Mary Matthews

These are the first four adventures of Grace Wentworth, Jack Brewster, and their "magical cats," Titania and Zeus.

These stories are just pure fun,and work best if you don't worry about how that cats do what they do. Beyond saying that they are magical, there is no explanation attempted. If you've lived with cats, though, that can be explanation enough. Most of us who have are pretty sure they can teleport, at the least.

The time is the 1920s, the place is Coronado Island, California. It's the Roaring Twenties, and Prohibition, and most people think the economic boom will go on forever.

This is just a lot of fun, despite some of the events,and what the reader or listener knows is not too far off in the future. It's a real blow for Grace to learn that her uncle, her sole surviving family, has been murdered. Uncle Charles' unpleasant wife, Aunt Alice, is nevertheless set on doing her duty by Grace, until Grace makes it clear that she's not going to fall in line with Alice's (pretty conventional for the era) plan that well-born Grace should return to New York, or possibly Europe, with her and marry well-born money.

Grace is more set on finding Uncle Charles' killer, getting better acquainted with Pinkerton detective Jack Brewster, and becoming a detective herself.

The next two stories recount their first two cases after Charles' death and the formation of their own detective agency, Wentworth & Brewster. The fourth is the story of the unpleasant and unhappy Judge Scrooge, with Titania and Zeus standing in for the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future.

This isn't to be taken seriously at all. Just enjoy it!

Recommended.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the author, and am reviewing it voluntarily.… (meer)

Another adventure of Grace, Jack, Tatiana, and Zeus--this time intertwined with the story of Tatiana's previous people, in her previous life.

Grace and Jack are asked to find the wife of Henry, a rich businessman whose goods in trade include one of Grace's favorite things, fashionable shoes.

Arthur and Isabella, three years earlier, are New York City street rats. They hooked up and survived for several years together with a white cat whom they called simply The Cat, who was very good at alerting them to threats and helping them to stay safe. Yet Child Services and the orphan trains can't be evaded forever.

When they reach California, Isabella and Arthur are immediately separated, Isabella to be adopted by a very nice family, and Arthur to be a laborer on a citrus farm.

These stories are connected, but Tatiana is the only one who knows how, and she's not talking. It will take Grace and Jack a while to figure it out.

This is a stronger story than Cupcake Kitty, and a lot of fun, but weaker narration. Stephanie Quinn's narration makes Isabella sound like a young child even when she's sixteen, and as a result makes some of the bad guys sound even more perverted than they're probably intended to be. This is unfortunate, and a disservice to the story.

A lot of fun, but maybe read the ebook rather than listen to the audiobook.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the author, and am reviewing it voluntarily.… (meer)

Splendid Summer is a great romp, funny and fast-moving. Grace Wentworth is on her way home to Coronado, California after completing Finishing School in Europe in the 1920s. "Home" is with her Uncle Charles and Aunt Alice, because her parents died when she was a young child. On the way, she meets Jack Brewster, Pinkerton detective in charge of security for much of Coronado, and his cat, a deaf white Persian named Tatania.

She's also getting a series of rather strange and disturbing telegrams from Uncle Charles. When she goes to the train telegraph office to send a return telegram, she and Jack find the telegraph operator has been murdered.

On reaching Coronado, they discover her uncle is also dead, and it looks like a suicide. Her always-difficult aunt, or, as Grace quickly begins to refer to her, former aunt, is interested only in establishing that his death wasn't a suicide so that she can collect the insurance money. Uncle Charles' former law partner seems oddly hostile, the hotel has been sending room service deliveries on her uncle's account to a boat in the harbor, and things seem stranger and stranger the longer she looks at her uncle's death. Jack, of course, also gets more and more compelling the more she sees him--and that's not even mentioning Tatania, who plays an important role in how things work out!

This is apparently the start of Grace, Jack, and Tatania's adventures, and I'm looking forward to the next ones.

Highly recommended.

I received a free electronic galley of this book from the author.… (meer)