How to Tail a Cat by Rebecca Hale

Reviewed by Jeanne

When Uncle Oscar passes away unexpectedly, his niece inherits his antique shop. Soon she realizes that things are not all as they seem. Almost before she knows it, she’s drawn into an elaborate treasure hunt, complete with obscure clues, exotic poisons, disguises, secret compartments and all manner of old fashioned derring-do. There are also cats. And frogs. And, in this installment, an albino alligator.

This is one of those series that is hard to sum up in just a few words. It’s more convoluted than that. I’ll freely admit that I wasn’t sold on the first book in the series, but subsequent books have caused me to revise my opinion. Sometimes, it’s all in how you look at things and I was taking the series entirely too seriously. It’s meant to be a romp through California history with some rather peculiar companions, both human and non-human, with tongue planted firmly in cheek. It’s bigger than life.

I also think that Hale is a very visual writer. I tend to skim through books, without taking time to sit and picture a scene in my mind; otherwise I think I might have caught on to the humor sooner. The books are movie-like, long on visual descriptions and action. Some of the things that troubled me in the earlier books are related to this: like a movie director, Hale likes to clue the audience in before the characters sometimes. In previous books, the main character –who, like Bill Pronzini’s creation, has no given name--narrated all or part of the book, so she would describe things the reader knew to be important but for story purposes, the narrator couldn’t respond at the time. This had an unfortunate side effect of making the narrator look dense. The books have a sort of old-time charm to them, sort of like the early serials but updated a bit to suit modern sensibilities.

Hale has a good eye for detail matched with an imaginative way of describing things. For example, the way the albino alligator’s scales peak along its back are compared to the meringue on the top of a custard pie, certainly not something I would have thought about on my own. She also has a knack for making somewhat unlovable characters attractive. Like the frogs before him, Clive the alligator turned into quite the charmer as he realized how lucky he was to have a nice safe place to live in and a nice heated rock. He’s also rather fond of his turtles, even though his poor vision means he can’t really see them. Being a cat person, I’m especially fond of the way she uses Rupert and Isabelle, the narrator’s two cats. Rupert is chicken obsessed, especially the fried variety that Uncle Oscar provided, and mostly concerned with his own comforts. He’s very annoyed when his human inconveniences him in any way, such as moving him off a pile of papers. Isabelle, on the other hand, seems to be in on the Great Game and will sometimes prod her human in the right direction. She’s rather condescending toward “the human help,” but tries to be tolerant. The cats don’t talk directly, by the way: we’re told what’s going on in those fuzzy little heads.

The human characters are similarly off-beat, from Sam the “Frog Whisperer” to Montgomery Carmichael the Life Coach who can almost match Rupert for self-absorption.

Most of all, the books demonstrate a deep love for California and its history, especially the offbeat history. Much of the background in How to Tail a Cat revolves around the Steinhart Aquarium at the California Academy of Sciences, which is a story in itself. A little poking around on the internet showed some wonderful photos of some of the things described at the Aquarium—and the information that they do indeed have an albino alligator named Claude. If you’re in the market for a book that’s a blend of history, humor, and high jinks with some fantasy thrown in for good measure, this may be just the book for you.

Nine Lives Last Forever & How to Moon a Cat by Rebecca Hale

Reviewed by Jeanne

Some time back I wrote a review of How to Wash a Cat, the first book in the “Cats and Curios Series.”  I said I wasn’t exactly enthralled with it.  You can read the actual review here:

http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5401124578729166191#editor/target=post;postID=5373187381976419397

Several folk from the mystery list Dorothy-L agreed with my assessment, though at least one still thought I was being too kind.  I don’t like to do hatchet reviews, even though one can make those vastly entertaining with all sorts of snarky remarks.  (Does anyone remember the good reviews from Dorothy Parker?  Nope, they remember that she wrote of Katherine Hepburn’s performance that she “ran the gamut of emotions from A to B.”) 

Anyway, having a streak of masochism, I will sometimes continue to read books in series that I don’t think I like in the vague hopes that perhaps the next one won’t be quite as bad.  This is a difficult proposition because while I am indeed gullible, I’m not so gullible that I go into the book with a clean slate.  I start reading suspiciously, waiting to be disappointed. That’s the way I started the second book in the series, Nine Lives Last Forever.  The first thing I noticed was that at certain sections the point of view switched from “I” to some omniscient narrator.  “And just who is telling this tale now?” sniffed I to Melon, my obese feline friend.  I did have to admit, though not to Melon, that some of the description was kind of nifty.  Then the point of view shifted to the perspective of—I kid you not—a frog.  The frog turned its head.  Can frogs turn their heads? Since they don’t have necks, I don’t think so.  Another black mark, right?

Well, I had to admit to myself (if not Melon) that I still kind of liked the section about the frogs.  I was starting to worry about my little amphibian friends in this story and I am not a person who is particularly attached to frogs.  I began to have the sneaking suspicion that I was enjoying this book.  Darn.

I also began to suspect that a lot of the things I’d been taking seriously were, in the immortal words of Foghorn Leghorn, “a joke, son, just a joke.” So I loosened up and, sure enough, it was much more fun.  So much fun that I started the third book, How to Moon a Cat, and checked to see when the fourth comes out.   Early on in the book, one of the cats, Rupert, is upset at a duffle bag because that bag takes his person away and he doesn’t like it.  He thought they had an agreement:  he let her call him Rupert and in return, she takes care of his every need.

Yes, this was a fine piece of feline logic. I tried not to get my hopes up, but pretty soon I found I was enjoying this third book.

I don’t think it a total coincidence that there was less first person narration.  Part of the problem with the first book was my feeling that the “I”/Rebecca character was –well, an idiot.  There are clues dropped everywhere but she didn’t bother to pick one up, much less follow through.  The third person narration lets the reader in on the joke in a way the first book couldn’t.  There are several delightful sequences with the cats that made me laugh out loud, and I must say I did enjoy the moon’s role.  (Yes, the moon is occasionally personified.  I would have—well, did, actually roll my eyes, but somehow it worked.)  The characters were better defined.  Isabelle, Rupert’s feline sister, takes a very dim view of her somewhat dim brother, and will probably solve the mystery long before her owner does.  Human friend Monty is always sure he’s going to be the hero and star, and never lets a bruised ego (or other part of his anatomy) get in the way of another grand entrance.  Monty, needless to say, is also ditsy.

The series set up is that Rebecca has inherited an antiques and curio shop from her late uncle who apparently died of a heart attack, though Rebecca made no effort to check out the funeral home, death certificate or anything else.  Uncle Oscar was (or, perhaps, IS) a California history buff and, as it turns out, has left clues for Rebecca to solve, all involving California history. Uncle Oscar apparently has an arch enemy who is searching for something Oscar had, and he’s ruthless in his efforts to obtain it. Unfortunately for Rebecca, she has no idea what’s going on but she gradually realizes that she’s being stalked by someone dangerous, someone who dabbles in untraceable poisons and is a master of disguise.  This is the part where you either decide to go with the flow and suspend disbelief or toss the book across the room. 

I don’t know a great deal about California history, so the books could be a good learning experience.  I have to say that some of the characters are very opinionated so I would occasionally check other sources to see what more objective writers had to say.  In general, though, I found it all very interesting.  In the third book, there was a different view of John Fremont than the one I had from the Irving Stone novel Immortal Wife; that was a bit of a surprise in a good way, prompting me to re-examine some things I thought I knew.  In some cases there was more than I cared to know about California history so I just merrily skipped those parts and moved on without ill effects.  (One reviewer complained about the amount of history in the book.  It does get very wordy in there.  As I said, I skipped.)  I’m not reading these to solve the overall mystery.  I just want to know what’s going on with Rupert and Isabelle, what crazy stunt Monty will pull next, and if Mark Twain will show up again.  It’s that kind of a series.

In short, this isn’t a slapstick Stephanie Plum novel nor is it a realistic novel a la Margaret Maron.  It’s a whimsical book, a cloak and dagger cozy, and something of an acquired taste, but I found it to be qualified fun.  I'm looking forward to the fourth book, How to Tail a Cat, due out September 4.

Melon's impression of a moon. Or a cat.  We're not sure.

New Cats on the Block: How to Wash a Cat & Murder Past Due

Reviewed by Jeanne

I’m not sure when cats became mystery series stars.  It may have been when Lilian Jackson Braun’s “Cat Who” series took off, although the Gordons (a husband and wife writing team) produced books with DC the cat earlier.  (DC's name was edited by  Disney to be That Darn Cat in the movie version.)  Then we saw the advent of Carole Nelson Douglas’ “Midnight Louie,” Lydia Adams’ Cat Sitter series, Garrison Allen’s “Big Mike,” Shirley Rousseau Murphy’s “Joe Grey,” and several others.  Not long after, some dog mysteries began to appear, such as Susan Conant’s Dog Sitter series, the wonderful Virginia Lanier Bloodhound series, Carol Lea Benjamin’s “Alexandra and Dash” mysteries, Lauren Berenson’s Melanie Travis books and, more recently, the Chet and Bernie books by Spencer Quinn.  Some authors, like Rita Mae Brown, even included both dogs and cats.  

Since I was planning a trip involving airplanes, I started looking at the new paperback mysteries and discovered a new litter of cat mystery stars.  There are no fewer than four series starring felines, and probably more.   So I picked out a couple and took them with me.  There’s nothing like being a captive audience to get me into a book.  (I'll admit I did a bit of judging a book by its cover:  both these have wonderful cover art!)

How to Wash a Cat by Rebecca Hale is the first in the “Cats and Curios” series.  Our heroine gets the sad news that her beloved Uncle Oscar has died suddenly of a stroke.  As his only heir, she inherits his antique shop in San Francisco.  At first, she isn’t sure if she wants to take over the store; she already has a full time job as an accountant and she really doesn’t know much about antiques and curios. Her abrupt termination at her job makes the prospect of the shop much more appealing, so she moves in with Rupert and Isabelle, her two cats. It turns out the neighborhood is full of interesting characters—some annoying and some dangerous.  It isn’t long before some suspicious circumstances have her questioning what she’s been told about her uncle’s death.  Hale packs a lot of information about the history of San Francisco in the story, from its rough and tumble past to the present, and her descriptions of the city are vivid.  It's also obvious that she’s very fond of the cats. 

I have to say I wasn’t exactly enthralled by this book.  The writing was competent enough, but there were a number of odd flashbacks in which the heroine imagined herself back in early San Francisco, to the point that another character even asks her about it. (And by the way, the lead character is unnamed for a good part of the book. I think her name turns out to be the same as the author’s but I honestly can’t quite remember.)  I found Monty the neighbor-comic-relief character to be a bit too over the top for my taste, and much though I hate to say it, the cats weren’t very catlike to me.  It was little things, like an odd tail thump--not a twitch--when stalking and not being freaked at the idea of being dressed up and walking a runway.  Maybe I just have the wrong cats.  (Melon does occasionally don accouterments but not for very long, and definitely not in front of an audience in a strange place.)

The ending left me a bit befuddled:  the story had started to become increasingly implausible, and not just because she was talking about someone owning a Siamese cat mix years before Siamese were imported to the US.  While I do enjoy a book with fantastical elements, this one gave very little hint of any such leanings until near the end.  I also wondered quite a bit about the heroine and her lack of curiosity about some things, such as the exact circumstances of her uncle’s death and her failure to follow up on some fairly important questions.  Still, I’ve read worse books and I’ll give the sequel a chance. I’ve had other authors make a false start or two before hitting his or her stride.

If you like books about San Francisco, especially ones that deal with the early history, a plucky heroine, antiques, and cats, give How To Wash A Cat a try and let me know what you think.

Murder Past Due by Miranda James also has an atypical cat, but Diesel the Maine Coon is closer to the cats I’ve known. (He looks a bit like my Elmer, but Diesel is MUCH brighter.) He doesn’t solve any mysteries but he does walk on a leash and seems a perfectly amiable sort. Diesel’s human is Charlie Harris, a good-natured librarian who works in the archives of a local college in sleepy Athena, Mississippi and volunteers at his local library.  Charlie’s beloved wife has died, as has his elderly aunt, and his children are grown and living out of state.  Justin, the 18 year old son of a friend of Charlie’s, has moved in as a boarder.  Justin’s a good kid, but there’s obviously something on his mind lately. 

This relatively tranquil scene is upset by the appearance of Godfrey Priest, a former classmate of Charlie’s who has become a best-selling author of thrillers.  Charlie remembers Godfrey as being arrogant, condescending and obnoxious, and it becomes obvious that success hasn’t really changed him.   Still, it’s a bit of a surprise when Godfrey turns up dead.  Things get even worse when it appears Justin may be a suspect, and Charlie feels he needs to do a bit of sleuthing on his own to get to the truth.

I found Murder Past Due to be much more enjoyable and not just because the author apparently does know her way around a library.  I liked Charlie.  He seems the sort of solid, dependable person who is the backbone of most small towns.  Some reviewers found him to be too staid, too set in his ways;  I didn’t agree, but that may be because I am too staid and set in my ways. The setting was gently Southern:  recognizable, but the author didn’t feel the need to have someone whip up a pot of grits or have a possum amble by every second page or so. It was also rather refreshing to have a cozy mystery with a male protagonist.   I have to say, though, that the part which impressed me most was the way Charlie and the deputy worked—or didn’t work—together.  In most amateur sleuth series, if the police and the sleuth aren’t friends, then the police are portrayed as idiots.  In this book, while the deputy was a bit stiff and impatient, she was open to help within reason and she was careful to explain to Charlie why some of his good intentions went awry:  things like chain of evidence, for example.  For me, this was a satisfying mystery with companionable characters and a comfortable setting.   I’ll be looking forward to the sequel.

There are some other new cat mystery series I'll be reviewing as soon as I complete a few steps. Step one:  Find where I put the books.  Step two:  Read books.  Step one will probably take longer than step two...

Elmer practices posing, just in case.

 There are copies of both books available in our system.  If you need help locating or reserving them, please check with the folks at Reference.