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[[Category:General Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]]==General fiction==__NOTOC__{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Geoff DyerOnyi Nwabineli|title=Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi|rating=3|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Meet Jeff. He's a journalist living in London, with a fine line in delaying his work effort and a keen eye for detail. He can see how the world is made better by a smile from a random shopkeeper - yet seems too grumpy Allow Me to try it himself. Instead he suspects his habit of walking round, mouthing or speaking out his own inner thoughts is making him seem a scary old man. He can partly address this, by dying his hair. And he can stop walking round London when he gets commissions to report back from the modern arts Biennale in Venice. Soon, however, the only work of art he's at all worried about goes by the name of Laura...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184767271X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Diane Chamberlain|title=Secrets She Left BehindIntroduce Myself|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=This is Anuri spent her childhood on display to the third novel Iworld, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of Anuri've read by Diane Chamberlain s childhood for sponsorships and I felt as if I was visiting an old friendinfluencer deals and, basically, monetary gain. I enjoyed Now Anuri is in her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and to get her life back, suing her step-mother to take down the other two books content about her. Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and this one looked promisingsecretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. Although many Most importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the new focus of the characters spill over from [[Before the Storm by Diane Chamberlain|Before The StormOphelia']] this current book is a stand alones online empire. Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>077830387X</amazonuk>0861546873
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Priya Basil1529153298|title=The Obscure Logic List of the HeartSuspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Lina It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is from a devout Muslim Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family and lives with , 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 aunt while she studies law at university; where she meets Anilfather wants to move the family 'Down South'. Anil When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a Kenyan boy from a non-practicing Sikh family who dreams of becoming a ground-breaking architectfrightening, foreign place, best avoided. The two fall in love but as For Miv, the lies they have move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to tell their respective families become more and more elaborate they are forced prevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to make some difficult decisionsanyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0385611455</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Diana Evans1035906708|title=The WonderDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Lucas and Denise have been brought up by their grandmother on a canal boat in west LondonWe tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, after the death of their but she was born to Greek parents. Now they are in their 20sManhattan, New York, in December 1923 and their grandmother Toreth is goneonly moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Denise is a practical and responsible young woman, getting on with her job as a florist, Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her younger brother Lucas is a dreamer, still trying father changed it to establish what he wants 'Callas' to do with his life, and increasingly distracted 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 trying to find out more about his identity, about a mother who his parents weremercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her elder sister, especially his fatherJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099479052</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Margaret Henderson Alexander McCall Smith|title=A Question of Answers|rating=3.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Harriet Glover lives with her partner who's reluctant to commit himself to marriage. It's not that he hasn't had time to make up his mind – their two children are at the stage where they might produce grandchildren. His excuse is that he can't see the point as they already share a surname through chance, so what difference would marriage make? Mark's not ''entirely'' insensitive (well, some of the time…) but he can't understand Harriet's need for that reassuring piece of paper. Until then she's going to be wondering if his eyes are wandering elsewhere. Harriet's not entirely immune either: she finds the headmaster of the school where she teaches quite irresistible.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845493281</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Anne Tyler|title=Noah's CompassThe Perfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=It's always The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and 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 business, as Ness is planning to take a red letter day trip to sit down Canada to an unread Anne Tylerget away for a while. This Katie is her eighteenth published novelcoming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. For any readers not And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already fans of her bookslove, this American writer observes thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the ordinary Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in order to excel at 'running a business, or in match-making the familiar, strangebut Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there'.s always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099539586</amazonuk>1846976596
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Bernie McGillDean Koontz|title=The Butterfly CabinetBad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionParanormal|summary=This novel has been based on factBenny is having a terrifically bad day. McGill moves back He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and forth with various characters' storieshis house gets trashed. A child Oh, and someone has died in the family delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home , and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the mother, Harriet thing that has been tried in a court of law and found guilty. trashed his house! The fact that she thing is a practical, no-nonsense woman who does not wear her heart on her sleeve does not go down well with Benny is the majority of the juryvery last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. She has also committed another crimeSo fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend, almost equally as gravea bad weather friend called Spike, she who has sullied the family name of her husbandbeen sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. He Spike is a prominent going to take care of Benny, and respected member of the local community. Nothing will be the same again for either certainly take care of themBenny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755370686</amazonuk>1662500491
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jean KwokKatherine Howe|title=Girl in TranslationA True Account
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=When Kimberly Chang and her mother emigrate to the USA from Hong Kong they believe thatHannah Masury is living in Boston, true having been sent to the American Dreamlive with a family who run an inn, their lives are about and being made to get betterwork there from a young age. However, although Kimberly's aunt paid their air fares and arranged their green cards When she hears there is intent on getting her money back. She arranges their accommodation in to be a run-down part hanging of Brooklyn some pirates in a building where they are the only tenants. Their apartment has broken windowstown, no heating and is rife with cockroaches she decides to go and ratswatch. The aunt arranges work for Kim's mum Enthralled and horrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in her husbanda young boy's Chinatown factorydeath at the hands of two vicious pirates. She hides away, paying so that they don't find and kill her a pittance for piece work too, and then taking most of her salary to escape them completely she runs away for repayments on their flights to sea, dressing as a boy and their accommodationjoining the notorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a cabin boy. Huddled around their oven for warmth, wearing layers of clothing made from material they found She soon finds herself in the trash, their lives seem incredibly bleak. But Kimberly has brainsthick of things when there is a mutiny on board, and determination, and she is adamant that she will find a way to take care from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of her motherlife on the ocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1905490623</amazonuk>0861547438
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Helon Habila1471180158|title=Oil on Water|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=The book opens with two local journalists on a rather dangerous trip. Zaq, old-timer and cynic but still has the skills to seek out a good story and apprentice Rufus. A British oil engineer's wife has gone missing, believed kidnapped and the two journalists are following her trail. Zaq comes across as an interesting character; all-seeing, all-knowing albeit likes a drink or two. He's happy to impart years of knowledge to Rufus and tells him that ' ... the story is not always the final goal.' What's really important, what the readers want to know and what sells newspapers is ' ... the meaning of the story.'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241144868</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewMaybe Tomorrow|author=Laura Elliot|title=Stolen ChildPenny Parkes|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The title of the book leaves us Jamie Matson works in no doubt as to what itan upper-class grocery store, for a man who's a control freak with all about. It does exactly what it says on the tinsubtlety of a half brick. But those twoJamie's son, small words are wrapped up in plenty of emotions for the characters involvedBo, 'has his problems'. In some waysHe's asthmatic and the more you read, itthe more you'll suspect that he's worse than a deathon the autistic spectrum. With death, thereSometimes Jamie needs to take time off at short notice - she's closure but with a baby being stolen therefrequent flier in the local A&E and sometimes Bo's living hellnot fit enough to go to school. And, as you would expect, some characters cope with all of this better than othersMissed shifts or the need to be away on time to pick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and put in the wrong. It was going to come to a head.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847561462</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=A L KennedyB0CKD1L5JL|title=What Becomes|rating=4|genre=Short Stories|summary=You're three stories into this collection and two people have cut their hands open preparing food - a man with love drooping away from his marriage, making soup, and another, a greengrocer, preparing stock and thinking about his own relationship. But there is no pattern to that. Four stories in and there have been two bursts of non-sequitur comedy. Why your fruit might be ruined by stray fingers, and the thoughts of a woman in a flotation tank, remembering Doctor Who, locked parental doors - and the urban myths of gerbils. But there's still no pattern - and that's the point of these combined stories. Life and all of its emotions does not live to rule.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009949406X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewRadio Free Olympia|author=Alexander McCall Smith|title=The Importance of Being Seven (44 Scotland Street)Jeffrey Dunn
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Evereyone's favouritePetr is an orphan. Rescued by the strange, Bertiereclusive Bear, he is still struggling with his over-protectivebrought up far from bustling cities and busy human society, over-zealous mother Irenein the forests of Washington's Olympic Peninsula. Poor Bertie. He still has yoga class, saxophone lessons, Italian lessonsAfter Bear dies and a brief sojourn in human company, and he longs to go away to Scout camparmed with only a pirate radio transmitter, but really doesn't want his mum to come along as Petr goes on a helper. Andjourney through the forest, as broadcasting the title suggestsstrange, wild and rarely heard voices he is looking forward to being seven. His little brother, Ulysses, is getting bigger and has developed an interesting reaction to their mother, whilst Irene herself goes missing in a rather mysterious manner..encounters.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846971454</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Shannon BurkeSarah Marsh|title=Black FliesA Sign of Her Own
|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Ollie Cross has failed to get After a bout of scarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Suddenly plunged into medical schoola world of silence, everything about her life changes. While he thinks about what he plans to Living in a time when the use of sign language was seen as something only savages do, he takes Ellen is sent to a job as school where she is taught to lip read, but physically restrained from signing. From here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the deaf and using a paramedic on system called Visible Speech. At the tough streets of Harlemsame time, New York CityBell is working on other inventions and ideas, and Ellen finds his whole perspective on life and death beginning to shiftherself unwittingly caught up in a complicated tangle of espionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099535491</amazonuk>1035401614
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Frances KayB0BC3YTCMR|title=MickaGood Girls Die|author=Ayura Ayira|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Micka and Laurie are two ten year old boys. They're in the same class at school and are friends, of a sort. They both have vivid imaginations, and Laurie's plans involve finding a magical bone and using it This story is not for murdereveryone. Micka lives with his mum (who can't read and is often drunk) and his two older brothers who get into fights, are involved in crime, and who abuse Micka physically and sexually. Laurie lives with his parents, until they suddenly break up, and he is left with his mum who seems to be having a breakdown. The book is told from the point of view of the two boys, and so as we see how their own lives are falling apart, sympathising with them, we also read with horror their own descent into violence.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330513826</amazonuk>}}'
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=A J Cronin1472263936|title=Dr Finlay's CasebookThe Figurine|author=Victoria Hislop|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Most people will have heard of Dr FinlayIt was in 1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to Greece. She was alone: her mother, Greek by birth, had left the family home and refused to return, although they may not be entirely sure why - A J Croninbut Mary and Hamish (Helena's stories of parents) felt that it would be a fictional doctor pity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding her Greek heritage. Her trip to the family apartment in preup-War Scotland have been televised over market Kolonaki would be the years, most recently in the nineties when David Rintoul starred as Dr Finlayfirst of several annual visits. Although fictional, A J Cronin, who died in 1981, was himself a doctor She grew to love her grandmother and has apparently based some of Finlaythe family's experiences on his own. This omnibus is made up of two books by Croninmaid, Dr Finlay of TannochbraeDina, published in 1978 but was wary - and Adventures frightened - of a Black Bagher grandfather, published in 1943, both collections retired general Stamatis Papagiannis. He was proud of short storieshis close connections to the Junta and expected his family to uphold his values but saw no reason to accommodate them. His prejudices included Helena's red hair and green eyes - inherited from her father's Scottish ancestors.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841588547</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Clancy MartinDean Koontz|title=How To SellAfter Death
|rating=3
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In the 1980'sMichael Mace, Head of Security, at a top secret biological research facility, 16 year old Bobby Clark gets expelled from his high school in Canada for stealing. This is among 55 people who die when a young boy so immoral that he pilfers his own mother's wedding ring to pawn for cash to keep virus is released in a girl happybio-hazard accident. After the girl turns out to be less interested Finding himself in him than he is a makeshift mortuary, covered in herplastic, he follows his older brother Jim has a sense that something very, very bad has happened to Texas, where him – and only him – as he gets a job working with Jim in a jewellery storesits up and looks around at the shrouded bodies of his dead friends and former colleagues. As he falls into a life of scamsrecovers his senses, drugs, hookers, gorgeous women, and an obsession with Jimhe realises that there is something different about him; he can ''feel'' everything. ''Everything''. Michael isn't ''Michael's girlfriend Lisa, it's clear that this coming of age story is a tragedy waiting to happenanymore.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099532182</amazonuk>1662500467}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Patrick MarrinanB0BVDC2VWH|title=Degrees of GuiltThe Grave Listeners|author=William Frank|rating=3.54
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The Police broke into the apartment in Sandymount Village in Dublin village is isolated and woke Yuri Komarova rather roughlypoor. HeIt'd been drinking heavily, smoking dope and was difficult to arouse, but on the floor near his bed was the knife which he had apparently used to stab his mother to deaths surrounded by a Witching Forest. He seemed to have no memory of this but he spoke little English and had And the mental age of a twelvevillagers subsist largely by farming Uphegia plants - its bread-year oldlike fruit provides nutrition and its blossom provides herbal medicines. An interpreter helped with The black wood of the questioning forest provides heat and when the case came to trial his defence relied warmth, roofs on proving that he had been sleep-walking at the time of the murder homes, and had no intention even gallows, if needed. The fear of killing his mother. This being buried alive is an existential superstition in the most difficult defence to uphold village and there was the added problem that Yuri seemed to have lied to is the police when he told them that his mother had very little money as some Russian icons were found in reason Volushka, a drunken, self-indulgent, lazy lout of a strongbox and they were worth several million Eurosman is tolerated.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709090749</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Katie KitamuraB0BYF82CXT|title=The LongshotSemi-Detached|author=Deborah Stone
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Cal ''Bill and his longAmanda are living in a semi-time trainer Riley travel down to the town of Tijuana detached house, stuck in Mexico for a crucial rematch with the undefeated champion Rivera. Three years earlier Cal's promising career had been derailed following a close yet devastating defeat at the hands depressing rut of Riveraboredom and disappointment, when Terry and Fiona – glamorous, successful and very much in love – move in next door. After that defeat Cal carried Despite their different outlooks on fighting but never reached life, the same heights as before. Now he finally gets the chance couples befriend each other and life appears to face his nemesis once moreimprove for both pairs. The story takes place in the two days before the rematch as he But all is not what it seems, and Riley prepare their increasingly interconnected relationships are fated for the biggest fight of his life, a fight that could once again end in tragedy.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847374999</amazonuk>''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Laurie GrahamShalini Boland|title=At SeaThe Silent Bride|rating=43
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I've already read Graham's 'The Future Homemakers of AmericaAlice and Seth are a match made in heaven.' It was goodHe is everything she has been searching for; handsome, accomplished, clever, but not particularly memorable so I was keen to read this novelfunny; total and utter husband-material. The reader She is introduced to two vastly differing opposites all he could possibly want in a wife; beautiful, successful, confident… and so the shape of Mr inevitable proposal is eagerly accepted by Alice and Mrs Finch. Well, Lady Enid (English) the wedding is planned and Professor Bernard (American) Finch, to be preciseset. And we're transported straight away onto When the decks of much-anticipated day arrives, Alice is walked down the liner 'Golden Memories' and Graham starts to have aisle by her fun: father, beaming with pride and excitement as she surveys the languagecongregation – their friends assembled to celebrate this joyful day and when Seth turns to face his approaching bride, Alice's world implodes because she has absolutely no idea who the characters and man at the whole set-upaltar is, who is waiting for her to become his wife.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849162182</amazonuk>1662507089
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Laura Barton1787636003|title=Twenty-One LocksThe Girls of Summer|author=Katie Bishop|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=This debut novelIt was the summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that she and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and arrived on the island. Rachel wasn's central character is 20 year old sales girlt exactly innocent but she was, perhaps, Jeannie. She lives a very humdrum life in a rather uglynaive, downso when thirty-four-atyear-heel town old Alistair Wright started to take an interest in the northher, she was flattered rather than wary. And straight away Barton treats the reader It was quite a while before he made any sort of physical approach to her lovely, descriptive proseand by that time she was obsessed by him. For exampleAlistair worked for Henry Taylor, when looking after his interests on the reader is given some detail about Jeannie's workplace at island and in particular in the perfume and cosmetics counter bar where ... 'all the lipsticks ... all lined up like chorus girls either worked or partied...' Barton's writing style is very easy to read, very fluid and I found myself getting right into the story straight away - and caring about Jeannie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849161747</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anne PeileAmanda Craig|title=Repeat It Today With TearsThree Graces
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Repeat Few styles of contemporary fiction interest me like the state-of-the-nation novel. There's something so utterly compelling about any writer who can catch hold of the atmosphere of the day and capture it Today , crafting an image of the country as it stands in one particular moment. To say that Amanda Craig is skilled at doing this would be embarrassingly inadequate: she's practically synonymous with Tears follows the story genre of Susanna, contemporary social fiction at this point. She has such a sixteen year old girl from a broken and loveless home who obsessively collects information in gift for weaving the ongoing issues of the day into the back lives of her characters in a notebook about the father she has never met. When by chance she discovers way that he still lives nearby she sets out deliberately to find feels natural and seduce himlived-in, never making them ciphers for social commentary but instead fully realised people, grappling with issues far larger than themselves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846687462</amazonuk>140871468X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Francine Prose152915118X|title=GoldengrovePineapple Street|author=Jenny Jackson
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=On a hot day Nico ''Pineapple Street'' is the story of three women: Sasha, Darley and Georgiana. Darley and George are sisters and her older sister Margaret take a boat out onto Mirror LakeSasha is married to their brother Cord. They're Stocktons, but only Nico returns after Margaret dives off the boat and doesnSasha isn't a Stockton by birth so she isn't resurfacereadily accepted into the tribe. MargaretThe problem's sudden death tears through Nico exacerbated when the clan matriarch, Tilda, asks Cord and her parentsSasha if they' livesd like to move into the Pineapple Street property. Tilda and Chip have renovated and downsized to another property, and each mourn for her in their a street or so away, which they own way. Unable to find They won't need any of the help she needs furniture from her parentsPineapple Street, who are both consumed by their own grief to help Nico to come to terms with her lossso Sasha and Cord can move straight in. Nominally, Nico turns they had a choice but that wasn't the reality. Darley and Georgiana start to call Sasha 'the vast array of books gold digger'. She's living in Goldengrove, her father's bookshop, for answers, and soon embarks on a dangerous relationship with Margaret's boyfriend Aaron, their'' family home. They use it so often that they abbreviate it to 'the only person who seems to understand her griefGD'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848870361</amazonuk>
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Emily Critchley
|title=One Puzzling Afternoon
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=84 year old Edie has lived in the same small town for almost her whole life, but now she is facing a move as her son wants to move to another house and bring Edie to live with his family, as Edie is starting to lose her memory. However, Edie is tormented by the memory of her childhood friend, Lucy, who went missing over 60 years ago, and the worry that there was a secret she was keeping for Lucy that somehow might be the thing that reveals the truth of what happened all that time ago. After 'seeing' Lucy in the high street, just as she was the last time she saw her, she starts to find pockets of memories coming back to her. And yet as she remembers the past, she is forgetting more and more in her day to day life. Will she uncover the truth about Lucy's disappearance before her move, and before her memories are gone forever?
|isbn=1804181250
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Madelaine Lucas
|title=Thirst for Salt
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary= ''Love, I'd read, was supposed to be a light and weightless feeling, but I had always longed for gravity''
Told from a retrospective view, a young woman unravels the year-long relationship that once defined her. Overlaid with later wisdom, the narrator relives the affair with a man twenty years her senior from its inception – the summer after finishing university – to its sorrowful end the summer after. Set against the backdrop of an isolated Australian coastal town ''Thirst for Salt'' details the 24-year-old narrator's deepening relationship with her older lover, depicting its all-consuming nature, how it changed her perspective on both romantic and familial relationships and how it altered her irrevocably.|isbn=0861546490}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Julie Orringer0008506337|title=The Invisible BridgeGarnett Girls|author=Georgina Moore
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In a story that takes us from the elegance of ParisThe love affair between Margo Garnett and poet Richard O'Leary was all-consuming, through the streets of Budapest and apparently on into the Hungarian countryside both sides. Margo was just sixteen when they fell in love. Richard was twenty-one and the Ukraine this is described by Margo's mother as 'an epic tale, masterfully toldolder man'. It is 1937 Her parents worried that Richard's influence would take her away from what they felt she could achieve - going to Oxford and Andras Levi, having a young Hungarian Jewish student, is about to leave his brother Tibor to go and study architecture in Parisglittering career. Andras' story unfolds first amongst In the beautiful buildings of Parisevent, the theatres they eloped and Richard took her away from the bars, as he struggles in his studies Isle of Wight. Margo did go to Oxford and falls in love with went on to become a beautiful ballerina who has a terrible secret to hidewell-respected journalist. As the tragedy of World War 2 edges ever closer to AndrasThe couple had three children: Rachel, the book moves back to HungaryImogen and Sasha. Life was lived in London and holidays were spent at Sandcove, to the little village where Andras and his brothers grew up, to Budapest where his new family live and home on the Isle of Wight. Even then on into the forced labour camps across Hungarydoubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's mind: ''she would never be able to leave him in charge''. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670914584</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Guy Fraser1914585402|title=Avenging the Dashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=ItI reviewed David F Ross's book [[There's Only One Danny Garvey by David F Ross|There's 1863 and the Superintendent covering the inner city area Only One Danny Garvey]] a couple of Glasgow has his hands full. First off an alarming forgery scandal has just been discovered years back and no sooner has he drawn breath than one, two remember being absolutely floored by how powerful and counting suspicious deaths occuraffecting it was. InstinctivelyIt was a gripping, I want to say that it's all goodemotionally wounding read, clean fun. Because and rereading my review of it is. The language Fraser uses is very much of my main takeaway was that era which lends the book a particular old-fashioned and rather twee, charm. It's all over the book in spades. On almost every page. Let me give you just one endearing example of the flavour of the book 'None of Mrs Maitland's four regulars at her superior guest house for single gentlemen would even dream of taking another's seat ..I might not have lavished enough praise on it.'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709090684</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jodi ComptonLucy Ashe|title=Hailey's WarClara and Olivia|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=At the beginning of the book, Hailey Cain The year is a 23 year old cycle courierliving in San Francisco1933. The story then takes a step back in time place? Sadler's Wells. Ballerinas Clara and Olivia are sisters, twins no less. Identical on the outside but not, wediscover that she had to leave West Point Military Academy during herfinal yearlearn, on the inside. And not on stage, for reasons she prefers to keep to herselfeither. I continued to read under the assumption Because there's a lot that Hailey had done something which forced her to leavebuilds a dancer. Hernext move is Some things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, attention to L.Adetail – and some things, that ''je ne sais quoi'', where she spent that don't come from the latter part of her childhoodclassroom.During these yearsA stage presence, her mother with whom she hasa charm, at besta ''joie de vivre''. The difference between a hard-worker, a very strained relationship is no source of comfort and Hailey develops a very close attachment to her cousin CJ. Aspects of this relationship make for uncomfortable reading at timesstar.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847373577</amazonuk>0861544080
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Andrew GrantHeather Fawcett|title=Die Twice (David Trevellyan)Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The title Emily Wilde is very much at home an expert academic scholar on faerie lore, and in keeping with the thriller genre she has travelled extensively, and itresearched meticulously, to write her life's both eye-catching and also has a perfectly reasonable explanation which comes right at work, the very end first encyclopaedia of the storyfaeries. I must admit Whilst she is brilliant at research and speaking to thrillers generally faeries, she is not being my most favourite reading materialso good with people. Some can be a bit flashySo when she finds herself far, a bit trashy even. But far North in the small village of Hrafvsnik, having somehow offended the village matriarch, she is not this novel. Right from the start I felt I was in for a goodsure what she has done, intelligent read. There were pointers nor how to this all over redeem herself and put her final investigations for her book back on the placeright track. For startersEnter Wendell Bambleby, her dashingly handsome and insufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, all charm and delight, David Trevellyan has a nice line in witty humourmuch to Emily's frustration. There are numerous snazzy one-liners. But why is he here? What does he want? It all went down very well.And what exactly is going on with the faerie folk around Hravsnik?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0230747582</amazonuk>0356519120
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jonathan Lee1398515388|title=Who Is Mr Satoshi?The Boy and the Dog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The novel opens somewhere First of all, it was the earthquake, deep in the Home Counties ocean floor, which created the tsunami and Rob Fossick is attending his mother's funeralthis, in turn, caused the nuclear meltdown. The event in itself is extremely distressing result was complete and also depressing for him; factor in that he's become a bit of a recluse lately and I could feel the sheer loneliness creeping into Rob's very bonesutter devastation. Lee describes The deaths were uncountable, and the event as 'Zimmer frames, bifocals, trifocals, dark grey coats with yawning shouldersloss of livelihoods was widespread. The apparatus fact that many pets were separated from their owners came far down the list of old agepriorities but - six months after the tsunami - Kazumasa Nakagaki discovered a dog outside a convenience store. He wasn'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0434020419</amazonuk>t a dog person but the convenience store owner's comment that he would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to open his car door and Tamon the dog jumped in.
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Hazel McHaffieChristopher Bowden|title=Remember RememberMr Magenta
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Christopher Bowden's latest novel is a patient untangling of a seemingly ordinary woman's life, carried out by her nephew after she has died. The story starts at the end and works back in time. This works extremely well as we see Doris Mannering, mother, grandmother aunt who always provided a safe harbour and great-grandmother now living in a residential home. The decision little bit of indulgence to 'put mother' into a home was very, very difficult and young nephew had had a much more interesting life than that nephew Stephen had been put off time ever realised and time again. We come it seems to realize that this was a heart-wrenching decision. The daughter and carer, Jessica, will always be asking herself if she'd done the right thing, made the right decision for the right reasons. A veritable minefield. And here is where many him an ethical dilemma lies for many families in real-life similar situationsobligation to find it all out.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1906817294</amazonuk>B0B6Z9VJDW
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John NivenJennifer Mason|title=The AmateursPartitions of Unity
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Gary Irvine only wants two things out of life. He'd like to have children and he wants to reduce his golf handicap. Nothing extraordinary thereHere at Bookbag Towers, you might think except for the fact that his wifewe first met Elizabeth Cromwell, Paulinedominatrix and unintentional detective in [[Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by Jennifer Mason|Preposterous]], is planning to leave him for a self-made carpet millionaire when she investigated and Gary is unravelled a dreadful golferseries of disappearances. His handicap is eighteen – but IIn 'm not entirely certain how he got it down to that level in the first place. His family doesn't give him much solace either. His brother Lee is on the fringes Partitions of the local criminal underworld and hasnUnity''t the wit to keep himself out of trouble with Ranta Campbell, the local overlord. Ranta could be quite likeable if it wasn't for his penchant for a certain type of violence designed she sets her mind to keep the others in line rather than to teach the victim solving a lessonmurder...|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099516667</amazonuk>B09LQR9FRF
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Adam RossWill Carver|title=Mr Peanut|rating=3.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=The main couple who tend to take centre stage here are called David and Alice Pepin. They live a kind of comfortable, middle-class life in busy and bustling Manhattan. After more than a decade of generally happy married life together, they want to take the next step and have a family. Easy to say but things don't quite work out according to plan. We are taken on various 'dark' journeys within their marriage. These are situations which most of us can identify with. Some of these situations are painful, stressful, unhappy.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224087738</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Nicholas Shakespeare|title=InheritanceDaves Next Door
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Andy Larkham's life and career are going nowhere. He works for Five strangers come together in one moment as a small publishing house, Carpe Diem, that specialises in publishing self-help books, his fiancée is about to dump him and he has no money and mountains of debt. And that's before we begin suicide bomber prepares to talk about detonate his dysfunctional familyvest on a London tube line. His only real role model was As their fates overlap, the Montaigne-loving teacher, Stuart Furnivall, whose funeral he story is late for. But an unexpected inheritance of £17 million has a habit of changing one's outlook on life. But while he trades self-help for help yourselftold in backwards order, Andy also realises that he has inherited a mysteryleading up to the fateful moment.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846553156</amazonuk>1914585186}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Cath StaincliffeJennifer Mason|title=The Kindest ThingPreposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Imagine that your partner of twenty or so years discovers that they are dying from ''A struggling poetry zine, a mom-and-pop mobile diner in the Northern California redwoods, a 400-meter hurdler who just missed the 2004 Olympics, a terminal disease. Now imagine that theywomen've asked you to help them to die s track coach with a little sooneryen for bullwhips, on their own terms. What would you do? This is a billionaire with a state-of-the dilemma that faced Deborah and-art S&M dungeon, a man serving a life sentence in Alabama, an enigmatic signature, after she went ahead and helped her husband Neil to dieK(s, she found herself charged and standing trial for murder with her own teenage daughterx), Sophieon a cheap oil painting, testifying against heran erotic art dealer in Georgia...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849012083</amazonuk>}}''
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michael RobothamB0B2N7MVYM|title=Bleed For MeThe Calculations of Rational Men|author=Daniel Godfrey|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=An ex-detective is found dead in a pool of blood in his teenagerIt's bedroom. She runs from the scene 10th of the crimeDecember 1962 when we first meet Dr Joseph Marr. Is this Just to put what happens in context, the easiest cut-and-dried case ever? This novel Cuban missile crisis is told still very fresh in the first person by the investigating psychologist, Professor Joe Opeople'Loughlins minds. He's got The world has barely had a lot going on in his life right nowchance to breathe out. His health is But for Joe Marr, it's not good so hethe missile crisis that's to keep popping pills to try and get through another working dayat the front of his mind. He's also newly separated and his daughters seem to talk a completely different languagebeen convicted of murder. He feels old and very ragged round With the edges. Into this mixcurrent state of medical knowledge, he discovers it's hard to think otherwise than that the teenager everyone is talking about, the teenager who's prosecution would never have been discussed and described as a cold-blooded killer, is brought but Joe Marr has spent his daughterfirst few days in HMP Queen's best friendBench, a relatively new prison. Could He's just getting used to his life get any worseroommate, he thinks. Yes. Big-timeMervyn, and learning to be wary of the McArthur brothers.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847442188</amazonuk>
}}