Swimming Cat Cove: The 2nd Allison O'Neil Mystery (Allison O'Neil Mysteries)

Rating:
Summary: An intelligent, quirky mystery, lots of fun to read.
Review: I know the author's previous Caitlin Reece series very well and approached both this book and DEATH AT LAVENDER BAY with caution -- but I needn't have worried. They measure up well. Both are stuffed with quirky characters, white-knuckle plot lines, and (you guessed it) a wisecracking heroine. I love it that she's a displaced California girl trying to come to grips with Oregon's weather! And the will-she or won't she relationship between Allison and her friend Kerry is well done. Of course there's a cat, and a precocious kid. It strikes me that people who go gaga over Laurie King and (god forbid) Katherine Forrest might do themselves a favor and read Lauren Wright Douglas. She's better than either or them. But start at the beginning -- in this series with DEATH AT LAVENDER BAY and in the Caitlin Reece series with THE ALWAYS ANONYMOUS BEAST. You won't regret it!

Rating:
Summary: Swimming Cat Cove.........Hmmmmmm........
Review: Lauren Wright Douglas has been a favorite author of mine for years. However I felt rather let down with this installation of the Allison O'Neal series. I finished the book in one night, & frankly it seemed as if an editor went scissor happy and cut out a lot of what happened. It was almost like an outline for the story instead of the whole story. What happened to all those "kooky" guests at the B&B, did they just disappear? Allison & Kerry don't seem to know each other any better by the end of this book than they did in the beginning of the first book.The only person we get to know any better in this book is Ossie. All in all, a very UNsatisfying read.