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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.

==Reviews of the The Best New Books==

'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].''' <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE--> '''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].

|authorisbn= B T Keaton1529428289|title= TransferenceA Grave in the Woods (A Bruno, Chief of Police Novel)|author=Martin Walker|rating= 4|genre= Science FictionCrime|summary= Barrabus Madzimure is about to die, stranded on a mining planet millions Because of light-years from homevarious property transactions, executed people were searching for high crimes against the Churchgrave but when they found it, the ruling body it came with three sets of Earthbones. Except he's not Barrabus Madzimure They dated back to World War II and it fell to Bruno, he's Thaniel Kilraven in Barrabus Madzimure's body. Such is the magic Chief of TransferencePolice for St Denis, to discover the ability to transplant a person's soul identities of the bodies and establish whether or consciousness into a different body - and not a power that the Church has exclusive control overcrime had been committed. As if Thaniel doesnthis isn't have enough things to worry about, a Church employee named Corvus has arrived from Earth to interrogate himthe Dordogne River - normally tranquil - is flowing at record levels. All Thaniel wants is It's not just the local autumn rains that have caused the problem: various dams upstream on another river have had to see his family again, release water and he'll stop at nothing to accomplish this, but St Denis faces the Church isn't going to give in without a hell possibility of a fight..devastating flood.|isbn=B082WPHTHH

|authorisbn=Christine Brown152919640X|title=Bucket Showers and Baby Goats: Volunteering in West AfricaThe Suspect|author=Rob Rinder

|genre=TravelCrime|summary=In the summer of 2008, this bookThe nation's author was spending her days working in an office job in the USA while spending her nights dreaming about being somewhere else, doing something else. Long story shortfavourite daytime TV presenter, she ended up volunteering in GhanaJessica Holby, West Africawas murdered live on television and it seems that there's only one suspect. Now coincidentally, in the summer of 2010, this review He's author was spending celebrity chef Sebastian Brooks and his contract stated that he must not serve anything containing miso to Jessica Holby. She''her'' days working s seriously allergic and carries an EpiPen in an office job (albeit case of emergencies. Everything seemed as normal - as normal as they can be in the UK) while spending ''her'' nights dreaming about being somewhere else, doing something elsea busy, live television studio - and Brooks served a ragout to Holby. Her EpiPen was nowhere to be found and ''she'' ended up just 3 countries away, volunteering in Sierra Leone, West Africawas dead within minutes. So you can see why, when It was soon clear that this book came up, said reviewer was delighted to have the opportunity to read and critique itno accident.|isbn=171024299X

|isbn=0008385068|title=The Midnight Feast|author=Lucy Foley|rating=4.5|genre=Thrillers|summary=It's midsummer on the Dorset coast and guests gather at The Manor. It's their opening weekend and splendid celebrations are promised. It's all headed up by Francesca Meadows. The Manor was her ancestral home and she's converted it into an impressive retreat for the wealthy and famous. Her husband, Owen, was the architect and work is still ongoing on parts of the site. The heat is oppressive and amongst the guests are enemies as well as friends. Old scores are going to be settled and it won't be long before a body is found.}}{{Frontpage|author=Mark LinganeAshley Hickson-Lovence|title=Degrade (Tesla Expansion)Wild East|rating=4.5

|summary= Written 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. The move is initiated by Ronny'Degrades mum who is worried for Ronny'' opens as it means s safety after a tragic event, and so Ronny finds himself trying to go on - with inyerface, banging action. Poor Arid, alone settle in the desert since his parents were killeda new town, has a narrow escape as two mega-rigs fight it new school, and keep himself out and his is pretty much destroyedof trouble. He finds himself rescued by the mysterious-but-fascinating Ella listens to music constantly, and onboard the ''Moonlight'' under the suspicious eyes has always dreamed of its leaderbeing a rapper. But now, in this new school, Queen Bea. Bea's eyes flash with recognition when he tells her his name - Arid Geiger - but before he can find out why that isteacher encourages him to be part of a poetry writing workshop group and, slowly, there's an assassination attempt Ronny begins to see the connections between rap and Arid is under suspicion poetry, and imprisoned. An escape facilitated by Ella - Queen Bea's daughter - sees Arid the power of creativity and her other daughter, Frey, stranded in the desert..crafting your words.|isbn= 099461649X0241645441

|isbn=B07XLM3SM61635866847|title=Murder at the Dolphin HotelThe Lavender Companion|author=Helena DixonJessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci|rating=4.5|genre=Crime (Historical)Lifestyle|summary=Elowed Underhay was just twenty-seven when she disappeared from Dartmouth in June 1916It's strange, leaving her daughterthe things that make you ''immediately'' feel that this is the book for you. Before I started reading ''The Lavender Companion'', Kitty, in I visited the care author's [https://www.pinelavenderfarm.com/ website] and there's a picture of a slice of her grandmotherchocolate cake on the homepage. A great deal of money had been spent to find out what happened to her I don't eat cakes and the conclusion was desserts - but I wanted that she was dead, mainly because there was no evidence to suggest otherwisecake viscerally. Kitty has come to terms (There's a recipe in the book, which I'm avoiding with this some difficulty!!) Then I started reading the book and in 1933 she I was running the Dolphin Hotel in Dartmouth with her grandmother when her grandmother had told to leave to look after her sister who was illmake a mess of it. She was reluctant to leave Kitty Notes in charge - and Kitty could not understand whythe margins are sanctioned. She's always coped with You get to fold down the mix corners of holidaymakers, boating people and the naval college on the edge pages. You suspect that smears of town before - and she's done every job in the hotelbutter would not be a problem. And she particularly cannot understand why her grandmotherI 's friends have been roped in to keep an eye on things 'loved'and'' why Captain Matthew Bryant has been hired to take charge of security at the hotelthis book already.

|author=Seishi Yokomizo and Louise Heal Kawai (translator)Rob Keeley|title=The Honjin MurdersChildish Spirits: 10th anniversary special edition

|genre=CrimeConfident Readers|summary=To many readersAround here, the phrase we'locked room murder mysteryre big fans of children' is enough s author Rob Keeley. He's a ball of happy positivity, he understands children, and he writes for their pleasure and enjoyment, not to make the book one to read; preferably quantified by the words lecture or hector.  The 'clever' or Childish Spirits'good'series is one of his greatest achievements. For those who need more, here is the extra background – weIt're in rural Japan in the 1930s. The oldest son s a sequence of an esteemed family is belatedly getting marriedghost stories centring on Ellie, although a stalwart young girl who can cope with anything the whole affair is really not as ostentatious as it might be – hardly anybody has turned up, what with it being arranged spirit world throws at great haste. She only has an uncle representing her family, for one thing. Either way, the celebrations have gone ahead as plannedand Edward, only for the wedded couple to be slashed to death in their private annexe before the sun rises on their marriage. What with a man missing parts of his fingers being in the neighbourhood, spoiled lordling and some mysterious use of a traditional musical instrument at the time of the crime, this case has a lot of the peculiar about it.first spirit Ellie encounters|isbn=17822750021783064617

|author=Cixin LiuJenny Valentine|title=Death's EndUs in the Before and After

|genre=Science FictionTeens|summary= If I'd been paying Elk and Mab are best friends, or more attention when I picked this book upthan that even, I would have put it back on the shelftheir friendship is a once in a lifetime connection. Not because I didnThey meet as children one day on a trip out but unfortunately they don't want to read it, but because Iget each other'd have figured out that it was s contact details at the final part of a trilogytime. Coming in partway through a saga is never the easiest thing to do But then chance brings them back together, and it's particularly true in science fiction because without knowing the back-story there are not just people whose names mean nothing to you (when it's assumed they will) but there are whole concepts that you won't understandinseparable. This latter is particularly true of Cixin Liu's work – his range is phenomenal. George R R Martin Something has happened though, who knows a thing or two about world-creationsomething terrible and tragic, described it as ''a unique blend of scientific and philosophical speculationnow they must work through their grief, conspiracy theory and cosmology''. All of that and moretheir friendship, together.|isbn=17849716501471196585

|isbnauthor=1780894511Kieran Larwood and Joe Todd-Stanton|title=Die Alone|author=Simon KernickDungeon Runners: Hero Trial

|summary=Ray Mason is in prison awaiting trial for murder and he's I was instantly intrigued by the premise of this novel – an organised crime syndicate in the vulnerable prisoner unit: as a cop, he's something north of England run by a target, but Muslim woman. The fact that it was the unit is not as secure as the inmates would have hoped and Mason is injured second in a riot. On his way to hospital heseries I hadn's broken free by armed men and an offer is made to him. Het read didn's to assassinate the man who is likely to become the countryt stop me – I's next prime minister ve jumped midway into a few series before (on page and screen) and heit needn'll then t be given a new identity so that he can start afresh abroadhindrance if it's good enough. His captors say And that theywasn're MI6t a problem here. Vengeance swiftly brings you up to speed, but Mason has his doubts. His choices are limited though and he has personal reasons to believe that it would be better if Alastair Sheridan was deadI never felt lost.|isbn=0861541561

|author=Akwaeke EmeziStuart Douglas|title=PetLowe and Le Breton Mysteries - Death at the Dress Rehearsal|rating=43.5|genre=TeensCrime|summary=The people During location filming for his 1970's sitcom 'Floggit and Leggit', leading man Edward Lowe stumbles across the dead body of a woman on the town Lucille believe that all the monsters are goneedge of a reservoir. Their children are raised The police seem happy to understand that they were saved by assign it as an accidental death, but something about the angelswhole thing bothers Lowe, those who rid and he enlists the town help of evila 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 there are no monsters anymore, seemingly, a link to death during the Second World War. But one dayis there really a link between the deaths? And will they manage to uncover who is responsible before more people lose their lives?|isbn=1803368209}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0CYV674G2|title=Swanton Morley (John Tanner)|author=David Blake|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=It seemed like an open-and-shut case. A man, Jam accidentally cuts herself covered in mud and blood - and bleeds carrying a little onto one knife, comes into the police station shouting that he hasn't killed the man. A body at the bottom of her mothera freshly dug grave at Swanton Morley church - he's paintingsbeen stabbed to death. The blood awakens a bizarreDCI John Tanner is just back from his honeymoon, terrifyingwhich 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 -looking creature named Pet, who somehow comes 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=Popular Science|summary=I was tempted to read ''You Don't Have to be Mad to life and declares that it Work Here'' after enjoying Adam Kay's first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is here Going to hunt Hurt}}, a glorious mixture of insight into the monsterworkings of the NHS, humour and autobiography. Though Jam tries ''You Don't Have to be Mad...'' promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to convince mental illness and the work of a psychiatrist. I did wonder whether it that all was acceptable to be looking for humour in this setting but the monsters are gone, Pet laughter is certain that there directed at a situation rather than a person and it is one, still, always delivered with empathy and that the monster is hiding in the home of her best friend, Redemptionunderstanding.|isbn=0571355110

|isbnauthor=1686751680Onyi Nwabineli|title=My Mummy does weird things / Maman fait des choses bizarres|author=Amelie Julien and GustyawanAllow Me to Introduce Myself|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingGeneral Fiction|summary=Which child doesnAnuri 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't think that their mother iss childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, wellbasically, ''weird''? monetary gain. It might be that Now Anuri is in the morning their mother doesn't like speaking much when every self-respecting child knows that that her twenties and she is when you're at your brightest with lots slowly trying to regain her confidence and to say? ''Why'' then does Mummy stick get her life back, suing her fingers in step-mother to take down the content about her ears? . Then there's Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing yoga in front of the television, 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 occurred when Mummy emerges and frankly Most importantly, the less said the better she is desperately worried about her reactions to your artistic efforts on little sister, who is the wallnew focus of Ophelia's online empire. I meanCan she save her sister, what else would you use paint forand perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time?|isbn=0861546873

|author=Justine Avery and Liuba SyrotiukDavid Chadwick|title=What Wonders Do You See... When You Dream?Headload of Napalm|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingThrillers|summary=''The day has ended''<br>''Hasn't it been splendid?'' <br>''But now, itIt's timeSeptember 1973 in Hicks, to be sure'' <br>''For an entirely different adventure'' <br> I hope you haven't forgotten how it feels to be much too excited for bedCalifornia. If you're Hicks is a parent at least, you'll know how it is to persuade an excited small person that yes, it is in fact time for bed. ''What Wonders DoYou See...'' sets out to cater to these children. Instead Mojave desert town of trying to persuade them that night time is a calm time, it takes few thousand people with its nearest neighbours of LA and Las Vegas both a slightly different tacksignificant drive away. Not much happens in Hicks. It tells them that sleep is actually an exciting time: A silver mine and a time defence contractor are the main local employers but otherwise, there's not much of dreams in which imagination takes over note other than dive bars and has no limitJoshua trees. But the trick in accessing this wonderful and exciting world Life is to get calm and relaxed first so that you can easily fall asleep and open the door to itquiet, until.... |isbn=194812422X B0D321VJ76

|author=Michael HarrisTom Percival|title=Solitude: In Pursuit of a Singular Life in a Crowded WorldThe Wrong Shoes

|genre=LifestyleConfident Readers|summary= This Will's life is not the book I was expecting it to be. For some reason I expected it to be another self-help manual on how to find calmdifficult, how to step outside the mainstream, but it is not that at allin a multitude of ways. Instead of telling us how it He is more about bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can'whyt work and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. Harries examines how weThrow into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will're eroding solitude, which used to be a natural part of our human s life, and why that mattersseems bleak in every direction. Of course And yet, he talks about how some people have found solitude and what still has come a tiny amount of thathope. He is good at art, and eventually in clings to the final chapter moments of joy when he talks about his own experience is drawing, that feel like a light at the end of having deliberately sought it outa long, but mostly he wanders down the alleys and by-ways that his thinking about this lost art led himdark tunnel.|isbn=18479476621398527122

|author=Andy BriggsSylvie Cathrall|title=Ctrl+SA Letter to the Luminous Deep

|summary= Life in the near future's not all bad. We've reversed global warming and fixed the collapsing bee population. We even created SPACE, There are few greater joys than a virtual-sensory universe where average guys like Theo Wilson can do almost anything they desire. But almost anything isn't enough for some. Every day, normal people are being taken, their emotions harvested - and book which lives traded - up to create death-defying thrills for the rich and twisted. Now Theo’s mother has disappeareda compelling premise. And as he follows her breadcrumb trail this is one of clues, he'll come up against the most dangerous SPACE has to offer: police, AI Bots and anarchists - as well as a criminal empire that will kill to stop him finding her . . them.|isbn=14091846410356522776

|isbn=16098093780008517061|title=Death in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary= Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the future 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-grid and relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the future she wants for herself and her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and putting the future on the back burner.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1786482126|title=The Rabbits' RebellionJanus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Ariel Dorfman and Chris RiddellElly Griffiths

|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=WeBuilders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury're in apartments - when they discovered the realm bones of the rabbitsa child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, only the foxes and wolves have taken overDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. King WolfIt's difficult as Ruth knows, His Wolfiness, has declared the rabbits donbut Nelson doesn't exist, but that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the pesky birds have spread rumours 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=Crime|summary=It's unusual for anyone from awing that the bunnies are Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in fact still aroundprison and he's prepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. Demanding a propaganda spreeThis person, he promises, King Wolf orders a humble monkey is someone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his official portrait photographersentence and to get an early parole date. Not much to ask, but whatever is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the poor innocent monkey prints out other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008405026|title=A Stranger in his darkroom there is the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to a distinct leporine hinthalt. Can King Wolf succeed Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in proving himself victorioustheir bed. Initially, can it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the rabbits show their continued existence to all who need to know positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it – was going to be an open-and what can -shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the poor monkey caught explanation lies in between do?Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.

|authorisbn=Innosanto Nagara0571379877|title=M is for MovementThe Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=43.5|genre=Emerging ReadersCrime|summary=Set in IndonesiaEdward Jevons is a working-class young man, in the not too distant pastobsessed with his upper-class friends, this is Robert and Stanza. Robert's a story about social changetheatre director. Dealing with some difficult issuesHe's also self-obsessed, demanding, such as political corruption handsome and entitled and nepotism, the book is neither boring nor preachyuses Edward to run errands for him. It educates gently, Edward has been in love with vibrant, challenging illustrations, Stanza since their university days - and it portrays he's drunkenly confided how social movements need people who will try, even when it seems that they will failhe feels to Robert. The message 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 left to stumble upon the two of them kissing in a positive one; that in an increasingly uncertain world, we do still have the power to instigate changedark passageway.|isbn=1609809351

|isbnauthor=1780724047Jo Callaghan|title=A Dictionary of Interesting and Important Dogs|author=Peter J ConradiLeave No Trace

|genre=PetsCrime|summary=I struggle to resist When a man is found crucified on the top of a book about dogshill in Nuneaton, 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 bothDCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, I was expecting a massive tome. But ''A Dictionary of Interesting and Important Dogs'' is actually ''a rich compendium of the world's most significant and beloved dogs'' and it's certainly a rich treasure troveAI detective Lock. We begin with Peter J ConradiIt's four collies: Cloudytheir first live case together, Sky. Bradley and Maxhaving previously been very successful with several cold cases. They're consecutive rather than simultaneous dogsBut when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, but what comes over Kat is Conradi's love for each suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and every one a very high profile case that draws a lot of themunwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. I knew that I was Will they be able to solve the case in safe hands.time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of a career?|isbn=139851120X

|isbn=17857692941399613073|title=Man at the Window (Detective Cardellini)Moral Injuries|author=Robert JeffreysChristie Watson

|genre=CrimeThrillers|summary=It's when we read that Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a young boy century. Olivia is creeping reluctantly ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to be a teacher's bedroom one October night that we realise something cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is badly wronga perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Nowadays you ''might'' hope that something would be done about it fairly quickly but this was 1965 and child abuse was generally regarded as malicious mischief on Anjali is the part free spirit of the childgroup and she becomes a GP. The boy would be safe that night though When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol- albeit fuelled party and it's going to end in the most horrific fashiontragedy. When he reached Captain EdmundWe don's bedroom he found t know who suffered the man dead on tragedy or the floor, consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the top of his skull missingthree friends. The schoolThis time, it's initial reaction was that this was a dreadful accident: there had been a cull of kangaroos in some nearby fields and it was obviously a stray bullet that had killed the Captaintheir teenage children who are involved.

|isbn=17866952270241636604|title=Invisible in a Bright LightThe Trading Game: A Confession|author=Sally GardnerGary Stevenson

|genre=Confident ReadersAutobiography|summary=The beginning If you were to bring up an image of this excellent story will leave the reader more than a little confused: who is the man city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the green pin-stripe suit, what and his background is the ReckoningEast End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and why are rows injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the London School of people in Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a cave? But stick facility with it – Ms. Gardner is very cleverly letting numbers which most of us experience the same disorientation as our heroinecan only envy. We watch in dismay as the strange man, who seems He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to have no eyes, does be stupid. It was his best to persuade her to answer his questions. But for some reasonability at what was, Celesteessentially, despite her bewildermenta card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, remains wary and gives nothing awaythis turned into permanent employment as a trader.

|isbn=19123748541035021803|title=VioletThe Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=S J I HollidayC L Miller

|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=IIt've never s twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been but understand that travelling is all about meeting new people and forming instantaneous bonds with people in often chance situationsback to the English country village where she grew up. Well, that She's exactly what happens when the two main/only characters meet in a travel agency in Beijing - Carrie is unsuccessfully trying to get back now because of a refund on an extra ticket request for the Trans-Siberian train help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Freya's former mentor and Violet Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is trying dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to unsuccessfully buy a ticket for say the same sold-out journeyleast. As Arthur was the two team upreason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, travelling through Mongoliashe feels, Serbia and into Russialet her down badly. Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, it could've been she has not felt able to be near the man or pursue the profession she loved. After the start of split, she worked in a beautiful friendship but this a thriller after all so it quickly becomes a tale cafe, met and married James (on the rebound from the love of obsession, manipulationher life, who was murdered) and Freya and toxic friendshipsJames have now divorced.

|isbn=1912374838AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=Nothing Important Happened TodayAll Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Will CarverBenjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=45|genre=General Science Fiction|summary=Nothing Important Happened Today ''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 dark, twisted, difficult readfew decades of technology in my lifetime. Stories about cults often are, I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but this is different; I'm left with the feeling that it's written with a sense all getting away from me. Some of style that it is - frankly - quite unlike anything frightening. Of course, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I've read beforem reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I can't remember ever having read could trust and who could deliver information in a novel with such an odd, distinctive narrative voice. While a slim and relatively small book, the slow-moving nature of the plot makes it feel far larger than its 276 pagesway I could understand.

|isbnauthor= williamabbeySunny Singh|title=The Pursuit of William Abbey|author=Claire NorthHotel Arcadia

|genre=ParanormalThrillers |summary=When William Abbey fails to prevent the lynching of The Hotel Arcadia is a young boy luxury hotel in 1880's South Africa, he finds himself cursed an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Hiding from the grieving mother. A naïve English Doctorterrorists who are rampaging through, he slowly learns the weight of the curse upon himkilling everyone on site, as the shadow of the dead boy begins to follow him across the world. Never stoppingthere is Sam, always growing – it crosses oceans a wartime photographer and mountains in pursuit of WilliamAbhi, the hotel manager. As he finds himself unable Abhi continues to try to resist speaking care remotely for the truths that he hears residents who are still alive in othersthe hotel, he also learns that forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what's happened through her photography. Although they only ever talk over the dark shadow is deadly – phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and seeks they both wait to kill see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the one he loves the most…terrorists.|isbn=086154742X

|isbn=16437850361529153298|title=The Wondrous ApothecaryList of Suspicious Things|author=Mary E MartinJennie Godfrey|rating=45

|summary=Those who have known Alexander WainwrightIt's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, the landscape artist famous for his Turner prize-winning honestly...) She's not what'The Hay Wagon's worrying Miv's family, and Rinaldothough. Women have been disappearing. Well, the renowned conceptual artist would say that they're chalk and cheeseve been murdered, if not sworn enemiesbut to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the family 'Down South'. If When you've watched re from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the relationshipmove would mean leaving her best friend, as has our narratorSharon, art dealer Jamie Helmsworth, youand she'd have said ll do anything to prevent that they were magnets, drawing and repulsing each other in equal measure. Wainwright She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1398524085|title=Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=Charlotte Salter was expected at the socially acceptable end of the artistic continuumher husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, but with RinaldoPaul and Ollie and her daughter, it was Etty. are all too obvious that there was worried but a fine dividing line between conceptual art and public nuisance- strangely - her husband, Alec, is not. As time has worn onShortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, hefind the body of Greg's frequently been brought to father, Duncan Ackerley, in the attention of river. It was an easy assumption for the policeto make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the guilt. On this latest occasion, we see him charged The Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but get on with arson their lives and theft of ''The Hay Wagon''wonder about what really happened.

|authorisbn=Mary H.K. Choi1035906708|title=Permanent RecordDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4.5|genre=TeensGeneral Fiction|summary=PabloWe tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, a college drop-outbut she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, is working at a New York bodega, in December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. HeHer original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 's massively in debt, heCallas's avoiding his mother, and he finds his joy to make it more manageable in creating unusual snacks with random ingredients! the States. Whilst working one evening, he's surprised to discover When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that the girl he is chatting with as he serves is a supershe could get appropriate training for her voice -famous pop star and, as unlikely as it may seem, they start a relationship. With one character who is trying very hard not to be seen or noticed by anyone and she was raised under the other who is seen and followed and hounded Nazi occupation by everyone all over the world, it's an interesting clash as they come together. This isn't just a love story though, mother who mercilessly exploited her and actually it's really just Pab's storymade no secret of her preference for her elder sister, about the journey he takes in his life via his meet-up with Leanna SmartJackie.|isbn=0349003459