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Meow If Its Murder.
It smacked my husband and me out of our slump and launched us into fevered whispering.
So do the catssolvethe mysteries?
Or maybe the cats are the villains?
No, no, no, look that cat isobviouslyhelping by spelling outmurder.
(Im very happy here, btw.
c’mon do not disturb.
An entire reading universe had been hiding from me in plain sight.
I pawed my way in.
(Yes, Im going to do this.)
That helpful kitty we spotted in the hospital cafeteria turned out to dwell in a vast ecosystem.
There are Laura ChildssTea Shop Mysteries(Death by Darjeeling, etc.
(Look for TV adaptations on theHallmark Channel.)
All of these writers work under various aliases or produce multiples series.
Laura Childs also writes a series about scrapbooking villainy (Fiber & Brimstone).
Corpses are glanced over quickly, with little to no mention of blood or guts or rot.
These books offer just enough horror to titillate readers in a safe, comfy, congenial world.
There is a meta-formula to these formulaic books.
Take any comfortable, domestic interest.
Add one body, a few long-held small-town secrets, and a plot you could sell by the foot.
You have a cozy mystery.
Filter it all through a pun generator and you have a party game.
How about a cross-stitching sleuth?A Stitch in Time Saves Nine.
Gardening?Dig Deep.
That thing could write itself.
But the cat mystery novels are, well, aspecial breed.
(Yep, Im still doing it.)
Small-town mysteries are an obvious, watery counterpoint to increasingly blood-drenched thrillers.
But cat mysteries tack on an even snugger appeal.
Charlies boarder, Justin, who recently discovered hes Godfreys son?
His mother, Julia, Godfreys one-time fling?
Or one of the other Athena residents who turn out to have long-standing grudges against the cocksure Godfrey?
Hes an emotional-support animal for the dutifully woeful Justin.
Murder Past Dues entire plot could play out precisely the same way without Diesel.
Yes, theres a dead body but with a fuzzy little creature purring on the sideline!
The murders, meanwhile, arent really deaths.
Most of contemporary mystery fiction casts these books in stark relief.
Seemingly every game of cat and mouse ends with both creatures disemboweled.
Its a genre of escapism from which you may urgently want to escape.
Of a life, alone with a cat, that is rich and textured and lively.
(In fact, they sell a ton of them in hospital gift shops.)
Theyre catnip for the soul!
No claws for concern.
