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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.
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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|isbn=1529428289|title=A Grave in the Woods (A Bruno, Chief of Police Novel)|author=Martin Walker|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=Because of various property transactions, people were searching for the grave but when they found it, it came with three sets of bones. They dated back to World War II and it fell to Bruno, the Chief of Police for St Denis, to discover the identities of the bodies and establish whether or not a crime had been committed. As if this isn't enough to worry about, the Dordogne River -normally tranquil - INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->is flowing at record levels. It's not just the local autumn rains that have caused the problem: various dams upstream on another river have had to release water and St Denis faces the possibility of a devastating flood.}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Cixin Liu152919640X|title=Death's EndThe Suspect|author=Rob Rinder|rating=4.5|genre=Science FictionCrime|summary= If IThe nation'd been paying more attention when I picked this book ups favourite daytime TV presenter, I would have put it back on the shelf. Not because I didn't want to read itJessica Holby, but because I'd have figured out that it was the final part of a trilogy. Coming in part way through a saga is never the easiest thing to do murdered live on television and itseems that there's particularly true in science fiction because without knowing the back-story there are not just people whose names mean nothing to you (when itonly one suspect. He's assumed they will) but there are whole concepts celebrity chef Sebastian Brooks and his contract stated that you won't understandhe must not serve anything containing miso to Jessica Holby. This latter is particularly true of Cixin LiuShe's work – his range is phenomenalseriously allergic and carries an EpiPen in case of emergencies. George R R Martin, who knows a thing or two about worldEverything seemed as normal -creation, described it as ''normal as they can be in a unique blend of scientific busy, live television studio - and philosophical speculation, conspiracy theory Brooks served a ragout to Holby. Her EpiPen was nowhere to be found and cosmology''she was dead within minutes. All of It was soon clear that and morethis was no accident.|isbn=1784971650
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=17808945110008385068|title=Die AloneThe Midnight Feast|author=Simon KernickLucy Foley|rating=4.5
|genre=Thrillers
|summary=Ray Mason is in prison awaiting trial for murder and heIt's in midsummer on the vulnerable prisoner unit: as a cop heDorset coast and guests gather at The Manor. It's something of a target, but the unit is not as secure as the inmates would have hoped their opening weekend and Mason is injured in a riotsplendid celebrations are promised. On his way to hospital heIt's broken free all headed up by armed men Francesca Meadows. The Manor was her ancestral home and she's converted it into an offer is made to himimpressive retreat for the wealthy and famous. He's to assassinate Her husband, Owen, was the man who architect and work is likely to become still ongoing on parts of the country's next prime minister and he'll then be given a new identity so that he can start afresh abroadsite. His captors say that they're MI6, but Mason has his doubtsThe heat is oppressive and amongst the guests are enemies as well as friends. His choices Old scores are limited though going to be settled and he has personal reasons to believe that it would won't be better if Alastair Sheridan was deadlong before a body is found.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Akwaeke EmeziAshley Hickson-Lovence|title=PetWild East
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=The people of the town Lucille believe that all the monsters are goneWritten in verse, this is Ronny's story, a young black fourteen year old boy from Hackney who suddenly has to move to Norwich and start at a mostly white school. Their children are raised to understand that they were saved The move is initiated by the angelsRonny's mum who is worried for Ronny's safety after a tragic event, those who rid the and so Ronny finds himself trying to settle in a new town , a new school, and keep himself out of eviltrouble. He listens to music constantly, and there are no monsters anymorehas always dreamed of being a rapper. But one daynow, in this new school, his teacher encourages him to be part of a poetry writing workshop group and, slowly, Jam accidentally cuts herselfRonny begins to see the connections between rap and poetry, and bleeds a little onto one the power of her mothercreativity and crafting your words.|isbn=0241645441}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1635866847|title=The Lavender Companion|author=Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci|rating=4.5|genre=Lifestyle|summary=It's paintingsstrange, the things that make you ''immediately'' feel that this is the book for you. Before I started reading ''The blood awakens Lavender Companion'', I visited the author's [https://www.pinelavenderfarm.com/ website] and there's a bizarre, terrifyingpicture of a slice of chocolate cake on the homepage. I don't eat cakes and desserts -looking creature named Petbut I wanted that cake viscerally. (There's a recipe in the book, who somehow comes which I'm avoiding with some difficulty!!) Then I started reading the book and I was told to life and declares that make a mess of it is here to hunt . Notes in the monstermargins are sanctioned. Though Jam tries You get to convince it that all fold down the monsters are gone, Pet is certain that there is one, still, and corners of pages. You suspect that the monster is hiding in the home smears of her best friend, Redemptionbutter would not be a problem. I ''loved'' this book already.|isbn=0571355110
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1686751680Rob Keeley|title=My Mummy does weird things / Maman fait des choses bizarres|author=Amelie Julien and GustyawanChildish Spirits: 10th anniversary special edition
|rating=4
|genre=For SharingConfident Readers|summary=Which child doesn't think that there mother is, wellAround here, we're big fans of children'weirds author Rob Keeley. He''? It might be that in the morning s a ball of happy positivity, he understands children, and he writes for their mother doesn't like speaking muchpleasure and enjoyment, when every self-respecting child knows that that is when you're at your brightest with lots not to say? lecture or hector.  The ''WhyChildish Spirits'' then does Mummy stick her fingers in her ears? Then thereseries is one of his greatest achievements. It's doing yoga in front a sequence of ghost stories centring on Ellie, a stalwart young girl who can cope with anything the televisionspirit world throws at her, which could be worrying if it wasn't so funny. We won't go into too much detail about what goes on in the bathroom and the colour changes which have occured when Mummy emerges Edward, a spoiled lordling and frankly, the less said the better about her reactions to your artistic efforts on the wall. I mean, what else would you use paint for?first spirit Ellie encounters|isbn= 1783064617
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Justine Avery Jenny Valentine|title=Us in the Before and Liuba SyrotiukAfter|rating=5|titlegenre=Teens|summary=What Wonders Do You SeeElk 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. When You Dream?|isbn=1471196585}}{{Frontpage|author=Kieran Larwood and Joe Todd-Stanton|title=Dungeon Runners: Hero Trial
|rating=4
|genre=For SharingConfident Readers|summary=Meet Kit. Like most of the people in his world, it seems, he is an avid fan of Dungeon Running – the sport where a team of warrior, mage and healer enter specially prepared, century-old, magical mazes, and race to the exit, perhaps bothering with the treasure or the big bad and the points they grant you along the way. Unfortunately for Kit, the only thing he''The day s seen of the latest race on the inn TV equivalent is that one team has been retired, eaten, and a new trio of questors is needed. Possibly very unfortunately indeed for Kit, he has endedtaken to the goading from the token bully of his world and stumbled into declaring he''<br>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}}{{Frontpage|author=Saima 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 fact that it was the second in a series I hadn't read didn'Hasnt stop me – I't ve jumped midway into a few series before (on page and screen) and it been splendid?needn'' <br>''But now, t be a hindrance if it's timegood enough. And that wasn't a problem here. Vengeance swiftly brings you up to speed, to be sure'' <br>and I never felt lost.|isbn=0861541561''For an entirely different adventure'' <br>}}
I hope you haven't forgotten how it feels to be much too excited for bed{{Frontpage|author=Stuart Douglas|title=Lowe and Le Breton Mysteries - Death at the Dress Rehearsal|rating=3. If you're a parent at least, you'll know how it is to persuade an excited small person that yes, it is in fact time 5|genre=Crime|summary=During location filming for bed. his 1970's sitcom 'What Wonders DoYou See...Floggit and Leggit'' sets out to cater to these children, leading man Edward Lowe stumbles across the dead body of a woman on the edge of a reservoir. Instead of trying The police seem happy to persuade them that night time is calm time, assign it takes a slightly different tack. It tells them that sleep is actually as an exciting time: accidental death, but something about the whole thing bothers Lowe, and he enlists the help of a time of dreams in which imagination takes over and has no limitfellow actor, John Le Breton to help him investigate matters further. But They travel across the trick in accessing this wonderful country during their days off filming, uncovering more possible murders and exciting world, is seemingly, a link to get calm and relaxed first so that you can easily fall asleep and open death during the door to itSecond World War. But is there really a link between the deaths? And will they manage to uncover who is responsible before more people lose their lives?|isbn=194812422X 1803368209
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B0CYV674G2|title=Swanton Morley (John Tanner)|author=Michael HarrisDavid Blake|titlerating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=Solitude: In Pursuit It seemed like an open-and-shut case. A man, covered in mud and blood - and carrying a knife, comes into the police station shouting that he hasn't killed the man. A body at the bottom of a Singular Life in a Crowded Worldfreshly 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 his daughter Samantha. You would think he'd be grateful for an easy answer but the words 'perverse' and 'John Tanner' were made for each other. He's sleep-deprived to the point of falling asleep at work but he's determined to keep going - probably because he can't get any sleep at home.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1787333175|title=You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji Waterhouse
|rating=5
|genre=LifestylePopular Science|summary= This is not the book I was expecting it tempted to read ''You Don't Have to be. For some reason I expected it Mad to be another self-help manual on how Work Here'' after enjoying Adam Kay's first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is Going to find calmHurt}}, how to step outside a glorious mixture of insight into the workings of the mainstreamNHS, but it is not that at allhumour and autobiography. Instead of telling us how, it is more about the ''whyYou Don't Have to be Mad...'. Harries examines how we're eroding solitude, which used promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to be a natural part of our human life, and why that matters. Of course he talks about how some people have found solitude and what has come of that, mental illness and eventually in the final chapter he talks about his own experience work of having deliberately sought a psychiatrist. I did wonder whether it out, was acceptable to be looking for humour in this setting but mostly he wanders down the alleys laughter is directed at a situation rather than a person and it is always delivered with empathy and by-ways that his thinking about this lost art led himunderstanding.|isbn=1847947662
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Andy BriggsOnyi Nwabineli|title=Ctrl+SAllow Me to Introduce Myself|rating=4.5|genre=Science General Fiction|summary= Life in Anuri spent her childhood on display to the near futureworld, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's not all bad. We've reversed global warming and fixed the collapsing bee population. We even created SPACEincreasingly popular presence on social media, a virtual-sensory universe where average guys like Theo Wilson can do almost anything they desire. But almost anything isnshe posted every step of Anuri't enough s childhood for some. Every daysponsorships and influencer deals and, normal people are being takenbasically, their emotions harvested - monetary gain. Now Anuri is in her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and lives traded to get her life back, suing her step- mother to create death-defying thrills for take down the rich content about her. Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and twistedsecretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. Now Theo’s mother has disappeared. And as he follows Most importantly, she is desperately worried about her breadcrumb trail little sister, who is the new focus of clues, heOphelia'll come up against the most dangerous SPACE has to offer: vPolices online empire. Can she save her sister, AI Bots and anarchists - as well as a criminal empire that will kill to stop him finding perhaps herself and her relationship with her . . .father at the same time?|isbn=14091846410861546873
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1609809378David Chadwick|title=The Rabbits' Rebellion|author=Ariel Dorfman and Chris RiddellHeadload 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=WeWill're s life is difficult, in the realm a multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the rabbitswrong shoes', only he has the foxes wrong shoes because his dad can't work and wolves doesn't have taken over. King Wolfenough money for even the most basic of things like food, His Wolfiness, has declared the rabbits donand his dad can't existwork because he lost his job at the college, but was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. Throw into that mix the pesky birds have spread rumours from awing fact that the bunnies his mum and dad are separated, and Will's life seems bleak in fact every direction. And yet, he still aroundhas a tiny amount of hope. Demanding a propaganda spreeHe is good at art, King Wolf orders a humble monkey and clings to be his official portrait photographer, but whatever the poor innocent monkey prints out in his darkroom there moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a distinct leporine hint. Can King Wolf succeed in proving himself victorious, can light at the rabbits show their continued existence to all who need to know end of it – and what can the poor monkey caught in between do?a long, dark tunnel.|isbn=1398527122
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Innosanto NagaraSylvie Cathrall|title=M is for MovementA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=45|genre=Emerging ReadersScience Fiction|summary=Set in Indonesia, in the not too distant past, this is There are few greater joys than a story about social change. Dealing with some difficult issues, such as political corruption and nepotism, the book is neither boring nor preachywhich lives up to a compelling premise. It educates gently, with vibrant, challenging illustrations, and it portrays how social movements need people who will try, even when it seems that they will fail. The message And this is a positive one; that in an increasingly uncertain world, we do still have the power to instigate changeof them.|isbn=16098093510356522776
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=17807240470008517061|title=A Dictionary of Interesting and Important DogsDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Peter J ConradiStig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=PetsCrime|summary=I struggle to resist a book about dogsFormer Metropolitan Police detective, but I did wonder why this one was so ''thin'': given that I've never encountered a dog who wasn't interesting or important - and probably bothJake Johnson, I was expecting a massive tomehas settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. But ''A Dictionary There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the future of Interesting his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and Important Dogs'' is actually ''her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a rich compendium lot of the world's most significant compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and beloved dogs'' and it's certainly a rich treasure trove. We begin relaxing life to move in with Peter J Conradi's four collies: Cloudy, Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky. Bradley and Max. They're consecutive rather than simultaneous dogs, but what comes over despite her reservations about whether or not this is Conradi's love the future she wants for each herself and every one of them. her daughter? I knew that I was For the moment they’re enjoying life in safe handsthe present and putting the future on the back burner.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=17857692941786482126|title=Man at the Window The Janus Stone (Detective CardiliniDr Ruth Galloway)|author=Robert JeffreysElly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=ItBuilders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury's apartments - when we read that they discovered the bones of a young boy is creeping reluctantly to child beneath a teacher's bedroom one October night that we realise something is badly wrongdoorway. Nowadays you ''might'' hope that something would be done about it fairly quickly but this There was 1965 and child abuse was generally regarded as malicious mischief on the part of the childno skull. The boy would be safe that night though - albeit in the most horrific fashionWas this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. When he reached Captain EdmundIt's bedroom he found the man dead on the floordifficult as Ruth knows, the top of his skull missing. The schoolbut Nelson doesn's initial reaction was t, that this was a dreadful accident: there had been she is pregnant with his child as a cull result of kangaroos in the one night they spent together some nearby fields and it was obviously a stray bullet which had killed the Captainthree months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=17866952270008551324|title=Invisible in a Bright LightThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Sally GardnerNeil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=The beginning It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the police where the body of this excellent story will leave the reader more than a little confused: missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. This person, he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the man in the green suit, police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the Reckoningremainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date. Not much to ask, and why are rows of people in a caveis it? But stick The new 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 it – Ms Gardner him is very cleverly letting us experience kept well away from what's happening.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008405026|title=A Stranger in the same disorientation as our heroineFamily (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. We watch in dismay as She was never found and the strange maninvestigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, who seems to have no eyesHelena, does his best to persuade and her to answer his questionsfather are dead in their bed. But for some reason Celeste Initially, despite it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her bewildermentboss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, remains wary and gives nothing awayUna Burt) are less convinced.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=19123748540571379877|title=VioletThe Kellerby Code|author=S J I HollidayJonny Sweet
|rating=3.5
|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=I've never been but understand that travelling Edward Jevons is all about meeting new people a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and forming instantaneous bonds with people in often chance situationsStanza. Well that Robert's exactly what happens when the two main/only characters meet in a travel agency in Beijing theatre director. He's also self- Carrie is unsuccessfully trying obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and uses Edward to get a refund on an extra ticket run errands for the Transhim. Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days -Siberian train and Violet he's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. Most men in Robert's 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 trying left to unsuccessfully buy a ticket for the same sold-out journey. As stumble upon the two team up, travelling through Mongolia, Serbia and into Russia, it could've been the start of them kissing in a beautiful friendship but this a thriller after all so it quickly becomes a tale of obsession, manipulation and toxic friendshipsdark passageway.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1912374838Jo Callaghan|title=Nothing Important Happened Today|author=Will CarverLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Nothing Important Happened Today When a man is found crucified on the top of a darkhill in Nuneaton, twistedDCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, difficult readthe AI detective Lock. Stories about cults often are, but this is different; it It's written their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. But when there is a sense of style that second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is quite unlike anything I've read before. I can't remember ever having read a novel suddenly struggling with such an odd, distinctive narrative voice. While a slim potential serial killer and relatively small booka very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the slow-moving nature case and, potentially, out of the plot makes it feel far larger than its 276 pages.a career?|isbn=139851120X
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn= williamabbey1399613073|title=The Pursuit of William AbbeyMoral Injuries|author=Claire NorthChristie Watson|rating=34.5|genre=ParanormalThrillers|summary=When William Abbey fails to prevent Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the lynching first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a young boy in 1880's South Africacentury. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, he finds himself cursed by the grieving motherwhich is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. A naïve English Doctor, he slowly learns Anjali is the weight free spirit of the curse upon him, as 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 shadow of tragedy or the dead boy begins to follow him across consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the worldthree friends. Never stopping This time, always growing – it crosses oceans and mountains in pursuit of William's their teenage children who are involved. As he finds himself unable to resist speaking the truths that he hears in others, he also learns that the dark shadow is deadly – and seeks to kill the one he loves the most…
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=16437850360241636604|title=The Wondrous ApothecaryTrading Game: A Confession|author=Mary E MartinGary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionAutobiography|summary=Those who have known Alexander Wainwright, the landscape artist famous for his Turner prize winning ''The Hay Wagon'', and Rinaldo, renowned conceptual artist would say that they're chalk and cheese, if not sworn enemies. If you've watched the relationship, as has our narrator, art dealer Jamie Helmsworthwere to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you'd have said that they were magnets, drawing and repulsing each other in equal measurere unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. Wainwright was at A hoodie and jeans replaces the socially acceptable end of pin-stripe suit and his background is the artistic continuumEast End, but where he was familiar with Rinaldo it was all too obvious that there was but a fine dividing line between conceptual art violence, poverty and public nuisanceinjustice. As time has worn There was no posh public school on, his CV - but he's frequently had been brought to the attention London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with numbers which most of the policeus can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. On this latest occasion we see It was his ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him charged an internship with arson and theft of ''The Hay Wagon''Citibank. Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Mary H.K. Choi1035021803|title=Permanent RecordThe Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=43.5|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Pablo, It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up. She's back now because of a college drop-outrequest for help from her beloved aunt, is working at a New York bodegaCarole. HeFreya's massively in debt, heformer mentor and Carole's avoiding his motherclose friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and he finds his joy in creating unusual snacks with random ingredients! the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. Whilst working one evening, he's surprised Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to discover that the girl he is chatting with as he serves is a super-famous pop star andvillage: Arthur, as unlikely as it may seemshe feels, they start a relationshiplet her down badly. With one character who is trying very hard Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be seen near the man or noticed by anyone, and pursue the other who is seen and followed and hounded by everyone all over profession she loved. After the worldsplit, it's an interesting clash as they come together. This isn't just she worked in a love story thoughcafe, met and actually it's really just Pab's story, about married James (on the rebound from the journey he takes in his love of her life via his meet-up with Leanna Smart, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.|isbn=0349003459
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1609809319AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=Long-Haired Cat-Boy CubAll Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Etgar Keret, Aviel Basil Benjamin Greenaway and Sondra Silverston Stephen Oram (translatorEditors)
|rating=5
|genre=Confident ReadersScience Fiction|summary=One day ''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 boy is 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 zoo with his fatherfeeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of it is - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, when 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 man gets called away on urgent businesslatest 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 boy isn't hustled into Hotel Arcadia is a cab and luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken home firstover by a terrorist group. Hiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, thoughkilling everyone on site, no – he's given hot dog moneythere is Sam, a wartime photographer and taxi moneyAbhi, and told to just stick around on his own and enjoy himselfthe hotel manager. Well, it's no surprise that As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the orphan-for-an-afternoon sensation residents who are still alive in the lad feels doesn't make him happyhotel, and so he thinks of forms a species name for himselfbond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and curls himself up into an empty cagekeeps 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 he were a new exhibitthey will be rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists. And it's then the drama begins… |isbn=086154742X
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=17857855161529153298|title=Fucking Good MannersThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Simon GriffinJennie Godfrey|rating=45|genre=LifestyleGeneral Fiction|summary=Manners maketh manIt's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, they sayhonestly... ) It certainly makes life easier if everybody abides by a set of conventionsShe's not what's worrying Miv's family, some of which are ages old and other which though. Women have evolved over timebeen disappearing. Manners are not about how much to tip or how you should behave if you get an invitation to Buckingham PalaceWell, they 've been murdered, but to have nothing to do with class or financial status: 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. theyMiv's upset because she're about getting s overheard that her father wants to move the basics right before we try to deal with more difficult mattersfamily 'Down South'. Of course we all have more relaxed manners when weWhen you're with family and friendsfrom Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, but it's the move would mean leaving her best if we learn to distinguish between our public and private lives friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to act appropriatelyprevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum'Fucking Good Manners'' aims s stopped talking - to help us on the wayanyone.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=00083248591398524085|title=Fowl TwinsHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Eoin ColferNicci French
|rating=5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=RelaxCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, everyone – our old friend Artemis may be off planetsons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, Etty. are all worried but the baddies aren't getting away with skulduggery any time soon because they now have - strangely - her husband, Alec, is not one but two members of the Fowl family to contend with. Those cute little twins are now eleven ( Shortly afterwards, Etty andGreg, find the body of Greg's father, franklyDuncan Ackerley, cute no longer) and in this, their first independent adventure, they meet a troll and without even trying manage the river. It was an easy assumption for the police to make two deadly enemies: a nobleman obsessed with immortality whatever that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the cost (to other people), and an unusual interrogator-nunguilt. The boys Salter children are chased, kidnapped, arrested and even killed (though not for long), all convinced but there's little else they can do but get on with the help of one trainee fairytheir lives and wonder about what really happened.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=14722557981035906708|title=The Bad Fire (Bob Skinner)Diva|author=Quintin JardineDaisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction|summary=Nine years ago local councillor Marcia Brown took her own life after being accused We tend to think of shoplifting from a local supermarketMaria 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. It Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 's always been assumed that she couldnCallas't live with to make it more manageable in the shameStates. People were surprised that When she committed suicide just before the court case when she had been adamant was back in Athens - supposedly so that she would fight to clear could get appropriate training for her name. She said that she'd been set up because voice - she was hot on raised under the trail Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of corruption in the council. Her ex-husband has contacted Alex Skinnerher preference for her elder sister, Solicitor Advocate as well as retired Police Constable Bob Skinner's daughter, and asked that she look into clearing Brown's name: it's something which he feels that he has to do in memory of his son who was murdered recentlyJackie.
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