US Cozy Review: Cat About Town by Cate Conte

Welcome to another entry in my irregular feature: US cozy review.

Cat About Town by Cate Conte, September 2017, Minotaur Books ISBN: 1250072069

Cat About Town is the first in the 'Cat Cafe' series by Cate Conte, aka Liz Mugavero, and is set on a fictional island off the coast of Massachusetts.

Maddie James returns to Daybreak Island for her gran's funeral and her concern for her grand-dad keeps her staying longer than expected, leaving her successful San Francisco juice bar in the hands of her business partner. Maddie's new and constant companion is an adorable ginger male cat, a stray who chose Maddie and allowed himself to be put on a lead.

A head honcho in the town wants Maddie's grandad's property for redevelopment and has been threatening and slandering to get his way. When he is murdered - his body found by Maddie's cat no less - Maddie's grand-dad becomes a prime suspect despite being the retired police chief. Of course, Maddie takes it upon herself to investigate.

As well as a doting cat, Maddie has two men asking her out, one a newcomer to the island and the other a school sweetheart. Plus someone is leaving her newspaper clippings about cat cafes... How can she leave the island with all this going on?

I really enjoyed this opening book and it kept drawing me back to it. I liked that Maddie was actively investigating. And I have a ginger cat myself!

I look forward to when the cat cafe opens it doors in book two, Purrder She Wrote, which is released in July.

Karen Meek, February 2018.

US Cozy Review: another triplet of reviewlets

Welcome to the latest entry in my irregular feature: US cozy review. My latest Cozy reads are more contemporary than in my last roundup:

In reading order:

1. Engaged in Death by Stephanie Blackmoore #1 Wedding Planner Mystery (2016)

I read this ages ages and accidentally missed it off my last roundup. This was my second favourite cozy read of last year. It introduces Mallory Shepard and her sister Rachel and is set in Port Quincy, Pennsylvania.

What I particularly liked about his book is that, usually we meet the heroine when she's moved to her new home to start afresh and then we get the back-story. In this book however we follow Mallory through her problems alongside her: cheating fiance, loss of job etc.

Mallory inherits a crumbling mansion which may have oil in its grounds. This could solve her money worries but she rejects the offer made by the oil company and next thing you know there's a dead man on the front lawn.

This has a complicated plot, cats and a hunky neighbour with a smart teenage daughter. What more could you ask for? I'm looking forward to reading the sequel, Murder Wears White.

2. A Most Curious Murder by Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli #1 A Little Library Mystery (2016)

I'm going to quote the official blurb on this one:

"Jenny Weston moves home to Bear Falls, Michigan, to nurse her bruised ego back to health after a bitter divorce. But the idyllic vision of her charming hometown crumbles when her mother's Little Library is destroyed.

The next-door neighbor, Zoe Zola, a little person and Lewis Carroll enthusiast, suspects local curmudgeon Adam Cane, but when he's found dead in Zoe's fairy garden, all roads lead back to her. Jenny, however, believes Zoe is innocent, so the two women team up to find the true culprit, investigating the richest family in Bear Falls, interrogating a few odd townspeople, and delving into long, hidden transgressions--until Adam Cane isn't the only body in town, and they have an even bigger mystery to solve.

Inspired by Alice in Wonderland, Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli's quaint and compelling series debut A Most Curious Murder will delight cozy mystery readers."

I liked this one enough to get the second, She Stopped for Death, but I did find the Alice in Wonderland theme a bit too hard for me to follow as I can't even remember if I read the original when I was a child (I'm that old sadly). I liked the idea of Jenny returning to her home and catching up with her former friends/enemies in different ways. And an old mystery is solved as well as the current one.

3. A Tine to Live, A Tine To Die by Edith Maxwell #1 Local Foods Mystery (2014)

Regular Euro Crime blog readers will know I'm always looking for vegetarian sleuths - so I thought I'd try this series. Our heroine Cam isn't veggie but she does grown her own food and is ethically conscious.

When programmer Cam loses her job she decides to take over her uncle's Organic Farm in Westbury, Massachusetts. She also inherits a farm-hand, Mike, whom she catches with a pesticide container. Mike is fired and worse than that, for him, is killed on Cam's farm with one of her farm tools. Cam tries to apply computer logic to solving the murder and in the meantime goes about her farm business and going to farmers' markets and suchlike.

I found this an interesting read as I was very taken with the details behind organic farming. I would say the pace is fairly steady but it does end with a bang! I've already bought the sequel, 'Til Dirt Do Us Part. The fifth book in the series, Mulch Ado about Murder, is out in May 2017.