(POLL BALLOT) The Cat Who Could Read Backwards / Lilian Jackson Braun - 3***

[Book Concierge]

NOTE: This fits because the author is from South Carolina



The Cat Who Could Read Backwards – Lilian Jackson Braun
3***

Book # 1 in a cozy mystery series featuring James Qwilleran, a newspaper reporter in an unnamed Midwestern city, and an extraordinary Siamese cat, Koko.

I’m sure I’ve read this before, because it was vaguely familiar, but I did not have it on my “read” list on Goodreads, so decided to give it a go.

I love cozy mysteries, and this is a great series. Qwilleran is a good amateur detective. As a reporter he is appropriately curious and has a great excuse for gathering information. In this first outing, he’s been assigned to the features desk, writing about the local art scene. No, he’s not the art critic, he does public interest pieces on artists and events. Being somewhat new to town, he has a lot to learn and he’s finding quite a lot of intrigue in the local art scene … even before a prominent gallery owner is found murdered.

I like the way that Braun uses Koko to help Qwilleran. This is not a talking cat! (Although Siamese are known for their loud and interesting vocalizations.)

An altogether satisfying cozy mystery, and I recommend the series.



LINK to my review

[Doughgirl5562]

Lillian Jackson Braun was from North Carolina? I never knew that! The series deliberately never tells the reader where the setting is. Just three hours north the large city or something like that in the upper central states - implying northern Minnesota, Michigan or Wisconsin. I really liked all the books in this series until near the end of the series when the quality really started to drop off.

Interestingly, the first three or four books were written twenty years before the rest of the series.