“Cats were my weakness. I’d never met one I didn’t love instantaneously.”
Amazon has been recommending Cate Conte's
Cat About Town to me for
at least a year now; and finally, since we have officially reached my
favorite time of year for mystery reading {
fall!}, and I've come to the conclusion that I
desperately want to open my own cat cafe, I decided to give it a whirl.
Long story short: there was something missing; but I'm down to give the sequel a shot.
Maddie James is back in her quaint Massachusetts hometown of
Daybreak Island for her beloved Grandmother's funeral. Though she bailed for the West Coast to open
Goin' Green, an
organic juice bar, years ago; her reappearance in the New England nook has left her with
all of the feels and memories of her past {aided by encounters with her BFF
Becky Walsh and ex-high school sweetheart turned local police officer,
Craig Tomlin}. Planning to merely stick around briefly to comfort and grieve alongside her
Grandpa Leo, former Daybreak Island police chief, Maddie feels her plans start to shift when she encounters a stray tabby she dubs
Orange Guy {later named
JJ}, who captures her heart, and subsequently leads her to the dead body of one very powerful
Frank O'Malley.
Though merely a wealthy resident,
Frank O'Malley has the type of pull in Daybreak Island reserved for those holding political office; and as the President of the Chamber of Commerce, O'Malley is convinced that he runs the quaint town. From
bullying new business owners to excluding less-profitable businesses from joining the Chamber, to
badgering Grandpa Leo to sell his home - a residence that has been in the family for generations...you name it, and Frank O'Malley can state
guilty as charged. So when
JJ leads Maddie to Frank's dead body during the annual
Food Stroll, there is
no shortage of suspects. Unfortunately, the police appear to be targeting Grandpa Leo for the crime - an assumption that
does not sit well with Maddie. So she does what any good granddaughter would...she decides to uncover the true killer, with JJ's help, to clear Grandpa Leo's good name. But the deeper she digs, the closer she is to losing her life - and she definitely doesn't have eight more to spare.
This book left me feeling
unsettled upon turning the last page. Not because
I knew who the murderer was the second they appeared in the book {though I did}, or because there
wasn't a strong enough cat presence; rather, it was the characters themselves {barring
JJ, who I would die for}. I can't figure out whether I liked or disliked the characters because they all felt very
one-dimensional - like I knew them, but I didn't
know them, if that makes any sense. They were just there; not doing anything to
enchant me or leave me worrying about their well-being - including Maddie. I also found the love triangle between
Maddie, Craig, and newcomer Lucas Davenport to be incredibly juvenile, trite, and obnoxious - perhaps because I felt no connection to any of them. Please keep in mind that there is
no cat cafe in this book, that is planned for the sequel,
Purrder She Wrote, which I do expect to purchase, as I'm eager to see if the addition of
more cats and perhaps another chance at
fleshing out the characters will win me over.
Star Rating: ***
xx
