Read Books This will provide a list of the books I've read with a brief review. Users are blocked, contact me for access. I welcome discussions, but I'm tired of spam.

October 27, 2023

The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare by Lilian Jackson Braun

Filed under: Mystery — Tags: , — Randolph @ 1:33 pm

This is the seventh book in The Cat Who series, Jim Qwilleran and his cats are settling into their mansion in Pickax. Jim had turned his mansion into a part-time museum, he is living in quarters behind the mansion above the garage.

This time, the town newspaper, running with outdated equipment and processes is having trouble when the owner dies and the only source of news in the town is threatened. Qwill, being a newsman doesn’t want that to happen, he starts looking into things, including the death. Koko, as usual, knows more than Jim and starts knocking Shakespeare books of the shelf trying to communicate.

There isn’t much of a mystery beyond the investigation of the man’s death, the book ends with a fire in the mansion, I guess to be continued. This wasn’t one of the better in the series, but it is light and fast.

March 4, 2023

The Cat Who Played Brahms by Lilian Jackson Braun

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , — Randolph @ 5:42 pm

This is the fifth book in The Cat Who… series. In this story, James Qwilleran has to move again, Maus Haus is being sold and the paper may be giving him a new beat.

Jim decides to take a vacation, to go to visit Aunt Fannie, a friend of his mother, in Moose County, ostensibly to work on his book. Being a cityfolk, he’s a bit lost in the rustic cabin Fannie is letting him use, there are noises and things go missing.

The people who live in Moose County all have their quirks, but are cordial. His calls to police turn to be animal encounters. Until he goes fishing and catches a body, things start to get interesting.

Koko, Yum Yum and Qwill’s mustache take center stage as dead bodies and odd behaviors take center stage. Qwill is out of his depth, but Koko helps make things clear.

This book isn’t as good as the previous ones. I felt is was more of an interlude between different story styles or settings – I haven’t read beyond this one yet. The story was somewhat interesting, but did pick up at the end.

April 19, 2021

The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern by Lilian Jackson Braun

Filed under: Mystery,Series — Tags: , — Randolph @ 12:38 pm

This is the second book in The Cat Who… series. At the beginning of the book, Jim Quilleran has a week to vacate his apartment. He goes to work intending to get a better assignment than the art beat, to be surprised by an assignment to do a weekly interior design supplement to the newspaper called Gracious Abodes.

Given a designer contact of David Lyke, he goes in search of something to write about. David refers him to George Tate, David had done his interior design. David also leads him to a friend who wants someone to sit in his apartment while he is in Europe, it is in a posh building near David. Thus Jim is thrust into a good life, and he begins by sharing his fortune Koko, feeding him fine sea foods.

Within 24 hours of the magazine being published, George Tate’s valuable collection of jade is stolen, his wife dies, and his houseboy, Paolo, disappears and becomes a prime suspect. A point that Jim vehemently disagrees with. The consequences have foreboding affects on The Fluxion! Then David Lyke turns up dead and Koko leads Jim to the clues.

The book gets funny as it delves into the world of interior design. This culture refers to colors by food names that get outrageous as the book goes on. Then sprinkle in a lot of odd characters with unusual quirks makes for a fun read.

Jim picks up a romantic interest in Alacoque Wright, aka Cokey. She has several cat-like characteristics such as scratching at a table when the two met. Except for an occasional salad, she always eats foods a cat would eat, mostly seafood. And she knits (plays with yarn) her own sweaters, so she’s covered in fur.

The author sprinkles lots of words describing furniture and upholstery that I had to look up. It added to the color.

In the end, the mystery was good and resolved well. Although the guilty is revealed early, the why and how are held close until late in the book.

Powered by WordPress