Book 84, 2024
Purrfect Betrayal by Nic Saint
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I finished reading Purrfect Betrayal by Nic Saint last night. It was the 11th in the "Mysteries of Max" series, starring portly ginger cat, Max, and his human, Odelia Poole.
When disgraced actor, Jeb Pott, is arrested for murdering his ex-wife in cold blood, his daughter, Fae, asks Odelia to investigate and prove her father didn't commit the crime. As far as the police are concerned, it's a cut and dried case: Camilla was murdered in Jeb's home, and he was found with the weapon and covered in her blood. Some small details niggle at Odelia's mind, however, such as why Jeb supposedly used a burner phone to text his ex, and how a random witness was even able to see into the home and report the crime. Soon Odelia is on the case, aided by her squad of cats. Max is glad for any reason to get out of the house, because someone left a box of kittens on Odelia's doorstep, and he's not exactly sure if he likes them or not. Also joining Odelia is her grandmother, Vesta, who's been popping "vitamins" and is desperate for something interesting to post on her vlog. When another dead body is discovered, after Jeb was arrested, it seems Fae may have been right after all. Now it's up to Odelia and Max to find out who killed Camilla and set Jeb up to take the fall.
This was one of the better books in the series, although I am still not amused by Vesta. Grow up, you old wind bag! Sheesh. The kittens were cute but seemed like an unnecessary subplot in that their presence didn't add anything to the narrative except a distraction. There was also the glaring error wherein a secondary character's wife was Suzy...until a few pages later she was Gail. For the love of editing, people! How do you not catch these things?! Other than that, the story was entertaining enough. Since the author is known to lampoon actual celebrities, I thought at first he was spoofing on Brad Pitt, but the more I read, the more I became convinced the real target was Johnny Depp.
Favorite lines:
♦ Kittens are a menace, plain and simple, and if you don't believe me just try adopting one.
♦ "I don't understand what the big deal is. Seven cats is nothing."
♦ Who needs a shrink when you can sing at the top of your lungs along with a bunch of other nocturnal animals, right? But then a well-aimed size-14 shoe hit me straight on the noggin and I dropped from my high perch and fell to the rubber mulch below."*
Trying to decide between 3 and 4 stars. I'm in a decent mood, so I'll give it a four.
