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<metadesc>Book review siteExpert, with books full book reviews from most walks of literary life; fiction, biographynon-fiction, crime, cookery and children's books & self-published books plus author interviews and & top tens.</metadesc><h1 id="mf-title">The Bookbag</h1>Hello from The Bookbag, a site featuring books from all the many walks of literary life - [[:Category:Fiction|fiction]], [[:Category:Biography|biography]], [[:Category:Crime|crime]], [[:Category:Cookery|cookery]] and anything else that takes our fancy. At Bookbag Towers the bookbag sits at the side of the desk. It's the bag we take to the library, the charity shop and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often books sent to us by publishers and we promise to tell you exactly what we think about them. You might not want to read through a full review, so we'll give you a quick review which summarises what we felt about the book and tells you whether or not we think you should buy or borrow it. There are also lots of [[:Category:Interviews|author interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[features]] page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] page.
Reviews by readers from all the many walks of literary life. With author interviews, features and top tens. You'll be sure to find something you'll want to read here. Dig in! Find us on [[File:facebook.gif|link=https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk|alt=Facebook]] [https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk '''Facebook'''], [[File:twitter.gif|link=http://twitter.com/TheBookbag|alt=Follow us on Twitter]] [http://twitter.com/TheBookbag '''Twitter'''], [[File:instagram_classic_logo.png|link=https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/|alt=Follow us on Instagram]] [https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/ '''Instagram'''] and [[File:LinkedIn.png|link=https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-bookbag-1b12a264/|alt=LinkedIn]] There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Reviews}}''' [[:Category:Reviews|reviews ]] at TheBookbag.
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==Reviews of the The Best New Books==
'''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by category]]. '''<br>
'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].''' <! '''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{Frontpage|isbn=152919640X|title=The Suspect|author=Rob Rinder|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=The nation's favourite daytime TV presenter, Jessica Holby, was murdered live on television and it seems that there's only one suspect. He's celebrity chef Sebastian Brooks and his contract stated that he must not serve anything containing miso to Jessica Holby. She's seriously allergic and carries an EpiPen in case of emergencies. Everything seemed as normal -as normal as they can be in a busy, live television studio - INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->and Brooks served a ragout to Holby. Her EpiPen was nowhere to be found and she was dead within minutes. It was soon clear that this was no accident.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008385068|title=The Midnight Feast|author=Lucy Foley|rating=4.5|genre=Thrillers|summary=It's midsummer on the Dorset coast and guests gather at The Manor. It's their opening weekend and splendid celebrations are promised. It's all headed up by Francesca Meadows. The Manor was her ancestral home and she's converted it into an impressive retreat for the wealthy and famous. Her husband, Owen, was the architect and work is still ongoing on parts of the site. The heat is oppressive and amongst the guests are enemies as well as friends. Old scores are going to be settled and it won't be long before a body is found.}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Michael J MaloneAshley Hickson-Lovence|title=In Wild East|rating=4.5|genre=Teens|summary=Written in verse, this is Ronny's story, a young black fourteen year old boy from Hackney who suddenly has to move to Norwich and start at a mostly white school. The move is initiated by Ronny's mum who is worried for Ronny's safety after a tragic event, and so Ronny finds himself trying to settle in a new town, a new school, and keep himself out of trouble. He listens to music constantly, and has always dreamed of being a rapper. But now, in this new school, his teacher encourages him to be part of a poetry writing workshop group and, slowly, Ronny begins to see the connections between rap and poetry, and the power of creativity and crafting your words.|isbn=0241645441}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1635866847|title=The Lavender Companion|author=Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci|rating=4.5|genre=Lifestyle|summary=It's strange, the things that make you ''immediately'' feel that this is the book for you. Before I started reading ''The Absence Lavender Companion'', I visited the author's [https://www.pinelavenderfarm.com/ website] and there's a picture of a slice of chocolate cake on the homepage. I don't eat cakes and desserts - but I wanted that cake viscerally. (There's a recipe in the book, which I'm avoiding with some difficulty!!) Then I started reading the book and I was told to make a mess of it. Notes in the margins are sanctioned. You get to fold down the corners of Miraclespages. You suspect that smears of butter would not be a problem. I ''loved'' this book already.}}{{Frontpage|author=Rob Keeley|title=Childish Spirits: 10th anniversary special edition
|rating=4
|genre=ThrillersConfident Readers|summary=John DochertyAround here, we're big fans of children's author Rob Keeley. He's mother has been taken into a nursing home following a massive strokeball of happy positivity, he understands children, and he writes for their pleasure and enjoyment, not to lecture or hector. It The ''Childish Spirits'' series is thought unlikely that she will ever be able to live independently againone of his greatest achievements. Faced It's a sequence of ghost stories centring on Ellie, a stalwart young girl who can cope with having to sell anything the family home in order to pay for spirit world throws at her nursing care, Docherty starts and Edward, a spoiled lordling and the clear out. In first spirit Ellie encounters|isbn= 1783064617}}{{Frontpage|author=Jenny Valentine|title=Us in the attic he finds a childhood picture of himselfBefore and After|rating=5|genre=Teens|summary=Elk and Mab are best friends, or more than that even, holding their friendship is a toddler – once in a toddler he knows nothing aboutlifetime connection. He also finds They meet as children one day on a blood-stained shoetrip out but unfortunately they don't get each other's contact details at the time. But then chance brings them back together, and they are inseparable. Something has happened though, something terrible and tragic, and now they must work through their grief, and their friendship, together.|isbn=191237479X1471196585
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0692853545Kieran Larwood and Joe Todd-Stanton|title=The Things We Do|author=Kay PfaltzDungeon Runners: Hero Trial
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Meet Kit. Like most of the people in his world, it seems, he is an avid fan of Dungeon Running – the sport where a team of warrior, mage and healer enter specially prepared, century-old, magical mazes, and race to the exit, perhaps bothering with the treasure or the big bad and the points they grant you along the way. Unfortunately for Kit, the only thing he's seen of the latest race on the inn TV equivalent is that one team has been retired, eaten, and a new trio of questors is needed. Possibly very unfortunately indeed for Kit, he has taken to the goading from the token bully of his world and stumbled into declaring he'll enter as a team. What chance does this friendless, muscle-free-zone have in actually managing that, and how could he possibly hope to succeed?
|isbn=1839945184
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Saima Mir
|title=Vengeance
|rating=3.5
|genre=Thrillers
|summary=It's 2015 and Dr Eleanor Hartley is a prison psychologist at I was instantly intrigued by the state penitentiary and she knows that her next patient is not going to be easy. 'Jane Doe' has been convicted premise of this novel – an organised crime syndicate in the murder north of two men - one England run by a police officerMuslim woman. She pleaded guilty The fact that it was the second in a series I hadn't read didn't stop me – I've jumped midway into a few series before (on page and since then has been silent: even her identity is in doubt. She was carrying identification as Jane Dunlap when she was arrested, but screen) and it needn't be a hindrance if it's been proved to be falsegood enough. There seem to be no family or friends who are missing herAnd that wasn't a problem here. Eleanor's task is Vengeance swiftly brings you up to get Jane talkingspeed, to find out why a seemingly normal young woman would murder two menand I never felt lost.|isbn=0861541561
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Patti SmithStuart Douglas|title=Year Lowe and Le Breton Mysteries - Death at the Dress Rehearsal|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=During location filming for his 1970's sitcom 'Floggit and Leggit', leading man Edward Lowe stumbles across the dead body of a woman on the edge of a reservoir. The police seem happy to assign it as an accidental death, but something about the whole thing bothers Lowe, and he enlists the help of a fellow actor, John Le Breton to help him investigate matters further. They travel across the country during their days off filming, uncovering more possible murders and, seemingly, a link to death during the Second World War. But is there really a link between the deaths? And will they manage to uncover who is responsible before more people lose their lives?|isbn=1803368209}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0CYV674G2|title=Swanton Morley (John Tanner)|author=David Blake|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=It seemed like an open-and-shut case. A man, covered in mud and blood - and carrying a knife, comes into the police station shouting that he hasn't killed the man. A body at the bottom of a freshly dug grave at Swanton Morley church - he's been stabbed to death. DCI John Tanner is just back from his honeymoon, which coincided with the birth of his daughter Samantha. You would think he'd be grateful for an easy answer but the words 'perverse' and 'John Tanner' were made for each other. He's sleep-deprived to the point of falling asleep at work but he's determined to keep going - probably because he can't get any sleep at home.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1787333175|title=You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji Waterhouse|rating=5|genre=Popular Science|summary=I was tempted to read ''You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here'' after enjoying Adam Kay's first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is Going to Hurt}}, a glorious mixture of insight into the workings of the NHS, humour and autobiography. ''You Don't Have to be Mad...'' promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to mental illness and the work of a psychiatrist. I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in this setting but the laughter is directed at a situation rather than a person and it is always delivered with empathy and understanding. }}{{Frontpage|author=Onyi Nwabineli|title=Allow Me to Introduce Myself|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Anuri spent her childhood on display to the world, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of Anuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, monetary gain. Now Anuri is 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 content 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. Most importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the new focus of Ophelia's online empire. Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time?|isbn=0861546873}}{{Frontpage|author=David Chadwick|title=Headload of Napalm|rating=4.5|genre=Thrillers|summary= It's September 1973 in Hicks, California. Hicks is a Mojave desert town of a few thousand people with its nearest neighbours of LA and Las Vegas both a significant drive away. Not much happens in Hicks. A silver mine and a defence contractor are the Monkeymain local employers but otherwise, there's not much of note other than dive bars and Joshua trees. Life is quiet, until....|isbn= B0D321VJ76}}{{Frontpage|author=Tom Percival|title=The Wrong Shoes|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Will's life is difficult, in a multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has a tiny amount of hope. He is good at art, and clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.|isbn=1398527122}}{{Frontpage|author=Sylvie Cathrall|title=A Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary= There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of them.|isbn= 0356522776}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008517061|title=Death in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=BiographyCrime|summary=On the coast of Santa CruzFormer Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, Patti Smith enters has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the lunar year future of the monkey - one packed his life with mischiefhis vet girlfriend, sorrowLivia and her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and unexpected moments. In a stranger's words, ''Anything relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is possible: after all, it's the year of the monkey''. As Smith wanders the coast of Santa Cruz in solitude, future she reflects on a year that brings huge shifts in wants for herself and her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life - loss in the present and aging are faced head putting the future on, as it the shifting political waters in Americaback burner. }}{{Frontpage|isbn=15266147581786482126|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the one night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Margaret Atwood0008551324|title=The TestamentsDevil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Dystopian FictionCrime|summary= Finally! Almost forty years on, we have a sequel It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. [[The HandmaidNeither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's Tale by Margaret Atwood|The Handmaid's Tale]]. I don't want prepared to tell you too much about the plot because it's police where the body of a novel that missing person is entirely plot drivenburied and who was responsible for her death. Suffice This person, he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and to say that ''get an early parole date. Not much to ask, is it? The Testamentsnew Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she' takes place fifteen years later, fifteen years after Offred gets into a van, not knowing s even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what will happen next's happening. }}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008405026|title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=It's told by three narrators: Aunt Lydiasixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, Helena, who is secretly writing and her memoirs father are dead in Ardua Hall; Agnestheir bed. Initially, it looks like a girl brought up in Gilead with straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the expectation she will marry a commander; Daisy, a rebellious teenage girl in Canada who knows positioning of Gilead only from school lessons the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and its Pearl Girl missionaries who occasionally call into the store owned by her parentsboss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=17847423250571379877|title=The Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=Edward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and Stanza. Robert's a theatre director. He's also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for him. Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the two of them kissing in a dark passageway.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Anne BodenJo Callaghan|title=The Money RevolutionLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre= Business and FinanceCrime|summary= Money When a man is changingfound crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. It might not be in the ways you think's their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. We’re not But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly getting struggling with a 3p or £3 coin (potential serial killer and have you ever even found a country very high profile case that offers anything different to the 1, 2, 5 model?) We’re getting draws a lot more digital with payments, which seems of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to suit most people apart from charity collectors and solve the homeless on case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the streetcase and, but although this book has the subtitle that includes the word ‘’digital’’potentially, it’s not really about this either. Instead it’s about the ‘’management’’ out of your finances, and how to take control.a career?|isbn=1789660610139851120X
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=147117316X1399613073|title=Guilty Not GuiltyMoral Injuries|author=Felix FrancisChristie Watson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Thrillers
|summary=The Honourable William Herbert Millgate Gordon-Russell (Bill Russell to those who knew him well) was acting as Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a volunteer steward at Warwick Racecourse when he was told quarter of the violent death of his much-loved wifea century. It would get worse though: the successful insurance actuary would Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to be accused of killing her a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and hounded by the mediaa trauma doctor. Then he would lose his job Anjali is the free spirit of the group and his homeshe becomes a GP. His best friends would turn against him, as When we first meet them they came 're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to believe him guilty of end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the murderconsequences. Yet Twenty-five years later there was no really compelling evidence will be an eerily similar event that he was guiltywill impact the three friends. This time, it's their teenage children who are involved.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=0241636604
|title=The Trading Game: A Confession
|author=Gary Stevenson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It was his ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1035021803
|title=The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder
|author=C L Miller
|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up. She's back now because of a request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Freya's former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the man or pursue the profession she loved. After the split, she worked in a cafe, met and married James (on the rebound from the love of her life, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover
|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt
|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.''
I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Well, I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of technology in my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but I'm left with the feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of it is - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Sunny Singh|title=Hotel Arcadia|rating=3.5|genre=Thrillers |summary=The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Hiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, a wartime photographer and Abhi, the hotel manager. As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the hotel, he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what's happened through her photography. Although they only ever talk over the phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists.|isbn=086154742X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529153298|title=The List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=It'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, they've been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the family 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=19087458191398524085|title=SurfacingHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Kathleen JamieNicci French
|rating=5
|genre=HistoryCrime|summary=Sometimes when people suggest that you read a certain bookCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, they tell you ''this one has your name on it''Etty. Mostly we take them at their wordare all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, or is not. Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, but rarely do we ask them why they thought sofind the body of Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, unless it turns out in the river. It was an easy assumption for the police to make that we didnDuncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't like stand the bookguilt. That The Salter children are not convinced but there's a rare experiencelittle else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1035906708|title=Diva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4. People who are sensitive 5|genre=General Fiction|summary=We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to hearing a book calling your nameGreek parents in Manhattan, New York, rarely get it wrongin December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. In this case I Her original surname was told whyKalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas' to make it more manageable in the States. The blurb speaks 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 a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of the her preference for her elder sister, Jackie.}}{{Frontpage|author considering ''an older=Christopher Edge|title=Black Hole Cinema Club|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, less tethered sense a place that has the nickname of herself.'The Black Hole' . Older. Less tethered. ThatAll big movie fans, they's not a bad description re looking forward to lots of where I am. exciting films, and many, many snacks! Add to that my love of However, as the natural worldmovie starts, of those aspects of the poetic and lyrical they very quickly realise that are something about style not formthis new film format is very different, and substance most of allthey are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to the next, about connection. Of course this book had my name can they figure out what on earth is going on it. ? It was written for me. It would have found its way Will they ever get back to me eventually. I am pleased the cinema, and to have it fall onto my path so quickly.their real lives?|isbn=1839942738
}}