Book 125, 2023

Purrfect Secret by Nic Saint

My rating: 1 of 5 stars



I finished Purrfect Secret last night. It's the 8th in the "Mysteries of Max" series, starring feline sleuth Max and his human, Odelia.

Odelia and Max are on the case again when Dick Dickerson, editor of the notorious National Star is murdered, drowned in duck poop. While Odelia and Detective Chase Kingsley pursue leads, Max is bogged down dealing with cat drama. Milo, the cat that Odelia is watching for a neighbor, has been spreading lies and gossip and turning the cats against one another. Odelia's investigation also gets pushed aside when Otto Paunch, good friend of the President, continues to call her and insist she print glowing stories about the President. Without any cohesive cooperation, this may be the crime that proves too much for Max and Odelia to handle.

Good. Grief. This story was awful. The author has used (and re-used) the plot device of a cat being a jerk and driving a wedge between Max and his friends, and I'm frankly weary of it. First Brutus, then Diego, now Milo. Give all of us a break, please. The story was devoted more to the cat drama than the investigation. In addition, Odelia's grandmother, Vesta, was even more of a twat than usual in this one. When done correctly, a feisty senior citizen provides comic relief. Done incorrectly, however, said senior citizen is simply annoying. Vesta acts like an unsavory cross between a bratty toddler and a melodramatic tween mean girl. I don't find her funny at all. Finally, we had the gem of Odelia leaving her phone at home and later getting another call from Paunch. If a casual reader caught that, why didn't a competent editor catch it?

Favorite lines:
♦ "I'll have you thrown out of here so fast not even those implants of yours will be able to break your fall when you hit the pavement."
♦ Where humans fear to tread, cats have absolutely no compunction to trespass with absolute impunity.
♦ "Cats don't apparate, Dooley," I said. // "Professor McGonagall does, and she's at least half cat."

This was, by far, my least favorite in this series. The story was a mess, and I found reading it to be far more aggravating than entertaining. One star.