It wasn’t a talking cat that puzzled me in the book The Cat Who Solved Three Murders by LT Shearer, rather that the cat named Conrad was a calico and calicos are always female. Also, a talking cat, no matter how unusual he is, really didn’t add much to the story.

If you overlooked the talking cat, who only talks to his owner Lulu (the rest of the world just gets meows at the right spots), the book itself was OK – a murder-mystery that did kept me interested in reading to the end. But the end – and several of the details getting there – were a bit concerning, if the information presented is at all truthful.

Lulu is a retired police detective who goes to Oxford to attend a birthday party for Bernard, the husband of her longtime friend, Julia. But when Lulu arrives, the house is full of police officers because someone has been murdered, the guest of honour injured and the several pieces of art stolen.

“But a brutal murder and a daring art theft means (Lulu’s) plans are shattered – instead she and Conrad find themselves on the trail of a killer.”

The book was a light read and a fast one. It also got me out of a terrible book slump, catching my attention and keeping it.

The Cat Who Solved Three Murders retails for $21.99 is from PGC Books and Pan MacMillan.

A copy of The Cat Who Solved Three Murders is courtesy of PGC Books
for an honest review. The opinions are my own.