cozy mystery

Book Review: The Cat Who Saw Stars

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The Cat Who Saw Stars
Book #21
by Lilian Jackson Braun

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Cozy mystery

Former crime reporter Jim Qwilleran attempts to spend a two-week vacation in his cabin on the lake, but it turns out to be less restful than staying home would have been. Besides still writing his column and doing favors for friends, he becomes entangled in a couple of mysteries that locals attribute to extraterrestrial “visitors,” though he’s certain there’s an answer closer to home.

Not one of my favorites in the series (though not my least favorite either). The solution to the main mystery came more out of nowhere than it normally does in these books, so it was anti-climactic. Braun seemed to forgo much of the investigating this time, in favor of yet another weather-related local disaster. Add to that the frustration that a death in the book had no resolution of any kind, not even speculation or a mention of the fact that it would have to remain a mystery. It was just dropped. I do like that Qwilleran was able to compare his tendency to half-believe that Koko’s antics helping him solve mysteries could be compared to the locals who firmly believe in UFOs, though he always leaves room for the possibility that everything Koko does is just a coincidence. I’m still enjoying my trip through this series of fairly quick reads and hope the next will be better.

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Book Review: The Cat Who Sang for the Birds

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The Cat Who Sang for the Birds
Book #20
by Lilian Jackson Braun

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: Cozy mystery

Former crime reporter Jim Qwilleran is certain something fishy is going on when an elderly woman’s home is vandalized and then burned down. With an early spring in the offing, birds and butterflies provide some distraction for both man and cat, but that won’t keep him off the trail of a killer.

While Qwilleran spends a lot of his time suspecting a certain person/company of dirty dealings, I had a different culprit in mind, and even fingered a henchman for that culprit, for reasons that I thought were rather obvious. But where in the previous book, I thought that the predictability of the stories in this series were beginning to make it less enjoyable for me, I didn’t mind figuring a lot of the mystery out early this time. I think that’s because the story itself—the plot and even the characters—was all more engaging and enjoyable this time. Plus, Qwilleran’s reason for suspecting who he did makes perfect sense in the context of the rest of the series, and I actually enjoyed the way he ranted ineffectually against the perceived villain. Overall, I felt that it was one of the better books in the series.

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Book Review: The Cat Who Tailed a Thief

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The Cat Who Tailed a Thief
Book #19
by Lilian Jackson Braun

My rating: 3.5 / 5
Genre: Cozy mystery

A rash of petty and not-so-petty thefts makes the town of Pickax uneasy, but it gets worse when a local banker is murdered during a mugging on a trip Down Below. Former crime reporter Jim Qwilleran is determined to solve the thefts, but he might be looking in the wrong place.

It’s actually kind of nice to see Qwilleran go down the wrong trail for a while in this book, showing that he may have good instincts, but he can still be wrong. I think, though, that this story was overall a bit too predictable for me. I don’t know if that’s because I’ve read so many of these now that it’s become super obvious that the newcomers are usually involved in the crimes somehow or if the author simply telegraphed it more than usual. On the plus side, the death of a local, instead of more often outsiders and recent transplants from Down Below being the victims, did add a little freshness to the series, even though that local hadn’t been a huge character in the books before this one. By this point in the series, though, Braun has started to use weather calamities for excitement and even to complicate the culmination of the mystery. I hope that’s not a sign that the series is going to start to become stale, but I guess we’ll see. I am now about 2/3 through this long series, so I do hope that I won’t tire out before reaching the end, after coming this far.

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Book Review: The Cat Who Said Cheese

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The Cat Who Said Cheese
Book #18
by Lilian Jackson Braun

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: Cozy mystery

As Pickax gears up for the Great Food Explo, a murder rocks the town 400 miles north of everywhere, where they believe crime only happens Down Below, even though they’ve had their fair share of murders…especially since former crime reporter Jim Qwilleran came to live there. Fortunately, he also plays a large role in solving those murders.

The more engaging books in this series tend to be the ones with a more eventful backdrop to the mystery, and I found the Explo to be one of the more enjoyable backdrops. The opening of some new restaurants in a county and with a main character that really like their food, as well as the other food-related events surrounding that, were all enough to keep me interested throughout. The focus on cheese was particularly compelling for me, as I love cheese, especially uncommon cheese varieties that I don’t get often. Sometimes it seems that Qwilleran less solves the mysteries and more stumbles into the answer, but then you realize that it’s the subtle work Qwilleran has been doing throughout the story that brings the answer to him in a way that seems out of his hands. I do think I prefer that to the more modern cozy mysteries I’ve read where the amateur sleuth blunders their way through a much more obvious investigation.

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Book Review: The Cat Who Blew the Whistle

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The Cat Who Blew the Whistle
Book #17
by Lilian Jackson Braun

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Cozy mystery

A nostalgic train ride turns into a case of fraud as the train’s owner disappears with millions of dollars deposited in his credit union. Using clues dug up by his Siamese cats, former crime reporter Jim Qwilleran will have to weed out the important facts from the distractions.

This book brought back what I like about the series, set back in Moose County and involving a lot of the old favorite side characters, as well as a few new ones. Like in at least one previous book, a play being prepared at the nearby theater becomes somewhat intertwined with the book’s plot. It’s enough to make me wish I’d read more Shakespeare in school (but not enough to make me want to read it now). There’s some excitement here and there, and while it’s not the most interesting story overall, I really didn’t find myself bored while reading it. The pseudo-supernatural elements that usually involve Koko’s abilities to unearth clues, predict tragedy, or even know the exact moment of a death, are turned up a notch in this book, maybe causing higher suspension of disbelieve than some would prefer. In the end, though, it’s a solid entry to the series.

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Book Review: The Cat Who Came to Breakfast

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The Cat Who Came to Breakfast
Book #16
by Lilian Jackson Braun

My rating: 2.5 / 5
Genre: Cozy mystery

Former crime reporter Jim Qwilleran reluctantly decides to spend some time on local Breakfast/Pear/Grand/Providence Island (and I may have forgotten another name), which has recently started being developed away from its natural state. But some suspicious accidents set Qwilleran’s moustache to tingling, so he and the cats investigate.

This was my least favorite book in the series so far. That has a lot to do with the fact that it feels almost like a repeat of The Cat Who Moved a Mountain, with the primitive locals vs. the tourists, developers, and wealthy people, except on an island. On top of that, Qwilleran often starts out in a story with reluctance and grumbling, but he usually ends up finding something to appreciate, if not enjoy. Not so in this book, where he is basically unhappy the entire time on the island.

One thing I did enjoy about the book was that island strongly reminded me of Mackinac Island in Michigan, with the no-cars rule, the bicycles to compensate, and the smell of fudge everywhere. I don’t know if that was on purpose, or if Braun had some other touristy island in mind (or none at all, though I’d doubt that), but I have very fond memories of vacations spent there, so it provided a little nostalgia. Unfortunately, the mystery wasn’t particularly intriguing or surprising. I finished the book just under a month ago, and I no longer remember for sure who the “bad guy” was. Not really what you want from a mystery book. Hopefully this doesn’t signal Braun starting to run out of ideas, but I’ll continue on with the hopes of a better book to follow it up.

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Book Review: The Cat Who Went into the Closet

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The Cat Who Went into the Closet
Book #15
by Lilian Jackson Braun

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: Cozy mystery

Former crime reporter Jim Qwilleran plans to spend the winter in the northern climate of Pickaxe City in an old mansion, rather than in his converted apple barn, where snow drifts make it difficult to come and go. He must battle the elements as he stages a one-man show throughout the area, while the mansion’s former owner’s purported suicide and a seemingly unrelated disappearance provide a mysterious diversion.

Braun had a thing for starting her books with some kind of shocking scene. While some of them don’t work so well (like trying to make us think that Qwilleran—the main character of the series, mind you—was killed in a car accident), this one really got me. And it sets the tone for the rest of the book, which contained quite a bit of action compared to the rest of the series. Those action scenes are a good balance against the scenes in the old, dark mansion, where Koko’s antics-of-the-moment provide Qwilleran with a plethora of clues. All of the elements in this story, from the main mystery to the side plots, came together to be one of the better installments in the series for me.

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Book Review: The Cat Who Wasn’t There

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The Cat Who Wasn’t There
Book #14
by Lilian Jackson Braun

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: Cozy mystery

When a group trip to Scotland ends in tragedy, former crime reporter Jim Qwilleran begins to suspect that the death may not have been natural. Can he piece together the clues, including those from his perceptive Siamese, to solve the mystery?

Koko’s back to licking photographs, but while he does his best to communicate the clues to his food-provider (or is just coincidence?), Qwilleran is busy dodging an old girlfriend who wants to be a new wife. Qwilleran has definitely changed over the course of this series, in ways that even he is still discovering. It keeps the series from getting stale, as do the location changes now and then. While I have grumbled in the past about books that take us away from Pickax, this book still spends plenty of time there, while the death happens far away.

I’m not a Shakespeare aficionado in any way and have never read Macbeth, but it makes a great backdrop to the story. The author does a pretty good job of giving a reader without knowledge of the play, which the local theater club is staging, enough information to appreciate the connections made. I don’t know if a reader more knowledgeable about Macbeth would enjoy it more or less than I did. Though I had suspicions about who was involved in the crime, I didn’t put together the hows and whys before I was told. But to be fair, Braun wrote these books before “cozy mystery” became a formula. In the end, I enjoyed the book a little more than I did the previous.

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Book Review: The Cat Who Moved a Mountain

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The Cat Who Moved a Mountain
Book #13
by Lilian Jackson Braun

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Cozy mystery

When his 5-year requirement to live in the small, northern town of Pickax ends, former crime reporter Jim Qwilleran has a big decision in front of him. To help him make it, he decides to get away to a mountain retreat. But his plans for a quiet getaway are quickly spoiled when he gets caught up in local prejudices and politics and a murder investigation that might have convicted the wrong man.

I guess it makes sense to move the action away from the same small town/northern county now and then, so it doesn’t become a place full of murders, but sadly, the change of locale often means I won’t like the book as much. Still, this one wasn’t too bad. I liked the way Qwilleran sees both sides of an ongoing battle, meeting and talking talking to people with both points of view. The mystery was decent, though not quite as interesting as others in this series have been. Koko’s antics that inspired the title aren’t exactly new, though I did appreciate the play on words.

I recently read a mystery novel with a main character who had been a gangster in the past but was forced to change due to circumstances beyond his control. In that book, the MC’s new life involved things he never would have done or cared about in the past, but it felt really forced to me. That made me notice all the more the way Qwilleran’s changes in lifestyle and personality throughout the series have been a lot smoother and more subtle. He’s certainly still himself, but also quite different from the man that used to live in the big city and write about urban crime. Overall, this was a good addition to the series.

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Book Review: Cozy Up to Christmas

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Cozy Up to Christmas
Cozy Up #5
by Colin Conway

My rating: 2.5 / 5
Genre: Cozy mystery, Christmas

Ed Belmont just wants to make it through the Christmas season doing his job as mall Santa. But someone else is committing crimes around town wearing a Santa suit, and the cops are looking at Ed. Since he’s an ex-con in witness protection, the attention could be a problem.

I haven’t read any of the preceding books in the series, but events from them were brought up in this book a few times. Belmont (not really his name) was the bookkeeper in a gang and reluctantly became a witness against them, and now he’s force to move from place to place, job to job, to keep ahead of the danger. While it seems that previous identities were compromised and required relocation, this one had an expiration date—Christmas. Yet he does end up under suspicion for ongoing criminal activity, which also seems to be a theme in the series.

From start to finish, this is a fairly straightforward story with a protagonist who could be interesting, but feels like a caricature. He learned to enjoy reading, specifically mystery novels, in the first book in the series, and while I have nothing against a hardened gang member becoming a reader, it somehow felt forced to me. I could see what the author was trying to do in showing changes in this man who had been forced into situations and lifestyles he never would have chosen for himself, but for me, at least, it didn’t work very well.

I also think the overall story could have done with another round or two of edits. Maybe some dialog read out loud, some actions acted out. Characters were all the time touching each others arms and sleeves while talking, which I’m not sure is natural. And a lot of people in the story tended to act out what they were saying with their hands, again not necessarily common. While both of these things could have been a trait assigned to one character, having them be so widespread was odd. It also seems really important to the author that I know what everyone is wearing. It’s generally the first thing we’re told whenever anyone new is in a scene. There’s a woman who comes onto Ed so strongly it made me uncomfortable, and imagine if the roles were reversed and it was a man trying to convince a woman to let him touch her (sit on her lap, because, well, she is Santa, after all). It would be considered creepy, and he’d be labeled a perv, not just a humorous device to make the MC all the more annoyed at his lot in life.

The mystery wasn’t bad, but wasn’t super interesting or difficult to solve. There was a small twist regarding the various crimes that had been committed, and it did give Ed a chance to grow more in the story. I think with some refining, this could be a good book and a series I’d be interested in. It is a mostly clean book, with almost no profanity and nothing else that would bother me, minus the aforementioned woman trying to force herself onto Santa. While I don’t plan to read any other stories about Beauregard Smith (Ed’s real name), plenty of others have enjoyed it more than I did. If you’re interested, be sure to check out other reviews at the link below.

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