A Tale of Two Kitties by Sofie Kelly

A Tale of Two Kitties by Sofie Kelly ISBN-13: 9780399584572 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime Released: Sept. 5, 2017

Source: ARC Review copy from the publisher.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
With a well-placed paw on a keyboard or a pointed stare, librarian Kathleen Paulson's two cats, Hercules and Owen, have helped her to solve cases in the past—so she has learned to trust their instincts. She'll need their help when a twenty-year-old scandal leads to murder.

The arrival of the Janes brothers has the little town of Mayville Heights buzzing. Everyone of a certain age remembers when Victor had an affair with Leo’s wife, who then died in a car accident.

Now it seems the brothers are trying to reconcile, until Kathleen finds Leo dead. The police set their sights on Leo’s son and Kathleen’s good friend Simon, who doesn’t have much of an alibi. To prove her friend innocent, Kathleen will have to dig deep into the town's history—and into her sardine cracker supply, because Owen and Hercules don't work for free


My Review:
A Tale of Two Kitties is a cozy mystery. This is the ninth book in the series. You don't need to read the previous books to understand this one, and this book didn't spoil the mysteries in the previous books. There's also a short story, "A Cat Burgler," included at the back.

I like the heroine because she's nice (as the other characters point out). She's not judgmental, and she cares about people. The cats are intelligent and have cat abilities (disappearing and getting out of places) taken to a magical degree. Their actions drew attention to clues, but mostly they provided humor with their antics.

It's a clue-based puzzle mystery. The heroine is intelligent, knowledgeable, and knows how to ask questions without being pushy or accusing. Whodunit seemed the most likely suspect to me, but I wasn't certain until nearly the end.

There was no sex. There was occasional use of bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this fun mystery.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.