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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]].''' <! '''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{Frontpage|author=Onyi Nwabineli|title=Allow Me to Introduce Myself|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Anuri spent her childhood on display to the world, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of Anuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, monetary gain. Now Anuri is in her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and to get her life back, suing her step- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->mother to take down the content about her. Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. Most importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the new focus of Ophelia's online empire. Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time?|isbn=0861546873}}{{Frontpage|author=David Chadwick|title=Headload of Napalm|rating=4.5|genre=Thrillers|summary= It's September 1973 in Hicks, California. Hicks is a Mojave desert town of a few thousand people with its nearest neighbours of LA and Las Vegas both a significant drive away. Not much happens in Hicks. A silver mine and a defence contractor are the main local employers but otherwise, there's not much of note other than dive bars and Joshua trees. Life is quiet, until....|isbn= B0D321VJ76}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1401280048Tom Percival|title=Batman: Nightwalker: The Graphic NovelWrong Shoes|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|authorsummary=Marie LuWill's life is difficult, in a multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has a tiny amount of hope. He is good at art, Stuart Moore and Chris Wildgooseclings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.|isbn=1398527122}}{{Frontpage|author=Sylvie Cathrall|title=A Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary= There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of them.|isbn= 0356522776}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008517061|title=Death in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=TeensCrime|summary=The young man called Bruce Wayne is Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a very noticeable one – he can hardly go anywhere without people – bystanderslittle uncertainty about the future of his life with his vet girlfriend, paparazziLivia and her daughter Diana, as moving 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 suchlike – reminding him heputting the future on the back burner.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1786482126|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as a billionaire at result of the age one night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of eighteensickness.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008551324|title=The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Feeling rather stuck with Neither side likes or has any respect for the legacy other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's inherited from his murdered parentsprepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. This person, he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants . And what he wants is to do charitable deedsbe transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date. But one nightNot much to ask, when he speeds off in his posh is it? The new car Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008405026|title=A Stranger in pursuit of the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to a criminalhalt. Now, her mother, he goes too far as far as the authorities Helena, and her father are concerneddead in their bed. Initially, and gets given it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the most unlikely stretch positioning of community service instead – cleaning in the home for violent criminals bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is Arkham Asylumnow a complex double murder. There he learns of some other people who also allege charitable intent – Kerrigan is convinced that the Nightwalkersexplanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0571379877|title=The Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=Edward Jevons is a gang who steal any tenworking-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and Stanza. Robert's a theatre director. He's also self-figure bank account contents they canobsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and murder the owneruses Edward to run errands for him. Can Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he get close feels to one of Robert. Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them and get but he's not like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the truth two of their schemes, or will the manipulative Madeleine be them kissing in a step too far for the young do-gooder?dark passageway.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B07W4MNBSGJo Callaghan|title=Be Careful Who You Marry|author=Lizzy MumfreyLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=It was coming up to Halloween in 1987 and When a group man is found crucified on the top of sixth-form schoolgirls wondered what they would be doing when they were fiftya hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. When youIt're only seventeen that seems positively ancients their first live case together, but Liz was convinced that ''your entire life depends on who you marry''having previously been very successful with several cold cases. The only eligible boys were the Young Farmers But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and the idea of living in a farmhouse and having very high profile case that draws a couple lot of children called Will and Olly appealed unwanted attention to Charlotte, or perhaps William and Oliver if you were Elizabeth who was determined to marry the rather superior Patrick Shepley-Bothamtheir AI Future Policing project. The place Will they be able to start their search was obviously solve the Young Farmers' Halloween disco that weekend. There was just one problem - there were too many Elizabeths case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the class.case and, potentially, out of a career?|isbn=139851120X
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Michael J Malone1399613073|title=In The Absence of MiraclesMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=4.5
|genre=Thrillers
|summary=John Docherty's mother has been taken into Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a nursing home following perfectionist and a massive stroketrauma doctor. It Anjali is thought unlikely that the free spirit of the group and she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Twenty-five years later there will ever be able to live independently againan eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. Faced with having This time, it's their teenage children who are involved.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0241636604|title=The Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=If you were to sell the family home bring up an image of a city banker in order your mind, you're unlikely to pay for her nursing carethink 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, Docherty starts poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the clear outLondon School of Economics. In the attic Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he finds has a childhood picture facility with numbers which most of himselfus can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It was his ability at what was, essentially, holding a toddler – a toddler he knows nothing aboutcard game which got him an internship with Citibank. He also finds Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a blood-stained shoetrader.|isbn=191237479X
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=06928535451035021803|title=The Things We DoAntique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=Kay PfaltzC L Miller|rating=43.5|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=It's 2015 and Dr Eleanor Hartley is a prison psychologist at twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the state penitentiary and English country village where she knows that her next patient is not going to be easygrew up. She'Jane Doe' has been convicted s back now because of the murder of two men - one a police officerrequest for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. She pleaded guilty Freya's former mentor and since then has been silent: even her identity Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is in doubtdead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. She Arthur was carrying identification as Jane Dunlap when the reason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, she was arrestedfeels, but it's been proved to be falselet her down badly. There seem Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be no family near the man or friends who are missing herpursue the profession she loved. Eleanor's task is to get Jane talkingAfter the split, to find out why she worked in a seemingly normal young woman would murder two mencafe, met and married James (on the rebound from the love of her life, who was murdered) 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=Patti SmithJennie 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=1398524085|title=Year Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, Etty. are all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, is not. Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the body of Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in the Monkeyriver. It was an easy assumption for the police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the guilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1035906708|title=Diva|author=Daisy 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=BiographyConfident Readers|summary=On Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the coast nickname of Santa Cruz'The Black Hole'. All big movie fans, Patti Smith enters the lunar year they're looking forward to lots of the monkey - one packed with mischiefexciting films, and many, sorrowmany snacks! However, and unexpected moments. In a stranger's wordsas the movie starts, ''Anything they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is possible: after allvery different, it's the year of the monkey'and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. As Smith wanders But as they lurch from one film genre to the coast of Santa Cruz in solitudenext, she reflects can they figure out what on a year that brings huge shifts in her life - loss and aging are faced head earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the cinema, as it the shifting political waters in America. and to their real lives?|isbn=15266147581839942738
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Rachel Greenlaw
|title=Compass and Blade
|rating=3.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.''
Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, is one of the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the island's leader and Mira's father. Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and with only coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. With only nine days to unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the heart of the smuggler's territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and the ones she holds most dear.
|isbn=0008664730
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Margaret AtwoodJames Sherwood Metts|title=The TestamentsPlanet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=Dystopian FictionConfident Readers|summary= Finally! Almost forty years on, we Things have been a sequel to [[The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood|The Handmaid's Tale]]bit sticky for the Earthlings. I donAI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they't want re paid to tell you too much about the plot because it's a novel do and other tasks that is entirely plot driventook time to accomplish. Suffice it Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to say that ''The Testaments'' takes place fifteen years laterthink of other, fifteen years after Offred gets into a vannew ways to spend time, not knowing what will happen nextalong came an awful pandemic. It's told by three narrators: Aunt LydiaLife was pretty much shut down and, who is secretly writing her memoirs in Ardua Hall; Agnes, a girl brought up in Gilead along with the expectation she will marry a commander; Daisyit, a rebellious teenage girl in Canada who knows of Gilead only from school lessons and its Pearl Girl missionaries who occasionally call into all the store owned by her parents..many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|isbn=17847423251736128426
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Matthew Tree
|title=We'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary= Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, a drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and who had endless crises of self confidence. So Tim applied himself to his studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions.
|isbn= B0CVFXPGP8
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=A G Slatter
|title=The Briar Book of the Dead
|rating=5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary='' There's a part of me that wants to keep this just to myself for however long I can. This secret magic of my own, all mine, at last. I just want to enjoy it for a while.''
Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Briar's, a family of witches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands. Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to be born into her family for generations and as such since she was young, her training as a steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the town's leader, and Ellie takes her place beside her. As challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, putting her at 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
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1529900360
|title=The 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: The Secret Life of a Vet
|author=Sion Rowlands
|rating=3.5
|genre=Animals and Wildlife
|summary=Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the strain that being on-call put on his father's life. When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the job for him. Before long, he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a child. If anything, he'd wanted to be a professional footballer.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Anne Boden0861541774|title=The Money RevolutionA Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre= Business and FinanceCrime|summary= Money is changingDCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and he killed a Ghurka. It Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might not have planned to murder the man. Now he could be in facing the ways you thinkdeath penalty. We’re not suddenly getting Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a 3p or £3 coin (diplomatic incident and have you ever even found wouldn't help Danny at all.}}{{Frontpage|author=Alexander McCall Smith|title=The Perfect Passion Company|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=The Perfect Passion Company is a country that offers anything different dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the 1online apps in providing a more personal, 2tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, 5 model?) We’re getting as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. Katie is coming out of a lot more digital break up with paymentsa bad boyfriend, which seems and so jumps at the chance to suit most people apart come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from charity collectors Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the homeless on the streetIsabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but although this book Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|isbn=1846976596}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0811771741|title=InstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman|rating=4|genre=Crafts|summary=Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of the subtitle that includes 'long, cosy afternoons in front of the fire' variety. The projects are divided by the word ‘’digital’’time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, it’s not really about this eitherten to twenty hours and more than twenty hours. Instead it’s about All the ‘’management’’ of your financesprojects are attractive, modern and how to take controluseable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's me being picky.|isbn=1789660610
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=147117316XDean Koontz|title=Guilty Not Guilty|author=Felix FrancisThe Bad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersParanormal|summary=The Honourable William Herbert Millgate GordonBenny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-Russell (Bill Russell sized object to those who knew him well) his home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was acting as a volunteer steward at Warwick Racecourse when he was told of inside is the violent death of thing that has trashed his much-loved wife. house! It would get worse though: The thing is, Benny is the successful insurance actuary would be accused of killing her and hounded by the mediavery last person to deserve all this bad luck. Then He is a nice person. he would lose his job and his homeA really nice person. His best friends would turn against himSo fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, as they came who has been sent to believe help him guilty of the murdersince Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Yet there was no really compelling evidence that Spike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he was guilty, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=1662500491
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1908745819Adam Stower|title=Surfacing|author=Kathleen JamieMurray and Bun|rating=4.5|genre=HistoryConfident Readers |summary=Sometimes when people suggest that you read Murray is supposed to be a certain bookhumble, tidy and friendly cat, they tell you ''this one has your name on it''. Mostly we take them at their wordwho is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, or notwell, but rarely do we ask them why they thought so, unless it turns out that we didn't like whatever takes his fancy next of the booktwo. That But he's a rare experience. People who are sensitive to hearing bad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a book calling your namehyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the catflap they both use can chuck them out, rarely get it wrong. In this case I was told why. The blurb speaks of not into the author considering ''an olderregular back garden, less tethered sense but into a world of herselffrightening adventure and whiffs.'' Older. Less tethered. That's not This time round it drops them into a bad description of Viking land, where I am. Add a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to that my love of the natural worldbe honest, of those aspects of the poetic but he's turned up and lyrical that are about style not form, and substance most of all, about connection. Of course this book had my name on it. It was written for me. It would he'll have found its way to me eventually. I am pleased to have it fall onto my path so quickly.do…|isbn=0008561249
}}
