Book Review: The Fast and the Furriest

On this Mysterious Monday, we are pleased to bring you our review of The Fast and the Furriest, book 5 in the Second Chance Cat Mystery series by Sofie Ryan. This is such a fun series, featuring an excellent cat named Elvis whose hobby is watching Jeopardy!—when he’s not charming customers in Second Chance, the shop where Sarah Grayson sells repurposed items. Other characters—and I do mean characters—include Charlotte’s Angels, the group of, um, mature investigators who seem to get entangled in every mystery that comes to North Harbor, Maine.

The plot

In this volume, Sarah, Elvis, and the Angels have to use their skills to prove that their friend Mac is not a murderer. The trouble starts when Erin, a woman from Mac’s past, shows up out of the blue to look for him, only to turn up dead later that day. Suddenly, secrets from Mac’s earlier life come spilling out—like what happened to his beloved wife, and the suspicion that his wife’s family had toward him. Surely Mac could not have killed anyone, but when a witness claims to have seen him with the latest victim shortly before she was killed, well, the local police naturally suspect him. Sarah and the Angels start digging into the past to find out just who might have tried to kill Mac’s wife and why, because that will surely lead them to Erin’s killer. The question quickly becomes, Which of the people with financial motives would have been desperate enough or greedy enough to kill, or could any of them have had some other motive? Oh, and will Sarah and the Angels figure it out in time to save Mac from being charged with murder?

The cat

Elvis is a cool black cat with a little scar on his nose. As I mentioned earlier, he enjoys watching Jeopardy!, but his real skill is that he can tell when people are lying. This comes in handy when there’s an investigation ongoing. In this instance, Elvis confirms that Mac is telling the truth when he says he never killed or tried to kill anyone. Of course Mac’s friends already believed him, but it never hurts to get independent confirmation. Elvis is a near-constant presence, and we love how he is just always there, being his charming self and following pretty much whichever of his human friends he chooses to. If you haven’t met Elvis yet, you really should, because he is a great cat!

Our verdict

The Fast and the Furriest may be our favorite Second Chance mystery yet. We love a book with a strong sense of place and deep connections to the past, and this book has both. North Harbor is just the kind of coastal New England town we’d love to visit on summer vacation, and we would surely stop in at Sarah’s shop (if it existed; too many of our favorite places are fictional!). Mac is front and center in this book, and lots of details of his earlier life are finally revealed. This only makes us like him more, and we continue to wonder just what is up between him and Sarah. But then there’s also Nick, her sort-of boyfriend, although she and he don’t always get along so well. The relationships are complicated, but not in a confusing way. Just the way we like it. Then there’s Charlotte’s Angels.… They are definitely worth meeting, and they’re often good for a laugh (plus, they’re pretty good investigators).

This is easily one of our favorite books so far this year.

Highly 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!