Althea's Reading Corner

Title:  What Have We Done Author:  Alex Finlay     Narrators:  Brittany Pressley; James Patrick Cronin; Jon Lindstrom; Maggie Thompson Genre:  General Fiction, Mystery Thriller Format:  Audiobook Listening Length:  11 hours 30 minutes D ate of Publication:  March 07, 2023 Description:  In this “top-notch mystery thriller” ( Publishers Weekly , starred review) from Alex Finlay,  What Have We  Done  is a tale about the lives we leave behind and the secrets we carry with us forever. One of the Most Anticipated Books of 2023:• BookPage • BookBub • E! News • Go BookMart  • Goodreads • PopSugar  •  The Every Girl • She Reads • Beyond the Bookends A stay-at-home mom with a past. A has-been rock star with a habit. A reality TV producer with a debt. Three disparate lives. One deadly secret. Twenty five years ago, Jenna, Donnie, and Nico were the best of friends, having forged a bond through the abuse and neglect...

Title: The Essence of Darkness Author: Tom Clearlake Genre: Mystery, Suspense, Thriller Format: Kindle ARC No. of Pages: 447 Date of Publication: April 18, 2020 Description:  Five unexplained child disappearances have plagued the small town of St. Marys in the space of four months. All the elements indicate that these are abductions. FBI Special Agent Eliott Cooper is sent to investigate. Little by little, he uncovers facts that he can’t rationally explain. Soon, he finds that a dark and very ancient evil seems to have taken over the forests around the city. This is only the beginning of his investigation... My Thoughts:  I almost didn't complete this book as I found it extremely difficult to get into it until I was a little more than half way through. Honestly, I thought about putting this book down a number of times but since I had requested the book from Netgalley and it was granted to me, I felt an obligation to try to complete it.  I requested the book because of the...

Title:  The Perfect Mother Author: Caroline Mitchell Genre: Suspense, Thriller Format:  Kindle Arc No. of Pages: 364 Date of Publication: January 14, 2020 Description:  She thought they wanted her baby. But they won’t stop there. Roz is young, penniless and pregnant. All she wants is to be the perfect mother to her child, but the more she thinks about her own chaotic upbringing, the more certain she is that the best life for her baby is as far away as possible from her hometown in Ireland. Determined to do the right thing, Roz joins an elite adoption service and can’t believe her luck. Within days she is jetting to New York to meet a celebrity power couple desperate for a child of their own. Sheridan and Daniel are wealthy and glamorous—everything Roz isn’t. Her baby will never go hungry, and will have every opportunity for the perfect life. But soon after Roz moves into their plush basement suite, she starts to suspect that something darker lurks beneath the glossy surfa...

Title: A Desperate Place: A McKenna and Riggs Novel Author: Jennifer Greer Genre: Mystery, Suspense, & Thriller Format: Kindle Arc No. of Pages: 316 Date of Publication: August 11, 2020 Description:  Three separate homicides. Three unrelated victims. One grisly secret. When the body of famous actress Niki Francis is unearthed from its shallow grave, the small town of Medford, Oregon is alarmed, but not shook. After all, there should be plenty of motives and suspects--Niki had fame, wealth, looks. The kill was targeted, premeditated, and it's about her celebrity. Or so they thought. Whit McKenna is licking her wounds, working as a reporter for the local Medford rag. Fresh from a harrowing assignment for her previous post at the  L. A. Times  which cost her her husband, Whit must pull herself together for the sake of her two daughters. The wound has hardly begun to scab when she's called to cover the murder, so she teams up with her best friend, medical examiner Katie R...

Title: The Persuasion Author: Iris Johansen Series: Eve Duncan Genre: Mystery, Suspense, Thriller Format: Kindle ARC No. of Pages: 465 Date of Publication: June 2, 2020 Description:  When Eve Duncan's daughter, Jane MacGuire, becomes a killer's target, Jane must team up with longtime love interest Seth Caleb in this suspenseful novel from the #1 bestselling author of  Smokescreen . Forensic sculptor Eve Duncan and ex-Navy Seal Joe Quinn are about to give Seth Caleb their trust for the most important duty of his life: keeping their daughter, Jane, safe at any cost. Her talent as an artist has caught the attention of a brilliant psychopath with a violent past. Seth, Jane's strongest ally and fiercest protector, is determined to keep her out of danger, but that becomes nearly impossible when Jane is forced to take matters into her own hands and confronts the madman who wants her for himself...and wants Seth Caleb dead. As Jane and Seth chase down their blood-thirsty adversary,...

Title: The Turn of the Key Author: Ruth Ware Genre: Mystery, Suspense, & Thriller Format: Kindle ARC No. of Pages: 384 Date of Publication: August 6, 2019 Description:  When she stumbles across the ad, she’s looking for something else completely. But it seems like too good an opportunity to miss—a live-in nannying post, with a staggeringly generous salary. And when Rowan Caine arrives at Heatherbrae House, she is smitten—by the luxurious “smart” home fitted out with all modern conveniences, by the beautiful Scottish Highlands, and by this picture-perfect family. What she doesn’t know is that she’s stepping into a nightmare—one that will end with a child dead and herself in prison awaiting trial for murder. Writing to her lawyer from prison, she struggles to explain the events that led to her incarceration. It wasn’t just the constant surveillance from the home’s cameras, or the malfunctioning technology that woke the household with booming music, or turned the lights off at...

Title: Closer Than You Think Author: Darren O'Sullivan Genre: Psychological Thrillers Format: Kindle ARC No. of Pages: 384 Date of Publication: March 15, 2019 Description:   He’s watching. She’s waiting. The unmissable new thriller from Darren O’Sullivan, author of  Our Little Secret  and  Close Your Eyes . Having barely escaped the clutches of a serial killer, Claire Moore has struggled to rebuild her life. After her terrifying encounter with the man the media dubbed The Black-Out Killer, she became an overnight celebrity: a symbol of hope and survival in the face of pure evil. And then the killings stopped. Now ten years have passed, and Claire remains traumatised by her brush with death. Though she has a loving and supportive family around her, what happened that night continues to haunt her still. Just when things are starting to improve, there is a power cut; a house fire; another victim found killed in the same way as before. The Black-Out Killer is ba...

Title: Something Hidden Author: Kerry Wilkinson Series: Andrea Hunter Genre: Mystery, Thriller Format: Kindle ARC No. of Pages: 355 Date of Publication: December 10, 2018 Description:  Two people are dead. Your father was holding the gun. Fiona Methodist’s father is accused of shooting dead a young couple at point-blank range before turning the gun on himself. She knows her softly spoken father wasn’t capable of killing, and won’t stop until she clears his name. For investigator  Andrew Hunter —no stranger to cases that appear unsolvable—it’s obvious something doesn’t add up. When he digs into a robbery the murdered couple witnessed just days before they died, a chilling clue at the scene of the crime leads Andrew to a horrible realization… Will Andrew have to put his own life at risk to find the truth? My Thoughts:  This is the first book that I have read by Kerry Wilkinson, so I was unsure what to expect. The story starts out strong and introduces you very quickly t...

Title: The Perfect Alibi Author: Philip Margolin Series: Robin Lockwood Genre: Crime Thriller Format: Kindle ARC No. of Pages: 320 Date of Publication: March 5, 2019 Description:  A young woman accuses a prominent local college athlete of rape. Convicted with the help of undisputable DNA evidence, the athlete swears his innocence and threatens both his lawyer and his accuser as he's sent to prison. Not long after, there's another rape and the DNA test shows that the same person committed both rapes―which is seemingly impossible since the man convicted of the first rape was in prison at the time of the second one. Now, the convicted athlete, joined by a new lawyer, is granted a new trial and bail. Shortly thereafter, his original lawyer disappears and his law partner is murdered. Robin Lockwood is a young lawyer with a prestigious small law firm and a former MMA fighter who helped pay for Yale Law School with her bouts. She is representing the victim of the first rape for he...

Title: The Day I Had a Dinosaur Author: Ashley Wall Series: The Day I Had a.... Genre: Children's fiction Format: Digital No. of Pages: 36 Date of Publication: June 11, 2024   Description:  From the bestselling author of  The Day I Had a Bulldozer  comes a dinosaur filled adventure sure to engage every dinosaur fan! Have you ever had a dinosaur? Join these kind friends in this fun-filled friendship story about our favorite prehistoric reptiles … Dinosaurs! When Luke and his friends have “real-life” dinosaurs for a day, there can only be one outcome, the best-osaurus day ever! Join these kind-hearted friends as they adventure through their day, ensuring that no dinosaur is left out, and everyone has fun working together. Perfect for: Dino enthusiasts. Teaching inclusion, teamwork, and kindness. Kids who love silly pictures. Parents who want a fun book to read. Gifts for all occasions. "A laugh-out-loud, fun-filled playground adventure, with a dino-sized twist." - Read...

Title: You'll Never Know I'm Here Author: Kiersten Modglin Narrator: Stacy Gonzalez Genre: Thriller Format: Audiobook Listening Length: 5 hours and 48 minutes Date of Publication: February 27, 2024 Description:  When six book influencers take a weekend getaway to connect with their fellow creators, it’s meant to be a chance to relax, collaborate, and discuss all of the books they love. But from the start, something’s clearly amiss. From the host’s mysterious absence and an unexpected guest to an odd occurrence in town and the strange and worrisome behavior of the neighbors, what starts out as an innocent and lively vacation quickly becomes a weekend filled with terror. And when one of the group members believes they see something horrifying at the house next door, their carefully laid plans begin to unravel. Drawn into a mystery that runs far deeper and is more sinister than they could’ve imagined—and surrounded by those who refute their story—the group struggles to unearth the...

Title: The Teacher Author: Frieda McFadden Narrator: Leslie Howard and Danny Montooth Genre: Mystery, Thriller Format: Audiobooik Listening Length: 9 hours and 35 minutes Date of Publication: February 6, 2024 Description:  Lesson #1:  Trust no one. Eve has a good life.  She wakes up each day, kisses her husband Nate, and heads off to teach math at the local high school. All is as it should be. Except… Last year, Caseham High was  rocked by a scandal involving a student-teacher affair,  with one student, Addie, at its center. But Eve knows there is far more to these ugly rumors than meets the eye. Addie can’t be trusted.  She lies. She hurts people. She destroys lives.  At least, that’s what everyone says. But nobody knows the real Addie. Nobody knows the secrets that could destroy her. And  Addie will do anything to keep it quiet… My Thoughts:  Freida McFadden was recommended to me by a coworker and I'm so glad she was. The Teacher is about a...

Title: Where Hands Go: The Power of No Author: Krystaelynne Sanders Diggs Genre: Children's Fiction Format: Kindle No. of Pages: 40 Date of Publication: February 09, 2023 Description:  "Where Hands Go: The Power of No" - A Must-Read Book for Parents! This is the third book in the series and it is a powerful and inspiring children's book that teaches the importance of body safety and the power of the word "no." With playful and engaging rhymes, children will learn to recognize and speak out against unwanted touches, set boundaries, and communicate with trusted adults. The book includes a comprehensive parent resource guide that provides valuable information and support for parents, teachers, and caregivers. With one in four girls and one in six boys at risk of sexual abuse before the age of 18, it is crucial that we educate our children about body safety. The book helps to increase knowledge and awareness, empowering children to protect themselves and create ...