CAT AMONG THE PUMPKINS

 

by Mandy Morton;  

Cover by Jason Anscomb    

                                                                               

An Adventure Book Review by Erin the Literary Cat©, International Book Reviewer.

 

Hello, and welcome to my weekend Book Review featuring this week an Adventure in Adult Feline Fiction.

 

Mrs H has been busy this week. OK, as busy as she ever is, with the added event of a surveyor calling at the Manor House. Five hours later, after much measuring, humming and harring, along with two cups of coffee and lots of dunkable chocolate biscuits, he finished. He seemed impressed with my mouse-free attic and spacious mole-free lawns. He was less impressed with Mrs H's cluttered bedroom but said it would do, just so long as she cleared out the laundry and her wardrobe. 

Why, I hear you say? If you think I'm making room for lodgers or planning to extend my cat tree, I should advise that I have applied to adopt a lonely heat pump. Yes, it seems the UK government are asking residents to home one of these many now homeless pumps. They will even give us a hefty one-off payment of £7,500. In return, the pumps will heat the Manor House and provide hot water, which means we won't have a big gas bill or pollute the atmosphere. We, of course, must provide the electricity so they can work day and night. I did my research, and whilst it seems a bit of a raw deal to expect them to work 24/7 for 6 months of the year, they do get the summer months off. 

 

All in all, the minor modifications to Mrs H's bedroom to accommodate all their gear and a water tank will cost £500. It's a win-win situation: somewhere nice and warm for me to perch on outside and read the latest HOT new releases during the summer, and plenty of room for afternoon tea to be served on!

But enough of my exciting tech news, let's get on with some serious feline detective fun. This week, we bring you . . . 

 

 

AUTHOR: Mandy Morton

 

Cover art by: Jason Anscomb

 

Published by: Farrago

 

Publication date Paperback: Latest edition October 2023

 

Paperback ISBN: 978-1788424653

UK Cover price for Paperback: £9.99 

Kindle UK price: £2.99 

 

Pages: 240

 

Age range: Adult

Any dogs or cats? All cats and no humans. 

 

 

SPOILER ALERT

Some as to plot direction and characters. To read our review of Book One: The No.2 Feline Detective Agency, click this TEXT.

 

 

Thank you to... 

 

I am exceedingly grateful to Mrs H for the privilege of getting to Read & Review this 2nd book in the series. 

As ever, our views are our own, and we only share reviews of books we have bought, been given as gifts, or received in exchange for an impartial review. 

First and foremost, the books we review are those we select to read, like, and feel our global readers deserve to know about and that we hope they, their family, friends and students will enjoy. 

This week, we thought we'd give you a short list of The Characters.

Hettie Bagshot and Tilly Jenkins. Long-haired tabby cat investigators at the No.2 Feline Detective Agency, who live and work from a room behind the bakery.

Beryl and Betty. Level-headed, businesslike and charming motherly owners of the bakery and Hettie and Till's landladies. 

The Dosh Family. Rogan, Pakora, Balti, etc., own and run the increasing Dosh Store empire. 

Miss Irene Peggledrip. The town's resident Medium.

Delirium Treemint. Ever ready to serve refreshments with her trusty samovar. She is prone to breaking tea services at an alarming rate. She is also a trainee medium under Miss Peggledrip.

Crimola. A huffy, sometimes obstinate, spirit guide that lives part-time in Miss Peggledrip's head.

 

Bruiser Venutious. A now elderly travelling cat, a fighter, scarred and not keen on four walls. He is a longtime friend of Hettie from her musician days on the road. 

Jess. The proprietor of a charity shop where many of the townscats do business and where Tilly gets all her cardigans.

Milky Myers. Longtime past mass murder of his kin, and said to haunt the village and the house his family once lived in, now Miss Peggledrip's home.

Mavis Spitforce. Our first but not last victim. Historian, family tree researcher, and resides opposite the local Dosh Store. 

Marmite Sprat is a self-appointed historian and writer of what Hettie would call 'Penny Dreadful' tales under the title Strange but True, which are based more on speculation than fact.

Lavender Stamp. The jilted and curmudgeonly postmistress. Knitter of lifesize male cats for company.

Bugs Anderton. A sizeable Scottish ginger cat. President of the town's Friendship Club and a force to be reconned with, though well-meaning.

 

The plot

It is Halloween evening, and our two heroes and budding investigators are settling down for a night in and a scary movie as befits the season. The two start talking about Milky Myers, who lived 'longer ago than anyone can remember' and murdered his family. But on Halloween, he returns to haunt the area and his old house, now the home of Miss Peggledrip. Will he walk the town that night?

The following morning dawns with the surprise arrival of Bruiser. The Butter sisters give him something to eat and Hettie and Tilly make room in the shed for him to lay his head. Loving motorbikes, Bruiser soon comes in handy to take our detectives on trips out in Miss Scarlet, their bright red motorcycle with sidecar. 

Whilst Hettie is giving a lecture at the club, when the postlady, Teezle Makepeace, bursts in screaming MURDER!

Hettie goes to the house where Mavis Spitforce lives and discovers her dead, stabbed in the back, wearing a witch's hat, eye mask and draped in a pumpkin-coloured silk cloak. Halloween had taken a nasty turn in No. 19 Whisker Terrace.

What happens next reveals that Mavis is working on an accurate history of Milky Myers. With her mouth stuffed with pages from Marmite's book, one obvious cat is in the frame. The suspect list increases when Hettie discovers the primary beneficiary of the will is Irene Peggledrip, who bursts in on the scene and thinks Hettie has committed the murder. Realising this isn't the case, she suggests the detectives come to one of her sessions to speak to the spirits. But should Hettie and Tilly risk going with a potential murderer?

 

But the more our team digs, the broader and more confusing the investigation becomes. The disappearance of Teezle the following day brings more complications and creates another suspect. No matter how they look at it, the matter appears to be linked to the Milky Myers all the years before. To solve this latest murder and those that come, they need to solve the Milky Myers murders, too! But is that possible, given it happened farther back than anyone can recall? 

Joining the dots will take all the brainpower and help Hettie can get, be it spiritual or earthly, not forgetting all the cream cakes and pies they can muster to keep the energy up in the cold and strangely snowy weather. The thing is, will Hettie recognise and accept what she sees? 

Through all of this, we have a family feud between the senior and younger Dosh family, and an intercultural romance to deal with. With a far-from-healthy love of gruesome, bloody murder, is Balti Dosh to be trusted? And why is the advice from the vicar of Milky Myers' village seemingly so obtuse and evasive?

Not wishing to spoil this adventure for you, I must stop there. The best, I assure you, is still to come.

 

 

What did we think?

Whether or not you're a cat lover, these adventures will draw you in. It could be the tongue-in-cheek names of locals, as seen above, or the names of villages and towns, like Much Purring on the Rug. 

We have a cracking and twisty plot, better than many a cosy. Hetties, scepticism, sarcasm, frustration and even heartfelt loss and joy are palpable foils, honest reactions that we, too, may have to the quirky cast and the situations they end up in. 

There is a particular moment, a strange revelation, that we loved. It had us going back to see if there were clues we had missed. We had missed them all. Such a clever plot. Woven into this story are a few others. Good or bad, everything is presented just right. 

Whether justice is served in Hettie's world remains for you, dear readers, to discover for yourselves. Let us just add that sometimes, like revenge, justice is served hot as well as cold. 

So . . . . 

Crunch time. 

If book one whetted your appetite, this is a must-read. Yes, you could read any of the soon-to-be thirteen books and feel at home with the cast and situation of their world. But we think it's best to start at the beginning. We are keen observers of cosy and murder mysteries featuring felines, and this is one of the best. Buy and enjoy, then share with friends. 

 

Want to buy a copy?

To get a copy, jump into your own sidecar and roar down to your local independent bookshop. If you have a Dosh Store of your own, you could even try there, but maybe best to steer clear of the contents of the large cooking pot.

 

Mandy Morton's short author page at Farrago Books can be found HERE or type this: https://farragobooks.com/fb-author/mandy-morton/

Farrago Book's web page can be found HERE or type this: https://farragobooks.com/

Hettie Bagshot can be found on both Facebook and Twitter.

We are joining the Sunday Selfies, hosted by the wonderful Kitties Blue and their mum, Janet Blue, from the Cat on My Head blog in America. Click this link to see Janet Blue's selfie page.

I shall leave you with a toe-warming selfie. I moved later on to get my front toes sorted, too. As you can see, I was not too keen on my mid-morning snack, and as is the way when that happens, I ate only the jelly.

 

Till Laters!

ERin

 

 

 

The No.2 Feline Detective Agency

 

by MANDY MORTON;  

                                                                                   

  

An Adventure Book Review by Erin the Literary Cat©, International Book Reviewer.

Hello, and welcome to my weekend Book Review featuring this week an Adventure in Adult Fiction.

 

If you're unfamiliar with Mandy Morton's works, you're in for a treat. We'll be reviewing the whole series of the No.2 Feline Detective Agency, which features two tabby furred feline detectives, Hettie Bagshot and her colleague and friend, Tilly Jenkins. 

Mandy was born in Suffolk, England, and, like Hettie, had a successful music career as a singer-songwriter. She also has 6 records to her name. Later, she joined the BBC as a presenter and producer of arts programs for local and national radio. The book's biography says that "Mandy lives with her partner, who is a fellow crime writer, in Cambridge and Cornwall, where there is always room for a longhaired tabby cat."

That the author is a cat lover and guardian is self-evident from the stories. And whilst the feline characters bring the magic that only cats can, it is the plot, settings, and sheer deftness and pace of the telling that, with our protagonist's natures, win the day. So, without further ado, let's dive right into . . . .

AUTHOR:  Mandy Morton

 

Cover art by: Unknown    

 

Published by: Farrago

 

First publication date Paperback: 2014

 

Current edition Paperback ISBN:  978 1788 424 431

UK Cover price for Paperback: £9.99

Kindle UK price: £2.99

 

Audiobook price: £13 (or one subscription voucher)

 

Pages: 257

 

Age range:  Adult

Any cats? Cats and no humans.

 

 

SPOILER ALERT

Some as to plot direction and characters.

 

 

Thank you to...

I am exceedingly grateful to Mrs H for the utter delight of getting to Read & Review, AND listen to this excellent book. She’s bought the series!

As ever, our views are our own, and we only share reviews of books we have bought, received as gifts, or received in exchange for an impartial review.

Foremost, the books we review are those we select to read, like, and feel our global readers deserve to know about and that we hope they, their family, friends and students will enjoy.

The plot

Sitting in the Butter sisters’ one-time storeroom, now turned bedsit and office, waiting for the phone to ring, is bringing home the awkward truth to Hettie that a detective agency with nothing to detect wasn’t a good business model. Just as she was wondering where her assistant and co-sharer of the bedsit, Tilly, was, there was a strange sound. Hettie suddenly realises it’s the telephone. More importantly, it’s their first case. Marcia Woolcoat, matron and proprietor of the Furcross Home for Slightly Older Cats, has a job for them. A case of missing cats, dead cats that are now missing, stolen from their graves on the grounds of Furcross! Body snatching is alive and well, pardon the pun, in the town.

Taking the case, Hettie sets about getting evidence. Onetime TV celebrity gardener and novel writer Digger Patch, now down on his luck and very grumpy, attended to the grave duties. Nurse Mogadon arranged and completed the Dignicat final acts for the cats, and Aurelia Claws did the makeup and nail varnish for the deceased. The cook for the home is Marley Toke, a black cat from Jamaica who buoys the residents’ spirits with her excellent Jamaican cooking—most of which has potent catnip in it!

It all seems rather strange, but a case, and more importantly, an advance of their fee, is what matters. By discovering who took the bodies, where they are, and the goods they were buried with, they will earn their daily fee and a small bonus.

But, before they can get started and get into too much planning, three bodies will turn up behind the Malkin and Sprinkles department store. Fearing the loss of her fee, which would help fund their food shopping and mean they can get a new TV, Hettie and old pal and Hettie’s ex-roadie, Poppa, race to the store to collect the bodies. What they discover when they do is that the cats are missing a lot of fur. In fact, the only fur left is on their faces.

As Tilly points out, the case isn’t really solved. So Hettie and Tilly start digging around, metaphorically speaking, and visit Furcross. Whilst there, they find Nurse Mogadon dead with a note saying she has taken the easy way out and is sorry for letting the awful things happen to the three former residents.

Now, things aren’t quite as solved or as easy as they first may seem. This is by far not the end of the case. In fact, it only picks up speed from here on in. Who stole the cats, their fur, and paid Nurse Mogadon to abet them? More importantly, and part of the fun of the plot, what will Beryl and Betty Butter’s pie-of-the-day be, and will there be any left come the end of the case! Oh, and if you are wondering about the TV, well, that plays an important part, too.

I’d dearly love to tell you more, but I am teetering on the brink of revealing too much. Suffice it to say, the goings-on at Furcross have not ended. There is still an awful lot of investigating, chewing over facts, pies, and a few well-earned pipes of catnip tobacco being smoked.

 

What did we think?

With the plaudits from the likes of P D James and all-round praise from readers, Mrs H and I will do our best to give our own enthusiastic yet balanced review.

When we first listened to this, book one in the series some years ago, we were enthralled by something quite unique. We had already started writing our own adventure series, and Mandy Morton’s book illustrated there was a market for good, feline-centric adventures that extended beyond cats being smart yet dumb sidekicks found in many cosy mysteries. In fact, there are no humans in the series, which instantly focuses the mind.

The recent and highly articulate and clever books by L. T. Shearer, which feature Conrad, a talking and quite independent feline in a human world, provide a refreshing angle and opportunities for the cosy mystery-weary reader. Criminal investigation taken on from literally multiple levels and with characters with distinct skill sets makes for compelling reading.

The same is true of Hettie, Tilly, and their world. Here, you will find an elegant mix of feline traits and human-style interaction in human settings without annoying humans.

Just when you think you have this new world sussed, the characters do something that is wholly feline and out of place, yet on inspection, it is quite delightful, logical and well-placed. One thing you will notice is that there are no police in this book. The cats just get on with life in, so far as I can see, every other way.

It is, however, best not to overthink things but just soak it all in. Cats are, after all, not beings to shy away from licking a plate or having a whisker face or ear groomed after a meal. And boy, do they love their food. All sounds very familiar and fun, too, as Hettie, Tilly, and friends plan meals, sweets and savouries around their investigations, murders and corpses.

We loved Hettie. She is grumpy in the mornings, at least until she’s had the first cup of tea and a cheese triangle on toast for breakfast, and does not suffer fools, though she is not perfect. But she sometimes admits to being at a loss and is ready to give up the detecting game.

But Hettie has a wonderful foil in Tilly, a much smaller, elder, and arguably wiser cat who once lived and almost died from hunger and cold on the streets. Tilly also adds extra humour by sometimes getting the wrong meaning or going off on a tangent.

Hettie is arguably our lead protagonist, but Tilly’s honest willingness to see good in all, her appreciation of being alive with a roof over her head, and her infectious positivity are way beyond what I have read elsewhere. Tilly is no Dr Watson. She has weaknesses. Her bout of cat flu almost killed her and left her susceptible. However, her passion for reading murder mysteries (which gave Hettie the idea for the detective agency) means she has a head start for solving crime, though her eagerness sometimes runs away with her. In our eyes, she is arguably an inseparable and joint lead character.

The first story gradually reveals most of the backstories of all the characters. The location for their home and office, placed in a one-time store room behind Beryl and Betty Butter’s bakery, is just right. It is home, warm and cosy, and when needed, by tidying things away into the sideboard, an instant office. Storing their clothes in a filing cabinet and hiding the telephone in the sideboard struck me as supremely practical, especially if you didn’t wish to take a call.

This first book's plot is original, twisty-turny, and highly entertaining. I know it is wrong to laugh out loud or chuckle at a murder mystery, and I don’t think I have with any other book. But this is one where you carried along, and there is so much to enjoy. There are plenty of such moments. PD James was not wrong in their appraisal.

For an even more pleasing experience, we recommend getting this and the other stories on Audible. Jenny Funnel, the narrator, has set the perfect tone for the characters—so much so that if I heard anyone speak like the characters, I’d probably have a giggle fit. Did I mention the names? I guess I did already, but the book has characters whose names give away their profession, like the librarian Turner Page.

So . . . Crunch time.

With fun, believable characters, chuckle-worthy names of cast and places, and amazing plots well suited to felines, this book is an all-around success on a par with, you guessed it, an 'Agatha Crispie' novel.

 

Want to buy a copy?

To get a copy, please sail or saunter down to your local independent bookshop. Of course, a feline on the shoulders is optional. There are plenty out there (both book shops and cats), and each shop is just waiting to serve whatever kind of mystery, fun and adventure you desire.

 

Mandy Morton's short author page at Farrago Books can be found HERE or type this: https://farragobooks.com/fb-author/mandy-morton/

Farrago Book's web page can be found HERE or type this: https://farragobooks.com/

Hettie Bagshot can be found on both Facebook and Twitter. 

We are joining the Sunday Selfies, hosted by the wonderful Kitties Blue and their mum, Janet Blue, from the Cat on My Head blog in America. Click this link to see Janet Blue's selfie page.

I shall leave you with a rare mid-March sun puddle on my new old duvet cover, refashioned and upcycled by the PA at the Bionic Basil blog. Do check out their latest stories on the Medium platform!

 

 

Till laters!

ERin