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Hello from The Bookbag<metadesc>Expert, a full book review site, featuring books reviews from all the many most walks of literary life ; fiction, non- [[: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. Itchildren's the bag we take to the library 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 & self-published 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 plus author [[:Category:Interviews|interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|& top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[Features]] page.</metadesc>

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'''For new features Want to find out more [[FeaturesAbout Us|click hereabout us]].'''? __NOTOC__{{newreview|author=Stephen Baker|title=They've Got Your Number|rating=4.5|genre=Popular Science|summaryThe Best New Books=If you are in the slightest bit paranoid, worry that ''Big Brother'' is always watching or like to believe that you are not a number, but a free man (or woman), then this may not be the book for you, as it will do nothing to dispel any of those worries. If, on the other hand, you think 'the mathematical modelling of humanity' sounds like one of the sexiest things ever, and are chomping at the bit to learn more about it, then you might well be interested in what Business Week journalist Baker has to say.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099507021</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview'''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|author=Rebecca Tope|title=Fear in the Cotswolds|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=Thea Osborne is a house sitter new reviews by profession. When people go away she moves into their homes and looks after their animals and the property. This time it's winter and she's spending a month in the Cotswold village of Hampnettcategory]]. It wouldn't be a job for all of us but Thea delights in getting to know the local people and the area. In the past she's also been involved with the police in solving various cases but it looks as though that might have come to an end as the relationship she had with DS Phil Hollis has crumbled. For the first time Thea feels like an outsider – and a foolish one - when she finds footsteps in the snow which lead to a body in a nearby field. When the police finally arrive the body has disappeared and the police obviously wonder if she's imagined it all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007478</amazonukbr>}}

{{newreview|author=Tad Tuleja|title=A Dictionary of Foreign Words and Phrases|rating=3|genre=Home and Family'''Read [[:Category:Features|summary=Take a look at the cover design of this book, and youlatest features]].'''d be mistaken for thinking this was a trivia compendium for all those foreign words that have taken part in our English language since whenever they crossed over from their original homes. But the title is definitely honest, for this is a dictionary book first, for reference, and a browser for the trivia buff second.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089562</amazonuk>}}

'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anne RiceOnyi Nwabineli|title=Angel TimeAllow Me to Introduce Myself|rating=24.5

|summary=Toby OAnuri 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'Dare is an extremely efficient hit man with a passion s childhood for musicsponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, history monetary gain. Now Anuri is in her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and playing his beloved lute. He's also something of a lost soul having turned his to get her life back on God many years ago, suing her step-mother to take down the content about her. One day while on a 'job' he Anuri is visited by an Angel who offers him a chance at redemption. Toby agrees battling alcoholism, failing to become the Angel's human instrument start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and help save lives rather than take receiving money from themfor doing so. He Most importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is sent on an assignment to help a Jewish couple accused the new focus of murder in 13th Century EnglandOphelia's online empire. Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0701178140</amazonuk>0861546873

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ian MortimerDavid Chadwick|title=1415: Henry VHeadload 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 Year not much of Glorynote other than dive bars and Joshua trees. Life is quiet, until....|isbn= B0D321VJ76}}{{Frontpage|author=Tom Percival|title=The Wrong Shoes

|genre=HistoryConfident Readers|summary=The medievalWill's life is difficult, in fact time-honoureda multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', view he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of King Henry V as one of Englandthings like food, and his dad can's greatest heroes t work because he lost his job at the college, was propagated though not originated by Shakespeareworking 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 again more recently to some extent by OlivierWill's portrayal life seems bleak in filmevery direction. At least one historian And yet, he still has called him ''a tiny amount of hope. He is good at art, and clings to the greatest man moments of joy when he is drawing, that ever ruled England''feel like a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0224079921</amazonuk>1398527122

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Deborah GregorySylvie Cathrall|title=Dancing With The DeadA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=35|genre=Literary Science Fiction|summary=I wanted to read ''Dancing with the Dead'', because I'm interested in family history. The blurb on the back of the There are few greater joys than a book also mentioned Gill – our heroine of the piece – was moving from Bristol (my current home) which lives up to Lincolnshire (where I was born and brought up)a compelling premise. I felt with all these links, the novel could not fail to interest me – but And this was not the caseis one of them.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1904529305</amazonuk>0356522776

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Miss Read0008517061|title=Christmas at Thrush GreenDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell

|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=Set in the rural village of Thrush GreenFormer Metropolitan Police detective, this book is the latest in a series surrounding familiar characters. There is the feisty Ella BembridgeJake Johnson, who is finally having to admit that old age is creeping up as her eyesight failshas settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. Friends such as Dimity and Charles Henstock are concerned There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about her, but she refuses to accept any help. Albert Piggott has decided it's time to retire now that the future of his life with his wifevet girlfriend, Nelly, is a successful cafe owner and can afford to take care of him! And relative newcomer Phil Hurst Livia and her husband are arranging the local nativity playdaughter Diana, despite as moving in together would mean a number lot of setcompromise: does Jake give up his off-backs. Will everything be grid and relaxing life to move in place with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the future she wants for Christmasherself and her daughter? And will independent Ella make a decision about her For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and putting the future?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409101592</amazonuk>on the back burner.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1786482126|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Matt and DaveElly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|titlesummary=YuckBuilders 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 Robotic Bottomdifficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the 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 sickness.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008551324|title=The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=It's concerned me unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for a while that itthe other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's relatively easy prepared to pick up early readers tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for girls – princessesher death. This person, magic soft toyshe promises, mermaids is someone big and pets abound – but there's a much smaller choice for boysit will be worth the police doing what he wants. It's important too with And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and to get an early readers that the content parole date. Not much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn''interesting'' t think so and reading becomes more than just something which you ''have'she' s even prepared to do at school the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and moves into being funanyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening. Matt and Dave have found the answer in Yuck.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847382991</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John E Smelcer0008405026|title=The Great DeathA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=45|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=It'As Western Europeans settled Alaska, they brought with them diseases against which s sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the indigenous people had no natural immunityinvestigation ground to a halt. At the beginning of the twentieth century Now, fully two thirds of all Alaska natives perished from a pandemic of measlesher mother, smallpoxHelena, and influenza. No community was sparedher father are dead in their bed. In most cases Initially, half of it looks like a villagestraightforward murder/suicide but there's population died within a weeksomething about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. In some cases, there were no survivors. It What looked as though it was the end of going to be an ancient way of lifeopen-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. Natives still refer to Kerrigan is convinced that the dreadful period explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as the Great DeathDerwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1842709194</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Maxine Barry0571379877|title=River DeepThe Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet

|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=Two Edward Jevons is a working-class young women both have a love of the Thamesman, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and Stanza. Melisande RayRobert's beloved hotel, the Ray of Sunshine is on the river banka theatre director. ItHe's here that guests come who want to be pampered also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and looked after in the way that only the best hotels can do well, but when Wendell James checks in uses Edward to the hotel it's not pampering he's looking run errands forhim. He's buying a piece of land not far from the Ray of Sunshine Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and he's sussing out the competitiondrunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. ThereMost men in Robert's something personal in there too – if his new hotel means position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the Ray two of Sunshine goes under then that would be an added bonus. There's just a slight doubt them kissing in his mind when a red-haired maid catches his eyedark passageway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709088930</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Joe GoresJo Callaghan|title=Spade and ArcherLeave No Trace

|summary=Sam Spade decidesWhen a man is found crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, bravelyDCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, to set up his one-man the AI detective agencyLock. It's the 1920s in San Francisco so we have the prohibition era and all that that entailstheir first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. Many localsBut when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, of course, choose to disobey the law, stick two fingers up, so to speak Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and as a result there's lots of bootleg liquor. Straight away, it's evident very high profile case that Sam is draws a man lot of few wordsunwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. He has Will they be able to solve the mannerisms of a cat - stealthycase in time, quick on his feet. He's also a compulsive chain-smokeror will Kat find herself taken off the case and, but then againpotentially, most people were. In that era, holding out of a cigarette was an elegant, almost essential accessory. How times have changed.career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>140911323X</amazonuk>139851120X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michael Morpurgo and Emma Chichester Clark1399613073|title=The Best of TimesMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson

|genre=Confident ReadersThrillers|summary=Most children enjoy a good traditional tale Olivia, Laura and this lovely book by Michael Morpurgo seems to have all Anjali met on the right ingredients – first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a handsome prince and quarter of a beautiful princess who fall in lovecentury. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, get married which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and live happily ever aftera trauma doctor. Or do they? Sadly, not long after Prince Frederico marries Anjali is the free spirit of the lovely Princess Serafina, group and she becomes very sada GP. Nobody knows what has caused such great sadness, but poor Prince Frederico is desperate to find When we first meet them they're at a cure for his wifedrug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's miserygoing to end in tragedy. He tries everything in his power and eventually decides to offer his kingdom to anyone We don't know who can make her happy again before she dies of a broken heart. Lots of people come to suffered the palace to try and help but in tragedy or the end consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the solution is a simple one provided by some very kind travellersthree friends. This time, it's their teenage children who are involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405232552</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Shirley Jackson0241636604|title=We Have Always Lived In The CastleTrading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson

|genre=Literary FictionAutobiography|summary=Mary Katherine BlackwoodIf you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, also known as Merricat, is eighteen, and lives with her older sister Constance in the family home where 'Blackwoods had always livedyou're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. Merricat quickly draws A hoodie and jeans replaces the reader into her world by a series of matter of fact but bizarre statements – her likes include her sister pin-stripe suit and death cap mushroomshis background is the East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and everyone else in her family is deadinjustice. The wealthy Blackwood family has always kept There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the house 'steady against the world', shutting out other people, London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and they live near he has a villagefacility with numbers which most of us can only envy. Merricat believes He also realised that 'The most rich people expect poor people of the village have always hated us'to be stupid. It was his ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, and tells us that she hates them toothis turned into permanent employment as a trader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141191457</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Simon Weston1035021803|title=Nelson The Antique Hunter's Guide to the RescueMurder|author=C L Miller|rating=43.5|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Nelson used to pull Mike the MilkIt's milk float, but he twenty years since Freya Lockwood has now retiredbeen back to the English country village where she grew up. He lives in the stable at the She's back now because of the dairy along with a couple of tricky ratsrequest for help from her beloved aunt, Rhodri and Rhys, a pigeon who has no sense of direction, a frog who thinks heCarole. Freya's a secret agent spy and an old racehorse who spends most of his time sleeping. Rhodri former mentor and Rhys find a mysterious message on MikeCarole's fridge close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the animals believe that Mike has been invited circumstances seem suspicious, to Buckingham Palace to receive an MBEsay the least. Somehow our heroArthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, Nelsonshe feels, finds himself travelling let her down to London, pulling a ceremonial coach for Prince Charles as well as giving a TV interview about his experience.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848510454</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Elizabeth Baines|title=Too Many Magpies|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Becoming a mother brings a whole new world of fear into your lifebadly. Suddenly you see the danger Even though they were in every situationbusiness together as antique hunters, and fear and trepidation can she has not felt able to be become your constant companionsnear the man or pursue the profession she loved. In this novellaAfter the split, we meet she worked in a young mother who is cafe, met and married to a logical scientist. They attempt to control their children's futures James (on a scientific basis, growing their own fruit and vegetables, giving their children nothing sugary, eating no eggs for a whole year until any adverse affects the rebound from them were disproved. But after meeting with an enigmatic stranger our young mother begins to struggle as he introduces ideas the love of freedom into her world. She begins an affair with himlife, begins to let things slip at home who was murdered) and Freya and with the children, yet finds she is still continuously haunted by the sense of an ever-present dangerJames have now divorced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844717216</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=Katherine May|title=Burning Out|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Violet has I've heard it all – a well-paid jobsaid that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Well, and I must confess that there have been more than a luxurious apartment all to herselffew decades of technology in my lifetime. Everything is catered for; her meals, her clothes, and her health are all how she would like them I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to be. But me but I'm left with the life she is leading is beginning to take its tollfeeling that it's all getting away from me. On the verge Some of snapping, a drained and somewhat outit is -offrankly -sorts Violet, withdraws back to her home townquite frightening. There Of course, she meets I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone familiar, a ghost reminding her of how she used to be ten years earlier – a young carefree girl, full of life. Only this isnwho knows what they't a ghost, but a girl living re talking about or the life Violet once lived – exactly the samelatest conspiracy theorist. Haunted by the past Violet realizes history is repeating itself I needed people I knew I could trust and is convinced events will happen again. Events that will who could deliver information in turn haunt the girla way I could understand.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906727392</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Amanda DownumSunny Singh|title=The Drowning CityHotel Arcadia

|genre=FantasyThrillers |summary=In The Hotel Arcadia is a nutshellluxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Hiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, you're reading this because you're wondering whether The Drowning City killing everyone on site, there is goodSam, a wartime photographer and Abhi, bad or mediocrethe hotel manager. You 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've probably glanced at 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 guessed the latterMargaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? Imean, honestly...) She's not what'm afraid its worrying Miv's not 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 simpleher father wants to move the family 'Down South'. This When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a debut that provokes decidedly mixed feelingsfrightening, foreign place, best avoided. I started off convinced that I was going to love this book. The cover art is effortlessly coolFor Miv, the premise intriguingmove would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, the characters laden with potential for greatness and she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the backdrop is certainly evocativedangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841498149</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tove Jansson1398524085|title=The True DeceiverHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French

|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=Most people of my age will have come across JanssonCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband's work unwittinglyfiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, via 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 televised renditions body of Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in the Moomin talesriver. The readers amongst us would then have been entranced a few years ago It was an easy assumption for the police to discover make that at last Thomas Teal Duncan had set about the translation into English, first of The Summer Book murdered Charlie and then of a collection of short stories which were published as committed suicide when he couldn'A Winter Bookt 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. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0954899571</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Daniel Kehlmann 1035906708|title=Me and KaminskiDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin

|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=After reviewing several long books, it's been refreshing We tend to read such a fluent yet pared down story think of Maria Callas as 'Kaminski and Me'. In itGreek, Sebastian Zollnerbut she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, the obnoxious main characterNew York, shoves himself forward in a desperate attempt December 1923 and only moved to research a best seller which will re-ignite his career as an art criticAthens when she was thirteen. Kaminski, the proposed subject, Her original surname was a fashionable painter long ago, Kalogeropoulos but now, ancient and chronically ill, has virtually slid into oblivionher father changed it to 'Callas' to make it more manageable in the States. So When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the second-rate writer is on Nazi occupation by a loser unless he can dig up some juicy details to hook the art world mother who mercilessly exploited her and general publicmade no secret of her preference for her elder sister, Jackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847249892</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Louis BarfeChristopher Edge|title=Turned Out Nice Again: The Story of British Light EntertainmentBlack Hole Cinema Club

|genre=EntertainmentConfident Readers|summary=Light entertainment is often looked down uponLucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, as if it's a bit naff, tepid and ignorable. What's often forgotten is place that it's hugely popular, enjoyable and much of it is of the highest quality. Louis Barfe's Turned Out Nice Again tells has the complete story nickname of British light entertainment.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843543818</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jim Helmore and Karen Wall|title=Oh No, Monster Tomato!|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=Marvin is entering the Great Grislygust Grow-Off, but just like him, his tomatoes aren't growing very big. He takes the only sensible course of action: he sings his tomatoes a song. The results are spectacularBlack Hole'. Victory is surely within his grasp.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140524741X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Joseph Delaney |title=The Spook All big movie fans, they's Stories: Witches|rating=4|genre=Teens|summary='Warning: Not re looking forward to be read after dark,' are the only words on the back lots of ''The Spook's Stories''exciting films, and on many, many snacks! However, as the inside flapmovie starts, 'The Times' warns us they very quickly realise that something about this book new film format is 'seriously scary'...  The whole thing kicks-off relatively tamely, thoughvery different, with a story about a young Spook (a sort of monster-hunter) who falls in love with a witch and is forced to bear the consequences when the witchthey are swept up into an adventure they couldn's sister comes to stay and exhibits a taste for the neighbor-childrent even imagine.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0370329961</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Lisa Unger|title=Die For You|rating=3.5| But as they lurch from one film genre=Crime|summary=Best-selling novelist Isabel Connelly is married to successful video game designer Marcus Raine. Or so she thinks. But when her husband fails to return from workthe next, she realises something is wrong. Going to his office to try to find can they figure out what happens on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to him, she gets attacked and ends up in hospital, while his co-workers are killed. Things get worse for her, however, when investigating detective Grady Crowe reveals that Marcus Raine has been dead for several years, and the man she married was using a false identity. Infuriated by the betrayalcinema, and the realisation that she's been living a lie for the past five years, Izzy takes matters into her own hands and sets out to find her husband and work out why he lied to her for so long. Ignoring police warnings, she delves deeper and deeper into a nasty underworld, and finds a tale which has its roots in Prague and rivals anything she could have plotted in one of her novels.their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099522179</amazonuk>1839942738

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lisa McMannRachel Greenlaw|title=Wake|rating=4|genre=Teens|summary=Janie is seventeen Compass and studying hard for college. She's also working lots of hours at a local nursing home to earn money for college as it's unlikely her alcoholic mother is going to provide much in the way of resources. College is Janie's only chance at a life better than the one she's lived so far and so you can't blame her for being so single-minded in the pursuit of her goal. Only one thing stands in her way...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847385036</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jaclyn Moriarty |title=The Spell Book of Listen TaylorBlade

|summary=Listen Taylor's father has just moved in with his girlfriend and they are adopted into 'I can hear the Zing family, with all song of its delightful eccentricities and unusual behaviour – the Zings meet every Friday night for dinner and then disappear into the garden shed to work on the 'Zing Family Secret'. Marbie Zing is terrified of doing something wrong and losing Nathaniel and Listen. Her sister Fancy is becoming increasingly disillusioned with her home life, and her daughter's year two teacher is coming to terms with a break upsea. The stories call of these people come together to create a tale of lifethe deep, love, and ultimately, what being part of a family meansthe answering beat in my heart.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330446363</amazonuk>}}''

{{newreview|author=F G Cottam|title=The Magdalena Curse|rating=2Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks.5|genre=Horror|summary=Mark Hunter Mira, like her mother before her, is one of the sort of father seven who would do anything for his sonswim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. After losing his wife and daughter in But when the Council Watch lays a tragic accidenttrap to end the wrecking, his surviving son Adam has become his whole worldthey capture the island's leader and Mira's father. And Adam Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is an exceptional child – beautiful, incredibly smart secretive and mature beyond his ten years – with only recently he's been channelling the voices coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the deadsea. Plagued by horrific dreamsWith only nine days to unearth what might save her father, able as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to speak Russian in the hours after he wakesheart of the smuggler's territory, drawing occult symbols when he doodles, Hunter believes Adam Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to be possessed. Doctor Elizabeth Bancroft is sceptical, until she meets Adam, save the future of her home and witnesses the horrors the poor boy endures for herselfones she holds most dear.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340980982</amazonuk>0008664730

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jon BerkeleyJames Sherwood Metts|title=The Lightning Key (Circus Trilogy)Planet Storyland

|summary=I shall start with Things have been a word of advicebit sticky for the Earthlings. When youAI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're being hounded by a circus master, paid to do and a magician, for the soul of a tiger other tasks that's contained in a tiger's egg that's contained in the brain took time to accomplish. Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of your teddy bearother, new ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and your best friend - a fallen angel - is trying her best to make sure , along with it, all the other angels do not turn many daily social interactions on you in a big way - then youwhich they depend so heavily.|isbn=1736128426}}{{Frontpage|author=Matthew Tree|title=We're probably living the third book in a fantasy trilogyll Never Know|rating=4. Still - never mind5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary= Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, the angel's efforts will involve you entering a dream world drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of flight being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and cloud cities, the chase after your enemies will take you across the world who had endless crises of self confidence. So Tim applied himself to desert oases and backhis studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and friends new and old will be on board to helpset himself high but achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847384447</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sue TownsendA G Slatter|title=Adrian Mole: The Prostrate YearsBriar Book of the Dead

|genre=General FictionFantasy|summary=Adrian Mole is now 39¼ and living, quite literally, in a pigsty, sharing an all too thin party wall with his parents and working in a bookshop. It'' There's not quite how life was supposed to turn out. As he spends his days wrestling his strong willed 5 year old Gracie into her school uniform, trying to reassure glamorous wife Daisy a part of me that life in the provinces is not as bad as she would like wants to believe, and desperately attempting keep this just to talk his mother out myself for however long I can. This secret magic of her quest to appear on the vile ''Jeremy Kyle'' showmy own, all mine, worrying over his increasingly frequent visits to the toilet is really the at last thing he needs. And yet, the worst is still I just want to come. Think a crumbling economy, redundancy, affairs, death, a family member challenging him in the novel writing stakes and a query over the big C – enjoy it's going to be for a tough year for the Moles, and therewhile.'s little that ol' Adrian can do except sit back and watch his life spin out of control around him.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718153707</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Lauren Kate|title=Fallen|rating=4.5|genre=Teens|summary=A 17 year old girl at Within a new school meets remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a mysterious town under the protection of the Briar's, a family of witches who protect the town and impossibly goodthe wider world from the Darklands. Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is the first non-looking boywitch 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, who shethe town's immediately drawn toleader, and Ellie takes her place beside her. He seems determined to either ignore As challenges come her or be outright rude way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to hercommunicate with the dead, until he saves putting her lifeat 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 two of them end up drawn together. This isn't Stephenie Meyer's ''Twilight'Briar witches'legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, but it certainly has striking similaritiesis under threat.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0385738935</amazonuk>1803364548

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gareth Hinds1529900360|title=King LearThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman|rating=34|genre=Graphic NovelsCrime|summary=Hound me out 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 town in a most appropriate manner, but I do not like King Learpsychologist only worked for a while. For meFinally, even as a trained actorit was Robin, Delaware's partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the language is too dense and richman she loved needed. The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the set-up too archly unfeasible to create the great tragedy it's thought to beswimming pool of a remote property in Bel Air. To my mind He was the acclaim heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to an extremely rich man and esteem in which it's held is only mirrored by its own over-long, over-blown blusteringnot the Italian.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0763643440</amazonuk> But which of them was the primary target?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Paul Theroux1529395224|title=A Dead HandLetting the Cat Out of the Bag: A Crime in CalcuttaThe Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands

|genre=General FictionAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Set Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in Indiahis footsteps, familiar territory for Theroux, ''A Dead Hand'' tells particularly when he considered the story of a travel writer suffering from writerstrain that being on-call put on his father's block (also known as 'dead hand') until a chance letter from an American ex-pat, life. When he was seventeen he took the mysterious Mrs Unger, relating a story opportunity of doing work experience with a mystery of family friend who was a dead body in a hotel leads vet and was convinced this was the job for him to release . Before long, he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as with so many students - been his creativity in very unexpected waysdream since he was a child. The story is more about obsession and infatuation than it is about the mystery itself as the narrator falls under Mrs Unger If anything, he's Tantric charmsd wanted to be a professional footballer. But does she have more to hide than she's letting on?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241144639</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Toby Lester0861541774|title=The Fourth Part A Nye of the World: The Epic Story of History's Greatest MapPheasants|author=Steve Burrows|rating=4.5|genre=HistoryCrime|summary=In 2003 a map was bought for $10 millionDCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, the highest price ever paid publicly for has taken a historical document, by the Library of Congress, where it is now on permanent public display. No ordinary mapshort holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, this is sometimes described as America's birth certificateGuy Trueman. It is the sole survivor of a thousand copies printed early in the 16th century, and Maik was discovered by accident in some archives involved in a German castle in 1901. The sale and story behind it intrigued Toby Lester so much street brawl - he would later maintain that he was inspired to discover more, facing a man armed with a knife - and this book is the result.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1861978030</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Steven Lowe and Alan McArthur |title=Is it Just Me or Has the Shit Hit the Fan?: Your Hilarious New Guide to Unremitting Global Misery|rating=3|genre=Humour|summary=''The banks fell over like fat Labradors running over he killed a wet kitchen floorGhurka.'' Surely Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that is he might have planned to murder the wackiest, most inappropriate simile for the credit crunch and all it has done for man. Now he could be facing the worlddeath penalty. You won't get Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any such namby-pamby animal likenesses interference from these authors, instead with quite another police force could provoke a potty mouth on them they will lambast the modern world, the entire banking system, all those who failed to see it coming, diplomatic incident and those millions just seemingly waiting for us wouldn't help Danny at all to revert to high-interest, high-risk, high-lending capitalism, so they can get back on the expenses train, and back up the rich lists.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847443656</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Andy StantonAlexander McCall Smith|title=What's For Dinner, Mr Gum?The Perfect Passion Company

|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=As soon The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as heroine Polly turns an alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her back, younger cousin Katie if she could come and leaves look after the town of Lamonic Bibber business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a day at the seaside, Mr Gum falls while. Katie is coming out of a break up with his best frienda bad boyfriend, causing carnivorous carnage all over and so jumps at the placechance to come home to Edinburgh. Meat is getting thrown around like it's going out of fashionAnd so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, and bringing us to an Edinburgh we have already love, thanks to doubt whether Polly 44 Scotland Street and her companions can ever utilise the power of love and put things Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to rightscharm. Especially as this book does not contain Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a magic unicorn called Elizabeth.hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405248246</amazonuk>1846976596

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Loose Women0811771741|title=Here Come the GirlsInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman

|genre=Home and FamilyCrafts|summary=This is the second volume by the panelists from that nice ITV series, Melissa Leapman's 'Loose Women'InstaKnits for Baby'. Just as promised on the cover, this book is an entertaining night with the girls. It turns out that they're just like gives us. The faces are already familiar and even if you don't know them yet, with nine contributors, you'll soon find a like-minded woman behind one collection of the celebrity facesknits from toys to blankets. The women are universally warm-hearted and supportive: there Some will be many a lonely woman who reads this book and feels as if she sat down with a group quick knits - others are of friends for the evening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444700154</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jean Ure|title=Fortune Cookie|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Fudge Cassidy and the Cupcake kid are best friends. If 'long, cosy afternoons in front of the names remind you of a certain film then you'd be spot on as that's where Fudgefire's father got the idea fromvariety. They're actually chalk and cheese – Fudge is loud mouthed and opinionated and Cupcake is quiet and thoughtful – but The projects are divided by the combination works. Theytime they've just started at secondary school and Cupcake has rather a lot on her plate. Her brother Joey has muscular dystrophy ll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and his problems are becoming more obviousthan twenty hours. Add to this that her father couldn't cope with All the problems projects are attractive, modern and he now has another familyuseable. ItI perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's just Cupcake, Joey and her mother – and not a lot of moneyme being picky.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007224621</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jenifer RobertsDean Koontz|title=The Madness of Queen Maria: The Remarkable Life of Maria I of PortugalBad Weather Friend

|genre=BiographyParanormal|summary=Born in 1734 in LisbonBenny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, at that time the richest and most opulent city in Europesomeone has delivered a really weird, Maria disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was destined to become inside is the first female monarch in Portuguese history. thing that has trashed his house! Married The thing is, Benny is the very last person to her uncle Infante Pedro, seventeen years her senior, she had six children (outliving deserve all but one of them), and became Queen in 1777this bad luck. He is a nice person. A conscientious woman, she had really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the misfortune delivery to be born in during the 'age of reason'his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, when church and state were vying who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for supremacybeing a good person. Instinctively a supporter Spike is going to take care of the old religionBenny, with a humanitarian approach to state affairsand will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, she was no Queen Elizabethif he, no Catherine the GreatBenny, and wore her crown rather reluctantlyHarper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>095455891X</amazonuk>1662500491

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=David HughesAdam Stower|title=Thomas Wogan is DeadMurray and Bun

|genre=Graphic NovelsConfident Readers |summary=Well, with Murray is supposed to be a title like thathumble, need I bother with a plot summary? A man has a day out in Morecambetidy and friendly cat, then the next thing he knows he's in the ultimate waiting room, with a strange array of animals (a bat, a toadone who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, a sea urchin...), all waiting for... well, somethingwhatever takes his fancy next of the two. Yup, as you didn't need telling, But he's dead.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095580888X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Dave Eggers|title=The Wild Things|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=Meet Max. When I say he sometimes gets the wrong end of the stick about adults, or dislikes his mothera bad magician's new boyfriendcat, or gets so his favourite bun has been turned into a bit feisty when he feels hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the need for revengecatflap they both use can chuck them out, I am certainly understating not into the facts. He is regular back garden, but into a bit world of a rascal to say the leastfrightening adventure and whiffs. But all that might change when he finds himself travelling to This time round it drops them into a strange Viking land of roisterous animals, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but he's turned up and ends up installed as their king.he'll have to do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0241144221</amazonuk>0008561249