In this novel in the New York Times bestselling Second Chance Cat Mystery series, secondhand shop owner Sarah Grayson and her rescue cat, Elvis, get caught up in a case of she said, she said...
When Sarah Grayson opened a secondhand shop in the quaint town of North Harbor, Maine, she was expecting peace and quiet. Then she was adopted by a rescue cat named Elvis and a kooky trio of senior sleuths known as Charlotte’s Angels. Now she has nine lives worth of excitement...
Sarah’s friend and employee Rose is delivering a customer’s purchase when the quick errand becomes a deadly escapade. Rose arrives just in time to see the customer murdered by his wife, but before she can call the police, she is knocked out cold. When she wakes up, no one believes her, especially after the woman claims her husband is very much alive and has left her for someone else—and has a text message and empty bank account to prove it.
Despite her convincing story, Sarah is sure something is fishy—and it’s not Elvis’s kitty treats. Sarah, Elvis, and the Angels are determined to unravel this mysterious yarn, before the feral killer pounces again...
Meh. Definitely not the strongest in the series so far. Ryan had a Rear Window theme going on in the plot, and I'm not a fan of the trope, although I give her credit for using it as an effective device for bringing society's view of seniors, and how easily they're dismissed, into the book's storyline.
The mystery itself was obfuscated by both the question of whether or not a crime took place at all, and the lack of any clear motive until very nearly the end of the book. By the time it's revealed that a crime did take place, it was pretty clear who had to have done it.
While I generally love the setting (I find the whole repurposing thing interesting), and I like the characters, I found Rose (the witness the maybe crime), in particular, a bit trying. She was just a little too exaggerated. There's a weird romance vibe going on in the series too; it's not quite a love triangle but the potential is obvious. Meanwhile nothing but internal musing has been going on for 4 books and I'm tired of hearing about it. One party of the triangle, Nick, seems to have zero chemistry with the MC and was a total ass in this book. Total. ass.
I'll read the next one on the strength of the author's other books, and how much I usually enjoy them. Hopefully the mystery, at least, will be a better one.
Reading updates
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Started reading
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25 February, 2018:
Finished reading
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25 February, 2018:
Reviewed