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Hour of the Cat
Valerie Hamilton enjoys her new job as a librarian in a sleepy small town until her cat becomes the courier for threatening notes similar to those sent to another woman shortly before her murder.
179 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1980
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May 29, 2017
I’m undoubtedly a cat person, a book person, and someone who loves crime novels so when I saw this book in a second hand shop, I cradled it in the crook of my arm ready to take straight to the counter without hesitation. And it didn’t disappoint. I enjoyed Hour of the Cat a lot. It has enough suspense to keep you turning the pages, but not too intense that you can’t go to sleep at night. It has some great characters that you grow fond of quickly, especially one little furry, purring one that spends most of the book pacing up and down in front of its food cupboard.
Val Hamilton is someone we learn a lot about since she is the main character. The narration almost seems as though it is in first person – or should be, as we get to know her every thought, and the novel doesn’t ever focus in on anyone else’s. For this reason, I felt that the novel could do better in first person. Why not hear the story directly from her? It felt like it was anyway and at times I even got slightly confused for a second or two when it said ‘she’ instead of ‘I’. Having said this, it does have bouts of narration that is from... shall we call him/her the creep’s perspective, which adds a great dimension. At first I was annoyed; it felt like it was going to give too much away, but these moments when we’re in the creep’s head, are very effective and get you wondering and guessing all the more.
At times, the narration and descriptions seem a little long-winded while not actually saying very much and I found myself almost skim reading to dialogue. But I love the descriptions of Muldoon the cat and Val’s relationship to him and love for him. When it gets later in the novel, descriptions are less wasted and are used effectively to show Val’s moods, concerns and growing nervousness about what is going on.
It was easy to read and enjoyable overall. I might have to look into some more titles by Jean DeWeese.
Val Hamilton is someone we learn a lot about since she is the main character. The narration almost seems as though it is in first person – or should be, as we get to know her every thought, and the novel doesn’t ever focus in on anyone else’s. For this reason, I felt that the novel could do better in first person. Why not hear the story directly from her? It felt like it was anyway and at times I even got slightly confused for a second or two when it said ‘she’ instead of ‘I’. Having said this, it does have bouts of narration that is from... shall we call him/her the creep’s perspective, which adds a great dimension. At first I was annoyed; it felt like it was going to give too much away, but these moments when we’re in the creep’s head, are very effective and get you wondering and guessing all the more.
At times, the narration and descriptions seem a little long-winded while not actually saying very much and I found myself almost skim reading to dialogue. But I love the descriptions of Muldoon the cat and Val’s relationship to him and love for him. When it gets later in the novel, descriptions are less wasted and are used effectively to show Val’s moods, concerns and growing nervousness about what is going on.
It was easy to read and enjoyable overall. I might have to look into some more titles by Jean DeWeese.
Displaying 1 of 1 review