==General fiction==
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{{newreview
|author=John Hart
|title=Iron House
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Hart is already a best-selling author so he has a lot to live up to with his latest book. At over 400 pages it's a big, meaty read. The story opens with Michael, now an adult. In his prime, with the woman he loves and about to become a father: life is looking very rosy indeed. He thinks that he's left his shady past behind him forever. He's wrong. Hart gives his readers a little background info on Michael, the central character, just enough to whet our appetites. It worked for me and I was eager to keep turning the pages. At the start of the book there's a definite sense of something catastrophic about to happen and that it involves Michael in some way.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848541791</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Tim Thornton
|summary=The book's title has been well thought out. Xavier Ireland, the main character has the number ''Eleven'' if you take his initials as Roman numbers (XI) and there are eleven individuals who are involved in this chain reaction of events. When I read the blurb on the back cover, what caught my eye above all else was the line 'whether the choices we don't make affect us just as powerfully as those we do.' And of course, when we take no action about something in our lives, it's a form of action in effect.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184983136X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Mavis Cheek
|title=The Lovers of Pound Hill
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Archaeologist Molly Bonner had something about her. She definitely wasn't dressed for the country when she arrived in Lufferton Boney and she'd captured the heart of one young man before she'd even walked down the street. She captured another when she offered money to work on the Gnome of Pound Hill, but Miles Whittington was ruled by his wallet and he was keen to make money out of the Gnome. The Gnome, you see, was what might euphemistically be called 'well endowed' and Miles had visions of charging visitors to make use of the, er, fertility rites. One thing was certain – none of the villagers of Lufferton Boney would be the same by the time that Molly Bonner (not only an archaeologist but also the archaeologist's granddaughter) had finished her work.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091931665</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Alan Warner
|title=The Stars in the Bright Sky
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=In 1999, Alan Warner introduced us to a wonderful set of characters in 'The Sopranos' when a school choir from a backwater town in Scotland went on a trip to the big city. Much debauchery ensued. 'The Stars in the Bright Sky' once again reunites most of the original gang and there is no need to have read the first book to pick up on the diverse characters. Now though, they've grown up (or at least got older!) and are gathered at Gatwick Airport to set off on a girls' holiday.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009946182X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Geraint Anderson
|title=Just Business
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The inside cover blurb tells us that the author himself has worked in the square mile in London, so presumably he'll have first-hand experience in the world of finance. The book is bang up-to-date, as it mentions the first whiff of the sub-prime disaster which seemed to start the whole collapse of the (up till then) safe and often extremely well-paid banking sector.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755381726</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Linda Gillard
|title=House of Silence
|rating=4.5
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Gwen Rowland was a sensible, cautious kind of girl, but then the only family she'd ever known were all dead from a surfeit of unprotected sex, drink and the sort of drugs that don't come in a child-proof bottle. So – her relationship with an actor was a little out of the ordinary, but they seemed to be friends before they were lovers. The crunch came at Christmas when Alfie said that he was spending it with his family – which would have left Gwen on her own. She did ''slightly'' twist his arm to take her with him and he was obviously reluctant to comply. When they arrived at Creake Hall, home of author Rae Holbrook and her daughters, Gwen sensed a change in Alfie, a lack of warmth towards his family. Then there was the family photo which didn't fit the known facts and the complication of the gardener who said little but was a very good listener.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B004USSPN2</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Annalena McAfee
|title=The Spoiler
|rating=3
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Several things about this novel intrigued me. It is about two female journalists of very different generations. Also, it is set in the recent past – 1997. While newspaper production had been computerised, it was just before internet access at home and work became affordable and accessible to far more people and so became mass media, and newspapers were almost entirely a print medium – newspaper websites were just around the corner. Annalena McAfee has an insider's knowledge of the newspaper world as she was a journalist for many years, and her career included founding the Guardian's review section in its current form.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846554357</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Megan Abbott
|title=The End of Everything
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
|summary=On the surface this book is about the disappearance of a thirteen-year-old girl. Her best friend and neighbour Lizzie relates how she searches for clues, how she discovers that a local man may be involved, and how Evie and Lizzie's families struggle to cope. But look again at the title. What really unfolds here is the story of the effect a single incident has on three families, not two, how that one event came about, and why nothing will ever be the same for everyone involved. It is a book which is complex, deep and very, very intense.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330535455</amazonuk>
}}
{{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)
|title=The Stronger Sex
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=After reading the various comments on the back cover, I was looking forward to reading this book as I love a story with a psychological element. Young Alex is driven to the home of his latest client; a man called Klofft. The reader soon finds out that Klofft has plenty of baggage, as well as plenty of money. He's elderly and very ill and mobility is also an issue for him. So, while he may have set out to impress others with his large home and beautiful things, sadly he seems no longer to be able to enjoy life. His illness confines him to just a couple of rooms. It's apparent that Alex is rather taken with his wife, Cilly Klofft, who is still rather beautiful - for her age. The reader assumes she's in her late sixties or early seventies. But what is it they say about age being only a number for some of us? And age plays a big part, a very big part, in this novel.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904738672</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Robert Jackson Bennett
|title=The Company Man
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=''The Times'' says on the front cover that Bennett is 'clearly a writer to watch' so I had high hopes for this novel. We meet two of the central characters, American policeman Garvey and Englishman Hayes. Garvey's working cv is straightforward enough - he carries out police work, some of which is pretty grisly. But what about Hayes? He appears to be all things to all men but at the end of the day well, he's 'The Company Man' which gives the book its title. And so a complex scenario starts to unravel ...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841497924</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Justine Kilkerr
|title=Advice for Strays
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=If you have ever fancied a grown up version of [[The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr|The Tiger who came to Tea]], the cover of this Vintage edition should hook you into reading Justine Kilkerr's first novel. Here sits a sad and patient-looking lion, and the female figure beside him, hidden by an umbrella, has that same vulnerable look of mother and child in Judith Kerr's classic children's picture book. At first this seems like a ridiculous connection, but thinking about it later I'm struck with the analogy, not to mention the similarity in authors' names.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099535262</amazonuk>
}}
