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[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]]==General fiction==__NOTOC__{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Charity NormanOnyi Nwabineli|title=After The FallAllow Me to Introduce Myself|rating=34.5

|summary=It’s Anuri spent her childhood on display to the middle world, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of the night when five year old Finn falls from the balcony at his home Anuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, monetary gain. Now Anuri is in a remote part of New Zealand. Leaving his twin brother her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and older sister in the care of a neighbourto get her life back, his suing her step-mother Martha stays with him as a helicopter races him to take down the nearest hospitalcontent about her. But as he Anuri is rushed into surgerybattling alcoholism, she is taken failing to one side for questioningstart her PhD, with first nursing staff then the police undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and social workers raising concernsreceiving money from them for doing so. Was Finn really sleep walking Most importantly, something he she is prone to do? But if sodesperately worried about her little sister, how did he come to have suspicious bruises on one side who is the new focus of his bodyOphelia's online empire. Can she save her sister, not in keeping and perhaps herself and her relationship with how he landed? And if it wasn’t her father at the accident Martha is saying it was, was his mother involved or is she covering for someonesame time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>174331096X</amazonuk>0861546873

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dorothy Koomson1529153298|title=The Rose Petal Beach|rating=4|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Tamia and Scott met at school and they were friends before they were anything else although it wasn't to the liking List of either family. Scott's brother referred to Tamia as ''that'' - a reference to the colour of her skin. Tamia's family weren't racially prejudiced but they knew the Challey family and their reputation for criminality. It wasn't what they wanted for their daughter: they saw a university education, but were to be disappointed on both counts. It looked to be working well: the marriage seemed stable and they had two beautiful daughters, but then one night it all fell apart. Scott was arrested in front of his wife and children for a dreadful crime. As if this wasn't bad enough, Tami's world disintegrated even further when she discovered that Scott's accuser was someone whom she regarded as a close friend.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780874960</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewSuspicious Things|author=Chris Worthington|title=Setting The Record StraightJennie Godfrey|rating=35

|summary=When he was twelve Geoff Dealer returned to his Texas home It's 1979 and walked in on what looked like a frightening situationMargaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A manwoman? I mean, trousers round his ankles was pushing his mother up against a wall and she was squealinghonestly... ) Mindful of his fatherShe's not what's worrying Miv's advice about using a gun Geoff grabbed it from the gun cabinet and injured the man with his first shotfamily, though. Women have been disappearing. The second killed himWell, they've been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. It was their neighbour and his Miv's upset because she's overheard that her fatherwants to move the family 'Down South'. When you's re from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend - who, Sharon, and she'd obviously been more than a friend ll do anything to his motherprevent that. Lizzie Dealer took She's not worried about the blame - saying dangers or that sheher Mum'd been attacked and had grabbed the gun from her son s stopped talking - but her husband was arrested and was killed in prison a couple of days laterto anyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848767080</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Herman Koch1035906708|title=The DinnerDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin

|summary=Serge LohmanWe tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, presidential candidatebut she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, is not the kind of man to frequent the cafés of ordinary peopleNew York, in December 1923 and so only moved to Athens when his brother Paul and his wife Claire join Serge and wife Babette for dinner, she was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it can only be at the fanciest of locales, and for to 'fanciestCallas' read poshest, snootiest, and most overpricedto make it more manageable in the States. And while they may be When she was back in Holland, going Dutch is not on Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the menu. This is not Serge’s story, however. It is Paul’s, Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and what he lacks in terms made no secret of income, power and influence compared to his brotherher preference for her elder sister, he more than makes up for with dry humour and astute observationsJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848873824</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kim BarnesAlexander McCall Smith|title=In the Kingdom of MenThe Perfect Passion Company|rating=34.5

|summary=This book begins beautifully with The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the characters springing 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 trip to Canada to life through fantastically spare get away for a while. Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and creative descriptionso jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. By 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 time we reach GinIsabel Dalhousie novels, living but with her her grandfather some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in the stifling atmosphere of running a strict Methodist minister’s homebusiness, the story is or in match-making, but Ness has full swing confidence in her abilities, and we follow Gin through there's always her teenage years as she tries hard very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to rebel against all the limitations placed upon her.lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>009194421X</amazonuk>1846976596

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Luis SepulvedaDean Koontz|title=The Shadow of What we WereBad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionParanormal|summary=Chile, the modern Benny is having a terrifically bad day. Four elderly men meet for one last timeHe loses his job, planning something suspiciously underhandhe loses his fiancee, having made arrangements - and discussed Internet dating - onlinehis house gets trashed. WeOh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it're let into s possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the fact thing that the grandfather of one was a bank robber in a classic tale of Robin Hood-style wealth distributionhas trashed his house! The thing is, but as to what Benny is the outcome of their plans might be we're forced very last person to waitdeserve all this bad luck. Elsewhere He is a domestic incident leads nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a bizarre death - by record playernew friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. And you Spike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can just tell I'm suggesting you wait to discover the link..figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1609450027</amazonuk>1662500491

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sophie DuffyKatherine Howe|title=This Holey LifeA True Account|rating=34.5

|summary=Vicky's husband has found faith Hannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to live with a family who run an inn, and since he's working as being made to work there from a curate now rather than young age. When she hears there is to be a plumber Vicky has been dragged into church life whether hanging of some pirates in the town, she likes it or notdecides to go and watch. SheEnthralled and horrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's struggling to raise her family whilst dealing with her own grief when suddenly into death at the mix come her irritating big brother and his little boyhands of two vicious pirates. As VickyShe hides away, so that they don's patience is stretched paper-thin the lies woven within t find and kill her family begin too, and then to unravel and escape them completely she struggles runs away to keep everything sea, dressing as a boy and everyone togetherjoining the notorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a cabin boy. She soon finds herself in the thick of things when there is a mutiny on board, and from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on the ocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1908775971</amazonuk>0861547438

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Cath Staincliffe1471180158|title=Split SecondMaybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes|rating=4.5

|summary=On Jamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, for a late December evening, Emma Curtis is on man who's a bus travelling home from work when she becomes aware control freak with all the subtlety of a young lad being picked on by three othershalf brick. Too scared to intervene Jamie's son, Bo, she sits alone feeling guilty but taking everything in'has his problems'. To her shame, nineteen year old student, Jason Barnes, comes downstairs on the bus He's asthmatic and immediately challenges the three youths. Lukemore you read, the young victim, leaps off more you'll suspect that he's on the bus and a chase followsautistic spectrum. Jason continues Sometimes Jamie needs to try and defend Luke, take time off at short notice - she's a frequent flier in the local A&E and they end up in Jasonsometimes Bo's front garden where his parents witness the brutal attacknot fit enough to go to school. Eventually Missed shifts or the trio run off leaving Luke unconscious need to be away on time to pick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and put in the snowy groundwrong. Worse still, is the realisation that Jason has been stabbed and tragically it turns out It was going to come to be fatala head. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849013462</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Peter HellerB0CKD1L5JL|title=The Dog StarsRadio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn|rating=4.5

|summary=We are in North America in a near but post-Apocalyptic futurePetr is an orphan. Those few humans to survive a pandemic have to be treated as carriersRescued by the strange, reclusive Bear, he is brought up far from bustling cities and/or armed and desperatebusy human society, and so are particularly in the forests of note to military-minded survivalist BangleyWashington's Olympic Peninsula. And climate After Bear dies and eco-problems have killed off many common species, something closer to narrator Hig's heart, as he's a more placidbrief sojourn in human company, huntin', shootin' and fishin' guy. These two solitary men are an unlikely partnershiparmed with only a pirate radio transmitter, but both look out for each other in complementary ways. Bangley has his watch-towerPetr goes on a journey through the forest, while Hig takes off in his Cessna to get away from it allbroadcasting the strange, wild and his flights act as a first line of defenserarely heard voices he encounters. But is it all life could be, for Hig and his dog and Bangley? What is Hig still to make of the last inviting contact he heard on his plane's radio - even if that was three years ago? |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755392590</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michael FraynSarah Marsh|title=SkiosA Sign of Her Own

|summary=Set on After a bout of scarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Suddenly plunged into a Greek islandworld of silence, everything about her life changes. Living in a cultural foundation is preparing for time when the biggest event in its year at which renowned academic Dr Norman Wilfred use of sign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is due sent to give the keynote speech. Also heading a school where she is taught to the island on the same plane is Oliver Foxlip read, a morally vacant but charming Lothariophysically restrained from signing. From here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has arranged an assignation with a girl who he has met for only five minutes but has invited to spend a week with him at been teaching the villa that he was due spend deaf and using a week with his ex-girlfriend before she threw him outsystem called Visible Speech. But when At the girl sent to collect Dr Wilfred from the airportsame time, NikkiBell is working on other inventions and ideas, turns out to be irresistibly charming Oliver decides to play the role of Dr Wilfred and follow her to the foundation while the real Dr Wilfred, minus luggage is transported to the villa at the other end Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a complicated tangle of the islandespionage. Someone still has to give the speech though - will it be the real Dr Wilfred or the fake Dr Wilfred?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0571281419</amazonuk>1035401614

{{newreview|author=Ned Beauman|title=Lavender Daniels was three weeks short of her fifteenth birthday when The Teleportation Accident|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=It's hard Incident happened. She was a very bright student, a bit too nerdy if truth be told, and suffered from vitiligo - people were afraid to know where to start hug her in reviewing Ned Beaumancase it's Booker long-listed ''The Teleportation Accident'contagious. It's not easy being a black girl whose skin is 84% white. Reading it, you feel like the parent of an ADHD She had a crush on seventeen-year-suffering childold Reggie Anderson but never thought he would notice her. At times it is lovable, brilliant Then he did: Lavender was very good at math and entertaining, Reggie asked if she would tutor him. She readily agreed: tutoring was something she gladly did at others you church: this was just want to reach for the Ritalin and tell it to sit in a corner quietly while it composes itselfan extension. A clue She went to both the brilliance his house and frustration of Beauman is in the vast range of writers to whom he has been compared in both this and his first novel [[Boxer, Beetle by Ned Beauman|Boxer, Beetle]]raped her. There are hints of people as wide ranging as [[:Category:David Mitchell|David Mitchell]], [[:Category:P G Wodehouse|P G Wodehouse]], [[:Category:Douglas Adams|Douglas Adams]] In shock, Raymond Chandler she even [[:Category:Angela Carter|Angela Carter]] allowed him to name just a few. Beauman takes give her a huge range of styles and genres and pushes them and bends them often to glorious effect, but it can be a challenge keeping up with him at timeslift home.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340998423</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Howard L Anderson1472263936|title=Albert of AdelaideThe Figurine|author=Victoria Hislop

|summary=Albert It was in 1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to Greece. She was alone: her mother, Greek by birth, had left the Duck-Billed Platypus lives in an Adelaide zoo family home and refused to return, but knows thereMary and Hamish (Helena's more to life than thisparents) felt that it would be a pity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding her Greek heritage. There must Her trip to the family apartment in up-market Kolonaki would be as he's heard the storiesfirst of several annual visits. Somewhere beyond She grew to love her grandmother and the cages is Old Australiafamily's maid, Dina, but was wary - and frightened - of her grandfather, a land retired general Stamatis Papagiannis. He was proud of dreams where there are no zoos his close connections to the Junta and expected his family to uphold his values but saw no human captors, just animals who are free reason to govern themselves and live in perpetual peace and happinessaccommodate them. ThatHis prejudices included Helena's a world that Albert wants to be a part of red hair and so he escapes, realising that for the first time in his short life his future is in his own webbed pawsgreen eyes - inherited from her father's Scottish ancestors.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184668840X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Manu JosephDean Koontz|title=The Illicit Happiness of Other PeopleAfter Death|rating=3.5|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=Meet what the first chapter calls ''the underdog family''Michael 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. Tamil immigrants to MadrasFinding himself in a makeshift mortuary, covered in plastic, he has a sense that something very, they are below the breadline due very bad has happened to Ousep's constant drinking, him – and by only him being a failed writer – as he sits up and looks around at the shrouded bodies of his dead friends and mediocre journalistformer colleagues. His wife Mariamma hasAs he recovers his senses, shall we say, problems, their younger son he realises that there is fixated on the beautiful girl next doorsomething different about him; he can ''feel'' everything. But their other son Unni is a ''cartoonist hottieEverything'' - a handsome prodigy of the comic strip world - or he was until he took a nosedive off their roof three years ago, aged 17. Ousep is still tracking through his sonMichael isn't ''Michael''s friends and output, trying to seek the cause of this suicide, and what we have here is the journey of the family as he struggles towards the truthanymore.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848543093</amazonuk>1662500467}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Charles McLeodB0BVDC2VWH|title=American WeatherThe Grave Listeners|author=William Frank

|summary=Jim Haskin The village is isolated and poor. It's surrounded by a very odd man, doing a very odd job, in a very odd country if this book is to be believedWitching Forest. And the villagers subsist largely by farming Uphegia plants - its bread-like fruit provides nutrition and its blossom provides herbal medicines. An advertising guru in San FranciscoThe black wood of the forest provides heat and warmth, he owns a touchy feely company which boasts such wonders as a ‘Dream Pod’roofs on homes, a room for his team to relax in with sleeping bagsand even gallows, TVs and a cooler brimming with organic fruit teaif needed. That’s for their down time The fear of being buried alive is an existential superstition in between saving the world, promoting one eco-friendly item after another village and doing other worthy things. Except behind that is the scenesreason Volushka, Jim Haskin is not that man. While his team are organising poetry slams to help homeless prostitutesa drunken, he’s coming up with fightself-back campaignsindulgent, showing that bleach makes lazy lout of a beach better, chemical spills aren't as bad as you first might think, and other quite inexplicable thingsman is tolerated.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099542226</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alexander McCall SmithB0BYF82CXT|title=Sunshine on Scotland Street|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=I can hardly believe this is the eighth book about Scotland Street, and it's so nice to just pick up where we left off and discover what's been happening to all our friends. This time we have Angus and Domenica's wedding, Cyril's adventures whilst they're away on their honeymoon, Bruce encounters a rather strange gentleman and of course there's plenty of Bertie to entertain us!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846972329</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewSemi-Detached|author=Michael Palin|title=The TruthDeborah Stone

|summary=Keith Mabbutt was at one ''Bill and Amanda are living in a semi-detached house, stuck in a depressing rut of those points boredom and disappointment, when Terry and Fiona – glamorous, successful and very much in life when everything seemed to be changinglove – move in next door. His marriage was Despite their different outlooks on life, the rockscouples befriend each other and life appears to improve for both pairs. His relationship with his children was But all is not good. He knew that he was a writer - he had a British Gas Award to prove it - but the investigative journalist which he once was had been replaced by someone who did corporate vanity projects. He skated over the unpalatable and accentuated what there was that was positive and he was paid passably well for doing it. When he was offered the chance to write a biography of Hamish Melville, the influential humanitarian activistseems, he seized the chance and not just because the money on offer was beyond his wildest dreamstheir increasingly interconnected relationships are fated for tragedy.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0297860216</amazonuk>''

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Steven AmsterdamShalini Boland|title=What the Family NeededThe Silent Bride

|summary=Steven Amsterdam's first novel [[Things We Didn't See Coming by Steven Amsterdam|Things We Didn't See Coming]] won several awards including The Guardian First Boom AwardAlice and Seth are a match made in heaven. His second book He is everything she has been searching for; handsome, 'What the Family Needed'accomplished, clever, funny; total and utter husband-material. She is similar all he could possibly want in that it too contains a large dose of wife; beautiful, successful, confident… and so the strange, yet it doesn't quite work as well. The book inevitable proposal is centred around eagerly accepted by Alice and the families of two sisters, with each member having their own chapter told at different stages of their liveswedding is planned and set. In each one When the various family members are facing problems of some sort or other and each mysteriously achieves some sort of supermuch-power that they 'need' to partly overcome theseanticipated day arrives, although not always with Alice is walked down the desired results. From early onaisle by her father, beaming with pride and excitement as she surveys the reader suspects that Alekcongregation – their friends assembled to celebrate this joyful day and when Seth turns to face his approaching bride, elder sister NatalieAlice's younger son world implodes because she has absolutely no idea who appears as an imaginative kid when we first meet himthe man at the altar is, who is at the heart of the weirdness and sure enough he has the final chapter in the book. Just don't expect everything waiting for her to be explainedbecome his wife.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846555809</amazonuk>1662507089

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Andrey Kurkov1787636003|title=The Milkman in the NightGirls of Summer|author=Katie Bishop|rating=45

|summary=If you're going to go sleepwalking, there are better places to do so than in Kiev in It was the grip of its usual snowy, cold summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that she and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and bleak winter - even if there is a lovely blonde at arrived on the end of your journeyisland. Semyon is living this realityRachel wasn't exactly innocent but she was, unaware of the strange consequencesperhaps, naive, just as others around him are unaware of the strange consequences of their actions so when thirty-four-year- such as the airport security men who purloin some impounded drugs and test them on the catold Alistair Wright started to take an interest in her, she was flattered rather than wary. We also have It was quite a young single mother selling herself - just not in that way - commuting into a capital where some are rich enough while before he made any sort of physical approach to try her and stave of ageingby that time she was obsessed by him. Alistair worked for Henry Taylor, looking after his interests on the island and to cheat death in various ways..particular in the bar where all the girls either worked or partied.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099548860</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Simon RichAmanda Craig|title=What in God's NameThree Graces|rating=4.5

|summary=In ''What in GodFew styles of contemporary fiction interest me like the state-of-the-nation novel. There's Name'', Simon Rich imagines Heaven Inc as a corporate entity, with all something so utterly compelling about any writer who can catch hold of the dysfunctional trappings atmosphere of many a large company. At the head day and capture it, crafting an image of the operation, country as you might expect, is God, although he seems to have lost his interest in planet Earth and certainly it stands in the operation of heavenone particular moment. In fact, he'd rather To say that Amanda Craig is skilled at doing this would be watching the religious channels on satellite television or opening a restaurant. Although he would like to see rock group ''Lynyrd'' ''Skynyrd'' re-form before heembarrassingly inadequate: she's done practically synonymous with the planetgenre of contemporary social fiction at this point. In fact She has such a gift for weaving the only two who really care about what goes on down here are a workaholic angel named Craig who works in ongoing issues of the Miracles Department and day into the recently promoted Eliza who has been labouring away, somewhat fruitlessly it seems, lives of her characters in the Prayers Department. When Eliza finds a way that her work on preparing prayers for God has been feels natural and lived-in, never making them ciphers for nothing, her anger threatens the end of the worldsocial commentary but instead fully realised people, unless Craig and Eliza can help a couple of hopeless humans find love grappling with each otherissues far larger than themselves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846688485</amazonuk>140871468X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jon Canter152915118X|title=WorthPineapple Street|author=Jenny Jackson|rating=34.5

|summary=Richard, an Ad man''Pineapple Street'' is the story of three women: Sasha, Darley and Georgiana. Darley and George are sisters and SarahSasha is married to their brother Cord. They're Stocktons, only Sasha isn't a city lawyer meetStockton by birth so she isn't readily accepted into the tribe. The problem's exacerbated when the clan matriarch, get marriedTilda, asks Cord and Sasha if they'd like to move into the Pineapple Street property. Tilda and Chip have renovated and decide downsized to leave London behind for an idyllic country life insteadanother property, a street or so away, which they own. He’ll do some drawing They won't need any of the furniture from Pineapple Street, maybe look into illustratingso Sasha and Cord can move straight in. She’ll do voluntary work Nominally, they had a choice but that wasn't the reality. They will Darley and Georgiana start to Enjoy Life a bit morecall Sasha 'the gold digger'. They will become Better People She's living in ''their'' family home. They will be the envy of all their friends still toiling away in use it so often that they abbreviate it to 'the big smokeGD'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099546825</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Melanie GideonEmily Critchley|title=Wife 22One Puzzling Afternoon|rating=4.5|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=Alice and William Buckle have been married 84 year old Edie has lived in the same small town for quite almost her whole life, but now she is facing a few years and have two teenage children and a dog. With their busy lives, they end up having little time for each other and rarely get the opportunity move as her son wants to talk about the things that matter. In order move to do something about her feelings of discontent, Alice googles 'happy marriage?' another house and although there seem bring Edie to be no magic secrets for successlive with his family, a little later she as Edie is invited starting to take part in an online survey about modern marriagelose her memory. She However, Edie is given tormented by the label, Wife 22, and is assigned to memory of her caseworkerchildhood friend, Researcher 101Lucy, who sends her questions periodicallywent missing over 60 years ago, and is also available through email to answer any queries. Alice soon enjoys being able to pour her heart out through the questions worry that there was a secret she has to answer but also finds 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 is becoming more than a little attracted saw her, she starts to her faceless caseworker. They start chatting through facebook and Alice finds it quite exciting find pockets of memories coming back to mildly flirt with her new friend. However And yet as she remembers the past, the she is forgetting more she does so, the and more disgruntled she becomes with in her own husbandday to day life. There comes a point though where Alice has to decide whether to take things further and if Will she doesuncover the truth about Lucy's disappearance before her move, what will become of and before her marriagememories are gone forever?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007481772</amazonuk>1804181250

{{newreview|author=Ivo Stourton|title=The Book Lover's Tale|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=Matt will admit Told from a retrospective view, a young woman unravels the year-long relationship that his writing career failedonce defined her. Overlaid with later wisdom, and so he had to join his wife in interior design, where he can use his love of books the narrator relives the affair with a man twenty years her senior from its inception – the summer after finishing university – to arrange - at a cost - its sorrowful end the contents, design and most importantly summer after. Set against the colours, backdrop of upper class peoplean isolated Australian coastal town ''s home libraries Thirst for them. HeSalt''ll concede that itdetails the 24-year-old narrator's a good way to get into the housesdeepening relationship with her older lover, depicting its all-consuming nature, how it changed her perspective on both romantic and familial relationships and beds, of rich women, such as his latest flame, Claudiahow it altered her irrevocably. But why is this, his confession, talking of murder?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0552773875</amazonuk>0861546490

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Heather Gudenkauf0008506337|title=One Breath AwayThe Garnett Girls|author=Georgina Moore

|summary=Mrs Oliver has spent her life 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 classroomlove. Educating Richard was twenty-one and described by Margo's mother as 'an older man'. Guiding Her parents worried that Richard's influence would take her away from what they felt she could achieve - going to Oxford and having a glittering career. Nurturing. But on In the event, they eloped and Richard took her away from the last day Isle of term all she really wants is Wight. Margo did go to get Oxford and went on to become a well-respected journalist. The couple had three children: Rachel, Imogen and Sasha. Life was lived in London and holidays were spent at Sandcove, the family home on the afternoon bell without any dramaIsle of Wight. A gunman walking in Even then the doubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's mind: ''she would never be able to her classroom really does not fit leave him in with her planscharge''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848451326</amazonuk>Then Richard left them.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Timeri N Murari1914585402|title=The Taliban Cricket ClubDashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross

|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=We all know, or think we know, 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 years back and remember being absolutely floored by how oppressive life powerful and affecting it was. It was for Afghansa gripping, particularly Afghan women, under the Taliban regime, but when you emotionally wounding read this novel, boy do you get a sense and rereading my review of how tough it really my main takeaway wasthat I might not have lavished enough praise on it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1742378846</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kerry HudsonLucy Ashe|title=Tony Hogan Bought Me an Ice-cream Float Before He Stole My MaClara and Olivia|rating=34.5

|summary=Janie Ryan The year is born into 1933. The place? Sadler's Wells. Ballerinas Clara and Olivia are sisters, twins no less. Identical on the outside but not, we learn, on the inside. And not on stage, either. Because there's a lot that builds a definitely underprivileged familydancer. Despite a mother who tries Some things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, attention to make detail – and some things, that ''je ne sais quoi'', that don't come from the right decisionsclassroom. A stage presence, growing up becomes a fight for survival (both figuratively and literally) as Janie encounters social servicescharm, tough schools, domestic violence and an array of a ''joie de vivre'uncles'. The difference between a hard-worker, all promising and a better future that seems as tangible as the holy grailstar.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0701186399</amazonuk>0861544080

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Helen MacInnesHeather Fawcett|title=Above SuspicionEmily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries

|summary=In the summer of 1939 Oxford professor Richard Myles and his wife Frances were preparing for their annual European holiday when they were visited by Emily Wilde is an old friend who had a request for them. Would they start their holiday in Parisexpert academic scholar on faerie lore, meet a man there and then continue their holiday as he directed? There was a great deal of tension in Europe she has travelled extensively, and Richard Myles was reluctant researched meticulously, to undertake write her life's work, the task, mainly because he didn't want to put his wife at riskvery first encyclopaedia of faeries. Frances had other ideasWhilst she is brilliant at research and speaking to faeries, but she is not even they were above suspicionso good with people. At first they were watched but So when she finds herself far, far North in the attentions small village of some shadowy figures became more pressing as they realised that pre-war Germany was Hrafvsnik, having somehow offended the village matriarch, she is not a comfortable place sure what she has done, nor how to be.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781161534</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Drew Thomas|title=Curtains|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Danny is a performer redeem herself and put her final investigations for her book back on London’s cabaret circuit, but his hard work isn’t doing much for his statusthe right track. When he meets Veronica Enter Wendell Bambleby, her dashingly handsome and insufferable rival who promises to make him a stararrives unexpectedly, all charm and delight, he never guesses that this might be too good much to be trueEmily's frustration. Rapidly falling in love But why is he here? What does he want? And what exactly is going on with her – or so he thinks – soon his life revolves the faerie folk around doing her bidding. But Veronica is a more complex individual than Danny could ever have imagined - and her forcefulness will lead them both down an unimaginable path.Hravsnik?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0957187807</amazonuk>0356519120

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joanna Kavenna1398515388|title=Come to The Boy and the EdgeDog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)

|summary=If you are fortunate enough to own a rural second home hideaway First of all, it was the earthquake, deep in the UKocean floor, which created the tsunami and this beautifully written book will probably give you nightmares, in turn, caused the nuclear meltdown. For The result was complete and utter devastation. The deaths were uncountable, and the rest loss of us, it's a great readlivelihoods was widespread. The target for Joanna Kavenna's satire is fact that many pets were separated from their owners came far down the unused property, owned by list of priorities but - six months after the wealthy, depriving tsunami - Kazumasa Nakagaki discovered a dog outside a convenience store. He wasn't a dog person but the local population of anywhere convenience store owner's comment that he would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to live open his car door and Tamon the dog jumped in the places they have grown up.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780872135</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Simon DenmanChristopher Bowden|title=ConnectedMr Magenta|rating=3.54

|summary=Doug, Christopher Bowden's latest novel is a patient untangling of a maths and computing undergraduate at Essex University, has just pulled the most amazing girl. So heseemingly ordinary woman's not really that interested in the file of fractals research best friend Kal has just sent him. But while Doug and Cindy are busily getting it onlife, something carried out by her nephew after she has gone horribly wrong for Kal and Doug emerges from afternoon delight to the horrific discovery that his friend has committed suicide. Miles away in the countryside, Peter is attending his brother's funeraldied. Martin was a musician but not The aunt who always provided a tortured artist safe harbour and it seems inconceivable that he too would take his own life. But the trip, for Peter, is more than a family obligation - it's the chance little bit of indulgence to a break from young nephew had had a stale marriage much more interesting life than that nephew Stephen had ever realised and it seems to him an opportunity obligation to indulge in some guilty proximity to his newly-bereaved sister-in-lawfind it all out. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>B0089YQPI0</amazonuk>B0B6Z9VJDW

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jane FeaverJennifer Mason|title=An Inventory Partitions of HeavenUnity

|summary=Mavis Gaunt was evacuated to Shipleigh Here at Bookbag Towers, we first met Elizabeth Cromwell, dominatrix and unintentional detective in Devon during World War II [[Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by Jennifer Mason|Preposterous]], when she investigated and went to live with her auntunravelled a series of disappearances. It wasnIn 't just an escape from the dangers 'Partitions of London - it was a welcome relief from her parentsUnity'' loveless marriage and in , she sets her mind it became to solving a heavenly retreat. In her twenties and with her mother dead there was nothing to keep her in London so she headed back to Shipleighmurder. She struck up an unlikely friendship with Frances Upcott, one of three children of a reclusive farmer and, almost against her will, found herself drawn into the life of the farm. It gave her a sense of belonging but it ended in tragedy.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780330006</amazonuk>B09LQR9FRF

 {{newreview|author=Martin Amis|title=Lionel Asbo|rating=3.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Martin Amis can be relied upon to create some pretty nasty, self-centred central characters. Usually they are upper class cads and bounders but in Lionel Asbo his central character is at the polar opposite in terms of class. He's violent, uncouth and ignorant. He's a criminal whose usual sidekicks are a pair of vicious pit bulls. His 'manner' is a fictitious down trodden area of London called Diston Town where he lives in a tower block with his nephew, Des, who in fact is the central character in the book. Des, in contrast is far more sympathetic - intelligent and kind, that is if you overlook the fact that as a 15 year old he had an affair with his grandmother, Lionel's mother. Hey, no one's perfect. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224096206</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ben FountainWill Carver|title=Billy Lynn's Long Halftime WalkThe Daves Next Door|rating=4.5

|summary=In Ben Fountain's ''Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk'', Billy and what is left of his Bravo troop colleagues are back from the war Five strangers come together in Iraq following one moment as a brave firefight caught suicide bomber prepares to detonate his vest on camera by embedded journalistsa London tube line. The US armyAs their fates overlap, keen to gain PR from the event has brought them back on an optimistically titled 'Victory Tour' despite the fact that they are all to be re-deployed the next week. The majority of the book takes place on the last day of this tour when Billy story is told in his home-state of Texasbackwards order, where the Bush link makes it even more pro-war, as the boys are invited leading up to attend that most American of PR events, the Thanksgiving football game at the Dallas Cowboys stadium. Accompanying the troop is a veteran Hollywood producer who has promised the soldiers that he can sell their story to a movie studio for mega-bucks. If only it were that simplefateful moment.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857864386</amazonuk>1914585186}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Shams UddinJennifer Mason|title=The Year from JahannamPreposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery|rating=3.54

|summary=The Wright family begin ''A struggling poetry zine, a blog mom-and-pop mobile diner in January 2011. They all want to celebrate a new start after the turmoil of recent years. Father Richard had been Northern California redwoods, a casualty of 400-meter hurdler who just missed the financial crisis2004 Olympics, working a women's track coach with a yen for Lehman Brothers at the time bullwhips, a billionaire with a state-of its collapse, and the ensuing chaos had affected -the entire family one way or another. But Richard retrained-art S&M dungeon, secured a new job and has recently earned man serving a life sentence in Alabama, an enigmatic signature, K(s, x), on a huge bonuscheap oil painting, an erotic art dealer in Georgia.. At last the family are back on track and enjoying the fruits of hard labour. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0957175205</amazonuk>}}''

This is just a sample of the cast of characters and settings in Preposterous. As you can see, some keeping up will be required! The basic premise of this mystery story goes like this...|isbn=B09STS96HS}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jan WallentinB0B2N7MVYM|title=Strindberg's StarThe Calculations of Rational Men|author=Daniel Godfrey|rating=3.5

|summary=It's the 10th of December 1962 when we first meet Dr Joseph Marr. Just as he to put what happens in context, the Cuban missile crisis is preparing for an appearance on still very fresh in people's minds. The world has barely had a television show, a stranger approaches Don Titelman and asks for his helpchance to breathe out. This manBut for Joe Marr, Erik Hall, has recently discovered a mysterious body it's not the missile crisis that's at the bottom front of his mind. He's been convicted of a flooded mine shaftmurder. Whilst perfectly preservedWith the current state of medical knowledge, medical checks confirm it's hard to think otherwise than that the man had prosecution would never have been dead for nearly brought but Joe Marr has spent his first few days in HMP Queen's Bench, a hundred yearsrelatively new prison. The deceased apparently committed suicide whilst holding on He's just getting used to his roommate, Mervyn, and learning to a metal ankh with some strange writings on itbe wary of the McArthur brothers.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848879873</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=Natasa Dragnic and Liesl Schillinger (translator)|title=Every Day, Every Hour|rating=4.5|genre=Humour|summary=Dora and Luka meet and become firm friends. In normal situations one might add ''and a whole lot more'' Move on to that sentence, but Dora and Luka are in Kindergarten, which makes their intense relationship hard to define. As they grow into adults, however, it becomes obvious that there is something between them and no matter how much they, or their circumstances, try to fight this it is there and is not going to fade away. Dora’s parents move her across the continent, careers develop and flourish, out of nowhere they are enveloped by family lives, but still there is an invisible bond that draws them back to one another.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701186941</amazonuk>}}[[Newest Graphic Novels Reviews]]