Another good entry in the series ( )

Charlie's daughter Laura is playing the female lead in a new play put on by the campus dept. of theatre studies. When the obnoxious male lead is poisoned on stage Charlie has to get involved in the investigation. Supposing it had been Laura who drank the fatal glass of tea?

Another quick, enjoyable read, this time with added imposters. Will the real Finn Zwake please stand up? ( )

My sweet daughter bought me this book as a gift when she was visiting Sanibel Island, Florida, back in the summer, so I like this book for that reason. But there's not much other reason to like it. It's a very ho-hum mystery, even for a cozy mystery, which is not my usual cup of tea. It is supposed to be a "Cat in the Stacks" mystery, which led me to believe that the cat would have some part of the crime solving, but he did not. He was not even there during the most important events in the book. The plot, which involved a play being given by the local college and the murder of a cast member, was nothing new, and the solution was no big surprise, either. There was no drama to the story. I do not recommend this series. ( )

Another nice cozy mystery. Usual suspects, no surprises. Really like the people, though. ( )

After putting himself in real danger the last time he investigated a murder, Charlie Harris has sworn to stop getting involved in murder cases. Instead, he plans to sit back and enjoy the play his daughter Laura is starring in and his son-in-law is directing. But when an actor in the play is murdered and Charlies realizes that Laura too could have been a victim he can’t help but get involved. Will he be able to solve this murder without putting himself in danger once again?

“Careless Whiskers” is the wonderfully done twelfth book in Miranda James (pen name of author Dean James) Cat in the Stacks cozy mystery series. I have read and loved all the books in the series but I particularly like the fact that this book takes Charlie out of his library job setting and into a theater setting – I like the library setting but this is a nice change of pace. James takes his time setting up the murder mystery – this allows readers to not only get to know (and dislike) the murder victim but also the suspects. This is a very good mystery with plenty of twists and turns to keep readers guessing – just when I thought I knew who the killer was James threw in a twist that had me starting over in guessing who the killer was. When the killer was revealed, I was surprised. Finally, long-time readers will thoroughly enjoy the very ending of the book.

“Careless Whiskers” is an enjoyable cozy mystery. ( )