The Literate Kitty

What do you get when you pair a flunked-out-of-K-9-school-(on-his-final-test, no less) dog with a former-military-guy-(with-plenty-of-skills)?  If you guessed “the most delightful detecting duo in the desert” ( or maybe anywhere! ), then you’re on the right track.  (But if not, no worries—until the latest entry in Spencer Quinn’s long-running “Chet & Bernie Mystery” series,  Cat on a Hot Tin Woof , I’d never had the pleasure of spending time with these two, either.)     Things are going pretty well for both members of the Little Detective Agency. Bernie is engaged to police sergeant Weatherly, and Chet, well... even if he’s still unsure about Weatherly’s dog, is always happy when Bernie’s happy.   They’ve also seen a recent uptick in business, after solving a highly-publicized case. ( Great news for the treat jar! ) Unfortunately, much of that business is still divorce work, which Bernie, in particular, hates.  So, when a teenage girl and her ...

A popular murder mystery writer—with a penchant for finding herself involved in actual murders (and murder-adjacent situations)—accepts an invitation to teach at a weekend writing retreat. It’s in the Bahamas. Sun, sand, ocean waves, and potent cocktails served with little umbrellas? Of course  she’ll do it. So what if that means giving pointers to an over-eager group of would-be writers? It’s only three days . What could possibly go wrong?! Turns out,  a lot , in Catherine Mack’s wickedly-funny little romp,  This Weekend Doesn’t End Well for Anyone .     Eleanor Dash is more than ready for a vacation—particularly since the last two she went on wound up turning into murder investigations... with her at the center. ( Okay, so her bestselling series involves murders... on vacations... so there’s also that. ) Regardless, she’d like to enjoy an  actual  vacation, for once, but this one doesn’t start out promisingly when the location turns out to be a small...

You might think you “know” L.A. Kale salads, twenty-dollar smoothies, and sushi.  (Yeah... but it’s also donuts, coffee, and food trucks.) Beautiful people everywhere, dressed like they’re headed for the Oscars. (Most days it’s an endless sea of yoga tights, jeans, sneakers, and flip-flops–on everyone.) The glamor of Hollywood, beachfront mansions, and compounds in the hills. (Except only a small percentage of Angelenos have  that  kind of crazy money... meaning most live in ordinary places, while the unhoused try to survive along Skid Row, under every overpass, or in camps in vacant lots.) It’s a sprawling city of extremes—from unimaginable excess to poverty, peaceful mountains to the unceasing noise of the freeways that intersect everywhere else—and always,  always  a powder keg, about to explode. And in Jordan Harper’s  A Violent Masterpiece , it does.   There’s only so much crime and awfulness even a city of some ten million souls can handle, and L...

A troubled cop—who battles his demons in spectacularly-destructive ways. A host of coworkers—superiors, equals, and underlings—who unfailingly believe in him...up until the point he slips. Again. And one coworker-slash-rival who harbors a monumental grudge. All brought together by a murder that has some strangely-symbolic overtones. And then another... with the same symbolisms. Meanwhile, a major controversy is brewing over whether or not the police should be armed, as Oslo faces a scary upswing in gang activity... and homicides. And then, there’s also the question of corruption, within the force. Enough signs are pointing to it for Harry not to notice. This is the powder keg we step into, in  Jo Nesbø’s Detective Hole , on Netflix.     Anyone who’s worked with Detective Harry Hole generally has one of two opinions about him—he’s a brilliant cop, somehow able to get into a killer’s mind—including the terrifying headspace of a serial killer, or, that he can be a good cop.....

  insomnia: inability to obtain sufficient sleep, especially when chronic; difficulty in falling or staying asleep; sleeplessness.   There are all sorts of reasons for insomnia. For most people, it’s just an occasional problem. Not fun to go through—feeling cranky, tired, and muzzy-headed—but once it’s over, things tend to go back to normal. Imagine if sleeplessness was your “normal”, though. Something that went on night after night after night... leaving you in a  permanent  state of absolute exhaustion, with your body—and brain—never getting the chance to rest and heal. That’s where four strangers find themselves, in  New York Times  bestselling author Allison Will Scotch’s new thriller,  The Insomniacs .   Sybil—a midlife stay-at-home mom, anxious and sleepless since her kids went off to college—listens to all the true-crime podcasts she can find, to cope. Julian—a secretive widower whose health forced him into an early retirement—laments all t...

Millennials: The demographic cohort born between 1981 and 1996, they were the first generation to grow up with internet technology and digital literacy, and are typically described as tech-savvy, socially-connected, and civic-minded.  Also, Millennials: The Snowflake Generation (derogatory). Often used to imply members of this generation are fragile, oversensitive, and entitled.  It is the (untaught, though clearly passed-down through the ages) duty of every generation to mock the generations that follow. [Not convinced? Ask yourself if you’ve ever heard a parent, grandparent, or elderly neighbor starting a sentence with, “When I was your age,” then end it with something like, “...walked three miles in the snow, uphill, to go to school,” and you’ll likely understand.]  Anyway, all of that was firmly in the back of my mind during my read of J.D. Brinkworth’s amusing detective mystery, The Pie & Mash Detective Agency .  Thoroughly-Millennial Jane Pye and Simon Ma...