Mystery/Thriller Book Reviews
Page Three of SevenThe Cat Who Tailed a Thief by Lilian Jackson Braun
Jove, March 1998.Paperback, 263 pages.
ISBN: 0515122408.
Ordering information:
Amazon.com.
In this 19th outing in The Cat Who series a
series of small thefts has the Pickax residents
up in arms and more than one person has noticed
that the thefts occurred after banker Willard Carmichael,
his trashy wife Danielle and her smooth talking
cousin moved to town. To make
matters worse, the area is suffering from an unseasonable
warm spell which is threatening to ruin the Winter Ice Festival.
When Willard is murdered in an apparent mugging Down
Below and Danielle's cousin wants to move forward quickly
with his plans for the restoration of the Pleasant Hill residential
district (which will net him a tidy income) local millionaire and
retired journalist Jim Quilleran is suspicious -- especially when
the cousin quickly marries an heiress who conveniently dies
in a freak accident on their honeymoon. With the help of his two
Siamese cats, Koko and Yum Yum, Quilleran decides to investigate.
Along the way he gets talked into wearing full Highland
dress while serving as best man at a wedding, writing
a column for the Moose County Something about the naming
of cats, and examining a local collector's formidable doll
collection.
As always, the quirky characters which people Pickax combined with the antics of Koko and Yum Yum provide a diverting and amusing tale. Braun fans will settle back for another enjoyable romp in Moose County, the county that is "400 miles north of everywhere."
The Cold Hard Fax by Leslie O'Kane
Fawcett Gold Medal, May 1998.Paperback, 278 pages.
ISBN: 044900158X.
Ordering information:
Amazon.com.
Cartoonist and happily married mother of two Molly Masters
loves her new house in Carlton, New York. However,
the former owner of the house Helen Raleigh is somewhat
less than lovable and insists on telling Molly at great length
what needs to be done in the yard and garden of her former
abode. One day while Molly is on the telephone she hears a
gunshot and sees the detestable Helen fall dead right in front
of her window. Apparently Helen had been digging up something
in Molly's yard. As the investigation into Helen's death
progresses, a rather shocking secret about Helen comes to light -- apparently she
wasn't quite who or what she claimed to be. When yet another
neighbor turns up dead, Molly decides to take matters into her own
hands and track down the murderer, encountering hostility
from her neighbors, threatening faxes and some disturbing
information about her supposedly serene neighborhood.
Leslie O'Kane has penned a winner with her latest Molly Masters mystery. Molly is a likeable heroine whose internal thought processes and running commentary on her neighbors are vastly entertaining. With skillfully drawn family relationships and an enjoyable plot, The Cold Hard Fax is a wonderful diversion.
Mystery Reviews
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Return to the May 1998 issue of The IWJ.
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