Murder Old and New Haunts This Halloween
As much as I am trying to deny that it is fall, we are in October. That means it is time for Halloween set mysteries. Okay, with how full my reading schedule is for the next few weeks, I only have one Halloween set book still to be read, but Nine Lives and Alibis is a fun book to read this time of year.
This is the seventh book in Cate Conte's Cat Cafe Mysteries. If you aren't familiar with them, they feature Maddie James who moved back home to Daybreak Island, off the coast of Massachusetts, and opened a cat cafe in part of her grandpa's home.
This book finds Maddie helping with the Halloween festival on Daybreak Island. While her mother is the chair of the committee overseeing everything, Maddie and her two younger sisters have been drafted as well over, and it is promising to be a busy next week and a half. The event will feature cat costume contests, a pumpkin carving contest, haunted walking tours, and reading with famed psychic Balfour. Balfour grew up on the island, but he hasn't been home for years, ever since he became famous for his talents.
Some of the residents, including Maddie's best friend, Becky, are hoping that Balfour can shed some light on the forty-year-old mysteries of a murder and disappearance that happened on the island. But when a murder brings an early end to opening night, Maddie wonders if the motive is more contemporary. Can she figure out what is going on?
If you expect the murder to happen quickly in a mystery, this book will frustrate you. However, the book was using the time to set up suspects and motives before the body dropped. Yes, I do feel the pacing could have been a little sharper, but I was still engaged the entire way through. Once the murder happens, we are off and running with several puzzles to figure out in order to solve it. I did guess one part early, but I still was surprised by most of the revelations we got along the way to the satisfactory ending.
Being a Halloween book, I went in expecting a bit more supernatural elements than I would normally read. And those elements were here. I will admit that those elements bothered me more than I thought they would, but I realize that this is a me thing and most readers wouldn't be bothered by it. On the other hand, I did enjoy the Halloween setting overall, and would have enjoyed many of the events we popped into as Maddie investigated.
Fans of the author's Full Moon Mysteries will enjoy seeing a couple of the characters from that series show up here.
As a fan of the series, it was great to be spending time with the characters again. Everyone we've met has at least a cameo in the book, with some playing larger roles than others, which is pretty normal for a mystery series. There was an interesting development for a couple of characters here, and I'm interested in seeing that play out in future books.
Since October is just beginning, it's not too late to add Nine Lives and Alibis to your Halloween reading list. You'll be glad you did.
Be sure to check out the rest of the Cat Cafe Mysteries.
Thank you. I like knowing when there is a pacing issue before I dive in.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this one but completely agree about the pacing and psychic elements. I was expecting a bit more with it being a Halloween book. It was a fun read though am I'm looking forward to going back and reading the earlier books in the series.
ReplyDelete