Beware the cats of Christmas past…
It’s the holiday season on Daybreak Island, and Maddie James is looking forward to stepping out of the limelight, watching the island’s Christmas decoration competition from afar, spending time with her boyfriend and family, running tours for visitors as part of the festivities and spreading holiday cheer through cute cats in jingle bell collars.
But trouble hits close to home when word gets out that Donna Carey, the publisher of the island’s only daily newspaper where Maddie’s best friend Becky is editor, may be selling the business. Becky is a diehard journalist and to her, selling the only newspaper on the island is a fate worse than death. She publicly opposes the potential sale, wreaking havoc on her relationship with her big boss.
Maddie is sympathetic, but she has her own problems – like getting pulled into a role on the Christmas event committee despite her best efforts to stay far removed, and solving the case of a mysterious cat breeder trying to sell expensive designer cats as holiday gifts on the island. But then Donna winds up dead—electrocuted by her own Christmas decorations—and it appears to be more than an accident. To make matters worse, Becky becomes suspect number one. Maddie is thrown into another murder investigation in order to save her best friend from a Christmas behind bars.
Release Date: Aug 20, 2024
Series:Â A Cat Cafe Mystery
Book:Â 8
Publisher:Â Penguin Group
Imprint:Â BerkleyÂ
Price: $9.99
Maddie James is the proud owner of JJ’s House of Purrs, a cat cafe named after her cherished cat. It’s less than two weeks before Christmas, and the whole town of Daybreak Harbor in New England is excited about the town’s Christmas Lights Contest. Maddie is usually in the middle of all the town’s events, but this time, she’s happy to just be a participant and have more time to enjoy the holidays. However, plans change for Maddie when her mom begs her to step in and organize things for the contest before it ends up being a failure. Then, when Donna Carey, the publisher of the local newspaper, is killed and her best friend becomes a suspect, Maddie puts plans of relaxation aside and begins looking into the murder.
This is the eighth book in the Cat Cafe Mystery series. I’ve read a couple of the earlier books in the series, but it has been a while. I had a hard time keeping up with all the characters and remembering how each person was connected. When Maddie and her friends were able to narrow down the suspects in Donna’s murder, I had to remind myself who they were. This kept me from focusing on the plot, but I’m sure readers who follow the series regularly won’t have the same problem. I would have loved a list of characters at the beginning. Those that stood out were Maddie, her grandfather, her sister, and her boyfriend, but some of the others blended together.
The decorating contest is a fun element for a Christmas-themed cozy and I love how excited Maddie’s grandfather is to participate and how competitive he is. Maddie and others keep finding advertisements for designer cats for sale, promoting them as great holiday gifts. That part of the plot, especially regarding potential scams, is interesting and informative. I liked the scenes with Maddie and her boyfriend Lucus, owner of a pet grooming salon, and wish there had been more of them. Instead, we have Maddie being manipulated by several townspeople into taking over their part of the contest planning, including having chairs delivered and putting up decorations. This wasn’t as interesting, and I hated seeing Maddie taken advantage of. When Maddie was at the cafe with the cats, the book interested me more, but there weren’t many scenes there. As a whole, I think this is probably a really fun series. This book on its own had some enjoyable parts but had the potential to be even better. I think fans of the series will enjoy catching up with their favorite characters.
~ Christine
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