|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
As anyone who has ever been in charge of something knows, volunteers are difficult to find and keep, particularly good volunteers. Librarian Minnie Hamilton needs more volunteers for her Bookmobile. Along with all the other qualities she needs (reliable, fairly well-read, good with children, etc.) she definitely requires someone who is discreet. Not just because what people read is nobody else's business, although that's certainly a factor, but because the Bookmobile cat Eddie is (as far as Minnie knows, anyway) an addition of which her boss is unaware. Minnie is pretty sure Stephen doesn't know about Eddie, but "pretty sure" isn't sure enough. Her friends at the library decide to find out what, if anything, Stephen knows about Eddie.
On one trip, the volunteer sends in a ringer. Denise Slade, a very take-charge (and take no prisoners) type of woman, doesn't show up and sends her husband Roger to take her place. Minnie, a trifle non-plussed, goes with the flow and it works out quite well. That is, until, as they say in more noir-ish novels, a shot rings out and Roger is killed. The general consensus, at least at first, is that it was a stray hunter doing something stupid. This proves ultimately to be incorrect. Then the questions become more difficult. First of all - was Roger the intended victim? Or did someone mistake him for Denise? Either way, who killed Roger Slade?
This is the third in the Bookmobile Cat series. Laurie Cass is doing a fine job with Minnie and her cohorts. Eddie is cute without being cutesy, truly a cat meant for his job. Minnie is quite inquisitive, which is a good character quirk for a librarian. She lives a real life, with friends and acquaintances, minor life issues as well as larger ones. Her good friends are friends most people wouldn't mind knowing, or having as friends for themselves. Cass writes about the joys and downsides of living in northern Michigan with the authenticity of someone who's been there and done that. Her plotting is quite good; her red herrings should keep readers second-guessing their choice(s) for the killer until the very end. All in all, quite a satisfactory cozy mystery.
§ P.J. Coldren lives in northern lower Michigan where she reads and reviews widely across the mystery genre when she isn't working in her local hospital pharmacy.
Reviewed by P.J. Coldren, July 2015
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
|
