Canapes for the Kitties

Rating:
Summary: Playing Cat-and-Mouse With Mystery Authors
Review: Although feline references play a dominant role on the cover and title of Marian Babson's latest cozy, it is a gallery of mystery writers who do the catting about when they move into the same English neighborhood occupied by a collection of rivals.

The kitties do play a supporting role, a duo named Had-I and But-Known, owned by cozy writer Lucinda Lucas, and Roscoe, by Macho Magee (formerly known as Lancelot Dalrymple). But they act as cats, not as characters on a par with their owners, as seen in Rita Mae Brown's series, nor do they offer hints as to who done it, as in Lillian Jackson Braun.

No, like the cats, Babson wants to play with the English literary scene, so her authors are beset by the neighborhood's new arrivals: the venomous critic Plantagenet Sutton, a college professor who collects writers like some collect butterflies, and a husband-and-wife duo seeking to record in camera and prose a year in the life of a charming English village. Not only that, but the characters in Lucinda and Macho's books seem to be acting up as well, resenting their creators' plans to replace them with other series.

Babson is a writer with a long track record, and she capably serves up in "Canapes for the Kitties" a charming, breezy cozy laced with some tart darts thrown at some tempting targets.

Rating:
Summary: A cozy village adventure.
Review: CANAPES FOR THE KITTIES starts rather slowly, but it never drags. This light and easy-to-read cozy reminded me a bit of Christie in the atmosphere it built up. About a third of the way into the book, it turns creepy and more interesting. Good premise, nice structure, likeable characters (mostly mystery writers!) -- and I love the cats! I wasn't too happy with the outcome -- I thought MY theory of who did it would have been more interesting! But still worthwhile for the nice, fun visit to a friendly village of eccentrics. Nicely done. This is my first Babson. Now I'll look for more!

Rating:
Summary: Purrr. . . fect
Review: Dick Francis has his horses, Sue Grafton has her alphabet.

Babson has her cats and they figure in some way (generally quite funny)in each of her mysteries.

This book, like all of Ms. Babson's, is short, a fast read, excellently written and quite funny. She draws her characters quite well and describes the surroundings with such broad strokes that you can almost see it.

While others fall down on the job, with each new title Marian Babson holds onto the title of champion.

Rating:
Summary: Canapes for the Kitties is fishy
Review: Felines in a colony of writers, take up sleuthing in this comical, otherworldly mystery around the noisesome & inflammable celebration of November 5th - Guy Fawkes' Night. Marion Babson is a crafty writer of red herrings & has Had-I, But Known & Roscoe, our sleuthing kitties, together with some fine fidos & a rat set the people up for delicious disaster. I'd not read a Babson book before. She's an American whose chosen to live among the English & write about them, very well too! Like a cup of tea is drunk, smoothly. END

Rating:
Summary: If you haven't tried this series, you should.
Review: Mystery writer Lucinda Lucas is sick of her trio of detectives, "the sibling spinster sleuths", and decides it is time to eradicate the three flowers before they turn to weeds. However, word spreads amongst the writing community of Brimful Coffers that Lucinda plans to eliminate the sisters. The reaction is extremely negative as old and new feuds surface over the pros and cons of Lucinda's next story line.

However, someone decides to take the argument one step further by killing some of the writers. At first, it appears to Lucinda as if her fictional trio is trying to scribe a different ending than Lucinda has planned. All the mystery writers, including Lucinda, fail to cope when confronted with a real series of who-done-its. So it is up to Lucinda's trio of felines (Had-I, But-Known, and Roscoe) to risk their nine lives by trying to uncover the identity of the killer before their mistress becomes the next victim.

No one quite writes cat mysteries each the same merriment as the marvelously jocular Marian Babson does. Her latest cat who-done-it is a very humorous tale that effortlessly crosses the line between fiction and the fourth estate while expeditiously take the reader along for a magic carpet ride of fun. Anyone who loves witty feline mysteries needs to not only read CANAPIES FOR THE KITTIES, but all of Ms. Babson's previous works - her brand of humor makes them entertainingly unique.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Had I/But Known
Review: This is a good kitty book. The cats part is good but could have been better. I really like their creative names, especially for a writer. The plot is inventive. The interaction between the characters is creative. However, the plot is a little obvious. I recommend this book, it's a very light read.