Review: File M for Murder by Miranda James

File M for Murder (Cat in the Stacks #3)
by Miranda James
narrated by Erin Bennett

My Rating: 3 stars

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

Blurb:
In this mystery in the New York Times bestselling Cat in the Stacks series, librarian Charlie Harris and his cat Diesel must clear the name of someone near and dear to their hearts—Charlie’s own daughter.

Athena College’s new writer in residence is a famous native son, playwright Connor Lawton, known for his sharp writing—and sharper tongue. After an unpleasant encounter, librarian Charlie Harris heads home to a nice surprise: his daughter, Laura, is visiting and will be subbing for another professor this fall semester. It’s great news until he hears who got her the job: her old flame, Connor Lawton…

Fearing competition for Connor’s affections, one of his admirers tries to drive Laura out of town. And then, before Connor finishes the play he is writing, he is murdered—and Laura is the prime suspect. Knowing she’s innocent, Charlie and his faithful sidekick, Diesel, follow Connor’s cluttered trail of angry lovers, bitter enemies, and intriguing library research to find the true killer before his daughter is forever cataloged under “M”—for murderer.

My Review

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

I enjoyed the first two books in this series and enjoyed this third book as well, although I enjoyed it a bit less than the first two books. This one could feel a bit slow at times and the mystery wasn’t as engaging for me. I enjoyed reading more about Charlie and Diesel as well as the side character surrounding them.

This book felt a bit slow to me, there’s a lot of introduction and scenes that later get relevant, but don’t feel so at the start. I also wasn’t as invested in the mystery. It takes awhile before the murder occurs and then the actual investigation felt quite slow as well. This one also had a bit more danger and threats to Charlie and his family, which changed the tone a bit and I didn’t really like that, although it did give him a powerful motive to get involved.

I thought the reveal was well done and I liked how Charlie used his librarian skills to figure things out. It was nice to see everything fall on it’s place, but I felt like all the intricate sleuthing and interesting reveals were in the very last bit of the book, which made the rest of the book feel less exciting. It was nice to see the ending get wrapped up a bit differently than most cozies, which I liked, but thought the jab at endings of cozy mysteries was unnecessary. I also was left with some questions about motives and the how and why behind some things and wasn’t sure if I missed something or that it was intentionally only hinted at instead of explicitly stated.

I liked reading about Charlie and his cat Diesel. Diesel goes everywhere Charlie goes and he’s fun to read about, I liked how Diesel helped out a few times as well as offering emotional support. I like how with each book I get a better feel for Charlie as a character and it was interesting to see him interact with his daughter Laura in this book who is visiting now and staying at her father’s place for a bit. There’s more about his son and his two boarders as well, which I liked. It’s a nice change of pace to be reading about a a guy in his 50s with two grown children in a cozy mystery. There is a bit of romance as well, but it very much stays to sidelines, I look forward to seeing how that develops.

To summarize: I enjoy this series and it was fun to follow Charlie and Diesel on another mystery investigation. I felt this book was a bit less enjoyable than the first two and the pace felt more slow and the mystery less engaging for me. A lot of times I felt like there wasn’t as much progress, although a lot of those scenes did turn out to be relevant later. I also didn’t like the more tense atmosphere at times with the danger and threats to Charlie and his family, but it did make for a good motive for him to get involved. I liked seeing more of Charlie and Diesel, his cat, who is fun to read about. I liked how Laura, Charlie’s daughter, makes an appearances and plays an important role in this book. As well as more of the side characters from previous books. There’s also a bit of romance for Charlie that is developing.

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

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.