Tortie Shorties on Mystery Monday

Welcome to this week's edition of Tortie Shorties on Mystery Monday!

We hope you enjoy our choices.

Purrfectly Deadly (The Mysteries of Max Book 2) by Nic Saint

From the publisher: When famous eighties pop star John Paul George is found floating face down in his pool, Hampton Cove’s premier sleuthing tabby Max and his feline friends are on the case. Soon they’re chasing leads and following clues, helping their human Odelia Poole, reporter for the Hampton Cove Gazette, solve the murder.

Meanwhile, new cop in town Chase Kingsley has his own problems to deal with. An old scandal threatens to get him kicked off the force. And even though Odelia and Chase don’t always see eye to eye, she decides to help him clear his name, even if it means keeping Chase’s cat Brutus, Max’s self-declared nemesis, in town.

Soon Max is up to his whiskers in drug dealers, boy toys, disgruntled ex-wives and even more drug dealers, all while competing with Brutus for the title of Hampton Cove’s one and only ‘true detective.’ Will the feline sleuths save the day? And will they finally get a taste of John Paul George’s famous cat pâté? 

Tortie Shorties Review: The first book in this series, Purrfect Murder, is one of my favorite cat cozies ever, so I was very happy that it's sequel came out so quickly. It's just as adorable and hysterically funny as the cats (Max, Dooley, and Harriet) and Odelia team up to solve the murder of the eighties pop star they find dead in his pool on the day Odelia is scheduled to interview him at his mansion. His live-in lover, former wife and daughter, and loads of boy toy groupies round out the cast of suspects, and it's up to the crime-solving kitties to get the truth out of his many feline friends...when they aren't too busy helping themselves to the tasty pâté served at the mansion! They also lend a paw to help clear cop Chase's good name, even though it means joining forces with his cat Brutus. Book 3...I'm waiting for you!

A Frying Shame (A Deep Fried Mystery) by Linda Reilly

From the publisher: The town of Wrensdale is abuzz with excitement when Steeltop Foods sponsors a cooking contest to promote its new product, the Flavor Dial. With a $25,000 prize at stake, all the contestants are on edge, including Talia Marby, owner of Fry Me A Sliver. She hopes her mini deep-fried apple pies will win her the money to pay off the renovations on her restaurant. But when Norma Ferguson wins with her flaky-top chicken stew, the tensions dial up even more.

After Norma is found dead at her cooking station, the police suspect a losing contestant got a little too hot under the collar. Now it’s crunch time as Talia works to catch the killer and clear her name before another cook gets burned.

Tortie Shorties Review: This third book in the series sees fish & chip shop owner Talia entering her deep-fried apple pies in a contest to win a $25,000 prize. She's not successful, and the strange day goes from bad to worse when the winner, a woman no one seems to like and who isn't even known to be a cook, is found dead in her cooking station. Talia is forced to get involved in the case when a sweet boy who works for her is arrested. It doesn't take long before she finds some intriguing history among the various suspects which kept me guessing until the very end. The only thing that would make this mouth-watering book even better would be a larger role for sweet little calico Bo! It would be a frying shame to not add this series to your cozy mystery shelf.

Disclaimer: As members of the Amazon Associates affiliate program, if you click on our links and buy something Mudpie gets a little money for her piggy bank! I bought my copy of Purrfectly Deadly, and A Frying Shame was sent to me by the publisher.