Book 9, 2024
Six Cats a Slayin' by Miranda James
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
After the house was cleaned and lunch was eaten, I settled in to finish reading Six Cats a'Slayin' by Miranda James. This is the 10th installment in the "Cat in the Stacks" mystery series. Main characters are archival librarian Charlie Harris and his gregarious Maine Coon cat, Diesel.
With Christmas just around the corner, Charlie is busy getting ready for the holidays. His routine is shaken up, however, when he finds a box of kittens on his doorstep and a note begging him to keep them safe. Charlie soon realizes that a child from the neighborhood has been peering in the windows, presumably to check on the kittens. As he tries to puzzle out the mystery, another one rears its ugly head. A newcomer to the neighborhood, Gerry Albritton, is hosting a lavish holiday party, and she expects Charlie to attend. Charlie shows up with his lady friend, Helen Louise, in tow. The party features two ugly scenes between the hostess and other guests, and when Gerry drops dead during the festivities, everyone is questioned by the police. Charlie is content to let Deputy Kanesha Berry handle it, but he can't resist digging further into Gerry's past. It seems everyone in Athena knows the Albritton family, but no one remembers a Geraldine. In addition to the kittens and the murder, Charlie must also deal with a family issue. His daughter-in-law is struggling to care for Charlie's newborn granddaughter, but she refuses any help. It's going to take a family intervention and a lot of love to get Alex back on her feet.
Good grief, there was a lot going on. Things wove together neatly, however. I kept thinking the kitten conundrum was tied into the murder; instead it was simply a subplot, albeit an entertaining one. Diesel took to the kittens right away and stepped into the role of mentor and protector for them. I enjoyed reading about Charlie engaged in various activities that had nothing to do with investigating and that he limited his investigation to research before passing on what information he found to Kanesha. I also appreciated that Charlie was never in any danger, nor was he present when the case was solved. Having a main character who is nearly killed at the climax of every book becomes tedious, quite frankly.
Favorite lines:
♦ There was not a book in sight--to me, always the sign of a person with whom I probably had little in common.
♦ Two of the boys looked almost identical and were dark ginger. After some thought, I settled on Fred and George, the names of the ginger-headed Weasley twins from the Harry Potter books.
♦ I knew some would think me foolish for buying Christmas presents for the cats, but I probably wouldn't like those people anyway.
Very good (I only wish I'd read it in December!), four stars.