Book Review/Giveaway: Fat Cat Spreads Out by Janet Cantrell

From the publisher: Butterscotch tabby Quincy is back and hungrier than ever in this frisky follow-up to Fat Cat at Large…

A booth at the Bunyan County Harvest Fair seems like the perfect opportunity for Charity “Chase” Oliver and Anna Larson to promote their Bar None bakery business. Unfortunately, plus-sized pussycat Quincy has plans for their delicious dessert bars other than selling them to customers. After tearing through their inventory, Quincy goes roaming the fairgrounds in search of more delights.

But what he finds is murder. One of the top contenders in a butter-sculpting contest has been killed, and Chase is churning on the inside when she sees Quincy’s handsome veterinarian, Dr. Mike Ramos, being led away by the police. With a little help from a kitty with butter on his whiskers, Chase needs to find the real killer and clear the doctor’s good name…

I am hopelessly in love with Quincy. The lengths that cat will go to find food just crack me up. In this second book in the series he stows away in a basket to the Bunyan County Harvest Fair where Chase and Anna have a booth to sell their dessert bars. After eating his way across the fairgrounds he ends up in the building where a Butter Sculpting Competition is being held, and one of the competitors is found dead with a sculpting dowel sticking out of his ear. Local vet and Chase's love interest Mike Ramos is accused, but Chase soon learns that the victim's fellow competitors, vendors, and his very own wife had reason to want him dead.

Sub-plots include a personal crisis involving Bar None employee Inger, and the theft of a diamond-studded cat collar (the grand prize in a cat costume contest sponsored by Picky Puss Cat Food). The killer's identity remained a mystery to me until the very end, and the part Quincy plays in the capture is just priceless. The two recipes at the end of the book I will most definitely be trying out soon: Harvest Bars for myself and Go-Go Bars for Truffles.

May the chubby tabby be on the hunt for murderers and morsels for many, many more books to come!!!

Giveaway: Leave a comment by noon eastern on Friday, June 12th for your chance to win a copy of Fat Cat Spreads Out. (US entries only, please.)