The cat who said cheese

Lilian Jackson Braun

Book - 1996

Saved in:

1st Floor Show me where

MYSTERY/Braun, Lilian Jackson
1 / 1 copies available
Location Call Number   Status
1st Floor MYSTERY/Braun, Lilian Jackson Checked In
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

The year-round residents of Moose County, 400 miles north of everywhere, are enlivening the postsummer doldrums with plans for a fall Great Food Explo--and with gossip about a mystery woman registered at the Pickax City Hotel. Philanthropist/journalist/amateur detective Jim "Quill" Qwilleran, with his two Siamese gourmand/sleuth cats Koko and Yum Yum, becomes involved not only in the cheese-tasting part (20 different varieties) but also in solving a bombing at the hotel and subsequent murder of one of the witnesses. While the author retains familiar human characters and introduces a few new ones, Quill's famous felines continue to hold center stage. An ingenious plot, colorful characters, and delightful humor ("There are disadvantaged cats out there who don't know where their next mouse is coming from!" ) commend this eighteenth (and hopefully still counting) book in Braun's popular series of cat mysteries to literate ailurophiles, both old and new. (Reviewed January 1 & 15, 1996)0399140751Barbara Duree

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

One of the best in the 19-title Cat Who . . . series (one of which is a short-story collection), this latest adventure finds newspaper columnist Jim Qwilleran more likable and his feline sleuthing partners, Siamese Yum Yum and Koko, more intuitive than ever. The small town of Pickax City is about to celebrate the Great Food Expo when a stranger moves into the community's dismal, but only, hotel. Both events engage even the reticent Qwill, as townsfolk get ready for restaurant openings and a pastry bake-off while trying to find out more about the mysterious woman. Qwill gets the jump on everyone when he runs into the woman at his summer cabin, but before he can learn much about her, a bomb explodes in her hotel room while she is out and kills one of the staff. When the woman then vanishes, Qwill suspects she is a fugitive fearing for her life. While the police investigate, attention is redirected toward the Food Expo, in which Qwill participates as both food judge and bachelor auction prize. But the hotel bombing and the mysterious woman are never far from his thoughts, nor from the inspired cogitations of Koko, who neatly untangles a web of eccentric characters and mistaken identities. Mystery Guild and Readers Digest Condensed Book selection; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club alternate. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review

Cat lovers purr at the mention of Braun's best-selling series (e.g., The Cat Who Blew the Whistle, Putnam, 1995), which features a pair of feline detectives. Here, the cats match whiskers with a murderer during a food festival. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

Millionaire (by inheritance) Jim Qwilleran (``Call me Qwill'') lives in northern Pickax City, writes a column for the Moose County Something, and shares his log mansion with Siamese cats Koko and Yum Yum (The Cat Who Blew The Whistle, 1995, etc.). At the moment, Qwill's involved with the town's upcoming Great Food Explo, ignoring local gossip about the foreign mystery woman staying at the New Pickax Hotel--until a gift-wrapped bomb, accompanied by flowers, is sent to her room by an unidentified stranger. The ensuing explosion kills young hotel worker Anna Marie Toms, propels the foreigner to the first plane out of town, and, before long, florist Franklin Pickett, who provided the flowers, is dead, too. Meanwhile, Qwill is busy with visits to ailing girlfriend Polly Duncan, interviews with cheesemakers and mushroom growers, and a stint on the judge's panel in the contest for best pasty (a separate award for those with turnips). He also finds time for supportive chats with glum, slightly brain-damaged beekeeper Aubrey Scotten, who, as Qwill discovers after yet another death, unknowingly holds the key to the puzzle that has police chief Andrew Brodie stymied. Koko and Yum Yum have little impact on the mystery's solution in this 18th episode of the series, but their cutesy antics consume more space than ever. A nearly resolved plot and the warm, if idealized, small-town ambience save this one from total icky-poo. The author's legion of fans will love it--for sure. (Mystery Book Club main selection; Literary Guild alternate selection)

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.