Mollie Hunt

I read the first Crazy Cat Lady Cozy Mystery some while ago, and I really should read the rest. But jumping forward to Cat Café made for a very satisfying second read. The story’s set in a recognizable part of Portland Oregon. The characters could be neighbors and friends. The cats are wonderful. And the mystery makes for curious fun.

Sixty-something-year-old cat lady, Lynley Cannon, is dismayed at the death of her mother’s friend. But when it seems like her mother is also in the killer’s sights, she’s determined to protect her. Of course, Mom would rather protect herself. But luckily there’s a handsome detective willing to offer help.

Adding a touch of romance and history to the mystery, and promising the cat café will live on (we Portlanders dare thrilled that our cat café reopened) makes for an enticing blend of real life believability and mysterious surprise. The novel stands alone perfectly. The characters are fun. The cats will surely be saved. And the mystery really will keep you guessing till fairly close to the end. I really enjoyed it.

So… books 2 through 4 on this year's Christmas list?

Disclosure: I met the author and was delighted to get a copy of her latest book.… (more)

Cat Summer by Mollie Hunt combines ecological concern with fantasy, and a love of cats, to create a bifurcated futuristic tale. In the first part, a woman is quietly drawn into the world of her feline companion—a movement from reality that takes place so smoothly and convincingly you’ll almost believe cats can talk. The author creates the sensual experience of her feline characters with a deft hand and fascinating detail, keeping the reader eagerly waiting for more. And her cats carry a wisdom human beings appear to have lost, together with a need that only a human can fulfill.

Evocative descriptions and scary mythology characterize the first half of the book, an exciting tale in itself of good against evil, told with a thoroughly convincing feline point of view. Ecological concerns are very real, if sometimes simplistic, and the same sense of ecological balance or imbalance pervades the continuing story in the second half. Questions of what makes us human (as well as what makes cats feline) come to the fore as the story plunges toward a 2001-style conclusion.

A genre-bending fantasy, Cat Summer carries the flavor of Warriors and the author’s own contemporary Cat Mysteries, together with Arthur Clark’s 2001 (though the science isn't so smooth), Tolkein and other dark fantasy. For cat-lovers and earth-lovers, a cool and fascinating tale.

Disclosure: I’ve met the author and love her cat mysteries.… (more)

I would tell you what my favorite poems in this collection were, but I can’t. I loaned it to my mum. Then I loaned it to my friend. Then I put it somewhere ready to loan to someone else. Then I lost it. My copy of Cat Poems by Mollie Hunt is now well-travelled, well-loved and well-read. The paperback is as nice to hold as it is to read. The cats are delightful and so, so very relatable. I wished I could meet them in the flesh, but meeting them in words is a pleasure and a treasure. Just wish I knew where my treasure of a little book had gone.

Disclosure: I already love Mollie Hunt’s Cat Mysteries, so how could I resist purchasing her poems?… (more)