Changes

<metadesc>Expert , full book reviews & recommendations from most walks of literary life; fiction, biography, crimenon-fiction, cookery & children's books & self-published books plus author interviews & top tens.</metadesc>

Hello from The Bookbag, a site featuring books reviews and recommendations Reviews by readers 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 libraryWith author interviews, the charity shop features and the bookshoptop tens. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times thereYou'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 sure to us by publishers and we promise to tell find something 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 want to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] pagehere.Dig in!

Find us on Twitter at [[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'''] and on Instagram at , [[File:instagram_classic_logo.png|link=https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/?hl|alt=en Follow us on Instagram]] [https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/ '''Instagram'''] and [[File:LinkedIn.png|link=https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-bookbag-1b12a264/|alt=LinkedIn]]

There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY: Reviews}}''' [[:Category:Reviews|reviews ]] at TheBookbag.

==Reviews of the The Best New Books==

'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].''' <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->

|author= Justine Avery and Daria YudinaSylvie Cathrall|title= This Book Wants A Letter to Make You Laugh (Living Book)the Luminous Deep|rating= 45|genre= For SharingScience Fiction|summary=This Living Book is on There are few greater joys than a mission. What's the mission? To make you laugh! I can't think of many better missions than that, can you? Let's see how it does... .... well, it opens book which lives up with to a terrible jokecompelling premise. A groany joke, an eye-roll joke. The joke isn't very funny but it And this is funny to see how enthusiastic and how generously this book wants to make you laugh - ''Oh, I'm terrible at jokes. Some books are so good at one of them. I always wanted to help someone laugh.'' |isbn= 194812453X0356522776

|isbn=15294022710008517061|title=Murder on the Moorland (Kitt Hartley Yorkshire Mysteries)Death in a Lonely Place|author=Helen CoxStig Abell|rating=3.54

|summary=DI Malcolm Halloran and Kitt Hartley's relationship is developing nicely: they're even Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into a spot of bandage now, although the details are (mercifully) scanthis rustic life at Little Sky. After There’s perhaps a night of passion Halloran is called away in little uncertainty about the early hours future of the morning. There's been a murder in Irendalehis life with his vet girlfriend, where Halloran used to live Livia and where his wifeher daughter Diana, Kamala, was strangled five years ago. There are sufficient details as moving in together would mean a lot of the current murder to make Halloran suspect that the man who murdered compromise: does Jake give up his wife off- grid and others - is relaxing life to move in some way involved, with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite being 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 prison. The DI heads off to speak to Jeremy Kerrthe present and putting the future on the back burner.

|authorisbn= Mark Dawson1786482126|title= The CleanerJanus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating= 4.5|genre= ThrillersCrime|summary= Ruthless and coldly competent, John Milton is one of Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the British governmentsite was going to hold seventy-five 's best assets – luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Was this a contract killer ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with lethal instinctsDCI Harry Nelson. Now It's difficult as Ruth knows, after ten yearsbut Nelson doesn't, he wants out. But that she is pregnant with his job isn't child as a result of the one you can just walk away from…|isbn=178739462Xnight they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness.

|authorisbn=Angela Mack0008551324|title=I Am UnworthyThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre=TeensCrime|summary= Isabel is determined It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to start freshapproach the police. Start again Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. Sixth form will be different. Her tormentor doesnBut Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he't go s prepared to Gilleford Secondary School anymoretell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. She can escape the hurt This person, the fearhe promises, is someone big and it will be worth the person she becamepolice doing what he wants. Josh And what he wants is determined to keep going, even through be transferred to an open prison to serve the rage, the pain, remainder of his sentence and using his fists to solve any problem or situationget an early parole date. But he has secrets that threaten Not much to tear him ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and his brothers apart. When Josh and Isabelshe's worlds collide, can they even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make their relationship work? Can they both finally be happy? Or will Joshcertain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's time run out?|isbn=B089FL7H4Hhappening.

|authorisbn=Laura Imai Messina0008405026|title=The Phone Box at A Stranger in the End of the WorldFamily (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey

|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary= In It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the northeast of Japaninvestigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in Inwate Prefecture their bed. Initially, it looks like a man installed straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is now a telephone box in his gardencomplex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent'Inside there 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 an old blacka working-class young man, telephoneobsessed with his upper-class friends, disconnected, that carries voices into the windRobert and Stanza. Robert's a theatre director. He' It is a real places also self-obsessed, a necessary placedemanding, handsome and entitled and I am pleased uses Edward to see the IMPORTANT NOTE that the author attaches run errands for him. Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to her story, Robert. Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that the place is a relationship had begun between them but he's not a tourist destination, it like most men: Edward is a sacred place, a place that must be left to those who really need itstumble upon the two of them kissing in a dark passageway.|isbn=178658039X

|isbnauthor=B0859115X5Jo Callaghan|title=Lies to Tell (DI Clare Mackay)|author=Marion ToddLeave No Trace

|summary=When we meet up with DI Clare Mackay again she's at Daisy Cottage a man is found crucified on the outskirts top of St Andrews with a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her English Bull Terriersidekick, Benjythe AI detective Lock. SheIt's just had a postcard from Geoffrey Dark and he's in Provincetowntheir first live case together, Cape Codhaving previously been very successful with several cold cases. He wishes that she was But when thereis a second body found crucified a few days later, but Clare's Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to think solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of what he ''actually'' a career?|isbn=139851120X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1399613073|title=Moral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=Thrillers|summary=Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to her nowbe a cardiothoracic surgeon. Is he her boyfriend? Her ex-boyfriend? Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. She can't work it out Anjali is the free spirit of the group and thinks that Geoffrey probably can't eithershe becomes a GP. WorkWhen we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's about going to get very busy and she canend in tragedy. We don't work out why DCI Alastair Gibson has cancelled a meeting she'd arranged without discussing it with her firstknow who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. TheyThis time, it're off somewhere top secrets their teenage children who are involved.

|isbn=17808998580241636604|title=To Tell You the TruthThe Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gilly MacmillanGary Stevenson

|genre=CrimeAutobiography|summary=When Lucy Bewley was nine-years-old she crept out If you were to bring up an image of the house on the night a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of the summer solstice to watch the pagan celebrations in Stoke Woodssomeone like Gary Stevenson. Her fourA hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-year-old brotherstripe suit and his background is the East End, Teddywhere he was familiar with violence, would have woken the house if she hadn't taken him with herpoverty and injustice. But in There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the early hours London School of the morning, Lucy returned home without Teddy, hoping that Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he would have got home before herhas a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He hadn't and no one has seen him sincealso realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. Lucy's story It was his ability at what was crucial to the police investigation, but it keeps subtly changingessentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Lucy is being advised by her imaginary friendEventually, Eliza Grey and Eliza says that there are certain things which Lucy must not tell the policethis turned into permanent employment as a trader.

|isbn=00082147001035021803|title=Cut The Antique Hunter's Guide to the Bone (DI Meg Dalton)Murder|author=Roz WatkinsC L Miller|rating=43.5

|summary=DI Meg Dalton and Ds Jai Sanghera are dealing with It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the case English country village where she grew up. She's back now because of a missing teenagerrequest for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Violet Armstrong Freya's former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is well-known as a vlogger - championing dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the cause of meat-eatingleast. She barbeques meat wearing only a bikini and has attracted Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the attention of animal rights activistsvillage: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. The meat-eaters (Even though they wear meat suits) are determined that Meg Dalton is corrupt and were in business together as antique hunters, she has not running a decent investigation (''obviously'' she only got felt able to be near the man or pursue the job because profession she's a woman) because she's a vegetarianloved. As if After the case wasn't enoughsplit, she worked in a cafe, Meg's father is coming to stay with met and married James (on the rebound from the love of her despite having had little to do with her for fifteen years life, who was murdered) and Jai's convinced that his girlfriend, Suki, doesn't like his children Freya and that she wants more, but he doesn'tJames have now divorced.

|isbn=1784385166AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=The Third Reich in 100 ObjectsAll Tomorrow's Futures: A Material History of Nazi GermanyFictions that Disrupt|author=Roger MoorhouseBenjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)

|genre=HistoryScience Fiction|summary=What is ''Opening up new ways of thinking about the first image shape of things to come.'' I've heard it said that comes to mind when 'technology' is what happens after you think 're eighteen. Well, I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of the Third Reich? Hitler? A swastika? The Nazi salute? The gate technology in my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to a concentration camp? None of these are comfortable images me but they are emblematic of I'm left with the Third Reichfeeling that it's fascist regime in all its iniquitygetting away from me. But some objects and images from that time may be less familiar to youSome of it is - frankly - quite frightening. In this short volume Of course, Roger Moorhouse has attempted to illustrate I could research the possibilities and the period of probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the Third Reich through one hundred of its material artefactslatest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand. 

|isbnauthor=1409187438Sunny Singh|title=The First Lie|author=A J ParkHotel Arcadia

|genre=Thrillers|summary=On 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 second of October 37-year-old barristerterrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, Paul Reevethere is Sam, returned home at 9 pm to find his house in darkness a wartime photographer and Abhi, the front door openhotel manager. His wife was in As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the bedroom in a state of shock and residents who are still alive in the bathroom there was hotel, he forms a dead man bond with Sam who had been stabbed repeatedly in the neck with Paulrefuses to be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what's paper-knifehappened through her photography. In that moment Paul takes a decision that Although they only ever talk over the phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and they both wait to see if they will be irrevocable: he decides that he and Alice rescued before they are not going to ring discovered by the police and tell the truth. They're going to bury the body in woodland and go on as though nothing has happenedterrorists.|isbn=086154742X

|isbn=15294018011529153298|title=Grave's End (DS Alexandra Cupidi)The List of Suspicious Things|author=William ShawJennie Godfrey|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction|summary=Gram HickmanIt's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, who worked for an estate agenthonestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, took his girlfriendthough. Women have been disappearing. Well, Angela Booththey've been murdered, but to a house which his firm was marketinghave 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Guildeford Hall was an old Kentish oast house and was on Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the market for millions of poundsfamily 'Down South'. Gram was hoping that he could get Angela into bed and heWhen you'd brought re from Yorkshire, Down South is a bottle of prosecco alongfrightening, foreign place, best avoided. It was when searching for somewhere For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to chill the bottle prevent that he found the body of a man in the freezer in the garage. DS Alexandra Cupidi and DC Jill Ferriter are on She's not worried about the casedangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.

|authorisbn= Ukamaka Olisakwe1398524085|title= Ogadinma Or, Everything Will Be All RightHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating= 5|genre= Literary FictionCrime|summary= The new novel by Ukamaka Olisakwe is a look Charlotte Salter was expected at the trauma her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and heartache of being a woman in 1980s Nigeriaher daughter, Etty. The title is ''Ogadinma Orare all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, Everything Will Be All Right''. Ogadinma is the eponymous heroine of the storynot. We are with her in every scene Shortly afterwards, Etty and it is her narrative voice that leads Greg, find the storybody of Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, although Olisakwe writes in the third personriver. This provides a sense of detachment It was an easy assumption for the reader police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and highlights then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the isolation of Ogadinmaguilt. She is exiled from her father The Salter children are not convinced but there's home and sent to Lagos where she is married to an older man named Tobe. Their marriage descends into violence little else they can do but get on with their lives and indignities and Ogadinma must utilise her resourcefulness to escapewonder about what really happened.|isbn=1911648160

|authorisbn=Lun Zhang, Adrien Gombeaud, Ameziane and Edward Gauvin (translator)1035906708|title=Tiananmen 1989: Our Shattered HopesDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin

|genre=Graphic NovelsGeneral Fiction|summary=I never really followed the events We tend to think of Tiananmen Square with much attention when it Maria Callas as Greek, but she was playing out – someone born to Greek parents in the second half of their teens has other prioritiesManhattan, New York, you knowin December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. I certainly didnHer original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 't know of the weeks of protests and hunger strikes from the students before the massacre and the birth of the Tank Man image, I didnCallas't know how the area had long been a venue for political protest, and I didn't know to make it more than a spit about manageable in the people involved on either sideStates. This book is practically flawless When she was back in giving a general browser's context Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the whole season Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of protests back in 1989her preference for her elder sister, Jackie.|isbn=1684056993

|author= Joan HeChristopher Edge|title= Descendant of the Crane|rating=5|genre= Fantasy|summary=''Heroes cannot be forged without villains''Princess Hesina of the kingdom of Yan has never wanted the throne. Instead of craving power, she has always considered the crown her inescapable duty and shrank away from the responsibilities of being Queen. To her, it has always been a distant, faraway future. Until that is, it isn't. When her beloved father suddenly dies, she is thrust into ruling. But contrary to the official report, Hesina knows all is not as it seems, her father didn't die. He was murdered.Determined to seek the truth and discover her father's killer, Princess Hesina will stop at nothing to find justice, even committing treason. Under the cover of darkness, her feet lead her to a soothsayer to learn what happened that day and who killed the King.|isbn=1789094046}}{{Frontpage|author=Pat Grant|title=The Grot: The Story of the Swamp City GriftersBlack Hole Cinema Club

|genre=Graphic NovelsConfident Readers|summary=Everything Lucas and his friends are all booked in this world runs on pedal-powerfor a movie marathon at their local cinema, and a place that includes has the punk bandsnickname of 'The Black Hole'. There are three pedallers at the front All big movie fans, they're looking forward to lots of the Heath Robinson contraption taking our lead characters to the ferry across the swamp to Falter Cityexciting films, where a mother and her two sons aim to set up a yoghurt factory. many, many snacks! You could say that yoghurt would be However, as the only culture aroundmovie starts, for they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is a really rough-very different, and-ready dump of a place, but everyone is interested in small things that growthey are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. For the only money But as they lurch from one film genre to be had – the only fortunes to be found in Falter City – come from algaenext, gunk and other crud that – well, the use of it can they figure out what on earth is never really made clear. going on? Once there, Will they ever get back to the two brothers set themselves each up with a guide – Lippycinema, the more forward-thinking, industrious of the two, with a besuited gent, Penn with a ballsy young teenaged girl with bright red hair. But which of the two will come off the worse as they make and to their own way in this dystopian, semi-Apocalyptic hellholereal lives?|isbn=16030946601839942738

|author= Ashley PostonRachel Greenlaw|title= Bookish Compass and the BeastBlade|rating= 3.5|genre= Teens|summary= Set after ''I can hear the ExcelsiCon, we are introduced to Rosie Thorne, a Small Town, USA girl who has recently lost her mother and is entering her final year song of high schoolthe sea. Things keep piling up for RosieThe call of the deep, and when she follows a stray dog into what she thinks is an abandoned castle the answering beat in her town, things just get worsemy heart. Rosie accidentally destroys a rare book and with her mother's hospital and funeral costs she has no money to cover the damage. She finds herself working for Vance Reigns, Hollywood royalty on a paparazzi escape, to repay the debt. '

For most Starfield superfans this would be Rosevear, a dream but Rosie soon realises Vance remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, is one of the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a jerk - trap to end the wrecking, they capture the island's leader and Mira's father. Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he isn't too fond is secretive and with only coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. With only nine days to unearth what might save her either. Howeverfather, as her journey takes her from the two are forced watched streets of foreign islands to get the heart of the smuggler's territory, Mira must be determined to know each other, their guards begin stop at nothing to lower save the future of her home and they discover that maybe this situation might not be so terrible after allthe ones she holds most dear. |isbn=16836919380008664730

|author=Justine Avery and Daria YudinaJames Sherwood Metts|title=Baby Trolls Get a Bad Rap (Underrated Babies Book 1)Planet Storyland|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingConfident Readers|summary= HoratioThings have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, Saul often replacing jobs they're paid to do and Grizelda are three baby trolls who are fed up other tasks that everyone forgets about baby trollstook time to accomplish. They are ignored in books Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and TV shows and films in favour starting to think of their very scary grown ups. Our three heroes want equal rights for baby trollsother, new ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. They want to be seen Life was pretty much shut down and heard and they've started a petition about , along with it that , all the many daily social interactions on which they want you to signdepend so heavily. But how should they go about it? |isbn= B07XGN4LGY1736128426}}

|author= Samira AhmedMatthew Tree|title= Mad, Bad and Dangerous to We'll Never Know|rating= 34.5|genre=TeensLiterary Fiction|summary=''In the endTimothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, we a drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all become stories'' Spending the summer in Paris sounds like a dream for most people, especially art-lovers, but Khayyam can't relax failed miserably and stop thinking about the mess she left behind in Chicagowho had endless crises of self confidence. On a chance encounter with a descendant of Alexandre Dumas, Khayyam finds herself on a historical journey with him So Tim applied himself to unveil the truth about the 19th century Muslim woman who may have crossed paths with Alexandre Dumashis studies, Eugene Delacroix cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and Lord Byron. As the two teenagers travel the city they not only discover themselves, set himself high but uncover the true story of the woman and why it was one that should never have been forgottenachievable ambitions.|isbn=0349003556B0CVFXPGP8

|author= Hazel BarkworthA G Slatter|title= HeatstrokeThe Briar Book of the Dead|rating= 3.5|genre= CrimeFantasy|summary=''Too hot There's a part of me that wants to sleepkeep this just to myself for however long I can. Too hot This secret magic of my own, all mine, at last. I just want to think straightenjoy it for a while. Too hot to go back''

During Within a British heatwave 15-year-oldremote mountain pass, far away from the world, Lily Dixonlies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Briar's, has left home a family of witches who protect the town and is reported missingthe wider world from the Darklands. Rachel Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to be born into her family for generations and as such since she was young, her training as a teacher at Lilysteward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's school and cousin Audra becomes the mother of MiaBriar Witch, Lilythe town's best friendleader, and Ellie takes her place beside her. As Lily's family challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the police struggle rare ability to find any evidence that may lead communicate with the dead, putting her at the heart of a maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from one family secret to Lilyanother, Rachel takes it upon herself Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what to start looking for clues. However, do as the case goes on Rachel becomes fixated on finding Lily and finds herself crossing boundariesBriar witches' legacy, breaking trust and facing some impossible choices. Will everything they find Lily? Does Lily want have sacrificed to be found? And will life for Rachel ever be the same again?survive, is under threat.|isbn=14722656021803364548

|isbn=15387317381529900360|title=Simple Abundance: 365 Days to a Balanced and Joyful LifeThe Ghost Orchid|author= Sarah Ban BreathnachJonathan Kellerman|rating=54|genre=LifestyleCrime|summary=Someone once said: itIt hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's not selffault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and-indulgenceshut cases which didn't need the help of a psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, itwas Robin, Delaware's therapy! partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. I think they were talking about shopping, but it probably can be applied to most thingsShe knew that the involvement was something that the man she loved needed. In my The next casedid look simple, it applies though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a remote property in Bel Air. He was the heir to writing about things because I want an Italian shoe empire and she is married to, rather than because I can sell an extremely rich man and it or because I've got something to sells not the Italian. But which of them was the primary target?

|authorisbn=Frederic Gros1529395224|title=A Philosophy Letting the Cat Out of Walkingthe Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=3.5|genre= Politics Animals and SocietyWildlife|summary= I confess I picked this one up from the library in my pre-lockdown forage of random stuffSiôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. Now I have His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to go out an buy my own copy so follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the strain that I can turn down being on-call put on his father's life. When he was seventeen he took the pages I have marked opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and return to its varying wisdom when I need towas convinced this was the job for him. Before long, he was at Liverpool University. Some books draw you in slowly It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a child. This one had me in the first two pagesIf anything, wherein Gros explains why he''walking is not d wanted to be a sport''professional footballer.|isbn=1781688370

|isbn=085752612X0861541774|title=Rodham: What if Hillary hadn't Married Bill?A Nye of Pheasants|author=Curtis SittenfeldSteve Burrows

|summary=I was tempted The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to read ''Rodham'' by all the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the success business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. Katie is coming out of Curtis Sittenfelda break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|isbn=1846976596}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0811771741|title=InstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman|rating=4|genre=Crafts|summary=Melissa Leapman's ''American WifeInstaKnits for Baby''gives us a collection of knits from toys to blankets. That book wasnSome will be quick knits - others are of the 't marketed as being a portrait long, cosy afternoons in front of Laura Bush, but the word fire'variety. The projects are divided by the time they'thinlyll take to complete -veiled'' seemed less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to occur very regularly in reviewstwenty hours and more than twenty hours. All the projects are attractive, modern and useable. How would I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects'Rodhambut that'' compare? s me being picky.}}{{Frontpage|author=Dean Koontz|title=The Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=Paranormal|summary=Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. UnfortunatelyOh, there is and someone has delivered a difference: relatively little really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was known about Laura Bushinside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, which gave Benny is the book very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a freshness which the first third of ''Rodham'' lacksnice person. A really nice person. We've all heard So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the storiesdelivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, read the books - about Hillary and particularly about Billwho has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. ItSpike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's still an interesting conceptenemies, though: how would Hillary have fared if she hadn't subsumed her own ambitions he, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into BillBenny's career, if she hadn't had to carry the burden of all Bill's baggage and if she hadn't left her own run at the presidency so late? Could she have done better without the Clinton surname?wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=1662500491

|isbnauthor=0727889230Adam Stower|title=The Red, Red Snow|author=Caro RamsayMurray and Bun

|genre=CrimeConfident Readers |summary=In GlasgowMurray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, Eric Callaghan well, whatever takes his fancy next of Inkermann Tattoo Parlour had been to the ice show with two. But he's a bad magician's cat, so his wifefavourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, Geraldine and daughterthe catflap they both use can chuck them out, Lisa when he was stabbed in Planet Burger. He died within minutesnot into the regular back garden, but his murder seemed motiveless into a world of frightening adventure and there were no clueswhiffs. He was This time round it drops them into a genuine man and Viking land, where a talented artist: those investigating his death had hit a dead end. There were two deaths troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to investigate in the north of Scotland: it wasnbe honest, but he's turned up and he't thought wise ll have to involve 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 local murder team as someone on question should you make it? Or is the Glen Riske police force was indirectly involved in question if you did, would it land? The catch is that the caseanswer for both could well be.... no. Christmas - and a lot  ''Fragility'' is set as the city of snow were rapidly approaching.Portland, Oregon, cautiously begins to emerge from the restrictions imposed during the covid pandemic

|isbn=B07S6DBCFT1529431735|title=Little Girls Tell TalesThe Winter Visitor|author=Rachel BennettJames Henry

|summary=In 2004 RosalieIt's February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, Beth and Dallin were walking in which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the boggy wetlands by Rosalie and Dallinmore surprising. He's cottaged been exiled on the Costa del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decade. Beth and Dallin, both twelve-yearsThe return has come about because he's had a letter from his ex-oldwife, got ahead of ten-year-old Rosalie saying that she's ill and it wasnhasn't long before she realised that she was lostto live. Trying It's hard to find her way back to the main path she found a skeletonfeel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, but when she finally got stripped to the road she could never find her way back his underwear and sent to a watery grave in the bog when she'd seen the bodyboot of a stolen Ford Sierra. Most people didn't believe her, putting the story down Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to her vivid imagination.home?

|isbnauthor=0008273790Alex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=Remain Silent|author=Susie SteinerThe Glorious Race of Magical Beasts

|genre=CrimeConfident Readers|summary=When we first meet Matis and Dimitri, Matis Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in a bad waythe wondrous library we start by visiting with him, vomiting and obviously traumatised. When he's able to speak he tells Dimitri that ''Lukas is dead''. Lukas was in the evening a helper at the dessert cafe his late teens and he gran owns and Matis had come to Cambridgeshire from Klaipeda in Lithuaniaruns. They'd answered an advert offering good money and accommodation in return Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – for their labour: they could have there is a decent life ''and'' send money home to their familiesgeneration missing in the family. SadlyA few short years ago, it doesnEli't work out like that. When they arrive in s parents were both lost to the UK - on an old, uncomfortable bustitular race, a globe- they're dropped at a filthy house trotting adventure where several men all entrants have to share rooms and sleep on dirty mattresses on navigate the world in the floorcompany of a magical beast. It's modern slaveryThis has made the race anathema to the pair – but when a bad incident at the eatery leads to a confession from gran, Eli knows his only hope is to dare to enter what he most hates, which isn't uncommon amongst agricultural workerswith the sole aim the prize of magic at the end – the only thing to possibly save his gran.|isbn=0571382231