A Cat in a Chorus Line: An Alice Nestleton Mystery (Nestleton Mystery)

Rating:
Summary: unsatisfying and too light
Review: This incredibly confusing and ultimately idiotic offering left me with this thought. HUH? What was that all about? And who published it?

To begin with, Alice (our protagonist)gets involved because she wants justice for her friend (who she actually barely knows) and can't figure out why he denied his identity to her moments before he was murdered. Since everyone involved only knew him by his real name, it makes no sense. Each time she decides to give up the investigation, she is drawn back because she wants this piece of information. But at the end of the book, we still don't know why he said he wasn't John. And the author doesn't even acknowledge that the information will not be found, maybe by having someone say "I guess we will never know". The issue is just ignored.
I also thought the book was full of too many coincidences. Our heroine is sent to a restaurant by a police officer and it just happens to be owned by her old friend. A bartender that her friend often hires just happens to be neck deep in the the bootlegging of Broadway tapes. The son of an dying playwright is on the board of directors of a cat saving group even though we have no reason to think he particularly cares for cats. And we never really find out why the murder was committed in front of our detective or what the murderer was trying to accomplish. And why would the conspirators bother taking all the illegal tapes and leaving the oddly labeled boxes behind. It must have been time consuming. The only reason I can think of is that the author couldn't think of a sensible way to get the detective on the right track. And remind me why the second murder took place.
Since the murderer seems to have gone mute or possibly insane at the end of the book I guess the author thought that tied up all loose ends.
All in all I thought this book must have been written for possible ten year olds who wouldn't notice the incongruities. I think the author and publisher are just cashing in on the proliferation of cats in the mystery genre right now by writing this ill-conceived tripe. It's no where near as good as the Quilleran series which is pretty light fare anyway.