ASSUME NOTHING by Joshua Corin is a swift adrenaline kick of a cat-and-mouse thriller featuring a wise-beyond-her-years fifteen-year-old avid mystery reader who tries to outsmart her fallen hero.
It was 1985 when Kat McCann’s mother was killed. She was six years old, and her father was soon convicted of the crime. Now almost ten years later, Kat lives with her aunt and abusive uncle. Crime author Carissa Miller wrote about her parent’s case in her novel Double Frame, which featured a detective based on the real-life Alik Lisser. Alik Lisser solved Kat’s mother’s murder by concluding the evidence pointed at her father. Kat has been obsessed with Carissa Miller novels and Alik Lisser for years. Yet, Carissa Miller is now missing. Where did the author go? When Kat gets the chance to attend a criminology lecture by Alik Lisser, she hopes to speak to him about her parent’s case. Kat believes her father is innocent. Yet, when she meets Alik, the phrase “Don’t meet your heroes” takes on an even bigger meaning. Kat soon realizes she has been thrust into a game that will take all her wits and some help from a few friends to survive the madman and stay out of prison.
ASSUME NOTHING is a uniquely crafted thriller that wastes no words and delivers a maximum punch in this cat-and-mouse, protégé outwitting the master thriller. The plot moves swiftly, and Kat McCann is not one for dawdling. Kat faces many obstacles, including a controlling, abusive uncle, social phobia, and insecurity. She must rise to the occasion, and she does. Readers are thrown into the action and given an interesting conundrum that Kat must solve. Filled with compelling secondary characters, along with a chat room full of Carissa Miller fans, the players fit in nicely to the plot and provide the means for a solution at the end. With strong, impactful writing and a unique voice, ASSUME NOTHING takes readers on an electrifying, the-clock-is-ticking, cat-and-mouse thriller set in the mid-1990s. Will the master prevail, or will his new protégé change the game?
In 1985, Kat McCann was six years old when renowned Austrian detective Alik Lisser solved her mother’s murder. And unfortunately proved Kat’s father as the culprit.
Ten years later Kat is still obsessed with the heroic criminologist. She’s also addicted to the bestselling novels inspired by Alik’s ingenious deductions—penned by the grande dame of whodunits, who’s a bit of a mystery herself. Kat has devoured them all. Even the one based on her father’s crime.
When Kat and Alik fatefully cross paths again, a friendship evolves, and Alik is delighted to share the secrets of his success with such an eager and clever girl by inviting Kat to solve a murder of her very own. One that challenges everything Kat believes about the detective, an elusive author, and Kat’s notorious past.
Now, as fact and fiction and truth and deception collide, it’s all Kat can do to survive the shocking twist ending to her own life story.
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