Book Review: Purrder She Wrote by Cate Conte (Cat Cafe Mysteries #2)

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Appealing setting for a fun mystery

Cons: Pacing for main plot early on

The Bottom Line:

Socialite murder

In a fantastic setting

Makes for a fun book

Purrfectly Fun Return Visit

I have been seriously wanting to go on vacation the last couple of weeks.  It hasn’t mattered where, I just want to go someplace fun and relax.  While I’m stuck at home working, I did feel like I got to take a bit of a vacation with Purrder She Wrote.

This is the second book in the Cat Café series, and is set on Daybreak Island, a fictional island off the coast of Massachusetts that is extremely popular as a summer resort.  While Maddie James, our main character, grew up on the island as opposed to being one of those tourists, I still felt like I was enjoying a vacation when I was reading the book.  Except for the murder, of course.

The book opens on opening day for Maddie’s new venture – a cat café.  She’s turned some rooms in her grandfather’s house into the café, and she’s working with the local animal shelter to provide the cats.  The idea is, people can come visit the cats, and if they find one they especially love, they can adopt it.

However, opening day doesn’t go as smoothly as Maddie had hoped.  They haven’t been opened too long before one of Maddie’s volunteers, Adele, is arguing with Holly.  Holly is part of the rich set on the island, and she is not used to be told no.  When Holly turns up dead before the day is over, naturally Adele is a suspect.  Maddie is sure the police are looking in the wrong place.  Can she figure out what really happened?

Daybreak Island really does sound like a wonderful place to visit, if you can ignore the murder rate, that is.  Maddie only mentions some of the things the tourists do, but she talks about the beach, which sounds absolutely delightful.  That alone was enough to help me relax.  And the idea of the cat café sounds delightful as well.  Oh, I could never go there with my allergies and asthma; just thinking about stepping inside made me want to sneeze.  But I love cats, and if it weren’t for my allergies, I’d love to visit one.

The relaxation does extend to the plot, however.  Despite Holly’s fairly early demise, the early part seems to get distracted with a couple of sub-plots.  Mind you, I wasn’t bored since I was enjoying the sub-plots, and when the mystery kicks into high gear, we find that we’ve met several strong suspects.  I certainly didn’t have the villain figured out until Maddie pieced it together.

As I just said, the suspects themselves are strong, which helped with my confusion about who the killer was.  But the reason I was looking forward to this sequel was that I fell in love with the main cast.  We meet another regular or two here, and I loved them just as much.  Maddie has a great family and several strong friends.  I’m also really rooting for her relationship with Lucas, the pet groomer on the island.

For those who don’t know, Cate Conte is the pen name of author Liz Mugavero who writes the Pawsitivly Organic series under her own name.  There is a very fun reference to that series here that fans of both will enjoy.

Wish just a month left of summer (already??!!), now’s the purrfect time to pick up this new book. Purrder She Wrote is a great mini vacation with murder.

Enjoy the rest of the Cat Cafe Mysteries.

NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.