Book 71, 2023

Purrfect Rivalry by Nic Saint

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



I completed the ebook Purrfect Rivalry last night. It's the 6th in the "Mysteries of Max" series by Nic Saint.

Odelia is as excited as anyone else when pop star Charlie Dieber makes a personal appearance in Hampton Cove. The excitement takes a turn for the worse when someone shoots at the Dieber and takes out one of his bodyguards. Odelia jumps at the chance to help investigate with detective Chase Kingsley. Her opinion of Charlie takes a hit when she realizes what a crap weasel he is in real life. While no longer one of the "Bediebers", Odelia still has a job to do and she recruits her cats to assist. Not all is well in the cats' lives, either. Their one-time rival, Diego, is back, and he is intent on ousting Max from Odelia's life and taking over in her home and her affections. Max has a difficult time sleuthing when he'd rather sulk instead, but when someone else is murdered, he vows to prove his worth to Odelia by solving the crime.

I'm waffling on this one. I don't know whether to jeer or cheer at the author's not-so-subtle satire of Justin Bieber and his fans. It was funny, but geez, dude, what beef do you have with the Biebs? Once again, the author created a hateful cat in Diego. I would have liked to see Odelia step up and defend her cats instead of assuming they'd all learn to get along. At least we got to see Diego get a serious smackdown from Clarice again. I was also baffled that big, tough Brutus seemed so cowed by the smaller Diego simply because he was a big talker. Brutus could have (and should have, in my opinion) whupped his ass and sent him packing. Finally, Odelia's grandmother's daftness was so over the top as to be far more annoying than amusing.

Favorite lines:
♦ "No one says no to a lifetime supply of Cat Snax."
♦ "You look like you crawled out from under a steamroller."
♦ "Too much butter. Clogging up Tex's arteries is not what I promised him when we exchanged wedding vows. Who wrote this? A serial killer?"

I can't bring myself to award this any more than two stars.