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<metadesc>Book review siteExpert, with books full book reviews from most walks of literary life; fiction, biographynon-fiction, crime, cookery and children's books & self-published books plus author interviews and & top tens.</metadesc><h1 id="mf-title">The Bookbag</h1>Hello from The Bookbag, a site featuring books from all the many walks of literary life - [[:Category:Fiction|fiction]], [[:Category:Biography|biography]], [[:Category:Crime|crime]], [[:Category:Cookery|cookery]] and anything else that takes our fancy. At Bookbag Towers the bookbag sits at the side of the desk. It's the bag we take to the library and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often books sent to us by publishers and we promise to tell you exactly what we think about them. You might not want to read through a full review, so we'll give you a quick review which summarises what we felt about the book and tells you whether or not we think you should buy or borrow it. There are also lots of [[:Category:Interviews|author interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[features]] page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] page.

Reviews by readers from all the many walks of literary life. With author interviews, features and top tens. You'll be sure to find something you'll want to read here. Dig in! Find us on [[File:facebook.gif|link=https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk|alt=Facebook]] [https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk '''Facebook'''], [[File:twitter.gif|link=http://twitter.com/TheBookbag|alt=Follow us on Twitter]] [http://twitter.com/TheBookbag '''Twitter'''], [[File:instagram_classic_logo.png|link=https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/|alt=Follow us on Instagram]] [https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/ '''Instagram'''] and [[File:LinkedIn.png|link=https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-bookbag-1b12a264/|alt=LinkedIn]] There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Reviews}}''' [[:Category:Reviews|reviews ]] at TheBookbag.

==Reviews of the The Best New Books==

{'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|class-"wikitable" cellpadding="15" <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->reviews of books about to be published]].<!-- Angela Marsons -->{{Frontpage|-author=Sylvie Cathrall| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"A Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=5[[image:1786817721.jpg|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786817721/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Science Fiction| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of them.|isbn= 0356522776}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008517061|title=Death in a Lonely Place|author=[[Dead Memories (D I Kim Stone) by Angela Marsons]]=Stig Abell|rating=4|genre=Crime [[image:4.5star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] Someone is recreating every traumatic event in Kim Stone's pastFormer Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, starting with the death of her twin when she was six years old. has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. Some of There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the events, or at least the details future of themhis life with his vet girlfriend, are not public knowledgeLivia and her daughter Diana, but whoever is behind this has as moving in together would mean a wealth lot of information 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 using it to evil intent. That might seem bad enough, but the brutal truth of future she wants for herself and her daughter? For the matter is that people - innocent people - are dying so that these dramas can be recreatedmoment they’re enjoying life in the present and putting the future on the back burner. Stone probably - well, certainly - shouldn't be on the case, but who has better knowledge of what happened to her than she does? If her boss can just turn a blind eye to }}{{Frontpage|isbn=1786482126|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the effect it's having on her for long enough, she can sort it out.site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Or can sheWas this a ritual killing or murder? [[Dead Memories (D I Kim Stone) by Angela Marsons|Full Review]] <!-- Hurwitz -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:071818548X Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult 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.jpg}}{{Frontpage|linkisbn=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/071818548X/ref0008551324|title=The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=nosim?tagNeil Lancaster|rating=thebookbag-21]] 4.5| stylegenre="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"Crime|summary===[[Out of It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the Dark by Gregg Hurwitz]]=== [[image:5starpolice.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] 1997 Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. Evan Smoak But Davie Hardie is 19 years old struggling in prison and he''trained up, mission readys prepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. And yet untested.'' He's in a foreign city on an officially unofficial mission This person, which he executes with all promises, is someone big and it will be worth the impeccable training that his youth beliespolice doing what he wants. Evan Smoak And what he wants is Orphan X. [[Out to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of the Dark by Gregg Hurwitz|Full Review]] <!-- Jewell -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:178475627Xhis sentence and to get an early parole date.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/178475627X/ref=nosim Not much to ask, is it?tag=thebookbag The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded -21]]make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.}}{{Frontpage| styleisbn="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"0008405026|title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=[[Watching You by Lisa Jewell]]==5|genre=Crime [[image:4.5star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] A teenage boy spies on a teenage girl It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from his bedroom windowher bed one summer night. Down She was never found and the roadinvestigation ground to a halt. Now, a woman is convinced she knows a man in the village and that he is following her. Meanwhilemother, a young woman has moved back home after some time abroadHelena, and develops her father are dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a fascination with her new neighbour. The manstraightforward murder/suicide but there's wife, meanwhile, engages something about the services positioning of the young woman's husband in some work around the housebodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. Oh, What looked as though it was going to be an open-and -shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that teenage boy? Hethe explanation lies in Rosalie's her son. And the woman with the conspiracy theories? Shedisappearance: others (such as Derwent's the mother of the girl he's spying onboss, Una Burt) are less convinced. Plus, the man she thinks is out to get her }}{{Frontpage|isbn=0571379877|title=The Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=Edward Jevons is the woman's husband (a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and is also the new headteacher at her daughterStanza. Robert's school)a theatre director. Whichever way you look at it, there He's a lot of watching going on also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for him. Edward has been in this booklove with Stanza since their 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 like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the two of them kissing in a dark passageway. [[Watching You by Lisa Jewell|Full Review]]}}<!-- Cooch -->{{Frontpage|author=Jo Callaghan|-title=Leave No Trace| stylerating="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"4|genre=Crime[[image:0578444305.jpg|linksummary=http://wwwWhen 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.amazon It's their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases.co.uk/dp/0578444305/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[Fish Seeking Bicycle by Kate Cooch]]=== [[image:4star 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 lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project.jpg|link=Category: Will they be able to solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of a career?|isbn=139851120X}}{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:FantasyFrontpage|isbn=1399613073|Fantasy]]title=Moral Injuries|author=Christie WatsonThis novel is set about a hundred years into the future|rating=4. The world has been decimated by nuclear conflict 5|genre=Thrillers|summary=Olivia, Laura and what's left of Anjali met on the old United States is run from Center City. Women run this world and it is very proud first day of having defeated the old patriarchy. Men must behave appropriately and deferentially at all times medical school andtheir friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, if they don't, are medicalised which is a bonus when you aim to keep their baser instincts under controlbe a cardiothoracic surgeon. And if that doesn't work, Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Anjali is the free spirit of the group and she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they're sent at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to work camps, away from open society, end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the tragedy or even worse: expelled to the wilderness beyond consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the Central Authoritythree friends. This time, it's borderstheir teenage children who are involved. [[Fish Seeking Bicycle by Kate Cooch|Full Review]]}}<!-- James Atkinson -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=0241636604| styletitle="widthThe Trading Game: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson[[image:B07ML4Q55J.jpg|linkrating=http://www4.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07ML4Q55J/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 5| stylegenre="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"Autobiography|summary===[[Home Workout for Beginners: 6 Week Fitness Program with Fat Burning Workouts for Long Term Weight Loss by James Atkinson]]=== [[If you were to bring up an image:4starof a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Lifestyle|Lifestyle]] James Atkinson has all A hoodie and jeans replaces the qualifications which you need in a workout instructor pin-stripe suit and he looks his background is the partEast End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. He's There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been actively involved in to the health and fitness arena for more than twenty years London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he spent nine years as has a member facility with numbers which most of 9 Parachute Regiment, Royal Engineersus can only envy. He has another qualification which means a lot also realised that most rich people expect poor people to me: he's been on the other sidebe stupid. There It was a time when he his ability at what was overweight and not particularly strong, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. As Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a child he was slow to developtrader. This means that he '}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1035021803|title=The Antique Hunter'understands'' what its Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=It's like and he knows how his clients feel: ittwenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up. She's much more helpful than the twenty-something who was born super-fit back now because of a request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Freya's former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and with an attitude problemthe circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. [[Home Workout for Beginners Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the village: 6 Week Fitness Program with Fat Burning Workouts for Long Term Weight Loss by James Atkinson|Full Review]] <!-- Adrian Cull -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1999308719Arthur, 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.jpg|link=http://www After the split, she worked in a cafe, met and married James (on the rebound from the love of her life, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.amazon.co.uk/dp/1999308719/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]}}{{Frontpage|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover| styletitle="vertical-alignAll Tomorrow's Futures: top; text-align: left;"Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=5|genre==[[Live Forever Manual: Science, ethics and companies behind the new anti-aging treatments by Adrian Cull]]===Fiction [[image:4.5star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Lifestyle|Lifestyle]], [[:Category:Popular Science|Popular Science]] For many years now I've (half) joked that I intended to live forever and that so far, it was working out OK. Time has passed though and although I'm a great deal fitter and healthier than most people of my age there were a few nagging health problems which were tipping my life out of balance. It was time to look for a new approach and as so often happens, the reviewing gods brought me the book I needed. ''Live Forever Manual: Science, ethics and companies behind the new anti-aging treatments'' seemed like the answer to my problems - only you get so much more than just 101 tips. [[Live Forever Manual: Science, ethics and companies behind the new anti-aging treatments by Adrian Cull|Full Review]] <!-- Anders -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1785653199.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1785653199/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The City In The Middle Of The Night by Charlie Jane Anders]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] January is a dying planet. It wasn't exactly pleasant to begin with. One half is scorching sunlight, pure, blazing heat, and totally uninhabitable. The other half is pure darkness and ice, where a creature can freeze to death in seconds, and totally uninhabitable. In the middle is a brief twilight that is barely survivable. Life is a knife-edge, stray too close to one side you die, to close to the other, you die and yet the heat from the sun and the water from the ice are necessary for life. Life for the inhabitants of January is long, and hard, and arduous, will anything ever change? [[The City In The Middle Of The Night by Charlie Jane Anders|Full Review]] <!-- Laws -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1789016851.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789016851/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Exit Day: Brexit; An Assassin Stalks the Prime Minister by David Laws]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] At the time of my writing this, there is one thing uniting Britain, and this is hatred of 'Brexit'. Not just Brexit, but use of the word 'Brexit'. Yes, people hate the people that instigated it then disappeared, and/or the people who just can't seem to get their fingers out and complete it, but they also hate the use of the word. This biggest turn-off has made people who have never so much as tutted in their life slam down their tea-cups in high dudgeon and leave the room until it's safe to return, when all mention of it has subsided. I mention this in relation to this book because it is partly about Brexit, but because it too seems to get to the actual Brexiting in a very protracted manner. Just as we have to wade through dirges from Europe to get anywhere, it seems, so the reader of this book has to get through a lot from Europe before the title's theme really arises. Here, at least though, the author's delaying tactics are much more forgiveable. [[Exit Day: Brexit; An Assassin Stalks the Prime Minister by David Laws|Full Review]] <!-- Chamberlain -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786076446.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786076446/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Hidden by Mary Chamberlain]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] When Barbara Hummel arrives, determined to identify the mysterious woman whose photograph she has found among her mother's possessions, Dora and Joe find their worlds upended – and are swiftly forced to confront their pasts. Revisiting their time on the Channel Islands during World War II, Dora remembers a time when she concealed her Jewish identity, and Joe, a Catholic Priest, remembers a time when he hid something very different. In this story of love, loss and betrayal, it remains to be seen whether a speck of light can diffuse the darkest shadows of war… [[The Hidden by Mary Chamberlain|Full Review]] <!-- Stephen John Hartley -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1999811402.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1999811402/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Painting Snails by Stephen John Hartley]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]], [[:Category:Lifestyle|Lifestyle]] It's very difficult to classify ''Painting Snails'': originally I thought that as it's loosely based around a year on an allotment it would be a lifestyle book, but you're not going to get advice on what to plant when and where for the best results. The answer would be something along the lines of 'try it and see'. Then I considered popular science as Stephen Hartley failed his A levels, did an engineering apprenticeship, became a busker, finally got into medical school and is now an A&E consultant (part time). I found out that there's an awful lot more to what goes on in a Major Trauma Centre than you'll ever glean from ''Casualty'', but that isn't really what the book's about. There's a lot about rock & roll, which seems to be the real passion of Hartley's life, but it didn't actually fit into the entertainment genre either. Did we have a category for 'doing the impossible the hard way'? Yep - that's the one. It's autobiography. [[Painting Snails by Stephen John Hartley|Full Review]] <!-- Lelic -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:B07GXSB6N2.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1444947605/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[The Haven: Book 1 by Simon Lelic]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] When Ollie and Nancy, the police officer tasked with guarding our young hero, are abducted in the middle of the night, things take a dangerous turn. Rescued by Dodge, Ollie is taken to the Haven, a secret underground community based in a network of underground tunnels that the London above ground knows nothing about. Here, children work together to battle great evils. And there is an immediate enemy to fight. Ollie would have been the hundredth victim of Maddy Sikes had he not been rescued. And Maddy intends to destroy the city. [[The Haven: Book 1 by Simon Lelic|Full Review]] <!-- Kennedy -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0993202349.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0993202349/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[The Things That are Lost by Alan Kennedy]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]  The final novel in Alan Kennedy's WW2 trilogy sees Captain Alex Vere taken off active duty and banished to Scotland, providing trade craft spy training. It's stifling and suffocating and feels as much like a prison to Alex as anything the Germans would provide. And where is Justine? Alex hasn't seen her since he went to ''that'' disastrous meeting with John Cabot, instigator of the disinformation campaign, and returned to find her missing. A failed mission is one thing but no Justine is quite another. Alex can't get Justine out of his head. Has she left the service? Does she know too much? Is she even still alive? [[The Things That are Lost by Alan Kennedy|Full Review]] <!-- Douglas Lindsay -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1473696917.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1473696917/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Song of the Dead (DI Westphall) by Douglas Lindsay]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] A man walked into a police station in Estonia. He told a tale of having been held prisoner, used as a donor for organ harvesting and sperm donation. X-rays and medical examination bear out this part of his story, but this man, or the man he says he is - John Baden - died twelve years ago. His body was identified by his partner, Emily King and by his parents - and then the body was buried. So, who is this man? DI Ben Westphall is sent to Estonia because of his background in MI6, but that brings some baggage with it too. Westphall cannot, will not, get on a plane. His last experience of flight was more than enough for one lifetime. [[Song of the Dead (DI Westphall) by Douglas Lindsay|Full Review]] <!-- Michelle Harrison --> |-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1471124290.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1471124290/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[A Pinch of Magic by Michelle Harrison]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]] ''No Widdershins girl has ever been able to leave Crowstone. If we do, we'll die by the next sunset. '' ''A Pinch of Magic'' follows three sisters – Betty, Fliss and Charlie – who have lived on the isle of Crowstone, infamous for its surrounding marshes and the neighbouring inescapable prison, for their entire lives. The middle sister, Betty, has longed for adventure for as long as she can remember and she is determined that nothing and no-one will prevent her from seeing everything that the world has to offer. But in setting out to do just that, she and her sisters discover a deadly curse which has haunted their family for generations. From their ancestors, as well as a lifetime trapped on Crowstone, they have each inherited a magical object – an old carpet bag, a set of wooden nesting dolls and an antique handheld mirror – all of which are more than meets the eye and could possibly be the key to their problem. [[A Pinch of Magic by Michelle Harrison|Full Review]] <!-- Lisa Gardner -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1780897715.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1780897715/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Never Tell by Lisa Gardner]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] Evie Carter's husband was shot dead in his own home and she was found with the gun in her hands. Was this a domestic dispute which had got out of hand? Was it pregnancy hormones running rampant? Detective D D Warren recognised Evie immediately. It might have been sixteen years ago, but there's no mistaking the teenager who had accidentally shot and killed her father: 'a tragic accident' everyone said, as there was no doubt about the love the two had for each other. D D had no worries at the time, but just how many gun accidents can one woman have - or is Evie about to get away with murder again? [[Never Tell by Lisa Gardner|Full Review]] <!-- Read -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1911490907.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1911490907/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Midnight Hour by Benjamin Read and Laura Trinder]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] After a big blow-up fight with her mum, Emily is left alone with her dad. Her mum has gone away on some strange job (even though Emily didn't think her mum even ''had'' a job) and so she is not quite sure what is going on. Things turn even stranger still when her dad goes off to find her mum, and then doesn't come back. She heads out to investigate and discovers a strange, secret world called the Midnight Hour, which seems to be London during Victorian times, and is full of magical beings (and monsters!) What were her parents doing here? And will she be able to find them and rescue them, so her life can go back to normal? [[The Midnight Hour by Benjamin Read and Laura Trinder|Full Review]] <!-- Kate London -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786497956.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786497956/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Gallowstree Lane by Kate London]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] Spencer was just fifteen years old when he stepped out into a London Street and asked a complete stranger for help, begging him not to let him die. The stranger was an off-duty paramedic but even his skills were insufficient to save Spence. Just one of those things you might, think. Tragic, but teenage boys seem to be getting stabbed on the streets of London all the time. His friend Ryan was with Spence when he was stabbed. It was Ryan who called the ambulance on the paramedic's instruction, sobbing as he held the phone. But Ryan wasn't prepared to accept that it was just one of those things. He wanted revenge. [[Gallowstree Lane by Kate London|Full Review]] <!-- Ece Temelkuran -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0008294011.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0008294011/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[How to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship by Ece Temelkuran]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Politics and Society|Politics and Society]], [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]], [[:Category:History|History]] A little while ago a friend asked me if I thought that we were living through what in years to come would be discussed by A level history students when faced with the question ''Discuss the factors which led to...'' I agreed that she was right and wasn't certain whether it was a good or bad thing that we didn't know what all 'this' was leading to. I think now that I do know. We are in danger of losing democracy and whilst it's a flawed system I can't think of a better one, particularly as the 'benevolent dictator' is as rare as hen's teeth. [[How to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship by Ece Temelkuran|Full Review]] <!-- Schienmel -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0349003289.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1492667242/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[A Danger to Herself and Others by Alyssa Sheinmel]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] ''They needed someone to blame, and I was the only available scapegoat. Their daughter was my best friend. Playing the scapegoat was the least I could do under the circumstances.'' Seventeen year old Hannah Gold was born mature – or so her parents tell her. She has dined in fancy restaurants, explored the most sophisticated corners ''Opening up new ways of thinking about the globe and lived a life shape of luxury. [[A Danger to Herself and Others by Alyssa Sheinmel|Full Review]] <!-- Mary Adkins -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1473673313things to come.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1473673313/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]''

I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Well, I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of technology in my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but I'm left with the feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of it is - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand.}}{{Frontpage|author=Sunny Singh|title=Hotel Arcadia|rating=3.5|genre=Thrillers |summary=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 rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, a wartime photographer and Abhi, the hotel manager. As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the hotel, he forms a 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 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.|isbn=086154742X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529153298|title=The List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the family 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1398524085|title=Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=5|genre=Crime| stylesummary="verticalCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, Etty. are all worried but -align: top; textstrangely -align: left;"her husband, Alec, is not. Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the body of Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in the river. It was an easy assumption for the police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the guilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1035906708|title=Diva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=[[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 father changed it to 'Callas' to make it more manageable in the States. When You Read This she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by Mary Adkins]]a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her elder sister, Jackie.}}{{Frontpage|author=Christopher Edge|title=Black Hole Cinema Club|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Lucas 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'. All big movie fans, they're looking forward to lots of exciting films, and many, many snacks! However, as the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to the next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the cinema, and to their real lives?|isbn=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.''

[[image: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}}{{Frontpage|author=James Sherwood Metts|title=Planet Storyland|rating=4.5star5|genre=Confident Readers|summary= Things have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of other, new ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and, along with it, all the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.jpg|linkisbn=Category:{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}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction{{Frontpage|author=A G Slatter|title=The Briar Book of the Dead|rating=5|genre=Fantasy|General Fiction]]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.''

Smith Simonyi Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Briar's, a family of witches who protect the town and Iris Massey worked together the wider world from the Darklands. Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to be born into her family for four yearsgenerations and as such since she was young, during which time Iris 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 Ellie takes her place beside her. As challenges come her way left , right and centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, putting her husband at the altar heart of a maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what to do as the Briar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat.|isbn=1803364548}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529900360|title=The Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=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 their wedding daydifficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the help of a psychologist only worked for a while. SmithFinally, it was Robin, meanwhileDelaware's partner, relied who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the man she loved needed. The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a remote property in Bel Air. He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to an extremely rich man and it's not the Italian. But which of them was the primary target?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=3.5|genre=Animals and Wildlife|summary=Siôn 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 Iris-call put on his father's life. 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, but he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as with so many students - been his attention dream since he was on making enough money a child. If anything, he'd wanted to cover his motherbe a professional footballer.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0861541774|title=A Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=DCI Domenic Jejeune's nursing home fees close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in WisconsinSingapore to meet up with an old ally, running Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and he killed a Ghurka. Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the man. Now he could be facing the branding death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn't help Danny at all.}}{{Frontpage|author=Alexander McCall Smith|title=The Perfect Passion Company|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in New York Edinburgh, run by Ness and losing money gambling when 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 pressures got too much business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for hima while. He was devastated when Iris developed Katie is coming out of a break up with a terminal cancer bad boyfriend, and died 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 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 collection of knits from toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of the 'long, cosy afternoons in front of the fire' variety. The projects are divided by the time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and more than twenty hours. All the projects are attractive, modern and useable. I perhaps show my age of thirty threewhen I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's me being picky.}}{{Frontpage|author=Dean Koontz|title=The Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=Paranormal|summary=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 surprised too when he discovered inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that Iris had the delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been writing sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a blog in the last six months good person. Spike is going to take care of her life Benny, and her final request will certainly take care of Smith 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.|isbn=1662500491}}{{Frontpage|author=Adam Stower|title=Murray and Bun|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers |summary=Murray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is that able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the two. But he gets 's a bad magician'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 blog published as regular back garden, but into a bookworld of frightening adventure and whiffs. [[When You Read This by Mary Adkinstime round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but he's turned up and he'll have to do…|isbn=0008561249}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0C47LV1PC|title=Fragility|author=Mosby Woods|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|Full Review]]summary= Can you make a ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, is the question should you make it? Or is the question if you did, would it land? The catch is that the answer for both could well be.... no.

<!''Fragility'' is set as the city of Portland, Oregon, cautiously begins to emerge from the restrictions imposed during the covid pandemic}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529431735|title=The Winter Visitor|author=James Henry|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=It'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 letter from his ex-wife, saying that she's ill and hasn't long to live. It's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his underwear and sent to a watery grave in the boot of a stolen Ford Sierra. Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?}}{{Frontpage|author=Alex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=The Glorious Race of Magical Beasts|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and in the evening a helper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – for there is a generation missing in the family. A few short years ago, Eli's parents were both lost to the titular race, a globe- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in the company of a magical beast. 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 only thing to possibly save his gran.|isbn=0571382231}}