==General fiction==
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{{newreview
|author=Diane Chamberlain
|title=Breaking the Silence
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=As I've reviewed several of Chamberlain's previous books and enjoyed them, I was looking forward to getting stuck in to this one. We meet the central character; wife and mother to five-year-old Emma, Laura. She's distraught. Her father (Emma's grandfather) has just passed away but his dying wish has really upset Laura. It's a strange request and she doesn't know what to make of it. She confides in her husband thinking that two heads are better than one. He's a brilliant academic and could give some much-needed advice. But he doesn't. In fact, he behaves like a five-year-old himself and almost has a tantrum. Odd. Now poor Laura's doubly confused, upset and doesn't know how to handle her grief. Tough times.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778304140</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Lola Shoneyin
|summary=The story is based 'between the wars', the 1920s to be exact. We're introduced to the main characters: a small family unit of mother, father and two children. On the surface this normal, middle-class set-up all appears fine - but underneath, things are far from fine. The father, Ian is actually the step-father to the twins. And through various detailed and sometimes unusually lengthy parent-child conversations and chats the reader is filled in with the background story. A bit staccato in places, I have to admit.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907230130</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Brian Freeman
|title=The Bone House
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The novel opens with one of the central characters, Mark. And straight away we see that he has an eye for the girls - young girls, it would seem. He's a married man, so tongues start to wag. The book's front cover depicts a house going up in flames and on the very first page there's another mention of fire, Billy Joel's hit song 'We Didn't Start The Fire.' So, fire seems as if it's going to play an important part in this book. And it does. Big-time.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755348788</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Rebecca Hunt
|title=Mr Chartwell
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=For a couple of years now Esther Hammerhans has lived alone and money is a little tight. She works in the House of Commons library but it doesn't pay particularly well. Letting the spare room to a lodger seemed like a good idea, but she's somewhat surprised when she sees Mr Chartwell's silhouette. It's the size of a mattress and Mr Chartwell is a dog. A large black dog.
At home in Kent, Winston Churchill wakes up. He's reaching the end of his time in parliament and in some ways he's not surprised to sense that there's a visitor in the room. It's someone he hasn't seen for a while, but the presence of the huge, mute hulk who watched him with a tortured expression was only to be expected. Winston's black dog was back.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905490690</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Alice de Smith
|title=Welcome to Life
|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=It's the 80s. Freya is 14 and an only child. She lives with her parents in Cambridge. So far, so normal. Except... Freya's home life is slightly a-typical. She's on first name terms with the parental figures (no affectionate ''Mum'' or ''Daddy'' here) and is under the distinct impression that they spend their days imagining life without her. Her best friend is a middle aged housewife on whose son she has a rather too obvious crush. Her mother communicates with her through lists and shows her affection in the oddest ways. Her father has just moved his business associate in, but he's not just sleeping in the spare room.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843549840</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Alex Dryden
|title=The Blind Spy
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The author writes under a pseudonym and he has worked in intelligence, so he should know what he's talking - and writing about. He concentrates on the battle for supremacy (and we've been here before) as Russia and the USA clash. The story itself is an intricate one. Full of agents/counter-agents, spies/double spies and the like and appearances by members of the CIA and MI6 amongst others. If you like spy thrillers, then this novel will suit you down to the ground. Lots of furtive and secretive missions all over the place to keep the reader guessing and interested.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755373332</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Andrea Newman
|title=A Bouquet of Barbed Wire
|rating=2.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=For those of you who've never heard of it, A Bouquet of Barbed Wire was most famous as a landmark 70's TV series based on this 1969 novel by Andrea Newman. I'd never read the book before - in fact I'm not even sure I knew there ''was'' a book - or seen the TV series but I was aware of the controversy it created at the time of
release so lapped up the chance to read the rerelease, accompanying the remake of the TV series which has just started.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846687721</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=David Williams
|title=11:59
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The back cover blurb informs the reader that this novel was a semi-finalist in the 2010 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. And the front jacket is stylish and a bit Hitchcock-esque. All the signs looked promising for a decent read. But did it deliver?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956373356</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=William Nicholson
|title=All the Hopeful Lovers
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I had previously read Nicholson's ''The Society Of Others'' and thoroughly enjoyed it so I was looking forward to reading this book. Nicholson writes a modern-day story which is relevant and bang up to date. We first meet Laura and Belinda. Two middle-aged, middle-class wives and mothers. Feeling sort of okay with their lives generally but all too aware also, that the marital 'spark' in their marriages is now a low peep - if there at all. Belinda in particular, knows she is bumbling along in life. She's not sure what to do to make things more interesting in the sex department. A fling would probably help - but would it be the answer?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184916388X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ruth Dugdall
|title=The Woman Before Me
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=We're introduced to one of the female central characters, Rose. There's been a serious house fire and a baby has been involved. Rose is implicated. But is she innocent or guilty? Unfortunately for Rose, she's been in the wrong place at the wrong time - and she's put behind bars. Five years is a long time for a young woman with the rest of her life to lead. Even more so, if you're telling anyone and everyone that you are, in fact, innocent of the crime. But is anyone listening?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907461159</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=John Buchan
|title=The Island of Sheep (John Hannay)
|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Richard Hannay is feeling old. He looks at himself and his contemporaries and sees a spread of complacency. Luckily - or perhaps very unluckily - an old pledge will come to haunt him. His earlier career in Africa saw Hannay and his friends swear to protect a man from others - and now a second generation of animosity is ripe for Hannay to step in and be a protective detective. Add in a supposed treasure hoard, and who knows where his last journey might end up?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184697156X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jed Rubenfeld
|title=The Death Instinct
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=It's three years since we were all blown away by [[The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld|The Interpretation of Murder]] but Jed Rubenfeld is back with the sequel, which takes place ten years later. And what a decade that has been, with the appalling tragedy of the First World War and the influenza outbreak which followed. There's a hope that things are getting better as New York moves into the twenties and Stratham Younger and Captain James Littlemore meet up for the first time in ten years. They're in Wall Street on September the sixteenth – just as a quarter of a ton of explosives is detonated in the worst terrorist attack in the country's hundred and fifty year history.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755343999</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Katherine Hall Page
|title=The Body in the Fjord
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Page gives us another ''The Body In The...'' book within a tried and tested format. The book jacket covers are always bright and jazzy and this one is no exception. We're deep in Norway, its picturesque countryside and world-famous fjords. We are in the company of two different but interesting women. Mother and daughter. Pix, the daughter (I think the name sounds as if it belongs to someone young) is a mother in middle-age with teenage children. She has responsibilities, but at times she behaves like a sixteen year old and I suppose that is part of her appeal. She cannot seem to say ''no'' to anyone and now finds herself enlisted to solve an unexplained death and a missing person. The latter is the more important as the missing person, Kari, is related to Ursula's best friend. Yes, perhaps a few too many names at the beginning of the book to grapple with but it soon settles down.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709090641</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Marcelo Figueras
|title=Kamchatka
|rating=3
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Initially I was very excited and interested when The Bookbag was given this novel to review. Set at a time in which I lived in Buenos Aires, I was looking forward to a fictionalised account of these traumatic years - made all the more appealing, as the narrator purported to be the eldest of the family's two sons - 10 year old 'Haroldo' as he comes to be known, having by necessity left his former identity behind. In this respect, I was to be sadly disappointed. The majority of the novel comprises recollections from an adult Haroldo - not quite what the Amazon blurb, nor the précis on the cover, leads the reader to believe! In fairness, the author can't be blamed for this - but I felt mislead by the dust jacket - which may have coloured my enjoyment, and which lead, in part, to the relatively low star rating which I gave the book.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843548267</amazonuk>
}}
