Book Review & Giveaway: Hiss and Tell by Claire Donally

In this Sunny & Shadow Mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of Last Licks, a fat-cat wedding is making waves in Kittery Harbor, Maine.

Political heiress Priscilla Kingsbury is about to marry Carson de Kruk, son of business mogul Augustus de Kruk, at the Kingsburys’ waterfront compound. For reporter Sunny Coolidge, an assignment from the Harbor Courier to cover the event is like catnip.

But when Sunny photographs men pulling the body of a dead woman out of the water, the Kingsburys’ private security isn’t happy. They claim the woman’s death was an accident, but the story seems fishy. Now, with a little help from her police officer boyfriend and her cunning cat Shadow, Sunny is determined to get the scoop on a killer.

In this 4th book in the Sunny & Shadow mystery series, Sunny gets a chance to return to her reporter days when she's embedded on a waterfront compound during preparations for a high society wedding. Of course a body turns up and Sunny is thrown right into the midst of chaos. Before it's over a second shocking murder occurs and we're left with the equivalent of a "locked room" mystery on a peninsula cut off from the mainland by a checkpoint and guards.

This has been one of my favorite cat cozy series from the very beginning, and a completely under-rated one at that, but I have to say that I was slightly disappointed in this one. What I love about this series is the relationship between Shadow, Sunny, and Sunny's father Mike who she has returned home to care for following a bad heart attack. Too much of the action in this book took Sunny away from her little family unit, with Mike practically an afterthought, and while Shadow makes his way onto the compound, he and Sunny are apart for much of the book. I still highly recommend the mystery, which had me guessing until the very end, I just hope the next book finds Sunny back home with her family.

The cover art is a hysterical scene straight out of the book, where Shadow helps himself to some hors-d'oeuvre while in the presence of a silly old ailurophobe. Another priceless scene comes following the killer's capture...you won't believe what Shadow does to him/her!!! That Shadow is a cat after my own heart :)

Giveaway: Leave a comment by noon eastern on Friday, May 8th for your chance to win a copy of Hiss and Tell. (US entries only please, and don't forget your email address!)