Althea's Reading Corner

September Reviews The Adventures of Rembrandt the Tuxedo Cat Helps Callie, the Calico Cat, Find Her Meow by Marsha Walk Carroll (Release date: Oct. 6, 2020) Review preview:   This is my first children's book that I have picked up from Netgalley for a review. I thought it would be a nice way to get some books that my 10 month old son might like as well as a way to share my thoughts on the book with other parents (hopefully). I chose this book for a few reasons, first its about a tuxedo cat. My family has 4 cats, none of which are a Tuxedo cat but I had one as I was growing up. Secondly, its about cats and we love cats. Thirdly, it had pictures which I thought would be nice for my son... Rating is 3 out of 5. Check out the full review here . Publication date is October 6, 2020.  I Will Make You Pay by Teresa Driscoll  Review preview: Alice is a journalist for a small local country paper in England. When she answers the phone at work on a Wednesday she is shocked by the cal...

Title: The Wicked Hour Author: Alice  Blanchard Series: Natalie Lockhart Genre: Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Thriller Format: Kindle ARC No. of Pages: 304   Date of Publication: December 1, 2020 Description:  The day after Burning Lake’s notorious, debauched Halloween celebration, Detective Natalie Lockhart uncovers a heartbreaking scene―a young woman, dead and lying in a dumpster. There’s no clue to who she is, save for a mystifying tattoo on her arm, and a callus underneath her chin. She’s not from around here. No one knows who she is. As Natalie retraces the young woman’s steps leading up to her death, she uncovers a deeper, darker horror―a string of murders and disappearances, seemingly unconnected, that may have ties to each other―and explain the abrupt disappearance of her best friend years ago. As she digs deeper within the mind of the hunter, Natalie finds a darkness she could never have imagined. And as she draws closer to the truth, the killer is weaving a ...

Title: Die Next Author: Jonathan Stone Genre:  Suspense, Thriller Format:  Kindle ARC No. of Pages: 353 Date of Publication: April 14, 2020 Description:  In a crowded coffee shop, Zack Yellin swaps identical-looking cell phones with the businessman next to him. It's an honest mistake - and a deadly one. Because the "businessman" is actually a professional - and highly volatile - hit man named Joey Richter, and his phone is filled with bombshell evidence. If Zack takes Joey's phone to the police, will they believe his swapped cell phone story? Would they even be able to protect him? Because the hit man now has Zack's phone with the phone numbers and addresses of Zack's new girlfriend Emily, his best friend Steve, and all the texts and information from Zack's life.  Whether he keeps the phone or ditches it, Joey will kill him for what he now knows. In cat-and-mouse twists, turns, and continually mounting terror, one thing is clear: Zack is next on the hit ma...

Title: Chaos Author: Iris Johansen Genre: Mystery & Suspense Format: Kindle Arc No. of Pages: 416 Date of Publication: September 1, 2020 Description:  When CIA agent Alisa Flynn flaunts the rules by breaking into a mansion in the middle of the night, she skillfully circumvents alarms and outwits guards only to find herself standing in billionaire Gabe Korgan's study . . . busted by Korgan himself. This could cost her her job unless, in a split second, she can turn the tables and try to convince him to join her on the most important mission of her life. In a ripped-from-the-headlines plot, schoolgirls in Africa have been kidnapped, and Alisa knows that Korgan has the courage, financial means, and high-tech weaponry to help rescue them. With so many innocent lives hanging in the balance, what she doesn't reveal is that one of those schoolgirls is like a little sister to her. But when the truth gets out, the stakes grow even higher. Calling in additional assistance from renown...

Title: Trace of Evil Author: Alice Blanchard Series: Natalie Lockhart Genre: Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Thriller Format: Kindle ARC No. of Pages: 378 Date of Publication: December 3, 2019 Description:  Natalie Lockhart is a rookie detective in Burning Lake, New York, an isolated town known for its dark past. Tasked with uncovering the whereabouts of nine missing transients who have disappeared over the years, Natalie wrestles with the town’s troubled history – and the scars left by her sister’s unsolved murder years ago. Then Daisy Buckner, a beloved schoolteacher, is found dead on her kitchen floor, and a suspect immediately comes to mind. But it’s not that simple. The suspect is in a coma, collapsed only hours after the teacher’s death, and it turns out Daisy had secrets of her own. Natalie knows there is more to the case, but as the investigation deepens, even she cannot predict the far-reaching consequences – for the victim, for the missing of Burning Lake, and for hersel...

Title: Cut to the Bone Author: Ellison Cooper Series: Agent Sayer Altair Genre: Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Thriller Format: Kindle Arc No. of Pages: 336 Date of Publication: July 14, 2020 Description:  After grieving the death of her fiancé and almost losing her job, Agent Sayer Altair is finally starting to rebuild her life. Her research into the minds of psychopaths is breaking new ground and her strange little family is thriving. But Sayer’s newfound happiness is threatened when she is called in to investigate a girl’s body left inside a circle of animal figurines below a cryptic message written in blood. When they discover that the dead girl is one of twenty-four missing high school students, Sayer quickly realizes that nothing in this case is what it seems. As the investigation draws her in to a tangled web of fake identities and false leads, the trail soon begins to point directly to her own life. Now, Sayer must confront her painful past to uncover her connection to...

Title: Hindsight Author: Iris Johansen and Roy Johansen Series: Kendra Michaels Genre: Mystery and Suspense Format: Kindle Arc No. of Pages: 368 Date of Publication: January 7, 2020 Description:  Dr. Kendra Michaels, blind for the first twenty years of her life before gaining her sight via a revolutionary surgical procedure, is a renowned investigator known for her razor-sharp senses -- honed during her years in the dark -- and keen deductive abilities. Now her skills are needed uncomfortably close to home. Two staff members have been murdered at a school for the blind where Kendra spent her formative years. But the murders are puzzlingly dissimilar: one victim was brutally stabbed, while the other was killed by a bullet to the head. Are the crimes related? Or is Kendra on the hunt for more than one dangerous killer? With the killer (or killers) still on the loose, Kendra must put her life on the line to unravel a terrifying conspiracy. But Kendra soon discovers that she herself...

Title: Buried Author: Ellison Cooper Series: Agent Sayer Altair Genre: Mystery, Suspense, & Psychological thriller Format: Paperback ARC No. of Pages: 368 Date of Publication: July 16, 2019 Description:  Senior Special Agent Sayer Altair studies the minds of psychopaths. But even she didn't expect to uncover a killer within the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Rooting him out and exposing internal corruption got her a bullet wound and six months of desk duty. Now, she’s finally back in the field, called in when an off-duty FBI agent and his cadaver dog fall into a sinkhole filled with human bones. Found deep in Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park, the skeletal remains date back almost two decades, the same time a beloved local teen disappeared. The cold case quickly heats up when Sayer's team finds two fresh corpses among the bones. When a gruesome clue ties these new bodies to a woman recently kidnapped along with her young daughter, Sayer has to uncover the connecti...

Title: The God Game Author: Danny Tobey Genre: Technological Thriller, Science Fiction Format:  Kindle ARC No. of Pages: 464 Date of Publication: January 7, 2020 Description:  A technological thriller with an all-too-believable premise, award-winning author Danny Tobey's  The God Game  follows five teenagers obsessed with an online video game that connects them to their worst impulses and most dangerous desires. They call themselves the Vindicators. Targeted by bullies and pressured by parents, these geeks and gamers rule the computer lab at Turner High School. Wealthy bad boy Peter makes and breaks rules. Vanhi is a punk bassist at odds with her heritage. Kenny's creativity is stifled by a religious home life. Insecure and temperamental, Alex is an outcast among the outcasts. And Charlie, the leader they all depend on, is reeling from the death of his mother, consumed with reckless fury. They each receive an invitation to play The God Game. Created by dark-web c...