Review by Booklist Review
Anyone who has ever exclaimed, Cats! with a mixture of affection, frustration, and admiration is bound to fall (or has already fallen) for this venerable series (27 novels young) featuring Koko and Yum Yum, the svelte and savvy Siamese. This time the marvelously mustached Jim Qwilleran, more familiarly known as Qwill, and his feline friends relax in their converted apple-barn home in Pickax City, Moose County, 400 miles north of everywhere. Frantic activity occurs around them, as Pickax prepares for its sesquicentennial with parades and other festivities. As the richest man around (thanks to an inheritance), Qwill is called upon to lead or partake in many events and write about others in his Qwill Pen newspaper column. Meanwhile, a terrible storm threatens the celebration, and the mysterious deaths of a wealthy couple lead to questions about murder. With its familiar characters, cozy plots, and happy endings, this series remains as comforting as a warm cat in your lap on a rainy day. --Jenny McLarin Copyright 2005 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Bestseller Braun's disappointing 28th Cat Who... novel (after 2004's The Cat Who Went Bananas) mostly follows journalist Jim "Call Me Qwill" Qwilleran as he runs around Pickax City, Mich., getting things ready for the town's blow-out celebration of its sesquicentenary. Many books ago, Qwill inherited tons of money and set up a foundation to benefit Pickax. Now that story line has become a caricature, with Qwill's fund popping up and financing yet another venture virtually every chapter. The "mystery" concerns Nathan and Doris Ledfield, a wealthy couple whose only heir is an obnoxious, greedy nephew. When late in the tale the Ledfields die... well, let's just say that no one will be surprised to learn who was behind their deaths, or what his motive was. Lame plotting isn't the only problem. The characterization is not just thin, it's anorexic. Perhaps it's time to put this series, which once defined feline fiction, to sleep. Mystery Guild main selection. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Sesquicentennial fever sweeps Pickax City. As head of the K Foundation, fabulously wealthy Jim "Qwill" Qwilleran is often involved in Moose County activities. He's just made the move from his in-town condo to the architecturally renowned apple barn that's his summer home. Qwill is happy to let the orphaned nephew of the wealthy Ledfield family make sketches of his apple barn for a college entrance portfolio. Harvey Ledfield soon arrives in a limousine with his fiancée, cat-loving journalism student Clarissa Moore, who is a hit with Qwill. But Qwill becomes suspicious of Harvey when Qwill's Siamese Koko drops from a balcony and knocks Harvey off his sketching stool. Like Yum Yum, Qwill's other cat, Koko is never wrong about people and obviously has it in for Harvey. In due course, Clarissa confesses that she's not engaged but just helping Harvey work a scam to inherit the Ledfield wealth. Undaunted, Qwill gets her a job at the local paper as he and his circle of friends gear up to make the sesquicentennial celebration one for the history books. Things go well enough until both Ledfield elders die mysteriously. For better or worse, parades and other events leave Qwill little time for sleuthing. No mystery to speak of, but cat-loving fans of Braun's Moose County saga (The Cat Who Went Bananas, 2005, etc.) will no doubt enjoy the latest from Pickax. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
