Book 65, 2019

[chez_jae]

Booking the Crook by Laurie Cass

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Stayed up past my bedtime last night to finish reading Booking the Crook, which is the 7th book in Laurie Cass' "Bookmobile Cat" mystery series, featuring librarian Minnie Hamilton and her intrepid cat, Eddie.

While making the rounds with the bookmobile, Minnie checks in on a regular customer who didn't show up at her normal stop. She finds the woman dead in her driveway. At first, the death is ruled an accident, but testing shows that Rowan died of poisoning. This time, Minnie is determined to let the police do the investigating, but Rowan's college-aged twins beg her to help. She reluctantly gets involved, but as she begins putting pieces together, Minnie becomes more engrossed and invested in the mystery.

In the meantime, she's helping both her Aunt Frances and her BFF Kristen plan their weddings, and her boyfriend, Rafe, is bugging her to help him choose hardware for the kitchen remodeling project. Then there's her friend, Mitchell, who wants some love advice of his own. Not helping matters is that the library has a new director and a new board chairman. Both Graydon and Trent have been asking some odd questions about the bookmobile and the staff, and Minnie begins to fear they mean to cut staff or else axe her beloved bookmobile.

Minnie is being pulled in several different directions, but as she closes in on a killer, it's her own life that may be in danger.

I enjoyed the story, but
My lord, how many times can this woman end up in mortal peril and not die?! I know the author wants the ending of the book to be exciting, but after a time, having your main character almost get killed (again and again!) just gets old and boring. I also grew bored with the 'oh my god, is the bookmobile going to be cut?' subplot. Ms Cass, you have been there, done that in this series. Enough, already. However, I think things were resolved in that respect by the end of this one. Sheesh.

Favorite lines:
♦ "But I'm one of those freaks who actually likes winter."
♦ "These days I typically wake up with cat hair on my lips."

I truly enjoyed the story. I mean, books and cats? What's not to love? However, the twin points of aggravation compel me to knock one star off the rating. Points are awarded for originality, not 'lather, rinse, repeat'.