Book 57, 2018

Out of Circulation by Miranda James

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Stayed up late last night to finish reading Out of Circulation by Miranda James. It's part of the author's "Cat in the Stacks" mystery series, featuring archivist and librarian Charlie Harris and his Maine Coon cat, Diesel.

When the library board meets to plan a fund-raising gala, a feud breaks out between the elderly, established Ducote sisters and nouveau riche Vera Cassity. The sisters win this round, but Vera isn't going down without a fight. On the night of the gala, Vera is found dead in the Ducote family home. Did she fall down the stairs, or was she pushed? Charlie's beloved housekeeper, Azalea, is found trapped in the stairwell with Vera's body, and the sheriff tabs her as a suspect. Her daughter, Deputy Kanesha Berry, can't investigate, so she asks Charlie to snoop around. Charlie reluctantly becomes involved in the case, but Vera had a plethora of enemies, and there's no shortage of people who aren't sorry she's dead. It's up to Charlie to sort out tangled family histories, current betrayals, and a motive for murder.

Very entertaining. Charlie makes for a good protagonist, and I appreciate the fact that Diesel is a normal cat (albeit a very large one!). Charlie's scruples are sorely tested, and it was interesting to watch him grapple with his own conscience on several occasions.

Favorite line: He looked at me with that "who, me?" expression that cats have perfected over the millennia since they first decided to domesticate themselves.

Intriguing plot, good characterizations, and a surprisingly tame resolution. I appreciated that, too. So many murder mysteries seem to require the main character to be placed in mortal peril at the climax, and it gets a tad tedious, in my opinion.

Four stars:

****