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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
|isbn= williamabbey1529428289|title=The Pursuit A Grave in the Woods (A Bruno, Chief of William AbbeyPolice Novel)|author=Claire NorthMartin Walker|rating=3.54|genre=ParanormalCrime|summary=When William Abbey fails to prevent Because of various property transactions, people were searching for the lynching grave but when they found it, it came with three sets of a young boy in 1880's South Africabones. They dated back to World War II and it fell to Bruno, he finds himself cursed by the grieving mother. A naïve English DoctorChief of Police for St Denis, he slowly learns to discover the weight identities of the curse upon himbodies and establish whether or not a crime had been committed. As if this isn't enough to worry about, as the shadow of Dordogne River - normally tranquil - is flowing at record levels. It's not just the local autumn rains that have caused the dead boy begins problem: various dams upstream on another river have had to follow him across release water and St Denis faces the worldpossibility of a devastating flood.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=152919640X|title=The Suspect|author=Rob Rinder|rating=4. Never stopping5|genre=Crime|summary=The nation's favourite daytime TV presenter, Jessica Holby, always growing – was murdered live on television and it crosses oceans seems that there's only one suspect. He's celebrity chef Sebastian Brooks and his contract stated that he must not serve anything containing miso to Jessica Holby. She's seriously allergic and mountains carries an EpiPen in pursuit case of Williamemergencies. As he finds himself unable to resist speaking the truths that he hears Everything seemed as normal - as normal as they can be in othersa busy, he also learns that the dark shadow is deadly – live television studio - and seeks Brooks served a ragout to Holby. Her EpiPen was nowhere to kill the one he loves the most…be found and she was dead within minutes. It was soon clear that this was no accident.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=16437850360008385068|title=The Wondrous ApothecaryMidnight Feast|author=Mary E MartinLucy Foley|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionThrillers|summary=Those who have known Alexander Wainwright, It's midsummer on the landscape artist famous for his Turner prize winning ''Dorset coast and guests gather at The Hay WagonManor. It'', s their opening weekend and Rinaldo, renowned conceptual artist would say that theysplendid celebrations are promised. It're chalk and cheese, if not sworn enemiess all headed up by Francesca Meadows. If youThe Manor was her ancestral home and she've watched s converted it into an impressive retreat for the relationship, as has our narrator, art dealer Jamie Helmsworth, you'd have said that they were magnets, drawing wealthy and repulsing each other in equal measurefamous. Wainwright Her husband, Owen, was at the socially acceptable end architect and work is still ongoing on parts of the artistic continuum, but with Rinaldo it was all too obvious that there was but a fine dividing line between conceptual art and public nuisancesite. As time has worn on, he's frequently been brought to The heat is oppressive and amongst the attention of the policeguests are enemies as well as friends. On this latest occasion we see him charged with arson Old scores are going to be settled and theft of ''The Hay Wagon'it won't be long before a body is found.
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{{Frontpage
|author=Mary H.K. ChoiAshley Hickson-Lovence|title=Permanent RecordWild East|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=PabloWritten in verse, this is Ronny's story, a college drop-out, is working young black fourteen year old boy from Hackney who suddenly has to move to Norwich and start at a New York bodegamostly white school. HeThe move is initiated by Ronny's massively in debt, hemum who is worried for Ronny's avoiding his mothersafety after a tragic event, and he so Ronny finds his joy himself trying to settle in creating unusual snacks with random ingredients! Whilst working one eveninga new town, he's surprised to discover that the girl he is chatting with as he serves is a super-famous pop star new school, andkeep himself out of trouble. He listens to music constantly, as unlikely as it may seem, they start and has always dreamed of being a relationshiprapper. With one character who is trying very hard not But now, in this new school, his teacher encourages him to be seen or noticed by anyonepart of a poetry writing workshop group and, slowly, and Ronny begins to see the other who is seen connections between rap and followed poetry, and hounded by everyone all over the world, it's an interesting clash as they come together. This isn't just a love story though, power of creativity and actually it's really just Pab's story, about the journey he takes in his life via his meet-up with Leanna Smartcrafting your words.|isbn=03490034590241645441
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=16098093191635866847|title=Long-Haired Cat-Boy CubThe Lavender Companion|author=Etgar Keret, Aviel Basil Jessica Dunham and Sondra Silverston (translator)Terry Barlin Vesci|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersLifestyle|summary=One day a boy It's strange, the things that make you ''immediately'' feel that this is in the zoo with his fatherbook for you. Before I started reading ''The Lavender Companion'', when I visited the man gets called away author's [https://www.pinelavenderfarm.com/ website] and there's a picture of a slice of chocolate cake on urgent businessthe homepage. The boy isnI don't hustled into a cab eat cakes and taken home first, though, no – hedesserts - but I wanted that cake viscerally. (There's given hot dog money, and taxi moneya recipe in the book, which I'm avoiding with some difficulty!!) Then I started reading the book and I was told to just stick around on his own and enjoy himselfmake a mess of it. Well, it's no surprise that Notes in the orphan-for-an-afternoon sensation margins are sanctioned. You get to fold down the lad feels doesn't make him happy, and so he thinks corners of pages. You suspect that smears of butter would not be a species name for himself, and curls himself up into an empty cage, as if he were a new exhibitproblem. And itI ''loved''s then the drama begins… this book already.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1785785516Rob Keeley|title=Fucking Good Manners|author=Simon GriffinChildish Spirits: 10th anniversary special edition
|rating=4
|genre=LifestyleConfident Readers|summary=Manners maketh manAround here, they saywe're big fans of children's author Rob Keeley. It certainly makes life easier if everybody abides by He's a set ball of conventionshappy positivity, he understands children, some of which are ages old and other which have evolved over time. Manners are he writes for their pleasure and enjoyment, not about how much to tip lecture or how you should behave if you get an invitation to Buckingham Palace, they have nothing to do with class or financial status: theyhector. The ''Childish Spirits''re about getting the basics right before we try to deal with more difficult mattersseries is one of his greatest achievements. Of course we all have more relaxed manners when weIt're s a sequence of ghost stories centring on Ellie, a stalwart young girl who can cope with family anything the spirit world throws at her, and friendsEdward, but it's best if we learn to distinguish between our public and private lives a spoiled lordling and to act appropriately. ''Fucking Good Manners'' aims to help us on the way.first spirit Ellie encounters|isbn= 1783064617
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0008324859Jenny Valentine|title=Fowl Twins|author=Eoin ColferUs in the Before and After
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Elk and Mab are best friends, or more than that even, their friendship is a once in a lifetime connection. They meet as children one day on a trip out but unfortunately they don't get each other's contact details at the time. But then chance brings them back together, and they are inseparable. Something has happened though, something terrible and tragic, and now they must work through their grief, and their friendship, together.
|isbn=1471196585
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Kieran Larwood and Joe Todd-Stanton
|title=Dungeon Runners: Hero Trial
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=RelaxMeet Kit. Like most of the people in his world, everyone it seems, he is an avid fan of Dungeon Running – our old friend Artemis may be off planet, but the baddies aren't getting away with skulduggery any time soon because they now have not one but two members sport where a team of the Fowl family to contend with. Those cute little twins are now eleven (warrior, mage andhealer enter specially prepared, franklycentury-old, cute no longer) and in thismagical mazes, their first independent adventure, they meet a troll and without even trying manage race to make two deadly enemies: a nobleman obsessed the exit, perhaps bothering with immortality whatever the cost (to other people), treasure or the big bad and an unusual interrogator-nunthe points they grant you along the way. The boys are chased Unfortunately for Kit, kidnappedthe only thing he's seen of the latest race on the inn TV equivalent is that one team has been retired, eaten, arrested and even killed (though not a new trio of questors is needed. Possibly very unfortunately indeed for long)Kit, all with he has taken to the goading from the help token bully of one trainee fairyhis world and stumbled into declaring he'll enter as a team. What chance does this friendless, muscle-free-zone have in actually managing that, and how could he possibly hope to succeed?|isbn=1839945184
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1472255798Saima Mir|title=Vengeance|rating=3.5|genre=Thrillers|summary= I was instantly intrigued by the premise of this novel – an organised crime syndicate in the north of England run by a Muslim woman. The Bad Fire fact that it was the second in a series I hadn't read didn't stop me – I've jumped midway into a few series before (Bob Skinneron page and screen)and it needn't be a hindrance if it's good enough. And that wasn't a problem here. Vengeance swiftly brings you up to speed, and I never felt lost.|isbn=0861541561}} {{Frontpage|author=Quintin JardineStuart Douglas|title=Lowe and Le Breton Mysteries - Death at the Dress Rehearsal|rating=43.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Nine years ago local councillor Marcia Brown took her own life after being accused of shoplifting from a local supermarket. ItDuring location filming for his 1970's always been assumed that she couldnsitcom 't live with Floggit and Leggit', leading man Edward Lowe stumbles across the shame. People were surprised that she committed suicide just before the court case when she had been adamant that she would fight to clear her name. She said that she'd been set up because she was hot dead body of a woman on the trail edge of corruption in the councila reservoir. Her ex-husband has contacted Alex Skinner The police seem happy to assign it as an accidental death, Solicitor Advocate as well as retired Police Constable Bob Skinner's daughterbut something about the whole thing bothers Lowe, and asked that she look into clearing Brown's name: it's something which he feels that he has enlists the help of a fellow actor, John Le Breton to help him investigate matters further. They travel across the country during their days off filming, uncovering more possible murders and, seemingly, a link to death during the Second World War. But is there really a link between the deaths? And will they manage to do in memory of his son uncover who was murdered recently.is responsible before more people lose their lives?|isbn=1803368209
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B07X6GLQ3QB0CYV674G2|title=See Them RunSwanton Morley (John Tanner)|author=Marion ToddDavid Blake|rating=43.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=D I Clare Mackay is still relatively new to St Andrew's: she was previously at Maryhill Rd station It seemed like an open-and-shut case. A man, covered in Glasgow. She's left quite mud and blood - and carrying a lot behind including a relationship knife, comes into the police station shouting that wasnhe hasn't going anywhere after Tom failed to support her when killed the chips were downman. She also left A body at the bottom of a nasty situationfreshly dug grave at Swanton Morley church - he's been stabbed to death. DCI John Tanner is just back from his honeymoon, which coincided with the birth of her own making his daughter Samantha. You would think he'd be grateful for an easy answer but not her fault, the words 'perverse' and St Andrew's is a fresh startJohn Tanner' were made for each other. Not long into the job sheHe's faced with a hit and run death and theresleep-deprived to the point of falling asleep at work but he's little doubt that it wasndetermined to keep going - probably because he can't accidental - the card with the number five suggests murderget any sleep at home. Andy Robb }}{{Frontpage|isbn=1787333175|title=You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji Waterhouse|rating=5|genre=Popular Science|summary=I was married tempted to Sandra. read ''You could say that they had an open marriage but there seemed Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here'' after enjoying Adam Kay's first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is Going to Hurt}}, a lot glorious mixture of insight into the workings of the NHS, humour and autobiography. ''You Don't Have to be Mad...'open' promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to mental illness and very little the work of a psychiatrist. I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in this setting but the 'marriage' left - on both sides, but would she want him dead?laughter is directed at a situation rather than a person and it is always delivered with empathy and understanding.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1786540991Onyi Nwabineli|title=The Impossible Boy|author=Ben BrooksAllow 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-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
|author=Tom Percival
|title=The Wrong Shoes
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Will'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'Oleg t have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and Emma entered their den to find his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a cardboard spaceship standing where they usually satbuilding site and had an accident. Slowly Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, the front door opened. Smoke billowed outand Will's life seems bleak in every direction. And out stepped yet, he still has a boytiny amount of hope. He is good at art, dressed in and clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the end of a long coat with an even longer scarf, wound around his neckdark tunnel.''|isbn=1398527122}}{{Frontpage|author=Sylvie Cathrall''"My name's Sebastian Cole," |title=A Letter to the boy said, "But you already know that."''Luminous Deep|rating=5|genre=Science FictionAnd indeed they do. Ever since the summer, when their friend Sarah's mother had moved her away, Oleg and Emma have been unable |summary= There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to find a new friend to take her placecompelling premise. And this is one of them.|isbn= 0356522776
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=14472813570008517061|title=Salvation LostDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Peter F HamiltonStig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=Science FictionCrime|summary=In Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the twentyfuture of his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-third century, humanity 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 a comparative utopia. Yet life in the present and putting the future on Earth is about to change, forever. Feriton Kane's investigative team has discovered the worst threat ever to face mankind – and we've almost no time to fight backburner. }}{{Frontpage|isbn=1786482126|title=The supposedly benign Olyix plan to harvest humanity, Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house in order Norwich - the site was going to carry us to their god at hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the end bones of the universea 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. And It's difficult as their agents conclude schemes down on earthRuth knows, vast warships converge above to gather this cargo. Some factions push for humanity to fleebut Nelson doesn't, to live in hiding amongst that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the stars – although only a chosen few would make it out in timeone night they spent together some three months ago. But others refuse to break Her condition will be obvious before the storm. As disaster loomslong, animosities must be set aside not least because Ruth is prone to focus on just one goal: wiping this enemy from the face sudden bouts of creation. Even if it means preparing for a future this generation will never seesickness.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=14711863930008551324|title=Photographer of the LostThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Caroline ScottNeil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical FictionCrime|summary=May 1921It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Edie receives a photograph through Neither side likes or has any respect for the postother. There But Davie Hardie is no letter or note with it. There is nothing written on struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the police where the back body of the photograph. It is a picture of her husband, Francis. Francis has been missing person is buried and who was responsible for four yearsher death. TechnicallyThis person, he has been "missingpromises, believed killed" but that is not something that a young widow can believesomeone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants. She hangs on And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the word remainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date. Not much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn'missingt think so and she', disbelieving s even prepared to do the word killedother 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=17837843500008405026|title=This Golden Fleece: A Journey Through Britain's Knitted HistoryStranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Esther RutterJane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=HistoryCrime|summary=It 's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was December never found and Esther Rutter was stuck in her office job, writing the investigation ground to people she'd never met and preparing spreadsheetsa halt. The job frustrated Now, her mother, Helena, and even her knitting did not soothe her mindfather are dead in their bed. January was going to be Initially, it looks like a time for making changes and she decided that she would travel straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the length and breadth positioning of the British Isles with occasional forays abroad, discovering bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and telling the story of wool's history and how her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it had made was going to be an open-and changed the landscape-shut case is now a complex double murder. She'd grown up on a sheep farm Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Suffolk - Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent' a free range child on the farm'' - and learned to spins boss, knit and weave from her mother and her mother's friend. This was in her bloodUna Burt) are less convinced.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=14012862080571379877|title=Black Canary: IgniteThe Kellerby Code|author=Meg Cabot and Cara McGeeJonny Sweet
|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Meet Dinah Lance. Frustrated that her policeman father will not allow her to try and follow in Edward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his footstepsupper-class friends, Robert and seemingly lumbered with being Stanza. Robert's a cheerleader at school, she is desperate to find her voicetheatre director. But it He's actually more a case of her voice finding heralso self-obsessed, as when she gets frustrated or plain dissed at school her vocal outcry can shatter glass better than any opera singer. You could almost call it a weapondemanding, or a powerhandsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for him. But Edward has been in order for her love with Stanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to call herself Robert. Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a superhero, there has relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to be stumble upon the two of them kissing in a whole path of steps for her to take – one of which will be into her past…dark passageway.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1789017977Jo Callaghan|title=Ronnie and Hilda's Romance: Towards a New Life after World War II|author=Wendy WilliamsLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=HistoryCrime|summary=Ronnie Williams was When a man is found crucified on the son top of Thomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) and Ethel Walla hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. ThereIt's some doubt as their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to whether or not their AI Future Policing project. Will they were ever married or even Harry's birthdate: he claimed be able to have been born solve the case in 1863time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of a career?|isbn=139851120X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1399613073|title=Moral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=Thrillers|summary=Olivia, but he was already many years older than Ethel Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and he might well have shaved 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 few years off his agecardiothoracic surgeon. For Laura is a perfectionist and a while trauma doctor. Anjali is the family was quite wellfree 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-do but disaster struck end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the 1929 Depression and consequences. Twenty-five-year-old Ronnie had years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. 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 adjust bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to a very different lifestylethink of someone like Gary Stevenson. One thing A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, where he did inherit from his father was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his need CV - but he had been to be wellthe London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright -turnedextremely bright -out and this would stay he has a facility with him throughout his lifenumbers which most of us can only envy. He joined the army also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It was his ability at eighteen in 1942what was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=15420154211035021803|title=The Royal Baths Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=J R EllisC L Miller
|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=When Damian Penrose was murdered there was no shortage of suspects: he was a deeply unpleasant manIt's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up. In fact the only surprising thing was that there wasnShe't more s back now because of a queue waiting to do the dirty deedrequest for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. What was a bit of a headline maker was that Penrose was a crime writer Freya's former mentor and that he was strangled in the midst of HarrogateCarole's crime writing festival. He went for a swim at close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the Royal Baths and never returnedcircumstances seem suspicious, his body being found by to say the receptionistleast. DCI Jim Oldroyd Arthur was the man tasked with investigating reason why Freya had not been back to the crimevillage: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. It would Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the man or pursue the only deathprofession she loved. After the split, she worked in a cafe, met and it was only because of married James (on the rebound from the quick actions love of his sergeanther life, Andy Carter, that Oldroyd's who was not one of themmurdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Daniel KrausAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=Blood SugarAll Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=45|genre=General Science Fiction|summary=This is a difficult read. And not because ''Opening up new ways of thinking about the dark subject matter – shape of things to come.'' I've heard it said that'll come later – but because of the way in which ittechnology' is what happens after you's toldre eighteen. This might put Well, I must confess that there have been more than a lot few decades of readers off, and to be honest it'd be hard to blame themtechnology in my lifetime. Kraus tells the story in a distinctive voice unlike any other I've read; an erratic dialect kept up reasonably well with heavy and frequent slang. The immediate effect is disorientating and distracting, and it takes some time to feel natural. Itwhat's a struggle advantageous to acclimatise to Jodyme but I's voice, to get acquainted m left with his mannerisms, but the story wouldnfeeling that it't be the same without s all getting away from me. Some of itis - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and somehow it worksend up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. It shouldn't, but it does I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand.|isbn=1789091934
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Don BehrendSunny Singh|title=Copernicus! What Have You Done?: ...and Other Interesting QuestionsHotel Arcadia|rating=43.5|genre=TriviaThrillers |summary= Hello! Would this review 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 okay if I simply said cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what''I LOVED THIS GLORIOUS LITTLE BOOK AND SO WILL YOUs happened through her photography. FIN''?! Because I did. And you 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 willbe rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists. |isbn=1789016770086154742X}}
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|isbn=19258200251529153298|title=Once, I was LovedThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Belinda LandsberryJennie Godfrey|rating=45|genre=For SharingGeneral Fiction|summary=TockIt's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, the toy rabbit, is in a box of toys going to the charity shophonestly... ) He realises that heShe's not wanted any morewhat's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, but muses that it wasnto have 'disappeared' doesn't always this waysound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she'Onces 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, he saysSharon, and she''I was loved''ll do anything to prevent that. And he tells us of all She's not worried about the children who have loved him over the yearsdangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.
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|authorisbn= Karina Sainz Borgo and Elizabeth Bryer (translator)1398524085|title= It Would Be Night in CaracasHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating= 45|genre= Literary Fiction 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''It Would Be Night s father, Duncan Ackerley, in Caracas'' illuminates the everyday horrors of modern day Venezuelariver. It begins with was an easy assumption for the death of Adelaida Falconpolice to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn's mother and chronicles Adelaidat stand the guilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there's coming to terms little else they can do but get on with her new solitude in this world their lives and her attempts to escape itwonder about what really happened. Danger stalks the shadows and, in a society where the establishment is crumbling, who can you turn to? |isbn=0062936867
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|isbn=03494230671035906708|title=The Body on the Train (Kate Shackleton Mysteries)Diva|author=Frances BrodyDaisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime (Historical)General Fiction|summary=From Christmas We tend to Easter a train ran from Leeds City Station think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to King’s CrossGreek parents in Manhattan, arriving before dawn so that the forced rhubarb it carried could be taken to Covent Garden. In early March 1929 one of the porters who was unloading the boxes discovered the body of a manNew York, stripped naked and with no means of identification. Scotland Yard hit a dead end and called on the services of Kate Shackleton in the hope that her knowledge December 1923 and connections in Yorkshire would give them the lead they needed. Kate immediately found herself hamstrung: Commander Woodhead remembered her as a child and could not come only moved to terms with the fact that Athens when she was now a woman experienced in dealing with murderthirteen. He Her original surname was reluctant Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas' to give her all the information which make it more manageable in the police heldStates.}}{{Frontpage|author= Stephen Baxter|title= World Engines: Destroyer|rating= 4|genre= Science Fiction|summary= Hundreds of years When she was back in the future, on a stagnating and almost empty Earth, a space shuttle pilot from the early days of the 21st century is awoken from the cryogenic sleep he entered after a devastating accident. As he comes to terms with this new world, he begins to realise Athens - supposedly so that their history does not match what he remembers she could get appropriate training for her voice - and that only he may be able to stop the coming catastrophe destined to destroy she was raised under the planet. Until he meets Nazi occupation by a young woman mother who seems to have a drive mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her ownpreference for her elder sister, and a plan.Jackie..|isbn=1473223172
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