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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=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= 0356522776}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Elliot Reed0008517061|title=A Key to Treehouse LivingDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=This is the story of a young boyFormer Metropolitan Police detective, William TyceJake Johnson, who is being raised by has settled into his uncle after rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the death future of his mother and life with his father's abandonment. Howevervet girlfriend, it isn't told in the usual narrative way. Instead, the book is made up of glossary entries, written by WilliamLivia and her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a way lot of describing certain events, situations compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and emotions. It runs alphabetically, starting relaxing life to move in with ABSENCE, then moving Livia or does Livia move to ALPHABETICAL ORDER. Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the future she wants for herself and her daughter? As I began to read I did find myself thinking 'what For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and putting the future on earth?!' but I soon grew used to the style, and was instead caught up in William's storyback burner.|isbn=1911545418
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Will Dean 1786482126|title=Black River The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Tuva Moodyson returns Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - and this third book in the Tuva Moodyson mystery series delves deep into her personal life, returning her site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the isolated town bones of Gavrik and into a desperate search for her missing best friendchild 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. With the Midsommar sun blocked out by the dark pines It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the forestone night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, Tuva fights not least because Ruth is prone to save her friendsudden bouts of sickness. But who’ll be there to save Tuva?|isbn=1786077116
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=17824074800008551324|title=Bird Love: The Family Life of BirdsDevil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Wenfei Tong and Mike WebsterNeil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Animals and WildlifeCrime|summary=I was a little perturbed when I looked at It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the blurb police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he''Bird Love'' on a couple of on-line booksellers: ''exploring s prepared to tell the police where the sex life body of birds'' it saida missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. I very nearly passed over the bookThis person, he promises, but a closer examination suggested that the book is about someone big and it will be worth the ''family life'' of birds, which is rather differentpolice doing what he wants. If the book was confined And what he wants is to the sex life of birds, you would be missing transferred to an opportunity open prison to understand how birds live day-serve the remainder of his sentence and to-day, bring up their families and cope in the wildget an early parole date. Not only thatmuch to ask, you have missed the treat of is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so many beautiful illustrations about a wide variety of birds which run through this book from the first page and she's even prepared to do the lastother 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
|authorisbn=Camilla Bruce0008405026|title=You Let Me InA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=45|genre=General FictionCrime|summary= Eccentric, isolated romance novelist Cassandra Tipp has been missing for a It's sixteen years since nine-year and has been pronounced legally dead by -old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her lawyersbed one summer night. Her will instructs her niece She was never found and nephew the investigation ground to enter a halt. Now, her home mother, Helena, and find her father are dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the key bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to their inheritance in be an old manuscript left open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in her officeRosalie's disappearance: the last story sheothers (such as Derwent'll ever tells boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.|isbn=1787633179
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Judith Eagle0571379877|title=The Pear AffairKellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=43.5|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Set in the 1960's, this Edward Jevons is a mystery adventure storyworking-class young man, all about a little girl called Nell and her quest to find her nannyobsessed with his upper-class friends, Perrine (Pear) who left her very suddenly Robert and thenStanza. Robert's a theatre director. He's also self-obsessed, after keeping in touch regularly by postdemanding, disappeared completely from her life, leaving Nell berefthandsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for him. ThereEdward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and he's everything drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. Most men in this story, with underground tunnels as Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the playground two of gangs of children, to travel and detective work, them kissing in a mystery mould infecting Parisian bakeries, mysterious figures following Nell around, and a set of truly dreadful parents!|isbn=0571346855dark passageway.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B083NMCSZXJo Callaghan|title=Little Doubt (D I Kelly Porter)|author=Rachel LynchLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Ella Watson was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She was out running in the park when she was randomly attacked and stabbed to death. Her husband, Thomas, and children, Jordan and Millie were devastated and Detective Superintendent Neil Ormond was outraged that When a decent, middle-class woman should be man is found crucified on the victim top of knife crime. Despite being a golfing partner of Thomas Jordan he declined hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to distance himself from the case and told DI Kelly Porter that he would be taking a great deal of interest in how alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. It's their first live case was handledtogether, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. He wasn't anywhere near as interested But when there is a second woman was stabbed to death body found crucified a few hours days later. Keira Bradley lived on the Beacon estate , Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and Ormond's view seemed to be a very high profile case that anyone living there should expect this sort draws a lot of thing unwanted attention to happentheir AI Future Policing project. He could hardly bring himself Will they be able to mention Keira's name.solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of a career?|isbn=139851120X
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=05713423531399613073|title=Rules for Perfect MurdersMoral Injuries|author=Peter SwansonChristie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeThrillers|summary=Malcolm Kershaw was Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the co-owner first day of medical school and manager their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of the Old Devils Bookstore on Beacon Hill in Bostona century. The store specialises in crime novelsOlivia is ruthlessly ambitious, but Mal has given up reading crimewhich is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. His life's been pretty chaotic Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Anjali is the free spirit of late: Itthe group and she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they's five years since his wife, Claire Mallory, died re at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and heit's never really got over itgoing to end in tragedy. She was driving whilst inebriated, having just been to see We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the man with whom Kershaw suspected she was having an affairconsequences. His interest in crime fiction comes back when he's approached by Special Agent Gwen MulveyTwenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. SheThis time, it's interested in a blog post he wrote a few years ago: '' My Eight Perfect Murders''their teenage children who are involved.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=17868971480241636604|title=Bobby March Will Live Forever (Harry McCoy)The Trading Game: A Confession|author=Alan ParksGary 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=In February 1964 Bobby March was on his way It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to London with fellow band members Tomthe English country village where she grew up. She's back now because of a request for help from her beloved aunt, Scott, Barry and JamieCarole. HeFreya'd had s former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to get his father to sign say the contract for The Beatkickers, as Bobby wasn't old enoughleast. And his father Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been reluctant - he'd have preferred Bobby back to get an apprenticeshipthe village: Arthur, for the regular moneyshe feels, let her down badly. By July 1973 Bobby is back Even though they were in Glasgowbusiness together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the man or pursue the profession she loved. The Beatkickers didn't survive After the split, she worked in a cafe, met and March is married James (on his own, but hardly thriving. There's an obvious drug habit. Meanwhile, the police are consumed by rebound from the search for a missing girllove of her life, Alice Kellywho was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane (editors)AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=CursedAll Tomorrow's Futures: An Anthology of Dark Fairy TalesFictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=4.5|genre=FantasyScience Fiction|summary=Curses. They're there throughout tales 'Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of faery and other fantastical folk – people being cursed things to do this, or not to be able to do come.'' I've heard it said that'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Children can be cursed Well, as can princesses on the verge I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of marrying, and older people tootechnology in my lifetime. It seems in a way there I've kept up reasonably well with what's no escaping advantageous to me but I'm left with the feeling that it's all getting away from me. Which is why the theme Some of this book of short stories it is such a standout – we may well think we know all there is to know about this accursed character, that demonised place- frankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and that other bewitched personend up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. We'd be very wrong I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand.|isbn=1789091500
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Sara HollandSunny Singh|title=HavenfallHotel Arcadia|rating=43.5|genre=TeensThrillers |summary= Maddie Morrow 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 supposed to spending Sam, a wartime photographer and Abhi, the summer with her Grandma Ellenhotel manager. But after a visit As Abhi continues to try to her mother care remotely for the residents who are still alive in prisonthe hotel, Maddie wants nothing more than he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to go be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of her room to Havenfall try to see capture what's happened through her uncle, Marcusphotography. It's Although they only ever talk over the only place she feels truly at home. Maddie's fatherphone, understandably, is not keen on Maddie spending time with their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her mother's family - because the crime Maddie's mum is languishing on death row for committing is keep safe and they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the murder of Maddie's brother..terrorists.|isbn=1547603798 086154742X
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Baye Hartshorne1529153298|title=Ghosted: The Treason House TrilogyList of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=45|genre=FantasyGeneral Fiction|summary=It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv'Julia Crawley has lost her job on s family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, but to have 'Celebritydisappeared'doesn' magazine and t sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she decides to cut 's overheard that her losses and return home father wants to move the village of Monmouth Cove on family 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the Jersey Shoremove would mean leaving her best friend, hoping to return to her harder hitting journalistic roots via local news. SheSharon, and she'll be staying with her grandmother - a woman always ready do anything to help younger relatives in need of a handprevent that. There She's only one problem with not worried about the dangers or that: creepy Uncle Dex, who doesnher Mum't always keep his hands s stopped talking - to himselfanyone.|isbn= B0829CP5BM}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=06486848061398524085|title=Clara Colby: The International SuffragistHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=John HollidayNicci French|rating=45|genre=BiographyCrime|summary=The path of Clara Dorothy BewickCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband's life was probably determined when her family emigrated to the USAfiftieth birthday party but never turned up. At the time she was just three-years-old but because of some childhood ailmentHer children, sons Niall, she wasn't allowed to sail with Paul and Ollie and her parents and three brothersdaughter, Etty. Instead, she remained with are all worried but - strangely - her grandparentshusband, who doted on her and saw that she received a good educationAlec, both in and out of schoolis not. She was the only child in the household Shortly afterwards, Etty and her childhood was glorious. By contrastGreg, her family had become pioneer farmers in find the mid-west body of the United States and life was hardGreg's father, Duncan Ackerley, as Clara was to find out when she and her grandparents eventually went to join in the familyriver. Clara would only know her mother for a few months: she It was married an easy assumption for fifteen years, the police to make that Duncan had ten pregnancies, seven surviving children murdered Charlie and died in childbirth not long after Clara arrivedthen committed suicide when he couldn't stand the guilt. As the eldest girl, a heavy burden would fall The Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but get on Clara with their lives and Wisconsin was a rude awakeningwonder about what really happened.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Kathleen Boucher and Sara Chadwick1035906708|title=Nine Ways to Empower TweensDiva|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 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'9 Ways . All big movie fans, they're looking forward to Empower Tweens'' 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 a self-help book for tweensvery different, setting out to show them vital #lifeskills. Donand they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't groan! I know there is a market glut of such books for we grown-ups and for young adults tooeven imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to the next, but there can they figure out what on earth is a needful space in an increasingly technological world accessible going on? Will they ever get back to younger the cinema, and younger children for material for tweens too. to their real lives?|isbn= 02288188261839942738
}}
{{Frontpage
|author= Katie FfordeRachel Greenlaw|title= A Springtime AffairCompass and Blade|rating= 43.5|genre= Women's FictionTeens|summary= ''Ican hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.''ve wanted to read author Katie Fforde for ages Rosevear, a remote and this was pretty much exactly what I was expecting - a warmpartially forgotten island, cosy read focused survives on romanceluring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, family like her mother before her, is one of the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and friendshipsany treasure that lies within. This provided two romances for But when the price of oneCouncil Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, but it was actually they capture the island's leader and Mira's father. Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and with only coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search of a family element secret that lies buried deep in the sea. With only nine days to unearth what might save her father, as opposed her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the romance that I really enjoyedheart of the smuggler's territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and the ones she holds most dear. |isbn=17808975610008664730
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1838593187James Sherwood Metts|title=Guess What I Found in the Playground!|author=Victoria ThompsonPlanet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=For SharingConfident Readers|summary=Tilly is excitedThings have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. SheAI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they's just come dashing out of the classroom, pigtails flapping behind her re paid to do and a big grin on her faceother tasks that took time to accomplish. Dad's come Just as they were beginning to get used to collect her and her brother all this technological change and he ''has'' starting to try think of other, new ways to guess what she found in the playground todayspend time, although she concedes that he will never guessalong came an awful pandemic. Dad wants to know how school Life was, but ''obviously'' that's not important. Could Tilly have found more collectable things for her scrap box? (Isn't that so pretty much more sensible than a scrap ''book''?) Well, actuallyshut down and, Tilly did find exciting stuff. There are sequinsalong with it, glittered paper and all sorts of other things in her pocket, but that's not what she wants Dad to guessthe many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|isbn=1736128426
}}
{{Frontpage
|author= Becky Albertalli and Aisha SaeedMatthew Tree|title= Yes No Maybe So We'll Never Know|rating= 4.5|genre= TeensLiterary Fiction|summary= ''We might give it our all and crash and burn. But we might win. We might actually change things. And that maybe makes it still worth going for, don't you think?''Jaime has been spending Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his summer helping his cousin with campaigning in time for a special election. When his mother encourages him to go canvassing, he can't think of anything worse. Howeverfather, Jaime has always wanted to be a politician drunk and decides there is no time like the present to conquer chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his fear of speaking to the public. Maya is a Pakistani-American Muslim girl artistic passions all failed miserably and who is having the worst summer had endless crises of her lifeself confidence. Her parents are going through a separationSo Tim applied himself to his studies, she has zero plans for the summer to help take her mind off things cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and her only close friend is permanently busyset himself high but achievable ambitions. To help occupy her, her parents offer to buy her a car if she agrees to go canvassing. The pair could possibly be the worst canvassing duo in history, as neither of them really want to be there, but as the campaign goes on they discover that they care, a lot, about the election - and maybe even about each other?|isbn=1471184668B0CVFXPGP8
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Gregg HurwitzA G Slatter|title=Into The FireBriar Book of the Dead
|rating=5
|genre=ThrillersFantasy|summary= Grant Merriweather is '' There's a part of me that wants to keep this just to myself for however long I can. This secret magic of my own, all mine, at last. I just want to enjoy it for a while.'' Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Briar's, a forensic accountantfamily of witches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands. Or ratherThough 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 wasyoung, her training as a steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. He was brought into an ER room after an alleged car crashWhen her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, his friend pleading with the medics to keep him alivetown's leader, and Ellie takes her place beside her. He was needed alive just long enough As challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to give up communicate with the dead, putting her at the heart of a namemaelstrom of chaos. His cousinReeling 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, Maxis under threat.|isbn=07181855011803364548
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=15291243951529900360|title=When You See MeThe Ghost Orchid|author=Lisa GardnerJonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=For Janet It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and Chuckeven after Alex recovered, it Sturgis was a hiking break in the Appalachians in Georgia reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and pure chance that Chuck went off -shut cases which didn't need the beaten track to find help of a psychologist only worked for a stickwhile. What he found Finally, it was a human bone and SSA Kimberley Quincy Robin, Delaware's partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was called insomething that the man she loved needed. The next case did look simple, along with Sergeant D D Warrenthough. Both women Two lovers were experienced murdered in this type of rather gruesome work but they also called on the services swimming pool of Keith Edgar, a computer analyst, remote property in Bel Air. He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and Flora Dane who brought something unique she is married to the table. Flora had been kidnapped an extremely rich man and held for 472 days by it's not the notorious killer, Jacob NessItalian. If Ness had anything to do with But which of them was the current discoveries then what Flora had to say could be invaluable.primary target?
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=15290096771529395224|title=A Window BreaksLetting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=C M EwanSion Rowlands
|rating=3.5
|genre=ThrillersAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Tom Sullivan 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 wife Rachel are having problems. Itfather's not just life. When he was seventeen he took the usual growing apart after more than opportunity of doing work experience with a decade of marriagefamily friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the job for him. Their son, MichaelBefore long, was killed in a car crash some months before: he was driving his father's Audi and at sixteen wasnLiverpool University. It hadn't legally entitled to drive- as with so many students - been his dream since he was a child. Not only did If anything, he kill himself when the car rammed into 'd wanted to be a treeprofessional footballer.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0861541774|title=A Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, but he also killed his girlfriendDanny Maik, fifteen-year-has taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old Fiona Connorally, Guy Trueman. Tom can't think about Michael without Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a sense of shame knife - and guilthe killed a Ghurka. Rachel is brokenInitially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but she wants evidence came to forgive Michaellight that suggested that he might have planned to murder the man. To give some space, Tom's moved out of Now he could be facing the family home, but stresses death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to his thirteen-year-old daughter, Holly, that it is only help as any interference from another police force could provoke a trial separationdiplomatic incident and wouldn't help Danny at all.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0241985153Alexander McCall Smith|title=The House on the Lake|author=Nuala EllwoodPerfect Passion Company|rating=34.5|genre=ThrillersGeneral Fiction|summary=We know that something has gone wrong - badly wrong - when The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the woman who was alone online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the house business, as Ness is taken planning to take a trip to Canada to get away by for a while. Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the policeIsabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but itNess has full confidence in her abilities, and there's going always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to be lend a while before we learn exactly what has happened.hand…|isbn=1846976596
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Struan Murray and Manuel Sumberac (illustrator)0811771741|title=Orphans of the TideInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman|rating=54|genre=Confident ReadersCrafts|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 last city on Earth'long, anyone can be cosy afternoons in front of the vessel of fire' variety. The Enemy - projects are divided by the god who drowned the world time they'll take to complete - who has come less than five hours, five to wreak havoc on the last of humanity. When a mysterious boy is pulled from the corpse of a whaleten hours, the citizens immediately believe him ten to be twenty hours and more than twenty hours. All the Vessel - all except for young Ellie Lancasterprojects are attractive, a girl inventormodern and useable. As the ruthless Inquisition prepares to execute the boy, Ellie must prove I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that he is innocent - even if it means revealing her deepest, darkest secrets..'s me being picky.|isbn=0241384435
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0008297169Dean Koontz|title=The Guest List|author=Lucy FoleyBad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeParanormal|summary=The boat trip out to Inis AmploirBenny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, off the Irish coastand someone has delivered a really weird, might have been enough disturbing coffin-sized object to put some guests offhis home, but and it 's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the wedding of thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the yearvery last person to deserve all this bad luck. Will Slater (television personality, if not yet He is a celebrity) was nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to marry Jules Keeganhis house is a new friend, online magazine publishera bad weather friend called Spike, in the ruined chapel on the islandwho has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. The brideSpike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's sisterenemies, Oliviaif he, Benny, would be her only bridesmaid and the wedding planner and chef Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are Aoife and her husband, Freddy. They gave a huge discount to get the couple to the island, but surely it would be worth it for the publicity?|isbn=1662500491
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B07ZGL6B1BAdam Stower|title=In Plain Sight (D I Clare Mackay)|author=Marion ToddMurray 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
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{{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
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=1529431735
|title=The Winter Visitor
|author=James Henry
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=It was '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 coincidence wanted drug smuggler for a decade. The return has come about because he's had a letter from his ex-wife, saying that Detective Sergeant Chris West she's ill and DI Clare Mackay were at the beach 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 baby was boot of a stolenFord Sierra. They were there for Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?}}{{Frontpage|author=Alex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=The Glorious Race of Magical Beasts|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the fun run wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and their attention was taken by in the NEFEW protesters who tried to disrupt evening a helper at the racedessert cafe his gran owns and runs. They're against the planned McIntosh Water bottled water plant to be constructed on Priory Marsh and the firm Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – for there is sponsoring a generation missing in the fun runfamily. It was Lisa MitchellA few short years ago, Eli's scream which stopped everything. Her daughterparents were both lost to the titular race, sixa globe-month-old Abi, had been taken from her pram whilst no one was lookingtrotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in the company of a magical beast. It's This has made the race anathema to the pair – but when a major bad incident when ''any'' child at the eatery leads to a confession from gran, Eli knows his only hope is abducted but Abi needs regular medication because to dare to enter what he most hates, with the sole aim the prize of a heart problem: without it, she might have magic at the end – the only forty-eight hours thing to livepossibly save his gran.|isbn=0571382231
}}