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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 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.

==Reviews of the The Best New Books==

'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{Frontpage|class-"wikitable" cellpaddingauthor="15" <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->Tom Percival<!-- von Doviak -->|title=The Wrong Shoes|-rating=5| stylegenre="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|Confident Readers[[image:1785657178.jpg|linksummary=http://wwwWill's life is difficult, in a multitude of ways.amazon.co.uk/dp/1785657178/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Charlesgate Confidential by Scott Von Doviak]]=== [[image:3star He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, [[:Category:Crime (Historical)|Crime (Historical)]] In 1946 and Will's life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has a gang tiny amount of criminals pull off an audacious hope. He is good at art heist, making off with priceless works and clings to the moments of art from a Boston Museum. These missing art works are never found. In 1988joy when he is drawing, that feel like a student finds himself caught up in light at the mystery end of the missing art and hot on the trail of the multi-million-dollar rewarda long, dark tunnel. In 2014, the art is still missing and now dead bodies are turning up at the eponymous Charlesgate, filled with alumni celebrating their 25th reunion. As the body count rises, will we discover the truth behind the art theft decades earlier? [[Charlesgate Confidential by Scott Von Doviak|Full Review]]isbn=1398527122}}<!-- Minette Walters -->{{Frontpage|author=Sylvie Cathrall|-title=A Letter to the Luminous Deep| stylerating="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"5|genre=Science Fiction[[image:1760632163.jpg|linksummary=http://www.amazon.coThere are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of them.uk/dp/1760632163/ref|isbn=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]0356522776}}{{Frontpage| styleisbn="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"0008517061|title=Death in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell|rating=4|genre==[[The Turn of Midnight by Minette Walters]]===Crime[[image:4star.jpg|linksummary=CategoryFormer Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the future of his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a lot of compromise:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] At the beginning of 1349 there does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is a glimmer of a hope that the ravages of future she wants for herself and her daughter? For the Black Death might be passing. In Devilish moment they’re enjoying life in Dorset the population is well, because of Lady Anne's strict rules about quarantine, which are regarded as heresy as they go against present and putting the future on the strict rules of the church, but their stores of food are dwindling and they know that when they are exhausted they will have no choice but to leaveback burner.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1786482126|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4. What will they find on the outside? Are they the only survivors? [[The Turn of Midnight by Minette Walters5|Full Review]]genre=Crime <!|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich -the site was going to hold seventy- Hendrix -->|five 'luxury' apartments -| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1683690122when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway.jpg|link=http://www There was no skull.amazon.co.uk/dp/1683690122/ref=nosim Was this a ritual killing or murder?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix]]=== [[image:5star Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the one night 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.jpg|link=Category:}}{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:HorrorFrontpage|isbn=0008551324|Horror]], [[:Category:Thrillerstitle=The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|Thrillers]]author=Neil Lancaster The night manager of a Best Western, Kris Pulaski is washed up and unhappy|rating=4. Few know of her past as guitarist of 905|genre=Crime|summary=It's Heavy Metal band Dürt Würk – a band once tipped unusual for greatness, but destined anyone from the Hardie family to obscurity after lead singer Terry Hunt embarked on a solo career, rocketing to stardom as ''Koffin''approach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. When a shocking act of violence turns KrisBut Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's life upside down – she is forced prepared to look back to a past she has tried to forget – and to a deal Hunt made that may have sabotaged more than just tell the police where the band. In body of a journey that will take Kris from a dusty hotel to a hellish music festival, she's determined to face the man missing person is buried and who ruined was responsible for her lifedeath. But with dark forces rising This person, he promises, is someone big and threatening everything Kris holds dear, it will Kris be able worth the police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to defeat the odds? Or will Hell truly be unleashed on transferred to an open prison to serve the Earth…? [[We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix|Full Review]] <!-- Steve Burrows -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786074389remainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786074389/ref=nosim Not much to ask, is it?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded -align: top; text-align: left;"|make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008405026|title==[[A Tiding of Magpies: A Birder Murder Mystery by Steve Burrows]]=Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=5 [[image:3.5star.jpg|linkgenre=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] DCI Domenic Jejeunesummary=It's most celebrated case was his rescue of the Home Secretary's daughter when she was kidnappedsixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. It's always been his deep regret that he failed to rescue the man who She was kidnapped with her never found and this has all resurfaced now that the case is being reviewedinvestigation ground to a halt. Long-buried secrets are bound to come to lightNow, even though the officer reviewing the caseher mother, DC Desdemona GillHelena, is a fan of his to the extent that it's almost embarrassingand her father are dead in their bed. The review isn't the only problem he has though: Initially, it looks like a body has been found on some waste ground, straightforward murder/suicide but itthere's so badly burned that identification is difficult - and made more difficult by something about the indecision positioning of the Medical Examinerbodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. [[A Tiding of Magpies: A Birder Murder Mystery by Steve Burrows|Full Review]] <! What looked as though it was going to be an open-and- Neil White -->shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.}}{{Frontpage|-isbn=0571379877| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"The Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet[[image:1785764608.jpg|linkrating=http://www3.amazon.co.uk/dp/1785764608/ref5|genre=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Crime| stylesummary="verticalEdward Jevons is a working-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Darkness Around Her by Neil White]]=== [[image:4starclass young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and Stanza.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] Lizzie Barnsley was escaping from her abusive boyfriend when she was murdered on the canal towpath on New Year Robert's Evea theatre director. It obviously wasn't the boyfriend as he was still being held by LizzieHe's friends at the pubalso self-obsessed, demanding, but before long Peter Box was arrested handsome and entitled and chargeduses Edward to run errands for him. HeEdward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and he'd sought treatment at the local hospital for an injury s drunkenly confided how he feels to his head which was the same shape as the heel of Lizzie's shoe - and her blood was on the shoeRobert. Dan Grant was called Most men in to represent Box, but thereRobert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a problem. Box wonrelationship had begun between them but he't talk - won't talk to the police or to Grant, so how s not like most men: Edward is he left to represent stumble upon the man? And had Box killed Lizzie? It was obvious that he hadn't known her - so why would he kill her? [[The Darkness Around Her by Neil White|Full Review]]two of them kissing in a dark passageway.}}<!-- Connors -->{{Frontpage|-author=Jo Callaghan| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"Leave No Trace|rating=4[[image:1724588303.jpg|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1724588303/refCrime|summary=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: When a man is found crucified on the top; text-align: left;"| ===[[Blue Sky Black by John Connors]]=== [[image:4starof a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]]  ''When Tom Allenby It's their first live case together, the 14 year-old boy who can control the elements, sees metal objects and cars rising into the air one night he knows he having previously been very successful with several cold cases. But when there is facing a powerful enemy. The trail leads to stolen magnetic stonessecond body found crucified a few days later, sinister experiments in an old country house Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a village hiding very high profile case that draws a secret. As each lot of his friends faces challenges unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of their own, can Tom fight a force which knows all about themcareer?''|isbn=139851120XOf course he can! [[ Blue Sky Black by John Connors |Full Review]] }}<!-- Melissa Leet -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=1399613073| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"Moral Injuries|author=Christie Watson[[image:1943826331.jpg|link|rating=http://www.amazon.co4.uk/dp/1943826331/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 5| stylegenre="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"Thrillers|summary===[[Landslide by Melissa Leet]]=== [[image:4starOlivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Women 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 them they's Fiction|Womenre at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's Fiction]] The area where Jill and Susie lived wasngoing to end in tragedy. We don't highly populated so it was fortunate that they became such good friends, despite know who suffered the tragedy or the fact that Susie was a year older than Jillconsequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. Susie lived with her motherThis time, an alcoholic, and Jill lived with it''her'' mother, s their teenage children who dedicated herself to her gardenare involved. Jill's father was Jay Tutle, the photographer, but he spent much of his time working away - often for months on end}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0241636604|title=The Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4. In reality there was little difference between the two families: Mrs Smith's alcoholism caused serious illness whilst Susie was still young5|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. Joy A hoodie and tragedy would visit Jill's home. ''Landslide'' is jeans replaces the story of how what happened determined pin-stripe suit and his background is the course of Jill's life East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and how great tragedy can breed resilience and hopeinjustice. [[Landslide by Melissa Leet|Full Review]] <! There was no posh public school on his CV -but he had been to the London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - Pearse extremely bright --> |-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0718189248and 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.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0718189248/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 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| styletitle="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=3.5|genre==[[The House Across the Street by Lesley Pearse]]===Crime[[image:5star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] Have you ever found yourself staring out the window slightly longer than needed to see what your neighbours are up to? This is It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up. She's back now because of a common occurrence request for Katy Speed who regularly watches help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Freya'The House Across the Streets former mentor and Carole' as a frequent stream of women are brought there in the same black hummer and seen leaving a short while later. Although slightly unusuals close friend, not much is said aside from your typical neighbourhood gossipArthur Crockleford, that is until Katy is woken up in dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the early hours one morning to find out that least. Arthur was the same house has reason why Freya had not been burnt back to the groundvillage: Arthur, she feels, along with the woman who lives therelet her down badly. This situation is made a whole lot worse for Katy when her father is arrested for starting Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the man or pursue the fireprofession she loved. What follows is an engrossing depiction of Katy's quest to prove her father's innocence whilst dealing with her unbearable mother After the split, she worked in a cafe, met and ultimately having married James (on the rebound from the safety love of many people's lives in her hands. [[The House Across the Street by Lesley Pearse|Full Review]]life, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.}}<!-- Maitland -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover| styletitle="widthAll Tomorrow's Futures: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"Fictions that Disrupt|[[image:1472235878.jpgauthor=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|linkrating=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1472235878/ref5|genre=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Science Fiction| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[A Gathering ''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of Ghosts by Karen Maitland]]=== [[image:5starthings to come.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Paranormal|Paranormal]], [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] Witchcraft, the supernatural and the will to survive at all costs collide in a story that never shies away from the darker side of human nature. The land is unhappy, the old spirits want revenge and famine is kindling a resurgence of the old faith. As fear rises, it is increasingly difficult for Prioress Johanne to ignore that something rotten has taken root. The sacred well is tainted, its healing waters run red with blood and strangers are blowing in on a wind of change. [[A Gathering of Ghosts by Karen Maitland|Full Review]] <!-- Sedgwick -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1788542304.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788542304/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Monsters We Deserve by Marcus Sedgwick]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:Horror|Horror]] Two hundred years ago, bad weather, bad company (well, the kind that is also mad, and dangerous to know), a spooky reading list and a few chance topics of discussion all led a young woman to start writing her first, and definitely her most famous ever, book. The narrator of this novel has brought himself to a remote Alpine building, in the centre of that first novel's world, to revisit it in honour of its bicentenary. He hates it, for he sees it as badly written and with some unwelcome biases. He seems to only be there and doing this for the publisher to whom he addresses a lot of the script we read. But what if some greater force wanted him there too? [[The Monsters We Deserve by Marcus Sedgwick|Full Review]] <!-- Denzil Meyrick -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1846974127.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1846974127/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Relentless Tide (DCI Daley) by Denzil Meyrick]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] The site was rumoured to have been the home of Viking warlord Somerled so the discovery by Professor Francombe and her team of archaeologists of the graves of three women initially caused great excitement, which rapidly turned to horror when they realised that the women had died just over twenty years ago. The graves would bring some closure though - these were the bodies of the three missing victims of the 'Midweek Murderer' who operated in Glasgow in the early to mid nineties. It was also an opportunity for DCI Jim Daley to confront a failure in his past. He'd been on the original case and the murderer had never been found. He'd also lost a close friend and made some enemies, one of whom would return to taunt him when Police Scotland's Cold Case Unit arrived on the scene. [[The Relentless Tide (DCI Daley) by Denzil Meyrick|Full Review]] <!-- Yuval Noah Harari -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1787330672.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1787330672/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Politics and Society|Politics and Society]] Yuval Noah HarariIf gave us ''Sapiens'', which told the history of mankind and then ''Homo Deus'' which looked at mankind's future. Now we have ''21 Lessons for the 21st Century'' which looks at the challenges we currently face and it's enlightening, thought-provoking and occasionally just a little bit frightening. It's unlikely that mankind will face what - eighty years ago - would have been thought of as a traditional war, with armies, navies and air forces fighting it out hand to hand. It's much more likely that the threats we'll face will be relatively new. Harari looks at them in some depth. [[21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari|Full Review]] <!-- Wilson -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786496038.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786496038/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Aftershocks by A N Wilson]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] In a country very much like New Zealand, but at the same time most avowedly not, two women will find love. Strong love too, for our narrator will say that her first attraction for her partner was the only thing to make sense of all those exaggerated songs she'd heard, and books and poems she'd read, and plays she'd acted in – works of art that had until then seemed sheer hyperbole. It was entirely unrequited love for quite some time, but it does burgeon, or so we're promised from the off, because of something quite drastic – a major earthquake very much like the one that hit Christchurch, but at the same time most avowedly not. This book then is the combined exploration of the lovers and the story of the quake. [[Aftershocks by A N Wilson|Full Review]] <!-- Torday -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786540517.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786540517/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Lost Magician by Piers Torday]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] In a world ravaged by the horrors of the Second World War, two boys and two girls move to the countryside to stay with a professor. They find a secret door and then a strange and enthralling world where they are needed, to play a major role in an epic battle. Sound familiar? [[The Lost Magician by Piers Torday|Full Review]] <!-- Bowden -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:B07FRH481F.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07FRH481F/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[The Amber Maze by Christopher Bowden]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]  Hugh Mullion goes away to Dorset for the weekend and, while waiting for his wife to arrive, finds a mysterious key down the back of an antique chair. The grubby and torn label to which is attached reads... [[The Amber Maze by Christopher Bowden|Full Review]] <!-- Pickles --> |-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1787112926.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1787112926/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Worzel goes for a Walk. Will you come too? by Catherine Pickles and Chantal Bourgonje]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:For Sharing|For Sharing]], [[:Category:Pets|Pets]] When we [[Worzel says hello! Will you be my friend? by Catherine Pickles and Chantal Bourgonje|last met Worzel Woolface]] he was a rather frightened dog who had difficulty meeting people. He's a bit better now and something which he really enjoys is going for a walk. It's not just a case of attaching a lead and heading for your favourite spot - there are a lot of other things to think about first. [[Worzel goes for a Walk. Will you come too? by Catherine Pickles and Chantal Bourgonje|Full Review]]  <!-- Kearsley -->|-| style=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:1492687863.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1492687863/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''|===[[Bellewether by Susanna Kearsley]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]], [[:Category:Paranormal|Paranormal]] Flitting between the present day and mid 16thcentury, ''Bellewether'' tells the fascinating tale of the Wilde House and all its inhabitants. In the present tense aspects, the Wilde House is being turned into a museum due to the legacy left by Captain Benjamin Wilde. It is told from the perspective of Charley, the museum curator, who is intrigued by the ghost who haunts the house and their story; a tale that ends in tragedy involving Benjamin Wilde's sister, Lydia, and a French-Canadian lieutenant, Jean-Philippe who was sent to live there. The perspective of the book is continuously shifted between Charley, then Lydia and Jean-Philippe. The latter two tell the truth about what was happening during this chaotic time in history, just as Charley is beginning to unravel it herself. [[Bellewether by Susanna Kearsley|Full Review]] <!-- Reeve -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0192766082.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0192766082/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Legend of Kevin: A Roly-Poly Flying Pony Adventure (Legend of Kevin 1) by Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] Meet Kevin. He's a flying pony, and he's a little on the plump side. He loves biscuits too much is why, but he's happily living in the middle of nowhere, in the wild, wet hills of the Outermost West. Now meet Max. He's a simple human being, not flying anywhere, and wishing for a pet to share his time in his top-floor flat with, something his Byronically goth sister and parents don't agree with. One night, however, the wild and wet hills are wilder and wetter than usual, and an enormous storm blows Kevin out of his nest, and on to the balcony outside Max's window. The two are bound to become friends, but they might not be able to relax just yet, for the bad weather has not finished… [[The Legend of Kevin: A Roly-Poly Flying Pony Adventure (Legend of Kevin 1) by Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre|Full Review]] <!-- Elizabeth Haynes --> |-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:191240804X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/191240804X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Murder of Harriet Monkton by Elizabeth Haynes]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime (Historical)|Crime (Historical)]], [[:Category:True Crime|True Crime]] ''But that's just it'', she said. ''It's ''not'' Harriet, is it? Not our Harriet. It's some manufactured creature, that exists only for this blessed inquest: something to be summed up like a spirit, to be examined and pored over, to be sneered at and judged. Harriet deserves to be remembered as she was to us, not picked at like carrion.'' And that was the problem: it seemed that there were two Harriets. There was the one her friends - a fellow teacher, her would-be lover, her seducer and the man who was her landlord who was also her lover - knew. Some spoke of her as kindly, virtuous and pious, but that was before her body was found behind the chapel which she regularly attended in Bromley. She'd been poisoned - or had taken her own life. After the inquest was opened another Harriet would emerge, one who was about six months pregnant and who had obviously not been living the chaste life expected of a young, unmarried woman in 1843. [[The Murder of Harriet Monkton by Elizabeth Haynes|Full Review]] <!-- Vallance -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1848126603.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1848126603/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]''

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.}}{{Frontpage|author=Sunny Singh|title=Hotel Arcadia|rating=3.5|genre=Thrillers | stylesummary="verticalThe 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 Sam, a wartime photographer and Abhi, the hotel manager. As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the hotel, he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what's happened through her photography. 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 rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists.|isbn=086154742X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529153298|title=The List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the family 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking -align: top; textto anyone.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1398524085|title=Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, Etty. are all worried but - strangely -align: left;"her husband, Alec, is not. Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the body of Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in the river. It was an easy assumption for the police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the guilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1035906708|title=Diva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=[[You Only Live Once 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 Jess Vallance]]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'. All big movie fans, they're looking forward to lots of exciting films, and many, many snacks! However, as the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to the next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the cinema, and to their real lives?|isbn=1839942738}}{{Frontpage|author=Rachel Greenlaw|title=Compass and Blade|rating=3.5|genre=Teens|summary=''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.''

[[image:4starRosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks.jpgMira, 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.|linkisbn=Category: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}}{{Frontpage|author=Matthew Tree|title=We'll Never Know|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary= Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, a drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and who had endless crises of self confidence. So Tim applied himself to his studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions.|isbn= B0CVFXPGP8}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens{{Frontpage|author=A G Slatter|title=The Briar Book of the Dead|rating=5|genre=Fantasy|Teens]]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.''

Gracie Dart 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 studioussteward 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, responsible student Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, putting her at the heart of a colour coded timetable maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and French verbs covering her wallsdetermine what to do as the Briar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat. She|isbn=1803364548}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529900360|title=The Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's hardworking fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and smart but once her final school exams are overeven after Alex recovered, Gracie has 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 revelationwhile. After 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 mistakenly thinks 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 sheis married to an extremely rich man and it's contracted not the Italian. But which of them was the primary target?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: 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 fatal illness (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 opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the perils 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 looking Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up symptoms on with an old ally, Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and he killed a Ghurka. Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the man. Now he could be facing the internet) Gracie decides death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn't help Danny at all.}}{{Frontpage|author=Alexander McCall Smith|title=The Perfect Passion Company|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to start living all the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her lifeyounger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. Her studies are finished for Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the summer chance to come home to Edinburgh. And so Gracie wants begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to say yes an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to every opportunity that comes 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 wayabilities, and just like there's always her meticulous study timetablevery helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, Gracie Dart doesnWilliam, to lend a hand…|isbn=1846976596}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0811771741|title=InstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman|rating=4|genre=Crafts|summary=Melissa Leapman't do anything s ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of the 'long, cosy afternoons in front of the fire' variety. The projects are divided by half measuresthe time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and more than twenty hours. [[You Only Live Once by Jess Vallance All the projects are attractive, modern and useable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's me being picky.}}{{Frontpage|author=Dean Koontz|title=The Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=Paranormal|summary=Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Spike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=1662500491}}{{Frontpage|author=Adam Stower|title=Murray and Bun|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers |summary=Murray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the two. But he's a bad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the regular back garden, but into a world of frightening adventure and whiffs. This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but he's turned up and he'll have to do…|isbn=0008561249}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0C47LV1PC|title=Fragility|author=Mosby Woods|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|Full Review]]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.

<!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->''Fragility'' is set as the city of Portland, Oregon, cautiously begins to emerge from the restrictions imposed during the covid pandemic}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529431735|title=The Winter Visitor|author=James Henry|rating=4|genre=Crime|}summary=It's February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the more surprising. He'd been exiled on the Costa del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decade. The return has come about because he's had a letter from his ex-wife, saying that she's ill and hasn't long to live. It's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his underwear and sent to a watery grave in the boot of a stolen Ford Sierra. Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?