by MOLLIE HUNT;
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 Cosy Mystery Fiction.
Without further ado, except to say Mrs H is busy wrangling some unruly unicorns that landed in the garden, let's get on with another FABULOUS cosy mystery featuring felines. Many felines, in fact. With the occasional crazy-about-cats lady, too. And more than a hint of Halloween mystery . . .
AUTHOR: Mollie Hunt
Cover art by: Leslie Cobb, cat artist.
Published by: Independently published
Publication date Paperback: 29 October 2023
Paperback ASIN: B0CGSXLYTP
UK Cover price for Paperback is £11.37
Kindle UK price £4.99
Pages: 257
Age range: Adult cosy mystery
Any dogs or cats? Need you ask with a title like that?!
SPOILER ALERT
Some as to plot direction and characters.
Thank you to...
Mrs H for spending some hard-earned pension money on this new book by Mollie Hunt, a fellow CWA (Cat Writers Association) member.
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 book does contain some topics that are inappropriate for children. Thus, we rate this book as suitable for adults ONLY.
The plot
But first, a whisker of background info...
As this is the tenth book in the series, I will be brief on background details. The book does, however, nicely give all relevant details to enable anyone to pick this up and treat it as a standalone. However, if you read this series from the start, you will get more out of the character development that has taken place over the years. That said, each book is a delight.
Our protagonist is Lynley Cannon, a sixty-something, self-confessed Cat Lady (not crazy) who helps at the Friends of Felines cat shelter in Portland, Oregon. Her family circle is mother Carol, granddaughter Seleia, and daughter Lisa Cannon Voxx. The relationship between Lynley and her high-flying daughter, Lisa, is fraught. Lisa often berates Lynley for not making more of her life. Mother Carol is far more amiable and, at eighty, very independent and outward-going and spends most of her time with her apartment mate, Candy, watching reruns of The Rockford Files and Murder Mysteries. Seleia, with her age gap and as is oft the way, loves her great-grandmother and relates more to Lynley than Lisa.
OK, enough of the family tree and dynamics; let's get on with the all-important plot!
Lynley passes by a house she calls 'The Cat House'. With multiple cats in the windows and porch catio, it seems an apt title. Of the owner, there is little sign, though the locals have given her the title of Crazy Cat Lady. With nine cats of her own, Lynley can see why folks might think she was, too. When she sees a flier up for a cat sitter required at the selfsame Cat House, her curiosity gets the better of her, and she takes the job.
It is almost Halloween, and Lynley has been roped into helping Carol set up a stall at The Hawthorne All-Hallows Holiday Festival, taking place nearby in a few days. It's a welcome distraction from things, the bad news in the world, and even locally, where four young men have vanished from within a corridor along the Interstate 5 (I5) highway between Seattle and Portland.
Seleia will also perform in an updated rendition of A Midsummer Night's Dream. It is a move that looks set to change her education and then career path and drive a wedge between her long-time friend/companion, Fredric, who has just adopted an agile, high-scaling and destructive kitten called Tarzan.
The Crazy Cat Lady Lynley goes to work for is a twenty-something lady called Darla, who actually seems, despite an outlandish dress sense on their first meeting, to be anything but. It soon appears, though, to Lynley's ever-working mind that she may be on the point of becoming a cat hoarder. And if not that, then she certainly needs to understand felines and their needs and behaviours better.
For all that niggling, the cats are all well looked after and have all they could need. It is a point that Humanie Investigator Special Agent Denny Paris, points out. This is brought out by the contrast Lynley finds when she goes to assist Denny with a hoarding situation that has gotten out of hand, and both the owner and the vast number of cats are being affected detrimentally.
The cat-sitting job is vastly overpaid for a few hours of delightful work. But the reason may be innocent. Or it could have something to do with an answerphone message Lynley hears being left that infers Darla is dealing in drugs. Or the strange, unfeline moaning sounds coming from a locked room in Darla's home?!
The time setting up for the fete takes a turn for the worse when one of the missing men turns up outside the fete, emaciated and wearing nothing but a piece of tarp, and is involved in a severe multi-vehicle accident.
When Fredric goes missing, and Darla arrives home one day with his kitten, saying she was given it by an out-of-area cat rescue, all the threads of the story start to be drawn together with frightening results . . .
So, what did we think?
An immensely pleasurable plot, with multiple strands that all come together for Lynley, though not necessarily how they should, or indeed how she would like, with dire circumstances.
Having read some but not all of this series, I know that Lynley's feline curiosity and decisions get her into far deeper water than she should be if indeed she should be there at all. These decisions make for great reading. Along the way, certain decisions and perceptions are challenged by the author and sometimes proved or disproved.
This evergreen series is kept such by the variety of the plot lines and the down-to-earth nature, as well as true-to-life interactions between the assembled cast, be they family or friends or foes.
So . . . .
Crunch time.
Another hit, and feather in the hat if such were needed to prove quality, for Mollie and Lynley. Whatever format you buy this, Mrs H and I believe this will go down well during quiet times during festivities, weekend retreats to the fireside, or before bed.
Want to buy a copy?
To get a copy, please head down to your local independent bookshop. Plenty are out there, and each shop is just waiting to serve up whatever kind of mystery, fun and adventure you desire.
Mollie Hunt's web page can be found HERE or type this: https://molliehuntcatwriter.com/
Leslie Cobb's web page can be found HERE or type this: https://www.lesliecobb.com/
If you've not seen our review for last week, The Cat Who Solved Three Murders, another excellent adult cosy murder mystery featuring Conrad, a talking cat, please follow/click this link.
We are joining the Sunday Selfies, hosted by the wonderful Kittes Blue and their mum, Janet Blue in America.
So, I shall leave you with a selfie of me taken after a hard session writing this post. Rumours that this was me whilst Mrs H was writing the post are strenuously denied (by me). 😉
Till laters!
ERin
