A frothy, fun series debut with little reliance on mystery to keep things interesting; insert your own cat pun here.
The death of a questionable dog breeder implicates a pet groomer who’s forced to depend on her telepathic cat for help.
To celebrate the opening of Mimi Lee's LA pet grooming business, Hollywoof, her sister, Alice, gives her a ball of white fluff, a cat Mimi promptly dubs Marshmallow. While her personal and business interests focus mainly on dogs, Mimi can’t help but be charmed by Marshmallow, who objects to his name and his characterization as anything other than sleek and elegant. And Mimi is all too aware of Marshmallow’s reluctance to take on the cuddly pet role because he’s somehow able to telegraph his thoughts into her head. Before Mimi can think too much about whether her conversations with her cat mean that she’s losing her mind, she has to rely on her connection to Marshmallow to solve a crime. After store benefactor Pixie St. James has sent several high-end clients to Hollywoof, Mimi realizes that their expensive Chihuahuas are the victims of health issues traceable to cut-rate breeder Russ Nolan’s shady practices. After confronting Russ, Mimi learns that he’s been killed and that the lead detective on the case is sure Mimi is to blame. As if this weren’t trouble enough, Alice’s new principal is determined to cut her position as a kindergarten teacher, and Mimi and Alice’s Ma, a fiercely opinionated Malaysian woman, calls on Mimi to save Alice’s job. The stress of Russ’ death and Alice’s predicament makes Mimi unable to concentrate on her romantic interest, neighbor Josh Akana, until she realizes that maybe his new job as an attorney can help keep her on the right side of the law. But Mimi’s number one hope is Marshmallow, who can communicate with the pups Russ was raising and possibly figure out the real killer before Mimi is arrested.
A frothy, fun series debut with little reliance on mystery to keep things interesting; insert your own cat pun here.Pub Date: March 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0499-0
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
This ran in the S.E.P. and resulted in more demands for the story in book form than ever recorded. Well, here it is and it is a honey. Imagine ten people, not knowing each other, not knowing why they were invited on a certain island house-party, not knowing their hosts. Then imagine them dead, one by one, until none remained alive, nor any clue to the murderer. Grand suspense, a unique trick, expertly handled.
Pub Date: Feb. 21, 1939
ISBN: 0062073478
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Dodd, Mead
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1939
SEEN & HEARD
One protest from an outraged innocent says it all: “This is America. This is Wyoming.”
Once again, Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett gets mixed up in a killing whose principal suspect is his old friend Nate Romanowski, whose attempts to live off the grid keep breaking down in a series of felony charges.
If Judge Hewitt hadn’t bent over to pick up a spoon that had fallen from his dinner table, the sniper set up nearly a mile from his house in the gated community of the Eagle Mountain Club would have ended his life. As it was, the victim was Sue Hewitt, leaving the judge alive and free to rail and threaten anyone he suspected of the shooting. Incoming Twelve Sleep County Sheriff Brendan Kapelow’s interest in using the case to promote his political ambitions and the judge’s inability to see further than his nose make them the perfect targets for a frame-up of Nate, who just wants to be left alone in the middle of nowhere to train his falcons and help his bride, Liv Brannon, raise their baby, Kestrel. Nor are the sniper, the sheriff, and the judge Nate’s only enemies. Orlando Panfile has been sent to Wyoming by the Sinaloan drug cartel to avenge the deaths of the four assassins whose careers Nate and Joe ended last time out (Wolf Pack, 2019). So it’s up to Joe, with some timely data from his librarian wife, Marybeth, to hire a lawyer for Nate, make sure he doesn’t bust out of jail before his trial, identify the real sniper, who continues to take an active role in the proceedings, and somehow protect him from a killer who regards Nate’s arrest as an unwelcome complication. That’s quite a tall order for someone who can’t shoot straight, who keeps wrecking his state-issued vehicles, and whose appalling mother-in-law, Missy Vankeuren Hand, has returned from her latest European jaunt to suck up all the oxygen in Twelve Sleep County to hustle some illegal drugs for her cancer-stricken sixth husband. But fans of this outstanding series will know better than to place their money against Joe.
One protest from an outraged innocent says it all: “This is America. This is Wyoming.”Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-525-53823-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
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