Jim Qwilleran and his cat Koko get a taste of trouble in the second mystery in the bestselling Cat Who series.Jim Qwilleran isn’t exactly overwhelmed by his new assignment for the Daily Fluxion. Interior design has never been one of his specialties and now he’s supposed to turn out an entire magazine on the subject every week! But the first issue of Gracious Abodes is barely off the presses when … barely off the presses when Qwilleran finds himself back on more familiar territory—the exclusive residence featured on the cover has been burglarized and the lady of the house found dead.
Now Qwilleran and his brilliant Siamese cat, Koko, have their respective moustache and whiskers twitching. And when Koko starts pawing clues in the dictionary and sniffing designer furniture, Qwilleran finds himself doing a feature on a very clever murder…
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Easy light read. Nice clean with warm characters. Lots of fun
Another good read in the Cat Who series
I love this series. The plots are original and the characters are interesting. Koko is the smartest crime solving cat.
Read some of these books long ago but wasn’t thrilled BUT now I find them totally captivating!
If you like cat stories you will love this one.
This lady is a master storyteller. I’ve read the entire cat who series and have started reading them again. Something I rarely ever do!
I really enjoy this series!
Loved it. I have been a fan for many years
The perfect book to relax with. Her books are always a good read.
First in a long-running series featuring Koko and YumYum, two cats who help solve mysteries.
Love all the Cat Who books…
This author is always an excellent read
Liliana Braun has created great characters in Qwilleran, KoKo and now Yum Yum… I have read some of the later books and it is great to see how the series started, and how Qwilleran developed. The writing is smooth, interesting, well done.. enough snobbism to make me happy. One feels at home with the writer… Lovely books. They can be counted on to keep you in a good mood.
Background
The summer after I graduated from college, I started missing regular reading… during school, I had less personal choice and recreational reads, as all the college textbooks and novels were the priority. I was an English major and rarely had time for adding in my own particular interests. The last course I had taken was an independent study that one of my professors and I had built the curriculum on together: Murder Mysteries. I learned all about the genres and sub-genres, authors and styles. One in particular I grew fond of was the cozy mystery. I also had a thing about wanting a Siamese cat. And so… my love affair with Lilian Jackson Braun began. Finding myself without required reading, I selected a few books, including this cozy mystery series, and I read through a huge amount in the first few years.
Review
People either love or dislike the cozy mystery book. Sometimes it’s too simple. I get that. But sometimes, it’s exactly what you want to read before bed, when you need to relax, or because it’s just fun and charming humor and easy story.
Braun started writing in 1960s and published a few of these books, then stopped writing for 25 years before re-igniting the series in the 1980s… producing another 25+ in the collection. This is book number two, and it is where Qwill, the main character, adopts his second Siamese cat when its owner… for reasons I cannot disclose… can no longer care for YumYum. And thus begins the life of these 3 primary characters in the entire series.
Qwill is a really likable character. He’s about 60, a bit ornery, highly intelligent, very set in his ways, and the object of every woman over 60 in town. There are less male protagonists in cozy novels than female leads, which make this a bit of a unique series. It was one of the very first series that put the cozy sub-genre on the market. And the world that Braun creates in Moose County is just amazing.
In this book, Qwill hasn’t yet moved to Moose County, so you’re still learning background about him and his prior life before becoming sober and everything changing post divorce. And he’s asked to write a story and column about home design, something he has very little knowledge of.
It’s a very cute story with a cast of strong characters, a few of which move with him to Moose County along the path. This book establishes his relationship with the two cats, including their extra-strong senses when it comes to helping him solve crimes.
Yes, the cats come up a lot. Always funny. But the mystery is the focus, I promise. It’s worth a shot to see if you’re hooked on the series, but if you do… you have to read the first 3 or 4, so you can see his initial move to Moose Country where 90% of the books take place.
Love these books. Great characters and the cats are adorable too.
Fun little cozy mystery for cat lovers!
The cat who books are fun books to read.
Love all of her books Must read
LOVE THE WHOLE SERIES
This is the second book in the Cat Who series. The series is about a guy named Qwilleran who works for a newspaper and has two Siamese cats. With the help of the male cat, Koko, the guy solves mysteries. In the first book in the series, it explains how the guy got Koko and in the second book in the series, which is this one, it explains how the guy got the female cat, who he names Yum Yum.
In The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern, Qwill is assigned to work on a interior design supplement for his newspaper. Something goes wrong after each place Qwill visits to photograph and write up for his newspaper. I like mysteries and I like cats that’s why I enjoy this series. The Cat Who book are full of quirky, memorable characters, especially Koko the male Siamese cat. This is the second time I’m reading the series and they don’t have to be read in order to fully enjoy them. I didn’t when I first read them and I liked them so much I’m reading them again.