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[[Category:General Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]]==General fiction==__NOTOC__{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=C J Sansom1739526910|title=Winter in MadridWhere I've Not Been Lost|author=Glen Sibley
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Despite being injured at Dunkirk Harry Brett was still willing to do his bit for his country. The deafness from the bomb which killed the man standing next to him on the beach - and the resulting panic attacks had begun to recede and he was willing, if not keen, to go to Spain to do some work for the ''sneaky beakiesOne year after a suicide attempt blows apart musician Brian O’Malley''. He wasn't a spy by nature or inclination but s life, he was one of the few people who might be able arrives in an unfamiliar Devon town to make contact recover. Living with - and report back on - Sandy Forsyth who'd been an unexpected housemate at his public schoolformer manager’s holiday home, he dreams of reconnecting with everything he has lost. There's another old Rookwoodian who's left some history But as those tentative plans falter, he becomes swept up in Madrid. Bernie Piper went to Spain to fight for the International Brigades in the Civil War a local world of unlikely friendships, mobile discos and was thought to have been killed at Jarama but his body had never been foundsurprising romantic possibilities. The school is not the only link though. Barbara Clare was Bernie's girlfriend - she was a Red Cross nurse - and now she was living with Sandy Forsyth.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330411985</amazonuk>'
}}
{{Frontpage|author=Jenny Lecoat|title=Beyond Summerland|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=Jean lives on Jersey with her mother where they are celebrating the end of the occupation. During the war, Jean's father was arrested for listening to a banned radio and soldiers took him away one night, leaving Jean and her mother waiting for years for news of him. As the British finally free the Channel islands from the Nazis, and the war is finally over, their hopes rise that they will finally learn what became of him. But will the truth come as a relief, or will it raise further questions around what else happened during the war? Who was the informer who told the Nazis about the radio? And what other secrets have been kept throughout the occupation?|isbn=1846976537}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sue TownsendOnyi Nwabineli|title=The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾Allow Me to Introduce Myself
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Adrian Mole was just three months away from his fourteenth birthday when he began writing his diary Anuri spent her childhood on New Yeardisplay to the world, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's Day. Heincreasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of Anuri's just on the edge of true adolescence - pimples are appearing as childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, monetary gain. Now Anuri is a little bit of interest 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 opposite sexcontent 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. He's thinking Most importantly, she is desperately worried about what he might like to do ''eventually''her little sister, but his first major challenge who is the breakdown new focus of his parentsOphelia' marriages online empire. He writes with a wonderful mixture of ''knowingness'' Can she save her sister, and innocence perhaps herself and usually manages to get things just ever-so-slightly wrong.her relationship with her father at the same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141046422</amazonuk>0861546873
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Bruce Robinson1529153298|title=The Rum Diary - A ScreenplayList of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Kemp has lied his way onto a failing newspaper in San JuanIt's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, Puerto Ricathey've been murdered, as but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the only candidate for the jobfamily 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, and in Down South is a semi-comatose state induced by too many miniatures from the hotel minibarfrightening, stumbles into a conspiracy of epic proportionsforeign place, via classic bar room brawls and nightclub mayhembest avoided. On the way he (almost) writes horoscopes and bowling championship stories For Miv, meets the fantastically erotic girlfriend of the evil businessmanmove would mean leaving her best friend, and teams up with a proto-Nazi out of his mind on a cocktail of hootch and LSDSharon, and a photographer side kickshe'll do anything to prevent that. There is no question She's not worried about the dangers or that this is Hunter S Thompson territory, especially when all the above is combined with a witty, slowher Mum's stopped talking -talking hero who in spite of his alcoholic haze sees clearly through the exploitation of a third world country by its massive first world near neighbourto anyone. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099555697</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Louisa Young1035906708|title=My Dear I Wanted to Tell YouDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=It takes a while for the full power of Louisa Young's remarkable ''My Dear I Wanted To Tell You'' to become apparent, but when it does, it can hardly fail to move you. Set just before and during World War One, it's a story of love and human spirit against the odds. The impact of the book is in what happens to the characters, so I don't want to give too much away, but it's worth pointing out that it's not for the overly squeamish reader particularly in some of the descriptions of surgical procedures, which have clearly been meticulously researched by Young. The title itself it taken from the opening words of the standard letters that the wounded were given to send to loved ones back home. The wounded were required to fill in the blanks.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007361432</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Janette Jenkins
|title=Little Bones
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=While this might sound like the afterlife of a brilliant and unlikely cabaret mimic, it's not. It's a rich, evocative and engaging novel set in the last years of Victoria's reign, in the depths of her darkest London. Fate - and being abandoned by, in turn, her mother and older sister - leaves Jane Stretch living with and working for a doctor and his lumpen, housebound wife. Jane is alternatively called an 'unfortunate' and a 'cripple' for her disabilities and distorted frame, but she has enough bookish intelligence to pass herself off as an assistant to the doctor, who only ever does one operation - abortions, for music hall artistes. The plot is evidently gearing up to reveal how dangerous such a criminal business might be, for the both of them.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>070118194X</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Christie Watson
|title=Tiny Sunbirds Far Away
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=''Tiny Sunbirds Far Away'' starts in Lagos We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but soon moves she was born to the ruralGreek parents in Manhattan, New York, oil producing Niger Deltain December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. This allows Christie Watson Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas's young narrator, 12 year old Blessing, to view make it more manageable in the traditional ways afreshStates. It's a clever device and young Blessing is shocked When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by the rural conditions after a relatively luxurious life in Lagos with a good school and a modern apartment. But when her mother discovers who mercilessly exploited her father on top and made no secret of another woman, she takes Blessing and her older brother, the asthmatic Ezikielpreference for her elder sister, back to her family homeJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849163758</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreview|author=Nick Lake|title=In Darkness|rating=5|genre=Teens|summary=Shorty is lying in the rubble of the great Haitian earthquake of 2010. If he's not rescued soon, he will die. Shorty is from Site Soley, the sprawling slum of Port-au-Prince. After the murder of his father and abduction of his twin sister, Shorty has allowed himself to fall further and further into the slum's gang culture. But Route 9 isn't all about drug-dealing and gun-running - it's also about feeding the poor and educating the children. And Shorty has a great deal to teach his readers, as he recounts his life while waiting to die. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408824183</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Simon LelicAlexander McCall Smith|title=The Child WhoPerfect Passion Company|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Simon Lelic's third book, ''The Child Who''Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, takes him back run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the format that worked so successfully with his first novelonline apps in providing a more personal, ''Rupture'', avoiding tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the near-future angle he tookbusiness, less successfully I feltas Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, with his second book. Lelic's themes are always inspired by real events that have been in and so jumps at the newschance to come home to Edinburgh. Here And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, he tackles the murder of bringing us to an 11 year old child by DanielEdinburgh we already love, a 12 year old. The creative inspiration is surely the James Bulger case thanks to 44 Scotland Street and he acknowledges the creative debt Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to Blake Morrisoncharm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's ''As If'' on that always her very subject.helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0330522744</amazonuk>1846976596
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Heather PeaceDean Koontz|title=All To Play ForThe Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionParanormal|summary=Back in August 1985 at the time of the Edinburgh Festival Benny is having a group of people met in what could have been difficult circumstancesterrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. They were arrested for causing Oh, and someone has delivered a disturbance despite the fact that they weren't really involved in the fracas weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it 's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a misunderstandingnice person. A really nice person. Little did they know So fortunately for Benny it turns out that in the following decade they would all be involved - one way and another - in producing drama delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for the BBC as it went through one of the toughest periods in its historybeing a good person. The tale Spike is told - mainly - by Rhiannongoing to take care of Benny, but we hear the stories and will certainly take care of NickyBenny's enemies, Maggieif he, JillBenny, Jonathan and Chris. Names will change, but Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they'll all wander the circular corridors of power in Langford Placeare.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1908248130</amazonuk>1662500491
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Damian McNichollKatherine Howe|title=Twisted AgendasA True Account|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Writing about Ireland and the IrishHannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to live with a family who run an inn, especially the dimension of the Troubles and the IRA, being made to work there from a third hand American perspective young age. When she hears there is to be a recipe for cliché hanging of some pirates in the town, she decides to go and stereotypewatch. Balancing Enthralled and interweaving horrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's death at the story hands of American journalist Piper with two vicious pirates. She hides away, so that of Irishman Dannythey don't find and kill her too, and then to escape them completely she runs away to sea, dressing as a boy and joining the notorious Ned Low's search for independence pirate ship as a cabin boy. She soon finds herself in London does enable McNicholl in some part to achieve the thick of things when there is a wry mutiny on board, and knowing stance, making us hope for a clever twist away from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on the predictably which always seems so closeocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1908248025</amazonuk>0861547438
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kevin Barry1471180158|title=City of BohaneMaybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Bohane is a thoroughly lawless town, set in what would appear to be some kind of parallel universe. We are told it is set Jamie Matson works in 2053an upper-class grocery store, but itfor a man who's a town without any technology or modern luxuriescontrol freak with all the subtlety of a half brick. It Jamie's a violent place fuelled by alcoholson, Bo, drugs 'has his problems'. He's asthmatic and lust with a patois style language the more you read, the more you'll suspect that takes he's on the autistic spectrum. Sometimes Jamie needs to take time off at short notice - she's a little work frequent flier in the local A&E and sometimes Bo's not fit enough to go to get intoschool. Novels with this kind of premise have Missed shifts or the need to be beyond good if they away on time to pick Bo up from school are to interest occasions when Jamie can be controlled and put in the annual literary prize judges; this is one such book and ''City of Bohane'' is nominated for this year's Costa First Novel prizewrong. It is stunningly goodwas going to come to a head.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224090577</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kerry YoungB0CKD1L5JL|title=PaoRadio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In her Costa Prize short-listed first novel, Kerry Young brings together a huge number of elements that make up a good storyPetr is an orphan. Set in JamaicaRescued by the strange, the time period covers 1938 to almost present dayreclusive Bear, it he is the political backdrop of independence brought up far from bustling cities and control over Jamaica's assets that informs much of the story. But while busy human society, in the politics forests of Jamaica resound throughout the book, itWashington's also a very personal story about the life of the eponymous Yang PaoOlympic Peninsula. Issues of race, class, love, family, ambition After Bear dies and business philosophy - Pao's guiding light is Sun Tzu's ''The Art of War'' - are skilfully woven into the mix to make this a great book to curl up with on a cold winter's night.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140881207X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Gavin James Bower|title=Made brief sojourn in Britain|rating=2|genre=General Fiction|summary=The settings of the intertwined tales of Russell, the working class swot trapped by his conditions, Charliehuman company, the heroic 'lad' who gets caught in the drugs scene and Hayley the naïve wannabee armed with only a single parent father are pirate radio transmitter, Petr goes on a journey through the school rooms and backstreetsforest, flatsbroadcasting the strange, pubs wild and clubs of Every Town, the vision of twenty-first century deprivation that Bower conjures. Or rather fails to conjure, for the device of making the 16 year olds tell the story from their own first person narrative deprives the reader of a genuine sense of the physical reality in which this story unfoldsrarely heard voices he encounters.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0704372290</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Laura WilkinsonSarah Marsh|title=BloodminingA Sign of Her Own
|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Although Wilkinson has placed After a bout of scarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Suddenly plunged into a world of silence, everything about her story life changes. Living in a time when the near futureuse of sign language was seen as something only savages do, for Ellen is sent to a school where she is taught to lip read, but physically restrained from signing. From here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the most part, you wouldn't necessarily be aware of that factdeaf and using a system called Visible Speech. PersonallyAt the same time, Bell is working on other inventions and ideas, I was delighted as I'm not and Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a fan complicated tangle of futuristic fictionespionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1907335145</amazonuk>1035401614
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kerry JamiesonB0BC3YTCMR|title=The Forgotten LiesGood Girls Die|author=Ayura Ayira
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In the mid-thirties, the golden age ''This story is not for everyone.'' Lavender Daniels was three weeks short of Hollywoodher fifteenth birthday when The Incident happened. She was a very bright student, three aspiring starlets shared a studio house on Lantana Drive as they waited to hear bit too nerdy if they truth be told, and suffered from vitiligo - people were going afraid to have a career hug her in the movies – or case it's contagious. It's noteasy being a black girl whose skin is 84% white. Charlotte (soon to be Carlie for acting purposes), Verbena, known to She had a crush on seventeen-year-old Reggie Anderson but never thought he would notice her friends (. Then he did: Lavender was very good at math and ''only'' her friends) as Bee and Ivy were desperate for the role of a lifetime, which Reggie asked if she would put their name in lightstutor him. There She readily agreed: tutoring was something she gladly did at church: this was just an added appealextension. Whoever won would star opposite Liam Malone – good looking, charismatic She went to his house and ''very'' married with six childrenhe raped her. It wasn't just In shock, she even allowed him to give her a case of being able to act. Their lives would be under intense scrutinylift home.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141026049</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Conny Braam1472263936|title=The Cocaine SalesmanFigurine|author=Victoria Hislop|rating=4.5|genre=Historical General Fiction|summary=Picture a world of hellish exclusionIt was in 1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to Greece. She was alone: her mother, Greek by birth, nightmarish noise had left the family home and imagesrefused to return, but Mary and horrid violenceHamish (Helena's parents) felt that it would be a pity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding her Greek heritage. Picture one person trying Her trip to live through the sleepless nightsfamily apartment in up-market Kolonaki would be the first of several annual visits. She grew to love her grandmother and the family's maid, the isolation among his peersDina, the permanent sense but was wary - and frightened - of dreadful threather grandfather, retired general Stamatis Papagiannis. Picture him needing drugsHe was proud of his close connections to the Junta and expected his family to uphold his values but saw no reason to accommodate them. His best friend might even be called Charlie. But donprejudices included Helena's red hair and green eyes - inherited from her father't picture an inner city slum, 2012, but a man on the front in World War Ones Scottish ancestors.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907822054</amazonuk>
}}
{{Frontpage|author=Dean Koontz|title=After Death|rating=3|genre=General Fiction|summary= Michael Mace, Head of Security, at a top secret biological research facility, is among 55 people who die when a virus is released in a bio-hazard accident. Finding himself in a makeshift mortuary, covered in plastic, he has a sense that something very, very bad has happened to him – and only him – as he sits up and looks around at the shrouded bodies of his dead friends and former colleagues. As he recovers his senses, he realises that there is something different about him; he can ''feel'' everything. ''Everything''. Michael isn't ''Michael'' anymore.|isbn=1662500467}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rachel ConnorB0BVDC2VWH|title=SisterwivesThe Grave Listeners|author=William Frank
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=When I first read the title (I hadnThe village is isolated and poor. It't yet read s surrounded by a Witching Forest. And the back cover blurb) I glibly thought that it was about two sisters villagers subsist largely by farming Uphegia plants - its bread-like fruit provides nutrition and their marriagesits blossom provides herbal medicines. WrongThe black wood of the forest provides heat and warmth, roofs on homes, and even gallows, if needed. This debut novel by Connor The fear of being buried alive is about two very different women (one an existential superstition in the village and that is no more than the reason Volushka, a girl really) who just happen to 'marry' the same man. I use the word marry very loosely indeed. Their communitydrunken, their rulesself-indulgent, their descriptions etc can be rather quirky. Marriages are normally called 'sealings'lazy lout of a man is tolerated.'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0946745587</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Neil ForsythB0BYF82CXT|title=Why Me? The Very Important Emails of Bob ServantSemi-Detached|author=Deborah Stone|rating=3.54
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Catchy title ''Bill and catchy front cover graphics. What's not to like? It takes Amanda are living in a semi-detached house, stuck in a lot to make me laugh generallydepressing rut of boredom and disappointment, but as I had an initial flick through this bookwhen Terry and Fiona – glamorous, things looked promisingsuccessful and very much in love – move in next door. And I was also thinking that Despite their different outlooks on life, the couples befriend each other and life appears to improve for both pairs. But all is not what it's a pleasant change to see another location (other than perhaps the predictable Glasgow seems, and Edinburgh) get an airingtheir increasingly interconnected relationships are fated for tragedy.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780270097</amazonuk>''
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=D. J. ConnellShalini Boland|title=Sherry Cracker Gets NormalThe Silent Bride|rating=53
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Whilst it's wrong to judge Alice and Seth are a book by its covermatch made in heaven. He is everything she has been searching for; handsome, accomplished, clever, funny; total and utter husband-material. She is all he could possibly want in a mere sight of D. J. Connell's second novel 'Sherry Cracker Gets Normal' wife; beautiful, successful, confident… and so the inevitable proposal is eagerly accepted by Alice and the wedding is enough to make me smileplanned and set. The title When the much-anticipated day arrives, Alice is amusing; walked down the colourful design enticing aisle by her father, beaming with pride and excitement as she surveys the effusive praise for Connellcongregation – their friends assembled to celebrate this joyful day and when Seth turns to face his approaching bride, Alice's debut 'Julian Corkle world implodes because she has absolutely no idea who the man at the altar is, who is a Filthy Liar' encouragingwaiting for her to become his wife.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>000733219X</amazonuk>1662507089
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gavin James1787636003|title=Ariadne's ThreadThe Girls of Summer|author=Katie Bishop|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=''Ariadne's Thread'' is It was the story of Elena Avgoulas who decided in May 1941 summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that she would have to leave Chios, and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and arrived on the Greek island where . Rachel wasn't exactly innocent but she was born, until the war was over. German soldiers had occupied the island and whilst they were there it would not be home perhaps, naive, so when thirty-four-year-old Alistair Wright started to take an interest in her, her mother and sister and brothers. The brothers were in the Greek army. Her mother would run the family bakery and her sister would support their mothershe was flattered rather than wary. Elena It was quite a medical student in Athens while before he made any sort of physical approach to her and had a nursing qualification; she decided by that time she would make use of this in the war effortwas obsessed by him. And so began a journey that would take her to CyprusAlistair worked for Henry Taylor, Palestine, Egypt, Italy looking after his interests on the island and Germany in particular in the course of bar where all the wargirls either worked or partied.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B005FRG8P4</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Javier MariasAmanda Craig|title=While the Women are SleepingThree Graces
|rating=4.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=
The first thing the trivially minded will note is that this is not the complete edition of While the Women are Sleeping, for not all the stories in the original Spanish volume are here. You might think that's because some have been hived off for a future 'best of' compilation. But if this isn't the best of Javier Marias, then I don't know what is.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099553929</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Joe Revill
|title=A Case of Witchcraft
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=As Holmes embarks on a journey towards Few styles of contemporary fiction interest me like the state-of-the Northern Isles, we are treated to a comprehensive background -nation novel. There's something so utterly compelling about any writer who can catch hold of the ways atmosphere of witches all over the world; all points are pertinent day and capture it, crafting an image of the history country as it stands in one particular moment. To say that Amanda Craig is fascinating as well as necessaryskilled at doing this would be embarrassingly inadequate: she's practically synonymous with the genre of contemporary social fiction at this point. The introduction to She has such a gift for weaving the ways ongoing issues of witchcraft demonstrates the worldwide links day into the lives of her characters in a way that will become highly significant later. Revill weaves feels natural and lived-in the relevant history and all its complications , never making them ciphers for social commentary but instead fully realised people, grappling with ease, and the novel flows in spite of having to accommodate thisissues far larger than themselves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780920091</amazonuk>140871468X
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kevin Gosselin152915118X|title=Hunt for the Blower Bentley|rating=3.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Connecticut innkeeper Faston Hanks is obsessive. He's very keen on food but it's cars – and particularly old cars – which drive him. This time he's involved in the search for the only one of the fifty Blower Bentleys made which remains unaccounted for. SM3912 was originally purchased by Lord Brougham and Vaux and ownership can be traced to one D H Sessions, after which the trail goes cold. We know something which Faston doesn't know though – the Bentley came into the hands of Stephan Sidlow, who was high up in the APR during World War II, by less than honest means. But then Sidlow was less than honest about which side he was supporting in the war.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780920180</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewPineapple Street|author=Ernest Cline|title=Ready Player OneJenny Jackson
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=A short while ago, I stumbled across a highly enjoyable film called ''FanboysPineapple Street''is the story of three women: Sasha, about Darley and Georgiana. Darley and George are sisters and Sasha is married to their brother Cord. They're Stocktons, only Sasha isn't a bunch of Stockton by birth so she isn't readily accepted into the tribe. The problem'Star Wars's exacerbated when the clan matriarch, Tilda, asks Cord and Sasha if they' fans trying d like to break move into George Lucas' mansion the Pineapple Street property. Tilda and Chip have renovated and downsized to get another property, a sneak preview street or so away, which they own. They won't need any of the new filmfurniture from Pineapple Street, so Sasha and Cord can move straight in. I didnNominally, they had a choice but that wasn't pay much attention the reality. Darley and Georgiana start to call Sasha 'the name of the writer, until I came across Ernest Clinegold digger'. She's author bio living in ''Ready Player Onetheir'' and realised family home. They use it so often that they abbreviate it was written by to 'the same person. This immediately gave me high hopesGD'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846059372</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Robert HarrisEmily Critchley|title=The Fear IndexOne Puzzling Afternoon
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=With 84 year old Edie has lived in the FTSE recording its biggest quarterly drop in same small town for almost her whole life, but now she is facing a move as her son wants to move to another house and bring Edie to live with his family, as Edie is starting to lose her memory. However, Edie is tormented by the memory of her childhood friend, Lucy, who went missing over 60 yearsago, turmoil on and the worry that there was a secret she was keeping for Lucy that somehow might be the bond markets and thing that reveals the prospect truth of economic meltdown and what happened all that time ago. After 'seeing' Lucy in the high street, just as she was the possible disintegration last time she saw her, she starts to find pockets of memories coming back to her. And yet as she remembers the euro zonepast, Robert Harris' new thriller couldn't be she is forgetting more and more timelyin her day to day life. Will she uncover the truth about Lucy's disappearance before her move, and before her memories are gone forever?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0091936969</amazonuk>1804181250
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Madelaine Lucas
|title=Thirst for Salt
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary= ''Love, I'd read, was supposed to be a light and weightless feeling, but I had always longed for gravity''
{{newreview|author=Tom Bale|title=Blood Falls|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=I read and reviewed Bale's [[Terror's Reach by Tom Bale|Terror's Reach]]and enjoyed itTold from a retrospective view, a young woman unravels the year-long relationship that once defined her. Overlaid with later wisdom, the narrator relives the affair with a man twenty years her senior from its inception – the summer after finishing university – to its sorrowful end the summer after. What would I think Set against the backdrop of his latest? Joe is doing his level best to live an unremarkable (almost invisible) life in Bristol. He uses his brawn to pay his modest bills isolated Australian coastal town ''Thirst for rent, food etc. But you could say, once a copper, always a copper so his brain is not idle, itSalt''s in constant use. Whirring away in details the background and it24-year-old narrator's just as well. Joe soon senses imminent danger when a couple of blokes stroll bydeepening relationship with her older lover, depicting its all-consuming nature, stop how it changed her perspective on both romantic and ask his gaffer a couple of questions. Joe needs to be somewhere else - familial relationships and fasthow it altered her irrevocably.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184809325X</amazonuk>0861546490
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John O'Connell0008506337|title=The Baskerville Legacy: A NovelGarnett Girls|author=Georgina Moore|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=1900The love affair between Margo Garnett and poet Richard O'Leary was all-consuming, apparently on both sides. Margo was just sixteen when they fell in love. Richard was twenty-one and a described by Margo's mother as 'an older man on a ship coming back '. Her parents worried that Richard's influence would take her away from the Boer War what they felt she could achieve - going to edit Oxford and having a glittering career. In the Daily Express meets one of his heroes in event, they eloped and Richard took her away from the form Isle of Arthur Conan DoyleWight. With similar experiences Margo did go to Oxford and interests yet different enough went on to bounce off each other they take up the idea of collaborating on become a plotwell-respected journalist. When they do fix on time to do soThe couple had three children: Rachel, it leads to literary prospectsImogen and Sasha. Life was lived in London and holidays were spent at Sandcove, which lead to a weekthe family home on the Isle of Wight. Even then the doubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's research together on Dartmoor, which leads to mind: ''The Hound of the Baskervillesshe would never be able to leave him in charge''. But perhaps in a way that only one of them intended.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907595465</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview|author=Syd Moore|title=The Drowning Pool|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=The book opens with a group of young women out on the town, letting their hair down and having fun. Moore describes all of Then Richard left them in a fresh and modern voice which I really liked. It came across as a breath of fresh air. The story, Sarah's story is told by Sarah herself. But it's told from the perspective of looking back after it's all happened so there's lots of why-didn't-I-see-that-coming language. Hindsight, in a word.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847562663</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Guillaume Musso1914585402|title=The Girl on PaperDashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=This is I reviewed David F Ross's book [[There's Only One Danny Garvey by David F Ross|There's Only One Danny Garvey]] a modern book for modern times. I loved the reader-friendly layout with big, bold type letting the reader know exactly where we were, in terms couple of storyline years back and remember being absolutely floored by how powerful and locationaffecting it was. But the story itself does jump about It was a lot gripping, emotionally wounding read, and rereading my review of it my main takeaway was that I suspect Musso wants to give a sense of urgency, a sense of frenetic energy at timesmight not have lavished enough praise on it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908313056</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Victoria HislopLucy Ashe|title=The ThreadClara and Olivia|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I read and enjoyed HislopThe year is 1933. The place? Sadler's 'The Island' so I was looking forward to reading this bookWells. The Prologue is May 2007 Ballerinas Clara and readers Olivia are treated to a vivid coastal description of sisters, twins no less. Identical on the area which is to play such a big part in outside but not, we learn, on the novelinside. Lines such as And not on stage, either. Because there'With the lifting hazes a lot that builds a dancer. Some things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, Mount Olympus gradually emerged far away across the Thermaic Gulf attention to detail – and some things, that ''je ne sais quoi'', that don't come from the restful blues of sea classroom. A stage presence, a charm, a ''joie de vivre''. The difference between a hard-worker, and sky shrugged off their pale shrouda star.'|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755377737</amazonuk>0861544080
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=William GiraldiHeather Fawcett|title=Busy MonstersEmily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Charles Homar loves his Gillian. He's proved it to usEmily Wilde is an expert academic scholar on faerie lore, and she has travelled extensively, and researched meticulously, if not to write herlife's work, by going after her possessive, jealous state trooper the very first encyclopaedia of an ex with the intent to kill - if only ended up rescuing a cat insteadfaeries. But lo Whilst she is brilliant at research and beholdspeaking to faeries, she's declared is not so good with people. So when she's off to discover finds herself far, far North in the real love small village of Hrafvsnik, having somehow offended the village matriarch, she is not sure what she has done, nor how to redeem herself and put her life - final investigations for her book back on the giant squidright track. Failing to stop thisEnter Wendell Bambleby, Charlie spends too long with a Nessie obsessive, then goes on a hunt of his own - for Bigfoother dashingly handsome and insufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, all the whilecharm and delight, chapter by chapter, sending his narrative of the same much to a magazine as essays for one of those autobiographical, frivolous columnsEmily's frustration. But why is he here? What does he want? And what exactly is going on with the faerie folk around Hravsnik?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0393079627</amazonuk>0356519120
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nicholas Sparks1398515388|title=The Best of MeBoy and the Dog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Since watching the film First of 'The Notebook' years ago I've always fancied reading some Nicholas Sparks books but never quite got around to all, it until I saw was the earthquake, deep in the ocean floor, which created the tsunami and this, his newest offeringin turn, caused the nuclear meltdown. The result was complete and utter devastation. Here we have The deaths were uncountable, and the tale loss of two childhood sweethearts whose love livelihoods was always threatened by the widespread. The fact that they many pets were separated from opposite sides their owners came far down the list of priorities but - six months after the tracks tsunami - he from the rough, poor family that is forever on the wrong side of the law, and she from one of the better, respected families in the townKazumasa Nakagaki discovered a dog outside a convenience store. After life forces them apart they go on to live very different lives, He wasn't a dog person but it seems the convenience store owner's comment that neither one has ever forgotten that early passion. Drawn back together for the funeral of an old friend they are both forced he would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to look at open his car door and Tamon the choices they've made dog jumped in their lives and where they go to from here.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847443206</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Marius BrillChristopher Bowden|title=How to ForgetMr Magenta
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=If you are Christopher Bowden's latest novel is a fan patient untangling of the BBCa seemingly ordinary woman's 'Hustle' serieslife, you will absolutely love Marius Brill’s 'How to Forget'carried out by her nephew after she has died. It’s The aunt who always provided a funny, clever safe harbour and twisted tale of grifters and con tricks with a little bit of magic thrown in for good measure. Brill gives us indulgence to a cast of strange characters: there's an ethically dubious brain scientist, young nephew had had a dodgy Derren Brown-type TV celebrity whose interests are guarded by two violent but somewhat hapless Hasidic Jewish thugs, an equally violent FBI agent much more interesting life than that nephew Stephen had ever realised and a female British copper. At the heart of the story though is it seems to him an apparently naïve British magician, Peter, and a supreme grifter, Kate, in whose life Peter finds himself entangled.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857520717</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=S G Browne|title=Fated|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Clever and very funny, this is the sort of book where you immediately feel in safe hands. S.G. Browne has gone obligation to town (New York), satirising just about every aspect of modern life, and my reading was continually interrupted by bells clanging loudly in recognition in my headfind it all out.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0749954728</amazonuk>B0B6Z9VJDW
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Titania HardieJennifer Mason|title=The House Partitions of the WindUnity
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I loved the intriguing title of the book Here at Bookbag Towers, we first met Elizabeth Cromwell, dominatrix and was hoping that Hardie explains it. She doesunintentional detective in [[Preposterous: not only that but the wind element (no pun intended) is mentioned throughout at regular intervals. A nice touchAn Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by Jennifer Mason|Preposterous]], I thought when she investigated and not over-played either. The short Prologue describes unravelled a young girl on the eve series of her 'terrible fatedisappearances.In ' But fate seems to have changed its mind at the very last minute. And this strange/weird/scary event happens at the Casa al Vento - 'The House Partitions of the Wind.Unity''|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755346297</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jane Sanderson|title=Netherwood|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=The cover of Netherwood features , she sets her mind to solving a bold promise - 'Perfect for fans of Downton Abbey'murder.. The basic features of a reliable 'upstairs/downstairs' saga are all present; the landed gentry enjoying their estate, the staff servicing it and the locals, all relying on the fortunate family for their own income.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0751547638</amazonuk>B09LQR9FRF
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Khaled HosseiniWill Carver|title=The Kite Runner (Graphic Novel)Daves Next Door
|rating=4
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=A confession. If there's one book I'm not likely to read, it's that which everyone else is reading. If it turns into a hugely popular film for all the left-wing chattering classes to rave over, then that's just more grist to my mill – I'll always have a chance to catch up on it later on, even if I never take that opportunity. I'm not alone in acting like this – see a friend and colleague's similar admission when reviewing [[White Teeth by Zadie Smith]]. But at least, through the medium of the graphic novel, the book reviewing gods have conspired to let me see just what I'm missing, with this adaptation, by Italian artists, of a hugely successful – and therefore delayable – novel.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408815257</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
 
|author=Jennifer Haigh
|title=Faith
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=As Five strangers come together in one moment as a ''New York Times Bestseller'' I was expecting great things from this book; coupled with the fact that I really enjoy American fiction, I was itching suicide bomber prepares to get readingdetonate his vest on a London tube line. The As their fates overlap, the story is told from the perspective of Sheilain backwards order, sister leading up to Mike and half-sister to Arthur (he's normally called Art). Art is the priest and who is at the centre of the storm. We go back in time and discover a rather pious woman who has had a hard start to married life. She's now left to bring up her young son, Art, on her own. But things pick up pretty quickly from here and as an attractive woman it's not long before she meets someone else. Two more children are born and they all settle down into a normal, American family unitfateful moment.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007225091</amazonuk>1914585186}}
{{newreview|author=Jaimy Gordon|title=Lord of Misrule|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=West Virginia, 1970. We're at a rundown race track, of the dusty kind rundown horses and their rundown owner/trainers fetch up living in, with the occasional race Move on to interrupt the boredom. Into things comes a young upstart hoping to surprise all with his four unknown quantities and make a packet before fleeing. His girlfriend is here too to help out, and naively eager for success and knowledge, but old hands like Medicine Ed have seen it all before. Also in the background are some small-time gangsters who are not too keen at for once not knowing who is doing what and how races are going to be run and won.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857386697</amazonuk>}}[[Newest Graphic Novels Reviews]]