Before we actually sat down to put this post together, old
SoLT actually said, “Oh, this post will be so easy! We just pick our favorite
books!” What a fool she is. It’s so hard to choose favorites when we have
gotten to read so many good books. We have done our best though, and so we
present to you, in no particular order, our six favorites from among the cat
cozies we read in 2016. We're sure you'll find something to like among the books in this list! (And if you don't, you are clearly reading the wrong blog!)
A Deadly Tail, by Dixie Lyle
This book is part of the Whiskey, Tango & Foxtrot
series, which we think is simply one of the most entertaining series ever.
Ectoplasmic ghost dog, reincarnated tuxedo cat, great plot, plenty of humor, a re-imagination
of that famous Rainbow Bridge that makes us go all gooey inside… If you haven’t
sampled this series yet, we really do not know what is stopping you!
Crime and Poetry, by Amanda Flower
This is the first book in the Magical Bookshop series, in
which Violet Waverly drops work on her dissertation to rush home to Cascade
Springs, New York, because she thinks her grandmother is gravely ill. But Violet
is in for a few surprises, the first of which is that Grandma Daisy is healthy
as can be. This book has just enough complexity to be really interesting without
being confusing, it has a great cat named Emerson, and then there’s that whole “magical
bookshop” thing going on…
The
Crepes of Wrath, by Sarah Fox
The Crepes of Wrath
is the start of another new series, this one set on Washington State’s Olympic
Peninsula. Marley McKinney has moved temporarily to Wildwood Cove to run her
cousin’s pancake house while he’s in the hospital, but when Cousin Jimmy is
murdered, Marley’s life changes forever. Rich setting, great characters,
page-turning excitement towards the end, plus an orange tabby named,
appropriately, Flapjack. A yummy mystery!
Till Death Do Us Tart, by H. Y. Hanna
If you like your cozies a little more British, this fourth
book in the Oxford Tearoom series is for you. A rude, snooty woman drops dead
in the middle of a cat show, whereupon main character Gemma Rose’s mother jumps in to solve the crime. In our review, we described this book as sort of like Midsomer Murders meets Inspector Lewis, only with tea and cats.
In other words, very entertaining!
Probable Paws, by Leighann Dobbs
This book returns us to one of our favorite fictional
places: Mystic Notch, New Hampshire. Willa Chance owns a bookstore in this town
where the cats are…different. Willa is visited regularly by ghosts, and at the
start of this book she meets a ghost who wants her to find a book called Betty’s
Recipes (hint: it’s not an ordinary recipe book). This is an enthralling and
thoroughly entertaining series perfect for you talking-cat lovers.
Into the Grey, by Clea Simon
Into the Grey is part of the Dulcie Schwartz feline mystery
series, which we have been dying to get into. When a gross, handsy academic is
murdered, grad student Dulcie Schwartz sets off to find out who killed him.
Dulcie is guided by the spirit of her deceased cat, Mr. Grey. There is also a
living cat, Esmé. This is a book full of uncertainty—not much in Dulcie’s life
is black and white. Plus there’s an academic quest that we think you’ll find intriguing
if you’re a nerd like old SoLT.
Bonus! Our favorite non-cozy mystery
Just before Christmas, 12-year-old Flavia de Luce is home
from the horrible-sounding Miss Bodycote’s Female Academy and has the great
good fortune to discover a corpse. Fortunately, Flavia is rather good at
solving mysteries, and she gets right in the middle of this one in short order.
Yes, there is a cat—a tortoiseshell that is important to the plot but not a
major character. Beautifully written, somewhat creepy, intensely atmospheric.
Did you have a favorite cat cozy this year? Let us know in
the comments!
See something you like?
Buy it through one of the links below! (These are Amazon Associate links. If you make a purchase through one of these links, old SoLT and I could earn a little coin for our kibble account.)
Crime and Poetry (A Magical Bookshop Mystery)
The Crêpes of Wrath: A Pancake House Mystery
Probable Paws (Mystic Notch Cozy Mystery Series) (Volume 5)
Into The Grey: A feline-filled academic mystery (A Dulcie Schwartz Cat Mystery)
Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd: A Flavia de Luce Novel
Great picks! I've read three on your list and the rest are in my TBR pile :) Last year I did a top 10 cat books of the year (which I plan to do again this year) and it's incredibly difficult!
ReplyDeleteGreat list. I read Crime And Poetry. I'm reading Prose And Cons now. It's a great series. I recommend the Black Cat Bookshop series by Ali Brandon. The series takes place in a bookstore and a black Maine Coon cat helps solve the murders.
ReplyDeleteI have most of these on my list to read but haven't gotten to any of them yet. I wish I could read books as fast as I find them!
ReplyDeleteSo many cat books and not enough time to read them all.
ReplyDeleteI recently finished Fat Cat Takes the Cake by Janet Cantrell. I really enjoy this series. I think I'd like the H. Y. Hanna books and I want to try the Amanda Flower one since I've read other books by her. I have some of Clea Simon's books.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to read the series of Dulcie Schwartz feline mystery by Clea Simon, but it's almost impossible to get older ones, especially someone like me who dosen't live in US,,,
ReplyDelete