The Cat Who Went Bananas (Cat Who... (Audio))

Rating:
Summary: What a Concept!
Review: Here's a concept for you: Take half a story, make the paper twice as thick, and call it a novel. Oh, and charge full price for it, of course. If I'd bought this book, I'd be reeeaaalllly ticked off; fortunately, I got it from the library, so I'm only really ticked off. As in many series that involve characters in a small town, the story goes gently nowhere for a long time. Finally, I'm finishing a chapter that ends with all the pertinent unsolved questions and thinking, "At last, we're getting down to it." I turn the page and . . . blank paper. About eight pages of blank paper. It's the end of the book. My advice is, wait 'til next January, get this one in paperback or at the library and get the rest of the story at the library if you can. Or if you even care by then. Bummer!

Rating:
Summary: There's more going on in Pickaxe than meets the eye.
Review: I can't describe my feelings when I open up a new Lilian Jackson Braun Book. It's like slipping into a warm bath with a cup of tea beside me. These books are cozies and I find them delightful because of that. In this book Qwill and his two cats are involved with the new bookstore opening in Pickaxe, but there's also a lot of other things going on in town. The town drama society is putting on a play, and they've found an accomplished actor that has just moved in to play a lead role. Why do Qwill and most especially Koko take a dislike to this man? This is a little different book than most in this series because we don't have any actual provable murders, but there is still a mystery nonetheless. I actually enjoyed the book (unlike some of the other reviewers). I think it should be read by Koko and Qwilleran fans.

Rating:
Summary: If felt tighter but still lacked substance
Review: I didn't feel that this book rambled on nearly so much as the last couple which just seemed to go on and on without going anywhere, and was actually relatively happy until the end which I found completely disappointing. I am ready for Qwill to finger a baddy again. It seems like it's been a while.

I agree with an earlier reviewer don't tease me about Celia. I think she's my favorite chraracter and we never hear from her anymore. And don't tease me about Polly and Qwill splitting up. Violet sounded great for Qwill. I was hoping we were finally going to get the end of the Queen of the Boring People, but alas no, on for one more :(.



Rating:
Summary: The Cat Who Went Bananas
Review: I have loved this series from the beginning for its human characters and of course, for the cats themselves. The plots were much stronger in previous books; I had trouble finding one in THE CAT WHO WENT BANANAS. Too much was left unresolved, and there was a definite lack of excitement and suspense. Even the characters were rather boring this time. I also thought too much time and space was spent at the beginning rehashing material from previous books; let the reader go back and read the others to get the background rather than bore your "fan club" with the history of the series. I was very disappointed in this book all the way around.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I own and have read every book in this series, and I have always loved them. This book was good until the end--there wasn't one. It was extremely disappointing.

Rating:
Summary: A disappointing addition to the series...
Review: I would have to agree with all of the other reviewers thus far. I too missed Celia Robinson. She did not even drop off any goodies for the cats this time around. I was disappointed that Koko and Yum Yum barely had any impact on the story, but then there was not much for a story there. Usually we get the summation at the end with all clues that Koko had dropped for Quill. Since there was no real resolution to anything, Koko didn't have much to do.

One thing that I have not seen mentioned in any of the other reviews is the repetition of descriptions of events and characters throughout the book. I do not just mean the introduction of people and their quirks for anyone new to TCW. There were actually several passages that were, almost word for word, repeated later in the story. I could not help but wonder at the acknowledgement for the editor at the beginning of the book. It does not seem like it was edited at all.

Enough of my rant...on a positive note, to anyone looking to get into this series, please, please go back to the beginning and start there. Other than this one book, I have thoroughly enjoyed all of TCW adventures. Don't let "The Cat Who Went Bananas" put you off the rest!

Rating:
Summary: Is Lilian even writing these anymore?
Review: I'm highly suspicious, as has been mentioned in previous posts, that LBJ is even writing these anymore. They seem to get worse and worse. The Cat Who Went Bananas is the first book by LBJ that I haven't finished. It's also the last book by her that I'll read. Gone is the magicical interaction between Qwill, Koko and Yumm Yumm. I feel duped. Does anyone know if LBJ is even around anymore? Has anyone seen word of her doing book signings? I realize she is 89 this year (IF she's still around) but the pic on her books hasn't changed since the 60's. Something is up here folks, and I think we are being mislead by the publisher.

Rating:
Summary: Very disappointing
Review: There are bits and pieces that remind you of the great stories in this series, but they few and far between.

Other than the same main characters, and scenery, and an occasional reference to a character in a prior book, very little resembles the great "Cat Who..." books of the past.

It was very "Cat Who..." formula. But not "Cat Who..." quality. Koko knocks books off the shelf, but it is never clear why. We know the 'bad guy', Alden Wade moved to town, and a he is a womanizer and cad. Yet he is welcomed by all (even Qwill, although he has reservations). Everyone feels sorry for him because his wife was killed by a sniper's bullet, although the conditions were mysterious and the sniper was never caught.

He marries a woman 20 years older than he. Why would she marry him? She goes to her lawyer to change her will. But we never find out what changes happened. We only know that what Qwill feared, that she gave Alden her most cherished and valuable property, was NOT the change.

Alden's stepson is in town secretly watching him. He thinks Alden has something to do with his father's mysterious death, how convenient, since Alden then could marry his mother. Then her mysterious sniper death follows. But, just when we get interested in the stepson, he disappears, never to be heard from again. Qwill just accepts this! Why did he flee so fast? or did he meet with foul play?

The elderly woman Alden just married suddenly dies. Again, since she was ill, Qwill accepts this. The old Qwill wouldn't have.

Then the cherished property burns down the very next day. Alden rushed in to save the dog, but was not found, and he was presumed dead. This cad runs into a fire to save a dog? I think perhaps he feigned this as an escape. Had Qwill (or Koko) thought of this, he may have had a way to nail the bad guy, as Qwill used to do. But no..... he just accepts this.

Also in this story, Alden is linked to possibly killing a young actor by doping him, and the theft of a valuable item. Again Qwill doesn't follow up.

Bottom line, lots of story line threads left just dangling. The book just ends -- it seems like a chapter or two was left off the end!

Either Lilian has lost it, or we've lost Lilian and someone else is authoring these now.

Rating:
Summary: Where is the last chapter?
Review: This book begins weaving many plot threads and doesn't finish any of them. Somewhere there are several chapters that tell us the truth about the automobile death, the sniper death, the theft of the rare book, the kidnapping of the child so many years before, the suicide of the the child's mother, and Alden Wade's "courtship" of most of the eligible women in Pickax. I had trouble sleeping when I got to the end of the book. It was too much like real life where there are always questions left unanswered or unanswerable. I don't want that in the mysteries that I read.

Rating:
Summary: CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR
Review: This could have been a terrific installment of the "Cat Who" series. Quill found himself committed to writing a book about an ugly old house, but intrigued by some of the ugly stories hiding in the history of its inhabitants. I picked the book up on a Monday night and read half of it in one sitting - so far, so good. By the second sitting, I was intrigued with the story of the Hibbard family and what had happened to the missing baby and the daughter who killed herself. Then last night - ZIPPO! The book ended without telling us really anything. I cannot remember when I have been so disappointed. It was as if Ms. Braun got tired of writing and just quit. Come on! What happened to the ending?