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{{newreview
|author=Lydia Davis
|title=The Collected Short Stories of Lydia Davis
|rating=5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=As you might expect with short stories, the themes are as varied as 'The Fears of Mrs Orlando' to 'Mothers' and of course, I have my own particular favourites. Most of these short stories cover a couple of pages, but others are merely a sentence or two. And, for me, the less on the page, the more impart the words usually have. In short (no pun intended) there would seem to be something for everyone in these 700+ pages.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>024114504X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Pippa Funnell
|summary=The novel opens with a couple of fishermen enjoying their hobby ... until they fish out of the water a dead body. The body of a middle-aged woman. Enter a couple of rather endearing, local policemen intent on getting to the bottom of it all. The plot develops nicely. We discover that the dead woman had two names, two identities. Why? It seems to make the job of the police twice as difficult. And Bates' conversational and over-the-garden-fence style is engaging and very easy to read. I romped through the chapters, no problem. The dead woman is becoming more of a mystery as time goes on. Her past is delved into and looked over with a fine tooth comb and the bobby-dazzler question 'What makes a girl of nineteen marry a man of sixty?' is soon asked. A good section of the book is spent trying to answer that question. The obvious answer would appear to be - money. But is it in this case? And all sorts of puzzling questions are thrown up left, right and centre.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709090773</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Sofi Oksanen
|title=Purge
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Estonia 1992. A year after her country has regained independence from the Soviet Union, Aliide Truu is in her remote cottage in the woods, canning tomatoes from a bumper harvest, swatting at ever-present flies, and trying not to think about the neighbourhood boys who persecute her remorselessly, throwing rocks at her windows, and even poisoning her dog. Looking out of the window, she sees a bedraggled girl lying outside. Zara is a sex-trafficked girl from Russia, on the run from her pimps.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848872119</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Susan Wiggs
|title=Just Breathe
|rating=4
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Sarah may be struggling to make a living off it, but she does enjoy her job as a cartoonist. She's been through a lot recently, including her husband's battle with cancer, and her alter ego Shirl provides an outlet for a lot of the emotions and confusion she's feeling.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778303543</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Bree Despain
|title=The Dark Divine
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Grace and Jude Divine have always been the poster-children for kindness and understanding. Their father is a pastor, a truly good man, and they’ve been brought up to set a good example to those around them. They seem to have everything they could want – until Daniel Kalbi returns to their lives. Three years ago, Jude’s friend Daniel left unexpectedly. Jude was found lying covered in his own blood – and no-one has ever told his younger sister Grace what happened. With the return of the boy she had a crush on for years, Grace needs to work out exactly what happened and how it’s linked to some attacks on people and animals which have just started – could this be a dangerous attraction for her?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405254580</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Evie Wyld
|title=After the Fire, A Still Small Voice
|rating=1
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Frank has moved to his grandparents’ shack by the sea after a tough end to a difficult relationship, and is trying to settle down, get a job, and get to know his new neighbours. He seems to be doing well, until two girls disappear, with suspicion falling on him. Decades earlier, Leon is left to run his family’s cake shop as his father is sent to fight in Korea, before he in turn is conscripted to serve in Vietnam. Things happen to him, although very few of them are of any interest whatsoever. Is there a connection between Frank and Leon? Will either or both of them manage to find happiness? Can author Evie Wyld give us any reason to care?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099535831</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Eoin Colfer
|title=Artemis Fowl and the Atlantis Complex
|rating=3.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Artemis Fowl is trying to save the world. No wonder Holly Short and Foaly think he's not himself. He might stand to make another huge fortune, but he's thinking about global warming, and technological cures for it. But he's also thinking about a lot of other things - in particular, the patterns of the number five. His mind seems stuck making him tap things in multiples of five times, and use sentences with five words in. But when his demonstration in Iceland goes wrong with a four-engined fairy space probe crashing, he certainly becomes something other than himself.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141328029</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=L C Tyler
|title=The Herring In The Library
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Tall, elegant Ethelred is a gentleman, and a third-rate author. Elsie, his literary agent, is short and dumpy, and not afraid to speak her mind. It is Elsie, in fact, who constantly assures her client he only occasionally aspires to the giddy heights of being second-rate. This could be the business partnership from hell, but not only do these two seem to get along, they even manage to solve crimes together. In this, the third outing for L C Tyler's eccentric sleuths, we are provided with a locked room mystery, a cast of possible villains of the most stereotypical type, and a fresh, funny tale which will make you laugh so much you'll get a stitch.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230714684</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=E V Thompson
|title=No Less Than The Journey
|rating=3.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary= ''No Less Than The Journey'' concerns a young Cornish miner seeking a new life in America. He makes many interesting acquaintances and some rather arduous journeys in his quest to find a family member.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709087551</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=P J Brooke
|title=A Darker Night
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary= The location is the beautiful and historic city of Granada. The husband-and-wife writing duo, aka P J Brooke, impart their knowledge of this area to the reader almost straight away. The hot and dusty terrain is described in detail, along with some tempting snippets of local history; for example, some of the locals still choose to live in old cave houses. Very primitive living indeed, as you can imagine. And one inhabitant, a gypsy, is found dead. As his cave is so bare and sparse there's not too much evidence for Sub-Inspector Romero to go on. But, he does find something of interest...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849010455</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Anna Del Conte
|title=Risotto with Nettles
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary= People who are serious about food will know the name of Anna Del Conte. She's a serious writer about Italian food but not someone who has courted fame via the television screen. You'll have met her in places like 'Sainsbury's Magazine' or read some of her brilliant writing about the food of her native Italy.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099505991</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Kevin Lewis
|title=Scent of a Killer
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=D I Stacey Collins is beginning to wonder if it was such a good idea to introduce her teenage daughter to the father she's longed for all her life. Professional Standards at the Met are wondering about her links with the underworld and telling them that Jack Stanley, a major figure in the criminal world, is Sophie's father might well end her police career for good. She gets away with what she says on this occasion, but finds herself side-lined in the next major case – and dong jobs which could well have been handled by a rookie constable. And what a case it is. Three headless corpses have been found in a parked car in a London street and as their hands have been removed too the first major problem is identification.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141030119</amazonuk>
}}
