Miranda James

Careless Whiskers by Miranda James is the twelfth A Cat in the Stacks Mystery. It can be read as a standalone courtesy of the background information provided by the author. Charlie Harris and Diesel are back along with the adorable Ramses. Charlie has sworn off investigating after a close call, but, when his daughter is in the line of fire, he must dive in once again. Luke Lombardi is the guest actor for the performance of Careless Whispers written by a local playwright using the name Finn show more Zwake. Luke has an ego the size of Texas and an insufferable attitude to go with it. Laura and Luke have a series of altercations during the week of rehearsals with Laura stating more than once that she would “kill” him if he did such a thing again (she was frustrated). When Luke ends up dead on the stage after drinking from the glass handed to him by Laura, she finds herself at the top of the suspect list. Charlie knows his daughter is innocent and begins nosing around searching for answers. There are several suspects from Luke’s paramour to his understudy. I liked following Charlie’s investigation. There are good clues and misdirection to distract readers from the solution. In addition, there is the prankster in the theater and two men who both claim to be the playwright Finn Zwake. I thought Careless Whiskers was well-written with steady pacing. I appreciated the addition of my what my father termed ten dollar words (sangfroid and inamorata are two examples). The words suited the education of the characters. I thought that the characters were developed and realistic. The authors descriptions allowed me to visualize each one especially Finn Zwake with his shaggy mane of red hair and ridiculous mustache. Charlie continues to develop as he grows older. It is nice to see him slowing down at work and enjoying time with his grandchildren. I especially love the scenes with Charlie at home with Diesel and Ramses. I find Diesel’s little chirps and trills delightful. It is cute that Ramses tries to imitate his older brother. I laughed often while reading Careless Whiskers thanks to the abundance of humor. The ending was very special and left me smiling. Careless Whiskers is a diverting cozy mystery with an arrogant actor, a frisky feline, disquieting disputes, a phony playwright, and puzzling pranks. show less

Lighthearted librarian Charlie Harris is known around his hometown of Athena, Mississippi, for walking his cat, a rescued Maine Coon named Diesel. But he may soon be taken for a walk himself in handcuffs...

Charlie is stressed out. The Southern Academic Libraries Association is holding this year's annual meeting at Athena College. Since Charlie is the interim library director, he must deliver the welcome speech to all the visiting librarians. And as if that weren't bad enough, the keynote show more address will be delivered by Charlie's old nemesis from library school.

It's been thirty years since Charlie has seen Gavin Fong, and he's still an insufferable know-it-all capable of getting under everyone's skin. In his keynote, Gavin puts forth a most unpopular opinion: that degreed librarians will be obsolete in the academic libraries of the future. So, when Gavin is found dead, no one seems too upset...

But Charlie, who was seen having a heated argument with Gavin after the speech, has jumped to the top of the suspect list. Now Charlie and Diesel must check out every clue to refine their search for the real killer among them before the next book Charlie reads comes from a prison library... show less

Charlie Harris is a widow who has moved back to his hometown of Athena, Mississippi, into the house he inherited from his aunt. He works part time as the archivist at the local college’s library. He’s also well known for his rescued Maine coon cat, Diesel; a cat that goes almost everywhere with him. I loved Diesel. I'm not a big fan of cozies but I am a big fan of kitties, so the story is worth reading just to meet him. Of all the people from his past Charlie never wanted to ever see show more again, Godfrey Priest was IT. Godfrey was a jerk when they had known each other in high school and college, and now his status as a bestselling author of thrillers has done nothing to deflate his gigantic, growing ego. Now Godfrey is back in town and appearing at the local college where...you guessed it...Charlie works. Since Godfrey returned, secrets start appearing out of the woodwork. Charlie then finds Godfrey dead in his hotel room. The investigation centers around Charlie’s boarder, who is the son of an old friend, and Charlie starts looking around and asking questions. Still, it won’t be easy to find the killer of a guy who no one seemed to ever have liked. Charlie isn't sure that he is the one to do it or even if he can. One of the reasons I don't especially care for Cozy Mysteries is that usually the plot moves forward at a snail's pace, and it takes forever for something to happen. That wasn’t the case with this one. This book had more twists in the first 100 pages than some books I've read had in the entire story. The pace did slow down a little as the story progressed, there were still some really good twists and reveals in the second half. The clues were well planted, and I found myself completely satisfied at how things came together at the end. show less

The public library is putting on an exhibition on children's mystery series in honour of the 100th birthday of one of Charlie Harris's favourite authors and she has agreed to participate.

It's a mystery so we know somebody is going to get murdered but as usual the murder doesn't happen till about 1/3 of the way through the book and this time the murderee doesn't have a big flashing victim sign flashing over their head when they are first introduced as is usually the case. Watching the antics show more of the superfans and reading the parody novel within the novel made this the funniest so far in the series. show less