From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

Something The Cat Dragged In (Peter Shandy, #4)

Charlotte MacLeod

Start date: January 15, 2025

Finish date: February 8, 2025

Discussion: Buddy reads

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What Members Thought

Oct 12, 2015 Susan in NC rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, my-library, detbuddy25, reread

1/7/25 - still four stars

2/2017-Still a witty, charming and fun four-star cozy mystery for me, my review from two years ago sums up my feelings:

Another fun outing with Balaclava College Professor Peter Shandy, this time more focused on the village of Balaclava Junction. Edmund the cat drags in a toupee early one morning, and his owner, Mrs. Lomax, smells a rat - she knows it belongs to her boarder, a cranky retired college professor who'd never be seen dead without his hair piece - but his bed h ...more

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Aug 06, 2011 Bev rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: american-mystery, academic-mystery, mystery, silver-age-mystery, mount-tbr-2020

Martha Lomax discovers that her cat Edmund has detective tendencies when he drags in a clue to the latest murder in Balaclava Junction. What first looks to be a dead rodent of some sort turns out to be the bedraggled hairpiece belonging to her boarder, Professor Herbert Ungley. She immediately knows that something is wrong because everyone knows that Ungley wouldn't be caught dead without it (as if everyone in town doesn't know he wears a toupee). Except that's exactly what has happened...she go Martha Lomax discovers that her cat Edmund has detective tendencies when he drags in a clue to the latest murder in Balaclava Junction. What first looks to be a dead rodent of some sort turns out to be the bedraggled hairpiece belonging to her boarder, Professor Herbert Ungley. She immediately knows that something is wrong because everyone knows that Ungley wouldn't be caught dead without it (as if everyone in town doesn't know he wears a toupee). Except that's exactly what has happened...she goes in search of Ungley thinking he must be sick or hurt and finds his body out behind the Balaclava Society's clubhouse. There's fair sized dent in his head, but very little blood.

So, when Police Chief Fred Ottermole's first thought is that Ungley fell and accidentally hit his head on a protruding piece of harrow, Martha Lomax's first thought is Professor Peter Shandy who has helped tidy up a few other mysteries before now. She also notices that Professor Ungley's rooms have been searched--it was a pretty careful search and only her practiced eye and knowledge of how the professor liked his things tells her anyone's been there. But been there, they have. Shandy soon agrees with her that there is more to this death than meets the eye and manages to convince Chief Ottermole as well. When another death occurs, it also becomes apparent that there's more going on in the exclusive Balaclava Society than anyone imagined. What exactly it is and how it prompted murder is what Shandy and Ottermole will need to discover.

The Peter Shandy mysteries are just plain fun and lighthearted (despite the murders). Who could take anything seriously that has a Viking-like, strong man like Thorkjeld Svenson serving as president of Blaclava Agricultural College running around in the background, ready to intimidate the evil-doers that Shandy uncovers or just bend a few steel bars to let off steam? Some of the plots need to be taken with a cupful of salt, but these aren't meant to be serious whodunnit puzzles. When you want a quick read and quirky characters with a few literary puns, quotes, and verbal jousting bouts thrown in, then this is the series to turn to. If you like mysteries with an academic twist (as I do), then that's an added bonus. ★★★ and a half.

My one major quibble is also a major spoiler: (view spoiler)

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting postions of review. Thanks.

Previous one-line review from long before blogging: I can't resist an academic mystery and Peter Shandy is such a great character! ...more

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Dec 17, 2024 Jackie rated it really liked it

I like how the characters and the college community/town more generally are all revealing themselves as the series goes on. I didn't really appreciate the first book or two, for some reason.

I especially like how (view spoiler) ...more

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Apr 25, 2016 Teri-K rated it liked it

Shelves: senior-citizen-mcs, amusing-to-funny, mystery

Not the best in the series but still a pretty good story. I miss the silly humor of some of the stories, and Peter and Helen hardly appeared together at all. Plus the solution was a little bit, "What are they talking about?". Still, it has a clever cat who finds a very important clue. :) 2.5 stars ...more

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