Thank you Ellen Riggs for the free novella! All opinions expressed in this review are my own and not affected by the giveaway.
Edna is determined to rehome Fleecy, a beautiful white cat who has chosen to live with Edna's feral colony rather than her original owner and needs Ivy Galloway, Keats and Percy to help convince her friend Gertie to take another chance on love. When Edna and Gertie go out of town to a prepper convention, Ivy is in charge of checking on Fleecy and is horrified to discover Fleecy has gone missing. Someone broke into Gertie's house, stole the cat and all her food and water dishes too. Who would do such a thing? Detective Keats and Detective Percy are on the case.
I read this out of order so I already knew whodunit but it was still a fun read. I sure do miss this series. It quickly became a favorite. The mystery was still entertaining as it took Ivy around and introduced some new characters.
Gertie has such a big heart. Life has made her crusty since her beloved husband died. She had pets before but they always go missing. Those horrible fortune hunters are tormenting an old lady and making her miserable. Can't Kellan do anything? Edna is a hoot as always. Ivy takes a back seat to the old ladies and the pets in this mystery but she's a good person who always wants to see justice done. She feels guilty because the catnapping happened on her watch and because she helped Edna convince Gertie to take Fleecy in the first place. Something tells me Fleecy is as tough as her new human and is just fine, probably tormenting her catnapper and will likely find her way home soon.
I missed Jillian, Asher and Kellan and especially the farm animals in this one.
Did Annamae Muir take Fleecy back? Fleecy was her cat originally. It's obvious Fleecy doesn't want to be with Annamae? Would Annamae risk a scandal by openly stealing her cat back? I doubt it. Too obvious. In this story we meet Harvey Dunbar, blacksmith and swordsmith. I had read about his work but have not met him yet. He's an affable man and dedicated to his craft. I think the attention from Edna and Gertie may be going to his head a bit. He made a big mistake posting a picture of someone else's property on social media. Hello! Small town! Long memories! Finch Pefferlaw, Ivy's off the grid neighbor, may have taken Fleecy. It's clear his views on animal rights don't align with the town's. He's cranky, rude and weird. He's protective of some old birdcage he claims is a family heirloom. Some people are going crazy for the cage and want to buy it. He's not selling. Some people include the Langman sisters. Heddy and Kaye are indistinguishable from one another and they're both horrible people. Anything that's shiny, glittery or valuable catches their attention and like magpies they can't resist taking it. What they did here was a super low dirty deed. Kellan needs to arrest them now!
This little story won't tide me over until the next volume but it was nice to revisit Clover Grove again.