Rating: 
Summary: Winter with Qwill and the kitties
Review: Come spend the winter holidays (Christmas through Valentine Day) in Moose County! Be there for Hixie Rice's First Annual Ice Festival, celebrate Scottish Night and Lynette's wedding! If you haven't got the faintest idea what I'm talking about you will probably not give this a five star rating but if you have visited Moose County before you'll enjoy this latest trip to 400 miles North of everywhere. The action begins with on December 23rd as Qwill is Christmas shopping. A series of petty thefts is plaguing Moose County. The crime escalates from minor nuisances to grand thefts and a respected member of a beloved County family is accused. A sudden death of a new Moose County citizen occurs during a trip 'Down Below' interrupts the more immediate concerns of the up-coming local theater production, a newspaper write-in poll of intriguing cat names, and preparations for the Ice Festival. When a popular member of an old Moose County family dies Qwill and Koko increase their efforts to get to the bottom of things. They solve all and bring the culprits to justice before the spring thaw. Of more importance to Moose County devotees is the addition of 'Wetherby Goode' the local radio weather forecaster. This long running (this is the 19th installment) series of cozies has a loyal core of fans who wouldn't dream of missing a trip to see Qwill, the semi-retired journalist who is also one of the richest men in the 'North central eastern United States' and his friends both human and feline. If you like your murders in series and cozy join the annual trek up north, but if you prefer your crimes to be challenging or graphic travel elsewhere.
Rating: 
Summary: Lilian Jackson Braun scores again!
Review: Following her whimsical and informative style, Lilian Jackson Braun weaves another clever tail(?) bringing joy and delight to all of her faithful followers. Quilleran and Koko pursue clue after clue to resolve the death of a rich and attractive woman with plenty of fun along the way Another delightful tale and a great light read.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Cat Who book!
Review: I have read all of Braun's Cat Who books, and this one is a great example of the books where she's really hit her stride. Koko and YumYum are throwing hints all over the place, and Qwilleran makes a new friend--Joe "Wetherby Goode" Bunker, who's a terrific character. Qwilleran goes around the North country gathering spooky tales, and these little stories just add to the enjoyment of the book. None of the Cat Who mysteries are that profound. I wasn't shocked at the solution to the mystery. But for pure enjoyable reading, I recommend this Cat Who book very highly.
Rating:
Summary: Delightful
Review: I love it! I am a big fan of The Cat Who series and this is another in a long line of terrific books, great mysteries and cute cat antics. Koko makes me laugh and Lilian Jackson Braun has a great way of writing about him. Such as, "Even before he unlocked his front door, he knew there was a message on the answering machine. Koko was announcing the fact with yowls and body-bumps against the door panels. Given the condo's quality of construction, it was doubtful how much battering the door could take." I love these books... one of the neatest things Koko does is to boot people out of the house!
Rating:
Summary: Koko and Qwill do it again!
Review: It's winter in Moose County, 400 miles north of everywhere, and there's a petty pilferer around! But when a charity jar with almost $2,000 is discovered missing, the investigation really gets going. Soon some of the pilfered items show up in the work locker of one of the community's best-loved young men, leading Qwill to suspect a frame-up. But there are plenty of other twists and turns in this book, including a mugging that turns into murder, a suspicious wedding between a young gentleman and a middle-aged widow (with plenty of money), and finally another murder. Of course, Kao K'o Kung knows what is really going on long before Qwill figures it out, but then, if you've read this far in this series, you should be used to that by now.
Rating: 
Summary: Qwill donning a kilt is the least of catastrophes here.
Review: Let me lay this on the table plain and simple - The Cat Who Tailed a Thief is unequivocally the worst of the Cat Who series. That's all there is to it. Plot setup - stolid Moose County banker brings home flashy Fran Drescher-wannabe wife, her winning ladykiller cousin, and plans for a big architectural restoration project from Down Below, rash of petty thieveries erupts in Pickax soon after, chaos ensues. Not for a minute - not for a MILLISECOND - are the identities of the thieves, their motives, their modi operandi - ANYTHING - in doubt - nor does Lilian Jackson Braun make any noticeable effort to make them any sort of mystery to the reader. Look, Qwill's not Columbo and Braun's readers deserve better than an InstaMix mystery. The plot doesn't thicken or build; it just continues.
It follows, then, the success of the book depends on the charm and familiarity of the close-knit, small-town America Moose County setting that has so endeared the Cat Who series to reade!rs. Unfortunately, neither town nor townsfolk breathe much atmosphere into the tale this go-around; events stall in a lifeless snowbound Pickax for most of the book, and the citizenry that might seem like old friends to long-time readers are ill-squeezed into a disjointed string of confusing, isolated cameos that serve no purpose but to disrupt the main narrative. A newcomer to the series would be hard-pressed to keep track of exactly who these strangers are or what exactly their place in the plot is. The only step forward is the introduction of Wetherby Goode, the jocular weatherman at WPKX (the chronically incompetent radio station that has remained one of the series's funniest running jokes). He's a bit too outgoing and forward for the local norm, though; let's hope that Braun doesn't jam him into the Standard Moose County Male character mold (a la Roger/Lyle/Bushy/Big Mac/Larry et al.) and exile him to Token Fleeting Personal Acknowledgement limbo (a fate that befell the p!otentially interesting Onoosh from The Cat Who Said Cheese), or, worse, use him as chalk-outline fodder (as with some unfortunate Down Below transferees with whom Braun didn't quite know what to do and a few of the more colorful Moose County natives. See, THAT's why no one in Pickax seems alarmed at the high rate of fatal crimes in such an otherwise peaceful rural area; the killers perform the social cleansing necessary to preserve Moose County's current placidity-through-homogenity).
It would be unconscionable to close this review without first spewing vitriol at the Putnam's horrible book jacket, which divulges every single plot "twist" (if that is the word) up until the last thirty pages and continues Cheese's misguided trend of not using Jill Bauman's wonderful art for the hardback cover. In every aspect, The Cat Who Tailed a Thief is a thoroughly disappointing and disheartening effort; even the eponymous Koko and his methods of expressing his extra-sensory talents seem! a tad duller in this outing. Pray that The Cat Who Sang for the Birds breaks Braun's slump.
Rating:
Summary: One Of The Finest Cat Who... Books made
Review: Lilian Jackson Braun is my favorite mystery writer. She always keeps gross and explicit things out of her books and trails the adventures of Jim Qwilleran and his two Siamese Ka'o Ko Kung (Uh, Koko for short), the male cat, and Yum Yum, the female. In this particular book, Qwill is in for many surprises and Mrs. Braun did a great job. The suspense builds until the last couple of chapter where the climax and falling action leave you too ecited to put the book down. An elaborate plan by a criminal and his kleptomaniac "wife" leave Moose County in a swirl of confusion until Qwill reveals the real intentions of the dashing decorater. A must read!
Rating:
Summary: This was a Purrfectly well done tail of shrewd cat sense.
Review: Once again Lillian Jackson Braun has reeled me in with another of her charming 'Cat Who' novels. I've been deeply in love with Jim Qwilleran for many years...ever since I first met him...his moustache has the power to make my knees knock. I've been so jealous of Polly because she gets to spend such quality time with him...and of course there is the incredible love he has for his Koko and Yum-Yum. Koko figures out the most ingeneous ways to communicate with this mountain of a man...always leaving the food for thought in Jim's mind they way he provides the delicasies for Koko. What a wonderful partnership they have....and who couldn't love Yum-Yum....always the brunt of Koko's explanations ...she just loves her human and her nutso playmate. As to the story and the mystery...kept me laughing and turning the pages...as they always do.And wasn't the entire book worth the description of Jim in his Scots regalia....These are people who I have come to know and respect, care for and look forward to each and every meeting. Thanks to Ms. Braun, I believe there will be more to come.
Rating:
Summary: the cat who tailed a theif
Review: the use of animals, in this case cats, as inspiration for a sleuth i find to be remarkably clever. it gives the main character an added dimension, and makes him seem more alive, especially when worrying what his two cats are upto now. i found that i could not put it down until i found out what kaokokung and yumyum were upto and how their owner could figure out their little messages. i think that anyone interested in mysteries would like "The Cat Who..." mysteries by Braun.
Rating:
Summary: A perfect score, as usual!
Review: This is the 19th of the series. I do agree with some others that there weren't quite as many surprises in this one but it was still good. Braun's specialty (in my opinion) is character development, and as a couple of other reviewers have mentioned, the characters are written in so much detail that after reading the books we come to feel they are real people! I especially enjoyed getting to know Wetherby Goode, who has previously been something of a joke. Also I liked the cat naming information and the "tales" Qwill was collecting. I wish that the first death in the book had been investigated more, and I wish that the second death hadn't occurred at all. (That is one thing I don't like - Ms. Braun occasionally kills off a character that I have come to like!) P.S. If you haven't read any of these books, start at the beginning and read them in order. The character development will be much more evident. First is The Cat Who Could Read Backwards. P.S.2 - Please, no Sean Connery playing Qwill. Maybe Sam Elliot - but perhaps someone a little more substantial physically? Why haven't these been made into movies by now?
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