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[[Category:New Reviews|Humour]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Nina StibbeDean Koontz|title=An Almost Perfect ChristmasThe Bad Weather Friend

|genre=Humour Paranormal|summary=Christmas – the time of traditional traumaBenny is having a terrifically bad day. You only have to think about the turkey for that – once upon a time it was leaving it sat on the downstairs loo to defrost overnightHe loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and if that failed the hair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bethis house gets trashed. Nowadays it's all having Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to make sure his home, and it's suitably free-range and organic – but not too organic possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that you can go and visit ithas trashed his house! The thing is, and get too friendly with it Benny is the very last person to want to eat itdeserve all this bad luck. Christmas, though, He is of course also a time of great boonsnice person. A really nice person. It's cash in hand So fortunately for a lot of plump people who can hire red suits and beards, Benny it was always a godsend for postmen with all turns out that the thank-you letters delivery to aunties you saw twice his house is a decade that your parents made you write out in long-hand as new friend, a childbad weather friend called Spike, and as who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for the makers being a good person. Spike is going to take care of Meltis Newberry Fruits – wellBenny, did they even try and sell them any other time will certainly take care of the year?Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0241309824</amazonuk>1662500491

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ian Doescher1529153050|title=William ShakespeareBritain's the Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the SeventhBest Political Cartoons 2022|author=Tim Benson|rating=4.5|genre=Science FictionHumour|summary=A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, there was a man called William ShakespeareSeeking some light relief from the current political turmoil which is coming to seem more and more like an adrenaline sport, who I was able to create a series nudged towards ''Britain's Best Political Cartoons of dramatic histories full of machinations most foul, rulers most evil and rebellious heroes and heroines most sturdy2022''. You may or may Sharp eyes will have noted that we're not have noticed yet through the cinematic version of his original stage play for ''The Force Doth Awaken'', but here at last we get year: the actual script, complete with annoying-in-different-ways-cartoons run from 4 September 2021 to-before droids anew, returning heroes from elsewhere in his oeuvre, and people keeping it in the family til it hurts31 August 2022. And if you need further encouragement, don't forget his audience only demanded three parts of Henry VI – here Who can imagine what there will be to come in the series is so popular we're on to part seven – surely making this over twice as good…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>159474985X</amazonuk>2023 edition?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=James Goss and Russell T Davies1785633074|title=Doctor Who: Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse (Dr Who)Staggering Hubris|author=Josh Berry

|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse Humour|summary=Consider Members of Parliament like us to believe that the country is run by politicians, headed by the Prime minister - the ''primus inter pares'' (that's for those of you who are Eton and Oxbridge educated) but the reality is that the ''prime'' movers are the special advisers - the SPADS - who are the driving force behind the Doctorgovernment. Just how many birthday and Christmas gifts must he have to hand out each year, were he to keep We are in touch with even half the privileged position of his companions? He would certainly need a few novelty gifts for some having access to the memoirs of themRafe Hubris, say, for example, whimsical books the man who was behind the skilful control of verse that pithily encapsulate the life of a Time Lord and that of some Covid crisis which was completely contained by the end of his friends and enemies2020. As luck would have it, You might not know the name now but he has will certainly be the space in his TARDIS man to stock up in advance, so my advice to him – sorry, her – would be to pop along to his local Earth-based book emporium and get himself readywatch. And if you're working on a shorter timescale, with a shorter lifespan, and thinking perhaps just one gift season ahead, well my advice is pretty much the same.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785942719</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Annie Ingram0571365884|title=Conversations with KammieMy Mess is a Bit of Life: Adventures in Anxiety|author=Georgia Pritchett

|genre=PetsAutobiography|summary=It Georgia Pritchett has always been anxious, even as a child. She would worry about whether the monsters under the bed were comfortable: it was something the sort of a relief when I encountered Annie Ingram life where if she had nothing to worry about she would become anxious but such occasions were few and her cocker spaniel Kammiefar between. You seeOn a visit to a therapist, Annie knows something which has been self-evident as an adult, when she was completely unable to me for a long time: dogs are perfectly capable of communicating speak about what was wrong with humans her it was suggested that she should write it down and not just on ''My Mess is a level Bit of a Life: Adventures in Anxiety''food!'', ''walk!'' or ''play!''. You do require extensive training to become fluent, but most dogs will be perfectly willing to give their time to teach you and all you have to do is listen. Annie has studied hard: Kammie has trained her well and the pair have allowed us result - or so we are given to share some of their conversationsbelieve.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785451995</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Charles HarrisJohn Boyne|title= The Breaking of Liam GlassEcho Chamber|rating= 35|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction|summary= A flawed Meet George Cleverley. He is self-defined as "one of the few television personalities over the age of fifty without a criminal record". He starts this book a bit worried when his mistress tells him she's carrying his child, but reasonably entertaining swipe at modern mediathen his author wife is getting her kicks with the Ukrainian partner "Strictly Come Dancing" paired her with. ThereThey have three children, who are a sad-sack with absolutely no social skills whatsoever, a girl who hangs around with a virtue-signalling, keyboard warrior "wokester" who wants to save the world's plenty here homeless with out-of-date food, and a fit young lad doing the gay hustle thing. Add in a few other characters – therapists, lawyers, random transgender types – that all have two very different connections to likehis life, and plenty not you have something that suggests an almost farcical approach tothe modern world. But good structure and scramjet pace keep What suggests the farcical approach even more, however, is the fact this one flying to the final pageis bloody funny.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1908943823</amazonuk>0857526219

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Fred Van LenteStephen Clarke|title= Ten Dead Comedians: A Murder MysteryThe Spy Who Inspired Me|rating= 4|genre= HumourGeneral Fiction|summary= Nine comedians are invited to This is a remote Caribbean island under the guise of working with Dustin Walkerspoof spy story, that isn't about James Bond. Or Ian Fleming. But it features a comedic legend. Each fits neatly into one of the archetypal comic stereotypes: Steveman called Ian Lemming, who dresses well and 'likes the washed-up has-been ladies' and who has fallen far from his early days; Zoe, works for the rising female star with a new stand-up special coming soon; Dantesecret service, who went from being a kid on the streets to the hardest working road comic but in the business; Oliver, planning side of things more than the child-like prop comic who can't get any respect from his peers; Janet, the insult comic who is past her prime; active service. TJ, the nightly variety show host Lemming finds himself put on a mission with a reputation for harassing his female colleagues spy called Margaux, and guest acts; Rubythe pair end up stranded in Normandy, the ultra-feminist YouTuber and Blogger with Margaux on a chip on her shoulder; and William, whose redneck character ''Billy desperate mission to unearth traitors in the Contractor'' is a far cry from his real personality as a posh millionaire. Of courseresistance network, all nine agree because ''when God almighty walks down on a beam of light and asks for your help, what the hell else are you going Lemming desperately trying to say?''keep up with her!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1594749744</amazonuk>2952163855

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=S Lynn ScottAfonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)|title=Elizabeth, William... and MeKokoschka's Doll|rating=42.5|genre=HumourLiterary Fiction|summary=Ally is an ordinary woman with teenage childrenWell, this looked very much like a husband book I could love from the get-go, which is why I picked my review copy up and a jobflipped pages over several times before actually reading any of it. Then comes I found things to potentially delight me each time – a weird section in the day when ordinariness flies out of middle on darker stock paper, a chapter whose number was in the window20,000s, letters used as narrative form, and so on. It's not intrigued with the subterranean voice a coincidence man hears in wartorn Dresden that it's the same day she finds Queen Elizabeth what little I in the pantry and the Bard knew of Avon in her bathit mentioned, too. WhatBut you's she going to do? Wellve seen the star rating that comes with this review, Elizabeth and Will have their own ideas about can tell that!if love was on these pages, it was not actually caused by them. So what happened?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1788037006</amazonuk>1529402697

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= E G RodfordB08KKQ85FN|title= The Surgeon's Case: George Kocharyan Mystery 2But Never For Lunch|author=Sandra Aragona|rating= 4|genre= Crime Short Stories|summary=In ''If a woman approaching the menopause can be likened to a Rottweiler in lipstick, an Ambassador nearing retirement resembles a pampered peacock about to be released into the second instalment company of this seriescarrion crows or, Private Investigator George Kocharyan has been hired by a well-known local man more to track down some missing valuables. Bill Galbraiththe point, a about to discover the real world-famous surgeon at Cambridgeof bus timetables and paying his own gas bills.'s Addenbrooke' You don't get many better opening sentences than that, do you? We first met His Excellency and The Ambassador's Hospital who hosts a popular medical television programme, Wife in [[Sorting the Priorities: Ambassadress and Beagle Survive Diplomacy by Sandra Aragona|Sorting the Priorities]] and we learned what it was like to be moved around countries like accompanying baggage by the Italian Government but the time has had his briefcase stolen by his live-in domestic servant, Aurora. According come for HE to retires and for Sandra Aragona to Galbraith, this briefcase contains confidential notes concerning an important patient become The Wife of his at the hospitalFormer Ambassador... They have left The Career and settled in Rome. George agrees to look into Well 'settled' rather overstates the theftsituation and their dog, assuming it will be a relatively easy and straightforward case – little does he knowBeagle, he's about to enter a world has no intention of deceit slowing down any time soon, despite being sixteen and dysfunctiondeaf.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178565005X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Toni JordanB08GFSK2WZ|title=Our Tiny, Useless HeartsThe Karma Trap|author=Lisette Boyd|rating=54

|summary=As predicted by Caroline George Jackson is thirty-three years old, absolutely gorgeous to look at - and Janicesingle. She's mother on Caroline not had sex for eight months and Henryshe's wedding day, their marriage stuck in the karma trap: an awful lot of bad luck is over, albeit 15 years being visited on her and two daughters further along than predicted. Indeed, this is definitely not she has a good weekend real talent for Janice to be babysitting at Caroline's houseattracting drama. ThereHer life's chaotic: she dealt with the leak from the split and shower by putting something down at the awkwardness bottom of the girls' schoolteacher being stairs to absorb the water - then the shower fell through the roof whilst she was in it and left her, stark naked, staring at the other woman for a startpervy postman. Then thereShe only has to take her mother's that mistaken identity moment involving dog out for a walk for her to end up with dog poo spattered across her face - and a photo being taken by someone who shares it around the neighboursoffice. At least Janice }} {{Frontpage|author=David C Mason|title=Pandora's Gardener|rating=3|genre=Crime|summary= John Cranston is well adjusted and over her ex-husband Alec. She still dreams of hima gardener, although what he did before he became a gardener, yeshe claims, but it's so over! is classified. Just That is just as well really… guess who's at because he is about to be caught up in a criminal / spy / terrorist plot, where only he can save the door?day. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1760293814</amazonuk>0956180523

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Colin TaylorJester_Forever|title=The Life of Forever After: a Scilly Sergeantdark comedy|author=David Jester|rating=4.5|genre=TravelHorror|summary=Meet Michael Holland is a cocky and brash young man who dies and gets made the Isles offer of Scillyhis lifetime; immortality. (I know they should be called that – the author provides We follow Michael, a handy guide to the etiquette of their name, their nature grim reaper and locationhis friends, etc.Chip (a stoner tooth fairy) For our more distant readers, they're several chunks of granite rock out and Naff (a stoner in the Atlantic, where Cornwall is pointing, records department) as they grapple with just 2,200 permanent residents. They're big on tourism, their long lives and big finding a clean surface to sit on growing flowers in the tropical climate the Gulf Stream bequeaths them – although the weather is bad enough to turn any car to a rust bucket within yearstheir flat. They're so wee, and so idyllic-seeming, especially at night, you can be mistaken for thinking there would be no need for a police presence. But there is – at least two working at any one time. And one of them in recent years has been Colin Taylor, who has done his official duty – alongside maintaining a well-known online existence, which has brought to life all the whimsical comedy of his work.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178475515X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees1683691172|title=William Shakespeare'Twas the Fight Before Christmas: A Parodys Much Ado About Mean Girls|author=Ian Doescher|rating=32.5

|summary=ItA long time ago, in a galaxy far away, all the Star Wars films were crunched up against Shakespeare, and the marriage seemed a perfectly suitable one. So much so – so easily did the plots and characters converse in Shakespearean dialogue, and behave with Shakespearean stage directions – that the producers tried again, with [[William Shakespeare's Christmas Eve and Mum has arranged everything. All she now has Get Thee Back to do is await the arrival of Future! by Ian Doescher|Back to the relatives and Future]] no less. And that worked. But simultaneously they put a real test out. A film I can't even really remember seeing was transcribed into the original Elizabethan lingo. A cult following I had never followed whatsoever was given the food shopping deliverybrand new, yet oh so ancient, dressing. Little does Mum know that Here was the true challenge – would I manage to enjoy this, based on little foreknowledge? Oh damn those two elements alone have shiny gold stars for letting the potential to ruin everything.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472125118</amazonuk>game away…

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ryan North168369094X|title=Romeo and/or JulietWilliam Shakespeare's Get Thee Back to the Future!|author=Ian Doescher|rating=34.5

|summary=For A long time ago, in a publishing house far away, [[:Category:Ian Doescher|someone]] thought it wonderfully wacky to rewrite the story of Star Wars in Shakespearean pentameter, colliding two entirely different genres and styles in such a clever way they seemed perfectly suited. It was then duly repeated for all those who think tragedy plots are too restricted the other films in the main Star Wars cycle, and prescribedclearly someone's buffing their quills ready for Episode Nine, read onthe title of which became public knowledge the day before I write. In these pages you too will the hiatus, however, the effort has been made to see that Romeo had lots of options en route if the same shtick works with other texts, and to hitting the bottleriff on other seemingly unlikely source materials in iambs. Likewise, she And could we have turned away from her predestined path at no end anything more suitably unsuitable-seeming than Back to the Future, with its tales of junctures. And to what result? Welltime travel, happy marriage and a kid called Benbullying, because the leads have just banged people's heads together and stopped the quarrelling, or Death by Tybalt (him) or a long life running an establishment curing murderous women, such as a Lady M (her). |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356508536<parent/amazonuk>child strife like no other?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Gervase Phinn1473669065|title= The Virgin Mary's Got Nits|rating= 4.5|genre= Humour|summary= Christmas in our house is the time we tend to get on a plane and head to either sun or snow, anywhere that is far, far away from the madness at home, last minute dashes to the shops on Christmas Eve, and food cupboard stockpiles that would imply supermarkets are shutting for a month, nor a mere 36 hours. But I do remember the feeling of Christmas when I was younger, back when it was magical, and back when you knew exactly what the season would bring with carol concerts and school nativities and Christmas parties. This book is an anthology of those moments, and it took me right back to the wonder of Christmas as a child.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444779400</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Kieran Crowley|title= Shoot|rating= 4|genre= Crime|summary= I make something of a habit of being late to discover good writers, in this case getting to Crowley after he is no longer with us. The result is that what is billed as ''an F.X. Shepherd mystery'' with all the optimism of there being more to come has the poignancy of being, if not the last of a short line, certainly one of a few. F.X. Shepherd – he doesn't like his first name and prefers just "Shepherd" is, technically, a columnist. HeQueenie Malone's been sacked by one New York newspaper and is writing a weekly column for another. I don't know much about journalism, but I'm guessing one column a week doesn't pay much as a rule…which explains why Shepherd's soap-washed-foul-mouthed editor (read the book, you'll see what I mean) expects him to turn in some genuine journalism as well: front page, seat of your pants stuff. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783296518</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewParadise Hotel|author=Gray Jolliffe|title=The First Ever Christmas: And Who to BlameRuth Hogan

|summary=If I tell you a secretTilda returns to Brighton, will you promise not to tell anyone? Well, I really don't like Christmas: ittidy away the remains of her mother's my least favourite time of year and whilst some people count down life after her death. Whilst there, she returns to the day itselfParadise hotel, I look forward to that point when I a haven for eccentrics and misfits. A place where people can say be themselves, and let go of thoughts that it's all over for another yeartorment them elsewhere. It's all too commercialised Little wonder that Tilda cannot forgive her mother for mebanishing her as a child, with a coating from this place of faux religionwonder. I've never found it in With the least funny - that ishelp of Queenie Malone, until I found Gray Jolliffe's ''The First Ever Christmas: And Who's to Blame''. Amazinglycaring, I'd never encountered Gray Jolliffe eitherand gregarious, but I'm a convert to his skills as a cartoonist (if not Tilda begins to pick apart the idea of Christmas) after reading this collection of Christmas-themed cartoons from his archivetricky and uncertain relationship she had with her sometimes cruel and distant mother.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445663503</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jonathan Pugh1683690346|title=Pugh's New Year's ResolutionsThe Con Artist|author=Fred Van Lente|rating=4.5

|summary=If there's one thing that's Comic-Cons are a place of wonder and sanctuary for certainmany people, and when Comic book artist Mike Mason arrives at San Diego Comic-Con, ithe's looking for both that and sanctuary with other fans and creators, plus the world is changingchance of maybe, just maybe reuniting with his ex. We're dating online, we're communicating in ways that make email seem redundantHowever, and when we're shopping we just tell a website where and when it can be deliveredhis rival is found dead, and how much leeway they have Mike is forced to swap our wishes for whatever it is they do bring us. But those changes are also supposed navigate every dark corner of the con in order to be affecting us clear his name – we're supposed from cosplay flash mobs and intrusive fans to use a smart watch to tell us if we're moving or notzombie obstacle courses – Mike must prove his innocence and, we have to keep up with the latest fadsin doing so, and we're supposed to prick our ears up and take note when the proverbial 'they' change their minds about what we're supposed to eatmay just unravel a dark secret behind a legendary industry creator.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780722885</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Luke Rhinehart1473669588|title= InvasionFalling Short|author=Lex Coulton|rating= 4.5|genre= Humour |summary=Super-intelligent furry aliens suddenly appear from another universe. And theyLex Coulton've come to earth to have fun. Alien Louie follows fisherman Billy Morton home one days debut novel is a story about mistakes, failures, and he and his family quickly come to love the playful alienrelationships. But when Louie starts using their computer to hack into government and corporate networksThe main protagonist, stealing millions from banks to give to othersFrances Pilgrim, they realise that Louie and his friends mean trouble. As Billy and his family begin is a roller coaster ride of fame and fortunesixth form English teacher who has recently fallen out with her best friend Jackson, as well as a ranking high on the FBI's most wanted list, the Government soon decides that these aliens are terrorists, work colleague and must be eliminated. Whilst the aliens are playing games they hope will help humans to see is grappling with the insanity increasingly eccentric behaviour of her mother. This relationship is complicated by the American political, economic and military systems, they soon come to realise that the Powers fact that Be donFrances't play games: they make wars father disappeared at sea when she was five years old. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785651757</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rod Green1683690133|title=Only Fools My Lady's Choosing|author=Kitty Curran and Horses: The Peckham ArchivesLarissa Zageris

|summary= George Gordon Wentworth (1946You are a lass of twenty-eight. Plucky, penniless and in Regency-2011) lived era London the race is on to find a humdrum suitable suitor - or else doom yourself to lifeas an eternal spinster. He was Along your journey, you'll be accompanied by Lady Evangeline Youngblood - a barely adequate teacher in fiesty noble eager to save you from a fairly world renowned independent school in Kent life alone, and kept fired by a copious diary of his quotidian existencerogueish sense for adventure. Most of what he recorded was dross. HoweverWhen it comes to suitors though, amongst all you'll have to make the utterly uninteresting tailings of his life there were some nuggets ultimate decision between witty, pretty and wealthy Sir Benedict Granville, wholesome, rugged and grains to catch caring Captain Angus MacTaggart, or the attentionmad, bad and terrifyingly sexy Lord Garraway Craven. Author Tony Stuart has created these amusing anecdotesWith orphans, panning them out over twenty six episodes which give us werewolves, long lost lovers and ancient Egyptian artefacts along the best of Wentworth – comedy gold. From losing all the pupils in his charge on a school trip to being arrested on suspicion of terrorism; from waking up in bed between the married couple the morning after their weddingway, to destroying a ski run; from appearing full-frontal naked in a sheep-farmersit's clear this isn' gazette t going to triggering be an air-sea rescue; Wentworth was, blinkered and befuddled, the subject – of these and so many more unlikely but highly amusing eventseasy decision...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524634441</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Graham FulbrightStibbe_Xmas|title=Driving Mad: Maniacs, Morons and the Advanced Motorist's ClubAn Almost Perfect Christmas|author=Nina Stibbe|rating=34.5

|summary=I passed my driving test when John F Kennedy was in Christmas – the White House and I've recently had time of traditional trauma. You only have to reapply think about the turkey for my driving licence having achieved that – once upon a venerable age. When I started driving time it was leaving it sat on the roads were kinderdownstairs loo to defrost overnight, more forgiving places and if that failed the hair- or put another waydryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. Nowadays it's all having to make sure it's suitably free-range and organic – but not too organic that you can go and visit it, the idiots were fewer and further betweenget too friendly with it to want to eat it. I donChristmas, though, is of course also a time of great boons. It't know how s cash in hand for a lot of plump people who can hire red suits and beards, it was always a godsend for postmen with all the thank-you letters to aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in long Graham Fulbright has been driving-hand as a child, but he certainly knows his motoring morons and in ''Driving Mad'' he brings us a fictional sample as for the makers of their eccentricities. WellMeltis Newberry Fruits – well, I'm pretty certain that did they're fictional - but these days you never know...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783062584</amazonuk>even try and sell them any other time of the year?

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Mario Giordano|title=Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=Poldi had not long been widowed when she decided to move from Bavaria to Sicily with the intention of drinking herself to death. She could, of course, have done this in Germany, but she felt that a sea view was essential. Once there, new friends, family already resident on the island and the corpse of a young man, his face blown off by a shotgun, whom she found on the local beach, intervened to give her life some meaning. For a while she was a suspect, but that (and her wig) were no obstacle to her falling for Commissario Vito Montana who was assigned to investigate the case. Assisting him (or having him assist her) came naturally to Poldi and before long there was an investigative and personal partnership. At least so far as Poldi was concerned.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908524693</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|authorisbn= Grady HendrixDoescher_Will|title= My Best Friend's Exorcism|rating= 5|genre= Horror|summary=1988, Charleston, South Carolina. High school sophomores Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fourth grade. But after an evening of skinny-dipping goes disatrously wrong, Gretchen begins to act...different. She's moody. She's irritable. And bizarre incidents keep happening whenever she's nearby. Abby's investigation leads her to some startling discoveries - and by the time their story reaches its terrifying conclusion, the fate of Abby and Gretchen will be determined by a single question: Is their friendship enough to beat the devil?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1594748624</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Kevin MacNeil|title=The Brilliant and Forever|rating= 3.5|genre= Humour|summary= You know sometimes when someone tells a joke, everyone else laughs, and you're sat there wondering what was so funny?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846973376</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Christopher Fowler|title= Bryant and May: Strange Tide|rating= 3.5|genre= Crime|summary= The thirteenth outing for Bryant and May is looking very much like it will be their last. Arthur Bryant is on compassionate leave whilst tests are continuing, which are likely to confirm that he is suffering from AlzheimerWilliam Shakespeare's. His condition is worsening almost by the day, memory lapses are morphing into full-scale hallucinations.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857523422</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Kevin Smith|title=The Voyage of the Dolphin|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Dublin 1916Force Doth Awaken: Among the unrest and anti-British feeling worsened by the threat of conscription into a war seen as nothing to do with the Irish, Trinity College faculty has other distractions. They'd like a trophy; Star Wars Part the skeleton of an Irish 'giant' to be precise. The only glitch is that the main trophy contender, Bernard MacNeill's skeleton, is somewhere difficult to access and all seasoned explorers are otherwise engaged. There may be hope though. They turn to Fitzmaurice, a student not good enough for anything else. Fitzmaurice agrees, picking his friends Crozier and Rafferty to go with him. So… ''Gentlemen, lace up your strongest boots and pack your warmest underwear – we're all off to the bloody Arctic!'' Whether battle cry or epitaph, three men and a dog… and an iguana… are going anyway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910124826</amazonuk>|amazonus=<amazonus>1910124826</amazonus>}}{{newreviewSeventh|author=Tony Hawks|title=Once Upon a Time in the West… Country|rating=3|genre=Travel|summary=I have often complained in a jokey voice to my partner about life in the sticks, and the way she moved me from an inner-city flat to slumming it in the suburbs with fewer busses, no takeaways within walking-and-keeping-food-hot distance, and no 'Polish' shops for a can of beer whenever you fancy one. Things are different with Tony Hawks, as here he has purposefully decided to up sticks from London to Somewhere, Devon – a tiny village where the people who built their own homes decades ago still live in them, where slugs are a lot more of a problem for the wannabe lettuce-grower than they are for the metropolitan commuter, and where village halls have the power to turn you into both a Pol Pot dictator if you get on their committee and into a quivering, bruise-inducing wreck if you're the wrong gender at a Zumba class…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444794809</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Marian Keyes|title=Making It Up As I Go AlongIan Doescher

|genre=EntertainmentHumour|summary=OhA long time ago, how the book reviewing gods like to give, and equally like to take in a galaxy far away. Here before me is a brand, spanking new collection of journalism by the wonderful Marian Keyes – but it's a proof copy, so there's no photo of the author. Even if over the years I have stopped reading her novels, I have always turned to the author picture to remind myself such sights exist in this world. Himself is was a lucky mancalled William Shakespeare, for sure. But beyond sounding like who was able to create a letch, what can I say about this – the beauty's third large dose series of dramatic histories full of essaysmachinations most foul, web columns rulers most evil and other journalism? rebellious heroes and heroines most sturdy. I can start with agreeing that I am You may or may not have noticed the target audiencecinematic version of his original stage play for ''The Force Doth Awaken'', but it's easy enough here at last we get the actual script, complete with annoying-in-different-ways-to see -before droids anew, returning heroes from these pages exactly what elsewhere in his oeuvre, and people keeping it in the target isfamily til it hurts. So much like that test And if you do need further encouragement, don't forget his audience only demanded three parts of Henry VI – you know here the one, that formulates decisions about the age and commonality of all things in space series is so popular we're on to come up with how many billions of planets are likely to have alien life on part seven – you can narrow things down quite readily here, and still come up with a huge number.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718182529</amazonuk>surely making this over twice as good…