The Cat Who Robbed a Bank

Sometimes it can seem that Qwilleran rarely solves the mysteries in these books—that answers simply fall into his lap. But usually, much of the book is spent with him making connections, asking just the right questions, and sort of lining things up to work out so that he gets to the solution in the end. Not so in this book. He truly didn't solve much of anything. Speculations early in the mystery turned out to be correct with little in the way of deviation. Yes, he was kind of caught up in the climax, but it was really only because of a friendship that he'd been cultivating for a while, nothing to do with his suspicions about the case. The community surrounding the mystery wasn't as interesting as it has been in other books, maybe show more because it was more disjointed.

There was one interesting development. Anyone who has read many of these books knows that Qwilleran is basically devoid of all family and does tend to long for a connection. This was dangled in front of him—and us—in this book, and I'm not really sure how I feel about the way that turned out. Maybe it would have seemed to fake if it had gone a different way, but I really hope to see more in this line in the future. Overall, though, I'm hoping the next book is better. show less

I really enjoyed the pace of this book. The focus is as much on Qwill's genealogy, as it is on the mystery and on life in Pickaxe: it gave the story a lovely country vibe. Koko continues to impress us and thanks to his clues, I had been able to piece parts of the mystery together: the structure is really quite well done and interesting.
This is a wonderful easy read, perfect for relaxing.

Another quick escape read...and once again I enjoyed it!

Pickax has a new hotel. The old Pickax Hotel was blown up and has now been completely remodeled and rebuild. This time around the style is much classier and the name has been changed to The Mackintosh Inn.

One of its first distinguished client is a Mr. Delacamp from Chicago. He is a jewellery dealer of some reknown and a bit on the splashy side. He comes to Pickax every 5 years to buy old pieces of jewellery from some of the oldtimers and sell reworked pieces to those who are interested. He really courts the ladies to make the sale.

During this time the tri-county Scottish Gathering and Highland Games were being held. With a good size Scottish population in the area, there was heavy show more competition between the counties.

When Delacamp is found dead in his suite things turn topsy-turvy. There are questions about who he really is and who his young female assistant is. Both are a bit of a mystery.

Once again, Koko tries to give Qwill clues to what is going on. Licking photographs, knocking books off shelves and other various tricks. Somehow Koko seems to know... show less

The Cat Who Robbed a Bank by Lilian Jackson Braun is the 22nd book in the Cat Who series. Qwill now comfortably retired is caught up in a local interest case involving the oft targeted hotel (recently reopened and renamed).

Koko and Yum-Yum, whose real ages must just be ignored in the interest of the "nowness" of the plot (see The Laughter of Dead Kings), take an interest in Oedipus Rex.

In the middle of all of this, jewels go missing and Qwill — ala Joe Leaphorn — is reminded of an old case. The cats must be too because they help Qwill explore his roots and learn about a foundling who as an adult is now expected of murder and robbery.

All of these books are short and fairly formulaic. I was in the mood for a cozy. This was the first show more of the books that I listened to on audio — read by George Guidall. As he also reads the Tony Hillerman books, it was all to easy to superimpose different characters onto the events in the book.

All in all I enjoyed the book but I found the ending a bit abrupt. It ends very much like a shaggy dog story with a punch line and little else. I suppose they all do that, but on audio it was more obvious. show less

This edition of The Cat Who...brings a traveling jeweler to 400 miles north of everywhere and the town is very excited. It seems half the town wants to buy what he's selling and the other half has heirloom jewelry to sell. One thing leads to another and the jeweler is no more. But whodunnit? Enjoy your time reading about the life of Jim Qwilleran, Polly, Arch, Mildred, Chief Brody, Amanda, Lenny and his mother and all the other inhabitants of Pickax as they spend time together and enjoy the Scottish games at the Highlands gathering. Astute Koko and darling Yum Yum are of course key to the story, as they should be.

I listened to this for the second time in several years. This is one of my favorites of this series. Though still Brain Candy for the car, it's one of my favorite stories of the series. Between the Scottish Gathering, learning about Qwill's family tree from old letters, and the mechanical banks, it was a pretty interesting listen. The audiobook's actor does a nice job with the reading, too.

Before reading:
Qwill and I spent too much time together in 2018, so we've been on a break. Lately I've started to miss him so I'm giving him another chance.

Review:
Well, I'm not sure we're getting back together. This is another in the "Cat Who..." series where I am pretty sure I would never have picked up a second one if this had been my first. The new Pickax hotel has its Grand Reopening - it got blown up in an earlier book - and is immediately the site of a murder that is barely described, of a character who is hardly mentioned, by another character who barely registers but nevertheless was the prime suspect from the word go. Just really not good.

There wasn't much time to describe the murder, yet there was TONS of description of some show more Scottish festival that might be more fascinating if you are of that nationality. Koko performed a few of his tricks, leading to clues that are interesting in retrospect but of absolutely no value in solving the crime.

There is a bit of interesting background stuff where we find about Qwill's father, his mother, and her relationship to Aunt Fanny who left all that money to Qwill. These revelations come in the form of letters discovered .... I forget where ... Bbt in the absolute worst development in the book, Qwill decides he doesn't want to know anymore and throws the letters into the fireplace. That was seriously dumb and out of character, especially as he had been saying earlier that he had no idea about his family.

I literally just finished reading it and I can't think of anything else to say about it. show less