August MysteryKIT: Cozy Mysteries Featuring Animals

August MysteryKIT: Cozy Mysteries Featuring Animals



I’m not sure this needs much of an introduction.
I think most already know what cozy mysteries are, but I’ll start there.

I found a nice definition of cozy mystery on this site:
https://www.ingramspark.com/blog/what-is-a-cozy-mystery

“The tone of a cozy should be upbeat, optimistic and light-hearted. The setting should be the kind of place that the reader might long to live in or to choose for their vacation:

- a pretty rural village where everyone knows each other (village gossips and net-curtain-twitching snoopers help move the plot along!)
- a traditional seaside town with scenic views and diverting entertainments
- a closed, self-contained community such as an island or self-contained hotel resort.

Places that are all alluring enough until the dead bodies begin to turn up…”

Now, of course, in August, we’re featuring cozies with animals.
As usual, I will make suggestions on what I’ve read. I think these are all part of a series, so I am mentioning the first in the series. But there are so many options out there.

Suggestions:
Anteater of Death / Betty Webb (Gunn Zoo Mystery)
Mew is for Murder / Clea Simon (Theda Krakow Mysteries)
The Cat, The Quilt and The Corpse / Leann Sweeney (A Cats in Trouble Mystery)
Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter / Blaize Clement (Dixie Hemingway Mysteries)
The Cat Who Could Read Backwards / Lilian Jackson Braun (The Cat Who...)
Dog on it / Spencer Quinn (Chet and Bernie)
Wish You Were Here / Rita Mae Brown (Mrs. Murphy Mysteries)
Three Bags Full / Leonie Swann (Miss Maple)
Murder Past Due / Miranda James (Cat in the Stacks Mystery)

Don’t forget to post to the wiki: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/MysteryKIT_2021#August:_-_Theme:_Cozy_My...

And of course, I will be continuing at least one of the series mentioned in >1 LibraryCin:.

These are the options I'm currently leaning toward:
- Raining Cats and Dogs Blaze Clement
- Grey Matters / Clea Simon
- To Fetch a Thief / Spencer Quinn

I will continue with my reread of the Beatrix Potter mystery series, with The Tale of Holly How.

I'm not sure I will get to this one, but if I do, I will be reading Honest to Dog one of the Golden Retriever mysteries by Neil S. Plakcy

I just got a galley of Pup Fiction by Laurien Berenson so I will probably read that one. However, I read a lot of cozies featuring cats, so I could possibly change my mind.

I can recommend The Cat Who... series, though it got a little weary by book 6, where I stopped.

I like the Chet series too, have read four of them I believe. Now, where have I buried my unread copies? 🤔

>6 fuzzi: I read all the Cat Who... novels but the short story collection was awful, in my opinion. I recommend taking a pass on that one. The later ones in the series took off in some strange directions too.

I received Sky Valley Cozy Mystery Cat Series Box Set by William Jarvis as a SantaThing gift. I will be reading that for this challenge and also the next book in my reread of The Cat Who series The Cat Who Went Up A Creek.

I'm going with Hush Puppy by Laurien Berenson.

I keep pulling Three Bags Full to the top of my list for one challenge or another. I'll see if it makes it to the top in August!

It's been a while since I read a Lilian Jackson Braun book so my choice is The Cat Who Wasn't There.

This is not my usual genre, but I think Lady Takes the Case by Eliza Casey might work. It's a historical mystery with a young noblewoman as the amateur sleuth, and she is aided by her "curiously intelligent" cat. The book is also #1 in the Manor Cat Mystery series, so presumably the cat is at least somewhat featured!

I suspect I'll read more than one cat one, but I might even get an elephant in if the next installment of Vaseem Khan's Baby Ganesh Detective Agency series is available in audio when I go looking.

I'm thinking I'll read The Cat Saw Murder.

>14 NinieB: Good choice! I quite liked it :)

>15 rabbitprincess: Thanks for the alert in the Bingo thread!

Raining Cat Sitters and Dogs / Blaize Clement
3.75 stars

When pet sitter Dixie is at the vet’s to pick up one of the pets she is caring for (parrot Big Bubba), a girl and her stepfather come in. There’s something odd about the two of them, but Dixie’s friend, Hetty, offers the girl, Jaz, a job helping take care of the service dog Hetty is training. Not long after, three young thugs enter Big Bubba’s home while Dixie is there, looking for Jaz! A bit later, still, Dixie’s high school friend comes by, desperate for help, as her rich husband has been kidnapped and is asking for a $1 million ransom payment.

This is the 5th in the series, and it’s not entirely implausible Dixie’s friend would come to her, as she used to be a cop. I am still really enjoying this series, and in this one, I liked the additional info provided about parrots (even though they didn’t have much to do with the storyline). I also felt like this one was a bit different from the usual murder storylines in cozy mysteries.

I finished The Cat Saw Murder, in which the cat does in fact see murder.

I read Dead in the Dining Room by Leighann Dobbs for this

I read Dog on It by Spencer Quinn, which may or may not strictly be a cozy, but was good anyway :)

I read The Cat Who Wasn't There by Lilian Jackson Braun.

I have finished Gray where a Cambridge college tutor and a grey parrot find out why a student, the parrot's owner, fell from the roof of King's College chapel. A little weird, but in a good way.

Finished Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann.
It's difficult to describe this uniquely inventive yet charming book. I expected a mystery typical of many cozies that are "solved" by cats but I was far off target. Instead, the mystery of the shepherd's unexpected death and the investigation by his flock, is mere background for the allegorical nature of the book. Who would have imagined a flock of sheep could have such well-developed individual characters while continuing to behave exactly like sheep? Swann introduced a number of dark topics but all the while maintained the innocence of the flock who remain sheeply in all respects. It's more light-hearted than funny, and although it has melancholy moments, more contemplative than sad. Swann has introduced me to new friends and I sincerely hope there will be future meetings.

>23 VivienneR: There are more books but I've been waiting since 2014 for them to be translated.

>23 VivienneR: I'm glad you enjoyed it.

>24 Robertgreaves: Oh dear, waiting since 2014 doesn't sound promising.

>25 MissWatson: I enjoyed it more than I anticipated.

I read The Broken Spine by Dorothy St. James. Leaders of a small town decide to destroy all of the library's books and implement a totally electronic library. They think it will make the town more appealing to new business due to being so very progressive. Tru Becket, a library employee, is strongly against the whole thing and when the man who came up with the idea is murdered she becomes a suspect. Tru and her friends solve the mystery with the help of a stray cat Tru befriended. 3*

I read Nine Lives to Die, a Mrs. Murphy Mystery, by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown. I did not enjoy this book as much as many of the other books in the series; there was too much socializing with groups of up to six people for my taste. Three murders were solved; two recent murders and one from many years back after a skeleton was found.

Managed to finish another Cat Who book. The Cat Who Brought Down The House by Lilian Jackson Braun.