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<metadesc>Book review siteExpert, with books full book reviews from the many most walks of literary life - ; fiction, biography, crime, cookery and anything else that takes our fancy. There are also lots of author interviews and top tens.</metadesc>Hello from The Bookbag, a book review site, featuring books from all the many walks of literary life non- [[: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. Itchildren's the bag we take to the library and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, & self-published 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|plus 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.</metadesc>
Want to find out more [[About Us|about us]]? __NOTOC__ ==The Best New Books== '''Read [[Features:Category:New Reviews|new featuresreviews by category]].'''<br>__NOTOC__{{newreview|author=Salman Rushdie|title=Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticisms 1981 - 1991|rating=3.5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=We read some authors because we know we're going to enjoy them. Others, we feel somehow obliged to read. If we consider ourselves ''readers'', and certainly if we have any pretensions (I use Read [[:Category:Features|the word advisedly) to being latest features]].''well-read'', then there are some books and more particularly some authors with whom we are required to become familiar.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099542250</amazonuk>}}
'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Neel MukherjeeSylvie Cathrall|title=A Life ApartLetter to the Luminous Deep|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Science Fiction|summary=Ritwik Ghosh grows There are few greater joys than a book which lives up in India in the 1970's, one of two children of an abusive mother. In the 1990's, finally escaping the country after her death, he comes to England to study at Oxford, then moves to London. There, he looks after 86 year old Anne Cameron in exchange for free accommodation, while looking for work, and for sexual encounters with other men. He also writes a novel - the extended story of Miss Gilby, a character in Rabindranath Tagore's novel Ghare Bairecompelling premise. Miss Gilby becomes English teacher to Bimala, the wife And this is one of a minor official in 1900's Bengal just before the Partition of the provincethem.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184901101X</amazonuk>0356522776
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mark Sperring and Leo Timmers0008517061|title=GreenDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Clive loves wearing green. It's all he ever wears. He thinks he looks mighty snazzyFormer Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, but has settled into his big sister (boo! hiss!) takes every opportunity to call him rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a cabbagelittle uncertainty about the future of his life with his vet girlfriend, mossLivia and her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a sprout lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life to move in with Livia or a toad. Clive keeps wearing his green clothes, certain that he'll have does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the future she wants for herself and her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in the last laugh present and get one over putting the future on his sisterthe back burner.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845394534</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ian Whybrow and Lynne Chapman1786482126|title=Stinky! Or How The Beautiful Smelly Warthog Found A FriendJanus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=34.5|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Stinky the warthog lives Builders were demolishing an old house in a neighbourhood with Norwich - the Crocodile family, site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the Monkey family and the Littlebird familybones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. One by one they invite Stinky round to play Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with their childrenDCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his foul odour and child as a result of the flies buzzing around him cause all manner of problemsone night they spent together some three months ago. Will he Her condition will be able obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to find a friend? sudden bouts of sickness...Well, yes, it says so in the title.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1862337594</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Josephine Wilkinson0008551324|title=The Early Loves of Anne Boleyn|rating=3.5|genre=History|summary=Before her marriage to King Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn had already been courted by three suitors, any of whom might have become her husband - and possibly saved her from her eventual end on the scaffold. The first was her Irish cousin James Butler, later Earl of Ormond, whom she was at one time intended to marry in order to settle a family dispute over the title and estates of the Earldom of Ormond. After their marriage negotiations came to an end in the face of legal obstacles, she became betrothed to Henry Percy, heir to the Duke of Northumberland. With a little help from the scheming Cardinal Wolsey, the Duke, who had little time for his son, insisted that any idea of marriage between them should be dismissed forthwith. Soon after this the poet Thomas Wyatt became enamoured of her, but by this time there was fierce competition from his sovereign, and her destiny was sealed.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848684304</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewDevil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Scott Westerfeld|title=UgliesNeil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensCrime|summary="This city is a paradise, Tally. It feeds you, educates you, keeps you safe's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. It makes you prettyNeither side likes or has any respect for the other." And thatBut Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's meant literallyprepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. As soon as they're sixteen years oldThis person, ugly people like Tally are completely rebuilt - no more freckles, dull eyes, rough skin, or ideas about biting their fingernailshe promises, is someone big and made a prettyit will be worth the police doing what he wants. It's scientific, and obviously And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of benefit, considering the parties, status his sentence and love afforded to prettiesget an early parole date. But Not much to ask, is it essential? When her best friend is prettified Tally finds a The new friend, Shay, who has secrets to share in the few weeks before the operation theyDeputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she're due s even prepared to have on do the same day. Secrets of another place, another way, other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and of people staying forever ugly - through choiceanyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847389066</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Preston Rutt and Ben Redlich0008405026|title=Tortoise vs. Hare - The Rematch!A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Harry It'The Hurricane' Hare has been licking his wounds s sixteen years since 'Steady' Eddie Tortoise beat him nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in the famous racetheir bed. It Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's time for 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 rematch, and Harrycomplex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's been training hard. Eddie couldndisappearance: others (such as Derwent't possibly win agains boss, could he?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845394186</amazonuk>Una Burt) are less convinced.
}}
{{Frontpage|isbn=0571379877|title=The Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=Edward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and Stanza. Robert's a theatre director. He's also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for him. Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the two of them kissing in a dark passageway.}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jo NesboCallaghan|title=Doctor Proctor's Fart PowderLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Lisa's best friend has moved away. The neighbourhood bulliesWhen a man is found crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, Truls and Trym TraneDCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, are causing havocthe AI detective Lock. Her dad is getting ready for Norway It's Independence Day celebrationstheir first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. Oh But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and there's an anaconda on a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to solve the loose case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the sewerscase and, potentially, out of a career?|isbn=139851120X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1399613073|title=Moral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=4. Then Nilly moves into her street5|genre=Thrillers|summary=Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the two 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 be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Anjali is the free spirit of the group and she becomes a GP. When we first meet Doctor Proctor them they're at a drug and discover his amazing fart powderalcohol-fuelled party and it's going to end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. This time, it's their teenage children who are involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847386539</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nicole Dryburgh0241636604|title=Talk to the HandThe Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=TeensAutobiography|summary=We first met Nicole Dryburgh If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in her book ''The Way I See It'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, which she wrote at eighteenwhere he was familiar with violence, poverty and which detailed her battles with cancer and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the loss London School of her sightEconomics. We loved the warts Stevenson is bright - extremely bright -and-all picture he has a facility with numbers which most of her life us can only envy. He also realised that she gave us thenmost 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, and so we were really pleased to see that she's written this turned into permanent employment as a second booktrader. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340996978</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ian Mathie1035021803|title=The Man of PassageAntique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller
|rating=3.5
|genre=AutobiographyCrime|summary=Ian MathieIt's association with Africa began when his father was posted twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to what was then Northern Rhodesia when Mathie was just four years oldthe English country village where she grew up. School was in She's back now because of a convent request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Freya's former mentor and was run by German Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and Italian nuns and for a while he the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. Arthur was the only white child amongst a couple of hundred Africansreason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. Even when he was joined by others he was still part of an ethnic minority although he didn't realise it! He was taught though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the local language and grew up with man or pursue the local childrenprofession she loved. It was his home After the split, she worked in a cafe, met and was to be married James (on the rebound from the centre love of his her life for decades to come, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955312418</amazonuk>
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover
|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt
|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.''
I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Well, I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of technology in my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but I'm left with the feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of it is - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand.}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=K A S QuinnSunny Singh|title=The Queen Must Die (Chronicles of the Tempus) Hotel Arcadia|rating=43.5|genre=Confident ReadersThrillers |summary=In this historical time-travelling extravaganza, Katie Berger-Jones-Burg (I know, it's The Hotel Arcadia is a mouthful, but stay with me) is the daughter of Mimi, luxury hotel in an ex-girl band member who unnamed city that has suddenly been married three times, so far, hence Katie's hyphenated nameviolently taken over by a terrorist group. Katie has come home Hiding from school to find that Mimi has gone off with another manthe terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, Dr Fishbergthere is Sam, a wartime photographer and as she begins to stress about Abhi, the potential new addition hotel manager. As Abhi continues to her surname she crawls into her hidey-hole space beneath her bed try to escape care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the hotel, he forms a little while. Here she bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of her diary and her stash of books, and she curls up room to try to read her latest book, a compilation of letters from Princess Alice, Queen Victoriacapture what's youngest daughterhappened through her photography. She starts Although they only ever talk over the phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to feel a bit sleepy, but is suddenly startled awake help her keep safe and they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by a flash of light. She finds herself in Victorian England, underneath a sofa and staring into the eyes of Princess Alice, who is just as startled as she isterrorists.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848873700</amazonuk>086154742X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robert Williams1529153298|title=Luke and JonThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=LukeIt's mum died in a car accident a while ago 1979 and since then his father has let things goMargaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, though. The house has Women have been repossessed and disappearing. Well, they are forced 've been murdered, but to move to a new townhave 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. The new place is falling down - it Miv's upset because she's all they can afford after overheard that her father wants to move the debts were paidfamily 'Down South'. Neither Luke nor his father are really that bothered - what can When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a house be when therefrightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she's no mum ll do anything to fill it with her brightness and vivacity and love? The bottle of whisky prevent that has begun to live in his father. She's hand though - not worried about the dangers or thather Mum's a worry for Luke; that makes him feel rather sick insidestopped talking - to anyone. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571249639</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Melanie Rose1398524085|title=Coming HomeHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=4.5|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=We meet the narrator of this story drinking coffee from a thermos in a lay-byCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, on a cold grey dayEtty. All her worldly possessions are travelling with her in all worried but - strangely - her carhusband, including her cat. She has clearly made some momentous decisionAlec, and is on her way to somewhere newnot. I assumed that as story unfoldedShortly afterwards, I'd learn more about her Etty and where she was going.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847561063</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=P C Cast|title=Divine by Choice (Goddess Greg, find the body of Partholon)|rating=3|genre=Fantasy|summary=A few months after the Formorian warGreg's father, Duncan Ackerley, Shannon Parker is living in the high liferiver. Hailed as Goddess Incarnate, married to a man (well, centaur) who It was born an easy assumption for the police to love her, carrying her first child, make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the next daughter of Epona and royally spoiled guilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but get on with amazing jewels their lives and clothes, life wonder about what really can't get much betterhappened.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778303586</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stephanie Tillotson1035906708|title=Cut on the BiasDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=A cleverWe tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, comic delightbut she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, pitch-perfectNew York, astutely observed, particularly insightful, must-read. Crumbsin December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Whatever else is there Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to say about Nick Hornby's latest book that isnCallas't already plastered on this newlyto make it more manageable in the States. When she was back in Athens -published paperback edition? I can only report supposedly so that ''Julietshe 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,'' ''Naked'' bowled me over with yet another Hornby strikeJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141020644</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Joanne OwenChristopher Edge|title=The Alchemist and the AngelBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=When JanLucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the nickname of 's parents die of the plagueThe Black Hole'. All big movie fans, he is sent they're looking forward to the great city lots of Vienna to live with his aunt and uncle. His uncle is a distinguished alchemistexciting films, andmany, hoping to take the boy's mind off his griefmany snacks! However, hires him as his apprentice. Jan loves the workmovie starts, learns they very quicklyrealise that something about this new film format is very different, and soon the two of them they are on the verge of perfecting a serum said swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to bring the dead back to life. But then his uncle is found deadnext, and Jan can they figure out what on earth is being whisked off going on? Will they ever get back to Prague by his vain and calculating aunt. She has her own plans for the serumcinema, and she will stop at nothing to accomplish them.their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444001507</amazonuk>1839942738
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Rachel Greenlaw
|title=Compass and Blade
|rating=3.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.''
Rosevear, a 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 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 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 father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the heart 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=0008664730}}{{Frontpage|author=James Sherwood Metts|title=Planet Storyland|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary= Things have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of other, new ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and, along with it, all the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|isbn=1736128426}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tom ConnollyMatthew Tree|title=The Spider TrucesWe'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=The title of this debut novel by Tom Connolly is enigmaticTimothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, mysterious. It draws the reader in - just like a fly to a spider's web. And in fairness 'The Spider Truces' does exactly what it say on the tin as the main character, Ellis, is obsessed drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and terrified in equal measure, who had endless crises of spidersself confidence. ... and when you live in an old houseSo Tim applied himself to his studies, as the O'Rourke family does, there are plenty of spiders cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and other creepy crawlies aboutset himself high but achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0956251528</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=A G Slatter
|title=The Briar Book of the Dead
|rating=5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary='' 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 family of witches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands. Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to be born into her family for generations and as such since she was young, her training as a steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the town's leader, and Ellie takes her place beside her. As challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, putting her at the heart of a maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what to do as the Briar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat.|isbn=1803364548}}{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1529900360|title=The Ghost Orchid|author=William HusseyJonathan Kellerman|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the help of a psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, it was Robin, Delaware's partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the man she loved needed. The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a remote property in Bel Air. He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to an extremely rich man and it's not the Italian. But which of them was the primary target?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529395224|title=WitchfinderLetting the Cat Out of the Bag: Dawn The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=3.5|genre=Animals and Wildlife|summary=Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the strain that being on-call put on his father's life. When he was seventeen he took the Demontideopportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the job for him. Before long, he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a child. If anything, he'd wanted to be a professional footballer.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0861541774|title=A Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Jake is a rather solitary person. HeDCI Domenic Jejeune's bright but bored by school close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in a street brawl - he's obsessed would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with horror comics. He owns an amazing collection a knife - and he knows all the stories and myths and folklores off by heartkilled a Ghurka. Little does Initially, he realise faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that everything suggested that he might have planned to murder the man. Now he reads about is real, could be facing the death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and the Demontide is almost upon himwouldn't help Danny at all. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192731904</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Mary Yukari WatersAlexander McCall Smith|title=The FavoritesPerfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=This story The Perfect Passion Company is set a dating agency in KyotoEdinburgh, Japanrun by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, starting in June 1978tailored service. Fourteen year old Sarah Rexford and Ness has asked her Japanese mother, Yoko, have younger cousin Katie if she could come back from and look after the US business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to stay with family Canada to get away for a few weekswhile. Sarah was born and brought Katie is coming out of a break up in Japan but has lived in the US with her mother a bad boyfriend, and white American father for five yearsso jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. She is very conscious of 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 differences between life in Kyoto and in Fielder's ButteIsabel Dalhousie novels, Californiabut with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Here Katie has no experience in Kyotorunning a business, the womenor in match-making, including Sarah and but Ness has full confidence in her mum, go shopping every day for foodabilities, and the food is there's always her very different – in an opening scenehelpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, Sarah is trying to explain 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 collection of knits from toys to her grandfather what she normally has for breakfast blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of the 'long, cosy afternoons in front of the USfire' 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 becoming aware of more than twenty hours. All the gulf between her life in Japan projects are attractive, modern and in Californiauseable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's me being picky.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847392334</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Laura PowellDean Koontz|title=The Master of MisruleBad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensParanormal|summary=In the ArcanumBenny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, fortunes could be won and losthis house gets trashed. The bizarre otherworldOh, just the slightest shift away from our ownand someone has delivered a really weird, had been disturbing coffin-sized object to his home to a life-altering game of chance, power and intelligenceit's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, based on Benny is the tarotvery last person to deserve all this bad luck. Four teenaged Londoners had been witness to this, then playersHe is a nice person. A really nice person. But they'd found So fortunately for Benny it wanting, and to level the playing field, had thrown turns out the rulebook. With that, however, the referee delivery to his house is no morea new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, and the Lord of Misrule who has been sent to help him since Benny is in chargeclearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Free, too, Spike is going to smother all take care of Britain with his unique brand Benny, and will certainly take care of scratch-card lottery. Soon all humanity might be 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 of luckwho exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408302373</amazonuk>1662500491
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick Adam Stower|title=TimecatcherMurray and Bun|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Jessie Minahan Murray is supposed to be a pretty average fictional twelve year old girl: she has a dog side-kick named Duff humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and she craves adventure. One day, when her scatty mother has an urgent need for buttons Jessie discovers well, whatever takes his fancy next of the abandoned Dublin Button Factory in an old mill, now inhabited by two detectives. But he's a bad magician's cat, who have so his favourite bun has been turned into a bighyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the catflap they both use can chuck them out, big secret. She also meets G who is not your average fictional twelve year old boy - for oneinto the regular back garden, he's dead. His worst enemy is Greenwood – but into a large ghost who lives in the mill and is full world of rules. Greenwood is also involved in this big secret which Jessie frightening adventure and G soon discover is the Timecatcherwhiffs. It opens every seven years for three days and reveals the past - 'shadow days' and 'shadow people'. It This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is about expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to open again be honest, but he's turned up and there is a ghostly villain named Sullivan Ellzhe'mede who would do anything ll have to have the power source at its heart... do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1842556770</amazonuk>0008561249
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rose TremainB0C47LV1PC|title=TrespassFragility|author=Mosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Set in the hills of Southern FranceCan you make a ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, Trespass is a novel about sibling love and rivalry, disputed territory and ultimately revenge. In the French corner are Aramon Lunel, resident of question should you make it? Or is the Mas Lunelquestion if you did, and his sister Audrun who lives in a cottage in would it land? The catch is that the groundsanswer for both could well be.. In the English corner are Victoria Verey, a garden designer, and her partner, an untalented watercolourist, Kitty. The catalyst that brings these together is the arrival in France of Anthony Verey, Victoria's sister whose exclusive antiques business in London is failing and who decides to follow his sister in finding a new life in France. Aramon is tempted to sell his family Mas by the lure of 'foreign' money even if that means that his sister's house has to be destroyed to secure the dealno.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701177942</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Christi Phillips 1529431735|title=The Devlin DiaryWinter Visitor|author=James Henry|rating=34|genre=Historical FictionCrime|summary=It 's February 1991 and Essex is 1672 and Hannah Devlinbitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the more surprising. He'd been exiled on the Costa del Sol as a young widow with wanted drug smuggler for a skill for (illegally) practicing medicine finds herself being all but kidnapped by King Charles IIdecade. The return has come about because he's had a letter from his ex-wife, saying that she's advisors ill and forced hasn't long to use her skills live. It's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to treat his mistress, Louise de Keroualleunderwear and sent to a watery grave in the boot of a stolen Ford Sierra.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847393489</amazonuk> Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Pauline FiskAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=In the TreesThe Glorious Race of Magical Beasts|rating=4.5|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary=Since his mother diedEli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, Kid has been staying with Nadine and flipping burgers in the evening a fast food joint after schoolhelper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. It's not an exciting life Eli lives with his lovely gran, but he isn't unhappy. And then Nadine gets too – for there is a boyfriend and generation missing in the flat gets rather crampedfamily. And then a box of his mother A few short years ago, Eli's possessions arrives. Insideparents were both lost to the titular race, he finds a photo globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in the company of a magical beast. This has made the race anathema to the father he's never met and pair – but when a bad incident at the eatery leads to a copy of his birth certificateconfession from gran, which tells him that Eli knows his father comes from Belize. And suddenly, Kid makes a decision. He's going nowhere fast in London, so he's going only hope is to head out dare to Belize and find enter what he most hates, with the sole aim the prize of magic at the man in end – the photo. He's on a plane within daysonly thing to possibly save his gran. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0571236200</amazonuk>0571382231
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