The Cat Who Smelled a Rat
Book #24
by Lilian Jackson Braun

My rating: 3.5 / 5
Genre: Cozy mystery

Former crime reporter Jim Qwilleran travels to a nearby town to investigate a “dark cloud” over a newly re-opened inn, using the guise of a vacation. As his vacations often go, a dead body leads to more intrigue than he anticipated.

I kinda feel like the author is putting more page time into Qwilleran getting content for his collection of short stories or his twice-weekly newspaper column than into the episodic mysteries. The mystery in this book takes leaps forward that don’t allow for much intrigue or suspense. Still, I do generally enjoy the happenings in Moose County, as well as the characters. What I did not enjoy in this book, though, was the side plot where Polly is on vacation with her sister and sends postcards back to Qwilleran hinting at a guy she met and is spending a lot of time with. Qwilleran and Polly’s long-term relationship has started to wear on me, since they tend to go back and forth being jealous of each other, and in between, are just super happy to be in this not-fully committed relationship. 

Twenty-four books into the series, there is not much that hasn’t been done. And to be fair, when a book takes us away from Moose County and its citizens, I usually like it even less. But because of how many of these I’ve read, it’s also often easy to guess who’s going to be involved in the murder, whether victim or killer. Though in this case, I did have one guy pegged as being on the side of the bad guys, and instead he ended up being a victim, so I can’t say there isn’t still some unpredictability now and then. In the end, though, this installment in the series was okay, but not a stand-out.

Find out more about The Cat Who Smelled a Rat

See what I’m reading next.

If you’ve read this book, or read it in the future, feel free to let me know what you think!