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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]].<!-- Clark -->{{Frontpage|-author=Sylvie Cathrall| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|A Letter to the Luminous Deep[[image:034901082X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/034901082X/ref=nosim?tagrating=thebookbag-21]] 5| stylegenre="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"Science Fiction|summary===[[In The Full Light There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of the Sun by Clare Clark]]=them.|isbn=0356522776}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008517061|title=Death in a Lonely Place[[image:5star.jpg|linkauthor=Category:{{{Stig Abell|rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction=4|genre=Crime|Literary Fiction]]summary= Former Metropolitan Police detective, [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] In 1930's BerlinJake Johnson, three people obsessed with art find themselves swept up into a scandalhas settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. Emmeline, There’s perhaps a wayward young student, Julius, an anxious middle-aged art expertlittle uncertainty about the future of his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and Rachmannher daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a mysterious art dealer, live in the politically turbulent Weimar Berlin, and soon find themselves whipped lot of compromise: does Jake give up into excitement over the surprise discovery of thirtyhis off-two previously unknown paintings by Vincent Van Gogh. Based on a true story grid and unfolding through relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the subsequent rise of Hitler future she wants for herself and her daughter? For the Nazis, moment they’re enjoying life in the present and putting the discovery of future on the art allows these characters to explore authenticity, vanity and self-delusionback burner. [[In The Full Light of the Sun by Clare Clark|Full Review]]}}{{Frontpage<!-- Ireland -->|isbn=1786482126|-title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)| styleauthor="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5[[image:1789090873.jpg|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789090873/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Crime| stylesummary="verticalBuilders were demolishing an old house in Norwich -align: top; textthe site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments -align: left;"|===[[Dread Nation by Justina Ireland]]=== [[image:5starwhen they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]] Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, [[:Category:Horror|Horror]] Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It''Two days after I was born … the dead rose up and started to walk on s difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as a battlefield in a small town in Pennsylvania called Gettysburg '' Dread Nation narrates result of the unconventional life of Jane McKeene who was born days one night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before the dead began long, not least because Ruth is prone to walk the streetssudden bouts of sickness. An event which in interrupting the civil war between the states altered American history forever}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008551324|title=The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4. In the changed world, minorities are forced into conscription and under 5|genre=Crime|summary=It's unusual for anyone from the new Native and Negro Re-education Act children are placed in combat schools where they are trained extensively Hardie family to destroy approach the dead once and police. Neither side likes or has any respect for allthe other. For Jane But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and other girls like her, there he's prepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is however the opportunity buried and who was responsible for a better life by being employed as an attendanther death. With deadly capabilities and perfect etiquette This person, attendants protect those higher in society he promises, is someone big and are valued above all elseit will be worth the police doing what he wants. [[Dread Nation by Justina Ireland|Full Review]] <!-- Arnold -->|-| style= And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date. Not much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she'width: 10%; verticals even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded -align: top; text-align: center;'make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008405026|title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)[[image:1789016525.jpg|linkauthor=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789016525/refJane Casey|rating=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 5| stylegenre=Crime|summary=It''verticals sixteen years since nine-align: top; textyear-align: left;''|===[[Betrayed by Geoffrey Arnold]]=== [[image:3old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to a halt.5star Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in their bed.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] In Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to be an extension of open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the story begun by Geoffrey Arnold explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent'Ripped Apart''s boss, he continues to tell the story of the Quantum twinsUna Burt) are less convinced. Born on a parallel world, these genetically identical twins interfered with an experiment and were hurtled through space-time to our earth - and a series of adventures ensued in the following books}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0571379877|title=The Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=3. When we rejoin them in ''Betrayed'' we find Tullia struggling to adapt to life in the bush 5|genre=Crime|summary=Edward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper- adopted by a Bushman family class friends, Robert and made part of a tribeStanza. Twin Qwelby however, is not doing so well Robert's a theatre director. He's also self- shocked by the violence on the earth. Rescued by an old friendobsessed, demanding, he then tries handsome and entitled and uses Edward to help a girl called Xaala - but her ulterior motives may well prove run errands for him. Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to drive a wedge between the twins as they try to reconnectRobert... [[Betrayed by Geoffrey Arnold|Full Review]] <!-- Pamela Brookes -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align 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: center;"Edward is left to stumble upon the two of them kissing in a dark passageway.}}{{Frontpage|author=Jo Callaghan[[image:1949471004.jpg|linktitle=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1949471004/refLeave No Trace|rating=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 4| stylegenre="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"Crime|summary===[[Dog on When a Log Chapter Books: Step 1 by Pamela Brookes]]=== [[image:4starman 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.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Dyslexia Friendly|Dyslexia Friendly]] It's their first live case together, [[:Category:Emerging Readers|Emerging Readers]] What do you do having previously been very successful with several cold cases. But when your child has dyslexia and you need books which will help them to achieve the wonder that there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is reading? 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. You can risk buying early readers, but Will they be able to solve the sounds case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the book might not be the ones you've been working on case and encountering words which are just too challenging can have more , potentially, out of a negative effect on the young dyslexic than a child without that problem. You need to be able to buy books at a reasonable price which concentrate on what you've been working on, without anything else being thrown into the mixcareer?|isbn=139851120X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1399613073|title=Moral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=4. You need a story which engages the young mind 5|genre=Thrillers|summary=Olivia, Laura and you need stages which progress steadily through Anjali met on the learning process without there being any large jumps. Some online support first day of medical school and games wouldn't go amiss, eithertheir friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Reading - and ''learning'' Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to read - should be a pleasurecardiothoracic surgeon. It should be ''fun'' Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. [[Dog on Anjali is the free spirit of the group and she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they're at a Log Chapter Books: Step 1 by Pamela Brookes|Full Review]] <!drug and alcohol-- Kazan -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0749024801fuelled party and it's going to end in tragedy.jpg|link=http://www We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences.amazon Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends.co This time, it's their teenage children who are involved.uk/dp/0749022132/ref}}{{Frontpage|isbn=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 0241636604| styletitle="vertical-alignThe Trading Game: top; text-align: left;"A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=[[The Phoenix If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of Florence by Philip Kazan]]=== [[image:5starsomeone like Gary Stevenson.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]] A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] Deep in the Tuscan countryside of fifteenth century Italywhere he was familiar with violence, Onoria survives a massacre that destroys her family poverty and homeinjustice. Alone in There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the forest, she meets a band London School of soldiers who, believing her to be a boy train Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and develop her – and the determined Onoria becomes he has a mercenary – desperate to avoid any situation in facility with numbers which she may feel vulnerable againmost of us can only envy. Along the way, she meets ex-soldier Celavini, whose journey He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to Florence sees him investigating two brutal murdersbe stupid. As he digs further and uncovers links to It was his own family historyability at what was, essentially, Celavini must revisit the past he shares a card game which got him an internship with OnoriaCitibank. Eventually, in the hope that they can lay the ghosts of their shared history to rest, before it's too late..this turned into permanent employment as a trader. [[The Phoenix of Florence by Philip Kazan|Full Review]]}}<!-- Watson and Hagan -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=1035021803| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller[[image:1526600862.jpg|linkrating=http://www3.amazon.co.uk/dp/1526600862/ref5|genre=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Crime| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[Watch Us Rise by Renee Watson and Ellen Hagan]]=== [[image:4starIt's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]]  Jasmine and Chelsea go to a high school with an excellent reputation She's back now because of a request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. It places strong emphasis on extra curricular activities Freya's former mentor and all pupils are encouraged to join clubs Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and associations. But Jasmine is fed up with her drama group because she's always typecast in the loudcircumstances seem suspicious, "hysterical" roles (Jasmine is black and resents to say the angry black woman trope)least. And Chelsea is fed with poetry club because Arthur was the only poetry it ever covers was written by men who lived and died years ago. Soreason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, along with friends Isaac and Nadineshe feels, let her down badly. Even though they start a new group called Write Like a Girl. [[Watch Us Rise by Renee Watson were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the man or pursue the profession she loved. After the split, she worked in a cafe, met and Ellen Hagan|Full Review]] <!-- Rachel Lynch -->married James (on the rebound from the love of her life, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.}}{{Frontpage|-isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover| styletitle="widthAll Tomorrow's Futures: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)[[image:B07KTQTW1L.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07KTQTW1L/refrating=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 5| stylegenre="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Bitter Edge (D I Kelly Porter) by Rachel Lynch]]===Science Fiction[[image:4star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] The girl had once been a promising athlete, but injury and then addiction ''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to prescription painkillers changed her completelycome. Eventually she was driven to commit suicide in the most gruesome way - by throwing herself off a cliff in the Lake District. It worried DI Kelly Porter, but she had no reason to investigate, although several of her cases keep bringing her back to the girl's school and a darker story emerged. One of the pupils goes missing at the local fair: her best friend is the girl who has accused a teacher of luring her to his flat and then sexually assaulting her. It seems that the teacher also has paedophilia on his computer, but the downloading eerily coincides with the girl's visit to his flat. What is going on, but - most importantly - where is Faith? [[Bitter Edge (D I Kelly Porter) by Rachel Lynch|Full Review]] <!-- Angela Marsons -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786817721.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786817721/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Dead Memories (D I Kim Stone) by Angela Marsons]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] Someone is recreating every traumatic event in Kim Stone's past, starting with the death of her twin when she was six years old. Some of the events, or at least the details of them, are not public knowledge, but whoever is behind this has a wealth of information and is using it to evil intent. That might seem bad enough, but the brutal truth of the matter is that people - innocent people - are dying so that these dramas can be recreated. 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 the effect it's having on her for long enough, she can sort it out... Or can she? [[Dead Memories (D I Kim Stone) by Angela Marsons|Full Review]] <!-- Hurwitz -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:071818548X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/071818548X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Out of the Dark by Gregg Hurwitz]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] 1997. Evan Smoak is 19 years old ''trained up, mission ready. And yet untested.'' He's in a foreign city on an officially unofficial mission, which he executes with all the impeccable training that his youth belies. Evan Smoak is Orphan X. [[Out of the Dark by Gregg Hurwitz|Full Review]] <!-- Jewell -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:178475627X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/178475627X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Watching You by Lisa Jewell]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] A teenage boy spies on a teenage girl from his bedroom window. Down the road, a woman is convinced she knows a man in the village and that he is following her. Meanwhile, a young woman has moved back home after some time abroad, and develops a fascination with her new neighbour. The man's wife, meanwhile, engages the services of the young woman's husband in some work around the house. Oh, and that teenage boy? He's her son. And the woman with the conspiracy theories? She's the mother of the girl he's spying on. Plus, the man she thinks is out to get her is the woman's husband (and is also the new headteacher at her daughter's school). Whichever way you look at it, there's a lot of watching going on in this book. [[Watching You by Lisa Jewell|Full Review]] <!-- Cooch -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0578444305.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0578444305/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[Fish Seeking Bicycle by Kate Cooch]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]] This novel is set about a hundred years into the future. The world has been decimated by nuclear conflict and what's left of the old United States is run from Center City. Women run this world and it is very proud of having defeated the old patriarchy. Men must behave appropriately and deferentially at all times and, if they don't, are medicalised to keep their baser instincts under control. And if that doesn't work, they're sent to work camps, away from open society, or even worse: expelled to the wilderness beyond the Central Authority's borders. [[Fish Seeking Bicycle by Kate Cooch|Full Review]] <!-- James Atkinson -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:B07ML4Q55J.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07ML4Q55J/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Home Workout for Beginners: 6 Week Fitness Program with Fat Burning Workouts for Long Term Weight Loss by James Atkinson]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Lifestyle|Lifestyle]] James Atkinson has all the qualifications which you need in a workout instructor and he looks the part. He's been actively involved in the health and fitness arena for more than twenty years and he spent nine years as a member of 9 Parachute Regiment, Royal Engineers. He has another qualification which means a lot to me: he's been on the other side. There was a time when he was overweight and not particularly strong. As a child he was slow to develop. This means that he ''understands'' what it's like and he knows how his clients feel: it's much more helpful than the twenty-something who was born super-fit and with an attitude problem. [[Home Workout for Beginners: 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:1999308719.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1999308719/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Live Forever Manual: Science, ethics and companies behind the new anti-aging treatments by Adrian Cull]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=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]]''

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.| styleisbn="vertical086154742X}}{{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 -align: top; textto anyone.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1398524085|title=Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=Charlotte 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 - strangely -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=[[Song 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 Dead (DI Westphall) States. 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 Douglas Lindsay]]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:3Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks.5starMira, 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.jpgBut 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.|linkisbn=Category:0008664730}}{{Frontpage|author=James Sherwood Metts|title=Planet Storyland|rating=4.5|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.|isbn=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:Crime{{Frontpage|author=A G Slatter|title=The Briar Book of the Dead|rating=5|genre=Fantasy|Crime]]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.''

A 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 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 generations and as such since she was young, her training as a steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the town's leader, and 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 at the 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 difficult 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. Finally, it was Robin, Delaware's partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the man walked into she loved needed. The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a police station remote property in EstoniaBel Air. He told 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 tale 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-call put on his father's life. When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of having doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the job for him. Before long, he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as with so many students - been held prisonerhis dream since he was a child. If anything, he'd wanted to be a professional footballer.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0861541774|title=A Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, used Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, 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 death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a donor for organ harvesting 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 Edinburgh, run by Ness and sperm donationoperating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. X-rays Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and medical examination bear look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. Katie is 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 part of his new storyfrom Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but this manwith 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 man he says he is 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 when I wonder about 'social- John Baden media- died twelve years agoworthy 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. His body was identified by He loses his job, he loses his partnerfiancee, Emily King and by his parents house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin- sized object to his home, and then it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the body was buriedthing 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. Sofortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is this man? clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. DI Ben Westphall Spike is sent going to Estonia because take 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.|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 able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his background in MI6, but that brings some baggage with it toofancy next of the two. Westphall cannotBut he'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, will notinto the regular back garden, get on but into a planeworld of frightening adventure and whiffs. His last experience of flight This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was more than enough , 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|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 one lifetimeboth could well be.... no. [[Song of the Dead (DI Westphall) by Douglas Lindsay|Full Review]]

<!''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}}