==General fiction==
__NOTOC__
{{newreview
|author=C J Box
|title=Back of Beyond
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Connolly and [[Tell No One by Harlan Coben|Harlan Coben]], both of whom I've read. So, it was off to a pretty good start. The front cover graphics and large print scream out 'thriller'. We get the essence of Cody early on. He's a man who likes to do his own thing and doesn't take kindly to orders or red tape. All that red tape is shit, is probably how Cody would describe it in his own colourful and down-to-earth fashion. He looks older than his years. Maybe that's down to a messy domestic life and also to the hours he puts in on the job. He lives on his own and has a teenage son he doesn't see often enough. Oh, and he smokes like a chimney and drinks like a fish. In short, he's a mess. But somehow he stumbles through his police work - with a lot of help and support from a long-suffering colleague.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848872984</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Hans Werner Kettenbach and Anthea Bell (Translator)
|summary=When it began it wasn't pleasant, but there was hope that it would get better. Rosa's father, Otto was a doctor and she lived with him, her mother, Inga, elder brother Heinrich and younger sister Hedi in a pleasant flat in Berlin. The turn of opinion against Jews was slow – an anti-Jewish pin handed to Rosa as she went shopping, friends who felt that they couldn't remain such obvious friends – certainly for the time being – and a change of employment for Otto. It was better for the patients if they didn't have contact with him, even if he was a good doctor.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846971764</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Nathacha Appanah
|title=The Last Brother
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Raj and his two beloved brothers live on a Mauritian sugar plantation. World War II rages far away and close too, but Raj is blissfully unaware of anything beyond his immediate surroundings. Life is poor and hard and Raj's father takes out the privations of his life on his sons and his wife - drunken beatings are a regular occurrence. But his mother is loving and kind, and skilled at healing, and his brothers are constant playmates.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849164010</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Tom Bale
|title=Terror's Reach
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=We're on the south coast of England in the middle of a hot summer in a very upmarket enclave, not dissimilar to Sandbanks, along the coast a bit. The locals are going about their business, about their daily lives and Bale obligingly introduces them to us one by one and also gives us an idea of their respective backgrounds, their family members and even some of the house designs ' ... each home had a private jetty' for example.. New money is also apparent along with ostentatious taste. What's also apparent is that trouble's afoot. Big time.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848090765</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Daphne Kalotay
|title=Russian Winter
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The novel's structure goes back and forth from the past to the present day. The book opens with Nina, now elderly, in pain and in a wheelchair: waiting to die basically. And even although she's lived an interesting life, now all she has for company is a daily home-help. I was struck straight away by how prickly Nina is and I could feel all those emotions seething underneath the surface. So the question is - why has she decided to sell some of her exquisite jewellery. Is it to help pay the bills? Or some other reason? We find out by degrees.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099553244</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Scott Mariani
|title=The Lost Relic
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Ben Hope went to Italy to visit a former SAS comrade and offer him a job, but he's got marriage and happiness – and Ben's trade is far from the front of his mind. It's whilst he's driving away that Ben nearly runs down a small boy and unwittingly walks into a deadly heist which will see the boy and his mother – and many others – brutally murdered. It's only the beginning for Ben though as he find himself fleeing for his life and accused of murder. When the state needs to act people – even heroes – are disposable.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847561977</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Diane Janes
|title=Why Don't You Come For Me?
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Over a decade ago Jo's daughter was abducted from in front of a shop whilst she and her husband were on holiday. The pushchair was found on a cliff edge but there was no trace of Lauren, even on the beach below. Occasionally Jo receives postcards with an old picture of her daughter on the front simply saying that the writer still has Lauren. The police, the people who know what happened believe the cards to be a hoax. Jo believes differently. She also realises that as she has moved house and remarried and the story has faded from press attention someone is going to a great deal of trouble to keep track of her.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849011257</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=G S Mattu
|title=Sons and Fascination
|rating=3
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=This book concentrates on emotions. Take an impressionable young man, add in a chance (?) encounter with an attractive older woman and then stand well back as the fireworks explode and as family, friends and colleagues get sucked in to their deepening relationship. I must say I'm not keen on the title (a little pretentious for a work of fiction in my opinion and more suited to poetry) and even when it was ever so gently explained later on in the book (twice) I still didn't warm to it. All in all, not off to the greatest of starts.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907756000</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Philip Wilding
|title=Cross Country Murder Song
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The novel opens with the (unnamed) central character in a therapy session in downtown New York. The air is charged and tension is present, big-time. This is one troubled human being. And of course, childhood issues and experiences are dominant in this question and answer session. We soon find out that this individual has secrets in his basement. It all becomes too much, he packs a bag and hits the road and so the story starts proper.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099539934</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Asa Jones
|title=The Illustrated Mind of Mike Reeves
|rating=3.5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Mike Reeves doesn't have his troubles to seek. His wife was brutally raped some four or five years ago and whilst she might seem to be recovered she cannot stand to be touched by a man – any man, Mike included. Quite suddenly Mike was alone, in every way – until he found himself drawn to the darker arts and began to dabble in Tarot, the Runes and I Ching. He's guided by two spirits. Sean is a wise and benevolent older man and Debbie, well she… isn't. She's the one who satisfies Mike's sexual needs. If that's all sounding rather good, then hesitate a moment, for with the good comes the bad and the bad is in the form of Tony a (very) real-life gangster who's been doing his own dabbling in the spirit world. When their worlds clash Mike has a problem which could well be more than he can handle.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>160693905X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Margaret Forster
|title=Diary of an Ordinary Woman
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=After reading the introduction, I couldn't help but sneak a sly read at the author's note right at the end of the novel. I don't usually do this. I'm glad I did as the information is both surprising and revelatory. Back to the beginning and Chapter 1 ... We meet the 13 year old Millicent in 1914. By her written statements and recorded mannerisms, we see that she's a girl who knows her own mind. For example, she thinks writing in her diary every single day could be dull and boring so she's made a golden rule that she's only going to write something down when she feels like it. Some may call her precocious but I liked Millicent right from the start. Courtesy of her diary we find out that she's part of a large and boisterous family. She doesn't appreciate all the noise and chatter from her siblings. She craves peace and quiet to think and to read. She's a prolific reader. She also believes that she's smart and clever and wants to 'do' something with her life when she grows up. She's not sure what exactly but she certainly doesn't want to be a mere housewife and mother.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099449285</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Matt Dunn
|title=The Accidental Proposal
|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Edward Middleton seems like a pretty decent guy. He always stops to buy a Big Issues from Billy, a local homeless man and he takes his elderly widowed neighbour shopping once a week. These are some of the reasons why his girlfriend, Sam, loves him so much. One night, after a friend's wedding, Sam asks Ed if he would also like to get married to which Ed enthusiastically replies 'yes'. However, the following morning, whilst nursing his hangover, he cannot work out if it was a hypothetical question or an actual proposal. His best mate Dan is no help at all and is quite incredulous that anyone should ever want to marry Ed.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847395244</amazonuk>
}}
