Guest Post: Jeanne and Treadmill Books: Second Chance Cat Mysteries by Sofie Ryan

Jeanne of the Bookblog of the Bristol Library is back today with her latest review…

Treadmill Books:  Second Chance Cat Mysteries by Sofie Ryan

North Harbor, Maine should be a sleepy little village but it has had its share of murders, just like Cabot Cove.  Or at least that’s been the case since Sarah Grayson opened her used—er, repurposed items-- shop where she sells everything from clothing to furniture to knickknacks.  In the opening book, Sarah was volunteered by her grandmother to teach a class to a group of senior citizens at a local retirement home. She soon finds the seniors to be a lot livelier and feistier than she had anticipated, but that’s nothing next to the surprise she finds when she visits Maddie, one of her grandmother’s friends, and finds a dead body in the backyard. 

The situation only gets worse when it turns out that the deceased made a habit of charming and then conning older ladies—including Maddie. 

Determined to prove Maddie innocent, Sarah begins to investigate the crime only to have some of the senior citizens join her whether she wants them to or not.  Just when she thinks her life can’t get any more complicated, she ends up with a formerly stray cat dubbed Elvis who has some strong opinions and a knack for spotting a lie.

Since I was already fond of the Magical Cat Mysteries which the author writes under the name Sofie Kelly, I decided to give this second cat mystery series a try.  As with most first books, The Whole Cat and Caboodle was a bit slow in places as various characters were introduced:  Mac, Sarah’s associate at the shop, a man with a shrewd eye for quality items and the handyman abilities to turn junk into gold; Nick, an old high school flame now with the police department; and senior citizen Mr. P., nude model turned computer hacker. Then there are Rose, Liz, and Charlotte, the three older ladies who dub themselves “Charlotte’s Angels” and begin their own investigations, much to the consternation of Sarah and especially Nick—Charlotte is his mother.

The books have the same strong relationships that Sofie portrayed in her other series along with realistic and often funny dialog.  One aspect that I particularly enjoy is that inter-generational relationships are on an equal footing; Sarah and Nick may worry about the Angels getting in too deep, but the older folks are still shown as being resourceful, energetic, and even romantic.  It’s also nice to have the younger characters drawn into a situation by the older ones for a change.

There are currently four books in the series, with a fifth scheduled to come out in February 2018.

1.      The Whole Cat and Caboodle

2.      Buy A Whisker

3.      A Whisker of Trouble

4.      Telling Tales

5.      The Fast and the Furriest

(Just an FYI, the author’s real name is Darlene Ryan and she has written books under that name as well.)