Book Reviews From The Bookbag

The Bookbag

Hello from The Bookbag, a site featuring books from all the many walks of literary life - fiction, biography, crime, 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 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 author interviews, and all sorts of top tens - all of which you can find on our features page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the recommendations page.

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	What's Left Unsaid by Deborah Stone General Fiction Sasha has a lot on her plate. Husband Jeremy is distant and absent and the marriage needs work. Son Zac is entering a rebellious adolescent phase and it's hard to know how to redirect him. Mother Annie, an alcoholic, is beginning the journey into dementia and has never been an easy person at the best of times. Thank heavens for her lovely dog, Sebastian, and his unconditional love. Full Review
	A Holiday to Die For by Marion Leigh Thrillers It was the holiday of a lifetime: Petra Minx was accompanying her childhood friend, Carlo, to his cousin's wedding in South Africa and taking the opportunity to see as much of the country as she could whilst she was there. Petra works for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Carlo is from Interpol, so they're hoping for a holiday free from crime, although Carlo does seem to have rather more interest in diamond smuggling than the average tourist and Petra's boss doesn't seem to appreciate that she's on vacation. It's not asking much for her to track down a young girl who's the daughter of an influential friend and check that she's OK, is it? Then there are Megan and Hilary: they're on a gap year, but Petra can't help but think that they're getting themselves into dangers they don't understand. Still, it's not going to spoil a wedding in a vineyard, is it? The bride does seem strangely uninvolved in the proceedings, though... Full Review
	The Place Where Love Should Be by Elizabeth Ellis General Fiction Edward is six weeks old and I’ve had no sleep. I had thirty stitches in my perineum, the wounds still tug and itch. They had to do the stitches twice because the first lot became infected. The old-school midwife told me I wasn’t paying enough attention to personal hygiene. I must shower twice a day, or better still, take a salt bath. Do they really expect me to do that? Have they ever tried to shower when a baby is crying and you’re so tired you can barely stand and your partner is banging around downstairs because he’s late for work again? I think most women have felt like this shortly after having a baby. Many of them simply managed to put one foot in front of the other until things calmed down but some will have found it harder and developed post-natal depression Full Review
	Unrest by Jesper Stein Crime, Thrillers DCI Steen is assigned a puzzling case – the tortured body of a man found in a cemetery in Copenhagen but left there during a riot – a riot that had the area swarming in police. How could anyone have been murdered and left in the open with so many police on site? Unless the killer is one of them… As the case becomes more and more complicated, it soon begins to take a toll on Steen's already troubled personal life. He won't stop until the killer is caught, whatever the consequences. But the consequences may turn out to be greater than expected – especially for Axel himself… Full Review
	Rockstar Retirement Programme: How to retire like a rockstar by Dominic Watson Lifestyle Even with a birthday fast approaching, I'm still a bit young to be reading about retirement. My next life change in the pipeline will be a big one, and it does involve leaving the 9 to 5 behind for a yacht and the silky blue waters of the Caribbean, but only for a year, and then I will be back, tanned and refreshed but barely 40 and with many working years still to come. Also, I like work. My job is interesting, I get to travel, what we do matters and it's not badly rewarded. So no, I'm not planning to retire just yet. But as the premise of this book is about planning (and if not now, then when?) I was still intrigued. Full Review
	Murder Mile (Jane Tennison 4) by Lynda La Plante Crime It was February 1979 in the strike-ridden 'Winter of Discontent' when a body was discovered in Peckham. It was to be the first of two bodies in two days, but the first - that of a young woman - would remain unidentified for some time. The second - an older lady - was found in the boot of her car by her son. Jane Tennison has been promoted to Sergeant and finds herself in the midst of an investigation hindered by press articles about police incompetence and pressure to get a quick result. Four days later and another body to add to the count, the police have named their suspect, but Tennison has her doubts. Full Review
	Broken Ground by Val McDermid Crime As the Officer in Charge of the Historic Cases Unit, DCI Karen Pirie rarely finds herself at the scene of the crime, but for once, she's in the right place at the right time when a body is dug up in the Highlands. Initially it looks as though the death dates back to WWII, but the fact that the dead man is wearing a pair of Nikes means that the case is Karen's. A little while later she'd come to think that she'd been in the wrong place at the wrong time when she overheard a conversation in a cafe. Intervening, she thought that she'd prevented a crime, but what she said would come back to haunt her. Full Review
	Half Moon Bay by Alice LaPlante Crime, Thrillers Half Moon Bay is a small town on the west coast of America, a little down from San Francisco. Jane has just moved there, to start a new life after losing everything when her teenage daughter was killed and her husband left her. Although she has begun to find a little peace in the quiet, seaside town, one day a child goes missing, bringing back painful memories for Jane of her grief and loss and, also, rousing the suspicions of the local townsfolk that she is somehow involved in the disappearance. Full Review
	Phantom by Leo Hunt Teens Sixteen-year-old Nova is an undercity dweller and a leecher - a futuristic kind of pickpocket who uses tech hacks to steal byts from hapless corps workers. The higher up in the city you live, the more sunlight you see and the easier your life. For leechers like Nova, four hundred storeys below the surface, life is tough. But with the help of the hacking program Phantom, invented by legendary anti-corps hacker the Moth, Nova can sneak up to the city, leech some byts and at least make rent. vFull Review
	All the Hidden Truths (Three Rivers) by Claire Askew Crime As a news item, school shootings always terrify me: the deaths are bad enough, but even the young people who survive are always going to be scarred by the fact that this was done to them by one of their number. It doesn't end on the day, either. School shootings cast a very long shadow. May the 14th had the makings of being a normal day until Ryan Summers used three modified starting pistols to shoot thirteen fellow students - and one last bullet to kill himself. We follow the story through the lives of three women: Moira Summers, the mother of the murderer, Helen Birch, the newly-promoted detective inspector who will investigate the killings and Ishbel Hodgekiss, the mother of one of the victims. Full Review
	Garrison Girl (Attack on Titan) by Rachel Aaron Dystopian Fiction You want me to be like everyone else and spend my life hiding inside the walls where it's safe, but that's an illusion. So long as there are titans out there… no one is safe In the dystopian world of Attack on Titan, humanity hides behind the safety of high impenetrable walls to keep out the enemies outside. Known as titans, these enemies are impossibly tall human like creatures, with sharp hungry teeth and regenerative powers. Difficult to kill and innumerable they roam the Earth looking for prey, and whilst the walls have always kept them out, that has begun to change… Full Review
	The Island by M A Bennett Teens, General Fiction A contemporary take on the savage classic Lord of the Flies: a group of mismatched, modern-day teenagers must fight to survive on a deserted island. Link is a fish out of water. Newly arrived from America, he is finding it hard to settle into the venerable and prestigious Osney School. Who knew there could be so many strange traditions to understand? And what kind of school ranks its students by how fast they can run round the school quad - however ancient that quad may be? When Link runs the slowest time in years, he immediately becomes the butt of every school joke. And some students are determined to make his life more miserable than others... Full Review
	Colour Me In by Lydia Ruffles Teens Reeling from a tragedy and unable to cope, unemployed actor Arlo decides to get on a plane and go somewhere new. Full Review
	A Treachery of Spies by Manda Scott Thrillers, Historical Fiction When Inspector Inès Picaut is called to investigate the horrific murder of a strikingly beautiful elderly lady, she's puzzled – whilst the identity of the woman has been erased, it's clear that she has been killed in the same way that traitors to the resistance were executed in World War Two. Solving the mystery will lead Inès deep into the history of this woman – and back to a time when the men and women of 1940s France were engaged in a desperate, brutal fight for survival against their Nazi oppressors. As more and more secrets come to light, Inès discovers that there are many in the present who would rather their past stay buried – and many who would kill to keep secrets safe… Full Review
	The Anomaly by Michael Rutger Horror Tomb Raider meets Indiana Jones within an X-Files episode, for the Youtube era. Join the intrepid (if rather inept) team of internet adventurers as they head out on yet another search for an anomaly only to (spoilers) actually find one. Imagine if, instead of being scared by their own acting, Derek Acorah and Yvette Fielding actually found something; that is the starting point of this book. Deep in a cave within the Grand Canyon our team of adventurers find themselves trapped in a Stephen King plot with added levels of paranoia and conspiracy thrown into the blend. Full Review
	The Water Thief by Claire Hajaj General Fiction, Literary Fiction Nick is in the middle of wedding preparations when he decides to leave his fiancée behind in London and take up a post in some un-named west African country providing engineering support for the building of a children's hospital. He has no idea what he is getting himself into. Full Review
	Beau Death (Peter Diamond Mystery) by Peter Lovesey Crime Children love wrecking balls, so the young lad wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to watch one hit a building through one of those very tempting holes in fencing which you find around building sites. The problem was that when the dust settled a skeleton, sitting in an armchair and clad in clothes which looked to be a few hundred years old, was visible in the loft of the half-demolished building. The lad's father ceased his explanations about kinetic energy and hurried the boy away. Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond was not so lucky. Viewing the corpse from a cherry picker, an unfortunate adjustment to the controls left him eye to, er, eye socket with the corpse and the picture was caught by a press photographer. It was too good not to go viral. Full Review
	Only Love Can Break Your Heart by Katherine Webber Teens Though it's been 5 years since Mika died, Reiko still sees the ghost of her sister every day, forever 14. It's something that brings her comfort, but also a constant reminder that she has to make up for being one when there should have been two. She has to shine bright enough for both of them. When she befriends outsider Seth, he presents her with an escape. From her family, her friends, the grief and loss that continue to scar them all. Seth is instantly smitten with her. After all, who wouldn't fall for gorgeous, popular Reiko Smith-Mori? But while she falls in love with the escape that he represents from her grief, it's not so clear that she's falling in love with him. Full Review
	Bone Talk by Candy Gourlay Confident Readers Samkad is living high up in the mountainous Philippine jungle just as the nineteenth century turns to the twentieth. But Samkad has no idea about any of that. He has never met anyone from outside his own small tribe and his thoughts are focused on becoming a man. He's desperate for the Elders to permit him to join the ranks of the warriors who protect his tribe from their headhunting enemies, even though he knows it will mean leaving his childhood friend Little Luki behind. Full Review