Book Review: Requiem for a Mouse by Miranda James (Cat in the Stacks Mysteries #16)

Stars: 3 out of 5

Pros: Characters, plot is good

Cons: Lots of things that threw me out of the book

The Bottom Line:

Quiet assistant

What secret is she hiding?

Needed good edit

Is Tara Hiding a Secret?  Or Just Hiding?

I was looking forward to Requiem for a Mouse since I enjoy Miranda James’s Cat in the Stacks Mysteries.  My anticipation was a little tempered since I had struggled some with the previous book.  Unfortunately, this book was another entry with some issues.

This is the sixteenth book in the series.  If you’ve missed it, the series stars Charlie Harris, a semi-retired librarian who works part time in the archives of the Athenia College keeping track for the rare books and rare book donations.  Charlie has a Maine Coon cat named Diesel who goes everywhere with him, and the two have become quite the sleuthing team.

The college has recently been given a large donation of books, and Charlie has hired a part time assistant to help catalogue the donation.  Tara Martin is a peculiar woman.  While she does a good job, she seems to go out of her way to alienate those around her.  When she suddenly darts out of a party with little explanation, Charlie thinks that her behavior might be an act.

Charlie’s suspicions are confirmed when tragedy strikes and Tara is run down.  While she is clinging to life, Charlie begins to investigate her life to see if he can find any clues to help the police figure out who might have wanted to hurt her.  Can he figure out what she was hiding?

The mystery as presented here is good.  Charlie’s contributions to the case actually make a lot of sense given that he worked with the victim.  He keeps finding clues.  And he has some strange encounters that might lead to answers as well.  I was curious what was really going on.  I did find things a bit repetitive in the first third, but then things pick up.

Sadly, the book needed another pass by a good editor.  There are so many things that were jarring as I was reading.  For example, Charlie talks about an appointment he has the next day, but he never goes to it or mentions it again.  He has one week that is only two days long.  Some of the other issues get into spoiler territory, so I won’t talk about them.  While the climax does wrap things up, it does lead one major question in my head, but the rest of the goings on made sense.

The characters are still in fine form, however.  Diesel is charming, as are the other animals in the series.  Charlie has a large group of family and friends, and I enjoy spending time with them as much as he does.  The suspects are mostly off page, but they still come across as real.

This has been a long running favorite series of mine.  I’m not sorry I read Requiem for a Mouse, but I do recommend it for series fans only.  Everyone else should back up to the beginning and see just why so many of us love it.

Here are the rest of the Cat in the Stacks Mysteries.

NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.