Half Way to My Goal With a Cozy Mystery

I'm finally at the halfway mark! I've picked up the pace since returning from Boston, so I should be on track to get the other 15 books read by the end of the year. Three books a month is a reasonable goal and I've got some good ones lined up!

My most recent read, book #15 for the year, was "The Cat, The Quilt And The Corpse" by Leann Sweeney. It is a "cozy mystery" which I was not familiar with, nor was I familiar with the author or her series, "Cats In Trouble" mysteries. I chose this book as part of a book club I came across on Twitter. It was one of three choices for the next meeting and after weighing two of the three titles, I went with this one.

Cozy mysteries are stories that are more lighthearted than other mystery novels. The characters working to solve the mysteries are typically regular people, not detectives, who end up solving the mystery by being persistent. Usually the story is set in a small town and the mystery-solver is a woman.

In this case, Jillian Hart is living in a small town when one of her beloved cats is stolen. Soon, she finds the cat-napper dead in his home. She learns that many cats have gone missing in this little lake town and she is determined to find out what the connection is between the dead man and the missing kitties, despite being dismissed repeatedly by the town's police chief.

The book was fast-paced and had several characters who were looked at as potential suspects. It was fun and interesting trying to figure out who had killed the feline thief and what happened to all of his victims. Jillian and the friends she made along the way were likable characters. She is portrayed as a regular person, kind and bright, who is thrown into an unusual situation and faces it head on.

I really enjoyed how the book flowed and how the story was told by the author. I will definitely be looking for the next book in the series to add to my bookshelves.