THE DEATH OF DOWNTON TABBY

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 Middle Grade ADULT Fiction. Book 3 in the No. 2 Feline Detective Agency series.

Given it is the summer season, allegedly, I was thinking of hosting a literary festival here in Upper Much-Mousing. You know the thing, book reviews and readings, signings by all the big names that would rush to our small village. 

Then there would be the food, actually you'd find around here the cats and humans would dine first then read and listen. A moratorium on anything vaguely alcoholic being served during the day would be applied.

Not because they are a rowdy lot, far from it, but because the local inn has a reputation for disturbing the peace with the shear volume of the patrons snoring. Talk about holding ones drink, that lot have to have straws and glasses stuck to the bar to save excess spillage when they drop off after the landlords extra potent weak ale; aptly called Old Snorer. 

I said I was thinking about holding a festival, but then Mrs H and I read this fine work and decided against it. 

To find out what changed our minds, just read on. Rest assured you'll NOT be disappointed with this tale. Adult murder mysteries by cats done just how it ought. So without further ado lets discover who did it in . . . 

 

 

AUTHOR:  MANDY MORTON

Latest Edition Cover art by: Jason Anscomb

 

Published by: Farrago

 

Publication date latest edition Paperback: 9 May 2024

 

 

Paperback ISBN: 978 - 1788 424 660

UK Cover price for Paperback: £9.99

Kindle UK price: £2.99

Audible price: £13.00 or one credit

 

Pages: 267

 

Age range: Adult.

Any humans? No, just a delightfully eclectic character mix of Cats.

 

 

SPOILER ALERT

Some as to plot direction and characters.

 

 

Thank you to... 

 

I am exceedingly grateful to Mrs H for stumping up the readies out of her pension so I can Read & Review this awesome fun and incredibly clever 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.

 

The plot

The town is proud to be holding its first literary festival, organised by the librarian Turner Page. It is held at Furcross House, the former care home which was closed and turned community centre after the murders featured in book one.   

With free passes to the weekend event as a reward, anyone who is anyone in the town is getting involved in the running. Tilly has been enlisted by Turner to arrange the guest speakers and musical attractions, whilst our lead protagonist, Hettie Bagshot, as head of The No.2 Feline Detective Agency, has been hired somewhat begrudgingly, as Festival Security supremo. 

Headlining the event is the writer of many a period romp, Sir Downton Tabby. Overly rich, a womaniser, and caring little for others – especially the Brontë Sisters, he has added to his wealth by recounting the tales of his aristocratic upbringing. It is a life where servants were five a penny, punished for eating crumbs their mistress may have dropped, and discarded into the workhouse and greater penury when too old to slave away. Despite the vulgarity and openness of his situation, and the controversy he courts, he draws the crowds hoping to lap up some of the 'charged atmospheres' he creates. So very much like humankind, right?

As far removed as one can get, the Brontë sisters have been hired by Tilly as a last-minute fill-in, on a hire-two-get-third sister thrown-in kind of basis. The sisters were brought up in Teethly, on the bleak moors of Porkshire; a place where gingerbeer-on-the-lung disease killed many an addicted cat due to a lack of a clean water supply. On discovering unfinished works by the old Brontës, the sisters are tasked by their father to find fame by finishing the works. Emmeline (a poet in her own right) is the author of the top-selling Withering Sights, which outstripped Charlene's Jane Hair. That left Ann's book, The Tomcat of Wildfell Hall, on the slush pile of their northern agent Penny Stone-Cragg. 

It is fair to say that when the sister's camper van arrives at the festival, fur flies and noses are bloodied, and chaos ensues. Things get worse as the sisters have it in for Downton Tabby, who has slated the sisters and their work, playing each off against the other.

Some sanity comes in the form of musician Muddy Fryer, who performs her one-cat Arthurian cycle of songs. Doing costume changes and wielding props along the way. Poly Hodge and Nicolette Upstart, famed and popular crime writers, bring to the festival both maturity, professionalism and calmness. 

Things start to seethe and boil inside when Sir Downton and the Brontë sisters trade insults during his interview session. If it wasn't murder for Hettie to keep a lid on tempers in the blazing heat of the day, it soon is when Sir Downton is found murdered later on. Decapitated, and no trace of his head, things are looking bad for Muddy, whose mighty Excalibur sword, used as a prop, vanishes!

Now, this is just the start. Hettie has to keep her invited guests safe, as well as not let on to the public that the star attraction has been most brutally slain. It would be the ruination of Turner who would lose everything. A sudden and severe storm and flooding set the scene for the meat of this tale, and we enter a spine-tingling series of events, punctuated with essential pie and cake stops and much-needed medicinal cups of tea from Delirium Treemint.

In fact, dear readers, in a very short space of time, it seems dear Delirium Treemint, she of the shaky spilling nature and much-broken crockery, is the only cat NOT on Hettie's suspect list.

Who did it, and that isn't a clue, and how Hettie goes about trying to save everyone else and the day, I will leave you to find out for yourselves. 

So, what did we think?

What a brilliant idea to bring together affectionate parodies of literary icons, both past and present, to create the cast of this jaw-dropping and deliciously crafted murder mystery. A mystery with a hefty heap of 'very well done' black humour. We have nods to felines of the human world, too, as well as references that the musically aware of the past decades will recognise immediately. I missed some and was pleased when the author pointed them out at the end of the book. 

As the third book in the soon-to-be thirteen-and-counting, series, it is with much pleasure that the tale does not feel tired. We have settled into a comfortable familiarity with our protagonists, but not to the point where they lose any of their essential differences or edge. The wit and satire, tongue-in-cheek humour the characters, and the occasional sarcasm from Hettie, bring a refreshing twist to both cat stories and murder mysteries. 

If you would like to add an extra dimension and get the mind's eye working on overdrive visualising all the cats, the Audible version is a wonderful expressive expansion of this series. Well worth buying, as Mrs H has, and we have listened multiple times already.

Sir Downton Tabby is a great example of bringing together a plethora of traits and historical attitudes into one love-to-hate victim. As to the other deaths you'll come across as the story goes along, which are no less gruesome, I shall let you decide whether they are deserved or not. I am sure there is many a moral to this story, karma, just desserts and all that, but reading for pleasure I tend to think of those at the end. It all makes for the truly strangest and most adventuresome and deadly Littertray Festival you will ever turn a page on.

 

So . . . .

Crunch time. 

Addictive and whimsical, it is surreal yet delightfully real and charming. Buy a copy or borrow it from your local library; I'm sure you won't be disappointed. Now, if you will excuse us, we feel the need for some festival pies and ale of our own!

Want to buy a copy?

Alas, Littertray Festival T-shirts and Festival Ale aren't available to us, but if you head down to your local independent bookshop they should be able to supply you with something better, this book. 

 

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 lazy selfie. I entitled this "The paws have it". 

Incidentally, it has been the Manor House's election this week. Old Ned, our gardener offered to stand – or rather sit, against me to make up the numbers. It was a close run thing when Mrs H spoiled her vote. Yup, she'd accidentally used her ballot paper to line the cake tin. That's the last time I use greaseproof paper to ensure a transparent voting system! 

However, after the cake had been baked and filled with judicious amount of jam and cream, and various slices and cups of tea consumed, her cross in my box was revealed, and I was duly elected. That's the sweetest way to end any election.

Till laters!

ERin

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 

 

Till Laters!

ERin