Book Review: Mew is for Murder by Clea Simon (Theda Krakow #1)

Stars: 2 out of 5

Pros: The characters are interesting and likable

Cons: The plot is very weak and writing style poor.

The Bottom Line:

Good characters can't

Make up for poor writing, plot

Pass on by this one

Don't Let This Cat Out of the Bag

Theda Krakow's life is changing. Her boyfriend has recently moved from Massachusetts to Arizona, she quit her job as a copy editor to become a freelance journalist, and her cat James died. Of all of these, it's the death of her cat that's hit her hardest. She's spent the winter hiding from her friends and doing as much work as she can from home.

She's just beginning to get over her grief when she meets Lillian Helmhold, a "crazy cat" lady a few blocks over. Deciding that an article on a cat hoarder could make a great assignment for a paper, Theda goes back to interview her only to find Lillian dead. The police are quick to rule it an accident. Lillian's friend Violet feels differently, however, and begins to convince Theda that there is more to this then meets the eye. Might the neighbor who wants to handle the estate have had something to do with it? What about Lillian's son?

This is the author's debut novel, and it shows. The plot is weak, with equal time devoted to Theda's work and social life. In fact, there are times when they take over the story completely, stopping any progress on the mystery. The reader might care about this if we already knew her, but as it is, it bores more often then not. The villain was easy to spot. Ironically, the pace of the story picked up after I did so, but slowed back down before the weak climax.

It's a shame the plot is weak because the characters are interesting. Theda is likable enough and I'd like to spend more time with her. In the course of the story, Theda adopts a kitten temporarily, and her interaction with the cat was so adorable, it made me want to get a cat despite my bad allergies. Violet was an abnormal character for the series I read, but she was solid as the driving force behind the investigation and really likable as well. Even Lillian and what the reader learns about her in the course of the story makes her sympathetic.

The writing style was also distracting. In the beginning, it felt a little over written, as if the author had tried too hard to get it polished. I had to struggle to follow what was happening. As often happens, the style seems to smooth out as the book progresses, but there were still times the author would show us a reaction then explain what had happened. It made for hard reading.

Mew Is for Murder needed another couple drafts before it was published. It's a shame because I like Theda. I'll think long and hard before I visit her again, however.