Book Review: Cat Got Your Secrets

On this Mysterious Monday, we review Cat Got Your Secrets, the third book in Julie Chase’s Kitty Couture series, set in the New Orleans Garden District. This time around, Lacy Marie Crocker is desperate to prove that her beloved father is not a murderer, while she also runs the day-to-day in her pet boutique called Furry Godmother and helps her mother with the welcoming committee for a major pet pageant. Oh, and did I mention the men, two of them, both extremely eligible and both interested in Lacy?

She’s a very busy lady.

The plot

The mystery gets rolling when Lacy arrives at an event hall with a delivery of dog biscuits for a Saint Berdoodle’s Bark Mitzvah. Sounds like fun, only the party’s been canceled, because one Wallace Becker, owner of an upscale petsitting company called the Cuddle Brigade, has been found dead in a freezer inside the hall. And as far as anyone knows, Lacy’s dad was the last person to see Becker alive—and they had an argument. Soon the New Orleans police are taking a hard look at her father, and that means Lacy has to take a hard look at anyone else who could possibly be a suspect. It also means she gets thrown again and again into the company of the very hunky (and rich) Detective Jack Oliver. Meanwhile, she also spends a fair amount of time with old friend Chase, an attorney in a prestigious law firm who wants to be much more than friends.

Lacy cooks up one scheme after another to get a chance to question anyone who was close to Becker (as in, close enough to want him dead). It seems she has touched a nerve with someone, because she begins getting threats of blackmail. Plus, her mother insists she dress in nothing but pastels to match the other members of the National Pet Pageant Welcoming Committee. And she’s also dealing with the occasional panic attack, the result of previous run-ins with murderous nutjobs.

The cat(s)

The main cat in this series is Lacy’s cat, a black and gray tabby named Penelope, or Penny. She travels from home to work with Lacy, and she enjoys riding around on the Roomba, which is named Spot (because, of course). The Crocker family also has a black cat named Voodoo who makes an appearance once in a while. And in this book, we meet a Russian blue named Dimitri Midnight Gregori. He lives with the murder victim’s wife.

None of the cats play an active role in solving the mystery, but they (especially Penny) are a frequent presence in the book. (We really don’t see why Penny couldn’t run down a bad guy with Spot. That would be such an exciting conclusion, we think. Julie Chase may consider this a free plot idea for future volumes.)

Our verdict

We love this series for its lightness and humor, its setting, its characters … and of course its mysteries. Lacy has a talent for ending up in ridiculous situations—some of them hilarious, others dangerous. She is very real and relatable. Yes, she’s one of “the” Crockers (as in, a powerful, well-to-do New Orleans family), but she hasn’t always owned that identity. In Cat Got Your Secrets, we see Lacy and her mother come to understand each other a little bit better as Lacy further accepts her place as a member of that family. We also experience another exciting climax, which I can’t tell you about without giving away the mystery. Let’s just say this: very dark, very cluttered room with Lacy and one crazy person in it. It’s all wonderful fun!

And, we can’t think of another mystery series where you’ll read a line quite like “We’re out of turtle tiaras.”

What could I say to top that, except this:

Recommended!

A note on the "Paws Up" system: Miss C gives either one or two paws up. One paw is for a good read; two paws is for a great read. She never gives three or four paws because that would require her to lie on her back...and Miss C does not do that!

We received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. We wouldn’t tell you it was good unless we really liked it!

The link below is an Amazon Associates link. If you purchase the book through this link, old SoLT and I could get some coin for our kibble account. Thank you!