Review: Cat Me If You Can by Miranda James

Cat Me If You Can (Cat in the Stacks #13)
written by Miranda James
narrated by Erin Bennett

My Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Cozy Mystery
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: m/f

Blurb:
Charlie and Diesel, along with Charlie’s fiancee, Helen Louise Brady, are heading to Asheville, North Carolina, to spend a week at a boutique hotel and participate in a gathering of a mystery reader’s club composed of patrons of the Athena Public Library. In addition to seeing the local sights, the members will take turns giving talks on their favorite authors.

The always spry Ducote sisters, friends of the hotel’s owners, are helping underwrite the expenses, and they’ve insisted that Charlie, Helen, and Diesel join them. Anxious to get Helen Louise away from her bistro for a vacation, Charlie readily agrees. While Charlie is looking forward to relaxing with Helen Louise and Diesel, other members of the group have ulterior motives, including a long-standing score to settle.

When an intrusive, uninvited guest turns up dead, only one mystery club member with a connection to the deceased appears to have a motive to kill. But could the answer really be that simple? Charlie and Diesel, along with the detecting Ducote sisters, know that every murder plot has an unexpected twist.

My Review

I received a free copy from Tantor Audio and voluntarily reviewed it.

I was in the mood for a familiar comforting read, so I decided to pick up the next book in this series. This is book 13 already and the series is still going strong. Cat Me If You Can changes things up as Charlie and his fiancé Helen-Louise are visiting Asheville with the mystery reader group they’re part of for a week of sightseeing, discussing mysteries and getting to know the other group members better. This all changes when a dead body is found in the hotel.

I don’t always like change of scenery books in cozie series, but I thought it worked well here. It was interesting seeing Charlie in a different environment and Helen-Louise who is usually working a lot now can spend more time with him, which was fun to see. And ofcourse Diesel, Charlie’s cat, comes along as well. There are also some other familiar side characters with the Decote sisters organizing the whole thing and Melba also being part of the group. I did miss seeing some of the usual familiar locations and side characters, but all in all I thought the change in scenery was a fun one. I just wish they could’ve explored Asheville a bit more, but they’re mostly stuck in and around the hotel.

The mystery was a bit of a mixed one for me, there were parts I liked and parts I didn’t. The mystery had a locked room type feel with it being clear that someone in the hotel at that moment is the murderer. I do like this type of mystery. Despite the pool of suspects being limited this one kept me guessing for a while. The clues are slow to pile up and it felt like there was a lot of them talking with the police and not as much actual sleuthing. It also felt like a lot of the book took place at the hotel, which makes sense, but I definitely would’ve liked some more scenes taking place somewhere else.

One of the big relevant clues only comes all the way at the end and gets called in from outside, which felt a bit anticlimactic. I did manage to guess who the murderer was, but mostly because of meta reasons than because of the actual clues. I didn’t really know the motive or how it all played out till the reveal scene at the end. I did think some of the things that happened felt a bit off and some of the decisions the murderer made just felt confusing to me and didn’t quite fit with what was established.

I also struggled a bit with the heavy mystery book theme. It really felt like this book was a bit of an ode to the golden age of mystery with some of the characters actively pointing out similarities between the current mystery and the golden age mystery books they read. It just felt a bit too much. It had an almost fourth wall breaking vibe at times with how the characters are aware they are solving a mystery similar to the ones they read about.

I liked reading more about Charlie and it was fun seeing more of familiar characters, but then with the focus a bit narrower as there are only some of the bigger group of side characters that join them here. Diesel also is pretty prominent as well, although I felt a bit bad for him as he ends up in a lot of emotionally charged situations which the cat doesn’t like. And there was a bit of figuring out what to with Diesel or who to look after him. I appreciated that Charlie took their safety serious, but I also didn’t really feel like the murderer was after them, so it felt like a bit much at times. There is an interesting side plot line with Melba being interested in a man whose also part of the group and seeing that develop a bit. I liked seeing Charlie and Helen-Louise spend more time together here than they usually can in the books. The narrator was great as usual and I enjoyed listening to this one.

To summarize: I enjoyed being back in this series and reading about familiar characters. This book changes things up a bit with a change in scenery as Charlie and the mystery reader group go to Asheville for sightseeing, discussing mysteries and getting to know each other better. This takes a sinister turn when a dead body shows up. The mystery had some good and less good parts for me. I liked the locked room type mystery with it being clear the murderer was someone who was in the hotel. A lot of the mystery seemed to involve them talking with the police and I would’ve liked more sleuthing. The different scenery also made the mystery feel different and there was different police involved. I managed to guess the murderer, but more due to meta reasons than actual clues. One of the big clues only arrived at the very end and it would be almost impossible to solve the mystery without that. I liked reading more about Charlie and seeing him spend more time with Helen-Louise in this book. There are a bunch of familiar side characters who are part of the mystery group, so there are still familiar characters even if not all the side characters are present in this one. I look forward to the next book!

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon
– B&N
– Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.