Book Review: Duplicity Dogged the Dachshund by Blaize Clement

Duplicity Dogged the Dachshund is the second installment in the Dixie Hemingway Mystery series by the late Blaize Clement. In the series, Dixie, a former law enforcement officer is now a pet sitter in Sarasota, Florida. During her pet sitting duties, she finds herself discovering dead bodies and ending up  in the middle of the investigation.

In this book, Dixie is walking a dachshund when the dog finds a body. Dixie is once again in the middle of the case, at times working with Lieutenant Guidry who is handsome (probably not as handsome as me) and a bit mysterious. Dixie, not able to fully escape her law enforcement past, begins asking questions and ends up being chased by a psychopathic killer.

This was a pretty good book, but my one complaint is there were dogs in it but no cats! *sigh* There better be cats in the next book!

Speaking of the next book, I plan on reading the entire series. There is going to be one more Dixie Hemingway Mystery published (the seventh installment) that Ms. Clement wrote before her passing. After that, it is planned that her son will carry on the series. I hope he writes about cats.

Readpawty Review: "The Cat Who Could Read Backwards" by Lilian Jackson Braun

There was only one book to read for the upcoming #readpawty and it was "The Cat Who Could Read Backwards", the first book in the series by Lilian Jackson Braun who recently went to the Rainbow Bridge. First published in 1966, this book started a series of 29 books featuring newspaper reporter Jim Qwilleran and his Siamese cat Koko.

In this first book, Koko the Siamese cat (who is very sophisticated and can read newspaper headlines backwards) does not actually live with Qwilleran, but lives upstairs with his landlord and art critic at the Daily Fluxion, George Bonifield Mountclemens. Qwilleran also works at the Daily Fluxion but he is in the Features Department, writing feel-good pieces on the artists that Mountclemens has offended with his harsh criticisms.

Qwilleran is used to writing more serious articles, at one time working as a police reporter. When a local art gallery is the scene for a brutal murder, Qwilleran's old instincts kick in and he begins to ask questions, trying to figure out who might have committed the crime. When two more deaths occur, Qwilleran develops new theories and is even assisted by Koko, who leads him to clues.
You know what the best part of this book was? The fact that Koko was treated exactly the way all cats should be treated. He is given the finest foods and is highly respected. In return, he helps to solve a crime!

"The Cat Who Could Read Backwards" is a fun mystery that I would recommend to fans of cozy mysteries and to cat lovers. We have another book in this series, but I think I might read them all in order instead of just reading the one we have.

Readpawty Review of Murder Past Due

Murder Past Due by Miranda James is one of the books I read for the upcoming #readpawty on Twitter. It is a cozy mystery written under a pseudonym. The author's real name is Dean James, author of the Simon Kirby-Jones mystery series. For this series, Cat in the Stacks, James took on a female name.

In "Murder Past Due" Charlie Harris is a librarian who takes his cat, a Maine Coon named Diesel, with him everywhere, walking him on a harness and leash. An old classmate, Godfrey Priest, comes back to town to be honored for being a best-selling novelist, but ends up dead-the victim of a brutal murder. Charlie is asked by the lead investigator's mother to poke around for information to help her daughter solve the case. As it turns out, the investigator doesn't really need the help and Charlie (already on her bad side) seems to only irritate her.

The story has several potential killers, all with motives to murder the not-so-nice author. There are a couple of twists, but nothing that is all too surprising. Diesel is ever-present throughout the story, greeting people and hanging out with Charlie.

The most noticeable difference between this cozy and others I have read is that the main character is a man. Typically, the antagonist is a woman in cozies, so this was a change. Also, the main character didn't actually end up solving the crime in this book. It was nice to have things mixed up a bit from other cozies I have read, instead of the same format I have read previously.

If you are a cozy mystery fan, you will probably enjoy the book. I know I did!

A Book About A Cool Cat

I read two books for this month's #readpawty. The first one was "Homer's Odyssey: A Fearless Feline Tale, Or How I Learned About Love and Life with a Blind Wonder Cat" by Gwen Cooper. Ms. Cooper writes about Homer, the kitty she took in as a little bitty kitten who had to have his eyes removed when he was very young.

The title really sums up the book. Ms. Cooper is (for most of the book) a single gal living with three cats. Her kitties, the focus being mainly on Homer, teach her about love and what is important in life. All three cats have very different personalities and they all have lessons to offer about life. Specifically, Homer shows her that, even though he is blind, lack of sight does not lessen his enjoyment of life. He is a happy cat and believes there is no other way to be.

There are wonderful stories in the book; some made me and Mom laugh and some made us cry. Have your tissues handy when you read about their experiences on September 11, 12, and 13, 2001. Ms. Cooper shows the kind of passion many pet parents feel for their fur-kids. Fortunately, we have never had to go through a tragedy like they did, but I think my mom would try just as hard to keep me safe.



If you are interested in getting to know Homer, you can follow him on Twitter. Also, he was featured on a recent episode of "Cats 101" on Animal Planet! He's a really cool cat and I'm glad I've gotten to know him even better by reading his mom's book about him. Homer and his mom deserve extra *nosetaps*.

I Read a Book for #readpawty!

Recently, I discovered a book club on Twitter. Some of my anipals were talking about #readpawty one evening and what books they had read. Well, my mom likes to read a lot and I thought this this sounded pretty cool so I asked for some more information.

The book club is led by @MaggieTKat. All of the #readpawty information can be found on her bloggy, Kruse Kats. Anipals get together every other month or so on a Tuesday evening and discuss the books that are on the list for that month.

This time, one of the books was "The Cat, The Quilt And The Corpse" by Leann Sweeney. It is the first book in a series called "Cats In Trouble." I picked this book because it had cats in it plus it sounded really exciting. This was a kind of book that neither Mom not I had heard of, called a "cozy mystery." It is the kind of mystery that's not really scary and the crime scene isn't described in a lot of detail, so even the most delicate of kitties (like myself) won't be offended. The person that tries to solve the mystery is a regular person, not a detective.

In this book, the person trying to solve the crime is a very nice lady (she owns three kitties!) named Jillian Hart. She lives in a small town by a lake and comes home one day to find one of her precious kitty cats has gone missing. She knows right away that the kitty has been stolen, but not many people want to believe her. They think she is just overreacting. Then, she finds a man dead-and guess what?-he had a house FULL of kitties! She sets out to figure out what her missing cat (along with other missing cats in the town) have to do with the man's death.

This book was a real claw-biter for a while! Then I was trying to figure out who the killer was and what happened to all the kitties. I got so caught up in trying to solve the mystery that the book was finished in no time! I liked all the people in the book, especially Jillian. She really loved cats and wanted all the kitties back to their rightful owners. How can you not like a human like that? If you want to read a really good book that has cats central to the plot, this is the book to read!
Our next meeting is in October. I think I'm going to read two books this time: "Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter" by Blaize Clement and "Homer's Odyssey" by Gwen Cooper. Come and join us!