Genre: Mystery
Trade Paperback - LP; Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781410478269; 9780425267424
Berkley Publishing
304 Pages
$25.99; $7.83; $2.99 Amazon
September 2, 2014
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The jig is up for Chase's adorable plus-size cat, Quincy. His new vet says "diet" - that means no more cherry cheesecake bars. From now on he gets low-calorie kibble only. But one taste of the stuff is all it takes to drive him in search of better things. Quincy's escape is the last thing Chase needs after the nasty run-in she has with underhanded business rival Gabe Naughtly.
Chase tracks Quincy down in a neighbor's kitchen, where he's devouring a meatloaf, unaware of the much more serious crime he's stumbled upon. Gabe's corpse is lying on the kitchen floor, and when Chase is discovered at the murder scene, she becomes suspect number one. Now, with a little help from her friends - both human and feline - she'll have to catch the real killer or wind up behind bars that aren't so sweet.
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Oh, my. Here's the second book in a row that I've read that has glaring errors in it. Glaring. Errors. Things that should never be, but are.
First, her name is Charity, so why on earth is her nickname Chase? Maybe if her name was Chastity, but Char would be a better choice. Anyway...she owns a bakery that only sells dessert bars. That's it. Bars. For some odd reason, they sell out every single day. They must be the best in town, because dessert bars are okay once in a while, but I wouldn't buy them every day. Or bake them every day. Enough of that...
She lives above the bakery in an apartment but brings Quincy down and shuts him in the office while she's working. Every single day. A little bitty office instead of leaving him upstairs where he can look out a window and sleep anywhere he wants. Is she that lonely? Because that's just a very cruel thing to do to a cat. It's like taking him up to the apartment and shutting him in the bathroom all night. Not to mention it's probably a pretty big health violation.
Then, they have someone stealing from them but they don't know who it is. Why? Because they don't have security cameras, which is odd. Chase opens a bakery, but doesn't think security cameras would be a good idea? I wonder why that is? Perhaps because she's dumber than a box of rocks?
I'm also guessing the author has never actually been to Minneapolis except maybe for a day or two on vacation, because she mentions how it's August and she'll have to dig her sweaters out soon. I grew up in Minneapolis. You need those sweaters now. My sister still lives there, and it's July, and they're having days in the 70's right now. So the nights will definitely be chillier. I went there several years ago in August and wore sweatshirts and a light jacket. It also rains. A lot. I'm also thinking it's probably not a good idea to walk out alone at night in Dinkytown. This isn't a small town.
Then, someone puts rats in their business which they discover before the health inspector shows up. Which, unless the health inspector is dumber than a box of rocks also, would know that these are rats that have come from a pet shop, since they're tame and don't look anything like feral rats. These are white rats that you can pick up. Yeah, the inspector would have to be pretty stupid not to be able to tell the difference.
Then - and this is the big one - after the health inspector visits, Chase is talking with her friend Julie and she actually says this: "We had a violation on the health inspection, but it's an easy fix - just the sign missing that tells us to wash our hands. Stupid regulation anyway." Excuse me? She thinks it's stupid for employees to wash their hands after using the bathroom? Ewww...you want to buy food where the employees don’t wash their hands? Now I wonder if she washes her hands at home. Gross!
Here's an FYI for the author: Gabe's prints would have been on the knife, considering that even if the knife had been washed, he would have had to touch it to put it back in the butcher block. So the fact that only Chase's prints were on the knife should have alerted them that the killer must have wiped the knife clean and she was telling the truth.
Then there's the hint of the ubiquitous love triangle. No thanks. I absolutely abhor them. They're never interesting and always annoying. I say it like this: if it were a guy who was stringing along two women, you'd think he was a dog, or worse. So why is it okay when a woman does it?
But the worst is poor Quincy: cats don't eat constantly, they're not dogs. So you can leave their food down all day and they'll only eat when they're hungry. But it's irresponsible for Anna to keep shoving sugar-laden foods in his face. Especially since cats can't taste sweets. At all. They are the only mammal unable to do so. They don't have that protein gene. Which has me wondering why he's eating them. Get your facts before you write. It helps.
So needless to say, I won't be reading any more in this series, even though I've bought the other two books. I have better things to do with my time than be annoyed.
https://www.amazon.com/Fat-Cat-At-Large-Mystery/dp/0425267423/ref
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2918917749
More on Janet Cantrell's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/c/janet-cantrell/
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