Genre: Mystery
Hardcover; Trade Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781683311089; 9781683312673
Crooked Lane Books
336 Pages
$14.68; $14.70; $8.69 Amazon
August 8, 2017
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Lacy Marie Crocker's whimsical pet couture has gained a following in New Orlean's cozy Garden District, and word of mouth has traveled all the way to her favorite fashion designer, Annie Lane. Lacy's thrilled when Annie schedules a private session at her home to discuss a companion line for her evening wear, but when Lacy arrives for the appointment, she enters the kitchen to two mewling Siamese cats - and one very dead Annie.
Lacy takes the kittens home to care for them until they can be properly claimed by Annie's family or friends, but after a busy day of work, she returns home to find them missing. And when Lacy learns the cats are set to inherit Annie's fortune, she begins to wonder if the killer was after the kittens all along. Now Lacy will stop at nothing to save the Siamese and find justice for Annie - if the killer doesn't sink his claws into her first.
Luckily, Lacy has the help of handsome NOLA PD homicide detective Jack Oliver to help her cat the cat-napper before it's too late.
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Lacy Marie Crocker has an appointment with a fashion designer, Annie Lane, to discuss adding her pet couture line to Annie's fashion line. But when she arrives at Annie's home, she finds the woman's two pet Siamese cats, Cotton and Cashmere, and a very dead Annie.
Now, less than a year later, she's involved in another murder investigation that Detective Jack Oliver wish she wasn't. Rather than see the cats taken by animal control, she volunteers to temporarily care for them - until they're stolen from her home. After retrieving the kitties, she sends them somewhere safe until their rightful owner can claim them. But that might not be easy since the murder suspect list is growing, and Lacy wonders who wanted the cats enough to kill for them...
This is the second book in the series and unfortunately started out so slow that I almost stopped reading it as nothing terribly interesting had gone on by page 70, aside from the death. I also thought that there were a couple of confusing passages: such as after Lacy finds the dead woman, another woman shows up who turns out to be Annie's assistant. All the assistant seems to know is that Annie had an appointment at 11:00 am but didn't know with whom. It was confusing because Lacy asked Josie if she knew who the appointment was with (no), yet I thought it was with Lacy, which, we find out later, it was; yet this is never clarified until much later. Then there was the 'kidnapping' of the cats, which seemed rather ridiculous and much like just filler for the book. It was pointless. The third thing was the fact that the kidnapper was able to get the cats because Lacy didn't set her alarm. She tells Jack that she only uses her alarm when she's home - but not when she's out. How dumb is that? Wouldn't you need it most when you're not home? No wonder she designs clothing for pets. She's too stupid to do anything else. Well, enough said about that.
As far as the plot goes, it got a little more interesting as the book progressed. Once things 'started happening' as it were, the rest of it was an easy read. Lacy's doing her best to live in two worlds - that of her new one as a business owner and the one she grew up in, New Orleans society. Fortunately there were a few scenes that allowed these two worlds to mesh nicely.
Her relationship with Detective Jack Oliver is on the verge of a change, but nothing significant. They're still tip-toeing around each other, both of them trying to figure it out. She wants to trust again, which is difficult after dealing with a cheating boyfriend, and he doesn't want to let his guard down. Her mother, on the other hand, wants to see her with Chase Hawthorne, scion of an old New Orleans family who has recently returned home and taken up law again, joining the family firm. It's one day at a time in this area for Lacy.
All in all, an average cozy that was a fairly easy read, and the plot was decent enough. When the killer was discovered and the reason given, it was perfectly believable and done decently. I actually kind of liked how it played out. I will read the next in the series, but I sure hope that things progress a little bit faster in future books. Recommended.
https://www.amazon.com/Cat-Got-Your-Cash-Couture/dp/1683312678/ref=
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1882000998
More on Julie Chase's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/c/julie-chase/
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