Final Catcall

 

 


Final Catcall (Magical Cats Mystery #5) by Sofie Kelly has two cats on the cover and Kathleen has two cats which play a small part in the story.

Kathleen Paulson is a librarian in Mayville Heights who has had a fight with Detective Marcus Gordon just before a theater festival is coming to town. Her ex, Andrew, had married a waitress while drunk and has ended that marriage and has come to town to convince Kathleen to go back to Boston with him.  He becomes more persistent after she finds the body of Hugh Davis who was to be the director of the plays. Her mother who is an actress/director is called and is able to come and fill the directors position.

Owen and Hercules are Kathleen's magical cats who came from a feral colony.  Kathleen and Marcus are still on the schedule to feed the feral cats together.  Heather, who is Marcus' sister is a member of the theater troop and a suspect so Marcus is taken off the murder case.

Owen even manages to her Kathleen find a clue in the case.  Since Kathleen is a librarian, she puts the bits and pieces of what she sees and hears together and does research to fill in missing parts.  Which leads her to the murderer and puts her own life in danger.

Ms Kelly makes you feel you are in Mayville Heights through her vivid descriptions of the places and the locals.  I am sure my cats would like the cat treats described and might even like sardines which they have never had.  I love the fact that they discover another cat at the colony who might or might not be magical.
I would highly recommend any mystery lover read this book.

Murder with Puffins

 

Murder with Puffins by Donna Andrews has been in my collection for awhile.  It has a puffin on the cover and puffins play a part in the story.  The story takes place on Monhegan Island off the coast of Maine after puffins have left the island, but there are lots of birders there and a dog.  Though Meg does see a live puffin at the end of the story, there are stuffed puffins, paintings of puffins and a dead puffin in the story.

Meg and Michael decide they want a romantic getaway at her aunt Phoebe's summer cottage.  They did not expect to find Meg's parents, brother and Michael's mother's dog, Spike to be there.  They find a body and her aunt confesses. Her father is also a suspect.  They even find a nude painting of her mother.   Everyone is trapped on the island because of a storm.

There are many possibilities as to who actually committed the crime and Meg continues to search until she finds the real culprit. 

Marquis In A Minute

 


Marquis in a Minute by Roni S. Denholtz was an e-book I had purchased and not had the opportunity ro read until now.  I am using it for the Royal Title of What's In a Name Challenge.

Andrew Pennington was at a club with his friends after the death of his Uncle Elias, The Marquis of Whitbury.. His cousin, Cyril was there drinking too much and Andrew offered him a ride home. Before, he knew it, some men came in and told him that Cyril's body had been found in water and he was now the Marquis.

There was one major problem with Andrew being the Marquis, he was single and  all the woman wanted to meet their daughters hoping he would perhaps marry one of them.  After listening to music at a friend's home, he was tired of avoiding women's advances so he went outside and bumped into the daughter of an old family friend, Justine Rawlings.  They had both changed since the last time they met and they talked about the last time they met.

Charlotte, Justine's sister was younger and was in love with Kevin.  However, Mr. Rawlings would not allow Charlotte to marry unless Justine was married.  So Justine decides she needs a fake fiance and Andrew fits the bill perfectly because that would stop the women trying to fix him up.

Andrew asks Justine's father for her hand in marriage and then asks her.  She says, "Yes" and Charlotte's coming out and subsequent engagement are planned.  After her engagement is announced an arrow is shot which lands too close to the girls and the men in their lives decide to protect them.  A double wedding is planned.  Unfortunately, Justine falls in love with Andrew and does not want to end their engagement even after she is hit with a candle stick.

When Andrew is away, Justine comes up with a plot to trap the person she believes to be guilty. To find out who this is and what happens, you will have to buy the book.

I must admit that though I have not met the author, we have both been members of the same Yahoo group and have corresponded, especially after I read some of her other books. Roni describes the surrounds well and has wonderful plots.  This was a very fast read for me.

King and I

 

Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon is my book for A in the alphabet challenge.  It was written in 1944.  It is the story of Anna Leonowens who wrote of her experiences working in Siam for King Mongkut.

Anna was hired to teach English to the Kings children and she was promised a certain salary and a house.  She finally got her house but never received a raise in pay while working in Siam.  The book includes letters written by Anna and some by the King which were given to Ms. Landon by Miss Avis S. Fyshe who was Mrs. Leonowens' granddaughter.

It tells of slavery and the punishments given to slaves.  The palaces and royal rituals are described as trials, coronations and burials.  It seemed to me that Anna and the King liked to argue and the King really did not have a sense of time as he would call for her to write letters for him at all times of day.

This book was the basis for the musical, The King and I.  I was able to see Yul Brenner perform this at a theater and wish I had been able to take his picture when he was talking to someone he knew in the audience.  The musical is one of my favorites.  Recently, on one of the blogs that I read there was an interview with a new author who happened to sing opera and a link to her singing "Shall We Dance?" on youtube.  I also listened to "Whisle A Happy Tune" and "March of the Siamese Children."

There are some things that transfer between book and musical.  The name Tuptim wh was killed in the book, children looking under her skirt, and the fact that the woman did not wear underwear when they wore fancy dresses.  There was a friendship between Anna and the King but the real Anna was not in Siam when the King died.  His son did make changes for the good and freed his slaves and stopped cast system as it was.

The hardest part was that the book was written in wartime and the print is very small.  I had to renew it from the library in order to finish reading it and because a storm is due when the book was due.