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[[Category:General Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]]==General fiction==__NOTOC__{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Matt DunnOnyi Nwabineli|title=The Accidental ProposalAllow Me to Introduce Myself|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Edward Middleton seems like a pretty decent guy. He always stops Anuri spent her childhood on display to buy a Big Issues from Billy, a local homeless man and he takes his elderly widowed neighbour shopping once a week. These are some of the reasons why his girlfriendworld, Samthanks to her step-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, loves him so much. One night, after a friendwhere she posted every step of Anuri's weddingchildhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, Sam asks Ed if he would also like monetary gain. Now Anuri is in her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and to get married her life back, suing her step-mother to which Ed enthusiastically replies 'yes'take down the content about her. However Anuri is battling alcoholism, the following morningfailing to start her PhD, whilst nursing his hangoverundergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. Most importantly, he cannot work out if it was a hypothetical question or an actual proposal. His best mate Dan she is no help at all and desperately worried about her little sister, who is quite incredulous that anyone should ever want to marry Edthe new focus of Ophelia's online empire. Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847395244</amazonuk>0861546873
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=William Styron1529153298|title=The Suicide Run|rating=4|genre=Short Stories|summary=A WW2 naval soldier, guarding a prison island for those found guilty at courtmartials, is forced to wonder if he is winning his own battles against those arriving and leaving. A soldier remembers calming memories, and those causing tension, as he rests up before action. And for a highly-charged young man, there may be too much risk to be found in his high-octane downtime.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099532220</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewList of Suspicious Things|author=Molly Carr|title=The Sign of FearJennie Godfrey|rating=35
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Meet Mary Watson - a distant second 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 John Watsonmove the family 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, who of course was Down South is a distant second to Sherlock Holmesfrightening, foreign place, best avoided. Fed up with staying at home while For Miv, the move would mean leaving her new husband spends too much time at 221b Baker Streetbest friend, or away with Holmes sleuthingSharon, and she gets 'll do anything to dabble prevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that her own feet in the underworld waters when a certain Professor Moriarty comes callingMum's stopped talking - to anyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907685006</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jon Stephen Fink1035906708|title=A Storm In The BloodDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas'A Storm In The Blood'' is based on a true story involving the police force and the government of the day trying to suppress racial tensions make it more manageable in early 20th century Londonthe States. It has resonance When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for our modern times as we grapple with similar situations her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and problemsmade no secret of her preference for her elder sister, Jackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956544517</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Allegra GoodmanAlexander McCall Smith|title=The Cookbook CollectorPerfect Passion Company|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=''The Cookbook Collector'' Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all about emotionsthe online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Concentrating on twoNess has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, youngas Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, American women 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 are vastly different quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in many areas of their lives her abilities, and there's always her very helpful (and also on their outlook on liferather handsome) neighbour, William, Goodman digs deeper to find out what makes them tick - what makes them get up in the morning.lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848875398</amazonuk>1846976596
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Craig SmithDean Koontz|title=Cold RainThe Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionParanormal|summary=Life was pretty good for Dr David AlboBenny is having a terrifically bad day. He'd just had fifteen months away from loses his job as an associate professor of English at , he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a university in really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the mid-western USAvery last person to deserve all this bad luck. He lived on is a plantation-style farmhouse with nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a beautiful and intelligent wife and new friend, a step-daughter bad weather friend called Spike, who adored has been sent to help himsince Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. He was even Spike is going back to work in the expectation that take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he might well be offered , Benny, and Harper (a full professorship in the not-too-distant future and just to put the icing on the cake hewaitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's been clear of alcohol for two years. Yes; life was very goodwild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>190580234X</amazonuk>1662500491
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anna GavaldaKatherine Howe|title=ConsolationA True Account
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=We meet CharlesHannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to live with a family who run an inn, and being made to work there from a young age. When she hears there is to be a hanging of some pirates in the main character right at the starttown, she decides to go and watch. And straight awayEnthralled and horrified in equal measure, it's no secret that, as Hannah finds herself embroiled in a middle-aged professional (heyoung boy's an architect and a successful one death at that) he's jadedthe hands of two vicious pirates. Been-thereShe hides away, done-so that they don't find and got-kill her too, and then to escape them completely she runs away to sea, dressing as a boy and joining the-bloody-tee-shirt just about sums him up pretty well. Henotorious Ned Low's acquired (somehow) pirate ship as a beautiful, witty and clever partner and also a step-daughter whom he adorescabin boy. As the story deepens, I She soon acknowledged that the step-daughter seems to be about the only true love finds herself in his life. He's luke-warm about the rest thick of his family things when there is a mutiny on board, and that includes his partner and his ageing parents. Is this man going through some mid-from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life crisis, would be an obvious question to askon the ocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099531925</amazonuk>0861547438
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sam Hawken1471180158|title=The Dead Women of Juarez|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=Although the story related here is a work of fiction, the situation is based on fact. The Mexican border city of Juárez has a shocking problem with female homicides (usually young and invariably pretty). Official statistics put the number of murders at 400 since 1993 while, we are told, residents believe that the true number of disappeared women is closer to 5000. But attention to this problem is diverted by drug crime, although the two may not be entirely unrelated. Anything that raises public awareness of this terrible situation, such as Hawken's book, is to be encouraged. So much for the fact, what about the fiction?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184668773X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewMaybe Tomorrow|author=Pamela Klaffke|title=SnappedPenny Parkes|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=They say that a good idea is to write about what you know. WellJamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, Klaffke seems to have heeded that piece of advice. She writes here about for a fictional fashion writer called Sara B (note the pretentious second capital letter) man who is 's a control freak with all the central charactersubtlety of a half brick. And although Sara B is now in her middle yearsJamie's son, Bo, she's still acting like a teenagerhas his problems'. SheHe's got asthmatic and the younger boyfriend/lovermore you read, got the latest fashion look which she can deftly put her stamp more you'll suspect that he's on, got the invites autistic spectrum. Sometimes Jamie needs to the best parties take time off at short notice - she's a frequent flier in the best venues with local A&E and sometimes Bo's not fit enough to go to school. Missed shifts or the must-need to be away on time to pick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be-seen-with minor celebritiescontrolled and put in the wrong. But - is she happy? I know, it seems It was going to come to a silly question, but is it?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778304337</amazonuk>head.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Diane ChamberlainB0CKD1L5JL|title=Breaking the SilenceRadio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=As I've reviewed several of Chamberlain's previous books Petr is an orphan. Rescued by the strange, reclusive Bear, he is brought up far from bustling cities and enjoyed thembusy human society, I was looking forward to getting stuck in to this one. We meet the central character; wife and mother to five-year-old Emma, Laura. Sheforests of Washington's distraughtOlympic Peninsula. Her father (Emma's grandfather) has just passed away but his dying wish has really upset Laura. It's After Bear dies and a strange request brief sojourn in human company, and she doesn't know what to make of it. She confides in her husband thinking that two heads are better than one. He's armed with only a brilliant academic and could give some much-needed advice. But he doesn't. In factpirate radio transmitter, he behaves like Petr goes on a five-year-old himself and almost has a tantrum. Odd. Now poor Laura's doubly confusedjourney through the forest, broadcasting the strange, upset wild and doesn't know how to handle her grief. Tough timesrarely heard voices he encounters.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778304140</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lola ShoneyinSarah Marsh|title=The Secret Lives A Sign of Baba Segi's WivesHer Own|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives is one After a bout of those books that you read with scarlet fever as a smile on your facechild, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. It's full Suddenly plunged into a world of gloriously unsavoury characters caught silence, everything about her life changes. Living in a terrible web time when the use of deceitsign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a school where she is taught to lip read, but physically restrained from signing. We are promised 'four women From here, one husband she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the deaf and using a devastating secret' and it delivers on all three countssystem called Visible Speech. Sure At the secret same time, Bell is quite well signposted working on other inventions and Shoneyin doesn't really make much of an effort to divert the reader from putting two ideas, and two together, although it takes wife number four, Bolanle, an inordinate amount of time for the penny to drop, but it's not about discovering the deception - it's about the glorious journey Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a complicated tangle of how things unfoldespionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846687497</amazonuk>1035401614
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Cornelius MedveiB0BC3YTCMR|title=Caroline: A MysteryGood Girls Die|author=Ayura Ayira|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Meet Mr Shaw. He's an insurance worker who takes his wife and son off on their annual vacation one year, and finds himself indulging in a surprisingly platonic holiday romance. The subject of his infatuation, Caroline, has eyes, ears, hair and more that easily combine with Mr Shaw's fondness This story is not for classical Persian love poetryeveryone. At the end of the holiday he lets his wife and son depart while he takes a further week off to walk all the way home with Caroline. Who is, as it happens, a donkey.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846553881</amazonuk>}}''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tom Campbell1472263936|title=FoldThe Figurine|author=Victoria Hislop|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Five men It was in Reading circulate their monthly poker evenings around their respective houses1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to Greece. None of them like all She was alone: her mother, Greek by birth, had left the others, none of them seem family home and refused to completely like the gamereturn, but theyMary and Hamish (Helena're more-s parents) felt that it would be a pity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents orunderstanding her Greek heritage. Her trip to the family apartment in up-less happy with market Kolonaki would be the habitfirst of several annual visits. ItShe grew to love her grandmother and the family's the way the five different personalities approach the evenings that we are concerned withmaid, Dina, but was wary - and enjoy principallyfrightened - of her grandfather, especially when retired general Stamatis Papagiannis. He was proud of his close connections to the poorest player, Nick, decides Junta and expected his family to clash with uphold his polar opposite, Dougvalues but saw no reason to accommodate them. And what might happen if a nonHis prejudices included Helena's red hair and green eyes -playing character were to enter things, and make them even feistier?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408807602</amazonuk>inherited from her father's Scottish ancestors.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Francois LelordDean Koontz|title=Hector and the Secrets of LoveAfter Death|rating=4.53
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Professor Cormorant has gone AWOLMichael Mace, Head of Security, at a top secret biological research facility, is among 55 people who die when a virus is released in a bio-hazard accident. Tasked with developing drugs to cure Finding himself in a lot of illsmakeshift mortuary, by making us fall covered in loveplastic, he has fled with his secrets, his prototypes, and a few samples sense that may or may not be dangerous. It is down to Hector, a psychiatristsomething very, very bad has happened to chase him down, work out where Cormorant is in his researches, – and only him – as he sits up and if possible help bring looks around at the trade secrets back to the company shrouded bodies of his girlfriend, dead friends and now himself, works forformer colleagues. With the exotic far East As he recovers his destinationsenses, a partner left behind, and time on his hand to muse on the subject of love, will Hector find more than just a bunch of chemicals in a syringe?he realises that there is something different about him; he can ''feel'' everything. ''Everything''. Michael isn't ''Michael'' anymore.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1906040338</amazonuk>1662500467}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Edward WrightB0BVDC2VWH|title=From BloodThe Grave Listeners|author=William Frank
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=While IThe village is isolated and poor. It'm not mad about s surrounded by a Witching Forest. And the title, the book's cover is atmospherically good villagers subsist largely by farming Uphegia plants - its bread- it says to like fruit provides nutrition and its blossom provides herbal medicines. The black wood of the reader 'please pick me up forest provides heat and warmth, roofs on homes, and read me.' So I dideven gallows, if needed. The book opens fear of being buried alive is an existential superstition in 1960s America with the Prologue. A bunch of radical thinkers are angry. They turn this pent-up anger into village and that is the reason Volushka, a welldrunken, self-oiledindulgent, well-ordered act lazy lout of violence. Lives are lost. But the perpetrators are clever and most of them escape justice. They do what many around the world have done before them; they go underground. But several key members are still at large ..a man is tolerated.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0752891774</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David LindsleyB0BYF82CXT|title=The Darkfall SwitchSemi-Detached|author=Deborah Stone|rating=3.54
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The book opens on ''Bill and Amanda are living in a semi-detached house, stuck in a sultrydepressing rut of boredom and disappointment, hot summer's day when Terry and Fiona – glamorous, successful and very much in love – move in central Londonnext door. Imagine Despite their different outlooks on life, the stifling heat couples befriend each other and life appears to improve for both pairs. But all is the subliminal message herenot what it seems, especially and their increasingly interconnected relationships are fated for those passengers on the underground - ' ... as if they were all joined in some macabre dance as the train rattled along the tunnel. Everybody pressed against otherstragedy.' Suddenly there's a problem with the infrastructure. A big problem. As the experts frantically work behind the scenes to get London moving again - the unthinkable happens. People lose their lives in what appears to be a power cut.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>070909146X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alan LorberShalini Boland|title=Benny Allen Was A Star: A New York Music StoryThe Silent Bride
|rating=3
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Alan Lorber Alice and Seth are a match made in heaven. He is everything she has written been searching for; handsome, accomplished, clever, funny; total and utter husband-material. She is all he could possibly want in a fictional wife; beautiful, successful, confident… and so the inevitable proposal is eagerly accepted by Alice and I suspect a semi autobiographical account of his years as a top music arranger in the 1950's wedding is planned and early 1960'sset. When the much-anticipated day arrives, a period of huge change in Alice is walked down the music industry culminating aisle by her father, beaming with pride and excitement as she surveys the breakthrough of the Beatles in America. Rather than simply writing a factual narrative of his involvement during congregation – their friends assembled to celebrate this period he decided joyful day and when Seth turns to tell face his approaching bride, Alice's world implodes because she has absolutely no idea who the story of man at the fictional Benny Allenaltar is, a classically trained musician who almost by accident gets involved in the music publishing business and then goes on is waiting for her to produce some hugely successful orchestrations on many of the top hit records of the timebecome his wife.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>B0041VXCTA</amazonuk>1662507089
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Deborah Harkness1787636003|title=A Discovery of Witches|rating=4.5|genre=Fantasy|summary=The back cover is full Girls of praise for this debut novel which has been involved in a publishing 'tussle', no less. Impressive. I was looking forward to reading what all the fuss was about. The title is terrific too. But was the book a terrific read?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755374029</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewSummer|author=Elfriede Jelinek|title=The Piano TeacherKatie Bishop|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Erika is a single woman in her thirties, who, despite the best efforts of her mother, did not succeed as a concert musician, but instead works as a teacher at the Vienna Conservatory. I say best efforts, I mean outright pressure. Erika and her mother make for an unusual relationship - the older relying on the glory, company and complete obedience of the younger, the daughter sharing a bed with her mother even at this stage of her life. All this is until a young student at the school decides he will be a younger lover for Erika, and forces his will into the household. But who, should such a relationship actually form, is going to be the power-maker?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846687373</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Maria Angels Anglada|title=The Auschwitz Violin|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In Poland in It was the summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that she and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and arrived on the early 1990s, a violin singsisland. The maestro who owns it produces such a music from itRachel wasn't exactly innocent but she was, perhaps, naive, people are forced so when thirty-four-year-old Alistair Wright started to take note. They'd be even more amazed if an interest in her, she could bring herself to state exactly how the instrument came to bewas flattered rather than wary. For this It was the work quite a while before he made any sort of Daniel, suffering in a subsidiary camp physical approach to Auschwitz-Birkenauher and by that time she was obsessed by him. StumblesAlistair worked for Henry Taylor, chances, half-lies, all conspire to allow Daniel to take time off looking after his enforced labour interests on the island and engage in his real-world careerparticular in the bar where all the girls either worked or partied. But is there a price to pay in doing something you love, just for a man you can only hate?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849016437</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Bethan DarwinAmanda Craig|title=Two Times TwentyThree Graces|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=You can tell from Few styles of contemporary fiction interest me like the beginning state-of this -the-nation novel that you. There're s something so utterly compelling about any writer who can catch hold of the atmosphere of the day and capture it, crafting an image of the country as it stands in Walesone particular moment. The young Anna (as we travel back in time) To say that Amanda Craig is meeting what will skilled at doing this would be long-term friends, Bob and Janeembarrassingly inadequate: she's practically synonymous with the genre of contemporary social fiction at this point. We find Anna rather proudly introducing She has such a gift for weaving the ongoing issues of the day into the lives of her two young sons characters in a way that feels natural and Bob butting lived-in with 'Duw, good-sized boys never making them ciphers for their age ... Make good rugby players one day.' But the Welsh location and all things Welsh is given a subtle touchsocial commentary but instead fully realised people, grappling with issues far larger than themselves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>190678423X</amazonuk>140871468X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Adrian Dawson152915118X|title=CODEXPineapple Street|author=Jenny Jackson
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=When I read ''Pineapple Street'' is the resume on story of three women: Sasha, Darley and Georgiana. Darley and George are sisters and Sasha is married to their brother Cord. They're Stocktons, only Sasha isn't a Stockton by birth so she isn't readily accepted into the tribe. The problem's exacerbated when the clan matriarch, Tilda, asks Cord and Sasha if they'd like to move into the back cover I immediately thought that it was going Pineapple Street property. Tilda and Chip have renovated and downsized to be one of those high-octaneanother property, action every second paragrapha street or so away, type of thrillerswhich they own. All action They won't need any of the furniture from Pineapple Street, so Sasha and perhaps very little substanceCord can move straight in. I was happily proved wrongNominally, they had a choice but that wasn't the reality. And very early on Darley and Georgiana start to call Sasha 'the gold digger'. She's living in ''their'' family home. They use it so often that they abbreviate it to 'the novel, as well, which was goodGD'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956577008</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Peter DurantineEmily Critchley|title=The Chocolate AssassinOne Puzzling Afternoon
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=In 84 year old Edie has lived in the final days of the Second World War 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 the allied guns came ever closer a young German was sent on a secret mission Edie is starting to Americalose her memory. He was only in his late teens but still resisted telling anyoneHowever, including Edie is tormented by the U-boat captain memory of her childhood friend, Lucy, who took him across went missing over 60 years ago, and the Atlantic, about worry that there was a secret she was keeping for Lucy that somehow might be the thing that reveals the nature truth of his missionwhat happened all that time ago. Fifty five years later After 'seeing' Lucy in the U-boat captainhigh street, Eric Hoest, long settled in just as she was the Stateslast time she saw her, was murdered at his beach homeshe starts to find pockets of memories coming back to her. Samuel GreyAnd yet as she remembers the past, police detective she is forgetting more and part-time student was called more in her day to investigate the murderday life. The local police chief thought that the most likely murderer was the neighbour who had reported the crime, but Grey suspected that Will she uncover the truth was hidden somewhere in Hoestabout Lucy's background.disappearance before her move, and before her memories are gone forever?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1451579527</amazonuk>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''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jack Everett and David Coles0008506337|title=Last Mission: the last hours of the Third ReichThe Garnett Girls|author=Georgina Moore|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=We first meet a couple of characters living The love affair between Margo Garnett and poet Richard O'Leary was all-consuming, apparently on both sides. Margo was just sixteen when they fell in the United Stateslove. A husband Richard was twenty-one and wife described by Margo's mother as 'an older man'. Her parents worried that Richard's influence would take her away from what they felt she could achieve - going to Oxford and having a relation of theirs called Paulglittering career. On In the surfaceevent, they appear to be enjoying happy, normal liveseloped and Richard took her away from the Isle of Wight. But all is not what is seemsMargo did go to Oxford and went on to become a well-respected journalist. We soon find out that the husbandThe couple had three children: Rachel, Carl has some secretsImogen and Sasha. Pretty big ones. He keeps a picture of Adolph Hitler on display - somewhere - Life was lived in his London and holidays were spent at Sandcove, the family home, for exampleon the Isle of Wight. Links with Germany and his past life are often talked Even then the doubts about, or rather whispered about, with a handful of trusted Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's mind: ''she would never be able to leave him in charge'acquaintances' over a beer or two.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095653421X</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Cathleen Schine1914585402|title=The Three Weissmanns of WestportDashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The novel begins with Joseph Weissmann, or Josie as he is known, deciding at the age I reviewed David F Ross's book [[There's Only One Danny Garvey by David F Ross|There's Only One Danny Garvey]] a couple of 78 that he no longer wants to be married to Betty after 48 years together. In an attempt to save Betty's feelings he cites irreconcilable differences, but the truth is he has fallen head over heels in loveback and remember being absolutely floored by how powerful and affecting it was. Betty is devastatedIt was a gripping, her life in tattersemotionally wounding read, with even the beautiful Central Park apartment she adores soon lost to herand rereading my review of it my main takeaway was that I might not have lavished enough praise on it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849015716</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John IrvingLucy Ashe|title=Last Night in Twisted RiverClara and Olivia
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=We start in 1954The year is 1933. The place? Sadler's Wells. Ballerinas Clara and Olivia are sisters, in twins no less. Identical on the middle of nowhereoutside but not, we learn, in a log-cutters' encampmenton the inside. The cook lives alone with his twelve year old son, in some kind of comfort - a decent jobAnd not on stage, familiarity with the harsh surroundings and the hardened people inhabiting iteither. But Because there's a pair of tragedies - one involving lot that builds a fatal work accident with a young teenager new dancer. Some things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, attention to the jobdetail – and some things, that ''je ne sais quoi'', force that don't come from the pair to fleeclassroom. They leave behind A stage presence, a red herring that they hope will force the local brutal policeman to get the wrong impressioncharm, and a best friend in the shape of Ketchum, the most hardened logger in the camp as ''joie de vivre''. The difference between a kind of safetyhard-net, but their destiny, spread over the next few generationsworker, will prove to still be populated with tragedy, romance, despair - and the constant look over their shoulder to the tiny settlement of Twisted Rivera star.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0552776572</amazonuk>0861544080
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tony BaylissHeather Fawcett|title=Past ContinuousEmily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The authorEmily Wilde is an expert academic scholar on faerie lore, and she has travelled extensively, and researched meticulously, to write her life's note tells the reader that this book 'was inspired by work, the suicide very first encyclopaedia of the author's sonfaeries.' Chapter 1 opens Whilst she is brilliant at research and speaking to faeries, she is not so good with people. So when she finds herself far, far North in the reader being in no doubt that small village of Hrafvsnik, having somehow offended the schoolboy Matthew village matriarch, she is not sure what she has a knack with computersdone, nor how to redeem herself and put her final investigations for her book back on the right track. HeEnter Wendell Bambleby, her dashingly handsome and insufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, all charm and delight, much to Emily's a bit of a whiz-kidfrustration. He's also shy and tongue-tied which makes him a bit of a loner as well. But why is he here? He stands out at school for all the wrong reasons but What does he's coping with it - just. want? And early what exactly is going on in with the book we meet Sophie. She's a big part of this book. She's faerie folk around Matthew's age. She is bright and clever. Her adoptive parents would probably say that she's too clever for her own good.Hravsnik?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1907230173</amazonuk>0356519120
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sam Hayes1398515388|title=Someone Else's SonThe Boy and the Dog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The book opens with Carrie Kent. Successful television presenter and mother First of teenagerall, Max. Ms Kent immediately comes across as hard-headedit was the earthquake, business-likedeep in the ocean floor, aloof which created the tsunami and rather distant but that's this, in turn, caused the whole point, of coursenuclear meltdown. Very good at her day jobThe result was complete and utter devastation. But as a mother? Her television show is a reality programmeThe deaths were uncountable, dealing with well, basically and the dregs loss of society: single, young mums, drug addicts etclivelihoods was widespread. Carrie knows The fact that these people keep her in designer shoes and bags many pets were separated from their owners came far down the list of priorities but she keeps them at arm's length- six months after the tsunami - Kazumasa Nakagaki discovered a dog outside a convenience store. She wouldnHe wasn't want a dog person but the convenience store owner's comment that he would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to catch something. Carrie sails through her life with a self-satisfied smile on her face. You can just tellopen his car door and Tamon the dog jumped in.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755349873</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Brooke MorganChristopher Bowden|title=TrappedMr Magenta
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Ellie Walters Christopher Bowden's latest novel is 36, divorced and keen to start a new life away from her cheating and control-freak ex-husband. Fulfilling patient untangling of a seemingly ordinary woman's life-long dream, carried out by her nephew after she decides to take her 15-year-old son, Tim, to live with her in the small town of Bournehas died. As she soon becomes good friends with her next-door neighbour, Louisa Amory, Ellie finally feels she is making The aunt who always provided a safe harbour and a life little bit of her own. She begins indulgence to feel a sense of freedom and independence but for how long? When strange events start occurring Ellie is forced to face some painful and guilty memories connected to young nephew had had a tragic accident nineteen years ago; memories which she would rather forget. It is clear much more interesting life than that someone has discovered her well-kept secret nephew Stephen had ever realised and is reluctant to let her forget about it. As a campaign of terror against Ellie unfolds she must come to terms with what happened all those years ago and try seems to discover who her tormentor is. Vulnerable and afraid, she relies on Louisa's friendship him an obligation to help her through the ordeal. However, when a misunderstanding causes a rift between Ellie and Louisa's son, Joe, the women's friendship is threatened. Alone and afraid, she suddenly finds herself trapped in a nightmare from which she must do find it all she can to escapeout.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099536285</amazonuk>B0B6Z9VJDW
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Margaret AtwoodJennifer Mason|title=The Handmaid's TalePartitions of Unity|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In the near-future USA that they call GileadHere at Bookbag Towers, society has changed. For the worsewe first met Elizabeth Cromwell, of course. The population is dying outdominatrix and unintentional detective in [[Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by Jennifer Mason|Preposterous]], when she investigated and people who are capable of breeding the next generation are given unravelled a cherished status series of Handmaid - gifted to any male disappearances. In ''Partitions of enough esteemUnity'', called a Commander, who balances the household with his wife and what is practically she sets her mind to solving a walking wombmurder. Other women get drudge work, or run horrid finishing schools for the Handmaids, or are packed off to what are reported to be polluted hellholes abroad, for laborious work for life. Men are restricted too - Handmaids are off-limits to everybody but their Commander, and those households are patrolled carefully by other eunuch types. It's up to our nameless narrator and main character, however, to show us just how cherished the status of Handmaid feels.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099511665</amazonuk>B09LQR9FRF
}}
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The riddle is the whole crux of the book. So we're taken right back, albeit briefly, to Bavaria Five strangers come together in the year 1886, via the Prologue. So, the scene is now set, foul play is most definitely afoot and lots of questions should pop into the reader's mind. Such one moment as who? Why? etc. So far, so good, I thought. We then fast-forward straight a suicide bomber prepares to present-day Germany and due to an unfortunate hunting accident, something which was detonate his vest on a secret, is no longerLondon tube line.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241952123</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Padgett Powell|title=The Interrogative Mood|rating=2.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=SoAs their fates overlap, what is a novel? Does it need a plot, climax and resolution? Characters who grow? A setting? Themes which explore the human condition? And must it entertain? Padgett Powell challenges our perceptions of fiction with a book that explores what it story is to be a noveltold in backwards order, but without any preconditions. How far he succeeds is down leading up to the individual reader. But I thought I'd give it a gofateful moment.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846683661</amazonuk>1914585186}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ken FollettJennifer Mason|title=Fall of GiantsPreposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery|rating=54
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=This is ''A struggling poetry zine, a mom-and-pop mobile diner in the Northern California redwoods, a thumping400-meter hurdler who just missed the 2004 Olympics, great read at 850 pages. We meet a clutch women's track coach with a yen for bullwhips, a billionaire with a state-of families who are all vastly different -the-art S&M dungeon, a man serving a life sentence in terms of classAlabama, an enigmatic signature, K(s, x), outlookon a cheap oil painting, values etcan erotic art dealer in Georgia... I have to admit at the outset that this is the first Ken Follett book I've read even although two of his previous books are in my ever-growing 'to read' pile. So although I know of him, my reading expectations were wide-open.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230710077</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michelle PaverB0B2N7MVYM|title=Dark MatterThe Calculations of Rational Men|author=Daniel Godfrey
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=It's January 1937 and dark clouds the 10th of impending war are gathering over EuropeDecember 1962 when we first meet Dr Joseph Marr. Jack Miller Just to put what happens in context, the Cuban missile crisis is still very fresh in London, working as people's minds. The world has barely had a clerk and living in one lonely roomchance to breathe out. He should probably think himself lucky because many people have neither job nor home in this Great Depression But for Joe Marr, but he doesnit's not the missile crisis that'ts at the front of his mind. He feels lonely and isolated and angry that a career in research physics was snatched away from him by economic circumstance's been convicted of murder. So when With the chance current state of becoming the wireless operator for an Arctic expedition comes alongmedical knowledge, he jumps at it - even though 's hard to think otherwise than that the team comprises prosecution would never have been brought but Joe Marr has spent his first few days in HMP Queen's Bench, a relatively new prison. He's just getting used to his roommate, Mervyn, and learning to be wary of the exact privileged young men he most resentsMcArthur brothers. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409123782</amazonuk>
}}