Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Murder of the Cat’s Meow-Denise Swanson

Murder of the Cat’s Meow


Denise Swanson

Obsidian, Sep 4 2012, $7.99

ISBN 9780451237811



In Scumble River, Illinois, the previous occupant the late Mrs. Griggs breaks Skye Denison’s Grandma Leonfanti’s cookie jar. The frustrated school psychologist and police consultant warns the ghost to stop her haunting or else her fiancé Police Chief Wally Boyd will not move in with her as most incidents occur when he is in the house.



Wally attends a police chief certification program in Springfield. Frannie calls Skye from Bunny Lanes with an emergency. Skye rushes over to the bowling alley owned by former Vegas dancer Bunny Reid. There she sees Elijah Jacobson dangling Alexis Hightower in the air using one hand on her throat while cuddling his cat Princess with his other hand. Bunny intercedes and accidently hammers Skye instead of Elijah. An injured Skye learns that Bunny, Frannie and computer expert Justin started a matchmaking web site CupidsCatsMeow.com in which almost exclusively cat lovers joined. Thus they host a cat show with Alexis as the judge combined with speed dating for the pet owners. Not long afterward the obnoxious judge is found dead in the bowling alley basement.



The return to Scumble River (see Murder of a Creped Suzette) is an amusing madcap cozy starring an intrepid heroine who muses how she became the center of craziness and a strong quirky support cast; especially wherever Bunny steps, trouble follows. The humorous storyline contains several other supporting zany subplots, but the prime tale centers on investigating the case of death by a cat toy.



Harriet Klausner



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