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<metadesc>Book review siteExpert, with books full book reviews from most walks of literary life; fiction, biographynon-fiction, crime, cookery and children's books & self-published books plus author interviews and & top tens.</metadesc><h1 id="mf-title">The Bookbag</h1>Hello from The Bookbag, a site featuring books from all the many walks of literary life - [[:Category:Fiction|fiction]], [[:Category:Biography|biography]], [[:Category:Crime|crime]], [[:Category:Cookery|cookery]] and anything else that takes our fancy. At Bookbag Towers the bookbag sits at the side of the desk. It's the bag we take to the library, the charity shop and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often books sent to us by publishers and we promise to tell you exactly what we think about them. You might not want to read through a full review, so we'll give you a quick review which summarises what we felt about the book and tells you whether or not we think you should buy or borrow it. There are also lots of [[:Category:Interviews|author interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[features]] page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] page.
Reviews by readers from all the many walks of literary life. With author interviews, features and top tens. You'll be sure to find something you'll want to read here. Dig in! Find us on [[File:facebook.gif|link=https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk|alt=Facebook]] [https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk '''Facebook'''], [[File:twitter.gif|link=http://twitter.com/TheBookbag|alt=Follow us on Twitter]] [http://twitter.com/TheBookbag '''Twitter'''], [[File:instagram_classic_logo.png|link=https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/|alt=Follow us on Instagram]] [https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/ '''Instagram'''] and [[File:LinkedIn.png|link=https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-bookbag-1b12a264/|alt=LinkedIn]] There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Reviews}}''' [[:Category:Reviews|reviews ]] at TheBookbag.
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==Reviews of the The Best New Books==
'''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by category]]. '''<br>
'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].''' <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE--> '''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1786695227Tom Percival|title=Invisible in a Bright Light|author=Sally GardnerThe Wrong Shoes|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=The beginning Will's life is difficult, in a multitude of this excellent story will leave ways. He is bullied because he has 'the reader more than a little confused: who is wrong shoes', he has the man in wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the green suitmost basic of things like food, what is and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the Reckoningcollege, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and why had an accident. Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are rows of people separated, and Will's life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has a cave? tiny amount of hope. But stick with it – Ms Gardner He is very cleverly letting us experience the same disorientation as our heroine. We watch in dismay as the strange mangood at art, who seems and clings to have no eyesthe moments of joy when he is drawing, does his best to persuade her to answer his questions. But for some reason Celestethat feel like a light at the end of a long, despite her bewilderment, remains wary and gives nothing awaydark tunnel.|isbn=1398527122
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1912374854Sylvie Cathrall|title=Violet|author=S J I HollidayA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=3.5|genre=ThrillersScience Fiction|summary=I've never been but understand that travelling is all about meeting new people and forming instantaneous bonds with people in often chance situations. Well that's exactly what happens when the two main/only characters meet in There are few greater joys than a travel agency in Beijing - Carrie is unsuccessfully trying book which lives up to get a refund on an extra ticket for the Trans-Siberian train and Violet is trying to unsuccessfully buy a ticket for the same sold-out journeycompelling premise. As the two team up, travelling through Mongolia, Serbia and into Russia, it could've been the start of a beautiful friendship but And this a thriller after all so it quickly becomes a tale is one of obsession, manipulation and toxic friendshipsthem.|isbn= 0356522776
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=19123748380008517061|title=Nothing Important Happened TodayDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Will CarverStig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Nothing Important Happened Today is a darkFormer Metropolitan Police detective, twistedJake Johnson, difficult readhas settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. Stories There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about cults often are, but this is different; it's written with a sense the future of style that is quite unlike anything I've read before. I can't remember ever having read a novel his life with such an oddhis vet girlfriend, distinctive narrative voice. While a slim Livia and relatively small bookher daughter Diana, the slow-as moving nature in together would mean a lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the future she wants for herself and her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and putting the future on the plot makes it feel far larger than its 276 pagesback burner.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn= williamabbey1786482126|title=The Pursuit of William AbbeyJanus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Claire NorthElly Griffiths|rating=34.5|genre=ParanormalCrime|summary=When William Abbey fails Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to prevent hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the lynching bones of a young boy in 1880's South Africachild beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, he Dr Ruth Galloway finds himself cursed by the grieving motherherself working with DCI Harry Nelson. A naïve English Doctor It's difficult as Ruth knows, he slowly learns the weight of the curse upon himbut Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as the shadow a result of the dead boy begins to follow him across the worldone night they spent together some three months ago. Never stopping Her condition will be obvious before long, always growing – it crosses oceans and mountains in pursuit not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of Williamsickness. As he finds himself unable to resist speaking the truths that he hears in others, he also learns that the dark shadow is deadly – and seeks to kill the one he loves the most…
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=16437850360008551324|title=The Wondrous ApothecaryDevil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Mary E MartinNeil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Those who have known Alexander Wainwright, It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the landscape artist famous police. Neither side likes or has any respect for his Turner prize winning ''The Hay Wagon'', the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and Rinaldo, renowned conceptual artist would say that theyhe're chalk s prepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and cheese, if not sworn enemieswho was responsible for her death. If you've watched the relationshipThis person, as has our narratorhe promises, art dealer Jamie Helmsworth, you'd have said that they were magnets, drawing is someone big and repulsing each other in equal measureit will be worth the police doing what he wants. Wainwright was at And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the socially acceptable end remainder of the artistic continuum, but with Rinaldo it was all too obvious that there was but a fine dividing line between conceptual art his sentence and public nuisanceto get an early parole date. As time has worn onNot much to ask, heis it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's frequently been brought even prepared to do the attention of the police. On this latest occasion we see other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him charged with arson and theft of ''The Hay Wagon'is kept well away from what's happening.
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Mary H.K. Choi0008405026|title=Permanent RecordA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=45|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Pablo, a college dropIt's sixteen years since nine-year-out, is working at old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to a New York bodegahalt. He's massively in debtNow, he's avoiding his her mother, Helena, and he finds his joy her father are dead in creating unusual snacks with random ingredients! their bed. Whilst working one eveningInitially, heit looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's surprised to discover something about the positioning of the bodies that the girl he is chatting with makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as he serves is a superthough it was going to be an open-famous pop star and, as unlikely as it may seem, they start -shut case is now a relationshipcomplex double murder. With one character who Kerrigan is trying very hard not to be seen or noticed by anyone, and convinced that the other who is seen and followed and hounded by everyone all over the world, itexplanation lies in Rosalie's an interesting clash disappearance: others (such as they come together. This isn't just a love story though, and actually it's really just PabDerwent's storyboss, about the journey he takes in his life via his meet-up with Leanna SmartUna Burt) are less convinced.|isbn=0349003459
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=16098093190571379877|title=Long-Haired Cat-Boy CubThe Kellerby Code|author=Etgar Keret, Aviel Basil and Sondra Silverston (translator)Jonny Sweet|rating=3.5|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=One day Edward Jevons is a boy is in the zoo working-class young man, obsessed with his fatherupper-class friends, when the man gets called away on urgent businessRobert and Stanza. The boy isnRobert't hustled into s a cab and taken home first, though, no – hetheatre director. He's given hot dog moneyalso self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and taxi money, entitled and told uses Edward to just stick around on his own run errands for him. Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and enjoy himselfhe's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. Well, itMost men in Robert's no surprise position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that the orphan-for-an-afternoon sensation the lad feels doesn't make him happy, and so he thinks of a species name for himself, and curls himself up into an empty cage, as if relationship had begun between them but he were a new exhibit. And it's then not like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the drama begins… two of them kissing in a dark passageway.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1785785516Jo Callaghan|title=Fucking Good Manners|author=Simon GriffinLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=LifestyleCrime|summary=Manners maketh When a man, they say. It certainly makes life easier if everybody abides by is found crucified on the top of a set of conventionshill in Nuneaton, some of which are ages old and other which have evolved over time. Manners are not about how much DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to tip or how you should behave if you get an invitation to Buckingham Palacethe case alongside her sidekick, they have nothing to do with class or financial status: the AI detective Lock. theyIt're about getting the basics right before we try to deal s their first live case together, having previously been very successful with more difficult mattersseveral cold cases. Of course we all have more relaxed manners But when we're there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with family and friends, but it's best if we learn to distinguish between our public and private lives a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to act appropriatelytheir AI Future Policing project. ''Fucking Good Manners'' aims Will they be able to help us on solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the way.case and, potentially, out of a career?|isbn=139851120X
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=00083248591399613073|title=Fowl TwinsMoral Injuries|author=Eoin ColferChristie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersThrillers|summary=RelaxOlivia, everyone – our old friend Artemis may be off planet, but Laura and Anjali met on the baddies aren't getting away with skulduggery any time soon because they now have not one but two members first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of the Fowl family a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to contend withbe a cardiothoracic surgeon. Those cute little twins are now eleven ( Laura is a perfectionist and, frankly, cute no longer) a trauma doctor. Anjali is the free spirit of the group and in this, their she becomes a GP. When we first independent adventure, meet them they meet 're at a troll drug and without even trying manage alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to make two deadly enemies: a nobleman obsessed with immortality whatever end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the cost (to other people), and consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an unusual interrogator-nuneerily similar event that will impact the three friends. The boys This time, it's their teenage children who are chased, kidnapped, arrested and even killed (though not for long), all with the help of one trainee fairyinvolved.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=14722557980241636604|title=The Bad Fire (Bob Skinner)Trading Game: A Confession|author=Quintin JardineGary Stevenson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It was his ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1035021803
|title=The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder
|author=C L Miller
|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Nine It's twenty years ago local councillor Marcia Brown took her own life after being accused since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up. She's back now because of shoplifting a request for help from a local supermarkether beloved aunt, Carole. It Freya's always been assumed that she couldnformer mentor and Carole't live with s close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the shamecircumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. People were surprised that she committed suicide just before Arthur was the court case when she reason why Freya had not been adamant that back to the village: Arthur, she would fight to clear feels, let her namedown badly. She said that Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she'd been set up because she was hot on has not felt able to be near the trail of corruption in man or pursue the councilprofession she loved. Her ex-husband has contacted Alex Skinner After the split, Solicitor Advocate as well as retired Police Constable Bob Skinner's daughtershe worked in a cafe, met and asked that she look into clearing Brown's name: it's something which he feels that he has to do in memory married James (on the rebound from the love of his son her life, who was murdered recently) and Freya and James have now divorced.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover
|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt
|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.''
I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Well, I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of technology in my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but I'm left with the feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of it is - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Sunny Singh|title=Hotel Arcadia|rating=3.5|genre=Thrillers |summary=The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Hiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, a wartime photographer and Abhi, the hotel manager. As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the hotel, he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what's happened through her photography. Although they only ever talk over the phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists.|isbn=086154742X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529153298|title=The List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=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 move the family 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B07X6GLQ3Q1398524085|title=See Them RunHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Marion ToddNicci French|rating=45
|genre=Crime
|summary=D I Clare Mackay is still relatively new to St Andrew's: she Charlotte Salter was previously expected at Maryhill Rd station in Glasgow. Sheher husband's left quite a lot behind including a relationship that wasn't going anywhere after Tom failed to support her when the chips were downfiftieth birthday party but never turned up. She also left a nasty situation Her children, of sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her own making daughter, Etty. are all worried but not - strangely - her faulthusband, Alec, and St Andrew's is a fresh startnot. Not long into Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the job shebody of Greg's faced with a hit and run death and there's little doubt that it wasn't accidental - father, Duncan Ackerley, in the card with the number five suggests murderriver. Andy Robb It was married an easy assumption for the police to Sandramake that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the guilt. You could say that they had an open marriage The Salter children are not convinced but there seemed to be a lot of the 'open' and very s little of the 'marriage' left - else they can do but get on both sides, but would she want him dead?with their lives and wonder about what really happened.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=17865409911035906708|title=The Impossible BoyDiva|author=Ben BrooksDaisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|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' to make it more manageable in the States. When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her elder sister, Jackie.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Christopher Edge
|title=Black Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=''Oleg Lucas and Emma entered his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their den to find local cinema, a cardboard spaceship standing where place that has the nickname of 'The Black Hole'. All big movie fans, they usually sat. Slowly're looking forward to lots of exciting films, and many, many snacks! However, as the front door opened. Smoke billowed out. And out stepped a boymovie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, dressed in a long coat with and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even longer scarfimagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to the next, wound around his neckcan they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the cinema, and to their real lives?|isbn=1839942738}}{{Frontpage|author=Rachel Greenlaw|title=Compass and Blade|rating=3.''5|genre=Teens|summary=''"My name's Sebastian ColeI can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep," the boy said, "But you already know thatanswering beat in my heart."''
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1447281357James Sherwood Metts|title=Salvation Lost|author=Peter F HamiltonPlanet Storyland|rating=4.5|genre=Science FictionConfident Readers|summary=In Things have been a bit sticky for the twenty-third century, humanity is enjoying a comparative utopiaEarthlings. Yet life on Earth is about to changeAI and automation have been proceeding apace, forever. Feriton Kaneoften replacing jobs they's investigative team has discovered the worst threat ever re paid to face mankind – do and we've almost no other tasks that took time to fight backaccomplish. The supposedly benign Olyix plan Just as they were beginning to harvest humanity, in order get used to carry us all this technological change and starting to their god at the end think of the universe. And as their agents conclude schemes down on earthother, vast warships converge above new ways to gather this cargospend time, along came an awful pandemic. Some factions push for humanity to fleeLife was pretty much shut down and, to live in hiding amongst the stars – although only a chosen few would make along with it out in time. But others refuse to break before , all the storm. As disaster looms, animosities must be set aside to focus many daily social interactions on just one goal: wiping this enemy from the face of creation. Even if it means preparing for a future this generation will never seewhich they depend so heavily.|isbn=1736128426
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1471186393Matthew Tree|title=Photographer of the Lost|author=Caroline ScottWe'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Literary Fiction|summary=May 1921. Edie receives Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, a photograph through the post. There is no letter or note with it. There is nothing written on the back drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of the photograph. It is a picture his artistic passions all failed miserably and who had endless crises of her husband, Francisself confidence. Francis has been missing for four years. TechnicallySo Tim applied himself to his studies, he has been "missing, believed killed" cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set himself high but that is not something that a young widow can believe. She hangs on the word 'missing', disbelieving the word killedachievable ambitions. |isbn= B0CVFXPGP8
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1783784350A G Slatter|title=This Golden Fleece: A Journey Through Britain's Knitted History|author=Esther RutterThe Briar Book of the Dead
|rating=5
|genre=HistoryFantasy|summary=It was December and Esther Rutter was stuck in her office job, writing '' There's a part of me that wants to keep this just to people she'd never met and preparing spreadsheetsmyself for however long I can. The job frustrated her and even her knitting did not soothe her mindThis secret magic of my own, all mine, at last. January was going I just want to be enjoy it for a while.'' Within a time for making changes and she decided that she would travel the length and breadth of remote mountain pass, far away from the British Isles with occasional forays abroadworld, discovering and telling lies Silverton; a town under the story protection of woolthe Briar's history , a family of witches who protect the town and how it had made and changed the landscapewider world from the Darklands. She'd grown up on a sheep farm in Suffolk - '' a free range child on Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is the farm'' first non- witch to be born into her family for generations and learned to spinas such since she was young, knit her training as a steward revolved around letters and weave from her mother administration rather than spells and potions. When her mothergrandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's friendcousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the town's leader, and Ellie takes her place beside her. This was in As challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, putting her bloodat the heart of a maelstrom of chaos.Reeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what to do as the Briar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat.|isbn=1803364548
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=14012862081529900360|title=Black CanaryThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the help of a psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, it was Robin, Delaware's partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the man she loved needed. The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a remote property in Bel Air. He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to an extremely rich man and it's not the Italian. But which of them was the primary target?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: IgniteThe Secret Life of a Vet|author=Meg Cabot and Cara McGeeSion Rowlands
|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident ReadersAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Meet Dinah LanceSiôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. Frustrated that her policeman His father will not allow her was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to try and follow in his footsteps, and seemingly lumbered with particularly when he considered the strain that being a cheerleader at school, she is desperate to find her voice. But iton-call put on his father's actually more life. When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a case of her voice finding hervet and was convinced this was the job for him. Before long, as when she gets frustrated or plain dissed he was at school her vocal outcry can shatter glass better than any opera singerLiverpool University. You could almost call it a weapon, or It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a powerchild. But in order for her to call herself a superhero If anything, there has he'd wanted to be a whole path of steps for her to take – one of which will be into her past…professional footballer.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=17890179770861541774|title=Ronnie and Hilda's Romance: Towards a New Life after World War IIA Nye of Pheasants|author=Wendy WilliamsSteve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=HistoryCrime|summary=Ronnie Williams was the son of Thomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and Ethel Wallformer colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. There's some doubt as to whether or not they were ever married or even Harry's birthdate: Maik was involved in a street brawl - he claimed to have been born in 1863, but would later maintain that he was already many years older than Ethel facing a man armed with a knife - and he might well have shaved killed a few years off his ageGhurka. For Initially, he faced a while the family was quite well-to-do charge of manslaughter but disaster struck in the 1929 Depression and five-year-old Ronnie had evidence came to adjust light that suggested that he might have planned to a very different lifestylemurder the man. One thing Now he did inherit from his father was his need to could be well-turned-out and this would stay with him throughout his lifefacing the death penalty. He joined the army Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn't help Danny at eighteen in 1942all.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1542015421Alexander McCall Smith|title=The Royal Baths Murder|author=J R EllisPerfect Passion Company|rating=34.5|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction|summary=When Damian Penrose was murdered there was no shortage of suspects: he was The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a deeply unpleasant manmore personal, tailored service. In fact Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the only surprising thing was that there wasn't more of business, as Ness is planning to take a queue waiting trip to do the dirty deedCanada to get away for a while. What was a bit Katie is coming out of a headline maker was that Penrose was break up with a crime writer bad boyfriend, and that he was strangled in so jumps at the midst of Harrogate's crime writing festivalchance to come home to Edinburgh. He went for a swim at 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 Royal Baths and never returnedIsabel Dalhousie novels, his body being found by the receptionist. DCI Jim Oldroyd was the man tasked but with investigating the crimesome new characters who quickly begin to charm. It would not be the only deathKatie has no experience in running a business, and it was only because of the quick actions of his sergeantor in match-making, Andy Carterbut Ness has full confidence in her abilities, that Oldroydand there's was not one of them.always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|isbn=1846976596
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Daniel Kraus0811771741|title=Blood SugarInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrafts|summary=This is Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a difficult readcollection of knits from toys to blankets. And not because Some will be quick knits - others are of the dark subject matter – that'll come later – but because long, cosy afternoons in front of the way in which itfire's toldvariety. This might put a lot of readers off The projects are divided by the time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, and five to be honest it'd be hard ten hours, ten to blame themtwenty hours and more than twenty hours. Kraus tells All the story in a distinctive voice unlike any other projects are attractive, modern and useable. I perhaps show my age when Iwonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that've read; an erratic dialect with heavy and frequent slangs me being picky. }}{{Frontpage|author=Dean Koontz|title=The immediate effect Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=Paranormal|summary=Benny is disorientating having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and distractingsomeone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it takes some time 's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the very last person to feel naturaldeserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. It's So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend, a struggle bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to acclimatise help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Spike is going to Jodytake care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's voiceenemies, to get acquainted with his mannerismsif he, but the story wouldn't be the same without itBenny, and somehow it works. It shouldnHarper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny't, but it doess wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=17890919341662500491
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{{Frontpage
|author=Don BehrendAdam Stower|title=Copernicus! What Have You Done?: ...Murray and Other Interesting QuestionsBun
|rating=4.5
|genre=TriviaConfident Readers |summary= Hello! Would this review Murray is supposed to be okay if I simply said a humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the two. But he's a bad magician'I LOVED THIS GLORIOUS LITTLE BOOK AND SO WILL YOUs cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the regular back garden, but into a world of frightening adventure and whiffs. FIN This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but he's turned up and he'?! Because I did. And you will. ll have to do…|isbn=17890167700008561249}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1925820025B0C47LV1PC|title=Once, I was LovedFragility|author=Belinda LandsberryMosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=For SharingLiterary Fiction|summary=TockCan you make a ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, is the toy rabbitquestion should you make it? Or is the question if you did, would it land? The catch is in a box of toys going to that the charity shopanswer for both could well be. He realises that he's not wanted any more, but muses that it wasn't always this way. .. no. ''OnceFragility''is set as the city of Portland, he saysOregon, ''I was loved''. And he tells us of all cautiously begins to emerge from the children who have loved him over restrictions imposed during the years.covid pandemic
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=1529431735
|title=The Winter Visitor
|author=James Henry
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=It's February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the more surprising. He'd been exiled on the Costa del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decade. The return has come about because he's had a letter from his ex-wife, saying that she's ill and hasn't long to live. It's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his underwear and sent to a watery grave in the boot of a stolen Ford Sierra. Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?
