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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<!-- Lesley Thomson -->|title=The Wrong Shoes|-rating=5| stylegenre="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|Confident Readers[[image:1786697246.jpg|linksummary=http://wwwWill's life is difficult, in a multitude of ways.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786697246/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Playground Murders by Lesley Thomson]]=== [[image:4 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.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] Rachel Cater was having an affair with her boss Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, Chris Philips, an auctioneerand Will's life seems bleak in every direction. It wasAnd yet, she told her mother, love at first sighthe still has a tiny amount of hope. Her mother was more sceptical and wondered why, if it had been love He is good at first sightart, it had taken him so and clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the end of a long to do anything about it. Still, more than anything, she wanted her daughter to be happydark tunnel. That was what Rachel wanted too and it was why she went |isbn=1398527122}}{{Frontpage|author=Sylvie Cathrall|title=A Letter to the Philips' family home, determined to have it all out in the open. Instead she was stabbed fifteen times. Her lover was convicted of her murder. [[The Playground Murders by Lesley Thomson|Full Review]] <!-- Dare -->|-Luminous Deep|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction| stylesummary="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of them.[[image:191303674X.jpg|linkisbn=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/I191303674X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-210356522776}}]]{{Frontpage|isbn=0008517061|title=Death in a Lonely Place| styleauthor="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"Stig Abell|rating=4 |genre===[[The Billion Pound Lie by Bill Dare]]===Crime[[image:4star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] Can you imagine what it would be like to win Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a billion pounds? The UK's biggest ever lottery winners were a couple from Ayrshirelittle uncertainty about the future of his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, who won as moving in together would mean a £161 million EuroMillions jackpot a few years ago. That's so much money that it landed them on the Sunday Times Rich List lot of the UK's thousand most wealthy people. So a billion pounds. That's a lot, right? Can you imagine it? What would you do? Would you try compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life to remain anonymous? And, if you did, how would move in with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this affect your relationships with your nearest is the future she wants for herself and dearesther daughter? What it would be like? How could you keep your friends and family from knowing that you were now one of For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and putting the richest people in future on the country? [[The Billion Pound Lie by Bill Dare|Full Review]]back burner.}}<!-- Vaughn -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=1786482126| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths[[image:0751568228.jpg|linkrating=http://www4.amazon.co.uk/dp/0751568228/ref5|genre=nosim?tagCrime|summary=thebookbagBuilders were demolishing an old house in Norwich -21]]  | style="verticalthe site was going to hold seventy-align: top; textfive 'luxury' apartments -align: left;"|===[[Across when they discovered the Void by S K Vaughn]]=== [[image:4starbones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] Sea epics? So 20th century Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. Try a space epic. [[Across the Void by S K Vaughn|Full Review]] <!-- McLean -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;" 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.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008551324[[image:1786076071.jpg|linktitle=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786076071/refThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=nosim?tagNeil Lancaster|rating=thebookbag-21]]4.5|genre=Crime| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Van Apfel Girls are Gone by Felicity McLean]]=== [[image:4starIt's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]]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:General Fiction|General Fiction]] When Tikka Molloy was eleven is someone big and one-sixth years old, it will be worth the Van Apfel sisters disappearedpolice doing what he wants. In And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the long hot summer remainder of 1992, in his sentence and to get an isolated suburb of Australia surrounded by Bushlandearly parole date. Not much to ask, the girls vanished during the schoolis it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's Showstopper concert at even prepared to do the riverside amphitheatre. Did they run away? Were they taken? While the search for the sisters united the small community, they were never found. Returning home years later, Tikka must make sense of other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that strange moment in time – of the summer that shaped her, DS Max Craigie and the girls she never forgotanyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening. [[The Van Apfel Girls are Gone by Felicity McLean|Full Review]]}}<!-- Stowell -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=0008405026| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey[[image:1788000269.jpg|linkrating=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788000269/ref5|genre=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Crime| stylesummary="verticalIt's sixteen years since nine-align: top; textyear-align: left;"|===[[The Dragon in old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the Library by Louie Stowell and Davide Ortu (Illustrator)]]=== [[image:4investigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in their bed.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]], [[:Category:Emerging Readers|Emerging Readers]] It is the start of the summer holidays and Kit has plans Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. These plans involve climbing trees, getting muddy and being outside. Her friends, Josh What looked as though it was going to be an open-and Alita, on the other hand want to go to the library-shut case is now a complex double murder. Kit hates reading and can't see the point of books at all but is very reluctantly persuaded to go with Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others to the local library(such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced. Once there the children meet the librarian and Kit makes an incredible discovery; the librarian }}{{Frontpage|isbn=0571379877|title=The Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=Edward Jevons is a wizard! Even more incrediblyworking-class young man, Kit is a wizard too and she obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and her friends have an important taskStanza. Robert's a theatre director. They must save the library…and save the world! [[The Dragon in the Library by Louie Stowell He's also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and Davide Ortu (Illustrator)|Full Review]] <!uses Edward to run errands for him. Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days -- Stuart MacBride -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0008208263and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co 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.uk/dp/0008208263/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]}}{{Frontpage| styleauthor="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"Jo Callaghan|title=Leave No Trace|rating=4|genre===[[All That's Dead (Logan McRae 12) by Stuart MacBride]]===Crime [[image:5star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] It seemed like When a good idea. Logan 'Lazarus' McRae was back at work after man is found crucified on the top of a year off sick. He'd been stabbed hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the line of duty and recovery had been slow: he still had some painAI detective Lock. His It's their first live case was to be a simple one - just to ease him back into work - but it turned out to be anything buttogether, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. Professor Wilson, But when there is a high-second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a very high profile anti-independence campaigner has gone missing, apparently abducted from his home, but nothing was left behind except some bloodstains. In much the same way case that Brexit is dividing people south draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to solve the bordercase in time, there's going to be a war between or will Kat find herself taken off the pro- case and anti-independence factions in Scotland - and the police are not above being involved. [[All That's Dead (Logan McRae 12) by Stuart MacBride, potentially, out of a career?|Full Review]]isbn=139851120X}}<!-- Louise Voss -->{{Frontpage|isbn=1399613073|-title=Moral Injuries| styleauthor="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|Christie Watson[[image:B07MWXBTV8.jpg|linkrating=http://www4.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07MWXBTV8/ref5|genre=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Thrillers| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Last Stage by Louise Voss]]=== [[image:4Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon.5star Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] If you were looking back to when Anjali is the free spirit of the group and she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it began you'd have s going to say that it was before 1995end in tragedy. Meredith Vincent (that wasnWe don't her name then) had gone to Greenham Common on her seventeenth birthday, dressed as a teddy bear, to protest about nuclear weaponsknow who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. It was whilst she was there that she met SamanthaThis time, fell head over heels in love with her and went to live in a squat in London, leaving behind her A levels, her recently-widowed mother - and her twin brother, Pete, to look after herit's their teenage children who are involved. Samantha was there occasionally but Meredith was drawn into forming a band with the boys from the squat and against all the odds Cohen went on to become a sensation and it wasn't long before Meredith was living in a mansion rather than the squat. [[The Last Stage by Louise Voss}}{{Frontpage|Full Review]]isbn=0241636604|title=The Trading Game: A Confession<!-- Ian Mathie -->|author=Gary Stevenson|-rating=4.5| stylegenre="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|Autobiography[[image:1906852472.jpg|linksummary=http://wwwIf you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson.amazon.co.uk/dp/1906852472/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-21]]  | style="verticalstripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright -align: top; textextremely bright -align: left;"|===[[Wild Child: Growing Up and he has a Nomad by Ian Mathie]]=== [[image:5starfacility with numbers which most of us can only envy.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]] For Ian Mathie fans there is good and bad news He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. Ian has come up with the missing link in It was his narrativeability at what was, essentially, the story of a very unusual childhood (yes, the very years that made card game which got him the amazing man he became)an internship with Citibank. The bad – well it Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1035021803|title=The Antique Hunter's hardly news two years later – is that the book is published posthumously. As always, itGuide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=It's beautifully written, with many exciting moments. What I most enjoyed was the feeling that many of twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the questions in Ian MathieEnglish country village where she grew up. She's later books are answered in ''Wild Child'' with back now because of a satisfying clunkrequest for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Seemingly all that Freya's former mentor and Carole's now left in close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the drawer is unpublishablecircumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. [[Wild Child Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the village: Growing Up a Nomad by Ian Mathie|Full Review]] <!-- Martin Walker -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786485753Arthur, she feels, let her down badly.jpg|link=http://www Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the man or pursue the profession she loved. After the split, she worked in a cafe, met and married James (on the rebound from the love of her life, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786485753/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]}}{{Frontpage| styleisbn="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author===[[The Body in the Castle Well Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (A Bruno, Chief of Police NovelEditors) by Martin Walker]]|rating===5[[image:4star.jpg|linkgenre=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:CrimeScience Fiction|Crime]] Claudia Muller was an American, studying art history and being mentored by an eminent French art historian and Resistance war hero in Limeuil in Perigord. She was beautiful, wore designer clothes and was well-liked by everyonesummary=''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come. She didn't parade her wealth, or her father's White House connections. In fact, her closest friend was a man recently released from prison. So when she left a lecture saying that she felt ill, and her body was later found at the bottom of the castle well it seemed that the likeliest explanation was that this had been a dreadful accident with the only people to blame being the builders who had left the well unsealed. [[The Body in the Castle Well (A Bruno, Chief of Police Novel) by Martin Walker|Full Review]] <!-- Nayeri -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786893452.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786893452/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Ungrateful Refugee by Dina Nayeri]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Politics and Society|Politics and Society]], [[:Category:Biography|Biography]] Here in the West, we see news reports about immigrants on a regular basis – some media welcoming them, some scaremongering about them. But all of those stories are written by journalists – almost always western, and almost always, no matter how deep the investigative journalism they carry out, outsiders to the world and the situations that refugees find themselves in. It's rare that we find out the journeys from the refugees themselves – and this is a rare opportunity to do that, in this intelligent, powerful and moving work by Dina Nayeri -someone who was born in the middle of a revolution in Iran, fleeing to America as a ten-year-old.[[The Ungrateful Refugee by Dina Nayeri|Full Review]] <!-- Douglas Lindsay -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1473696945.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1473696945/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Boy in the Well (DI Westphall 2) by Douglas Lindsay]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] The body of a nine-year-old boy was found at the bottom of a well which had been sealed for two hundred years - but the boy had only been dead for less than two days and there was no sign of how the body had got into the well. The owners of the property are adamant that the well was sealed when they went to open it, but DI Ben Westphall would be entitled to have his doubts. Belle McIntosh holds some strange views, particularly about the way that the government is controlling everyone through drugs which are added to the water supply which led to her wanting to reinstate the well. Her wife, Catriona Napier, is more moderate, but doesn't seem to have a lot of knowledge about what's going on on the fa [[Boy in the Well (DI Westphall 2) by Douglas Lindsay|Full Review]] <!-- Nick Louth -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:B07P9G9T5B.jpg|link=‪http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07P9G9T5B/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21‬]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Body in the Mist by Nick Louth]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] Muriel Hinkley was walking her dog when she found the body on a quiet country lane, just south of Exmoor. She didn’t recognise him - no one would for a long time as it was obvious that he’d been the victim of a hit-and-run. He had no face - most of it was smeared on the road and when D I Jan Talantire came to look at the body she realised that there was absolutely nothing on him which would allow for identification. All the labels had been cut out of his clothes and there was no wallet and no phone. Hi was Mister Nobody. [[The Body in the Mist by Nick Louth|Full Review]] <!-- Denise Mina -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1911215256.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1911215256/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Conviction by Denise Mina]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] It's strange how the worst of days can start in such an ordinary, mundane way. And so it was for Anna McDonald as she sorted out gym kit and packed lunches for her two daughters. It didn't begin to go wrong until she opened the door to her best friend, Estelle and realised that her husband was at the top of the stairs, dressed as though for a holiday rather than the work clothes she'd been expecting - and he was carrying a suitcase. He and Estelle were leaving together - and they were taking Anna's two daughters with them. There was another problem which neither Hamish nor Estelle knew about. Anna wasn't actually Anna McDonald. She was Sophie Bukaran, the woman who had been involved in the rape case against four footballers. [[Conviction by Denise Mina|Full Review]] <!-- Donnelly -->|-| style=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:1471407977.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1471407977/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''|===[[Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]] ''People will not forget. Or forgive. An ugly girl is too great an offense...the world is made for men. An ugly girl can never be forgiven.'' ''Stepsister'' tells the gripping story of Cinderella's 'ugly' stepsister, Isabelle. We've been told this fairy-tale over and over again throughout our lives and know the characters well. But have you ever wondered what happened to the sisters after Cinderella married the Prince? Or why the sisters disliked her so much? [[Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly|Full Review]] <!-- Gilly Macmillan -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1780899831.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1780899831/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Nanny by Gilly Macmillan]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] We know that something wrong is happening: a body is being dumped in deep water. The rower pulls away and rows back to the boat house and then she walks back to Lake Hall. As you begin reading you suspect that you know who has been killed and who dumped the body, but be patient: all will be revealed before too long. [[The Nanny by Gilly Macmillan|Full Review]] <!-- Weaver -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0241370116.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0241370116/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[No One Home by Tim Weaver]]=== [[image:3star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] Long after the police have given up on cold missing persons cases, David Raker picks them up and tracks them down. He's called to a particularly disturbing case where a small village of nine people all vanished overnight two years ago. Raker and his associate must delve in to the lives of these people to work out how and why nine people have gone missing. They are being threatened to stop but something about the mystery keeps drawing Raker further in, putting him in personal peril. [[No One Home by Tim Weaver|Full Review]] <!-- Marrs -->|-| style=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:1785038885.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1785038885/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''|===[[The Passengers by John Marrs]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] In the near future, self-drive cars are the norm - a convenient and easy way of transport. However, when someone hacks into the systems of eight self-drive cars, their passengers are set on a fatal collision course. As everyday commutes turn into terror-filled journeys, the public have to judge who should survive. But with every aspect of these passangers being examined by the public - will they turn out to be what they seem? [[The Passengers by John Marrs|Full Review]] <!-- Toon -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:147117946X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/147117946X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[If You Could Go Anywhere by Paige Toon]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]] Angie is someone who always wanted to travel, but it's taken her 27 years to leave the small mining town in south Australia which has been the only home she's ever known. She doesn't do things by half though, and once she does feel able to go (following a family death) she leaves not only the town, the state and the country, but also the continent, and finds herself following in her mother's footsteps and heading to Italy. [[If You Could Go Anywhere by Paige Toon|Full Review]] <!-- Nick Griffiths -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1789018307.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789018307/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Mayhem in the Archipelago by Nick Griffiths]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] In Latvia the conspirators meet in a rather unpleasant location, but it's their plans which matter to them. In Moscow two men delight in all the uncertainty in the Baltic. In Washington the Undersecretary is a woman, but the personal pressures on her are the same as the men in Moscow are obliged to suffer. In Stockholm three members of SÄPO, the Swedish Secret Service, know that the time has come for them to make a move. They'd talk more, but their wives would get difficult and there's a rather pleasing tart which mustn't be missed. [[Mayhem in the Archipelago by Nick Griffiths|Full Review]] <!-- Neal -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1794467440.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1794467440/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[Watchwords by Philip Neal]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]] This satisfying collection of short stories has a provenance at least as beguiling as the provenance of the antique watches that inspired it. Philip Neal lost a watch. It was a watch he was fond of and had been told was like a 1930s Cartier. Instead of mourning its loss, he began to collect vintage watches that resembled it. And that's how he became a watch collector. An eBay purchase led him to the Antique Watch Company watch repairers in Clerkenwell. The eBay purchase was a fake, but the friendship that grew between the buyer and the repairer of watches was not and the seed of an idea for a book was born. [[ Watchwords by Philip Neal |Full Review]] <!-- Stephen Booth -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0751567647.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0751567647/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| stylegenre="verticalGeneral 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=[[Fall Down Dead (Cooper We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and Fry) 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 Stephen Booth]]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:Crime{{Frontpage|author=A G Slatter|title=The Briar Book of the Dead|rating=5|genre=Fantasy|Crime]]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.''

DS Dev Sharma 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 delighted the first non- if delight is 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 word and centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to apply 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}}{{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 murder 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=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, particularly when he considered the strain that being on- but hecall put on his father's got life. When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a result when family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the husband 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=Crime|summary=DCI Domenic Jejeune's 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 would later maintain that he was facing a murder victim is found man armed with the a knife- and he killed a Ghurka. Initially, standing over 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 bodydeath 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 admitting operating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the murderbusiness, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. DI Ben Cooper Katie is concerned coming out of a break up with a suspicious death on Kinder Scoutbad boyfriend, and so jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. A party 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 walkers knits from toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of the New Trespassers Walking Group - got lost 'long, cosy afternoons in front of the fog 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 problems arose when one of more than twenty hours. All the party was injuredprojects 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 group split up 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 find helphis home, and it's possible that whoever or at least 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 mobile signalgood person. Spike is going to take care of Benny, but when 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 theyare.|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're rescued theys a bad magician're one short s cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the body of Faith Matthew was found at catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the bottom regular back garden, but into a world of Kinder Downfallfrightening adventure and whiffs. It looked like This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a dreadful accidenttroll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but Cooper wasnhe't happy about s turned up and he'll have to do…|isbn=0008561249}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0C47LV1PC|title=Fragility|author=Mosby Woods|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary= Can you make a ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, is the question should you make it? Or is the way question if you did, would it land? The catch is that the body had fallenanswer for both could well be.... Things are not always as they seem - in either caseno. [[Fall Down Dead (Cooper and Fry) by Stephen Booth|Full Review]]

<!-- 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?