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===[[Aftershocks Vera Magpie by A N WilsonLaura Solomon]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
[[image:3''I have murdered three husbands.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]''
In a country very much like New ZealandAs an opening line that must take some beating, but at Vera's telling us the same time most avowedly nottruth. The first two husbands, two women will find love. Strong love tooGary and Harry were abusive, for our narrator will say that her first attraction for her partner but Larry was the only thing to make sense of all those exaggerated songs she'd hearda treasure, a keeper, and books and poems sheit'd reads difficult to understand why Vera would have killed him, particularly when she was likely to get found out very quickly and plays now she'd acted s in – works of art that had until then seemed sheer hyperboleprison with a mandatory life sentence. It was entirely unrequited love for quite some time Her only friend is Shirley, a lesbian, but it does burgeon, or so weVera's not one to let herself be a victim. She's not keen on having a sexual relationship with Shirley (she wouldn're promised from t risk the off, because security of her life in prison for the sake of something quite drastic – a major earthquake very much like the one that hit Christchurchfling), but at the same time most avowedly not. This book then she is the combined exploration of the lovers keen on getting an education and the story of the quakeshe's studying for a degree in English Literature. [[Aftershocks Vera Magpie by A N WilsonLaura Solomon|Full Review]]
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===[[Hell's Unveiling Black Light by Laura Solomon]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
[[image:3Jim is a university student and, as the saying goes, he hasn't got his troubles to seek.5star His father committed suicide when he was young and somehow he's never really managed to connect with his step-father.jpg|link=Category His younger brother would be kindly described as having learning difficulties:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[if you were being honest you'd just say that he was very difficult, but Jim does his best with and for him. Jim's in love with a woman, but she finds him repulsive and you can understand why:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]]the looks, the attitude, [[the (lack of) conversational ability and the clothing all leave a lot to be desired. Despite all that's he's not about to sit back and allow his life to drift:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], he's actually writing ''two'' novels and he reads excerpts from these to his friends in the pub. [[:Category:FantasyBlack Light by Laura Solomon|FantasyFull Review]]
A little while ago I really enjoyed [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and I was delighted by the opportunity to read the sequel, ''Hell's Unveiling''. It's probably not much of a spoiler to say that Marsha bested the devil in ''Marsha's Deal'', but the devil is not one to take defeat lying down. He's out to wage war on Planet Earth and particularly on Marsha (who's thought of as a 'goody two shoes' in Hell). Although a strong person, she's vulnerable where her foster children are concerned. Daniel is framed for a crime he didn't commit and sent to juvenile detention and refused permission to return to live with Marsha. Then, of course there are all the other children who are not only targeted, but - worst of all - subverted to the devil's evil ends. He's out to prey on their fears and weaknesses and as with many foster children, their self esteem is very fragile. This is no small-scale operation, either - the devil has set up a training complex on earth, complete with an elevator to Hell. [[Hell's Unveiling by Laura Solomon|Full Review]]
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===[[Staying On Redemptor Domus by C M TaylorGamelyn Chase]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Tony Metcalfe A young boy arrives at an exclusive faith school on the scenic North Wales coast, sent far from his family in the Far East. As the boy travels to the school, a family tragedy causes the boy to arrive at the school a vulnerable orphan, with an uncertain future. Plunged into a school full of danger and betrayal, the boy is seen as a Yorkshireman through trophy by friends and through enemies alike. With them locked into their scheming and being honestplotting, Yorkshire's where he'd really like it comes to the boy to attempt to be. You suspect clean up the pit of filth that Scarborough would be perfect, but he's living in a mountain village just beyond the Costa Verde and running a pubschool has become. [[Redemptor Domus by Gamelyn Chase|Full Review]] <!-- Sendker -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1846974658.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co. uk/dp/1846974658/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Viva Espagñe isn't flourishingLong Path To Wisdom by Jan-Philipp Sendker]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]], [[:Category: Tony would really like General Fiction|General Fiction]] On my travels around the world, I have a tendency to sell it end up in any bookshop that is selling English-language books, and return to while I buy as many second-hand escapist tales as the UKnext person, what with I'm really looking for is the 'local' – the cookbook maybe, the uncertainty of Brexit and everythingmaps definitely, but there are a couple of problemsabove all: the folk tales. First off If I ever get to Burma, I won't need to hunt, his wife I can read before I go. [[The Long Path To Wisdom by Jan-Philipp Sendker|Full Review]] <!-- Szabo -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0857058452.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0857058452/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical- Laney align: top; text- refuses to go back to align: left;"|===[[Katalin Street by Magda Szabo]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] This is a story about the UKpast. She'd have you believe that she's not wellA specific past, certainly, in the form of pre-war Budapest, but there's also a backstory there story about how that's not being talked about. Then there's past can impact on the present and the pub, which isn't doing well enough to sellfuture. In fact Tony's cleaning this book, the swimming pools first of expats three Magda Szabó wrote on the same theme between 1969 and 1987 and now newly translated and reissued, we witness a heart-rending nostalgia for happier days, guilt about those who have left Spain did not survive, and returned home, in order a dogged but doomed determination to make a bit of money cling to try long-gone times, feelings and make ends at least come in sight of each otherexperiences which mark the here and now, staining and warping it into another, even if they never meetsubtler misery. [[Staying On Katalin Street by C M TaylorMagda Szabo|Full Review]] 
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===[[The Day of the Orphan by Dr Nat Tanoh]]===
===[[Santa Goes on Strike by Jem Vanston]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General FictionFor Sharing|General FictionFor Sharing]]
Saga is eighteen and, like many eighteen-year olds, his prime concerns are listening to what his mum calls ''hop-hip'', eating copious amounts of food, and learning about girls. Living in an affluent, liberal and protected suburb, he has a good life. However, the suburb is in Africa, where childhoods can be snatched in an instant. When his friends and family are dragged into the conflict raging around the dictatorship that Saga lives under, he is forced to become an unlikely revolutionary. Can chubby Saga really stand up to a murderous regime? And can he stay one step ahead of the soldiers desperate to stop him? [[The Day of the Orphan by Dr Nat Tanoh|Full Review]]
Something's gone horribly wrong. It's Christmas Eve and everything is very busy in Santa's grotto. The presents are all ready and waiting to be loaded onto the sleigh and the reindeer are itching to get going. But Santa? Santa is just not in the mood. He is tired of delivering the latest toys to children who only play with them for five minutes. He wishes people would remember what Christmas is really about - a time for families to come together for love and friendship and goodwill to one another. [[Santa Goes on Strike by Jem Vanston|Full Review]]<!-- Lock Mandeville -->
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===[[Murmuration Every Colour of You by Robert LockAmelia Mandeville]]===
[[image:3star4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]]
Zoe believes in adding life to years as well as years to life. Her world, like her name, is bursting with life and colour. She is the sort of girl who would sing a rainbow is she could. Tristan (or ''MurmurationTree'' follows as she calls him) is the lives opposite. Fresh out of hospital following a host of characters from 1863 to the present day. From a risqué comic to prolonged stay in a fortune tellerpsychiatric unit, we see the birth of Blackpool and its steadily fading glamour. There is he sees a hint of mysticism to the tale, with the mesmerising dance of starlings over the pier acting world as an anchor throughout the distinct narratives here, drawing together disparate stories of lives captivated by the seaa grey place. [[Murmuration Every Colour of You by Robert LockAmelia Mandeville|Full Review]]
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===[[Smoking Kills A Spark of Light by Antoine Laurain and Louise Rogers-Lalaurie (translator)Jodi Picoult]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Meet Fabrice ValantineThe Center is the last remaining abortion clinic in the state of Mississippi and is the source of great controversy when it comes to the Pro-Life versus Pro-Choice debate. He's a headhunterIt is at The Center where one man, George Goddard, and a successful one tootakes it upon himself to get revenge for the loss of his grandchild, in an office in Paristhe form of a mass-shooting. All around him however his world What arises is changing – yesa novel that details the lives of the remaining hostages, there is a new ban on smoking in all workplacesas well as other characters central to the story. Goaded by his non-smoking wife, even though they met over an ashtray, One of sortsthese characters is Hugh McElroy, he sees a hypnotist who had success with a mutual friend hostage negotiator called in stopping their nicotine habit. The session seems to have been successful, however he faces help deflate the prospect of having such a change to his own personalitysituation, who soon discovers that his imbued habits sister and lifestyledaughter, with fearWren, when he realises it will never again grant him any pleasure. He needs this pleasure when further changes happened to be at work come about – but it's what he replaces the habit with clinic that will surprise the mostday. [[Smoking Kills A Spark of Light by Antoine Laurain and Louise Rogers-Lalaurie (translator)Jodi Picoult|Full Review]] <!-- Vincent -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1471168239.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1471168239/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Jess Castle and the Eyeballs of Death by M B Vincent]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Crime|Crime]]
Dr Jess Castle, the self proclaimed failure of the prestigious Castle family has returned home to the sleepy, idyllic chocolate box town of Castle Kidbury. Rather than being delighted, her family are suspicious, especially her father, the judge. Luckily for Jess, she doesn't have to try too hard to dodge her family's suspicions as a series of gruesome local murders are taking place and that's all anyone is talking about. Jess accidentally finds herself in the thick of the investigation, and to her delight finds that she can actually be useful. But with the small population dwindling and the sense of danger moving ever closer to home, has Jess made a grave mistake getting involved? [[Jess Castle and the Eyeballs of Death by M B Vincent|Full Review]]<!-- Bennett Stone -->
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===[[The Island by M A Bennett]]===
===[[What's Left Unsaid by Deborah Stone]]=== [[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
A contemporary take on the savage classic ''Lord of the Flies'': Sasha has a group of mismatched, modern-day teenagers must fight to survive lot on a deserted islandher plate. Link Husband Jeremy is a fish out of waterdistant and absent and the marriage needs work. Newly arrived from America, he Son Zac is finding entering a rebellious adolescent phase and it 's hard to settle know how to redirect him. Mother Annie, an alcoholic, is beginning the journey into the venerable dementia and prestigious Osney School. Who knew there could be so many strange traditions to understand? And what kind of school ranks its students by how fast they can run round the school quad - however ancient that quad may be? When Link runs the slowest time in years, he immediately becomes has never been an easy person at the butt best of every school joketimes. And some students are determined to make Thank heavens for her lovely dog, Sebastian, and his life more miserable than others..unconditional love. [[The Island What's Left Unsaid by M A BennettDeborah Stone|Full Review]]
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===[[The Lost Letters of William Woolf by Helen Cullen]]===
===[[The Place Where Love Should Be by Elizabeth Ellis]]=== [[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] ''Edward is six weeks old and I’ve had no sleep. I had thirty stitches in my perineum, [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]]the wounds still tug and itch. They had to do the stitches twice because the first lot became infected. The old-school midwife told me I wasn’t paying enough attention to personal hygiene. I must shower twice a day, or better still, take a salt bath. Do they really expect me to do that? Have they ever tried to shower when a baby is crying and you’re so tired you can barely stand and your partner is banging around downstairs because he’s late for work again?''
William Woolf is I think most women have felt like this shortly after having a letter detective, working baby. Many of them simply managed to put one foot in front of the Dead Letters Depot in East London. He spends his days deciphering smudged addresses, tracking other until things calmed down mysterious people but some will have found it harder and reading endless letters of love, guilt, death, hope, and everyday life. developed post-natal depression[[The Lost Letters of William Woolf Place Where Love Should Be by Helen CullenElizabeth Ellis|Full Review]]
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===[[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] ==[[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Fantasy|FantasyThe Amber Maze by Christopher Bowden]]===
Marsha didn't have an easy ride in life the first time around. She'd been afflicted with [https[image://en4star.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibrodysplasia_ossificans_progressiva fibrodysplasia ossificans progressivajpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]], a rare disease which turned parts of her body to bone when they were damaged. Finally she was unable to stand her life any longer and went to Dignitas, the Swiss euthanasia clinic. She'd thought that would be the end, but after cremation her body went straight to hell and she found herself face-to-face with the devil. And that was when she made the pact. In exchange for details about some of those who had been close to her - their strengths and weaknesses - she would be reborn on the same day to the same parents, but would live her life free of disease. [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon:Category:General Fiction|Full ReviewGeneral 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]] <!-- Novik Hajaj -->
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===[[Spinning Silver The Water Thief by Naomi NovikClaire Hajaj]]===
[[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:TeensLiterary Fiction|TeensLiterary Fiction]]
Miryem comes from a long line Nick is in the middle of moneylenders – but her Father isn't very good at it at all. Lending freely and rarely collecting, wedding preparations when he leaves the family on the edge of poverty, until Miryem must step decides to leave his fiancée behind in. Hardening her heart London and collecting what is owed from local villagers, she becomes take up a person post in some un-named west African country providing engineering support for the building of great interest when she borrows a pouch of silver pennies from her Grandfather and returns it full of gold, soon becoming entangled with an array of strange creatures, from the dark beings that haunt the wood through to a King whochildren's eager to exploit Miryem's talents – she soon becomes aware that her skills may be more trouble than they're worth… hospital. He has no idea what he is getting himself into. [[Spinning Silver The Water Thief by Naomi NovikClaire Hajaj|Full Review]]
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===[[Four Landslide by Andy JonesMelissa Leet]]===
[[image:4.5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]]The area where Jill and Susie lived wasn't highly populated so it was fortunate that they became such good friends, despite the fact that Susie was a year older than Jill. Susie lived with her mother, an alcoholic, and Jill lived with ''her'' mother, who dedicated herself to her garden. Jill's father was Jay Tutle, the photographer, but he spent much of his time working away - often for months on end. In reality there was little difference between the two families: Mrs Smith's alcoholism caused serious illness whilst Susie was still young. Joy and tragedy would visit Jill's home. ''Landslide'' is the story of how what happened determined the course of Jill's life and how great tragedy can breed resilience and hope. [[Landslide by Melissa Leet|Full Review]]
Friends are nice, and couple friends are doubly nice, giving you like minded people to spend time with. A pair of pairs, or a couple of couples. Married couple Sally and Al have known Mike for ages – Sally from university, Al through work. His new girlfriend Faye completes their foursome and though she doesn't have their shared history, she's a lot of fun – a bit younger than the rest of them, an actress and so on. [[Four by Andy Jones|Full Review]] <!-- Collishaw Wilson -->
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===[[Aftershocks by A Child Called Happiness by Stephan CollishawN Wilson]]===
[[image:4star3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Mazowe ValleyIn 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, 2011 and books and poems she'd read, and plays she'd acted in – Natalie hears a sharp cry works of art that she thinks at first might be a birdhad until then seemed sheer hyperbole. It was entirely unrequited love for quite some time, but turns out to be it does burgeon, or so we're promised from the off, because of something quite drastic – a babymajor earthquake very much like the one that hit Christchurch, abandoned to but at the birds on the kopjesame time most avowedly not. She This book then is there with her uncle the combined exploration of the lovers and they take the child, back to his farm initially and then to a local village where it is taken in. They do not report it to story of the policequake. [[Aftershocks by A Child Called Happiness by Stephan CollishawN Wilson|Full Review]]
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===[[Mr PeacockHell's Possessions Unveiling by Lydia SysonLaura Solomon]]===
[[image:4star3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category: Historical FictionShort Stories|Historical FictionShort Stories]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]]
On A little while ago I really enjoyed [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and I was delighted by the opportunity to read the sequel, ''Hell's Unveiling''. It's probably not much of a remote volcanic island off spoiler to say that Marsha bested the coast of New Zealanddevil in ''Marsha's Deal'', a family but the devil is not one to take defeat lying down. He's out to wage war on Planet Earth and particularly on Marsha (who's thought of settlers struggle to make such an unforgiving place as a home'goody two shoes' in Hell). When Although a ship appearsstrong person, they feel that their wishes have been granted and their community reinvigorated – but high hopes she's vulnerable where her foster children are swiftly dashed when concerned. Daniel is framed for a vulnerable boy disappearscrime he didn't commit and sent to juvenile detention and refused permission to return to live with Marsha. As both settlers and newcomers come together in Then, of course there are all the search for other children who are not only targeted, but - worst of all - subverted to the childdevil's evil ends. He's out to prey on their fears and weaknesses and as with many foster children, they uncover fartheir self esteem is very fragile. This is no small-scale operation, far more than they were looking for – discovering dark secrets about both either - the island and those who inhabit itdevil has set up a training complex on earth, complete with an elevator to Hell. [[Mr PeacockHell's Possessions Unveiling by Lydia SysonLaura Solomon|Full Review]]
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===[[Underwater Breathing Staying On by Cassandra ParkinC M Taylor]]===
[[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
A tumble-down Edwardian house that will sooner rather than later tumble down the mud cliffs Tony Metcalfe is a Yorkshireman through and through and away into the sea is being honest, Yorkshire's where we meet Jacob and Ellahe'd really like to be. They share You suspect that Scarborough would be perfect, but he's living in a bathroom in mountain village just beyond the turret, old Costa Verde and cold running a pub. The Viva Espagñe isn't flourishing: Tony would really like to sell it and not really supposed return to be used…but this is where they hide away from the shouts UK, what with the uncertainty of their parents' argumentsBrexit and everything, but there are a couple of problems. Here they play the Underwater Breathing gameFirst off, submerging themselves in his wife - Laney - refuses to go back to the water holding their breath for as long as they canUK. For sixteen year old Jacob itShe'd have you believe that she's not well, but there's just a way of drowning out the arguments…but for Ella it is more than backstory there that's not being talked about. She is terrified of Then there's the seapub, which isn't doing well enough to sell. In fact Tony's cleaning the swimming pools of the fact that it will come expats who have left Spain and swallow their house. She needs returned home, in order to know that she can survive under water. She has make a bit of money to practicetry and make ends at least come in sight of each other, even if they never meet. [[Underwater Breathing Staying On by Cassandra ParkinC M Taylor|Full Review]]
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===[[The Great Believers Day of the Orphan by Rebecca MakkaiDr Nat Tanoh]]===
[[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:LGBT General Fiction|LGBT General Fiction]]
Saga is eighteen and, like many eighteen-year olds, his prime concerns are listening to what his mum calls ''The Great Believershop-hip'' follows a group , eating copious amounts of friends whose lives are devastated by the AIDS crisis in Chicago during the late 1980’sfood, and learning about girls. Beginning Living in 1985an affluent, the reader follows Yale liberal and his friends as they come to terms with the increasingly virulent illness spreading throughout their communityprotected suburb, alongside their demonisation at the hands of he has a conservative Americagood life. Thirty years later FionaHowever, a devoted friend to Yalethe suburb is in Africa, is searching for her estranged daughter on where childhoods can be snatched in an instant. When his friends and family are dragged into the conflict raging around the streets of Parisdictatorship that Saga lives under, trying he is forced to become an unlikely revolutionary. Can chubby Saga really stand up to rebuild a relationship beset by memories and old hurt. murderous regime? And can he stay one step ahead of the soldiers desperate to stop him? [[The Great Believers Day of the Orphan by Rebecca MakkaiDr Nat Tanoh|Full Review]]
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===[[The Brighton Mermaid Murmuration by Dorothy KoomsonRobert Lock]]===
[[image:4.5star3star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]]
In 1993, two teenagers stumble across a horrific scene on the beach as they're sneaking home after an un-authorised night out: a body of a young woman, partially stripped, totally deceased. The find hits the girls in different ways. Nell becomes obsessed with finding the identity of the girl – who she calls 'Murmuration''follows the Brighton Mermaid'' because lives of a distinguishing tattoo – whereas Jude just wants host of characters from 1863 to forget it ever happenedthe present day. Fast forward 25 years From a risqué comic to a fortune teller, we see the birth of Blackpool and Nell its steadily fading glamour. There is still haunted by what happened that night. With few leads a hint of mysticism to go onthe tale, with the mesmerising dance of starlings over the Police closed pier acting as an anchor throughout the case without cracking itdistinct narratives here, and so it remains one drawing together disparate stories of those unsolved mysteries that become part of local folklore, but Nell struggles to let sleeping dogs, or even sleeping mermaids, lie. As for Jude, well no one knows if lives captivated by the discovery still haunts her because no one knows where she is. Shortly after that fateful night, she too disappeared, never to be seen or heard from again. There's more to Brighton than Stag Dos and Gay Pride, it seemssea. [[The Brighton Mermaid Murmuration by Dorothy KoomsonRobert Lock|Full Review]]
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===[[Falling Short Smoking Kills by Lex CoultonAntoine Laurain and Louise Rogers-Lalaurie (translator)]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]]
Lex CoultonMeet Fabrice Valantine. He's debut novel is a story about mistakesheadhunter, failuresand a successful one too, and relationshipsin an office in Paris. All around him however his world is changing – yes, there is a new ban on smoking in all workplaces. The main protagonistGoaded by his non-smoking wife, even though they met over an ashtray, Frances Pilgrimof sorts, is he sees a sixth form English teacher hypnotist who has recently fallen out had success with her best a mutual friend Jacksonin stopping their nicotine habit. The session seems to have been successful, however he faces the prospect of having such a work colleaguechange to his own personality, his imbued habits and is grappling lifestyle, with the increasingly eccentric behaviour of her motherfear, when he realises it will never again grant him any pleasure. This relationship is complicated by He needs this pleasure when further changes at work come about – but it's what he replaces the fact habit with that Frances's father disappeared at sea when she was five years oldwill surprise the most. [[Falling Short Smoking Kills by Lex CoultonAntoine Laurain and Louise Rogers-Lalaurie (translator)|Full Review]]
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===[[Go Ask Fannie Farmer The Island by Elisabeth HydeM A Bennett]]===
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Eighty-one-yearA contemporary take on the savage classic ''Lord of the Flies'': a group of mismatched, modern-old Murray Blaire hoped for the best when he waited for his three children day teenagers must fight to arrive one Friday nightsurvive on a deserted island. He might be Link is a retired lawyerfish out of water. Newly arrived from America, a state legislator, elected congressman he is finding it hard to settle into the venerable and now an amateur farmer but he prestigious Osney School. Who knew that there could be trouble when Ruth and George arrived. Ruth, a corporate lawyer, would find fault and want so many strange traditions to talk about him going into a retirement home. Georgeunderstand? And what kind of school ranks its students by how fast they can run round the school quad - however ancient that quad may be? When Link runs the slowest time in years, a nurse, would argue and Lizzie, a professor he immediately becomes the butt of English Literature, who lived locally and kept and visited him regularly, would be unpredictableevery school joke. Murray hoped that all would go smoothly, but that simply wasn't going And some students are determined to happenmake his life more miserable than others... [[Go Ask Fannie Farmer The Island by Elisabeth HydeM A Bennett|Full Review]]
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===[[The Particular Wisdom Lost Letters of Sally Red Shoes William Woolf by Ruth HoganHelen Cullen]]===
[[image:4star5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]]
Masha's son Gabriel died some years ago. She'd been William Woolf is a single parent with help from her friendletter detective, Edwardworking in the Dead Letters Depot in East London. He spends his days deciphering smudged addresses, who had grieved as much as Masha tracking down mysterious people and whilst Edward has moved on (his boyfriend moved out in the immediate aftermath reading endless letters of the drowninglove, guilt, death, but there's now a new love interest) Masha is still strickenhope, feeling that it would somehow be disloyal to Gabriel if she was to be happyand everyday life. An independent, rebellious woman has somehow been diminished. [[The Particular Wisdom Lost Letters of Sally Red Shoes William Woolf by Ruth HoganHelen Cullen|Full Review]]
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