Murder by Death

A highly entertaining, escapist read, especially (and probably only) if you like cats. These are magical cats and they have very distinctive, strong personalities as well as "superpowers". They help Kathleen solve mysteries in her little Minnesota town, much to the consternation of the detective and chief love interest, Marcus.

I genuinely enjoyed the story overall - great characters, lots of solid dialogue and I really got 'into' the story and didn't want to put the book down. But I have to admit the mystery was a bit secondary to me in this one. I found myself not really caring one way or the other about the murder victim, the suspects, or whether it was solved or not. I *did* think the ending was a bit dumb - Kathleen is either dishonest or acting out of character at the end and it just felt like the author was forcing her character into a TSTL moment. Occupational hazard if you're a cozy writer, I guess

.Luckily, a new adventure with Owen and Hercules (the cats) comes out in October and I'll be looking for it.