Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
British author Morton's exceedingly whimsical debut and series launch introduces Hettie Bagshot, a mac-wearing tabby cat who's the founder of the No. 2 Feline Detective Agency, and Hettie's able assistant, Tilly Jenkins. Hettie's unnamed community is populated solely by cats with careers as musicians, bakers, and plumbers; they own shops and put on fashion shows. Facing eviction and desperate for a case, Hettie agrees to help her friend Marcia Woolcoat, matron of the Furcross Home for Slightly Older Cats, discover who has snatched the bodies of three recently deceased residents from their graves. Hettie does her best but, constantly distracted by the prospect of lunch and a catnip pipe, she's not the most dedicated detective. When the furless bodies turn up in a rubbish bin and the nurse at the retirement home commits suicide, Hettie finds that solving mysteries isn't as easy as she hoped. Rather like actual cats, the story meanders all over the place. But for lovers of cat cozies, the world that Morton has created will be irresistible. Agent: David Marshall, Marshall Rights. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Enter a new breed of crime fighter: the four-legged variety, in this case, felines on the front lines of British crime fighting. Hettie Bagshot, founder and lead detective of the No. 2 Feline Detective Agency, ponders if chasing criminals is really for her, until she gets her first case. Furcross, a home for older cats, has been the victim of cat snatching, of the corpse variety. Hettie and her trusted right paw Tilly set out to Furcross to unveil the nefarious goings-on. Their first suspect is the taciturn Nurse Mogadon, who seems intent on involving the residents in a dangerous game. Hettie and Tilly make a point to investigate the hat department at Malkin & Sprinkle after a tipster informs them that deceased Furcross residents ended up there. As the kitty duo navigate the dastardly deeds at Furcross, Hettie considers just how many of her nine lives she'll have to use on this case. VERDICT For fans of the British cozy, this series launch could be a welcome detour, as long as one suspends disbelief long enough to allow for feline crime solvers and the like. © Copyright 2017. 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
Tired of watching Lilian Jackson Braun's Koko and Yum Yum get upstaged by that do-nothing Jim Qwilleran? Wish the sleuthing pets in Rita Mae Brown's tales had even more prominent roles? Morton's debut, featuring an all-feline cast running amok in something like modern England, is the answer to your prayers.Marcia Woolcoat, the matron of the Furcross home for slightly older cats, offers her residents an unusually comfortable end-of-life option: pillar-to-post group euthanasia, complete with last rites from beautician Oralia Claw and interment in coffins the clients have selected and hunkered down in. She's so shocked when the bodies of her three latest (pun intended) clients, Vita, Virginia, and Pansy Merlot, are stolen from their newly dug graves that she instantly engages Hettie Bagshot, a former musician who's just opened the No. 2 Feline Detective Agency, even though Hettie's never worked a case. Once the three corpses, shorn of their fur, turn up, the detection mostly takes Hettie and Tilly Jenkins, her arthritic assistant, on a round robin interviewing the likes of Furcross resident nurse Alma Mogadon, romance novelist/gardener Digger Patch, haberdashery salesclerk Lotus Ping, and fashionista Cocoa Repel as the ailurocentric world goes on around them listening to Tabby Wynette, watching Cat on a Hot Tinned Roof, reading Alexander McPaw Spit, and waiting for the premiere of Desperate Housecats. The mystery is gossamer-thin, the detective work modest, the characterization ditto, and the punswell, you already know how you feel about them. But everyone who suspects that cats have always run the world will be at least a bit curious about how that works out in an alternate reality. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
