When Bunnies Go Bad by Clea Simon

Reviewed by Jeanne

Bunnies abound in this new entry in the Pru Marlowe Pet Noir series.  There’s the wild bunny being kept illegally by an elderly woman who calls on Pru because she’s heard of Pru’s skill as an animal behaviorist; there’s the bunny in the painting stolen in a recent art heist; and then there’s that fixture of the resort slopes, the ski bunny. 

The latter is Cheryl, the arm-candy girlfriend of an obnoxious businessman type named Teddy Rhinecrest.  Pru encounters the couple while out with her sometime boyfriend and full time police detective Jim Creighton.  What should have been a nice dinner is spoiled when Rhinecrest picks a fight with his girlfriend Cheryl, the aforementioned ski bunny.  Creighton steps in to calm things down, but it won’t come as any surprise to readers when Teddy turns up dead.

For once, Pru doesn’t have a personal stake in the investigation.  She really doesn’t want to be involved, but then Cheryl calls Pru for help with her King Charles Spaniel.  Pru goes to help the dog and finds things are more complicated than she expected. . . not to mention the appearance of an old acquaintance who brings both old world charm and menace.

I’ve enjoyed this series from the start. For the uninitiated, Pru is more than a behaviorist.  She’s an animal psychic, able to pick up bits of information from a variety of animals.  The communication is disjointed, bits and pieces of things that Pru struggles to understand.  It can also be very distracting because she can’t turn it off.

One of the things I like the most about the series is the way that the characters continue to evolve.  At the beginning, Pru was all but shattered by this sudden gift of inter-species communication.  She was so convinced that she was mad that she checked herself into a mental health clinic.  She lives in fear that someone else will find out about her ability.  Add this to her history of unhappy and unfortunate personal relationships and Pru is one defensive and prickly lady, given to consuming large amounts of alcohol to deaden the pain and fear.  Her one confidant is Wallis, her opinionated tabby cat who functions as advisor and commentator, whether Pru wants to hear it or not. (No pun intended.)

However, over the course of the series Pru has begun to open up just a little.  She is learning to question some of her own assumptions and to figure out that maybe, just maybe, she doesn’t have to face everything alone.  She’s also getting better at trying to decipher the messages she gets from the various creatures.

That’s not to say that this is a series that has to be read in order.  Each is a standalone, though some characters carry over for several books.  

The murder actually takes a bit of a back seat to some of the other mysteries in the book; while there is a resolution, it happens off camera so to speak.  Thinking it over, I still found it a satisfying read as I was more interested in some of the other things that were going on.  I admit I often read more for character than for plot, and this one was particularly well done in that respect. This isn’t to say that the mysteries got short shrift, just that as a long time reader I was more attuned to the character development.

This series just keeps getting better and better.

Full Disclosure:  I was sent an ARC (Advance Reader’s Copy) of the book.  I was under no obligation to review the book and receiving the ARC did  not affect my review.

Kittens Can Kill by Clea Simon

Reviewed by Jeanne

When animal behaviorist Pru Marlowe makes a house call, she expects to take a new kitten for a wellness check and perhaps dole out advice on litter boxes and scratching posts.  She does not expect to find a man dead from undetermined causes.  David Canaday, the deceased, was not a known animal lover, so it strikes Pru as a bit odd that his middle daughter decided to fly in from California to gift him with a kitty. The three Canaday sisters aren’t exactly a warm and loving family, and suspicion heats up when it comes out that their lawyer father may have been planning to change his will. Still, a lawyer makes many enemies so it could be someone else had it in for dear ol’ dad.  Pru is willing to let them fight it out until the eldest daughter demands the kitten be put down. Then her interest becomes personal.

Pru has a few advantages when it comes to an investigation.  Even though Jim her cop boyfriend (of sorts) isn’t exactly forthcoming about the case, she has some of her own sources:  Pru is an animal psychic who hears what every bird and beast has to say.  Interpreting what they say is another matter entirely.  Animals have their own interests and preoccupations, and generally aren’t interested in the doings of humans if it doesn’t impact them directly.  The other part is that Pru generally tries to understand their answers from a human point of view, which can lead to misunderstandings.

The other problem is turning conversations off, which Pru can’t do.  She hears courting sparrows and disgruntled dogs, hungry predators and frightened prey.  Doctor Doolittle, it ain’t.  That’s part of the reason that Pru tends to hit the bottle a bit more than she should, and is more than a little reluctant to let her boyfriend get too close.  She’s terrified of others discovering her secret; after all, the first time she realized she was hearing animals talk, she checked herself into a mental hospital.

The result is an interesting mix of hardboiled noir mystery and supernatural cozy.  It’s definitely grittier than your average cozy.  Pru’s life was difficult enough before; this odd ability only complicates things further.  She still has a self-destructive streak and a prickly personality.  She drinks too much, she tries to push away those who, like Jim, care about her—except for Wallis, her opinionated tabby cat who never pulls her punches and who never sugarcoats anything. Wallis and Pru communicate on a much higher level, though there are still things neither understands about the other.  On the other hand, Simon doesn’t wallow in explicit details of death, sex, or gastrointestinal disorders as some darker mysteries feel compelled to do.  I was heartened to see in this installment that Pru is starting to come to terms with some of her problems; it’s a first step, a crack in the character’s hard exterior.  

As with the earlier entries in the series, some of the most interesting characters are non-human.  Wallis the tabby is as imperious as her namesake the Duchess of Windsor and has very definite views on things.  She’s also not amused when Pru brings the upset kitten home with her; Ernesto is very much a toddler still, obsessed with play and looking for Mama.  Bitsy the Bichon who prefers to be known as Growler is another who has very firm views but who is kept in check by an owner to whom the little dog is just another possession. This time readers are introduced to a sheltie who is seeking her purpose in life now that her person is gone.  Biscuit, like most working breeds, needs something to do with her time, but her present owners are oblivious. However, I want to point out that the mysteries are solved via non-psychic means:  no animals name the murderer or give Pru clues.  What they do is remind Pru that most crimes come from the most primal of impulses, from competition for a mate, defense of territory or from a perceived threat, desire for resources, or the like. We are all animals after all.

As with most of the best books, Simon gives the reader more than just a mystery.  It’s an exploration of the relationships between people and animals, both domestic and wild, and how one can impact the other in unexpected ways and sometimes unhappy ways.  Food for thought! 

Kittens Can Kill can be read as a standalone book, but if you enjoy character development you’ll want to start with an earlier book in the series.  The titles are:

1. Dogs Don't Lie
2. Cats Can't Shoot
3. Parrots Prove Deadly
4. Panthers Play for Keeps
5.  Kittens Can Kill

Full disclosure:  I was sent a copy of the book by the author but that did not influence my review. It did, however, give me an idea for a photo op with blue eyed Bonnie who was not in a cooperative mood.

 

Parrots Prove Deadly by Clea Simon

Melon on the lookout for parrots.

Reviewed by Jeanne

Pru Marlowe has worked with a lot of dogs and cats in her time, but a parrot is something new.  Pru is called after owner Polly Larkin has passed away in a nursing home, and the owner’s daughter isn’t eager to take on a foul-mouthed bird with the almost uncanny ability to use the most insulting phrases possible at the worst possible time.  Pru is hoping her psychic link to animals will help her get Randolph in shape for a new home, but communication with the bird is proving difficult.  He seems agitated, repeating certain phrases and sounds.  Soon Pru begins to wonder about the “accident” that killed his owner, and to ponder if Randolph is a witness to a murder.

If it was a murder, there are any number of suspects:  a down-trodden daughter who might relish no longer having her life dominated by her mother, a son who seems no more interested in his mother dead as he was when she was living, a nosy nursing home neighbor who seems to know quite a lot about Polly’s business, an aide who seems to know more than she’s saying, and a supercilious doctor who likes to pop up unannounced but be unavailable when needed.  Jim Creighton, her police detective friend who would like to be a bit more than a friend, is preoccupied with another situation and doesn’t seem inclined to investigate a seemingly routine death of an elderly person at a nursing home.

Meanwhile, Pru is also dealing with a young raccoon who has gotten himself in deep trouble at a housing development with a bit of breaking and entering of his own.

All our favorite characters have returned for this third book in the series.  Bitsy the Bichon, aka Growler, is still a mighty dog in a tiny body, who tolerates his insensitive owner because he has no other choice.  Frank the ferret is still after his shiny objects, and Wallis the cat is still making her pungent observations.  Pru has grown up a bit, become more comfortable in her own skin, and while still wary of her ability has accepted it and tries to make use of it.  She’s even thawed just a bit toward Creighton, though her skittishness at relationships means there’s still distance between them.  On the other hand, she still has a streak of recklessness that indicates she needs to work on her sense of self-preservation.

As I read Parrots Prove Deadly, it occurred to me that in some ways this is a New Age version of the classic puzzle mystery.  Instead of having a word written in blood or a conveniently torn scrap of paper, Pru receives rather cryptic messages from creatures.  Well, cryptic to humans; to the animals they make perfect sense, and they are sometimes as frustrated as Pru that the message isn’t understood.  That’s one of the things I like about this series:  the animals understand things in their own way, devoid of the layers of trappings that humans tend to add. They also tend NOT to meddle in or spend a lot of time commenting on human behavior.

Another part I enjoy is that Simon does her research so that she knows a bit about the behavior of parrots, raccoons, etc.  Not all authors do, and sometimes I find myself questioning as assumption the character makes; it takes me right out of the story.  I don’t have that problem with Simon’s work.  She’s also even-handed in her treatment of some sticky issues in animal welfare, giving each side a say. Finally, I admire Simon’s restraint.  It would be so easy to make the non-human characters dependent and adorable rather than adult creatures.  It would be easy to ratchet up the supernatural element and jump on the mystic bandwagon.  Instead, she works to make her story fit a realistic setting. The result is a classic mystery with some modern trappings, but one which will also appeal to animal lovers.

If you'd like to read more about Simon and her books, the website is www.cleasimon.com. She will be posting an excerpt from Parrots Prove Deadly soon, too.  You can also see photos of the glorious Musetta, model for Esme in Simon's Grey series.

Full disclosure:  I was given an Advanced Reader's Copy of the book, but that did not influence my review.



Melon isn't sure he likes the idea of a bird with firepower.