Cat in the Stacks Mysteries by Miranda James

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

As usual, Book Bingo has enticed me to pick up books I’ve been meaning to read but somehow haven’t gotten around to.  I’ve been reading and enjoying the Cat in the Stacks series for several years now, but somehow had gotten distracted and had missed some titles.  Since I found a copy of The Pawful Truth in the library Gift Shop, it fit one of the squares.

The series is set in Athena, Mississippi, a small town where Charlie works as a librarian at the local college.  He’s a long-time widower who lives in a house left to him by his great aunt of fond memory.  He has a housekeeper/cook, Azalea, a host of friends, and an enormous Maine Coon cat named Diesel.  These are low-key, cozy mysteries with all the trappings: lovingly described food, Southern charm, and a dead body or two just to keep the story moving along.

While this is not a series that has to be read in order, there are a few changes over the course of the series.  Charlie’s children get married, grandchildren arrive, and he acquires a fiancée but nothing that one can’t pick up on in the first few pages of any book in the series.

In The Pawful Truth, Charlie decides to take a medieval history course at the college.  History has always been a favorite subject, and he has heard glowing reviews of the young professor who is teaching the course. While the class gets off to a promising start, an argument between the professor and a student piques Charlie’s interest—and even more so when one of them turns up dead.

Since I enjoyed The Pawful Truth, I decided to pick up another in the series for the square “Read a book NOT written by James Patterson.”

Cat Me If You Can is an atypical story in that Charlie, Diesel, and Charlie’s fiancée Helen Louise are travelling to a classic mystery lover’s retreat set up by the charming and formidable Ducote sisters.  The elderly grand dames of Athena society have rented out a boutique hotel to host a gathering of their mystery loving friends with plans to hold discussions of Golden Age mysteries in beautiful Asheville, North Carolina. What should have been a delightful stay turns ugly when an uninvited person shows up and demands to join the group.  His stay doesn’t last long—he turns up dead, and the only suspects are the members of the murder club.

I have to admit that a lot of my enjoyment from this title had to do with Charlie and Helen Louise visiting Biltmore and the surrounding area.  They were appropriately complimentary and appreciative (murder notwithstanding.)

If you want a break from hustle and bustle, the Cat in the Stacks series is a pleasant diversion.  I’m ready to read another but, alas, I don’t have any bingo squares to fit.