Review by Booklist Review
Winter in Moose County, 400 miles north of everywhere, begins with a disagreement between the local weatherman, who predicts a normal arctic winter, and the fuzzy caterpillar, whose behavior forecasts abnormally mild conditions. (The latter wins when grandiose plans for an Ice Festival are flooded out by an unprecedented mid-February thaw.) The residents of Pickax are even more concerned, however, with a series of petty larcenies and the Pleasant Street historic houses restoration project. It's up to the town's leading citizen--semiretired journalist/philanthropist Jim Qwilleran, assisted by his Siamese sleuths Koko and Yum Yum, to discover the connection between these events and two murders committed Down Below. While curious about the identities of the thief and the murderer, readers will be equally interested in Qwill's sartorial and gustatory adventures (wearing full Highland regalia as best man at a Scottish wedding and sharing librarian Polly Duncan's 17 low-cal recipes for flattened chicken breast), his inquiry into the naming of cats, and his compilation of a collection of Short and Tall Tales of early days, several of which are "transcribed verbatim." There are a few new characters in this nineteenth Braun cat mystery, including a pet housefly called Mosca, but most will be well known to the author's deservedly large following. As always, literate and entertaining. --Barbara Duree
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Nothing is sacred in this latest installment of the trials and tribulations of life in Moose County, "400 miles north of everywhere," as locals face a green Christmas, an outbreak of petty larceny and a tacky new resident. As the holidays approach, someone has taken to stealing small articles of apparently little valuegloves, sunglasses, a bag of old clothes, an antique doll. But these seem minor distractions from larger matters, like the new banker, Willard Carmichael, and his wife, Danielle, a flashy young woman with big hair who teeters on spiked heels as she flirts with an uncooperative newspaper columnist, Qwilleran, seen last in The Cat Who Said Cheese (1996). Willard fits right in, devoting himself to restoring Pleasant Street's Victorian homes with the help of Danielle's cousin, Carter Lee James, a preservation consultant. Just after Christmas, Willard is killed in a mugging in Detroit; then a local boy is arrested for the petty thefts and an old friend becomes engaged to James, all events that raise Qwill's suspicions and inspire strange behavior in his sleuthing cats, Koko and Yum Yum. Cranky and sometimes acerbic, Qwill fights off the sentimentality of the season while investigating the world of historically correct renovations. By springtime, with the help of Koko in particular, he brings a murderer and thief to justice in an accomplished mystery that is as smooth as the season's first snowfall. Mystery Guild and Readers Digest Condensed Book selection; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club alternate. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Braun's ubiquitous feline detectives investigate thievery in this, the 19th installment in a best-selling series. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Yet another chapter in the saccharine saga of Pickax, a far northern town where bad things keep happening to good people (The Cat Who Said Cheese, 1996, etc.). The town's moving spirit is zillionaire Jim Qwilleran, who, accompanied by prescient cats Koko and Yum-Yum, has just moved for the winter months into a condo in Indian Village. Jim's column in the Moose County Something puts him in the center of Pickax's social scene, currently abuzz over Danielle, bride of new banker Willard Carmichael. Danielle's shrill persona and vulgar style mark her as a town misfit. That doesn't apply to her visiting cousin Carter Lee, a low-key, personable architect much interested in Pleasant Street's row of old mansions, which he wants to restore and have placed in the Historic Register. There's also gossip about a recent series of large thefts. All this gives way to shock when banker Carmichael, on a business trip to Detroit, is mugged and fatally shot. Danielle is soon back in circulation and Carter Lee continues to press his preservation scheme, at the same time courting Lynette, the 40ish, never married sister-in-law of Jim Qwilleran's best friend, Polly Duncan. Jim, in full Scots dress, is best man at the wedding. News from New Orleans of Lynette's death (of gastrointestinal complications) starts signals flying from Koko and Yum-Yum, prompting Jim to get to the bottom of it all. Dolls, dirks, dowsers, and kilts, along with folklore and cat lore--all clutter the story, and the murder puzzle, minus suspense or surprise, barely emerges from the flow. Die-hard cat and cozy fans may cheer. For others, a benign waste of time. (Literary Guild alternate; Mystery Guild main selection)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
