Susan Y. Tanner

Year-Round Trouble is my first encounter with Trouble the wonderful black cat. I am so enchanted by him that I want to find every book he is in! If, like me, you haven’t read of him, I cannot encourage you enough to get this book. If you read his adventures than you are probably already planning to get it.
This book, written by various authors, is centered around a year of American holidays, (and yes, Cinco de Mayo, the way it is celebrated, is an American holiday. My ex-husbands as from D.F. and had no idea what we were doing. It took a couple of years for him to get over us making a huge fiesta over it.). I loved that smaller holidays were included, including my son’s favorite, Veteran’s Day. I know and love several of the authors included in this anthology. Many of them, though, I had not read before or had only read in other anthologies. I was blown away by how well this came together! You have 14 different authors with 14 different main characters who wrote in 14 worlds yet kept the book flowing flawlessly! That is a major feat. Kudos to all the authors! You are all tremendously talented and dedicated to be able to blend the stories so they stayed true and separated yet connected around Trouble.
As I stated all the stories have their own main character. Some of them are familiar to many cozy mystery readers. For me, I looked forward most to seeing who Ritter Ames was going to write about, (Mia on a train ride you don’t want to miss reading about); catching up with Lily Gayle from Susan Boles; and Cherry Tucker, (why can’t I just say Cherry? It’s always Cherry Tucker for me, as if there are tons of women named Cherry.), from Larissa Reinhart. I looked forward to reading some authors I have on my TBR and keep promising myself I will read them and to reading completely new to me authors. I am so happy to say I was not disappointed. Every author wrote fun stories that made me want more of them. Do you know what surprised me the most though? All these different styles of writing and Trouble stayed consistent throughout the book! I was prepared to have his personality or speech slightly changed because of all the different authors. That did not happen. No matter who was writing the story, Trouble was Trouble. I marvel at that. It was amazing!
Yes, I am recommending you get this book. You can read it all at once. Or you can read each story around the holiday it celebrates. If you are doing a cozy mystery travel challenge, this book will help you knock off a few states. Whichever way you decide to read it, I’m sure you will be as surprised and delighted as I was.… (mer)

Not since meeting a cat named, Shadow in the "Sunny and Shadow" Series created by Claire Donally have I purred in my human reading pleasure way for the wondrous names that a charismatic cat I’ve never met before named "Trouble" has for humans, the things humans do, the things human say, etc. Not to minimize Shadow’s achievements or personality in any way but Trouble appears very sophisticated perhaps because he has modeled and honed his sleuthing talents learning "his skills from his dad (Familiar*), but also from watching his hero, Benedict Cumberbatch, on the telly as Sherlock Holmes." Accordingly, Trouble has an occasional slip into British slang.

*In 1990, Carolyn Haines wrote a romantic mystery which featured Familiar, a black cat detective with an attitude. Familiar soon had his own series of 17 stories. Trouble is the son of Familiar and now has his own series. To date there are 12 stories written by 8 different authors with the 13th to be published in late June (2021).

I absolutely loved this short story anthology featuring Trouble. Its unique charm is that Trouble visits the multiple mystery worlds created by a host of cozy mystery authors – all friends of Carolyn Haines. Each writer has created a story featuring Trouble in the cozy mystery setting each author is best-known for and Trouble just happens to be visiting the location and the amateur sleuth that lives in that area on or around a different holiday of the year.

The holidays for this year-round celebration with Trouble are: Mardi Gras, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, April Fool’s Day, Easter, Cinco de Mayo, Mother’s Day, Midsummer's Eve, 4th of July, Halloween, Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and New Year’s Eve. After each story there is a word from the author sharing interesting comments on either the holiday selected or an aspect of the story that is personal to her/him (and I very highly recommend not skipping this feature as it enhances not only the individual’s story but the entire anthology) followed by the usual promotional “About the Author.”

I highly recommend this holiday celebration extravaganza. It's a joy to read at any time throughout the year.… (mer)