Review: Claws for Concern by Miranda James

Posted January 28, 2026 by Lola in Mystery, Review / 4 Comments

Claws for Concern (Cat in the Stacks #9)
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 is busy enjoying his new grandson when a mysterious man with a connection to Charlie’s family starts visiting the library, bringing with him troubling questions about an unsolved murder….

Charlie may be a proud new grandfather, but he and Diesel still have work to do at Athena College and the small Mississippi town’s public library. He’s too busy to deal with true-crime writer Jack Pemberton, who wants Charlie as the subject of his latest book – and who won’t take no for an answer.

A more appealing proposition for Charlie is spending time helping a kind, elderly man navigate the library’s genealogical database. But he’s shocked when he learns that the visitor’s search is focused on a member of his own family: his late aunt’s husband.

Charlie befriends the man and considers inviting him to stay in his home, but he’s soon given reason to question that notion. Jack is certain that Charlie’s new houseguest was involved in a shocking homicide that took place years ago in a small town near Athena. As this cold case heats up, Charlie and Diesel have to uncover a killer who may already be too close to home….

My Review

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

Claws for Concern is the ninth book in this series and I am still havign a great time following Charlie as he solves all these mysteries. This was another solid read, I enjoyed reading more about Charlie, another mystery and seeing how his daily life is doing. This book has a cold case to solve, a new character Charlie meets who is related to his late aunt Dottie’s husband and plenty going on in his personal life with his new grandson and his partner having more free time to spend together.

This book is a bit different with Charlie solving a cold case with the help of another character named Jack. I had to look it up and found out that character is the husband of main character Wenda Nell from one of the author’s other series. I did feel at times I missed some background information due to that, but overall I thought it was handled well. I am not a big fan of these types of crossovers unless I read both series and I feel those who did will probably enjoy this more, but even without having read that series I didn’t feel like I missed too much. I did enjoy the dynamic duo vibe this one had with the two characters teaming up.

The mystery was an interesting one, this time it’s a cold case from 20 years ago instead of a new murder, the vibe was a bit different due to that. The murder was a pretty horrific one and involves 4 people who got killed and the killer is never found. I thought it made sense why Charlie got involved and it was interesting to see him team up and work together with Jack, which gave this book a different dynamic. I was pretty convinced of one truth early on, but I was mostly convinced of that without anything to support that and was curious to see if I was correct about that. This book kept me guessing for a while and then after a certain clue later in the book I pieced things together and figured out what had happened and my theory was correct, that was satisfying.

I enjoyed reading more about Charlie. It’s interesting to see his personal life change throughout the series. Now he has his first grandkid with another one on the way. Helen-Louise, his partner, has more free time and there were some more scenes of the two spending time together in this one. He still has two boarders living with him. And a fun group of familiar side characters that I enjoy reading about. I enjoy seeing things progress throughout the series. And there is plenty of Diesel as well in this one. I like the narrator for this series and had a great time listening t this one.

To summarize: This was another solid read in this series. This one takes a bit of time to get going to set up the pieces as Charlie gets involved in solving another mystery. This one had a different vibe than the previous books with it being a cold case and Charlie teaming up with another character to solve the mystery. The murder was a pretty horrific one. It kept me guessing what had happened and after a certain clue I managed to guess what had happened and it turned out I was right, which was satisfying. I enjoy seeing Charlie’s personal life develop and change through the series, in this book he has his first grandkid and more time with his partner Helen-Louise. I look forward to continuing the series.