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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=Michael Lewis0008517061|title=The Blind SideDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=SportCrime|summary=I think my husband was Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a little taken aback to see me curled up on uncertainty about the sofa engrossed future of his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a book about American Football. I suppose I should admit that I didn't actually know it was going lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to be Little Sky despite her reservations about American Football. whether or not this is the future she wants for herself and her daughter? Well, I knew it was about a boy who ''played'' American Football, but I'd thought that was just going to be For the background story, you know, like moment they’re enjoying life in ''Jerry Maguire''. So the first chapter seemed to go on present and putting the future on forever, and I thought my head might pop from reading about quarterbacks and blind sides and plays and offence and defence and running statistics...but then somehow I stumbled to the real heart of the story; the story of Michael Oher, a young African-American from the slums of Memphis whose father was never around, and whose mother was a drug addict and lost him to social services at a young ageback burner.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>039333838X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1786482126|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Philippa Pearce and Helen CraigElly Griffiths|titlerating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=A FinderBuilders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a 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. It's Magicdifficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the one night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008551324|title=The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Till (thatIt's short unusual for Tillawn) anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or has lost his dog Bess any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he has no idea how he's going prepared to find tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her until a mysterious stranger appearsdeath. Mr Finder interviews various witnessesThis person, including a cathe promises, a mole, a heron is someone big and Miss Mouseyit will be worth the police doing what he wants. It's not And what Miss Mousey says that gives Mr Finder the vital clue as he wants is to be transferred to what has happened an open prison to Bess, but serve the sketch she made remainder of the riverbank at the time that Bess went missinghis sentence and to get an early parole date. There's a lot of magic in the quest Not much to find Bessask, but is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's all very confusing for Till and at one point he even doubts prepared to do the motives of Mr Finderother thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406319821</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rachel Isadora and Clement Clarke Moore0008405026|title=The Night Before ChristmasA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=45|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Everyone knows and loves Clement Clarke MooreIt's poem ''A Visit From St Nicholas''sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. Even if you don't go She was never found and the whole hoginvestigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, gathering the family round by the log fireHelena, and reading her father are dead in their bed. Initially, it together, its opening line of looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there'''Twas s something about the night before Christmas, when all through positioning of the house, not a creature bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was stirring, not even going to be an open-and-shut case is now a mouse..complex double murder.'' fills you with a warm glow. You can practically smell the mulled wine and hear the snores of Auntie Gertrude during Kerrigan is convinced that the Queenexplanation lies in Rosalie's Speech. Itdisappearance: others (such as Derwent's an absolute classicboss, Una Burt) are less convinced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0399254080</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jack Ludlow0571379877|title=WarriorsThe Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet
|rating=3.5
|genre=Historical FictionCrime|summary=Arduin of Fassano Edward Jevons is paid by Michael Doukeianos, a working-class young Byzantine generalman, obsessed with his upper-class friends, to keep the peace in ApuliaRobert and Stanza. Arduin is Robert's a Lombardtheatre director. He's also self-obsessed, howeverdemanding, handsome and secretly plans entitled and uses Edward to revolt and take Apulia run errands for himself, hiring a group of Norman mercenaries to help him do the job. These Normans are William de Hauteville and his brothers, famed warriors Edward has been in love with Stanza since their own conflicts university days - and a desire he's drunkenly confided how he feels to gain titles and wealth for their sonsRobert. Even if Arduin and 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 like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the Normans could take Apulia, there are no guarantees that they could hold it two of them kissing in a land full of treachery and bribesdark passageway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007559</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jo Berry|title=The Ultimate DVD Easter Egg Guide: How to Access the Hidden Extras on Your DVD|rating=4.5|genre=Entertainment|summary=Consider the Easter Egg - at least in the way DVD collectors mean. Sometimes a pointless hidden add-on, that is there for no reason. Sometimes they can be a priceless bonus, seemingly gifted by the disc producers to those in the know, costing - at least in the case of some animated instances - many thousands of pounds. Some oik on set with a camcorder, they are not. I've been guilty several times of clicking away in directions the menus don't seem to encourage on the off-chance I find something (or, on a PC, just sweeping the PC mouse over any and every title card in case it highlights something previously invisible). Forcing several titles and chapters by going straight to them in case they're something secret is not a hobby I like to admit to.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0752875205</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Frances Day|title=Dead Cat With Firelighter|rating=3|genre=General Fiction|summary=We're in the world of modern art. A couple who met at art college are on the verge of breaking up, as her success at fine arts is only bettered by his sudden rise to fame in the world of his conceptual, pompous bits of (almost literally) rubbish and nothing. We're also in the world of the wannabe stars and starlets, trying to make the jump from well-thought of provincial comedy theatre to Hollywood. And in the background in both instances, are guru-type Svengalis, pulling strings, and aiming to do as much as is morally justifiable - and a lot more - to get their charges to fame. And a bit of contract killing and murder on the side.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0954337751</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Frances FyfieldCallaghan|title=Cold to the TouchLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=ThereWhen 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, the AI detective Lock. It's something obsessive about Jessica Hurlytheir first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. When Sarah Fortune encounters her on But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a coldlot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, dark London morningout of a career?|isbn=139851120X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1399613073|title=Moral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=Thrillers|summary=Olivia, she's distraught because Laura and Anjali met on the man who fills all her thoughts has rejected her first day of medical school and it seems that her mother wants nothing their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to do with herbe a cardiothoracic surgeon. Jess Laura is a talented chef but she's short perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Anjali is the free spirit of work – the occasion when group and she emptied becomes a tureen of soup over the host GP. When we first meet them they're at a dinner drug and alcohol-fuelled party did not enhance her reputation even if all the other guests were secretly delightedand it's going to end in tragedy. Sarah senses her vulnerability, but itWe don's Jess t know who organises suffered the let of one of her mother's cottages in tragedy or the seaconsequences. Twenty-side town where she grew up so five years later there will be an eerily similar event that Sarah can have a long break from will impact the flat where she still smells a recent firethree friends. This time, it's their teenage children who are involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847441092</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Shirley Williams0241636604|title=Climbing the BookshelvesThe Trading Game: The Autobiography of Shirley WilliamsA Confession|author=Gary Stevenson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Who could resist If you were to bring up an image of a title city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like that? Gary Stevenson. 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 the London School of Economics. And Stevenson is this some lesserbright - extremely bright -known Shirley Williamsand he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It was his ability at what was, essentially, recalling a life spent in libraries? card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1035021803|title=The answer Antique Hunter's Guide to the latter is noMurder|author=C L Miller|rating=3.5|genre=CrimeShirley Catlin|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 request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Freya's former mentor and Carole's close friend, as she Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. Arthur was born, tells us in the early pages of this memoir that during her childhood her father encouraged her reason why Freya had not been back to climb the bookshelves village: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. Even though they were in their Chelsea housebusiness together as antique hunters, right up she has not felt able to be near the ceilingman or pursue the profession she loved. It was After the split, she worked in a secret between cafe, met and married James (on the two rebound from the love of them, as her motherlife, Testament of Youth Author Vera Brittain, would who was murdered) and Freya and James have immediately anticipated cracked skulls and broken armsnow divorced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844084760</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=Bill ButterworthSunny Singh|title=Reversing Global Warming For Profit Hotel Arcadia
|rating=3.5
|genre=Politics and SocietyThrillers |summary=There aren't many climate change deniers left, The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Hiding from the terrorists who are there? We all know it's there. We all knowrampaging through, tookilling everyone on site, that the world's population growth there is on Sam, a collision course with wartime photographer and Abhi, the dwindling of its resourceshotel manager. The world's going As Abhi continues to try to get hottercare remotely for the residents who are still alive in the hotel, its weather more extreme. Fossil fuels are going he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to run be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out. More and more people will compete for fewer and fewer of civilisationher room to try to capture what's luxurieshappened through her photography. We're all worried Although they only ever talk over the phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1904312810</amazonuk>086154742X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Margaret Thornton1529153298|title=Until We Meet AgainThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=45|genre=Women's General Fiction|summary=In the fateful summer of 1914 Tilly Moon It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is settled in the midst of the Moon family in ScarboroughPrime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly... ) ItShe's not what's worrying Miv's an extensive clan with the usual close relationshipsfamily, unusual situations and slight distances between people for no apparent reasonthough. Women have been disappearing. TillyWell, they's an accomplished pianist and she longs to take her music studies furtherve been murdered, but thereto have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's someone whoupset because she's coming overheard that her father wants to mean more to her than her musicmove the family 'Down South'. Her twinWhen you's re from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, best friendavoided. For Miv, Dominic Fraser is the apple of move would mean leaving her eye best friend, Sharon, and he feels the same way about hershe'll do anything to prevent that. There are war clouds on She's not worried about the horizon though and when Britain declares war on Germany Tommy and Dominic are quick dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to enlist as were many of the men in and around the Moon familyanyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007486</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Helen Fitzgerald1398524085|title=Bloody WomenHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Before reading ''Bloody Women'Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, I hadn't heard of the author Helen Fitzgerald Paul and by the title Ollie and blurbher daughter, I expected a standard crimeEtty. are all worried but - strangely -thriller novelher husband, Alec, is not. But early on Shortly afterwards, I realised this wasn't the case. The novel was a kind of black comedy Etty and written with wit and humourGreg, despite find the theme body of murder and violence.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846971330</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Patrick Casey and Richard I Hale|title=For CollegeGreg's father, Duncan Ackerley, Club & Country - A History of Clifton Rugby Football Club|rating=4|genre=History|summary=Clifton Rugby Football Club can proudly trace its history back to the very emergence of in the sport of rugby unionriver. Founded in September 1872, It was an easy assumption for the same year police to make that William Webb Ellis, who is reputed to have been the rebellious Rugby schoolboy who first ran with Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the ball, diedguilt. In reality, it is highly likely that the Webb Ellis story is something of a spin job The Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but get on behalf of Rugby School, although it did mean that Rugby School was able to impose its rules on the game at a time when most public schools had with their own rules for playing versions of the gamelives and wonder about what really happened.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312756</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jeffery Deaver1035906708|title=The Bodies Left BehindDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction|summary=When lawyer Emma Feldman We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her husband Steven decided father changed it to buy a holiday home 'Callas' to give them the opportunity for much needed breaks from their hectic professional lives, they brought an old colonial house in the woods by Lake Mondac make it more manageable in Wisconsin, on foreclosure – it seemed like the deal of a lifetimeStates. But on their first evening When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the place, Nazi occupation by a series of strange snapping noises outside begin to freak the couple out. They know they are in real trouble when a man with shotgun and stocking mask appears at their window. Another enters the building mother who mercilessly exploited her and the only hope they have is that someone will take notice made no secret of Steven's phone call to the policeher preference for her elder sister, cut off by the intruders after he is able to get out only one word – ThisJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340994037</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Zadie SmithChristopher Edge|title=Changing My Mind: Occasional EssaysBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=AnthologiesConfident Readers|summary=Zadie Smith is best known as Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the author nickname of three novels: White Teeth, 'The Autograph Man and On BeautyBlack Hole'. She now teaches Creative Writing at Columbia University in New York. This collection is a mixture All big movie fans, they're looking forward to lots of literary criticism exciting films, and journalismmany, many snacks! However, including travel writingas the movie starts, reviews and other writing on they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, and several pieces about Zadie Smiththey are swept up into an adventure they couldn's familyt even imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to the next, and especially her father. It can they figure out what on earth is divided into five sections under going on? Will they ever get back to the headings Readingcinema, Being, Seeing, Feeling and Remembering.to their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0241142954</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.''
Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, 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. But when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the island's leader and Mira's father. Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and with only coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. With only nine days to unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the heart of the smuggler's territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and the ones she holds most dear.|isbn=0008664730}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Emily BearnJames Sherwood Metts|title=Tumtum and Nutmeg's Christmas AdventurePlanet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=I do look forward to Things have been a good children's story, and having read Tumtum and Nutmeg's [[The Pirates' Treasure (Tumtum and Nutmeg) by Emily Bearn|previous adventure on a pirate ship]] I was particularly looking forward to this onebit sticky for the Earthlings. It's Christmas, AI and our two friendly little mice automation have been working hardproceeding apace, preparing delicious treats and temptations ready for Christmas Day. One evening often replacing jobs they go upstairs 're paid to check on the children who live in their house, Arthur do and Lucy, and find their letters other tasks that took time to Father Christmasaccomplish. Last year the children didn't Just as they were beginning to get any presents because their chimney was blocked up used to all this technological change and Father Christmas couldn't get in. They've asked for the same presents again this yearstarting to think of other, hopeful that this year Father Christmas will manage new ways to find a way through even though their father refuses to unblock the chimney for fear of drafts. Tumtum and Nutmeg are worried anyway that the letter won't reach Father Christmas in spend time, and that the children will be disappointed once againalong came an awful pandemic. They decide to take matters into their own hands Life was pretty much shut down and set off to visit the terrifying Baron Toymouse in Toy Kingdom to see if he can help. However, along with clockwork cats to contend withit, and all the capture of Tumtum by the evil Baron, Christmas could turn out to be an even bigger disaster than many daily social interactions on which they'd thought..depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405250267</amazonuk>1736128426
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=M C BeatonMatthew Tree|title=Agatha Raisin: There Goes The BrideWe'll Never Know|rating=34.5|genre=CrimeLiterary Fiction|summary=Private investigator Agatha Raisin is not a happy woman. She is concerned with the rate at which her body is ageing; even worse, her ex-husband, JamesTimothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, is getting married to a much younger woman drunk and Agatha has been invited to the wedding. She goes, with plenty chronic underachiever whose dreams of friends in tow and looks forward to the whole thing being over as soon as possible. She sees James just before the wedding, when he makes it clear that he has changed exceptional at any of his mind artistic passions all failed miserably and wants to pull out who had endless crises of the weddingself confidence. Then the bride is killed, by a bullet through the windowSo Tim applied himself to his studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and James and Agatha are the primary suspectsset himself high but achievable ambitions. Can they prove their innocence while finding out who the real perpetrator is?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1845299531</amazonuk>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=Janice Galloway1529900360|title=Collected StoriesThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman|rating=54|genre=Short StoriesCrime|summary=In this collectionIt hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, stories are taken from two previous volumes, Blood Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and Where You Find It. The forty-two snap shots shut cases which didn't need the help of life are mainly of women and young girlsa psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, it was Robin, struggling with emotionsDelaware's partner, sometimes realized and sometimes notwho nudged Milo into asking for help again. In all, there seems to be an underlying link of isolation and truth She knew that the involvement was something that the man she loved needed. The settings are variednext case did look simple, from though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a visit to remote property in Bel Air. He was the dentist heir to the place known as home, an Italian shoe empire and she is married to a walk in an extremely rich man and it's not the eveningItalian. We have a peek into But which of them was the deepest darkest corners of everyday relationships, with lovers, partners and most of all ourselves.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099540398</amazonuk>primary target?
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Herta Muller1529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The PassportSecret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=3.5|genre=Literary FictionAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Meet WindischSiôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. A miller in His father was a small village, he trudges through there, GP and through Rowlands didn't want to follow in his neighboursfootsteps, and through particularly when he considered the strain that being on-call put on his father's life, counting his days . When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and hours, was convinced this was the job for reasons that are not initially clearhim. But Before long, he does want something was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he is waiting for was a passport so he can leave for other climeschild. The perks of his job are the bags of flour If anything, he leaves by the mayor's house with regularity, as an open bribe, but there might d wanted to be a bigger sacrifice to have to makeprofessional footballer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1852421398</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Billy Hopkins0861541774|title=Tommy's WorldA Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Tommy Hopkins was born DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in October 1886 in CollyhurstSingapore to meet up with an old ally, one of the poorer, inner-city suburbs of ManchesterGuy Trueman. His father had quite Maik was involved in a good job and there wasn't street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a lot of money to spare but Tommy remembered the home as being filled man armed with love a knife - and laughterhe killed a Ghurka. He was an only child Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but thought evidence came to light that suggested that he was spoilt in terms of affection rather than in might have planned to murder the form of worldly goodsman. All that was to change when his father died of spinal meningitis and Now he and his mother had to move into cheaper lodgingscould be facing the death penalty. Even that tenuous security wasnDomenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn't to last for long – his mother died of a heart attack in her thirties, leaving Tommy an orphan before he was eight years oldhelp Danny at all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755359585</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michael GrantAlexander McCall Smith|title=HungerThe Perfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensGeneral Fiction|summary=The kids of Perdido Beach are still within the FAYZPerfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, a barrier erected run by Little Pete - no-one knows how - when Ness and operating as an alternative to all the nuclear plant went into meltdownonline apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. An uneasy truce between Sam's tribe of Perdido Beach kids Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and Caine's Coates Academy kids look after the business, as Ness is beginning planning to take a trip to waverCanada to get away for a while. The food Katie is running coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the Darkness has its claws in all those it's encounteredchance to come home to Edinburgh. Caine himself is reduced And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to delirium by the voice of the Darkness in his head 44 Scotland Street and Lana the healer knows it's inevitable that she too will answer its call. Sam is struggling Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to keep any form of ordercharm. As more and more kids begin to develop special powers Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and the hunger bites deeper into everyonethere's belliesalways her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, it's inevitable that conflict will break out. And it doesWilliam, in some very unpleasant ways. to lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405251522</amazonuk>1846976596
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Various0811771741|title=Hello Kitty Guide to LifeInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=Children's Non-FictionCrafts|summary=Melissa Leapman's ''Hello KittyInstaKnits for Baby'' is gives us a huge worldwide phenomenon with a whole heap collection of knits from toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of related merchandise featuring the cute cartoon cat 'long, cosy afternoons in dresses and ribbonsfront of the fire' variety. It appeals The projects are divided by the time they'll take to girls complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and women of many agesmore than twenty hours. All the projects are attractive, but this new hardback book modern and useable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects'Hello Kitty – Guide to Life'' is aimed at the brandbut that's younger fans, probably around 6 to 14 year oldsme being picky.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>000732622X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Claire TomalinDean Koontz|title=Thomas Hardy: The Time-Torn ManBad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=BiographyParanormal|summary=I came to this biography Benny is having read three of Hardy's novelsa terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, two quite recentlydisturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and some of it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his poetryhouse! The thing is, but knowing Benny is the very little about him as last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. Claire Tomalin So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has brought been sent to help him admirably since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Spike is going to life in these pagestake care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141017414</amazonuk>1662500491
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Liza PalmerAdam Stower|title=A Field Guide to Burying Your ParentsMurray and Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=Women's FictionConfident Readers |summary=Grace is reluctantly participating in a 5k race when she receives the news: her estranged sister Murray is calling supposed to tell her their estranged father has had be a stroke. That's two lots of estrangement in just two generations of familyhumble, tidy and friendly cat, but a summons one who is a summonsable to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, and Grace soon finds herself dragged back into the heart of the family she desertedwell, working with the others to discover the many hidden secrets whatever takes his fancy next of the father who deserted them alltwo. It But he's a tough jump from her happy life of bad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a good jobhyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, a new boyfriend and a home of her own to return to the family life she left behind a long time agocatflap they both use can chuck them out, and Grace has to decide whether she can ignore not into the pull regular back garden, but into a world of her biological siblings once more or whether the frightening adventure and whiffs. This time has come round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to let bygones be bygones. After all, while there are lots of four letter words she would associate with her familyhonest, but he's turned up and he'love'' is not one of them.ll have to do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340962151</amazonuk>0008561249
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jennifer JohnstonB0C47LV1PC|title=Truth or FictionFragility|author=Mosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Caroline Wallace is not Can you make a happy woman. She has waited ten years for her lover to propose to her, and now just as he finally does, she has to go to Dublin to interview faded literary star Desmond Fitzmaurice. Desmond promises his tale will be brimful of 'sex and violence'Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, but Caroline has no idea of is the question should you make it? Or is the mystery question if you did, would it land? The catch is that lies at the heart of his storyanswer for both could well be.... no.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755330544</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Guy Delisle1529431735|title=Pyongyang: A Journey in North KoreaThe Winter Visitor|author=James Henry|rating=4.5|genre=Graphic NovelsCrime|summary=Meet GuyIt's February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the more surprising. He'd been exiled on the Costa del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decade. The return has come about because he's had a Frenchletter from his ex-Canadian animatorwife, leaving home for a short stay in the capital of one of the worldsaying that she's most intriguing, unknown ill and alien cultures - Pyongyang, North Korea - so he can work on a TV cartoon co-productionhasn't long to live. Forced It's hard to stay in one of the three official hotels designed for foreignersfeel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, so that the locals stripped to his underwear and people such as he do not have sent to mix, he see glimpses of a watery grave in the unique socialist dictatorship, stunning views boot of the buildings forced through the poverty, and thousands of unreadable facesa stolen Ford Sierra.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224079905</amazonuk> Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sam OsmanAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=QuicksilverThe Glorious Race of Magical Beasts|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=''Quicksilver'' Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the story of Wolfiewondrous library we start by visiting with him, Tala and Zi'ib, three ordinary children from three different continentsin the evening a helper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. They have never met Eli lives with his lovely gran, until too – for there is a strange chain of events involving gun-toting gangs and eccentric old men means they all end up generation missing in Thornhamthe family. A few short years ago, Eli's parents were both lost to the titular race, a London suburb. They soon realise they are connected: they globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have green eyes with golden flecks and to navigate the world in the company of a missing parentmagical beast. But was it fate, chance or This has made the ley lines that encompass race anathema to the earth that brought them together? Before you know it they're solving clues and fulfilling pair – but when a one thousand year old prophecy. But all they want bad incident at the eatery leads to do a confession from gran, Eli knows his only hope is find their parentsto dare to enter what he most hates, with the sole aim the prize of magic at the end – the only thing to possibly save his gran.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1407105736</amazonuk>0571382231
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Diane Janes178763681X|title=Edwardian Murder: Ightham & the Morpeth Train RobberyKnife Skills for Beginners|author=Orlando Murrin|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Two murders Chef Paul Delamare took place a teaching job at a residential cookery school in Edwardian England less than two years apart, one in the south-east and the other in the north-eastBelgravia. At first glance they seemed He didn't really want to have nothing but celebrity chef Christian Wagner had a way of getting both men and women to do with each other, but years later a link between them was hinted at though never proved beyond doubtwhat he wanted. The author has investigated Paul ''somehow'' got the impression that he'd be at the connection and come up with school to assist Paul, who had a riveting bookbroken arm, but it didn't turn out that way.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0752449451</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Peter Gay|title=Modernism: The Lure of Heresy teaching - From Baudelaire to Beckett and Beyond|rating=4|genre=History|summary=It is impossible not to be impressed by the sheer scope of cultural historian Peter Gayproblems - are all his own. The one thing he hadn's 2007 study of Modernismt expected was for someone to turn up dead. Unfortunately, newly released in this paperback edition. He notes in he was the person who discovered the introduction body and everyone knows that it is not a 'comprehensive history' but rather 'a study of its rise, triumphs, and decline'. What is remarkable though, is the attempt police consider that person to include be the whole gamut of artistic fields in this coherent studyprime suspect.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099441969</amazonuk>
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