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3.44 AVERAGE
3.44 AVERAGE
informative
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Loveable characters:
Yes
Librarian Charlie Harris has returned to the town where he spent his formative years after the death of his wife. It's been a few years and Charlie is settling into a new life, working part-time at the local college as an archivist and volunteering at the local library. He's also getting reacquainted with people who didn't leave the town after high school and others. Charlie has made quite a splash in Athena with his rescued Maine coon cat named Diesel. Diesel goes literally everywhere with Charlie, on a leash. Diesel is quite well-known himself as he is the largest domestic cat breed in the USA but he is also larger than average for his breed. Some in town mistake him for a bobcat but he's just 36 pounds of sweetness. Charlie has been living a nice, quiet life since his return to Athena but that's about to change. An old high school classmate, and now famous author, Godfrey Priest is returning to town for an event and comes in hot, stirring up emotions in many different people and meeting the son he never knew he had for the first time...who happens to be boarding at Charlie's house. Charlie didn't like Godfrey in high school and not much has changed, he doesn't like him any better now as adults. But Charlie isn't the only person who doesn't seem to like Godfrey because when he turns up dead the hunt is on to figure out which person, and there are quite a few, who didn't like Godfrey decided to end his life. Charlie gets pulled into the investigation unwittingly when he finds the body and can't help but become a temporary amateur sleuth to "assist" the local police.
This cozy mystery series was suggested to me by my Aunt and it is quite literally the perfect reading for me this time of the year and after reading some heavier (in content and length) titles. While it IS cozy, there is also a good amount of complexity to the actual mysteries (I'm writing this after having consumed 4 titles in as many days). James has created an interesting character in Diesel, the Maine coon cat. He is basically a human in a cat's body and I would like to meet him and snuggle with him. Diesel, in the book, is 36 pounds and would take the world record for biggest were he real. The actual biggest Maine coon cat in the world, currently, is 34 pounds. So James isn't exaggerating all that much. That's a big kitty! And if you saw their human walking down the street with the cat on a leash you would be taken aback at first. Anyway, I'm digressing thinking about the cat.
This cozy mystery series was suggested to me by my Aunt and it is quite literally the perfect reading for me this time of the year and after reading some heavier (in content and length) titles. While it IS cozy, there is also a good amount of complexity to the actual mysteries (I'm writing this after having consumed 4 titles in as many days). James has created an interesting character in Diesel, the Maine coon cat. He is basically a human in a cat's body and I would like to meet him and snuggle with him. Diesel, in the book, is 36 pounds and would take the world record for biggest were he real. The actual biggest Maine coon cat in the world, currently, is 34 pounds. So James isn't exaggerating all that much. That's a big kitty! And if you saw their human walking down the street with the cat on a leash you would be taken aback at first. Anyway, I'm digressing thinking about the cat.
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Too slow and dry. Thought the cat talked in this series - was looking for that whimsical read, this isn't it.
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
‘’Murder Past Due’ by Miranda James is the first book in the Cat in the Stacks’ mystery series. I think it a perfectly good beach read for those who primarily read cozies. The mystery series appears to be very successful, there being 16 books so far. The cat, Diesel, is a Maine coon. The cat is not quite two years old, but he is a very large cat already as Maine coons tend to be. Diesel has not reached his full growth yet. The main character, Charlie Harris, who is 50 years old, takes Diesel everywhere on a leash. The cat seems to act towards everyone like those comfort animals that are taken by their owners to hospitals and nursing homes. Charlie is allowed to bring Diesel to the Hawksworth Library where he works in the Rare Book Room. Charlie is mourning his wife and his aunt, who died within two months of each other a year ago. He has two grown adult children: twenty-three-year-old Laura, an actress in Los Angeles, and twenty-seven-year-old Sean, a civil law lawyer in Houston.
I have copied the book blurb, which is accurate:
”Everyone in Athena, Mississippi, knows Charlie Harris, the good-natured librarian with a rescued Maine coon cat named Diesel that he walks on a leash. He’s returned to his hometown to immerse himself in books, but soon enough he’s entangled in a real-life thriller...
A famous author of gory bestsellers and a former classmate of Charlie’s, Godfrey Priest may be the pride of Athena, but Charlie remembers him as an arrogant, manipulative jerk—and he’s not the only one. Godfrey’s homecoming as a distinguished alumnus couldn’t possibly go by lunch, he’s put a man in the hospital. By dinner, Godfrey’s dead.
Now it’s up to Charlie, with some help from Diesel, to paw through the town’s grudges and find the killer before an impatient deputy throws the book at the wrong person. But every last one of Charlie’s friends and co-workers had a score to settle with the nasty novelist. As if the murder wasn’t already purr-plexing enough...”
I had hoped I would enjoy these mysteries, but alas, I feel the book is too bland and ordinary for my tastes. It might be the usual first-book-in-a-series issue, but I am not continuing with the series.
I have copied the book blurb, which is accurate:
”Everyone in Athena, Mississippi, knows Charlie Harris, the good-natured librarian with a rescued Maine coon cat named Diesel that he walks on a leash. He’s returned to his hometown to immerse himself in books, but soon enough he’s entangled in a real-life thriller...
A famous author of gory bestsellers and a former classmate of Charlie’s, Godfrey Priest may be the pride of Athena, but Charlie remembers him as an arrogant, manipulative jerk—and he’s not the only one. Godfrey’s homecoming as a distinguished alumnus couldn’t possibly go by lunch, he’s put a man in the hospital. By dinner, Godfrey’s dead.
Now it’s up to Charlie, with some help from Diesel, to paw through the town’s grudges and find the killer before an impatient deputy throws the book at the wrong person. But every last one of Charlie’s friends and co-workers had a score to settle with the nasty novelist. As if the murder wasn’t already purr-plexing enough...”
I had hoped I would enjoy these mysteries, but alas, I feel the book is too bland and ordinary for my tastes. It might be the usual first-book-in-a-series issue, but I am not continuing with the series.
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
emotional
lighthearted
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
mysterious
medium-paced