Tortie Shorties on Mystery Monday

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

We hope you enjoy our choices.

Purrfect Heat (The Mysteries of Max Book 4) by Nic Saint

From the publisher: The peace and calm of Hampton Cove is brutally disturbed when celebrity chef Niklaus Skad, famous for his show Kitchen Disasters, is found cooked in his own oven. The chef wasn’t a well-liked man, and there are plenty of suspects to go around. Odelia Poole, Hampton Cove Gazette reporter and civilian consultant to the police department, teams up with Detective Chase Kingsley to catch the killer, but soon finds this proves a lot harder than she thought.

Max, Odelia’s blorange tabby, would love to help out, but is faced with a cat emergency when Odelia takes in a new stray. Diego soon proves to be a handful, and when he sets his sights on Harriet, it’s war in the cat menagerie. With Dooley fearing he’s contracted a wasting disease, and Brutus in a funk because Diego stole his girlfriend, Max has his hands full. Good thing he still has time to ferret out clues and chase suspects, or Odelia would never be able to crack the case.

Will Diego become a permanent fixture in the Poole household? Will the celebrity chef’s killer ever be found? And what’s going on with Gran’s crush on the mysterious Leo? Find out in Purrfect Heat, the new installment in the funny cozy cat mystery series The Mysteries of Max.

Tortie Shorties Review: This is the rare series that I download each book the moment it becomes available and start reading immediately. Purrfect Heat is book 4 and features the murder of a hated celebrity chef. Once again Odelia and Chase team up to work the human angle, while kitties Max, Dooley, Harriet and Brutus do a little undercover investigating of their own. The mystery and the various suspects are fun and kept me guessing, but as always I have to focus on the mini-soap opera featuring the cats. Diego is the latest addition to the menagerie and trouble from the word go. When he steals Harriet's heart (who quite honestly is a furry little trollop), tough guy Brutus falls apart, forcing Max and Dooley to see him in a new light. Max also has his paws full calming down sweet, innocent Dooley who fears he's dying after being told he's scrawny. And what happens at the very end opens up a whole new can of worms. Run - don't walk - to your Kindle and start reading NOW!

Trouble in Dixie (Familiar Legacy Book 2) by Rebecca Barrett

From the publisher: OLD MONEY AND FRESH MURDER -- Trouble, a savvy black cat with a penchant for sleuthing, has landed in the cream of Savannah society. So has a murderer and art thief.

Julia Hampton comes from old family, old money, and old society, but her job as an art insurance investigator puts her at odds with her background--and with the killer. Julia is determined to stop him.

U. S. Deputy Marshal Deputy Mitch Lawson knows more than he's willing to let on. One thing is clear: Julia is in danger--because of secrets he won't share.

But have no fear, Trouble the black cat detective is on the job and while Julia and Mitch are distracted by their attraction to each other, he is about to get his man.

Tortie Shorties Review: As much as I wanted to love this book I found it incredibly confusing. Maybe it was the Russian art angle and the fact that I'm sick to death of hearing about Russia on the news every day but I really struggled through it. At times I was even tempted to set it aside and try again another time but I'm crazy about Trouble the cat so I kept going. Three things I did enjoy - heroic Familiar (of course), the Savannah setting, and Julia's spunky Aunt Ethel. I think fans of romantic suspense and international intrigue would enjoy Trouble in Dixie, but for me it just wasn't "cozy" enough.

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