independent Ella make Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a decision about her futureproblem closer to home?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409101592</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Matt Alex Bell and DaveTim McDonagh|title=Yuck's Robotic BottomThe Glorious Race of Magical Beasts
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=It's concerned me for Eli is a while that it's relatively easy to pick up early readers for girls busy lad – princessesby day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, magic soft toysand in the evening a helper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. Eli lives with his lovely gran, mermaids and pets abound too – but for there's is a much smaller choice for boysgeneration missing in the family. ItA few short years ago, Eli's important too with early readers that parents were both lost to the content is ''interesting'' and reading becomes more than just something which you ''titular race, a globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have'' to do at school and moves into being funnavigate the world in the company of a magical beast. Matt and Dave have found This has made the race anathema to the pair – but when a bad incident at the eatery leads to a confession from gran, Eli knows his only hope is to dare to enter what he most hates, with the sole aim the prize of magic at the end – the answer in Yuckonly thing to possibly save his gran.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847382991</amazonuk>0571382231
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John E Smelcer178763681X|title=The Great DeathKnife Skills for Beginners|author=Orlando Murrin
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary='As Western Europeans settled Alaska, they brought with them diseases against which the indigenous people had no natural immunity. At the beginning of the twentieth century, fully two thirds of all Alaska natives perished from Chef Paul Delamare took a teaching job at a pandemic of measles, smallpox, and influenzaresidential cookery school in Belgravia. No community was spared. In most cases, half of a village He didn's population died within t really want to but celebrity chef Christian Wagner had a week. In some cases, there were no survivors. It was the end of an ancient way of life. Natives still refer getting both men and women to the dreadful period as the Great Deathdo what he wanted. Paul '|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1842709194</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Maxine Barry|title=River Deep|rating=3.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Two young women both have a love of the Thames. Melisande Raysomehow''s beloved hotel, got the Ray of Sunshine is on the river bank. Itimpression that he's here that guests come who want to d be pampered and looked after in at the way that only the best hotels can do wellschool to assist Paul, who had a broken arm, but when Wendell James checks in to the hotel itdidn's not pampering t turn out that way. The teaching - and the problems - are all his own. The one thing hehadn's looking t expected was forsomeone to turn up dead. He's buying a piece of land not far from Unfortunately, he was the person who discovered the Ray of Sunshine body and he's sussing out the competition. There's something personal in there too – if his new hotel means everyone knows that the Ray of Sunshine goes under then police consider that would person to be an added bonus. There's just a slight doubt in his mind when a red-haired maid catches his eyethe prime suspect.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709088930</amazonuk>
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