The Cat Who Smelled a Rat

Here are some stats: The Cat Who Smelled a Rat is the 20th book I've read by Lilian Jackson Braun. My database tells me that equates to 5,054 pages, all about Jim Qwilleran, his two Siamese cats, and life in a small town just south of the Canadian border. That puts this author 9th on my list of most read authors if measured by number of books read but because they are not thick books, she only ranks 25th if measured but total pages read. Did I ever mention I was sort of anal when it comes to my books? Still that's a lot of time spent in Moose County and the town of Pickax (as well as the first three books before Jim moved up to "400 miles north of everywhere.")

These books are probably classified as "cozy" mysteries. In my mind that means the mystery element is a little more simplistic than you might otherwise find. In fact, when I read these books, it's much more about the character interaction, the quirkiness of the townsfolk, and how they react to various events, whether it is to serious things like murder or natural disasters or to less serious things like a new restaurant opening or a newcomer to town.

Always a pleasant read even if a quick one. Can't always be reading mind-bending science fiction or in-depth historical fiction. Cheers.

The Cat Who Saw Stars

The Cat Who Saw Stars, by Lilian Jackson Braun is the 18th of the series I have read to date.  It's numbered 21 in the series but, generally, this isn't the sort of series where you have to read them in order and I'm not letting the fact that I'm missing a few titles keep me from getting on with it.  The first few, yes, where the general timeline of what is going on is important to understand but by this point they are pretty much stand-alone stories with just a few references to what might have happened in the past.  And to tell the truth, every time I run across such a reference, I can't remember if that was one I read about or not.

Regardless, these books are hardly the height of literary mystery and regular readers of this blog will know I read them more for the setting and the characters than for the riddle of the mystery itself.  The town of Pickax in the county of Mooseville has such a rich texture of interesting characters that it's always fun to go back and visit.  This novel find the protagonist Jim Qwilleran, move to his beach house in Mooseville, on the shores of a huge lake (although it is never stated exactly where these novels take place, it is generally thought to be in Northern Michigan and now we find ourselves on the shores of Lake Superior).  Mr "Q" plans for a 4 week vacation there but a series of circumstances leads him to cut it short after only two.  As usual, Mr Q visits friends, gathers stories for his twice-weekly column in the Pickax newspaper, performs community functions, and pays attention to his cat's odd behavior which is always a predictor of criminal activities somewhere.  This time the cat (Koko) finds a missing backpacker's body buried in the sand along the beach and he manages to push postcards off a shelf which contain important clues pertaining to a boat "accident" that the locals have chalked up to alien abduction.  Sounds quirky eh?

It is and it isn't.  I was disappointed in this one as are many other fans of the series.  Ms Braun's age is not listed anywhere but she has to be getting on in years and many have speculated that this one was written by a ghost writer.  Indeed, much of the phrasing seems off and the plot felt flat to me.  The mystery elements seemed almost unrelated to the real story and Koko's clues were just plain uninteresting.  I really didn't care who dunnit and I wasn't even sure there had been a crime committed until the end.  And even then, Mr Q and his cats didn't solve it but rather were told what happened by a bit character within which the criminal had confided.  Odd.  But I'll keep at these novels because, at this moment I still have 6 more on my shelf still to be read (hopefully not written by ghost writers).

"Death Ship," by Richard Matheson was the next short story in The Best Time Travel Stories of the 20th Century.  I know Mr Matheson more as a horror/science fiction author ("I am Legend") than pure sci-fi and, indeed, this story demonstrates that very nicely.  Here we have a space capsule sometime in our future carrying three astronauts who are researching planets suitable for human habitation when they come across a crashed capsule just like theirs and containing the dead bodies of...themselves.  How they deal with this and speculate on possibly having traveled through time to see their own futures and, most particularly, how they try and prevent what might be their fates, is nice subtle horror writing.

Next up: The Grays by Whitley Strieber.

The Cat Who Tailed a Thief

This morning I finished up Lilian Jackson Braun’s The Cat Who Tailed a Thief. This is the 20th book in the series, originally published in 1997; I’ve been working my way through them at the rate of about two to three a year. I was a bit surprised when I looked up this series to find out that this is the 20th book I’ve read so far…tells me my many years of reading are really starting to pile up :)

I’ve really endeavored to understand why I like reading these novels so much. They are mystery novels, of which I read my fair share, but the mystery involved with each book is usually pretty straight forward, often clever but not overly complicated. Very often I figure out “who dunnit” before the protagonist does but I still enjoy the unfolding story. These books are considered to be “cozy” mysteries, a sub-genre that usually appeals to female readers, and older females at that. Not exactly the kind of novel that a middle-aged man like myself brags about to the other guys at work. Of course there are exceptions but these books also involve cats. Now I like my own cat but I usually don’t like others people’s cats too much. Add to that the fact that the cats in the Cat Who series are Siamese cats and I really shouldn’t be enjoying them the way I do.

I suppose I like them because of the lifestyle led by the characters. There is just something about living in a small town like Pickaxe filled with its peculiar personalities that appeals to me. And I like the protagonist’s (Jim Qwilleran, or Qwill to his friends) circumstances: a journalist by profession who now has the luxury to lead whatever life he desires due to the inheritance of billions of dollars. There is no pressure for him to do anything he doesn’t want to do, so he writes a twice a week column for the local newspaper on the subject of his choice and spends a lot of time enjoying literature, etc…and of course, solving crimes.

This particular book lasts for an entire winter in the small town of Pickaxe. There is a petty thief on the loose and Qwill has decided to publish a book of “Short and Tall Tales” reproducing the local legends and stories in one collected compendium. The town is buzzing over the proposed re-development of a downtown Victorian housing area. Most of the story revolves around the interactions of the citizens of the town but Qwill’s suspicions are aroused when the out-of-town slick, well-dressed developer moves in on the action. A prominent citizen dies mysteriously and Qwill is off to the investigation. I great new character is introduced in the form of the local weatherman, Joe “Wetherby Goode” Bunker. I certainly hope to hear more from him in future books.

If you’re in the mood for a light mystery, you could certainly do worse than a “Cat Who” book but I do recommend starting at the beginning just so you can get a good feel for all of the characters involved. I still have 13 books to go plus one more reportedly being published soon. Coolness.

I also completed the next short story in the Louis L’Amour collection, The Strong Shall Survive. “The Romance of Piute Bill” is a humorous entry about a horse rancher who has to raid a neighboring ranch in order to get his stolen horses back. In the process a bad guy gets killed and his wife is suddenly available for marriage. The rancher’s workman, Piute Bill gets the widow in an arrangement that includes engagement and actual marriage in the space of about 4 hours. How that happens is funny stuff, not normally what one expects from L’Amour, but again shows his versatility.

I leave tomorrow for a business trip so will bring the lengthy 4th volume of Wilbur Smith’s Ancient Egyptian series with me. The Quest wraps up the series, I believe (at least no more are published as of yet). I’ll take along another novel as well in case I have more reading time than expected. I’ll report early next week when I return.

The Cat Who Went Into the Closet

I finished up Lilian Jackson Braun's The Cat Who Went Into the Closet this weekend. When I looked it up I see that it is the 16th book in the series, a fact that surprised me because it just doesn't seem like I've read quite that many...maybe 10 or 11...but when I checked my database, sure enough, this is my 16th, with quite a few still left on the shelves. I often find these at the library bookstore and pick them up for just $1.00 so I always seem to have more of them to read.

The plot of this one was pretty straight forward, involving our protagonist Jim Qwilleran (Qwill) and his two siamese cats getting wrapped up with the suspicious death of his temporary landlord. He actually sets up a sting operation with another lady in a neighboring town to catch the bad guys and it is fun to see it all unfold. But it is not really the plot or the mystery itself that make these books fun for me. It is the nature of the protagonist's situation. In about book number 4, Qwill learns he has inherited the enormous Klingenschoen fortune as long as he agrees to live in the small town of Pickaxe in Moose County (up north somewhere, probably northern Michigan). He quickly decides being a billionaire is a nuisance so he sets up the Klingenschoen foundation which aids worthy causes in and around Moose county.

What a great life! Having no financial worries, and at age 50 or so, he can live the way he wants and do the things he wants, which for him is being a columnist for the county paper (he used to be a reporter for several newspapers down south). He spends a lot of his time meeting and interacting with the locals (population ~ 3000) and I just love the interplay he has with the small town people. And to be able to help people out of tough binds would be great too. Whether he spends an evening reading aloud to his cats or drives into town to eat at one of the local diners with a friend, it just seems like a cool life to lead. I guess that is why I look forward to reading a "cozy mystery" like this occasionally, and especially to counteract all of the real world stresses that we all encounter from time to time.

I also completed two interconnected short stories in Stephen King's Skeleton Crew collection. "Morning Deliveries (Milkman #1)" concerns a milkman who leaves suprises in the milk when he makes his deliveries, such as poisonous spiders, poison, etc. In "Big Wheels: A Tale of the Laundry Game (Milkman #2)" the plot centers around two laundry workers who are driving around after their shift looking for an auto inspection station. It becomes apparant that one of the two men was involved in an unsolved murder and it actually ties in with the milkman guy from the first story. This seemed to me like an unfinished story and, indeed, when I reserached it I discovered they were both part of an unfinished novel.

Next up: Blood Safari by Deon Meyer.

The Cat Who Wasn't There

The second book that I completed on the trip was The Cat Who Wasn't There by Lilian Jackson Braun. I was due for a straight who-dunnit mystery and I also needed to read a shorter novel after just completing the lengthy The Seventh Scroll. This book is the 15th in the "Cat Who..." series and although I haven't read all of them up to this point I would guess I have completed about 10-11 of them. I confess to not having read them in order, something I normally never do, but that is due to the nature of how I acquire them. You see I received several as gifts, years ago and I knew my mother had read them and liked them so I gave them a try. Since then I occasionally pick one up at a used book store but by no means own all of them nor read them in the correct order. That really doesn't matter though as each is a stand alone story and the parts of the bigger story arc that stretch across books are slow moving and easily picked up by the context of each book.

I do enjoy these novels...the more of them I read the more I enjoy them. They are safe mysteries, meaning I know what I'm getting each time I read one. I envy the main character's position in life: wealthy due to unexpected inheritance, yet living somewhat frugally in a small town filled with quirky characters. He writes a column in the local newspaper on topics he thinks are interesting. Really, it's a stress free life...or should be. The problem is, just like other who- dunnit protagonists, there are a lot of murders that seem to take place in his small town, and with the assistance of his two siamese cats, he usually gets into the middle of it.

This particular entry in the series is among the favorites of the fans. It's easy to see why. Quill (Jim Quilleran, the protagonist), agrees to travel to Scotland with several of the townspeople and see the sites. This gets him out of the normal town routines and gives readers a change of scenery. The actual murder and subsequent mystery and the solving thereof takes many twists and turns as we travel with Quill to Scotland and back home again. His girlfriend is being stalked by an unknown person(s) and Quill himself is being stalked by an old flame intent upon marriage. Could she have her eye on that vast fortune of his? The town's character and it's quirky residents are on full display. All in all a witty story well told. I will keep on reading these books at a rate of 1-2 per year because its always nice to come home to a friendly place.

The trip still wasn't over yet though so one more book to tell you about on the next blog.