Laurie CassBesprekingen
Auteur van Lending a Paw
Besprekingen
Lending a Paw: A Bookmobile Cat Mystery (Bookmobile… door Laurie Cass
"Cat with a Clue" is the 5th installment of the Bookmobile Cat mysteries by Laurie Cass, and I have to say that I think this one is my favorite in the series so far.
The basic synopsis is that strange things are happening in Chilson and in its library. We start off with our heroine, Minnie, finding a dead body in the library and then there are a series of strange break-ins, both at the library and at other places around town. It's up to Minnie to help the Sheriff's Department to figure out who's behind all this crime. Well, okay, technically it's up to the Sheriff's office alone, but Minnie thinks it's her job too.
I thoroughly enjoy the characters in this series for the most part. They're complex, well-developed and realistic. Minnie, like the rest of us, has trials just dealing with the stress of life sometimes (and don't we all!). Since the two characters I didn't really like left the series in the 4th book, including Minnie's long-distance boyfriend, this book was even more fun for me to read! Minnie's new love interest looks promising as well.
Laurie Cass has a very fluid writing style. The story line flows easily from section to section. The transitions of scenes are nearly flawless and I've never felt that the story line drags on and on. It moves at a steady pace throughout the whole book.
I will admit that I'm slightly biased on the descriptions of the settings, since it takes place in one of my favorite parts of Michigan. It's a small town set on a small lake in the northwest portion of the Lower Peninsula, one of those places that Michiganders tend to refer to as "Up North". I love reading all the descriptions of the scenery and the places in the book since I'm familiar with the area. I feel like the descriptions aren't too wordy (which is something I really don't like), but as I said, I'm a bit biased on that front.
The only reason this book does not receive five stars is because it didn't have a huge "wow" factor for me or an emotional hook for me, which is part of my criteria for a 5 star book. It is still a wonderful cozy mystery and I highly recommend it and the rest of this series!
[I received a free copy of this book from the author/publisher in exchange for my fair and honest review. My review was not influenced by this, nor was I compensated for my review. All opinions and conclusions are my own.]
Originally posted on: Valerie's Musings
I like the characters. I like Beth & Pete and the kiddos. And I'll probably at least try the 6th book if/when there is one, but the continuity errors bother the heck outta me. Outside of that, it was a decent book.
It is easy to relate to main protagonist Minnie Hamilton. She followed her goal to create a bookmobile program. It is more than just the gap for lost library services in their small county in Michigan. Adopted cemetery cat Eddie is intelligent and a purr-fect addition to the Bookmobile route.
The legitimacy of the struggles for library funding runs through this series. Minnie has to prove the necessity of library services. It is an issue that speaks to those of us who are librarians.
This is a clean and cozy mystery that is suitable for any age reader. I hope this series continues. There are many directions the characters and story line can go.
Bravo!
For those who have never worked in a library, there are dynamics at work in the main plot and sub-plots that make my cardigan warm, and cat hair on my skirt stand up with pride. The characters and patrons may be fictional, but are based on true characters.
Series like The Bookmobile Cat must end sometime, and I demand that they do not.
I would prefer Eddie live for eight more lives and Minnie Hamilton continue stumbling on crime scenes and keep us searching for clues. It is about time the law enforcement of Chilson, Michigan understands the deductive abilities of a MLIS librarian.
Thank you.
First of all, Minnie and I have a love/hate relationship as it stands. I have not always been fond of this character because I have found her annoying in the past, but it was always the cat, Eddie, as well as the story lines, that redeemed the books for me. Because Minnie has behaved herself over the past few books, she has become a more interesting character, and I have liked her a lot better. Characters need a reason for what they do, and there is no reason for Minnie to take the risks she does in this book that are plausible. With several other characters having issues, it also gave Minnie a reason to meddle, something that felt just off in this book. I know that no one has a perfect relationship, but to make people miserable, like Ash and Chelsea, just to have a story line and to have Minnie give some relationship advice and make her seem the hero, seems like a plot stretch to me and felt off, like the author was searching for issues, but couldn't really find plausible ones. By the time we found Chelsea crying in various places, I was almost ready to DNF the book.
The plot of the book, while it had an interesting premise, dragged a bit. Honestly, too much time was spent on the characters to the detriment of the story, and I think it was because the story line was a bit thin to begin with. The author has Minnie doing some silly things and asking some silly questions, and this is the first book in this series where I was rolling my eyes constantly. And then she goes and misses the biggest question of all, the one that was staring the reader (and Minnie) in the face and gave you the clue to who the murderer was, and crosses said murderer off her list. I remember thinking, Aren't you even going to ask the most obvious question? Nope, she doesn't and goes along her merry way. The type to be murdered first in a horror movie, honestly, because she's clueless. And how does someone manage to take off so much time from work to investigate? She's always leaving work to go do something. This isn't to say there weren't some good moments in this book as I always love it when old characters return and we get to see what they are up to, but unfortunately, that doesn't make up for the murky plot and a main character who was irritating, to say the least.
Verdict
The Crime That Binds did not work for me, and is my least favourite of the books in this series. Unfortunately, the plot rambled on, Minnie's reactions and actions were not believable, and Minnie's meddling wasn't interesting. It felt like the author was scrambling to come up with some interesting plot points, and when you put them all together, unfortunately, it was not cohesive. The only thing I did like was Eddie, especially when he stomped all over Minnie's clues. That about sums it up.
Looking forward to the next installment in this cozy mystery series.
This is a nice first installment in a typical cozy mystery series. Minnie is quite likeable, as are her friends in town, though I wasn't a fan of the detectives who pick up the case as they seemed rather condescending. Eddie the cat is adorable! Minnie needed to pay attention to him more as he helped solve the crime but I don't think she quite figured that out yet.
I listened to the audio book narrated by Erin Bennett. She does a good job of bringing the characters to life. I especially enjoyed the extra nuance she gave to Eddie's "mrrrs" and "mrrows" to make it sound like he's responding to Minnie's questions.
My complaints are small, really. Minnie is driving the bookmobile back to the library when a woman runs out into the road and flags her down, begging for help for her husband who has just had a stroke. She helps them get to the ER and a bond is (understandably) formed between Minnie and the couple. Less than two weeks later, the man is found hunched over the body of a murder victim, and he's arrested. He's innocent, of course, and Minnie must clear him.
This couple lives out in the middle of back-country Michigan in a house without a landline and sketchy, spotty cellular coverage. I live in a house without a landline but I live in a metropolitan city - if I was living in the country and had no coverage you'd bet your sweet bippy I'd have a landline - for just such occasions as these. Common sense aside, it's seems obvious to me that the author created this situation to justify Minnie coming across the woman and being in a position to help which leaves me with the feeling that the story was forced.
My other, relatively small, complaint is the interrogating the MC does. She doesn't run around accusing people of murder and she doesn't jump to silly conclusions based on air, but she does go out of her way to question "suspects" and she does hide things from the police. It was just enough for me to sigh heavily while reading, not enough to even make me roll my eyes (much).
Mostly, the book was "ok" - a little bit better than "ok" maybe. I don't consider the time I spent reading it wasted at all, and I'll definitely read the third book.
Once I'd learned that the victim had lawyer, I figured this might have something to do with the estate. Great thing is that although less happened in the library, except for the murder, the case itself was a hunt for a rare book.
Looking forward to the next book in the series due out in August 2017
Chilson! I stared at the listing so long that my eyes dried out. Chilson was a small tourist town in northwest lower Michigan
Minnie Hamilton - 33 and given up any hope of my height reaching five feet and had become resigned to the fact that my curly black hair was never going to straighten, small houseboat I’d bought. I like to spend time in cemeteries.
Eddie My first cat. My first pet. His markings were black and white stripes with a chest and paws that probably would have been white if they’d been clean
Aunt Frances (Frances Pixley) is a sweetheart, All winter I lived with my aunt in her old and large house, but come May she good-humoredly kicked me out to make room for guests who paid a lot more than I did. only took boarders who were single and in need of a mate.
Boarders seventy-year-old Zofia dark-haired woman, twenty-two-year-old Harris seemed to have kitchen skills in abundance, sixty-five-year-old Leo, fifty-three-year-old Paulette pleasantly plump, tawny-haired woman, Dena was twenty-five thin, beautiful, and smart and Quincy mostly bald head had recently hit fifty.
Kristen friend Kristen’s restaurant, Three Seasons
Mr. Goodwin, white-haired, a regular library patron
Josh the only male on full-time staff under the age of fifty,
Holly Terpening was my best library friend happily married to Brian, loved to cook, had two small children, a dog, and straight brown hair, tried to get a loan from Stan and failed.
Tom owner of the bakery
Chad Engstrom. A big, bearded man
Trevor. Rose. Cara. Patrick. Emma. Ethan. HIS KIDS
Stan Larabee - dead, donated bookmobile
Caroline Grice dined together, most elegant and cultured widow in town
Kristen, owner and operator of the Three Seasons restaurant, friend,
Deputy Wolverson my age, maybe a little older. Not movie star handsome, but appealing. No beer gut, seemed intelligent. And no wedding band.
Stephen fiftyish man, Boss
Louisa and her husband, Ted, had owned some sort of manufacturing business downstate before they sold it and retired. Their houseboat
Gunnar Olson is a horrible excuse for a human being
Chris Ballou, the marina’s second-generation owner, manager, maintenance guy, and boat repair guy. early forties, whippet-thin body
Rafe Niswander, a mutual friend and neighbor from up the road,
Skeeter. and a boat owner
Mitchell Koyne was about my age, had various seasonal jobs
Detectives Devereaux and Inwood.
Thessie. Library intern
Larry new chef
DR Tucker Kleinow
Bill D’Arcy library patron
Audry. That was the name of the woman in the bookmobile, the one who’d been helping out at Maple View.
Minnie isn't alone when she finds Stan's body; she has a formerly stray cat, Eddie, that decided to move in with her. She expects Eddie to stay home on her bookmobile days, as he does when she's at the main library, but on that momentous very first bookmobile day, he manages to stow away in her bag, and emerges too late for her to take him home. And when the library volunteer who was supposed to accompany her has to cancel due to serious illness in her family, Eddie becomes her paper-thin excuse for telling her boss, Stephen (Wrangle? I listened to the audioboook, so I'm not sure of the spelling), calls and directly asks if she's alone in the bookmobile, that no, she's not alone. (She's supposed to have a volunteer with her, as much for insurance reasons as having two people to service their stops.) It's Eddie, taking an unauthorized off-vehicle excursion, who first finds Stan's body. Eddie is also a big hit with the library users who greet the bookmobile at each of their stops, because she can't persuade him to stay curled up out of sight. This alarms Minnie, because Stephen is looking for any excuse to shut down the bookmobile and sell it, even if it's for pennies on the dollar.
Like a sensible person, at least at first, Minnie wants to leave the investigation of Stan's death to the police. Unfortunately, two things change this. One of Minnie's co-workers becomes a possible suspect, and when she does come across what might be relevant evidence, the detectives working on the case seem to be ignoring that evidence. This leads Minnie, with help, whether intentional or accidental, from Eddie, conducting her own investigation.
And while she does try to be careful, she eventually makes one mistake too many.
I have no experience with bookmobiles (I think I encountered one in real life just once), but I am a librarian, and Minnie comes across as a real librarian, as well as a likable, decent person, and, heaven help us, a pretty good fundraiser for the library (not just with Stan). The author clearly knows how libraries work and has decent idea of scheduling, the fine art of knowing what users will like when they don't know what to read next, and keeping clashing personalities on staff working fairly smoothly together.
We also get a good feel for Chilson as a community, and Minnie's friends and acquaintances there.
All in all, an enjoyable cozy mystery.
Recommended.
I bought this audiobook.
As with any book in the series it can be read as a stand-alone but I would highly recommend reading this series in order as then the changes for Minnie, family and friends will be ever more meaningful and they were definitely worth the wait!
As mentioned in my book review of "Tailing a Tabby" the 2nd book in the series, "The joy of this book is truly cover-to-cover as although the book cover doesn't have to impress me to capture my attention to a novel or to draw me in to the story, in this series, they are definitely a bonus feature of enchantment and pleasingly colorful."
As soon as my pre-order arrives I can't wait to read it but then I also want to savor the time as now it will seem an eternity until the next visit. It's simply one of those favorite series that you want to go on forever.
Nice sleuthing and more.
On the back road in the dark in the converted school bus bookmobile Minnie and her sister are talking when a car nearly hits them head on while driving at speed. Shortly thereafter they come upon a man lying in the road and try to resuscitate him. After the sheriff's deputy came they found the man's bicycle and helmet but it way days later that they found out it was murder and needed to sleuth. Add in a library cat with an attitude, an impending move from her houseboat to her fiance's house in mid renovation, deciding on a set of rings, and library politics to keep anyone's interest from beginning to end.
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Berkley Publishing Group via NetGalley. Thank you!
Mrr. :)
Pouncing on Murder is the 4th book in the Bookmobile Cat Mystery series by Laurie Cass. This series is by far my favorite cozy series, so I knew from page 1 that I was going to like this book. As usual, I was not disappointed. I sat in my comfiest chair with a cup of hot tea nearby, my fat cat Festus on my lap, and this book -- perfect way to spend a cold, crisp December evening.
In Pouncing on Murder, Librarian Minnie Hamilton is enjoying the thought of spring returning to Chilson. During the winter, she lives in her aunt's boardinghouse but when the weather warms up, she moves back to her houseboat. So, she's busy moving, cleaning her boat and planning the library's book fair. Her happy spring thoughts get interrupted, however, when local sweet-at-heart curmudgeon Henry Gill is killed by a falling maple tree. His death is pretty much declared an accident,but Minnie doesn't think so. When she meets Henry's friend, Adam, who was with the old man when he died, her thoughts that Henry might have been murdered are confirmed, especially when someone starts trying to kill Adam as well. Once again, Minnie is on the case, trying to catch a killer before anyone else ends up dead.
Minnie is a delightful main character. I enjoy her sense of humor and the fact that she talks to her cat. And Eddie's antics and delightful "mrr'' in answer to his zany owner just make me smile.
The mystery portion of the plot kept me guessing with several suspects and twists. The humor and subplots didn't detract from the mystery but added to it. This is a cozy series, so don't expect sex, spurting blood and cursing. It's a light mystery.....good humor, a pretty much bloodless murder, and a lot of Eddie's kitty antics. For those who enjoy cozies, this is a perfect read for a cold, winter's night.
There are five books in the Bookmobile Cat Mystery Series and a sixth book, Wrong Side of the Paw, coming out in July 2017. Since this is my favorite series, I have book 5 waiting on my TBR shelf and the 6th book is pre-ordered. I highly recommend this series to cozy lovers and cat enthusiasts alike! :)
Laurie Cass also co-authors the Victoria Square mystery series with author Lorraine Bartlett. For more information on Laurie Cass and her books, check out her website: http://catmystery.com/
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