Have been thinking about my late kitties recently. Know so because I've been watching old cat videos and longing for the days when I had two cats on my lap. But I'm also thinking about how smart cats are...or aren't.
What's bothered me about the book was the cats being smarter than humans. Chauvinistic of me? I don't think so, even when considering a paranormal mystery.
Oh, I found the book an acceptable, light-weight entertainment
of the conventional kind. The mystery contains all the crucial parts, even was
book one in the series. The problem is that the cat made the better detective
than the human...even if it didn't talk.
Willa, the protagonist, moves to Mystic Notch where her sister is sheriff to take over her grandmother's book store and house after a car accident ended her journalism career. Willa took over her grandmother's cat. too. Actually, the cat took over Willa in the sense it goaded her into the finding of the clues to the murder
What I missed the most in the book was the lack of tension. Oh, Willa gets yelled at as she's also pushed by the ghost of the fussy librarian to find her murderer. She even pukes on the developing love interest.
Still, I finished the book. But, it didn't hold my interest or keep me up. The gauge: I found I reread two of Tamora Pierce's Tortell quartets while reading Ghostly Paws. It's not unusual for me to read two books in tandem according to my mood, but I felt real reluctance in returning to Willa's problems.
The ghost didn't do much for me, either. Thought she was one dimensional. Granted I think I'd like to think I'd goad someone who could see me to solve my murder, too. But the victim never gets beyond the fussy librarian trope.
Bottom line: Ghostly Paws is a nice beach book or a book to read when you know you'll be interrupted a lot. You can learn more about the book on
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My Writing Rut
You're reading book reviews from me again because I trying to project a more professional writing presence for the book I've almost finished: The Pig Wars. My website and blog have been upgraded. I've also gone and commissioned another cover for The Pig Wars which is
One funny thing. When I sent my manuscript back to the editor for copy edits, I expected to add a few more pages to my total. Then, I got them back for me to make the changes. They are mostly deletions. The manuscript will still be above 80,000 words. But the editor has been right for the first four chapters. The manuscript is littered with superfluous phrases.
I have a semi-mystery of my own hanging out on my desktop: The Ghostly Killing Fields or some such title, featuring Dumdie Swartz of The Ghost in the Closet and The Ghostcrow. I'm hoping it'll be close to 100 pages. I sporadically add to the current chapter. The draft needs major work, but I'm trying to get an ending on the piece before I revise.
Only I have
another Half-Elven novel with first edits not transferred/rewritten that I
found when I moved chewing on me...Dark Solstice, featuring Mariah discovering she has a granddaughter some 400 years after The Pig Wars.
Decisions.
Decisions.
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My Reading Pile
Finally
broke down and bought the hardcover of Patricia Brigg's Wild Sign, part of her
werewolf universe as in her Mercy Thompson and Alpha and Omega series. I won't
be reviewing it. But I've been sneaking peeks as I copy edit The Pig Wars. If
you haven't tuned into Brigg's worlds, you should go haunt some used book
stores...or new ones too.
