Li’l Tom is a kitten that is doing
pretty good for himself these days as he heads up the elite Pussyfoot Detective
Bureau of Telegraph Hill located in San Francisco. The hill is a great place to
have a business as well as his residence because there are so many places to
hide and do cat things. Because
the humans of the San Francisco Police
Department aren’t interested, the Pussyfoot Detective Bureau helps animals with
their problems such as missing rubber toys, catnip traffickers, and
more. For Li’l Tom dodging dogs and noisy dive bombing feral parrots is
hard enough, but there is M’Cavity who is definitely the bad cat of the
neighborhood.
Named for his very bad teeth, M’Cavity
likes to mess with Li’l Tom. Fortunately, M’Cavity missed out on eating the
latest client of the Pussyfoot Detective Bureau. The offices located in a lower
section of steps near the sub-basement storage area of the Malloch Building are
not exactly where any self-respecting parrot would go unless he had to do so. But,
according to the Lovely Lola, Li’l Tom’s assistant, the bird sitting outside in
the tree is waiting for him.
While the only reason to tolerate a
parrot is as a snack, Li’l Tom takes all clients. Promising not to eat
the parrot and getting the parrot to agree not to peck or claw him, Li’l Tom
and the parrot sit down for a meeting. The parrot, Guillermo, wants their help
to find his missing sister, Judit who has been gone three days. He is highly
agitated with worry and as a result much louder in his vocalizations which is
not a good thing since parrots are pretty loud naturally. Guillermo says somebody had to have taken her
from the cage she lives in with Alan, Jamie, and Guillermo. Their home is located
one of the houses up the hill. Apparently was taken during the night just a few
days ago.
While she is a pretty strait laced
bird, she did have some shady friends. She may be missing because she was
flying around with some blue-crowned birds that were a bad influence on her.
Those birds are trouble as they stay out late and sip up stale beer from
puddles outside nearby bars and even hang out with the notorious M’Cavity among
other things. But, they may not be at
fault as something or someone else could have caused her to vanish. Guillermo
want her found and is willing to pay in the way Lil Tom likes best – Tender
Vittles.
It is a case of mystery and deceit
that will lead Li’l Tom, Lola, and a couple of animal companions to Chinatown
and back in search of not just Judit as well as a number of other missing
parrots. This cute and very clever book spins a tale that appeals to children
as well as adults familiar with classic mysteries. That along with some humor
and observations about humans and animals make Li’l Tom and the Pussyfoot
Detective Bureau: The Case of the Parrots Desaparecidos a fun and
mighty good read from Angela Crider Neary.
Li’l Tom and the Pussyfoot Detective
Bureau: The Case of the Parrots Desaparecidos
Angela Crider Neary
Tornado Alley Publications (imprint
of Prairie Rose Publications)
February 2015
ISBN
# 978-0692355640
Print
(e-book available)
172
Pages
$9.99
PDF
review copy was supplied by the author in exchange for my objective review.
Kevin
R. Tipple ©2015
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