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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<!-- Bowling -->|title=The Wrong Shoes|-rating=5| stylegenre="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|Confident Readers[[image:1911077686.jpg|linksummary=http://wwwWill's life is difficult, in a multitude of ways.amazon.co.uk/dp/1911077686/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[In The Shadow 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 Heroes by Nicholas Bowling]]=== [[image:4things 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.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] Life as a slave in ancient Rome could be harsh Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and degradingdad are separated, but Cadmus and Will's life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has it much easier than mosta tiny amount of hope. Taken into He is good at art, and clings to the household moments of the scholar Tullus joy when he was a babyis drawing, his keenness to learn and his excellent memory have made him invaluable to his master, who treats him more that feel like a secretary and perhaps even a member light at the end of the family, rather than a despisedlong, barely human creaturedark tunnel. [[In The Shadow of Heroes by Nicholas Bowling|Full Review]]isbn=1398527122}}<!-- Golding -->{{Frontpage|-author=Sylvie Cathrall| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"A Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=5[[image:0008293678.jpg|linkgenre=http://wwwScience Fiction|summary= There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise.amazonAnd this is one of them.co.uk/dp/0008293678/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==[[Little Darlings by Melanie Golding]]===4[[image:4.5star.jpg|linkgenre=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:ThrillersCrime|Thrillers]]Lauren Tranter and her husband have just welcomed the arrival of children – twin boyssummary= Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, who they decide to name Riley and Morganhas settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. But something's wrong. While everyone else is celebrating There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the future of his life with his vet girlfriend, Lauren starts to worry – that someone out there is coming to take Livia and her children awaydaughter Diana, and if she looks away for even as moving in together would mean a second, they'll strike… [[Little Darlings by Melanie Golding|Full Review]] <!lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-- Alice Feeney -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|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 the future she wants for herself and her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and putting the future on the back burner.}}{{Frontpage[[image:0008236070.jpg|linkisbn=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0008236070/ref1786482126|title=nosim?tagThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=thebookbag-21]]Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=Crime| stylesummary="verticalBuilders were demolishing an old house in Norwich -align: top; textthe site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments -align: left;"|===[[I Know Who You Are by Alice Feeney]]=== [[image:4starwhen they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] Aimee Sinclair is just on the edge of making it big time as an actor Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. Right now sheIt's the sort of person whom you think you know but candifficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't quite remember where from, but that's all about to changeshe is pregnant with his child as a result of the one night they spent together some three months ago. That's a little worrying for Aimee as life has changed for her Her condition will be obvious before and she knows that she's long, not really Aimee Sinclair, she's Ciara: Aimee least because Ruth is simply the name she was forced prone to take when she was snatched as a childsudden bouts of sickness. That's not at the front of her mind though when she comes home one day and finds that her husband, Ben Bailey, has disappeared. Disappeared completely. Along with considerable funds from their current account [[I Know Who You Are by Alice Feeney|Full Review]] <!-- Rubin -->}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008551324|title=The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|-author=Neil Lancaster| stylerating="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|4.5[[image:0718187091.jpg|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0718187091/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Crime| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Liberation Square by Gareth Rubin]]=== [[image:5starIt's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. This person, he promises, [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] In an alternate 1952, Soviet Troops control British Streetsis someone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants. After D-Day goes horribly wrong, Britain And what he wants is first occupied by Nazi Germany – only to be rescued by Russian soldiers from transferred to an open prison to serve the East, remainder of his sentence and Americans from the westto get an early parole date. Dividing the nation between them Not much to ask, London soon finds itself split in two, a wall running through is it like a scar. When Jane Cawson? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's husband is arrested for even prepared to do the murder of his former wife, Jane other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is determined to clear his namekept well away from what's happening. In doing so, Jane follows a trail of corruption that leads her right to the highest levels of the state – and soon finds herself desperate to stay one step ahead of the murderous secret police… [[Liberation Square by Gareth Rubin|Full Review]]}}{{Frontpage<!-- Howe -->|isbn=0008405026|-title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)| styleauthor="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"Jane Casey|rating=5[[image:1788002865.jpg|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788002865/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Crime| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; textIt's sixteen years since nine-year-align: left;"| ===[[Not My Fault by Cath Howe]]=== [[image:5starold Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]]  ''Maya She was never found and Rose won't talk the investigation ground to each othera halt. Even though they Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are sistersdead in their bed. Not since the accident. Maya is turning wild Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and Rose doesn't know what to doher boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. And now Maya and Rose have What looked as though it was going to go away together on be an open-and-shut case is now a week-long school tripcomplex double murder. Will Kerrigan is convinced that the trip fix their sibling bond... or break it for good?explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent' [[Not My Fault by Cath Howe|Full Review]]s boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.}}<!-- Lupo -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=0571379877| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"The Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet[[image:1408898055.jpg|linkrating=http://www3.amazon.co.uk/dp/1408898055/ref5|genre=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Crime| stylesummary="verticalEdward Jevons is a working-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[We Are Blood And Thunder by Kesia Lupo]]=== [[image:4class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and Stanza.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]]   Robert's a theatre director. He'In a sealeds also self-off cityobsessed, demanding, a young woman, Lena, is running handsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for her lifehim. She Edward has been sentenced to death in love with Stanza since their university days - and her only way he's drunkenly confided how he feels to survive is to trust those she has been brought up to fear - those with magic.Robert. Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but he' ''On the other side of the locked gates s not like most men: Edward is a masked lady, Constance, determined left to find stumble upon the two of them kissing in a way back indark passageway. Years ago she escaped before her own powers were discovered. But now she won't hide who she is any longer.''}}{{Frontpage|author=Jo Callaghan|title=Leave No Trace|rating=4|genre=CrimeSo, Lena is |summary=When a cryptling - a low caste individual living in man is found crucified on the city top of Dukea hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. It's Foresttheir first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases.[[We Are Blood And Thunder by Kesia Lupo|Full Review]]  <!-- Kidd -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786893762 But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, 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.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786893762/ref=nosim Will they be able to solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of a career?tag|isbn=thebookbag-21]]139851120X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1399613073| styletitle="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"Moral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating===[[Things in Jars by Jess Kidd]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg5|linkgenre=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime (Historical)|Crime (Historical)]] A child has gone missing. The detective asked to take Thrillers|summary=Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the case is still struggling with the shame first day of medical school and frustration left by their friendship would keep them inseparable for a previous case, where the child was not found in time. Hardly original themes for quarter of a private eye thrillercentury. And yet Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. . . take another look. This detective Laura is a woman, perfectionist and the setting a trauma doctor. Anjali is Victorian London, with all the rich and colourful paradoxes free spirit of that era: technical and scientific progress jostling for space beside superstition the group and she becomes a fascination with the bizarre and the downright hideousGP. And before you When we first meet them they're more than at a couple of pages in, you realise just how much more unusual our heroine is than you expected. Bridie Devine may dress in halfdrug and alcohol-mourning, with a widowfuelled party and it's cap and stout, shiny boots, but the tobacco she smokes going to end in her pipe (my dear, what an utterly tragedy. We don''fast'' thing for a lady to do!) is mixed with a nugget of somethingt 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, well, let's say recreational, created by her chemist friend Prudhoe. The fact that it's actually meant to cure bronchial problems is by the bytheir teenage children who are involved. Her housemaid, being seven foot tall, is also somewhat remarkable}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0241636604|title=The Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4. And then, 5|genre=Autobiography|summary=If you were to bring up an image of coursea city banker in your mind, thereyou's the ghostre unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. Ruby Doyle, world famous tattooed boxer (deceased) accompanies Bridie all through her investigation, A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and it's clear he has a soft spot for his background is the determined young woman. If East End, where he really existswas familiar with violence, that ispoverty and injustice. [[Things in Jars by Jess Kidd|Full Review]] <! There was no posh public school on his CV -but he had been to the London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - Beckett extremely bright -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786491559and he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy.jpg|link=http://www He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid.amazon It was his ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank.co Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader.uk/dp/1786491559/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]}}{{Frontpage| styleisbn="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"1035021803|title=The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=3.5|genre=[[Beneath the World, A Sea by Chris Beckett]]=Crime|summary== [[image:3It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up.5star She's back now because of a request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole.jpg|link=Category Freya's former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the village:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] South AmericaArthur, she feels, 1990let her down badly. Ben Ronson, a British police officer, arrives in a mysterious forest Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to investigate be near the man or pursue the profession she loved. After the split, she worked in a spate of killings of Duendes. These silentcafe, vaguely humanoid creatures - with long limbs met and black button eyes - have a strange psychic effect married James (on peoplethe rebound from the love of her life, unleashing the subconscious who was murdered) and exposing their innermost thoughts Freya and fearsJames have now divorced. Ben becomes fascinated by the Duendes, but the closer he gets, the more he begins to unravel, with terrifying results... [[Beneath the World, A Sea by Chris Beckett}}{{Frontpage|Full Review]] <!-- M J Lee -->isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover|-title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt| styleauthor="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)[[image:B07P6P4S7H.jpg|linkrating=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07P6P4S7H/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 5| stylegenre="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"Science Fiction|summary===[[Where ''Opening up new ways of thinking about the Dead Fall (DI Ridpath, Book 2) by M J Lee]]=== [[image:4starshape of things to come.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] It really shouldn't have happened. DI Ridpath, conscious that his relationship with his wife and child is hanging by a thread, is off to collect them at his mother-in-law's house for an evening out. Traffic was heavy on the M60 (a match at Old Trafford wasn't helping) but it was moving steadily. Then a man wearing only a pair of blue boxers dashed out into the traffic, briefly put his hands on Ridpath's car then ran into the path of an articulated lorry. The driver had no chance of stopping and the naked man was killed instantly. Glancing to the hard shoulder Ridpath glimpsed a man with a gun. This was now a crime scene and the resulting seventeen-mile tail back of traffic would be the least of Ridpath's worries, although no one would let him forget about it in a hurry. [[Where the Dead Fall (DI Ridpath, Book 2) by M J Lee|Full Review]] <!-- Anstruther -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1784631647.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1784631647/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[A Perfect Explanation by Eleanor Anstruther]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] Enid Campbell was a woman who, on the face of it, had everything. Leading the life of an aristocrat – full of inherited wealth and splendour, glamourous locales and high expectations. Only Enid's life has been plagued by mental illness – undiagnosed, untreated and threatening both Enid and those close to her. After losing custody of her children, Enid sells her son to her sister for £500 – but is this an act of greed, or an act of desperation? Exploring the true story of her own grandmother, Eleanor Anstruther has found the perfect subject for an explosive, moving and beautifully well written debut. [[A Perfect Explanation by Eleanor Anstruther|Full Review]] <!-- Delargy -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1471177521.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1471177521/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[55 by James Delargy]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] Two men enter a police station, both tell the same story; they were kidnapped and narrowly escaped the clutches of a man who intended to kill them. As they escaped they ran through a graveyard and they were not the first victim. The stories match, the evidence is compelling and each man blames the other. Now the question is, who is guilty? [[55 by James Delargy|Full Review]] <!-- Cercas -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0857058320.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0857058320/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Lord Of All the Dead by Javier Cercas and Anne McLean (translator)]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:History|History]], [[:Category:Biography|Biography]] ''Lord Of All the Dead'' is a journey to uncover the author's lost ancestor's life and death. Cercas is searching for the meaning behind his great uncle's death in the Spanish Civil War. Manuel Mena, Cercas' great uncle, is the figure who looms large over the book. He died relatively young whilst fighting for Francisco Franco's forces. Cercas ruminates on why his uncle fought for this dictator. The question at the centre of this book is whether it is possible for his great uncle to be a hero whilst having fought for the wrong side. [[Lord Of All the Dead by Javier Cercas and Anne McLean (translator)|Full Review]] <!-- Pearson -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1401286399.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1401286399/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Super Sons: The PolarShield Project by Ridley Pearson and Ile Gonzalez]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Graphic Novels|Graphic Novels]], [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] It's the near future, and every coastal city – including Metropolis – is in need of a huge flood barrier, built on its coast by Wayne Enterprises. But the rising sea levels have put even those constructions under threat, forcing many people to relocate in America's biggest exodus for decades. Superman is helping out, of course – first he was patching up the dams, but now he's mining the asteroid belt for a rare dust that's perfect for blocking the solar energy from making further polar ice melt. Inland, in Wyndermere, the refugees from the coast are suffering bigotry and intolerance for being newcomers, but something else is much worse. A major bout of food poisoning is hitting the city. But it can't possibly have anything to do with what looks like sabotage of the flood barriers and the efforts to correct the climate, can it? Four young children begin to piece together clues that it can… [[Super Sons: The PolarShield Project by Ridley Pearson and Ile Gonzalez|Full Review]] <!-- de Bois -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1785903357.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1785903357/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[Confessions of a Recovering MP by Nick de Bois]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Politics and Society|Politics and Society]] I should warn you in advance: this may not be the best time for me to review the memoir of a Tory MP. Not only am I a left-of-centre - to put it mildly - voter and so probably have next to no points of political agreement with Nick de Bois, but I, along with everyone else, am currently subject to the debacle of parliament, government and Brexit, a dog and pony show currently revealing in hideous technicolour the absolute dearth of competent leadership among our political classes. And yes, opposition parties: I'm looking at you as well. You're just as useless. Sigh. Desperate cry into the void over. Sorry about that. At least Nick de Bois made me laugh! [[ Confessions of a Recovering MP by Nick de Bois |Full Review]]  <!-- Paige -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:140128339X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/140128339X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Mera: Tidebreaker by Danielle Paige and Stephen Byrne]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Graphic Novels|Graphic Novels]], [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] Meet Mera. She's the latest in a line of young women intent on fighting against their intended destiny for one only they can see for themselves. Her father, the king of Xebel, sees some cotton wool and a hunky man in an arranged marriage as her future – after all, Mera's mother, the territory's warrior queen, is long dead. Mera doesn't fancy the cosseting or the fella involved at all, and is in fact trying to get Xebel out from under the cosh of Atlantean power, for Xebel's royalty are merely puppets of Atlantean masters. So when she overhears her father request that her intended goes to the world of us air-breathing humans, and kill the Atlantis heir, she rushes off to get the quest (and the promised throne) all for herself. But of course, she has no idea what kind of person she will meet, and how hard it will be to get the job done… [[Mera: Tidebreaker by Danielle Paige and Stephen Byrne|Full Review]] <!-- Crosskey -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1789550149.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789550149/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Poster Boy by N J Crosskey]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Dystopian Fiction|Dystopian Fiction]], [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] I first read 1984 in school, in the late seventies when 1984 still seemed like a long time in the future. It came and went quickly enough. Some of us may have breathed a sigh of relief that Orwell's nightmare had not (quite) come to pass. Others, I think, were out there already working on making sure that all he got wrong was the date. Crosskey hasn't put a date on the nightmare. If she had, I suspect it would not be as far in the future are 1984 was when I first read Orwell. If she had, I suspect it might hardly be in the future at all. A lot of what happens in ''Poster Boy'' is already happening. Sadly. Frighteningly. In the blurb, Christina Racher says "…but keep it far from anyone who might be tempted to turn its fiction into reality". My only response to that is: too late! [[Poster Boy by N J Crosskey|Full Review]] <!-- Lucie Whitehouse -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0008268991.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0008268991/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Critical Incidents by Lucie Whitehouse]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] When you reach a certain stage in life the phrase 'going home' when it refers to your childhood home is best if it means a short and hopefully harmonious visit. The woman who used to be DCI Robin Lyons, but was now just Robin Lyons, went home with her thirteen-year-old daughter after she was dismissed from the Met. She was going home to the room which she'd had as a child: she would have the bottom bunk and Elena - Lennie to those who knew her well - would have the top bunk. The room was redolent of the time she'd shared the room with her brother Luke - and they weren't good memories. [[Critical Incidents by Lucie Whitehouse|Full Review]] <!-- Martine -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1529001579.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1529001579/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] The problem with Martine's fiction debut is that she makes the two commonest errors in SF writing: she tries to be too clever and she wants her fictional languages to be complex and rich and errs on the side of making them unpronounceable by most readers. I can see why she does both, but it's a disappointment because they're the blocks against which the brilliance of the book stumbles. [[A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine|Full Review]] <!-- Lee -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0874869722.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0874869722/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 |summary=The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Hiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is 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 - to anyone.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1398524085|title=Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=5| stylegenre="verticalCrime|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 -align: top; textstrangely -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=[[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 Spring Comes she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her elder sister, Jackie.}}{{Frontpage|author=Christopher Edge|title=Black Hole Cinema Club|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the nickname of 'The Black Hole'. 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 DMZ by Uk-Bae Lee]]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:5starRosevear, 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.jpgBut 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:For Sharing{{Frontpage|author=A G Slatter|title=The Briar Book of the Dead|rating=5|genre=Fantasy|For Sharing]]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, [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]]all mine, at last. I just want to enjoy it for a while.''

There 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 on this earth thatbeside her. As challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, putting her at the time heart of a maelstrom of writingchaos. 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 resplendent with lifeunder threat.|isbn=1803364548}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529900360|title=The Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, 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. In Two lovers were murdered in the spring seals gambol swimming pool of a remote property in Bel Air. He was the river – heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to an extremely rich man and it's not venturing too farthe 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 GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, for fear of particularly when he considered the strain that being slashed open on -call put on his father's life. When he was seventeen he took the razor wire opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the humans have put in placejob for him. In the autumn Before long, salmon come upstream, looking doleful he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as well they mightwith so many students - been his dream since he was a child. If anything, for they will spawn he'd wanted to be a professional footballer.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0861541774|title=A Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and dieformer colleague, Danny Maik, if they reach their birthing groundshas taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up 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. Mountain goats gambol prettily among Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the hills – if man. Now he could be facing the landmines men left behind death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do not prevent them nothing to help as any interference from doing soanother 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. This 5|genre=General Fiction|summary=The Perfect Passion Company is a snapshot of life dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the DMZonline apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the demilitarized zone between business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the two countries 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 Korea 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 ''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 their namefront of the fire' variety. The projects are divided by the time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and more than twenty hours. All the projects are attractive, modern and useable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about '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 worldthing 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 least welcome wildlife sanctuarywild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are. [[When Spring Comes |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 DMZ by Uk-Bae Leetwo. 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?