Apparently, the winners of these older ARCs didn’t want them after all so, if you have an interest, leave a comment with the name of the one you want by May 26th. I’ll send them to the first commenter for each title.
The Unscratchables by Cornelius Kane, July 2009
Crusher McNash is the police force’s most fearless detective, a barrel-chested bull terrier with a biscuit-thin temper and a barbed-wire tongue. Cassius Lap is the finest agent in the Feline Bureau of Investigation, an imperturbable Siamese with a mind as sharp as a can opener. San Bernardo is their territory, a seething metropolis where fat-cats prance in the exclusive island enclave of Kathattan while working dogs wallow in the stinking squalor of the Kennels. When a couple of Rottweiler gangsters are brutally murdered, Crusher McNash tries to convince himself that it’s nothing unusual — just another underworld territorial dispute. But after the sniffer squad identifies a feral-cat killer, McNash is forced to do the unthinkable — team up with a prissy Siamese from the FBI. The trail leads from junkyards to gambling dens, from cat prisons to baronial estates, in the process unraveling an awesome conspiracy involving domination techniques, population control, and the megalomaniacal ambitions of fox media magnate Phineas Reynard.
Ballad by Maggie Stiefvater, October 2009
James Morgan has an almost unearthly gift for music. And it has attracted Nuala, a soul-snatching faerie muse who fosters and then feeds on the creative energies of exceptional humans until they die. James has plenty of reasons to fear the faeries, but as he and Nuala collaborate on an achingly beautiful musical composition, James finds his feelings towards Nuala deepening. But the rest of the fairies are not as harmless. As Halloween–the day of the dead–draws near, James will have to battle the Faerie Queen and the horned king of the dead to save Nuala’s life and his soul.
The Telltale Turtle by Joyce & Jim Lavene, October 2008
Mary Catherine has a rare gift – she can talk to animals. A flamboyantly dressed four-time widow, Mary Catherine pulls top ratings for her pet psychic radio show and helps run an animal shelter. Then one day Mary Catherine hears pitiful thoughts of anguish coming from a house. Rushing inside to help, she finds an injured turtle crying bloody murder – and the dead body of his owner, a society matriarch with a fortune, lying nearby.
All three of these are delightful books in their own ways so I hope you’ll try one.
Buried Under Books 