Ghostly Paws

Another paranormal cozy mystery with a cat so that Ghostly Paws had a few parallels with the witches baking show series. The main character, Willa, has returned home to Mystic Notch, a small town in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. A former crime journalist, she now runs a bookstore. An accident has given her a bad leg and the ability to talk to ghosts including the recently murdered town librarian. Willa is also realizing her cat, Pandora, may be more than just a cat. There was a bit of a love interest between Willa and the investigating officer. So, a bit predictable but it IS a cozy mystery. I think the goal is to create a comfortable little corner of the world with likable and characters and Dobbs has managed to do that. I may show more try the next one but after a few other books get crossed off the list. show less

I wanted a light, fun read, and so I picked this one from the Kindle lending library. While it is a light read, the fun part is questionable from my perspective.

My major problems were with the main character. Wilhelmina Chance is a 48-year-old woman who'd worked as a crime journalist before moving up north. She feels immature for her age, and she definitely does not behave as an experienced investigative journalist. She jumps to conclusions, has a narrow focus, and bumbles around as you'd expect with an amateur sleuth. Clues practically slap her in the face and still she doesn't acknowledge them. She's also shallow, whiny, and difficult to like.

Then there's the way Wilhelmina accepts that ghosts are real and she's able to talk to them, show more but she adamantly denies the possibility of witches and magic spells, despite clear evidence of these things surrounding her all the time.

She supposedly grew up in this small New Hampshire town she returns to, and yet she shows no sign of understanding the people or the obvious weirdness of the place.

Then there are the cats. We have two chapters in which Wilhelmina's cat, along with all the town cats, have secret meetings and talk to one another. These parts read like a children's book. I'm fine with people who talk to their animals (I talk to mine all the time!), and I'm fine with cats as familiars who help witches, etc. But I just can't take that extra step to cats holding meetings about how to help the humans. Maybe in a fantasy novel, but certainly not in a mystery.

The murder mystery with the ghosts is straight forward and, in itself, would be an easy plot line to follow. But then the author adds in the magic tea, which we never explore. I assume the friend is a witch, though I don't know. We have a mysterious magic book that I assume will be important as the series goes on. And then there are the cats having meetings about good and evil and impending doom that doesn't make sense. The entire story, as far as the murder mystery, works without the weirdness of the cats and the hints of magic. All these side issues are like little teasers that are never fleshed out. Rather than build intrigue, the added stuff just feels like a messy launch for all things needed in the books to come.

The writing itself is okay, though certain issues grated on me. People's eyes and vocal tones are constantly showing "concern", and seven times we're told that the cups are Styrofoam. Details repeated incessantly become irritating.

But a lot of people have loved this book. We all have opinions, and this is just mine. show less

It was by no means a Nobel prize winner, but it served a good purpose...a book with an animal on the cover or an animal in the story. It had both. I'm not a cozy mystery enthusiast, but a mystery with a cat, or any other animal for that matter...can't be all bad. The main drawback was that the main character is portrayed as an idiot wandering around a New Hampshire town and almost getting herself killed, only to be saved by the magical intervention of her cat which had more brains than she did...and whose "magic" she refuses to believe in. UHM...she sees ghost, hears her cat speaking to her...but doesn't believe in magic??? In spite of this...the cat was cute...the book served a useful purpose...and I liked the title...so 3 stars.

Wilhelmina Chance, former crime journalist, after a painful divorce and an even more painful car accident, has returned home to Mystic Notch, New Hampshire. Willa has inherited her grandmother's beautiful Victorian house, as well as her bookstore, specializing in used and antique books.

But one side effect of her near-fatal accident is that she sees ghosts. And when she finds Lavinia, the town librarian, lying dead at the foot of a flight of stairs, Lavinia insists that Willa has to find her killer.

Along with the house and the bookstore, Willa inherited her grandmother's cat, Pandora. Initially, she's taking care of Pandora out of duty, but the cat keeps growing on her. Sometimes Pandora's meowing almost sounds like words...

This book was show more a lot of fun. I like Willa, her friends and neighbors, and Pandora. But for an experienced crime reporter whom we're told legitimately cracked some cases "down south" (i.e., in Massachusetts), and as smart and observant as she is, she does get focused on one particular suspect, based largely on personal dislike, to the point of being resistant to evidence pointed another way.

On the other hand, I did like that the small town cops, Willa's sister Augusta, who is the local sheriff, and Striker, who is the sheriff in the next town over, are smart, capable, and pragmatic. They're not improbable geniuses putting city slickers to shame, but they're not having the wool pulled over their eyes, either, even with fewer resources than a big city police department would have.

There are some weaknesses, here, but it's a fun, light read. Recommended. show less

I sort of wonder if it was the main character who has had a prior head injury, or the author. I like paranormal cozies with twists and a hint of romance as much as the next reader, but this one seemed like it was a personal contest to see how many unlikely aspects the author could cram in. Liked the cast of talking cats, enjoyed the three prominent ghosts, not too sure about the odd collection of conjurers, though. The writing was good, and the audio performer was excellent. Never hammy, and delineated the characters well, with just the right touch to portray emotions.

I really wanted this book to be great but it wasn’t and I’m not sure if it was even good in my opinion. This book suffered from two of my least favorite things in a cozy mystery. First up – an annoying main character. Willa is a former crime journalist turned bookstore owner. Willa may not have been the best crime journalist – her instincts were all over the map and most of the time way off. Usually in a cozy the amateur sleuth is way ahead of the cops – not here- Willa just happens to stumble upon the solution and still doesn’t seem to grasp the situation. Second thing – vague mentors. I abhor books where there is an older wiser person who gives all this vague information to the main character trying to help them show more understand the situation, develop their new powers or lead them in the right direction. This book was chock full of vague mentors. Everything from Willa’s best friend, the cat and the librarian ghost. I kept wanting to knock someone in the back of the head and scream “out with it” already.

This book seemed so fabulous in concept that I was extremely disappointed in the execution. Which is sad because I was so looking forward to a new series but I’m not sure I could sit through more of this or not. I will have to think on it before moving forward with another book in the series. The narrator did a fine job other than I occasionally picked up on an accent I didn’t recognize. It didn’t really affect the reading but it was enough for me to notice. show less

I like mysteries, and I like cats, and a ghost or 2 can liven things up.

The problem is that with all of these- especially psychic, human-helpful cats, it can get somewhat too adorable too fast.

I like my fictional cats to be CATS. Cats have many virtues, including helpfulness... but they help according to their own lights, not ours- which is why their "help" can often be so annoying! But I LIKE that about them- it makes me think about a worldview that is not human-centric, and that's both fun and useful.

So my problem here is that while there is a cabal of cats, they do not have their own separate agenda; they mostly want to help the humans.

This is not feline.

Apart from that, it's an OK mystery. I remain unsure of why the initial murder show more happened; why was the librarian where and when she usually wasn't? And why did the murderer just happen to be there at the exact same time? Never explained. And that's just one point- albeit a major one; many other points just came up and were seemingly forgotten, rather than woven into a satisfying conclusion.

The human characters were pretty well-drawn and interesting. The proto-romance was formulaic. show less