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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==
'''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= M G Leonard and Sam SedgmanSylvie Cathrall|title= The Highland Falcon ThiefA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating= 5|genre= Confident ReadersScience Fiction|summary= Harrison Beck, or Hal as he prefers to be called, isn't exactly pleased when his parents send him off with his uncle Nat, a travel writer, on There are few greater joys than a long train journey. Although, this isn't any old train; this is the Highland Falcon, the royal train, and this is its last ever journey before it gets sent book which lives up to a museumcompelling premise. A number of high-society figures, including film stars, millionaires and aristocrats, will be on And this train, so it is quite the event on the social calendar. However, when an expensive brooch is stolen, Hal realises that maybe this trip won't be as boring as he previously thought. As the passengers begin to turn on each other, Hal vows to get to the bottom of the mystery…before the train gets to the end one of the linethem.|isbn=15290130620356522776
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=00082752460008517061|title=Perfect Kill (D I Callanach)Death in a Lonely Place|author=Helen FieldsStig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=When Maggie Campbell realised that her sonFormer Metropolitan Police detective, BartJake Johnson, was missing he was already 200 miles away and just waking from a chemically-induced sleephas settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. Maggie knew straight away that something was wrong. Bart might be twenty but he was considerate There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the future of his mother life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and wouldn't have stayed out all night without letting her know. Besidesdaughter Diana, he didn't have as moving in together would mean a lot of compromise: does Jake give up his phone off-grid and relaxing life to move in with him Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the future she wants for herself and he wouldn't have gone far without that. her daughter? It's not long before Bart realises that he's alone, trapped For the moment they’re enjoying life in a shipping container the present and putting the future on his way to France, where his fate has already been decidedthe back burner.
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn= Alyssa Sheinmel1786482126|title= What Kind of GirlThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating= 4.5|genre= Women's FictionCrime|summary= Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' Doing something apartments - when you're scared is braver than doing something when you're not'' When Mike Parker's girlfriend comes into school with they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Was this a black eyeritual killing or murder? Inevitably, claiming he gave it to her, her whole world is tipped upside downDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. Her relationship has just ended and now she It's the talk of the school. Mike was the most popular boy in school who was always so in love with herdifficult as Ruth knows, everyone knew that, so why did he do what he did? Some people believe her and some donbut Nelson doesn't, but that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the one thing night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is for sure, this isn't going prone to blow over any time soonsudden bouts of sickness.|isbn=0349003297
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn= Holly Rivers0008551324|title= Demelza and the Spectre DetectorsThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating= 4.5|genre= Confident ReadersCrime|summary= Demelza Clock is a scientist, often staying up late to work on her various gadgets, much to her Grandma MaeveIt's irritationunusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. However, she Neither side likes or has also inherited a certain set of skills that are not especially scientific: Spectre Detecting, any respect for the ability other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to summon the ghosts of tell the recently deceased. Under police where the guidance body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her Grandma Maevedeath. This person, Demelza begins to master her newfound skills. Howeverhe promises, there is a mysterious individual on someone big and it will be worth the prowl, kidnapping young Spectre Detectorspolice doing what he wants. It's up And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to Demelza serve the remainder of his sentence and her best friend Percy to get an early parole date. Not much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the bottom of this..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.|isbn=1912626039
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=17874775330008405026|title=The Lantern Men A Stranger in the Family (Dr Ruth GallowayMaeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Elly GriffithsJane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Everything has changed for Dr Ruth Galloway. SheIt's no longer providing assistance to the police and isn't even working at the University of North Norfolksixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She's lecturing at Cambridge was never found and has moved from her beloved Saltmarsh cottage the investigation ground to live with Dr Frank Barker in Cambridgea halt. Her daughterNow, Katieher mother, Helena, has settled into school better than she could ever have hoped and life is looking good. Settledher father are dead in their bed. She can't help thinking about Harry NelsonInitially, Katieit looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's father, because Katie sees him regularly 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 open-and there's -shut case is now a close relationship with his familycomplex double murder. You might ''almostKerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie'' think that Ruths disappearance: others (such as Derwent's life is settling downboss, Una Burt) are less convinced.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=183895015X0571379877|title=A Bit of a Stretch: The Diaries of a PrisonerKellerby Code|author=Chris AtkinsJonny Sweet|rating=3.5|genre=Politics and SocietyCrime|summary=Documentary filmmakers donEdward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and Stanza. Robert's a theatre director. He't usually get the run of establishments within the Mountbattens also self-Windsor Hotel Groupobsessed, but after getting involved in an illegal tax scheme demanding, handsome and entitled and uses Edward to fund his latest film, Chris Atkins was invited run errands for a fivehim. Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days -year stayand he's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. The first nine months were spent Most men in HMP Wandsworth, which 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 probably left to stumble upon the oldest, largest and most dysfunctional prison two of them kissing in Europea dark passageway.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=15439878771399613073|title=Learn to Love: Guide to Healing Your Disappointing Love LifeMoral Injuries|author=Dr Thomas JordanChristie Watson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Thrillers
|summary= Hayley Chill 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 fighterbonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. She Laura is every kind of fighter, a perfectionist and well-trained in most a trauma doctor. Anjali is the free spirit of them. She's army infantry the group and she boxes for fun – and she winsbecomes a GP. Always. She wins because she is focussed. She works hard, mentally When we first meet them they're at a drug and physically, alcohol-fuelled party and she knows how it's going to deal with end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the paintragedy or the consequences. She is not so much cold as controlled Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. This fight is against someone she is not expected to beat. And she is being watchedtime, it's their teenage children who are involved.|isbn=1471185605
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=H G Parry 0241636604|title=The Unlikely Escape of Uriah HeepTrading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionAutobiography|summary=Brothers Rob and Charley have struggled If you were to see eye to eye for years - Rob bring up an image of a sensible lawyer who exists city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the "normal" world pin- stripe suit and Charley a man who his background is blessed the East End, where he was familiar with an ability violence, poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he can't fully control - one which allows him had been to bring literary characters into the real worldLondon School of Economics. After years of protecting Charley, Rob wants to discharge his duties Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and leave Charley to his own devices - but circumstances soon take choices out he has a facility with numbers which most of both their handsus can only envy. As literary characters begin to appear everywhere, it soon becomes clear He also realised that someone out there shares Charley's powers and intends most rich people expect poor people to use them for nefarious gainsbe stupid. Rob and Charley must team up to stop the madness - in It was his ability at what was, essentially, a battle to win before theycard game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, the characters and the world reach The End…|isbn=0356513777this turned into permanent employment as a trader.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=14447761851035021803|title=HavenThe Antique Hunter't they Growns Guide to Murder|author=Sophie HannahC L Miller|rating=43.5|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=It was when Beth Leeson was ferrying her son, Ben, 's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to a football match that the English country village where she found herself on Wyddial Lane in Hemingford Abbotsgrew up. Actually, ItShe's back now because of a little disingenuous to say request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Freya'found herselfs former mentor and Carole' as Beth had made a deliberate detour on s close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the grounds that she didn't find herself in this neck of circumstances seem suspicious, to say the woods very often and she least. Arthur was curious the reason why Freya had not been back to see where a family who'd come into money had lived before they'd all lost contact twelve years agothe village: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. And it might have gone no further than that had Beth Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not seen a car draw up and her friend Flora get out along with two children felt able to be near the man or pursue the profession she called Thomas and Emilyloved. Beth remembered After the names well - but these children were about three split, she worked in a cafe, met and five married James (on the rebound from the love of her life, who was murdered) and Flora's children - Thomas Freya and Emily - would James have now be fifteen and seventeendivorced.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=1529123763AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=Miss AustenAll Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Gill HornbyBenjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Science Fiction|summary=It's long been known that Cassandra Austen burned most 'Opening up new ways of thinking about the letters which she and other members shape of the extensive Austen family had exchanged with or about her sister Janethings to come. What is not known is ''why I've heard it said that 'technology'is what happens after you' she did this and at this stage - re eighteen. Well, I must confess that there have been more than two hundred years after Janea 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 death all getting away from me. Some of it is - a definitive answer is unlikely to forthcomingfrankly - 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. Gill Hornby has provided us with some possible answers I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a book that proved to be far more emotionally complex than way I was expectingcould understand.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Rory ClementsSunny Singh|title=Hitler's SecretHotel Arcadia
|rating=3.5
|genre=Thrillers|summary=So, Hitler had The Hotel Arcadia is a secret? Two, if you include the reproductive detail mentioned luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a certain sing-song aspersionterrorist group. But this Hiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, a secret that is counter to thatwartime photographer and Abhi, and in fact is a secret that Hitler himself doesn't even know aboutthe hotel manager. His neiceAs Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the hotel, Geli Raubal, the attractive young woman he seemed forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be very close cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of her room to try to in the early 1930s, had had his daughter behind his backcapture what's happened through her photography. Protected under a false identity Although they only ever sincetalk 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 girl is completely ignorant terrorists.|isbn=086154742X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529153298|title=The List of her past, Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=It's 1979 and the truth Margaret Thatcher is a very rare thingPrime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been disappearing. Martin BormannWell, 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'gatekeeper. When you' to Hitler and his right hand manre from Yorkshire, knows – and Down South is desperately intent on wiping a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the slate clean move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and removing all connected with her existence from the Reichshe'll do anything to prevent that. So itShe's down to Tom Wilde, an American history professor at Oxbridge, not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to go in and extract her, in this most shadowy race against timeanyone.|isbn=1838770275
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=02419851101398524085|title=All the Rage (D I Fawley)Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Cara HunterNicci French|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=A very beautiful, Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but extremely distressed teenage girl was picked never turned up by a minicab driver on the outskirts of Oxford. She didn't want to go to the police station or the hospital: she just wanted to be taken homeHer children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, Etty. The driver wasn't so certain though are all worried but - strangely - and after dropping the girl at home he went to the policeher husband, Alec, which is why DI Adam Fawley found himself talking to Faith Appleford and her mothernot. Both were adamant that this was nothing more than an April FoolShortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the body of Greg's joke which had gone wrongfather, Duncan Ackerley, in the river. No crime It was an easy assumption for the police to make that Duncan had been murdered Charlie and then committed and Faith didnsuicide when he couldn't want to take stand the matter any furtherguilt. Fawley and his team werenThe Salter children are not convinced but there't prepared to leave it at that s little else they can do but get on with their lives and they began investigating. What they found strange was that Faith Appleford didn't seem to have much of a historywonder about what really happened.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=15294002791035906708|title=Six Wicked ReasonsDiva|author=Jo SpainDaisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction|summary=It was early summer 2018 and Adam Latimer returned home We tend to Spanish Cove after an absence think of ten years. The family had thought him dead - in factMaria Callas as Greek, that's what the private detective his mother had insisted upon had told them. He but she was cagey about exactly where he'd been but he seemed contentborn to Greek parents in Manhattan, if not happyNew York, in December 1923 and only moved to be homeAthens when she was thirteen. What brought him? Well, nine years ago his mother died and he'd seen the ''in memoriam'' in the paper: this Her original surname was the first he'd heard about what had happened. His three sisters and two brothers had mixed feelings about his return, Kalogeropoulos but his her father is delighted. In fact, hechanged it to 'Callas's determined to have a party. Only, with Frazer Latimer, what happens has to be about him. He has an announcement to make - it's nine years since Kathleen died and he's been lonelymore manageable in the States. He's met Ana, 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 a Polish immigrantmother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her elder sister, and they're getting marriedJackie.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Penny ChrimesChristopher Edge|title=Tiger HeartBlack Hole Cinema Club|rating=4.5
|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'Fly never meant to end up in the cage with a man-eating tiger. She just saw her chance All big movie fans, they're looking forward to skedaddlelots of exciting films, and she took it. And even when many, many snacks! However, as the cloud of soot cleared movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, and she saw the golden eyes of a killer staring they are swept up into hers, she still didnan adventure they couldn't turn round and climb back up even imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to the chimney straightaway. 'Cos there was worse waiting for her next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back on to the roof.''What an opener! And there's plenty more cinema, and to come!their real lives?|isbn=15101070451839942738
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Tanya LandmanRachel Greenlaw|title=Jane Eyre: a RetellingCompass and Blade|rating=3.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=A young woman''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, fresh from living with horrid relatives who could care less about herthe answering beat in my heart.'' Rosevear, a remote and years in a dreary schoolpartially forgotten island, moves survives on luring ships into Thornfield Hall with only the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, is one intent – of the seven who swim out to have something like survey the life she wants ruins – rescuing any survivors and with only one job, any treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a trap to tutor a young half-French girlend the wrecking, whose they capture the island's leader and Mira's father is almost always absent. When he does turn up he seems Desperate to be darksave him from death, brooding Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and troubled – but that's nothing compared with only coordinates to the darkerguide her, more broody and even more troubled she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the housesea. YesWith only nine days to unearth what might save her father, if you know Jane Eyre then you know as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the rest – but if you donheart of the smuggler'ts territory, for whatever reason, this is a wonderful book Mira must be determined to turn stop at nothing tosave the future of her home and the ones she holds most dear.|isbn=17811291260008664730
}}
{{Frontpage
|author= T R HendrickJames Sherwood Metts|title= What if They KnewPlanet Storyland|rating= 4.5|genre= General FictionConfident Readers|summary= It's 2025. Underneath Things have been a lodge in bit sticky for the Blue Mountain resort in PennsylvaniaEarthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, is a secret facilityoften replacing jobs they're paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. Here, Dr Benton Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and his team are making some critical scientific advances on behalf starting to think of the Benefactorother, new ways to spend time, their anonymous funderalong came an awful pandemic. AlreadyLife was pretty much shut down and, the team have succeeded in teleporting small primates from one place to another. Butalong with it, unbeknownst to all the Benefactor, Dr Benton has also coded for another type of teleportation altogether - travel through time. And he's ready to testmany daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily. If successful, Benton has a very specific use for his technology in mind|isbn=17342772111736128426
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{{Frontpage
|author= Catherine SteadmanMatthew Tree|title= Mr NobodyWe'll Never Know|rating= 4.5|genre= ThrillersLiterary Fiction|summary= Don't you just hate it when people are multi-talented? Author Catherine Steadman is both Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, a successful actress drunk and writer, with this her second novel. I think in a way her acting background shows in her writing as to my mind the 'fight scene' chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at the end was somewhat unrealistic – you know the kind where the hero has been hurt so many times that it's virtually impossible they'd still be alive let alone able to fight off an attacker. The story also unfolded at a steady pace throughout until the ending which felt overstuffed in a frenetic bid to wrap everything up in the last few chaptersany of his artistic passions all failed miserably and who had endless crises of self confidence. It was almost as if the author wanted So Tim applied himself to keep the suspense until the last possible moment (which I liked) his studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set himself high but then was somewhat left with too much to do in the closing stagesachievable ambitions.|isbn=1984890646B0CVFXPGP8
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1473681847A G Slatter|title=In Her Eyes|author=Sarah AldersonThe Briar Book of the Dead
|rating=5
|genre=ThrillersFantasy|summary=Ava lives '' There's a charmed lifepart of me that wants to keep this just to myself for however long I can. This secret magic of my own, all mine, but those things sometimes rub other people up the wrong wayat last. I just want to enjoy it for a while. One evening she returns '' Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a night out with town under the protection of the Briar's, a friendfamily 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 before as such since she can finish was young, her training as a steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. When her bedtime routinegrandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, her homethe town's leader, and Ellie takes her place beside her life. As challenges come her way left, are under attack: masked men have broken in right and are demanding money from her husbandcentre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, while putting her young daughter cowers beside himat the heart of a maelstrom of chaos. In Reeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what to do as the scuffle than ensuesBriar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, Ava is hurtunder 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, badlySturgis 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. When she wakes up in hospital she can barely remember what happened Finally, but she knows it was life-changingRobin, Delaware's partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the man she loved needed. The next case did look simple, though. With her daughter still fighting for her life Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a room down remote property in Bel Air. He was the corridor, Ava has a lot heir to contend with as an Italian shoe empire and she tries to recover, wills her daughter is married to recover, an extremely rich man and attempts to piece together what happened and whyit's not the Italian. But which of them was the primary target?
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Leigh Bardugo, Louise Simonson and Kit Seaton1529395224|title=Wonder Woman: WarbringerLetting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Graphic NovelSecret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=3.5|genre=TeensAnimals and Wildlife|summary=DianaSiôn 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 unique on her island, is -call put on his father's life. When he was seventeen he took the victim opportunity of doing work experience with a lot of tauntsfamily friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the job for him. Before long, and claims of nepotismhe was at Liverpool University. Ithadn's only her unique status, and her mother being Queen, that has her t - as with any standing at all, her naysayers declare – even though she has clearly fought to be so many students - been his dream since he was a strong young womanchild. Perhaps too strong for the islandIf anything, however – for every Wonder Woman origin story has her quickly leaving home for the World of Men, and this Diana is the heroine of yet another Wonder Woman origin story. A shipwreck disturbs her leading performance in a running race, but the survivor she drags from the waters is only going he'd wanted to disturb be a lot moreprofessional footballer...|isbn=1401282555
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=17860756950861541774|title=When the Dead Come Calling (Burrowhead Mysteries 1)A Nye of Pheasants|author=Helen SedgwickSteve Burrows|rating=54
|genre=Crime
|summary=It began with the discovery of DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a body under the swings short holiday in the children's playgroundSingapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. It Maik was Dr Alexis Crosse involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and he was found by PC Simon Hunter, who loved him deeplykilled a Ghurka. Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but who had reason evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to mistrust himmurder the man. Now he could be facing the death penalty. Crosse was Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn't help Danny at all.}}{{Frontpage|author=Alexander McCall Smith|title=The Perfect Passion Company|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=The Perfect Passion Company is a psychotherapist who grew up dating agency in GreeceEdinburgh, but such professions are misunderstood run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in Burrowhead (along with foreigners)providing a more personal, a community which regards anyone not born tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and brought up there look after the business, as an outsiderNess is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. DI Georgie Strachan 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 new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an outsider Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match- you've only got to look at making, but Ness has full confidence in her skin to realise thatabilities, and there's always her husbandvery helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, FergusWilliam, well, heto 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 little strange toocollection of knits from toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of the 'long, not entirely cosy afternoons in front of the fire' variety. The projects are divided by the time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and more than twenty hours. All the projects are attractive, modern and useable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'heresocial-media-worthy projects'but that's me being picky.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Alastair ChisholmDean Koontz|title=Orion LostThe Bad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=Paranormal
|summary=Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that 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'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 fancy next of the two. But 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, not into the regular back garden, but into a world of frightening adventure and whiffs. 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'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 both could well be.... no.
''Fragility'' is set as the city of Portland, Oregon, cautiously begins to emerge from the restrictions imposed during the covid pandemic
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1529431735
|title=The Winter Visitor
|author=James Henry
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=It's February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the more surprising. He'd been exiled on the Costa del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decade. The return has come about because he's had a letter from his ex-wife, saying that she's ill and hasn't long to live. It's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his underwear and sent to a watery grave in the boot of a stolen Ford Sierra. Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Alex Bell and Tim McDonagh
|title=The Glorious Race of Magical Beasts
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Thirteen-year-old Beth Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and her parents board in the transport ship Orion ready for evening a new life on Eos Fivehelper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. Their new home is still being terra-formed and life Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – for there isn't going to be easy, but it ''is'' going to be a fresh startgeneration missing in the family. As Beth A few short years ago, Eli's mum puts itparents were both lost to the titular race, ''There's a future waiting for usglobe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in the company of a magical beast. A chance 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 make our own decisionsenter what he most hates, create our own liveswith the sole aim the prize of magic at the end – the only thing to possibly save his gran.''|isbn=17880059290571382231
}}