Crime Solving Cat

Coming back home to Cruz, California, after her mother's death, Nora Charles hopes life operating a sandwich shop will be less stressful than her days as a crime reporter for a Chicago newspaper. Meow If It's Murder by T.C. LoTempio is a clever book with a smart cat as sidekick. 

Nora Charles and her cat named Nick (yes like The Thin Man) are thrust into an intriguing mystery, investigating a death that was treated as an accident. But all is not what it seems and the more Nora digs, the more complicated it becomes. Nick, the smartest cat you have ever seen, even contributes to solving the case. 

Nora seems content with preparing sandwiches with unique names such as The Lady Gaga Special, The Michael Buble Burger and Miss Marple's Magnificent Chef's Salad. But when Louis Blondell asks her to write an article for his online magazine called Noir, she decides to investigate the death of Lola Grainger, a friend of her mother's and the wife of wealthy businessman. Labeled as an accidental drowning, Nora refuses to believe it. She knows Lola was deathly afraid of water and would never take a dinghy out alone.

Nora begins her quest to find the truth when she discovers that Nick, the cat, was previously owned by a private investigator Nick Atkins, who has been investigating the Grainger case. She tracks down the PI's office and finds that Atkins has been missing for six weeks. The plot thickens as the old time writers used to say.

Nora finds a way onto the carefully-controlled Grainger headquarters and snoops around looking for clues. What she finds complicates the mystery. With her clue-hunting cat, Nora solves the mystery of Mrs. Grainger's death, but not the whereabouts of PI Nick Atkins.

I'm sure there is more to come in the next books. Find out here.