Book 97, 2022

[chez_jae]

The Crime That Binds by Laurie Cass

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Last night, I finished the book The Crime That Binds by Laurie Cass. It's the 10th installment in the "Bookmobile Cat" mystery series, starring librarian Minnie Hamilton and her rescue cat, Eddie.

Minnie learns that one of her young bookmobile patrons, Ryan, has been accused of a bank robbery and murder downstate. She can't believe the soft-spoken young man would have committed such a crime, and Minnie sets out to prove it. When another murder is committed locally, everyone is sure that Ryan is to blame. It seems that Minnie and Eddie are the only ones who have faith in him. It will be up to them to find out who the real killer is and clear Ryan's name.

This particular book was more of a slog than others in the series. For one thing, I was taken aback that Minnie took it upon herself to investigate. Ryan is simply someone she meets in passing on an irregular basis. I do enjoy cozy mysteries, but I'd like our intrepid amateur sleuths to have a good reason to investigate. There were some subplots going on as well. Ordinarily, I appreciate it when a story doesn't focus solely on the investigation, but in this case, it grew tedious. Minnie's BFF, Kristen, was about ten months pregnant and ready to pop at any moment, and Minnie's ex, Ash, has broken up with his girlfriend, Chelsea, in spite of the fact that they're clearly perfect for one another and both are clearly miserable. Yes, Minnie had to meddle there, too. Another thing that bothered me is that, once again, the position of library director was up in the air/in jeopardy. Good grief, it seems that each book in the series has had a subplot involving either the viability of the bookmobile or the tenure of the director of the library. Enough!

Favorite lines:
♦ "A cat's purr can compensate for much."
♦ They also tended to think in straight lines, always assuming the noise of hooves was horses, and not accepting the possibility of zebras until the black-and-white-striped hides zoomed past them.
♦ "I'm lending you something. You can't keep it, because long term I might crumple up into a sad and whining ball."
♦ Sewing was so far outside my wheelhouse it would be on another boat altogether.
♦ Even my cat thought the idea was dumb.

A good read, but not up to par with others in the series. Giving this one an average score.