CANR
WORK TITLE: No Paw to Stand On
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: LRC February 2021
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Married.
EDUCATION:Eastern Michigan University, B.S.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Has also worked in management.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Laura Alden who publishes cozy mysteries under her own name and the pseudonym Laurie Cass. Raised in southwestern Michigan, she studied geology at Eastern Michigan University in the 1980s but never found much opportunity to use that background in her daily life. In the late 1990s, she began writing creatively while working in management. Writing as Alden, she has published the “Beth Kennedy” mystery series about an amateur sleuth mother who is a member of her children’s PTA. Writing as Cass, she has published the “Bookmobile Cat Mystery” series.
Writing under the name Laura Alden, she published her first mystery novel, Murder at the PTA, in 2010. Tne novel features children’s bookstore owner and amateur sleuth Beth Kennedy. Beth, a divorced mother of two, suffers from chronic anxiety. After her children’s elementary school principal is murdered, though, Beth gains some newfound courage to do her part in finding the person responsible. Beth helps dispose of perishable items at the late principal’s house and uses that as an opportunity to look around for some clues. Not only does she uncover some secrets, but Beth also gets a few leads on potential suspects. A contributor to Publishers Weekly suggested that “readers will like the quirky characters and pop culture references but may chafe” at the novel’s slow pacing.
With Foul Play at the PTA, Beth, who is now the secretary of the parent-teacher association at her children’s elementary school, finds fellow PTA member Sam Helmstetter in his car at the school parking lot after having been strangled to death. Beth and her friend, Marina Neff, start to investigate. When she is nearly run down by a car that was associated with another attempted murder, she keeps up her efforts, knowing she is on the right path. A Publishers Weekly contributor found the novel to be “well- crafted,” admitting that very little “strikes a wrong note in this clean cozy.”
In Plotting at the PTA, Beth is upset to hear that one of her loyal bookstore customers died from shock after suffering multiple bee stings. While police believe the incident was naturally occurring, Beth is not so sure. While investigating that death, Beth also agrees to help another friend look into the death of her great-niece from nearly twenty years ago. Beth soon learns that the two women were close friends and begins to connect the causes behind their deaths. A contributor to Publishers Weekly observed that “digressions involving supporting characters mean the school year is almost over before” Beth solves the case.
Writing as Cass, the author published the mystery novel Booking the Crook in 2019. Minnie Hamilton shares the joys of reading in her bookmobile as she and her rescue cat, Eddie, serve the town of Chilson, Michigan. Minnie is worried that her bookmobile project won’t last for long, though, as a new library board seems to sour on the idea of funding the initiative. On one of her deliveries to a regular patron, Minnie becomes concerned when they do not show up to collect the books they had ordered. She soon finds their body in the snow-covered driveway and vows to find whoever was responsible for the murder. A contributor to Internet Bookwatch called it a “delightfully entertaining mystery.”
In Gone with the Whisker, Minnie is tired after a long day driving the bookmobile around the region. Since it is the Fourth of July, though, she makes an effort to go and watch the fireworks and show her visiting niece around town. As the fireworks come to a close, Minnie’s niece notices a body. Minnie sees that it is one of her regular bookmobile patrons. She grabs Eddie and gets to work immediately trying to figure out who killed the victim. An Internet Bookwatch contributor labeled Gone with the Whisker “the perfect mystery for cat lovers.”
With Checking Out Crime, Minnie witnesses a wildly swerving car hit a cyclist along the road. Despite her attempts at CPR, the cyclist died. The victim was a close friend of her fiancé, Rafe Niswander. Detective Hal Inwood assures Minnie that the police will find out who was responsible for the cyclist’s death. However, Minnie knows that she will do her best also to uncover the identity of the motorist. This time, however, she enlists the help of Tabitha Inwood. On the side, though, Minnie wonders what is taking Rafe so long to actually give her an engagement ring. A contributor to Kirkus Reviews described the novel as being “a cozy whose main distinction is that the dead guy’s a sweetie, not a baddie.”
(open new)Minnie helps to solve not one, but two cases in The Crime That Binds. The first case is related to a retired judge, whose lakeside cottage is now missing an expensive sculpture. The next one involves Ryan Anderson, a young man whom Minnie believes has been falsely accused of bank robbery and murder. The murder victim is Pug Mattock, who also has a cottage in the area. Because Minnie has involved herself in the investigation, she worries that the real murderer may make her their next target. Meanwhile, Minnie gets her new assistant, Hunter Morales, up to speed with their bookmobile activities, and she tries to convince her pregnant best friend to agree to rest. Another A Kirkus Reviews critic described the book as “a pleasant character-driven cozy with an adorable cat and enough human suspects to keep things interesting.” Writing in WebOnlyReviewsLJ, Jean King called it “another entertaining addition to the series. Subplots, featuring familiar characters from previous books, add to the story line.”
A Troubling Tail is set in the springtime and finds Minnie investigating the murder of a candy shop owner and patron of her bookmobile. As she uncovers information, she finds that the victim, William “Whippy” Henika, had a sordid past and a connection to local schoolteacher Leah Wasson. Whippy was Leah’s biological father, and Leah’s strange behavior after his death makes her a suspect. Another suspect is Toby Guinn, a former student of Minne’s fiancé, Rafe, though Rafe believes that Toby is innocent. A Library Bookwatch contributor described the volume as “a carefully crafted and thoroughly fun read.” “The characters are the stars of this down-to-earth mystery,” asserted a writer in Kirkus Reviews.
In a 2023 article she wrote on the CrimeReads website, Alden, as Cass, suggested that she had been contemplating quitting her writing career. She explained: “There’s absolutely nothing that compares to the days when my fingers can’t keep up with my brain, when the words flow freely, when characters say funny things, when descriptions are apt, when things simply go click. The last year or so, though … well, the writing has started to feel like work.” However, after learning that her struggles with writing were due to exhaustion, she took two months off to rest and discovered a renewed commitment to her profession. She stated: “Somewhere deep down inside me are the stirrings of another book. Or two. Or eighteen. I can just feel pieces of plot and bits of characters swirling around, waiting for me to bring them to life.”(close new)
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Internet Bookwatch, July 1, 2019, review of Booking the Crook; April 1, 2020, review of Gone with the Whisker.
Kirkus Reviews, January 15, 2021, review of Checking Out Crime; September 15, 2022, review of The Crime That Binds;July 1, 2023, review of A Troubling Tail;July 1, 2024, review of No Paw to Stand On.
Library Bookwatch, August, 2023, review of A Troubling Tail.
Publishers Weekly, August 23, 2010, review of Murder at the PTA, p. 35; May 16, 2011, review of Foul Play at the PTA, p. 59; May 28, 2012, review of Plotting at the PTA, p. 75.
WebOnlyReviewsLJ, August 26, 2022, Jean King, review of The Crime That Binds, p. 1.
ONLINE
CrimeReads, https://crimereads.com/ (August 18, 2023), article by author.
Dru’s Book Musings, https://drusbookmusing.com/ (December 16, 2023), author interview.
Laurie Cass
USA flag
A pseudonym used by Laura Alden
Laurie Cass is the nationally bestselling author of the Bookmobile Cat Mysteries. She lives on a lake in northern Michigan with her husband and two cats.
Genres: Cozy Mystery
New and upcoming books
August 2024
thumb
No Paw to Stand On
(Bookmobile Cat Mystery, book 12)
Series
Bookmobile Cat Mystery
1. Lending a Paw (2013)
2. Tailing a Tabby (2014)
3. Borrowed Crime (2015)
4. Pouncing on Murder (2015)
5. Cat With a Clue (2016)
6. Wrong Side of the Paw (2017)
7. Booking the Crook (2019)
8. Gone with the Whisker (2020)
9. Checking Out Crime (2021)
10. The Crime that Binds (2022)
11. A Troubling Tail (2023)
12. No Paw to Stand On (2024)
Victoria Square Mystery (with Lorraine Bartlett)
4. Dead, Bath, and Beyond (2016)
Laurie Cass grew up in Michigan and graduated from college in the 80's with a (mostly unused) degree in geology. She turned to writing in the late nineties. After a number of years in management, she felt the need to move on and took a job with fewer responsibilities. A month later, she was dead bored and began to consider writing as a way to wake up her brain. She started reading a lot of books on writing and happened across a particular sentence: "What's it going to be, reasons or results?"
The phrase practically stuck her in the eye. She printed it out, framed it, and put it next to her computer. "Reasons or results?" At the end of her life, was she going to have a pile of reasons for not having done anything? Or was she going to sit down and write a book? Once she started looking at it that way, the decision was easy. A short 13 years later, her first book was published.
Currently, Laurie and her husband share their house with two cats, the inestimable Eddie and the adorably cute Sinii. When Laurie isn't writing, she's working at her day job, reading, attempting to keep the flowerbeds free of weeds, or doing some variety of skiing. She also write the PTA Mysteries under the name Laura Alden.
A Word With Laurie Cass
Dec 16, 2023 | A Word With The Author
Now it’s time to learn more about the authors we read. . .
Why do you write the genre that you write?
If the “write what you know” thing can be flipped around a bit to be “write the kind of books you’ve been reading for most of your life,” then there’s the answer!
What’s the quirkiest quirk one of your characters has?
Eddie (the cat’s) penchant for the destruction of paper products has to be way up there.
How did you come up with your pseudonym?
I’ve always like the name Laura (and it’s derivations), and the last name of Cass came from…you know, I honestly don’t remember, but I knew I wanted it short!
Tell us how you got into writing.
Very, very slowly. As a kid, I always wanted to write, but it wasn’t until I was in my mid-thirties that I grew brave enough to try. Eleven years and six and a third unpublished books later, I got my first contract.
What jobs have you held before, during and/or after you became a writer?
Fresh out of college, I worked for civil engineering/survey companies for twenty-odd years. When the recession hit, I was kicked to the curb like so many others in the construction business, but I eventually landed in local government administration.
Where do you write?
So many places! My handy-dandy laptop and I work at the dining table, in the car, on the bed, outside on the porch or patio, even on the couch when my husband is watching football.
What is your favorite deadline snack?
Whatever my husband decides to put in front of me!
Who is an author you admire?
All of them. Anyone who has the courage to put their creations out into the world is a hero to me.
What’s your favorite genre to read?
Depends on my mood, my fatigue level, and whether or not I’m writing a first draft. If I’m writing, I stay away from reading anything remotely close to what I’m writing, which right now results me reading fantasy, biographies or Young Adult. If I need a comfort read, I tend to go back to D. S. Stevenson books. If I feel the need for something different, I’ll ask friends for recommendations.
What are you reading now?
Just finished rereading Folly by Laurie R. King and reading Madame Pommery by Rebecca Rosenberg. Next up is either The Spy Coast by Tess Gerritsen or Death in a White Tie by Ngaio Marsh, a book I figured I’d already read at some point in my life, but the first page didn’t ring any bells, so either my memory is worse than I thought, or I’m even more behind in my reading than I thought.
What is your favorite beverage to end the day?
Either a glass of wine or a mug of hot chocolate.
What is next for you?
Edits for bookmobile #12, No Paw to Stand On, out August 6, 2024.
Where can we find you?
My email is bookmobilecat @ aol.com; but the fun place is my Laurie Cass Facebook page. Every Friday features a new photo of the extremely dorky–but way lovable—Wilbur the cat
Now to have some fun . . .
Chocolate or vanilla
Chocolate if plain, vanilla if I get to dress it up with caramel sauce, sprinkles, whipped cream, and a cherry.
Cake or ice cream
Ice cream, every time.
Fruits or vegetables
Generally fruits, but if you cook the vegetables in a little bit of butter then add some brandy and/or maple syrup, I’m all over it!
Breakfast, lunch, or dinner
Lunch is typically just fuel for me to keep going, so it’s a tie between breakfast and dinner. My new favorite breakfast is my husband’s brioche bread French toast with caramel sauce and sliced bananas. So good. But now I’m thinking about the primavera pasta with shrimp we’ll be making tonight, and I’m glad I don’t have to choose a favorite.
Dining in or dining out
Out, every chance I get. I don’t mind cooking, but the clean-up chores at the end aren’t my thing.
City life or country living
I like to visit cities, but it’s the country life for me!
Beach or mountain
Beaches. Mountains are gorgeous, but I’m more comfortable with a distant horizon.
Summer or winter
Up here in northern Michigan, summer is that much sweeter because we know that winter is never that far away; winter is a much-needed respite after summer’s flurry of activity. I wouldn’t want one without the other.
Short story or full-length novel
I enjoy short stories, but there’s nothing like diving into a nice fat novel.
Extrovert or introvert
On a regular basis, I pass as an extrovert during meetings/conferences/parties—and I enjoy doing so—but the effort tires me. Call me introvert and proud of it.
Early bird or night owl
I take after my dad, who was an early bird.
And even more fun . . .
What’s your favorite movie?
Quadruple tie between The Sting, Notting Hill, The Princess Bride, and the movie released in 1977 that I will always call Star Wars.
You are stranded on a deserted island. What are your three must-haves?
Three huge piles of To Be Read books!
My bio:
Laurie Cass grew up in Michigan and graduated from Eastern Michigan University in the 80’s with a (mostly unused) Bachelor of Science degree in geology. Currently, Laurie and her husband share their house with two cats. When Laurie isn’t writing, she’s working at her day job, reading, yanking weeds out of her garden, or falling out of tree pose.
QUOTED: "There’s absolutely nothing that compares to the days when my fingers can’t keep up with my brain, when the words flow freely, when characters say funny things, when descriptions are apt, when things simply go click. The last year or so, though…well, the writing has started to feel like work."
"Somewhere deep down inside me are the stirrings of another book. Or two. Or eighteen. I can just feel pieces of plot and bits of characters swirling around, waiting for me to bring them to life."
When Is It Time To Stop Writing?
Writing is hard. Not writing is harder.
August 18, 2023 By Laurie Cass
Penguin
There are innumerable ways to answer the question of “When is it time to stop writing?” It could be time to stop when the publishing contracts dry up. Or it could be when your book sales dwindle to a dribbling trickle. When the last thing you want to do is come up with one more idea. It could also be time to stop when you flat out don’t feel like writing any longer and you’re afraid that every sentence you write reveals that reluctance.
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I wrote my first published mystery in 2009, and I recently turned in my eighteenth. The use of mathematics tells me that I’ve written an average of 1.125 books per year for the last fifteen years. Another burst of figuring tells me that I’ve had publishing contracts for nearly a quarter of my lifetime. (And if you use a teeny bit of math yourself, you’ll know how old I am, but we’re not going to dwell on that, are we?)
In my fifteen years of being published, the world around us has endured numerous upheavals and convulsions. A recession. A pandemic. Social and political instability. A housing crisis. Crushing inflation.
During that same fifteen years I’ve endured my own upheavals. The loss of a job and subsequent financial hardship. The death of my father. A complete career change. Serious illness. The death of my mother. The death of beloved pets. Add the inevitable aging thing (see above math problem) and it begins to dawn on me that there are valid reasons why it’s getting harder and harder for me to write while having a full time day job. It all takes a toll, and the last few months I’ve been wondering if it’s time to quit with the writing thing.
Don’t get me wrong. I love to write. There’s absolutely nothing that compares to the days when my fingers can’t keep up with my brain, when the words flow freely, when characters say funny things, when descriptions are apt, when things simply go click.
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The last year or so, though…well, the writing has started to feel like work. Back in the day, I could hardly wait to get to the computer. Characters and dialogue and plot points were always jostling around in my tiny little head and spending a couple of hours at a keyboard after eight hours of sitting at a keyboard for the day job wasn’t a chore at all.
Lately? Not so much.
For the last two books, it’s entirely possible that I’ve spent as much time engaging in extreme avoidance behavior as I have in writing. And not in a productive way, either. Good avoidance behavior is cleaning bathrooms, washing floors, washing windows, doing laundry, weeding, or getting out the paint bucket to do that touch-up that’s been needed for five years.
Sadly, my recent avoidance behavior has been along the lines of watching episode after episode of Doc Martin, Heartland, and/or Grey’s Anatomy. Another type of avoidance behavior that I’ve picked up for the first time ever is reading Recency romances. Give me anything by Georgette Heyer and I’m toast for getting any of my own writing done. I’ve also discovered you can find all sorts of fun online things to exacerbate the avoidance habit. Mini-crossword puzzles. Mahjong. Solitaire games galore.
But I did finally get around to writing the words, and not so very long ago, I emailed a completed manuscript to my editor. After I hit the Send button, I stared at the screen and wondered if I’d just submitted the last book I’d ever write. I spent roughly three seconds considering the question, decided I was too tired to care one way or another, shut the computer down, and promptly slept for twelve straight hours.
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That was about two months back. Since then, I’ve slept through Saturday mornings, washed floors and windows, cleaned bathrooms, done some scraping and painting, a lot of weeding, and rested. A lot.
Eventually, I’ve come to the fairly obvious conclusion that my avoidance behavior had its roots in one thing. I was tired. Tired of working both a full time day job and the writing job. Tired of not having enough time to myself. Tired of never having a day off, because with writing, much like with housework, there is always something you should be doing. Most of all? I was tired of being tired.
Two months of non-writing and as much rest as possible later, my brain is finally starting to wake up. Plot points are starting to pop into my head at the least provocation. Characters are starting to walk and talk in the edges of my thoughts. I drive past houses or buildings or views that make me think, “Hey, that just might show up in one of my books someday.”
Best of all? Somewhere deep down inside me are the stirrings of another book. Or two. Or eighteen. I can just feel pieces of plot and bits of characters swirling around, waiting for me to bring them to life, waiting for me to get the rest that, in retrospect, I’ve needed for years.
So. Is it time for me to stop writing?
Not a chance.
Cass, Laurie NO PAW TO STAND ON Berkley (Fiction None) $9.99 8, 6 ISBN: 9780593547441
A Michigan librarian finds the perfect distraction from planning her nuptials: researching possible motives and methods for a poisoning at her friend's restaurant.
Minnie Hamilton is in the thick of it. After trying in vain to convince her aunt to plan her wedding to longtime love Rafe Niswander, she's reluctantly taken charge of the details for the September ceremony. Now that summer is here, the date's getting too close for comfort, even though Rafe is a perfect match whose patience as a middle school principal makes him endlessly tolerant of the trouble Minnie keeps getting herself into. It's just that the details of a wedding aren't as much fun as those of the numerous investigations Minnie has wrapped herself up in. But many decisions seem set in stone, with food provided by Minnie's best friend Kristen Jurek's restaurant, Three Seasons, and driven to the venue, the Chilson District Library's community room, in Minnie's bookmobile. It all seems perfect until the officiant drops out. As Minnie frets over this, she gets a series of calls and texts from Kristen, culminating in a dire "CALL ME NOW!!!" Worried that something might be wrong with Kristen's babies, Minnie drops everything to check on her friend and is shocked to learn that eight people got sick after eating at Three Seasons, and two of them are in the hospital. Minnie knows she has to tell all this ASAP to her friend Ash Wolverson, a Tonedagana County deputy, but she thinks she may be the best person to do on-the-ground research. While Minnie and longtime companion cat Eddie search for the poisoner, Kristen seems to spin out, and Minnie wonders if there's something more underlying her friend's moodiness.
Heavy on background chatter, with a low-stakes mystery upstaged by friendship tremors.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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"Cass, Laurie: NO PAW TO STAND ON." Kirkus Reviews, 1 July 2024, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A799332962/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=a5eaa282. Accessed 25 Aug. 2024.
QUOTED: "The characters are the stars of this down-to-earth mystery."
Cass, Laurie A TROUBLING TAIL Berkley (Fiction None) $8.99 8, 1 ISBN: 9780593547427
The assistant library director in Chilson, Michigan, just can't help meddling in murder.
Minnie Hamilton is out with her tuxedo cat, Eddie, on her favorite part of the job--the bookmobile run--when she hears about the death of candy store owner William "Whippy" Henika. At first Minnie resists snooping, but when her fiance Rafe Niswander's former student Toby Guinn becomes the prime suspect, she's so sure the police have it wrong that her concern overwhelms her biggest problem--figuring out what to do with the enormous book bike just donated by the board president, who's eager to hear how it will be used. Unable to forget the murder, Minnie wonders why recently divorced schoolteacher Leah Wasson fainted when she heard about Whippy's death. At length Leah admits that she was adopted and that Whippy was her birth father; her mother's identity is still unknown. Although Rafe's best friend is a deputy, Minnie has little luck extracting information from the police even after she explains her alternative theories of the crime. Leah's ex-husband, who didn't take the divorce well, is a suspect. So is the owner of the store next door, who'd pressed Whippy to sell. Unsatisfied, Minnie searches for the identity of Leah's mother. After narrowing down her suspect list to four likely candidates, Minnie has long talks with Eddie, who listens but offers no advice. Luckily, her diverse group of friends is willing to pitch in to solve the thorny case.
The characters are the stars of this down-to-earth mystery.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Cass, Laurie: A TROUBLING TAIL." Kirkus Reviews, 1 July 2023, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A754972051/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=a9fbef28. Accessed 25 Aug. 2024.
QUOTED: "a carefully crafted and thoroughly fun read."
A Troubling Tail
Laurie Cass
Berkley Books
c/o Penguin/Random House
https://www.penguin.com
9780593547427, $8.99, PB, 368pp
https://www.amazon.com/Troubling-Tail-Bookmobile-Cat-Mystery/dp/059354742X
Synopsis: The charming town of Chilson, Michigan, is beautiful in the spring, and the bookmobile is delivering great reads far and wide on one of the first warm days of the year. But a chill sweeps through when they discover that one of their favorite patrons, the owner of Henika's Candy Emporium, has been found murdered. Although Minnie can't understand who could have had a motive to murder such a kind man, she decides that the sticky problem isn't hers to solve.
However, when rumors start flying around town and the police have no leads, Minnie decides to throw her investigative hat into the ring. The more Minnie investigates, the less certain she is that the victim's past is as wholesome as his reputation. But Minnie has plenty of experience unearthing inconvenient truths, and she and Eddie won't rest until they determine how the victim met his bitter end.
Critique: A master of the cozy mystery genre, "Laurie Cass" has a published a new 'Bookmobile Cat Mystery' for her legions of fans. "A Troubling Tail" features all the elements of a cozy animal murder mystery to be (hopefully!) solved by an amateur female sleuth and friends. A carefully crafted and thoroughly fun read, "A Troubling Tail" is also available for personal reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $8.99) and enthusiastically recommended for community library Mystery/Suspense collections.
Editorial Note: Laurie Cass (https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/laurie-cass) grew up in Michigan and graduated from college in the 80's with a (mostly unused) degree in geology. She turned to writing in the late nineties. After a number of years in management, she felt the need to move on and took a job with fewer responsibilities. A month later, she was dead bored and began to consider writing as a way to wake up her brain. She started reading a lot of books on writing and happened across a particular sentence: "What's it going to be, reasons or results?"
The phrase practically stuck her in the eye. She printed it out, framed it, and put it next to her computer. "Reasons or results?" At the end of her life, was she going to have a pile of reasons for not having done anything? Or was she going to sit down and write a book? Once she started looking at it that way, the decision was easy. A short 13 years later, her first book was published. She also write the PTA Mysteries under the name Laura Alden.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 Midwest Book Review
http://www.midwestbookreview.com
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MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"A Troubling Tail." Library Bookwatch, Aug. 2023, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A763554600/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=6d711780. Accessed 25 Aug. 2024.
QUOTED: "another entertaining addition to the series. Subplots, featuring familiar characters from previous books, add to the story line."
Cass, Laurie. The Crime That Binds. Berkley Prime Crime. (Bookmobile Cat Mystery, Bk. 10). Oct. 2022. 368p. ISBN 9780593197738. pap. $8.99. M
Cass's 10th "Bookmobile Cat Mystery" (after Checking Out Crime) finds Northern Michigan librarian Minerva "Minnie" Hamilton and her rescue cat Eddie involved once again in a case. During one of her bookmobile stops, a patron mentions to Minnie that a piece of modern sculpture has gone missing from his home. The same day, at a different stop, another patron abruptly leaves the bookmobile after getting a text from his mother and then seems to vanish into thin air. Minnie talks to people in the local art community to find out more about the sculptor and the missing artwork. But everything changes when a bookmobile patron is murdered. Minnie, with help from her fiancé Rafe, works to find a connection among all these events before a killer can strike again. As always, Eddie lends a helping paw to bring the criminals to justice.
VERDICT: This is another entertaining addition to the series. Subplots, featuring familiar characters from previous books, add to the story line. Recommended for followers of the series and fans of library cozy mysteries by Eva Gates and Holly Danvers.—Jean King
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 Library Journals, LLC
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/reviews/xpress/884170-289/xpress_reviews-first_look_at_new.html.csp
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King, Jean. "The Crime That Binds." WebOnlyReviewsLJ, vol. 147, no. 8, 26 Aug. 2022, p. 1. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A722124479/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=8533f2cb. Accessed 25 Aug. 2024.
QUOTED: "a pleasant character-driven cozy with an adorable cat and enough human suspects to keep things interesting."
Cass, Laurie THE CRIME THAT BINDS Berkley (Fiction None) $8.99 10, 4 ISBN: 978-0-593-19773-8
A Michigan librarian must juggle the three most important things in her life--her fiance; her bookmobile; and her cat, Mr. Eddie--and a fourth, a case of homicide.
The bookmobile gets Minnie Hamilton involved in two murder cases because her patrons enjoy talking and she hears plenty of gossip. She, Eddie, and her new assistant, Hunter Morales, are on a run when a retired judge mentions that a valuable sculpture has gone missing from his family's lakeside cottage, though he's not sure it was stolen. Meanwhile, Pug Mattock, a downstater who's come up early to prepare his cottage for retirement, chats with Ryan Anderson, another regular, a young man who survives on part-time jobs, about sports, beer, and the weather before Ryan gets a text and takes off. Minnie soon learns that he's wanted by the police for bank robbery and murder, two crimes she's certain he didn't commit. Although she must deal with a one-woman campaign to fire the library director and her best friend's stubborn refusal to take time off in the last days of her pregnancy, the murder of Pug pushes her to investigate. Ignoring the police, who are looking at Ryan as the perp, Minnie finds enough other candidates to give her plenty of alternatives to think about while she's waiting to see if the killer adds her to their list.
A pleasant character-driven cozy with an adorable cat and enough human suspects to keep things interesting.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Cass, Laurie: THE CRIME THAT BINDS." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Sept. 2022, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A717107193/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=692a97b6. Accessed 25 Aug. 2024.