Book 13, 2020

[chez_jae]

The Cats Came Back by Sofie Kelly

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Earlier this evening, I finished reading The Cats Came Back by Sofie Kelly. It's her 10th entry in the "Magical Cats" mystery series, with main character Kathleen Paulson, and her cats Owen and Hercules.

Kathleen and everyone else in Mayville Heights is excited for the annual music festival. Things go sour, however, when Hercules discovers a body down by the river. The victim was a close friend of popular singer Emme Finley, and the two young women looked enough alike that they could pass as sisters. Kathleen can't help but wonder if Emme was the target, and someone mistook Miranda for her. Nevertheless, she is determined to stay out of it and let the police, including her boyfriend, Marcus, do their jobs. What Kathleen hadn't counted on was so many friends coming to her and asking her to investigate in her own, unique way. Kathleen reluctantly agrees to do so.

In addition to her unscheduled sleuthing, Kathleen is trying to help her friend, Roma, prepare for her upcoming wedding, she's transporting her cats here and there for another friend, Ruby, to photograph them, and she still has her job at the library to tend to. Fortunately for her, both Owen and Hercules lend their own, peculiar talents to the investigation, and between the three of them, they may end up solving this murder after all.

I was pleased that I was able to suss out the murderer fairly early in the book, but I still enjoyed the process of seeing Kathleen work it out. As I've mentioned with this series previously, I appreciate that Kathleen is still doing "normal" things, and that the entirety of the book isn't devoted to her investigation. The only thing that annoyed me was the fact that, once again, Kathleen ended up in mortal peril. You know, it's exciting when it happens to the main character now and then, BUT EVERY SINGLE TIME?! Eventually, it becomes tedious.

Favorite lines:
♦ Once again, here I was, explaining myself to a cat.
♦ "Sometimes love takes the long way home."
♦ "What part of 'don't do that' are you having trouble with?"
If I had a dollar for every time I've said something similar to my cats...
♦ "It will give you pickle breath."

This was headed towards an automatic five stars, but I'm knocking one off for that lather, rinse, repeat ending.