Stars: 5 out of 5
Pros: Comedy, mystery, and comedy
Cons: All cons have lost their ninth life
The Bottom Line:
Prozac, TV star?
Cat’s big break leads to murder
And big laughs for us
Diet Cat Food is Murder
After thirteen books, I’ve come to rely on Jaine
Austen. The books in this series are
always light, funny, and a pleasure to read.
Murder Has Nine Lives is the
fourteenth book, and I wasn’t disappointed in the slightest.
If you’ve missed the series, Jaine is a freelance writer
living in Southern California. She is
owned by a very demanding cat name Prozac.
Her life seems to be filled with murder and mayhem since these books are
just as heavy on the laughs as they are on murder. While I am a firm read in order person, these
books really do stand alone, so you can pick them up in any order. Trust me, once you start, you’ll want to read
them all.
This book opens in the vet’s office. Jaine has brought Prozac in for her annual
checkup, but before they even get to the appointment, an animal agent spots Prozac
and is convinced that Jaine’s cat is perfect for a new commercial for diet cat
food. All Prozac has to do is eat and
sleep – the two activity she excels at.
The trick is she has to do it on command, but Prozac behaves well enough
at the audition to land the part.
The day of the shoot, things are going along well until it
comes time to shoot Prozac’s final scene, when she starts becoming her usual
temperamental self. The creator of
Skinny Kitty, Dean Oliver, calls for a half hour break. When everyone returns, Dean films his big
scene, where he announces the cat food is so good he will eat it himself and
takes a big bite. Only after he does, he
keels over dead.
Jaine had already witnessed that Dean wasn’t a very nice
man, but it seems that just about everyone on set had a motive for murder. The police include Jaine in that number, and
tell her not to leave town. But with a
vacation to Hawaii on the horizon, Jaine needs to make sure she is cleared of
suspicion, so she begins digging into the suspects and motives. Can she find the killer in time to go on her
trip?
The mysteries in these books are always good. We’ve got a nice collection of suspects, and
as Jaine talks to them, we learn more about motives and opportunity. It always seems like the top suspect is
changing as Jaine talks to everyone until we reach the logical solution.
The books are filled with sub-plots as well. In one, Jaine agrees to go on a blind date
with the nephew of her biggest client.
It’s fun to finally actually see the owner of Toiletmaster since we’ve
heard lots about him over the course of the series. As always, we are also treated to the latest
in her parent’s retirement community in Florida thanks to a string of e-mail
exchanges. This time around, her father
has decided to enter the annual Scrabble tournament and defeat the reigning
champion Lydia Pinkus, his arch nemesis and Jaine’s mother’s best friend. The results are completely hilarious, which
was no surprise to me.
At times, these sub-plots take over the story, especially
Jaine’s blind date. However, I really
don’t mind because they are so much fun.
While there are plenty of laughs in this book, some of the best come
from these two stories. Trust me, you
won’t begrudge a page spent on either of them.
If you haven’t figured it out by now, these books are a
little over the top, which is much of their fun. The characters are likewise outrageous in a
fun way. They are real enough for us to
care about the outcome, but they are not the complex people I might praise in
another series. Still they fit the
series perfectly and anything different would feel odd.
Author Laura Levine has a background in comedy writing, and
it really shows. In fact, I often
describe these books as sitcoms with murder, and the description really does
fit. Don’t pick them up when you want
anything dark or serious, but if you are in the mood for laughs with your
murder, this is the perfect series for you.
Fans of Jaine’s adventures have nothing to worry about, she
is still going strong in Murder Has Nine Lives. And if you have yet to start
the series, I’ll say it again – drop everything and do so today. You’ll be binge reading these books and
laughing through them all.
Need to catch up on Jaine’s other adventures? Here are the Jaine Austen Mysteries in order.
It sounds fun and one you could breeze through quickly!
ReplyDeleteThese are always fast reads, but completely worth it.
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