As you can see from the book's cover, it's a middle-grade reader with a cat named Sam as the lead character.

This story surpassed all my expectations. It's narrated in the 1st person from Sam's point of view. There is a noir feel, Sam sees himself as the feline Sam Spade, though that's not overdone.

All the characters are cats and they are well-drawn, with different personalities & different motivations. Sandy, the Catslop poster cat made me laugh out loud.

My only complaint is that it took me a while to be sure that all the characters were cats. Sam's friend's name is Spike which is a stereotypical dog name :-). At one point at the beginning Spike puts his "hand" over something, which was jarring because I didn't know if the author was trying to further humanize the characters or if it was a mistake. Later they are "paws".

I loved this story and I laughed out loud in a couple places. I will be seeking out the other books in this series! ( )

Checked this out at the New Holland Library. Was a decent read in that I didn't forget it afterwards, but its clearly for younger readers. Still, if you like cats, you'll enjoy this book and the feline point of view. ( )

Okay, so it's a kid's book about a cat detective, but it's fun and kept me interested. Muque loved it! ( )

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