The Cat Who Dropped a Bombshell (The Cat Who... Series #28)

From Barnes & Noble

The Barnes & Noble Review
In the 28th (yes, 28th!) installment of Lilian Jackson Braun's Cat Who... saga (The Cat Who Read Backwards, The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern, et al.), the residents of Pickax City in Moose County -- "400 miles north of everywhere" -- are busy preparing the town for its big sesquicentennial bash. But amid the numerous parades, performances, and kitty auctions, tragedy strikes when an affluent elderly couple suddenly dies from mysterious causes…

The magnificently mustached local columnist Jim Qwilleran (along with his two Siamese cats, Koko and Yum Yum) has his hands full with numerous projects associated with the town's 150th birthday. But when an aspiring young architect visiting from California -- the nephew (and only heir) of the deceased socialites Nathan and Doris Ledfield -- asks to sketch his renowned home (a renovated apple barn), Qwill happily obliges. When the young man stops by, however, Koko inexplicably assaults the visitor by dropping onto him from an upper balcony. Quill realizes that his extraordinarily perceptive Siamese knows that something unseemly involving the architect is in the works -- but what?

Readers who enjoy "cozy" mysteries -- decidedly understated novels by authors like Dorothy L. Sayers, Nancy Atherton, Susan Witting Albert, M. C. Beaton, et al. -- will find comfort in Braun's nine-lived saga (begun in 1966!), which features friendly characters, pleasant plotlines, and always a purr-fectly happy ending. The literary equivalent of a sipping a glass of warm milk with nutmeg and getting your tummy rubbed… Paul Goat Allen

Publishers Weekly

Bestseller Braun's disappointing 28th Cat Who... novel (after 2004's The Cat Who Went Bananas) mostly follows journalist Jim "Call Me Qwill" Qwilleran as he runs around Pickax City, Mich., getting things ready for the town's blow-out celebration of its sesquicentenary. Many books ago, Qwill inherited tons of money and set up a foundation to benefit Pickax. Now that story line has become a caricature, with Qwill's fund popping up and financing yet another venture virtually every chapter. The "mystery" concerns Nathan and Doris Ledfield, a wealthy couple whose only heir is an obnoxious, greedy nephew. When late in the tale the Ledfields die... well, let's just say that no one will be surprised to learn who was behind their deaths, or what his motive was. Lame plotting isn't the only problem. The characterization is not just thin, it's anorexic. Perhaps it's time to put this series, which once defined feline fiction, to sleep. Mystery Guild main selection. (Jan.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Sesquicentennial fever sweeps Pickax City. As head of the K Foundation, fabulously wealthy Jim "Qwill" Qwilleran is often involved in Moose County activities. He's just made the move from his in-town condo to the architecturally renowned apple barn that's his summer home. Qwill is happy to let the orphaned nephew of the wealthy Ledfield family make sketches of his apple barn for a college entrance portfolio. Harvey Ledfield soon arrives in a limousine with his fiancee, cat-loving journalism student Clarissa Moore, who is a hit with Qwill. But Qwill becomes suspicious of Harvey when Qwill's Siamese Koko drops from a balcony and knocks Harvey off his sketching stool. Like Yum Yum, Qwill's other cat, Koko is never wrong about people and obviously has it in for Harvey. In due course, Clarissa confesses that she's not engaged but just helping Harvey work a scam to inherit the Ledfield wealth. Undaunted, Qwill gets her a job at the local paper as he and his circle of friends gear up to make the sesquicentennial celebration one for the history books. Things go well enough until both Ledfield elders die mysteriously. For better or worse, parades and other events leave Qwill little time for sleuthing. No mystery to speak of, but cat-loving fans of Braun's Moose County saga (The Cat Who Went Bananas, 2005, etc.) will no doubt enjoy the latest from Pickax.