Nic Saint

Pop goes the singer

As your loyal feline correspondent it is my sad duty to inform you that one of my housemates has lost her marbles and decided to go into showbiz. And in other news, the country’s most successful female pop singer was found murdered.

In other words: business as usual in Hampton Cove, one of the coziest but also (apparently) deadliest East Coast towns. At least for celebrities, who tend to die like flies in this lovely little corner of the world. As far as Harriet’s show more singing ambitions were concerned, she wasn’t the only one in our family with a sudden craving to step into the limelight and seek fame and fortune. Gran, too, announced she wanted to be a star and become the next Beyoncé.

The murder investigation into the death of Chickie Hay, meanwhile, wasn’t going well. Oh, there were plenty of suspects, but no progress being reported. Odelia, my human and sometime amateur sleuth, was at the end of her tether, and even we cats couldn’t give her the breakthrough she was so desperately looking for. But tenacious as we are, we just kept on digging, even as Gran’s ambitions caused a serious rift in the Poole family—she even up and left.

So how did it all end, you ask? Well, do read on in my latest report from the Hampton Cove front lines: Purrfect Kill. I promise you won’t be disappointed. At least if you don’t mind reading a book written from the viewpoint of a cat. (less) show less

It's hard to believe it's been so long since I visited with Max and his friends. Visiting with Max, Dooley, Harriet, and even interloper Brutus is always a paws-tively frisky adventure. Max lives with Odelia Poole, newspaper reporter at the Hampton Cove Gazette. Dooley lives with Odelia's mom and Harriet lives with Odelia's grandmother. Odelia and the cats are a clever and claw-ver investigative reporting team as Odelia speaks feline. In other words, it's "Doctor Dolittle" time. Although few show more know of Odelia's secret weapon for her "exclusive scoops" she is lucky to have her Uncle Alec be so accommodating to the felines. Even when Odelia can't be present during some police interrogations the cats can almost make their presence invisible to notice if they are nonchalantly sitting on window sills or standing in a corner of a room. They also love to prowl around town on assignments from Odelia as she is pursuing other leads.

The author's writing is laced with humor and sprinkled throughout the storyline that adds a purr-fect touch to this series. Each tale is a mews-ing to read! Max's description of trying to wake up Odelia was a hoot! Later, during an investigation Max was running to be the hero and "jumped up onto the trunk, then onto the roof, and grasped the antenna and held on for dear life."

Wondering what Max's exclamation of relief would be when the truck finally stopped I didn't expect to be laughing so hard I had to read the page over again before continuing onward but Max has that effect. "My hair was a mess, and I think I'd swallowed more bugs than the windshield on a sixteen-ton truck."

I'll be visiting with Max and his friends again soon! show less

The cover should indicate to you not to take this too seriously, as it is designed to be light and fun. Often — all too often — this means dull or silly or lame beyond words. The authors manage to strike just the right balance here, however, to make this enjoyable fluff. Once in a while, they walk that high wire between fun cozy fluff and too ridiculous to read, but they always manage to work in enough genuinely funny moments, and keep the story moving nicely along, to keep from falling. show more Felicity and Alice, and their respective beaus, head for Windmere Castle in England to do some wraith wrangling. Soon their employer is a ghost — murdered — and one of the beaus is kidnapped. There are ghosts, rats, some Russians, some Fabergé eggs, and some genuinely funny interactions which follow. A few things were eye-rolling but it moved at such a nice little pace that I rarely had time to dwell on it. Overall, good fun. I picked this up for free on Kindle and while I haven’t run out and picked up another, I probably will soon, and start at the beginning, just to have something frivolous but enjoyable to have on hand for times I’m in the mood. Nicely done. show less

I won this from my library in a raffle give-away. It wasn't my favorite genre (cozy mystery) ...but look at that little orange, furry face and tell me how I couldn't have not taken Max home! I read it in one night. It's a fun little mystery. Talking animals are always entertaining. My cat talked to me and let me know exactly what she thought of the human race all the time...so I can imagine how these felines must have been lots of help to the reporter and the cop that were butting heads show more trying to solve the murder. The author also improved my grasp of the English language with some words I had never heard of. He must have either had a thesaurus or was an English major. I had no idea what “preprandial” meant ... so but I looked it up. It means "done or taken before dinner or lunch". Why he couldn't just say that I don't know. Overall...it's just non-stop fun from start to finish. show less