Saturday, March 15, 2008
The Cat Who Dropped a Bombshell
*** The Cat Who Dropped a Bombshell by Lilian Jackson Braun. Mystery.
I'm not sure why I read this so close to The Cat Who Went Bananas... well, actually, I am sure--it just worked out that way because of my random system for picking books from the TBR pile (this one had migrated to the top a couple of months ago, but I set it aside until I'd read the earlier one). The question is why I didn't toss this back in the TBR pile after the disappointment with TCWWB, like I did with Anne Rice's books.
Pickax is celebrating its sesquicentennial, with everyone in town involved. The main highlights: a kitten auction, with the kittens named after literary figures (Qwill's idea, of course), and the decision to name the celebration "Pickax Now!" (the importance of this completely escapes me, but it took up a good portion of the book, so I'm mentioning it).
The wealthy Ledfields' nephew arrives, to sketch Qwill's apple barn, and Koko takes an instant dislike to him--is it because he hates cats, or is it something more?
There's murder, of course, and this time there's at least an attempt made at an investigation, though Qwill seems more interested in the sesquicentennial than in something as mundane as murder (which only makes sense, if you think of it--he's seen a lot more murders--this is his 28th murder mystery--than sesquicentennials).
The feel of the book is a little more like the middle of the series than the previous book was, though it's still not even close to the best of the series. Qwill just going through the motions, and his bizarre celebrity (people have started reacting to him as if he were a rock star) are my main complaints this time.
At any rate, I'm not too sorry I read this one. It's marginally better than the last, so I'm not left with such a bad taste in my mouth. The Cat Who Had 60 Whiskers is still in my TBR pile, but that's probably the last one I'll buy.
Categories: Books, 3stars, Mystery
Labels: 3 stars, books, mystery
