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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, the charity shop 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.
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==Reviews of the The Best New Books==
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'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{Frontpage|class-"wikitable" cellpaddingauthor="15" <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE--><!-- Ann Patchett -->Sylvie Cathrall|-title=A Letter to the Luminous Deep| stylerating="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|5[[image:1526614960.jpg|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1526614960/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=[[The Dutch House by Ann Patchett]]Stig Abell|rating=4|genre==Crime[[image:5star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]] When we first meet Danny and Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the future of his life with his elder sistervet girlfriend, Maeve ConroyLivia and her daughter Diana, they're both living at The Dutch House with their parents and under the gaze of the portraits as moving in together would mean a lot of the former owners whose oil paintings still hang on the walls. It's a strange family dynamiccompromise: Cyril Conroy is distant and the closest Danny seems does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life to come move in with Livia or does Livia move to him Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is when he goes out with him on a Saturday collecting rents from properties the family owns. Elna Conroy is loving, but absent increasingly often until future she wants for herself and her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and putting the point comes when future on the children are told that she will not be returningback burner. In other circumstances this might have affected Maeve and Danny deeply, but their primary relationship is with each other. It's a bond which only death will break. [[The Dutch House by Ann Patchett|Full Review]]}}{{Frontpage<!-- Peter Lynas and Andy S Gray -->|isbn=1786482126|-title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)| styleauthor="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|Elly Griffiths[[image:0993340350.jpg|linkrating=http://www4.amazon.co.uk/dp/0993340350/ref5|genre=nosim?tagCrime|summary=thebookbagBuilders were demolishing an old house in Norwich -21]] | style="verticalthe site was going to hold seventy-align: top; textfive 'luxury' apartments -align: left;"|===[[The Very Rude Toytoise by Peter Lynas and Andy S Gray]]=== [[image:5starwhen they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:For Sharing|For Sharing]] It was one of those blissful days in the forest Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. Mrs Rabbit was collecting carrots because It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she wanted to make is pregnant with his child as a cakeresult of the one night they spent together some three months ago. Mrs Blue Bird was gathering twigs to build a nest. Mrs Spider was busily spinning a web Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to catch juicy fliessudden bouts of sickness. Mrs Squirrel was piling up acorns. And Mr Bear sat comfortably in a chair, fishing for lunch. What could be better? And then... [[}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008551324|title=The Very Rude Toytoise by Peter Lynas and Andy Devil You Know (D S GrayMax Craigie)|Full Review]]author=Neil Lancaster <!-- Peter Lynas and Rosie Alabaster -->|rating=4.5|-genre=Crime| stylesummary="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0993340318It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police.jpg|link=http://www Neither side likes or has any respect for the other.amazonBut Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death.co.uk/dp/0993340318/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Recipe for Making a Snowman by Peter Lynas This person, he promises, is someone big and Rosie Alabaster]]=== [[image:4starit will be worth the police doing what he wants.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:For Sharing|For Sharing]] Who knew 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? You can even get a recipe book which tells you how The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make a snowman - certain that DS Max Craigie and thereanyone who works with him is kept well away from what's no cooking involved! Mum, Dad and happening.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008405026|title=A Stranger in the two children are absolutely meticulous though: they're going to get everything right, even down to doing some mining to get the coal for the eyes, searching through the bits 'n bobs jar for buttons for the snowmanFamily (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=It's coat and picking out the perfect piece of headgearsixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. There's quite a choice available, but She was never found and the family decide on the bobble hat, presumably investigation ground to keep the snowman warma halt. The moth-eaten pair of mittens simply won't do Now, her mother, Helena, and a pair with purple and pink stripes her father are chosendead in their bed. [[Recipe for Making Initially, it looks like a Snowman by Peter Lynas straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and Rosie Alabaster|Full Review]] <!her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to be an open-and- Melanie Martin -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-alignshut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: top; text-align: center;"others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0571379877[[image:1789016304.jpg|linktitle=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789016304/refThe Kellerby Code|author=nosim?tagJonny Sweet|rating=thebookbag-21]]3.5|genre=Crime| stylesummary="verticalEdward Jevons is a working-align: top; textclass young man, obsessed with his upper-align: left;"|===[[War class friends, Robert and Love: A familyStanza. Robert's a theatre director. He's testament of anguishalso self-obsessed, demanding, endurance handsome and devotion entitled and uses Edward to run errands for him. Edward has been in occupied Amsterdam by Melanie Martin]]=== [[image:5starlove with Stanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[ 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:Category:History|History]], [[:Category:BiographyEdward is left to stumble upon the two of them kissing in a dark passageway.}}{{Frontpage|Biography]]author=Jo Callaghan|title=Leave No TraceMelanie Martin read about what happened to Dutch Jews |rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=When a man is found crucified on the top of a hill in occupied Amsterdam during World War II and was entranced by what she discoveredNuneaton, particularly in ''The Diary of Ann DCS Kat Frank'' but then realised that finds herself assigned to the case alongside her own familysidekick, the AI detective Lock. It's stories were equally fascinatingtheir first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. A hundred But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and seven thousand Jews were deported from the city during the war years, but only five thousand survived and Martin could not understand how this could be allowed to happen in a country with liberal values who were resistant very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to German occupationtheir AI Future Policing project. Most people believed that Will they be able to solve the occupation could never happen: even those who thought that case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the Germans might reach the city were convinced that they would soon be pushed backcase and, that the Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to escalate in the way that it didpotentially, but initial protests melted away as the organisers became more circumspect. It's an atrocity on out of a vast scale, but made up of tens of thousands of individual tragedies. [[War and Love: A family's testament of anguish, endurance and devotion in occupied Amsterdam by Melanie Martincareer?|Full Review]]isbn=139851120X}}<!-- Sedgwick -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=1399613073| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"Moral Injuries|author=Christie Watson[[image:1788542347|rating=4.jpg5|linkgenre=http://www.amazonThrillers|summary=Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century.co Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon.uk/dp/1788542347/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag 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 at a drug and alcohol-21]] | style="verticalfuelled party and it's going to end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Twenty-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Snowflakefive years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. This time, AZ by Marcus Sedgwick]]===it's their teenage children who are involved.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0241636604[[image:3.5star.jpg|linktitle=CategoryThe Trading Game:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary FictionA Confession|Literary Fiction]]author=Gary Stevenson This is |rating=4.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=If you were to bring up an image of a deepcity banker in your mind, interesting read unlike any book Iyou've read in quite some timere unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. The novel's story follows a young man named Ash in A hoodie and jeans replaces the process of joining a community of sick people in pin-stripe suit and his background is the curiously named town of SnowflakeEast End, where he was familiar with violence, Arizonapoverty and injustice. These people are sick, but it's not a sickness you've heard There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the London School ofEconomics. Instead, they're environmentally ill – affected by household chemicals Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and fabrics, pesticides, static electricity, and radiation – and their he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only ''cure'' is envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to stay in the town away from the real worldbe stupid. Though it's about a real place, the people in it are fictional. It really is It was his ability at what was, essentially, a place apart, quite literally cut off from the outside world – people are even required to decontaminate themselves thoroughly before becoming fully integratedcard game which got him an internship with Citibank. [[Snowflake Eventually, AZ by Marcus Sedgwick|Full Review]]this turned into permanent employment as a trader.}}<!-- Moyer -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=1035021803| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller[[image:178747920X.jpg|link|rating=http://www3.amazon.co.uk/dp/178747920X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 5| stylegenre="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"Crime|summary===[[Brightfall by Jaime Lee Moyer]]=== [[image:4It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]] She's back now because of a request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Freya's former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] Robin Hood is gone – denouncing both his former life dead and his love Marianthe circumstances seem suspicious, and retreating to a monastery – although no-one knows quite what led him to abandon all that he had builtsay the least. Marion's life since has Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been relatively quiet - but when her friends start dying, Marion is tasked by Father Tuck back to break the curse surrounding them and to save their lives. Setting off with a soldiervillage: Arthur, a Fey Lord and a sullen Robin Hoodshe feels, she becomes tangled let her down badly. Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the man or pursue the profession she loved. After the split, she worked in a maze of betrayals, complicated relationshipscafe, met and a vicious struggle for married James (on the throne…[[Brightfall by Jaime Lee Moyer|Full Review]]rebound from the love of her life, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.}}<!-- Hewitt -->{{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:1509896465.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1509896465/refrating=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 5| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Nightjar by Deborah Hewitt]]==genre=Science Fiction [[image:4.5star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]] ''The Nightjar'' is an unusual and exciting story. Alice Wyndham lives a normal life in London until she finds a box on her doorstep one morning and her life begins to unravel, fast. From that very moment, her life is flooded with magic, loss, expectation and particularly, betrayal. As everything around her shifts, all that she knows, all that she thinks she knows, must change. Who can she trust? Who must she trust? Who will she trust? More importantly, can she even trust herself? [[The Nightjar by Deborah Hewitt|Full Review]] <!-- McGee -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0241365953.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0241365953/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[American Royals by Katharine McGee]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Two and a half centuries ago, America won the Revolutionary War and General George Washington was offered the crown. Today, the House of Washington still sit on the thrown with Princess Beatrice next in line. Beatrice's whole life has been building up to her ruling the United States and the time for her reign is imminent. [[American Royals by Katharine McGee|Full Review]] <!-- Nicola Monaghan -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0857308025.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07VRSX3SN/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Dead Flowers (Dr Sian Love) by Nicola Monaghan]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] It was more than a little bit of a surprise to Dr Sian Love (and the rest of the relatives) when her uncle Bobby left her his home - a former pub called The Loggerheads in the Narrow Marsh area of Nottingham. Then it was a shock when she found two bodies in the cellar before she'd even got settled in - and managed to break a bone in her foot in the course of making the discovery. They'd been there for some time, but who - exactly - were the man and the woman, wrapped in each other's arms? Having spent ten years on the Murder Squad, ending up as a DCI she knows what's going to happen next, but she's not prepared for quite how personal it's all going to get. [[Dead Flowers (Dr Sian Love) by Nicola Monaghan|Full Review]] <!-- Renee Watson -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1526613689.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1526613689/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Some Places More Than Others by Renee Watson]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]] Amara's twelfth birthday is coming up and she wants nothing more for it than a trip to New York to meet her father's side of the family. But her father hasn't spoken to Amara's grandfather for many years - Amara doesn't know why - and both her parents are resistant to the idea. But Amara is nothing if not persistent and a school family history project provides her with the perfect wedge. Eventually, her parents give in and off she goes... with a secret mission from her mother: to bring her father and Grandpa Earl back together again. [[Some Places More Than Others by Renee Watson|Full Review]] <!-- Graves -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:194927201X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/194927201X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Lakes of Mars by Merritt Graves]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] Aaron Sheridan doesn't want to live anymore. His entire family is dead by his own hand, killed in a shuttle crash. Unable to deal with the guilt, he signs up for the Fleet expecting a fatal deployment to the Rim War, but instead ends up at their most prestigious command school, Corinth Station... [[Lakes of Mars by Merritt Graves|Full Review]] <!-- Ryan -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:191280493X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/191280493X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[Coming of Age by Danny Ryan]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]] ''He began writing novels and poetry at the age of twelve, but it was to take him a further forty-eight years to realise that he wasn’t very good at either. Consistently unpublished for all that time, he remains a shining example of hope over experience...'' ''This a memoir from someone you have never heard of - but will feel like you have.'' [[Coming of Age by Danny Ryan|Full Review]] <!-- Maxwell N Andrews -->|-| style=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:1983376353.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1983376353/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''|===[[Lighthouse of the Netherworlds by Maxwell N Andrews]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]], [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] The phrase about never trusting a book by its cover is something I put on a par with comments about Marmite. You're supposed to love it or hate it and I'm halfway between, and likewise the old adage is halfway true. From the cover of this I had a child-friendly fantasy, what with that name and that attractive artwork of an attractive girl reaching for an attractive water plant. That was only built on by the initial fictionalised quotes, with their non-standard spelling, as if texts of scripture in this book's world predated our standardised literacy. But why was I two chapters in and just finding more and more characters, both human and animal, and more and more flashbacks, and no proof that this was what I'd bought in for? [[Lighthouse of the Netherworlds by Maxwell N Andrews|Full Review]] <!-- Ellory -->|-| style=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:1542007232.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1542007232/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''|===[[The Rabbit Girls by Anna Ellory]]=== [[image:3star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] Berlin, 1989. Miriam is in the middle of a city freshly united, with the Wall newly broken down and people able to cross at liberty for the first time in decades. She is in the middle of such euphoria, but cannot feel it, for she has not left her father's apartment in weeks, nursing him as he lies dying. One standard bed-bath, however, is very different, when he gasps the name ''Frieda'' that she does not recognise – and she sees for the first time ever a tattoo for his camp inmate identity under his watch. One bombshell outside, then, and two inside... [[The Rabbit Girls by Anna Ellory|Full Review]] <!-- Tove Jansson -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0954899520.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0954899520/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[A Winter Book by Tove Jansson]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]] Tove Jansson's worldwide fame lasts on the Moomin books, written in the 1940s and later becoming television characters of the simplicity, naivety and sheer 'goodness' that would later produce flowerpot men or teletubbies. Simple drawings, simple stories, simple goodness. What is often forgotten outside of her native Finland is that she was a serious writer…that she wrote for adults as well as children…and that she had a feeling for the natural world and the simple life that not only informed those child-like trolls but went far beyond any fantasy of how the world might be. [[A Winter Book by Tove Jansson|Full Review]] <!-- Whitlock -->|-| style=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:1782692177.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1782692177/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''|===[[The Collective by Lindsey Whitlock]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]] ''Illinois Territory, Collective Homesteads of America.'' Some people live in sunken houses, buried into hillsides to disguise how large their property is at times of austerity. Others are called Foresters, for they live and work in trees. When the small area the Foresters live in is placed under compulsory purchase, the residents are given a pitiful amount to clear out before they get manfully cleared out. Our hero, Elwyn, has just left the trees for the Hills, to live with an uncle and learn their ways – he's just of age to decide things for himself, and he has decided to see how the other half lives... [[The Collective by Lindsey Whitlock|Full Review]] <!-- Andre Pronovost -->|-| style=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:099944235X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/099944235X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''| ===[[The Man Who Killed Hitler by Andre Pronovost]]=== [[image:3star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] Germany is split. Some of her is in favour of Hitler and the Nazis, but much isn't. Some of her is stuck to the east fighting the Soviets, but some will soon have to be on the other front, against the Americans coming into the continent to put things right as they see it. Finding out that the war to the east isn't working, due to Hitler's tactical ineptitude and inability to heed advice, some people reckon Stalin is five seasons away from being in Berlin. The only way to shore things up, and repair the splits, is to kill Hitler, and luckily the Baron Nicholas is the man to do it. He's aristocratic enough, he knows enough people in industry, society and other circles of power, so once he's succeeded he might be able to keep a German presence in Europe. But will he still be able to keep the capitalists and communists from meeting in the middle? [[The Man Who Killed Hitler by Andre Pronovost|Full Review]] <!-- Ann Cleeves -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1509889566.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1509889566/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[The Long Call (Two Rivers) by Ann Cleeves]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:LGBT Fiction|LGBT Fiction]] When we first meet DI Matthew Venn he's at his father's funeral, although 'at' rather overstates the proximity. He sees everyone - his mother and the preacher included from a distance - but he doesn't go it. He wouldn't be welcome. Those attending are part of the Barum Brethren and the teenage Matthew was thrown out when he told the congregation how wrong they were in their beliefs. It coincided with him leaving university and joining the police force. The announcement of Matthew's marriage to Jonathan Church was in the local paper and whilst he doesn't know if his father saw it, he can't imagine that it will have gone down well. [[The Long Call (Two Rivers) by Ann Cleeves|Full Review]] <!-- Day -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0241351391.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0241351391/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Max Kowalski Didn't Mean It by Susie Day]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] When Max’s dad finds himself in a spot of hot water, he disappears for a few days, leaving Max in charge of his three younger sisters, Thelma, Louise and Ripley. Max has no problem with stepping up to fill his dad’s shoes and be the man in charge, but when his dad still doesn’t come home, he starts to panic that interfering grown ups will realise that the children are home-alone, and that they will step in and separate the family. So Max takes his sisters to Wales, to hide out in a friend’s cottage. It won’t be for long, surely? Because his dad wouldn’t miss Christmas, would he? [[Max Kowalski Didn't Mean It by Susie Day|Full Review]] <!--Merritt Graves -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1949272028.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1949272028/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Sunlight 24 by Merritt Graves]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category: Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] If the game wasn’t fair before, it’s definitely not fair now. Or so thinks Dorian Waters, part of the ever-expanding portion of humanity who can’t afford the nano-implant and genetic augmentation regimen known as Revision. And because he can’t afford Revision, he can’t get into college, he can’t get a job. And when he sees the brilliant and mesmerizing Lena for the first time, he knows he doesn’t have a chance with her, either. And so, Dorian robs a house with his best friend, Ethan. Then they do it again. They’re able to keep at it until they have enough money saved up for their first Revision. Their initial choices in self-enhancement start impacting their future choices, which in turn impact their future Revision––on and on in a downward spiral of self-destruction... [[Sunlight 24 by Merritt Graves|Full Review]] <!-- Stephen Booth -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:075157628X.jpg|link=http://www''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.amazon.co.uk/dp/075157628X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|''
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=[[Drowned Lives 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|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 - 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 she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by Stephen Booth]]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.''
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 council officer Chris Buckley 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 approached by an old man 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 wants his 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 healing the swimming pool of a decadesremote property in Bel Air. He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to an extremely rich man and it' old 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-call put on his father's life. When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a family rift friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the job for him. Before long, hewas at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a child. If anything, he'd wanted to be a professional footballer.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0861541774|title=A Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=DCI Domenic Jejeune's reluctant close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to get meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. Maik was involvedin 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 then Chris 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 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 reluctant a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to get involved all the online apps in anything but providing a pint in the pub these daysmore personal, tailored service. It Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could just be come and look after the way that he business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. Katie iscoming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or the fact that hein 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 just lost both his parents within three months ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of each otherknits from toys to blankets. HeSome will be quick knits - others are of the 's currently existing 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 family home projects are attractive, modern and wondering useable. I perhaps show my age when heI wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's going 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 be made redundant from his job with home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the council. thing that has trashed his house! The short answer 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 one 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 clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Spike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny'soons 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 fancy next of the two. Chris does But he's a bad magician's cat, so his best to deter 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 old manregular back garden, but into a world of frightening adventure and whiffs. This time round itdrops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but he's not before turned up and he's left ll have to do…|isbn=0008561249}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0C47LV1PC|title=Fragility|author=Mosby Woods|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary= Can you make a lot of papers with his neighbour. Then ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, is the question should you make it? Or is the old man question if you did, would it land? The catch is murdered and that the police come calling on Chrisanswer for both could well be.... no. [[Drowned Lives by Stephen Booth|Full Review]]