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Jul. 31st, 2010 10:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jennariaA CAT UNDER THE MISTLETOE, by Lydia Adamson.
Cover copy: Alice Nestleton -- a professional actress whose day job is cat-sitting -- has solved a dozen fiendishly feline-based crimes since her series began. Her winning personality and expertise at solving murder cases have thrilled her legion of fans. Now this hardcover debut brings Alice back for her thirteenth mystery adventure. Unlucky? Not for readers who look forward to a razor-sharp tale of detection.
It is a few weeks before Christmas, and Alice has a new client, a lovely tortoiseshell cat named Roberta. But Roberta isn't always on her best behavior. Occasionally she turns into the kitty from hell, and one of Alice's tasks is to transport the fickle feline to her therapist. Dr. Wilma Tedescu, an Amazon-size woman, is renowned for soothing many of Manhattan's savage beasties. Unfortunately, on Roberta's very first appointment Alice finds Dr. Tedescu as dead as a Christmas goose.
Dr. Tedescu was at her desk when someone put a bullet behind her ear, proving that cat "shrinks," unlike cats, are decidedly short of nine lives. Almost immediately, suspicion falls on the doctor's hot tempered estranged husband...and then on Alice. The fur flies as Alice sets out to find the real killer.
Past experience leads Alice to look into records of the doctor's other clients: cats with multiple personalities, cats with gender confusion, and cats with litter box phobias. But instinct tells her to investigate the doctor's own secret quirks and some neurotic human clients. Alice's nose for clues and her uncanny curiosity land her a whisker away from a killer who doesn't pussyfoot around with murder.
This is an inimitable Alice Nestleton mystery, complete with feline wit, suspense, romance, danger, and wondrous Christmas ambiance.
Gender of detective: female
Oh, jeez.
I did not like this one. It's in first person, which means you're inside someone's head, and you better damn well think like that person, or be able to enjoy temporarily thinking like that, or else it's just going to get your back up. Unfortunately, the narrative voice here came across as incredibly arch and full of herself. Her boyfriend at one point accuses her of actually changing when she's in the middle of a case, of acting like a different person when she's on the trail of a mystery - and not a person he likes. She gets all huffy and angry at him, rather than stopping to think about what this implies, and it winds up merely being a source of soap-opera-esque drama rather than actual character insight.
Just to add insult to injury, this is another series that dates from the fad for cat mysteries, so the combination of Romantic Drama and cats makes it feel very marketed. I'll grant you this may be my dislike for Alice speaking, but still: firm thumbs down.
*
Hour and a half down, only 22 and a half to go!
Cover copy: Alice Nestleton -- a professional actress whose day job is cat-sitting -- has solved a dozen fiendishly feline-based crimes since her series began. Her winning personality and expertise at solving murder cases have thrilled her legion of fans. Now this hardcover debut brings Alice back for her thirteenth mystery adventure. Unlucky? Not for readers who look forward to a razor-sharp tale of detection.
It is a few weeks before Christmas, and Alice has a new client, a lovely tortoiseshell cat named Roberta. But Roberta isn't always on her best behavior. Occasionally she turns into the kitty from hell, and one of Alice's tasks is to transport the fickle feline to her therapist. Dr. Wilma Tedescu, an Amazon-size woman, is renowned for soothing many of Manhattan's savage beasties. Unfortunately, on Roberta's very first appointment Alice finds Dr. Tedescu as dead as a Christmas goose.
Dr. Tedescu was at her desk when someone put a bullet behind her ear, proving that cat "shrinks," unlike cats, are decidedly short of nine lives. Almost immediately, suspicion falls on the doctor's hot tempered estranged husband...and then on Alice. The fur flies as Alice sets out to find the real killer.
Past experience leads Alice to look into records of the doctor's other clients: cats with multiple personalities, cats with gender confusion, and cats with litter box phobias. But instinct tells her to investigate the doctor's own secret quirks and some neurotic human clients. Alice's nose for clues and her uncanny curiosity land her a whisker away from a killer who doesn't pussyfoot around with murder.
This is an inimitable Alice Nestleton mystery, complete with feline wit, suspense, romance, danger, and wondrous Christmas ambiance.
Gender of detective: female
Oh, jeez.
I did not like this one. It's in first person, which means you're inside someone's head, and you better damn well think like that person, or be able to enjoy temporarily thinking like that, or else it's just going to get your back up. Unfortunately, the narrative voice here came across as incredibly arch and full of herself. Her boyfriend at one point accuses her of actually changing when she's in the middle of a case, of acting like a different person when she's on the trail of a mystery - and not a person he likes. She gets all huffy and angry at him, rather than stopping to think about what this implies, and it winds up merely being a source of soap-opera-esque drama rather than actual character insight.
Just to add insult to injury, this is another series that dates from the fad for cat mysteries, so the combination of Romantic Drama and cats makes it feel very marketed. I'll grant you this may be my dislike for Alice speaking, but still: firm thumbs down.
*
Hour and a half down, only 22 and a half to go!