Genre: Mystery
Trade Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781516104215
Lyrical Underground Publishing
222 Pages
$14.16; $7.19 Amazon
December 4, 2018
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Feline deadly this Christmas...Whisker Jog, New Hampshire, celebrates all things Christmas, and few things are more beloved than the town's annual holiday cookie competition. Lara Caphart, who runs the High Cliff Shelter for Cats with her Aunt Fran, is waiting for the green light for a brand-new category: pet-friendly cookies. But when the woman filling in as a last-minute judge dies after sampling someone's Santa-themed treat, Lara's recipe for healthy cat snacks will have to be put on the back burner. The victim, Gladys Plouffe, was the town's roundly despised former home economics teacher. The chief suspect is the mother of Lara's best friend, who was hellbent on walking away with the bake-off's cash prize. Cryptic clues from beyond the grave only deepen the mystery, pointing to a cat with striking blue eyes -- a cat who bears an uncanny resemblance to Lara's mysterious Ragdoll. As Lara begins a dangerous game of cat and mouse, not even her significant other may be able to stop a perfectly clawful killer from getting away with the purr-fect crime...
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Lara Caphart, along with her aunt Fran, own and run the High Cliff Shelter for Cats. There is a Christmas cookie contest coming up, and Lara wrote to the company asking if they'd consider a category for pet-friendly cookies. Although it's a no, she still wants to bake some, so she heads to the library to find a book with recipes that she can tweak and make her own. But she finds more than she wants: a thirty-year-old letter that proclaims the writer witnessed the murder of an elderly woman, and she swears she saw the woman's cat's soul leaving its body.
Even though Lara wants to investigate the murder, she also wants to attend the contest and support her friend Sherry's mother, who entered the competition, and also sell her own cat-friendly cookies. Unfortunately, one of the judges, Gladys Plouffe is a retired home-ec teacher who despised Sherry, so she's glad that the woman doesn't know about her mom's entry.
Lara's also surprised that the owner of the company who's sponsoring the competition - Todd Thryce - stops by her table and praises her for her efforts, then asks if he can come by the shelter before he leaves town. Lara is pleased with this, although his companion, Alice Gentry, doesn't look so thrilled to be there or that he wants to do so.
Then, when everyone is squeezed out of the auditorium so the judging can begin, Lara hears a scream and enters again, finding Gladys on the ground, and it appears she's dead. She's also holding one of Sherry's mom's, Daisy's, cookies. With the police thinking she was poisoned, Daisy is a wreck, unable to run her restaurant or even cook. So now Lara has two mysteries to solve: helping Daisy and finding out more about the letter. But even trying to stay away from a murderer isn't always easy...
This is the third book in the series and I have to say that I enjoyed it more than the first two. As a lifelong lover of cats (all animals, but cats especially), and proud owner of several myself, I really enjoyed reading about the cats' individual personalities and their antics. That being said, I also liked the way it didn't take away from the mystery portion of the story.
I loved the 'mystery within a mystery' as I always relish these types of books, since they give me two mysteries to solve, along with the protagonist. Little did we know that the letter would mean more than it did, and the writer would have given Lara a bigger clue to someone close to her heart. It was a sad story that brought tears to my eyes; but then again, I've stated how much I love cats, and if anyone loses a precious animal, it will do the same for you.
The present-day mystery was just as much involved as the past, and the clues leading to the murder were subtle, yet they were there. I had read very closely, and was glad to see that one of my own suspects was correct, although that also was a very sad situation. In the past murder, the suspect was much more difficult to discern, and I will say that it came as a complete surprise, and the reasons behind it were rather distasteful, yet believable all the same.
When the ending comes and everything is put back to rights (as we know it would eventually be so), Lara has made a decision that affects her future, and I will say that I agree with that. It also gives her and her aunt something to look forward to in the future. I will definitely be continuing with this series. Recommended.
https://www.amazon.com/Claws-Celebration-Linda-Reilly/dp/1516104218/ref
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3298984946
More on Linda Reilly's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/r/linda-reilly/
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