cozy mystery

The Cats of the Key West Mysteries by Lucy Burdette

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Guest post by Lucy Burdette
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After writing eight installments of the Key West food critic mystery series (the eighth, Death on the Menu, was out yesterday), I’ve developed so many characters that it’s almost hard to keep track of them. “Oh wait,” I’ll say to myself, “what the heck is Lorenzo or Miss Gloria or Officer Steve Torrence doing when all this is happening?” The one thing I never forget to include is the cats. In my real life, I begged for my first cat for my thirteenth birthday, and I haven’t been without one since. So my series wouldn’t feel right without them either.Continue Reading

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Review: Lawyer for the Cat

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Romance, mystery, and a black cat – I had a feeling I was going to like Lawyer for the Cat a lot. Set in the beautiful city of Charleston, South Carolina, this book features 50-something year-old Sally Baynard, an attorney who has is asked to represent a cat who is the beneficiary of a multi-million dollar trust and a plantation.Continue Reading

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Killer Takeout by Lucy Burdette Book Review

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Cats, a tropical setting, mouth-watering food (with some recipes included), and did I mention cats? Lucy Burdette’s Key West Food Critic mystery series has all the ingredients for fun summer reading, especially this time of year, when I’m pretty sick of cold weather.

The latest installment, Killer Takeout, takes place during Key West’s weeklong Mardi Gras–style festival.Continue Reading

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When Bunnies Go Bad Book Review

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Pet behaviorist and psychic Pru Marlowe is back! Let me start this review by saying that even though there is no cat on the cover, the book once again prominently features Pru’s crabby tabby Wallis.

In When Bunnies Go Bad, the sixth book in Clea Simon’s Pet Noir series, Pru discovers a murdered tourist, and ends up caring for his ski bunny girlfriend’s high maintenance spaniel. She is also working with a wild rabbit named Henry, who is supposedly tamed and illegally living with an eighty-four-year-old lady in her home, but is acting out and hiding.Continue Reading

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The Ninth Life: When a Cat Mystery Takes a Turn for the Dark

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Guest post by Clea Simon

We authors ask a lot of our readers. When we invite you into our worlds, we ask you to suspend disbelief. To accept that cats can talk, and that ordinary people can solve the craziest crimes. We ask you to give up time out with your family and friends – as well as TV and Facebook – to spend time with an old-fashioned and slow-paced pleasure – a book. We ask that you listen to us, that you let us tell you a story. Most important, we ask that you trust us.Continue Reading

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Review: The Cat, the Sneak and the Secret

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Every August, I look forward to the newest release in Leann Sweeney’s Cats in Trouble mystery series. The series features cat quilter Jillian Hart and her three cats Merlot, Chablis and Chiraz, along with her human friends, who all live in the small town of Mercy, South Carolina. I was looking forward to The Cat, the Sneak and the Secret even more than usual, because this book features a tortie!Continue Reading

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Review: Fatal Reservations by Lucy Burdette

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Cats, a tropical setting, mouth-watering food (with some recipes included), and did I mention cats? As far as I’m concerned, Fatal Reservations, the latest in Lucy Burdette’s Key West Food Critic mystery series, has all the ingredients for fun summer reading.

Protagonist Hayley Snow looks forward to reviewing a new floating restaurant for Key Zest magazine. Continue Reading

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The Cat Sitter’s Whiskers – Book Review

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The Cat Sitter mystery series, featuring Dixie Hemingway, a pet sitter who lives on one of the Florida keys, has been a favorite of mine ever since the first book in the series came out seven years ago. The series was originally written by Blaize Clement. Her son, John Clement, continued the series after her death in 2011. Blaize had been collaborating on plots and characters for future novels with John.

In The Cat Sitter’s Whiskers, Dixie’s heads off early one morning to see her first cat client of the day. Continue Reading

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Writing with Cats: A Joy and a Challenge

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Guest post by Patricia Fry

When I decided to add a new dimension to my writing repertoire—to pen a novel—I was pretty sure there would be cats involved.

I’d been writing for publication for over forty years by then—all nonfiction. I was one of those rare birds who figured out how to combine my passion for writing with my need to earn a living and I became a freelance magazine article writer. I also wrote a few books along the way—all nonfiction. While I wrote on a variety of topics, a favorite was cats,Continue Reading

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Review: Death With All the Trimmings by Lucy Burdette

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Cats, the tropical setting of Key West during the holiday season, and mouth-watering food make for a great escape from the cold and damp November weather and might even put you in the holiday spirit. Death With All the Trimmings, the fifth in Lucy Burdette’s Key West Food Critic mystery series, is not technically a cat mystery, but there are enough cats in the book to keep cat lovers happy.Continue Reading

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Why Every Writer Needs a Cat

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Guest post by Mary Kennedy

When I tell people I’m a mystery writer, they picture my life as glamorous and exciting, filled with an endless round of power lunches and research trips to exotic locales. What they forget is that ninety percent of my time is spent hunched in front of the computer, wrestling my characters and plots into submission. A writer’s life can be a surprisingly solitary one.

And that’s where my cats come in. I have eight rescued cats and they bring enormous joy to my life. They spend much of the day with me (when they’re not snoozing or just chilling on the glassed-in sun porch) and their quiet presence is comforting.Continue Reading

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