Review: Careless Whiskers by Miranda James

Careless Whiskers (Cat in the Stacks #12)
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 Harris has sworn off investigating murder and mayhem after a recent close call. Instead, he’s delighted to cheer on his daughter, Laura, who’s starring in a production of Careless Whispers. The theater department at Athena College is debuting the play written by a fledgling playwright with local connections, and Charlie’s son-in-law, Frank Salisbury, will be calling the directorial shots.

Laura is upset to learn that Luke Lombardi, an overbearing actor she knew from her time in Hollywood, will also be taking part in the production as a guest artist. Lombardi arrives with an entourage in tow and promptly proceeds to annoy everyone involved with the production. When he collapses and dies on stage after drinking from a glass Laura handed him, she becomes the chief suspect in his murder.

Charlie knows his daughter is innocent, and he’s not going to let anyone railroad his little girl. So, despite his intentions to put his amateur sleuthing days behind him, Charlie has to take center stage, and with Diesel’s help, shine a spotlight on the real killer.

My Review

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

I really like this series and when I was looking for a comforting and familiar listen I knew it was time to pick up the next book in this series. I had a great time listening tot his one. This time the murder centers around the theater as an actor in the play the college is hosting gets murdered on stage. I enjoyed being back in Athena and spending time with the familiar characters.

The mystery was a good one that kept me guessing. It actually takes a while before the actual murder takes place, but I thought that worked well here. It’s very clear who the murder victim will be and there is some nice build up seeing him interact with people as well as some nasty pranks that someone plays on him. Then once he gets killed the mystery really kicks up. This one kept me guessing and there were some nice twists and red herrings. It did not surprise me who the murderer was, but I wasn’t sure this person was the murderer for a long time due to a certain bit of information not getting revealed till the end. It gets wrapped up nicely and I liked how everything played out.

With long running series like this one I really like spending more time with familiar characters and this series has been so fun in that regard. Plenty of recurring characters as Charlie has plenty of friends, family and acquaintances that make appearances in most books. It’s also nice seeing Charlie’s life develop over the course of the series. His kids get their own romances and now have kids of their own and Charlie has another cat in the house besides Diesel. And it’s great to read more about Charlie and his cat Diesel who is present in a lot of scenes. I also like Charlie’s romance with Helen-Louise and seeing that develop throughout the series. The narrator is a good fit for the series and I just had a great time listening to this book.

To summarize: This was another good read in this series. I liked the mystery and it worked here how the murder did not take place till later in the book. It was interesting to know who was going to get murdered and see more of his interactions and what happened before the murder. The mystery was a good one with plenty of reveals, red herrings and secrets. The reveal made sense and I wasn’t surprised at who the murderer was, but wasn’t fully sure either till a certain bit of information came to light shortly before the reveal. I like spending time reading about the familiar characters and seeing what they’re up to in this book. I enjoy reading about Charlie and seeing his life develop throughout the series and seeing him interact with the other characters. Another solid one and I look forward to the next book!

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

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.