Open main menu

Changes

no edit summary
<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.
Want to find out more [[About Us|about us]]? __NOTOC__
==Reviews of the The Best New Books==
'''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by category]]. '''<br>
'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].''' <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE--> '''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].
{{Frontpage
|author=Sylvie Cathrall|title=A Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary= There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of them.|isbn=16098093780356522776}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008517061|title=Death in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary= 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 vet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a lot of 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 the future she wants for herself and her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and putting the future on the back burner.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1786482126|title=The Rabbits' RebellionJanus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Ariel Dorfman and Chris RiddellElly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=WeBuilders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury're in apartments - when they discovered the realm bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the rabbitsone night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, only not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008551324|title=The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the police where the foxes body of a missing person is buried and wolves have taken overwho was responsible for her death. King WolfThis person, His Wolfinesshe promises, has declared is someone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the rabbits donremainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date. Not much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't exist, but think so and she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - 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 pesky birds have spread rumours Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from awing that her bed one summer night. She was never found and the bunnies investigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in fact still aroundtheir bed. Demanding a propaganda spreeInitially, King Wolf orders it looks like a humble monkey 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 his official portrait photographer, but whatever an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the poor innocent monkey prints out explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0571379877|title=The Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=Edward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his darkroom there is upper-class friends, Robert and Stanza. Robert's a distinct leporine hinttheatre director. He's also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for him. Can King Wolf succeed Edward has been in proving himself victorious, can the rabbits show love with Stanza since their continued existence university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to all who need 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 know stumble upon the two of it – and what can the poor monkey caught them kissing in between do?a dark passageway.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Innosanto NagaraJo Callaghan|title=M is for MovementLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=Emerging ReadersCrime|summary=Set When a man is found crucified on the top of a hill in IndonesiaNuneaton, in DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the not too distant pastcase alongside her sidekick, this is a story about social changethe AI detective Lock. Dealing It's their first live case together, having previously been very successful with some difficult issues, such as political corruption and nepotism, the book is neither boring nor preachyseveral cold cases. It educates gentlyBut when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with vibrant, challenging illustrations, a potential serial killer and it portrays how social movements need people who will try, even when it seems a very high profile case that they will faildraws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. The message is a positive one; that Will they be able to solve the case in an increasingly uncertain worldtime, we do still have or will Kat find herself taken off the power to instigate change.case and, potentially, out of a career?|isbn=1609809351139851120X
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=17807240471399613073|title=A Dictionary of Interesting and Important DogsMoral Injuries|author=Peter J ConradiChristie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=PetsThrillers|summary=I struggle 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. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to resist be a book about dogs, but I did wonder why this one was so ''thin'': given that I've never encountered cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a dog who wasn't interesting or important - perfectionist and probably both, I was expecting a massive tometrauma doctor. But ''A Dictionary Anjali is the free spirit of Interesting the group and Important Dogs'' is actually 'she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they're at a rich compendium of the world's most significant drug and beloved dogs'' alcohol-fuelled party and it's certainly a rich treasure trovegoing to end in tragedy. We begin with Peter J Conradidon's four collies: Cloudy, Skyt know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Bradley and Max Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. They're consecutive rather than simultaneous dogsThis time, but what comes over is Conradiit's love for each and every one of them. I knew that I was in safe handstheir teenage children who are involved.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=17857692940241636604|title=Man at the Window (Detective Cardilini)The Trading Game: A Confession|author=Robert JeffreysGary Stevenson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It was his ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1035021803
|title=The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder
|author=C L Miller
|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=It's when we read that a young boy is creeping reluctantly twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to a teacherthe English country village where she grew up. She's bedroom one October night that we realise something is badly wrongback now because of a request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Nowadays you Freya's former mentor and Carole'might'' hope that something would be done about it fairly quickly but this was 1965 s close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and child abuse the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. Arthur was generally regarded as malicious mischief on the part of reason why Freya had not been back to the childvillage: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. The boy would be safe that night Even though - albeit they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the most horrific fashionman or pursue the profession she loved. When he reached Captain Edmund's bedroom he found After the man dead split, she worked in a cafe, met and married James (on the floor, rebound from the top love of his skull missing. The school's initial reaction her life, who was that this was a dreadful accident: there had been a cull of kangaroos in some nearby fields murdered) and Freya and it was obviously a stray bullet which had killed the CaptainJames have now divorced.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1786695227AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=Invisible in a Bright LightAll Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Sally GardnerBenjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersScience Fiction|summary=The beginning ''Opening up new ways of this excellent story will leave thinking about the reader shape of things to come.'' 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 little confused: who is the man few decades of technology in the green suit, my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with what is 's advantageous to me but I'm left with the Reckoning, and why are rows feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of people in a cave? But stick with it – Ms Gardner is very cleverly letting us experience - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the same disorientation as our heroine. We watch in dismay as possibilities and the strange man, probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who seems to have no eyes, does his best to persuade her to answer his questionsknows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. But for some reason Celeste, despite her bewilderment, remains wary I needed people I knew I could trust and gives nothing awaywho could deliver information in a way I could understand.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1912374854Sunny Singh|title=Violet|author=S J I HollidayHotel Arcadia
|rating=3.5
|genre=Thrillers|summary=I've never been but understand that travelling The Hotel Arcadia is all about meeting new people and forming instantaneous bonds with people a luxury hotel in often chance situationsan unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Well that's exactly what happens when Hiding from the two main/only characters meet in a travel agency in Beijing - Carrie terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is unsuccessfully trying to get Sam, a refund on an extra ticket for wartime photographer and Abhi, the Trans-Siberian train and Violet is trying hotel manager. As Abhi continues to try to unsuccessfully buy a ticket care remotely for the same sold-out journey. As residents who are still alive in the two team uphotel, travelling through Mongoliahe forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, Serbia and into Russia, it couldkeeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what've been s happened through her photography. Although they only ever talk over the start of a beautiful phone, their friendship but this a thriller after all so it quickly becomes a tale of obsession, manipulation grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and toxic friendshipsthey both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists.|isbn=086154742X
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=19123748381529153298|title=Nothing Important Happened TodayThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Will CarverJennie Godfrey|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Nothing Important Happened Today It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is a darkPrime Minister. (A woman? I mean, twistedhonestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, difficult readthough. Women have been disappearing. Stories about cults often are Well, they've been murdered, but this is different; itto have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's written with a sense of style overheard that is quite unlike anything Iher father wants to move the family 'Down South've read before. I can When you't remember ever having read re from Yorkshire, Down South is a novel with such an oddfrightening, distinctive narrative voiceforeign place, best avoided. While a slim For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and relatively small book, she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the slowdangers or that her Mum's stopped talking -moving nature of the plot makes it feel far larger than its 276 pagesto anyone.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn= williamabbey1398524085|title=The Pursuit of William AbbeyHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Claire NorthNicci French|rating=3.5|genre=ParanormalCrime|summary=When William Abbey fails to prevent the lynching of a young boy in 1880Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband's South Africafiftieth 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, he finds himself cursed by the grieving motheris not. A naïve English Doctor Shortly afterwards, he slowly learns Etty and Greg, find the weight body of the curse upon himGreg's father, as the shadow of the dead boy begins to follow him across the world. Never stoppingDuncan Ackerley, always growing – it crosses oceans and mountains in pursuit of Williamthe river. As he finds himself unable It was an easy assumption for the police to resist speaking the truths make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he hears in others, he also learns that couldn't stand the dark shadow is deadly – guilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but get on with their lives and seeks to kill the one he loves the most…wonder about what really happened.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=16437850361035906708|title=The Wondrous ApothecaryDiva|author=Mary E MartinDaisy Goodwin|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Those who have known Alexander WainwrightWe tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, the landscape artist famous for his Turner prize winning ''The Hay Wagon''but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, and RinaldoNew York, renowned conceptual artist would say that they're chalk in December 1923 and cheese, if not sworn enemiesonly moved to Athens when she was thirteen. If youHer original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 've watched the relationship, as has our narrator, art dealer Jamie Helmsworth, youCallas'd have said that they were magnets, drawing and repulsing each other to make it more manageable in equal measurethe States. Wainwright When she was at the socially acceptable end of the artistic continuum, but with Rinaldo it was all too obvious back in Athens - supposedly so that there she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was but raised under the Nazi occupation by a fine dividing line between conceptual art mother who mercilessly exploited her and public nuisance. As time has worn onmade no secret of her preference for her elder sister, he's frequently been brought to the attention of the police. On this latest occasion we see him charged with arson and theft of ''The Hay Wagon''Jackie.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Mary H.K. ChoiChristopher Edge|title=Permanent RecordBlack 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=Pablo''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.'' Rosevear, a college drop-outremote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, is working at 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 New York bodega. He's massively in debttrap to end the wrecking, hethey capture the island's avoiding his mother, leader and he finds his joy in creating unusual snacks with random ingredients! Whilst working one evening, heMira's surprised father. Desperate to discover that the girl he save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is chatting with as charming as he serves is a super-famous pop star secretive andwith only coordinates to guide her, as unlikely as it may seem, they start she sets off in search of a relationshipfamily secret that lies buried deep in the sea. With one character who is trying very hard not only nine days to be seen or noticed by anyoneunearth what might save her father, and as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the other who is seen and followed and hounded by everyone all over heart of the world, itsmuggler's an interesting clash as they come together. This isn't just a love story thoughterritory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and actually it's really just Pab's story, about the journey he takes in his life via his meet-up with Leanna Smartones she holds most dear.|isbn=03490034590008664730
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1609809319James Sherwood Metts|title=Long-Haired Cat-Boy Cub|author=Etgar Keret, Aviel Basil and Sondra Silverston (translator)Planet Storyland|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=One day Things have been a boy is in the zoo with his father, when bit sticky for the man gets called away on urgent businessEarthlings. The boy isn't hustled into a cab AI and taken home firstautomation have been proceeding apace, though, no – heoften replacing jobs they's given hot dog money, re paid to do and taxi money, and told other tasks that took time to just stick around on his own and enjoy himselfaccomplish. Well, it's no surprise that the orphan-for-an-afternoon sensation the lad feels doesn't make him happy, Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and so he thinks starting to think of a species name for himselfother, new ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and curls himself up into an empty cage, as if he were a new exhibit. And along with it's then , all the drama begins… many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|isbn=1736128426
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1785785516Matthew Tree|title=Fucking Good Manners|author=Simon GriffinWe'll Never Know|rating=4.5|genre=LifestyleLiterary Fiction|summary=Manners maketh manTimothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, they say. It certainly makes life easier if everybody abides by a set drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of conventions, some being exceptional at any of which are ages old his artistic passions all failed miserably and other which have evolved over timewho had endless crises of self confidence. Manners are not about how much So Tim applied himself to tip or how you should behave if you get an invitation to Buckingham Palacehis studies, they have nothing to do with class or financial status: they're about getting the basics right before we try to deal with more difficult matters. Of course we all have more relaxed manners when we're with family cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and friends, set himself high but it's best if we learn to distinguish between our public and private lives and to act appropriately. ''Fucking Good Manners'' aims to help us on the wayachievable ambitions.|isbn= B0CVFXPGP8
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0008324859A G Slatter|title=Fowl Twins|author=Eoin ColferThe Briar Book of the Dead
|rating=5
|genre=Confident ReadersFantasy|summary=Relax'' 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, everyone – our old friend Artemis may be off planetall mine, but the baddies arenat last. I just want to enjoy it for a while.''t getting  Within a remote mountain pass, far away with skulduggery any time soon because they now have not one but two members from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Fowl 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 contend with. Those cute little twins are now eleven (be born into her family for generations andas such since she was young, frankly, cute no longer) her training as a steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and in thispotions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, their first independent adventureEllie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, they meet a troll and without even trying manage to make two deadly enemies: a nobleman obsessed with immortality whatever the cost (to other people)town's leader, and an unusual interrogator-nunEllie takes her place beside her. The boys are chased, kidnappedAs challenges come her way left, arrested right and even killed (though not for long)centre, all Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the help dead, putting her at the heart of a maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from one trainee fairyfamily 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=14722557981529900360|title=The Bad Fire (Bob Skinner)Ghost Orchid|author=Quintin JardineJonathan Kellerman|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Nine years ago local councillor Marcia Brown took her own life after being accused of shoplifting from a local supermarket. Ithadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's always fault that Alex Delaware had been assumed 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 she couldnthere were only open-and-shut cases which didn't live with need the shamehelp of a psychologist only worked for a while. People were surprised Finally, it was Robin, Delaware's partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that she committed suicide just before the court case when she had been adamant involvement was something that the man she would fight 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 clear her name. She said that an Italian shoe empire and sheis married to an extremely rich man and it'd been set up because she s not the Italian. But which of them was hot on the trail primary target?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of corruption in the councilBag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=3. Her ex-husband has contacted Alex Skinner, Solicitor Advocate as well as retired Police Constable Bob Skinner5|genre=Animals and Wildlife|summary=Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn's daughtert want to follow in his footsteps, and asked particularly when he considered the strain that she look into clearing Brownbeing on-call put on his father's name: it's something which life. When he feels that was seventeen he has to do in memory 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, he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as with so many students - been his son who dream since he was murdered recentlya child. If anything, he'd wanted to be a professional footballer.
}}
 
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B07X6GLQ3Q0861541774|title=See Them RunA Nye of Pheasants|author=Marion ToddSteve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=D I Clare Mackay is still relatively new to St AndrewDCI Domenic Jejeune's: she was previously at Maryhill Rd station close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in GlasgowSingapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. She's left quite Maik was involved in a lot behind including street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a relationship that wasn't going anywhere after Tom failed to support her when the chips were down. She also left man armed with a nasty situation, of her own making but not her fault, knife - and St Andrew's is he killed a fresh startGhurka. Not long into the job she's Initially, he faced with a hit and run death and there's little doubt charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that it wasn't accidental - he might have planned to murder the card with man. Now he could be facing the number five suggests murderdeath penalty. Andy Robb was married Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to Sandra. You help as any interference from another police force could say that they had an open marriage but there seemed to be provoke a lot of the 'open' diplomatic incident and very little of the wouldn'marriage' left - on both sides, but would she want him dead?t help Danny at all.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1786540991Alexander McCall Smith|title=The Impossible Boy|author=Ben BrooksPerfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=''Oleg The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and Emma entered their den operating as an alternative to find all the online apps in providing a cardboard spaceship standing where they usually satmore personal, tailored service. Slowly Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, the front door openedas Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. Smoke billowed Katie is coming outof a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. And out stepped a boyso begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, dressed in a long coat with bringing us to an even longer scarfEdinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, wound around his neckbut with some new characters who quickly begin to charm.''  ''"My name's Sebastian Cole Katie has no experience in running a business," the boy saidor in match-making, "But you already know that."'' And indeed they do. Ever since the summerbut Ness has full confidence in her abilities, when their friend Sarahand there's mother had moved always her awayvery helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, Oleg and Emma have been unable to find lend a new friend to take her place.hand…|isbn=1846976596
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=14472813570811771741|title=Salvation LostInstaKnits for Baby|author=Peter F HamiltonMelissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=Science FictionCrafts|summary=In 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 twentyhours. All the projects are attractive, modern and useable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-third century, humanity 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 enjoying having a comparative utopiaterrifically bad day. Yet life on Earth is about to change He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, foreverand his house gets trashed. Feriton Kane's investigative team Oh, and someone has discovered the worst threat ever delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to face mankind – his home, and weit've almost no time to fight back. s possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The supposedly benign Olyix plan to harvest humanitything is, in order to carry us to their god at Benny is the end of the universe. And as their agents conclude schemes down on earth, vast warships converge above very last person to gather deserve all this cargobad luck. Some factions push He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for humanity Benny it turns out that the delivery to fleehis house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to live in hiding amongst the stars – although only help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a chosen few would make it out in timegood person. But others refuse Spike is going to break before the storm. As disaster loomstake care of Benny, animosities must be set aside to focus on just one goal: wiping this enemy from the face and will certainly take care of creation. Even Benny's enemies, if it means preparing for he, Benny, and Harper (a future this generation will never seewaitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=1662500491
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1471186393Adam Stower|title=Photographer of the Lost|author=Caroline ScottMurray and Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical FictionConfident Readers |summary=May 1921. Edie receives Murray is supposed to be a photograph through the post. There humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is no letter or note with it. There is nothing written on the back able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the photographtwo. It is But he's a picture of her husbandbad magician's cat, Francis. Francis so his favourite bun has been missing for four years. Technicallyturned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the catflap they both use can chuck them out, he has been "missingnot into the regular back garden, believed killed" but that is not something that into a young widow can believeworld of frightening adventure and whiffs. She hangs on the word This time 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'missings turned up and he', disbelieving the word killed. ll have to do…|isbn=0008561249
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1783784350B0C47LV1PC|title=This Golden Fleece: A Journey Through Britain's Knitted HistoryFragility|author=Esther RutterMosby Woods|rating=54|genre=HistoryLiterary Fiction|summary=It was December and Esther Rutter was stuck in her office jobCan you make a ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, writing to people she'd never met and preparing spreadsheets. The job frustrated her and even her knitting did not soothe her mind. January was going to be a time for making changes and she decided that she would travel is the length and breadth of question should you make it? Or is the British Isles with occasional forays abroadquestion if you did, discovering and telling the story of wool's history and how would it had made and changed land? The catch is that the landscapeanswer for both could well be.... Sheno. 'd grown up on a sheep farm in Suffolk - 'Fragility'' a free range child on is set as the farm'' - and learned city of Portland, Oregon, cautiously begins to spin, knit and weave emerge from her mother and her mother's friend. This was in her blood.the restrictions imposed during the covid pandemic
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=14012862081529431735|title=Black Canary: IgniteThe Winter Visitor|author=Meg Cabot and Cara McGeeJames Henry|rating=3.54|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Meet Dinah Lance. Frustrated that her policeman father will not allow her to try It's February 1991 and follow in his footstepsEssex is bitingly cold, and seemingly lumbered with being 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 cheerleader at schoolletter from his ex-wife, saying that she is desperate 's ill and hasn't long to find her voicelive. But it It's actually more hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his underwear and sent to a case watery grave in the boot of her voice finding her, as when she gets frustrated or plain dissed at school her vocal outcry can shatter glass better than any opera singera stolen Ford Sierra. You could almost call Is it a weapon, warning from a Spanish gang or a power. But in order for her to call herself a superhero, there has to be a whole path of steps for her problem closer to take – one of which will be into her past…home?
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1789017977Alex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=Ronnie and Hilda's Romance: Towards a New Life after World War II|author=Wendy WilliamsThe Glorious Race of Magical Beasts
|rating=4
|genre=HistoryConfident Readers|summary=Ronnie Williams was 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 son of Thomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) dessert cafe his gran owns and Ethel Wallruns. ThereEli lives with his lovely gran, too – for there is a generation missing in the family. A few short years ago, Eli's some doubt as to whether or not they parents were ever married or even Harry's birthdate: he claimed both lost to the titular race, a globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have been born to navigate the world in 1863, but he was already many years older than Ethel and he might well have shaved the company of a few years off his agemagical beast. For a while This has made the family was quite well-race anathema to-do the pair – but disaster struck in when a bad incident at the 1929 Depression and five-year-old Ronnie had to adjust eatery leads to a very different lifestyle. One thing he did inherit confession from gran, Eli knows his father was his need only hope is to dare to be well-turned-out and this would stay enter what he most hates, with him throughout his life. He joined the army sole aim the prize of magic at eighteen in 1942the end – the only thing to possibly save his gran.|isbn=0571382231
}}