The usual mix of small-town celebration and cat frolics, salted with puns. Sometimes the aw shucks writing gets to me, but as a palate-cleanser after heavier books, it does nicely.

I finally have to admit that the writing is going steadily downhill. However, LJB is 96(!) years old, and wrote this book 4 years ago, so the change in quality is understandable. I still enjoyed the story, although there was hardly any mystery at all. ( )

I gave this book four stars because I like hearing about Qwill, the cats (especially!) and the characters around Pickax. So, these books are fun fluff that are the equivalent of checking in on old friends.

But if you are looking for the mystery, you will be very disappointed. It lasts about 15 (?) very short pages. This series (for whatever reason) has morphed into a story about quaint people in a quaint town. But the mystery gets less and less print with each book.

If you want mystery, get the earlier books in the series. If you don't mind hearing about small town antics, this should be fluffy fun. ( )

A nice cozy read that any lover of the series will enjoy. Not much suspense in this particular book, in my opinion. But I still enjoyed it. I finished it in under two hours! ( )

Not one of her better mysteries. She seemed more inclined to focus on advancing the story of the town rather then solving a murder. In fact, the murder comes late in the book and just glanced over. But all in all... a definite read, especially if you are doing the series as it does advance the whole story arch. ( )

really bad ( )

The last Cat Who book I'll spend money on
I don't know what has happened to Lillian Jackson Braun, but this book was crap.

The plot was pitifully thin. The characters didn't seem like the same characters I've enjoyed in the past. The development of both plot and characters was almost nonexistant.

Don't waste your time or money. Read Braun's older work instead. ( )

The 28th (!) in this popular series, but first that I've read. As the small town of Pickax gets ready to celebrate its 150th birthday, some odd things happen and Koko the Siamese cat has his cat radar working overtime; owner and local journo Jim has to make sense of it all ...
A relentlessly upbeat and folksy, even whimsical, sort of whodunnit, with too many plot threads to elucidate successfully in its 210 wide-spaced pages.
Jim Quilleran, the moustachioed lead with his two Siamese cats is immensely likeable, but sometimes irritating with his habit of spouting off the cuff limericks. Other characters are sketchy - I couldn't picture his girlfriend Polly at all, maybe I should read a couple of the earlier installments ... or maybe not. ( )

The main thing I enjoy in these books is Koko and Yum Yum. I have a Siamese and many of the characteristics ring true. I also like that the author doesn't force Koko's detective tendencies on the reader. He always acts like a cat, his actions simply trigger Qwill to think. Or is it more?
As with several of the later books, I feel they needed better editing. Several repeat passages describing people or places within the book. The mystery was half solved, if solved, then only by a freak source. Of course, the mystery wasn't hidden from the reader, either. Oh well. I really don't read these for anything other than the cats. :) ( )

Not the best of the series. More like a review of all the people that Qwill has met. ( )

The residents of Pickax are about to celebrate the 150th anniversary of its founding. But in the midst of all the preparations, Qwill has to take time out to deal with Koko's strange new habit of dropping from balconies and landing in the oddest of places-and a couple that has mysteriously gone missing.

I said this about the last in the Cat Who... series and that's that I think over time these have become less of a mystery genre story and more of a local color tale.

I still enjoy them very much, but for readers who want a strong who-dun-it, this isn't for them. ( )

This book was a disappointment: the threads of the story weren't woven together well and there was really too much going on - a pyschic knitter, a family reunion that had nothing to do with anything else except to provide the murder that the knitter predicted (and it wasn't even the primary murder), the accidental death of someone who figured prominently in previous books but had no relation to this story whatsoever, and the murderer was tipped off by the friend (from out of town!) of the murder's pretend girlfriend, who had just moved to Pickax from California. This book does not live up to LJB's earlier stories. ( )