Customer Reviews

Baseball Cat (A "Big Mike" Mystery)

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4 star:		(2)
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2 star:		(1)
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Empty Creek, Arizona is home to a minor league baseball team, the Coyotes. The team and the town are looking forward to a successful season. However, the first swing of the bat is off the field when someone takes a bat to the head of the owner of the Coyotes, Peter Adcock, whose corpse is found in the visitor's dugout. Unlike a big city where the police do the investigating, the kind citizens of Empty Creek expect their resident amateur sleuth, Penelope Warren, and her sidekick, Mycroft "Big Mike", a twenty-five pound Abyssinian cat, to uncover the identity of the killer. ...... Penelope and Big Mike soon learn that the Coyotes have plenty of problems besides a losing streak. The team is not fiscally sound and female problems permeate the harmony of the players and management. There exists enough suspects to field a team and the real culprit wants to insure that Penelope and Big Mike strike out in their investigation. This may include foul play to silence the intrepid sleuth. ...... BASEBALL CAT is the fourth Big Mike tale and readers will think they entered the World Series with this fabulous novel that does no take itself too seriously. Garrison Allen is a superb artist who provides his fans with a humorous mystery starring two lovable protagonists. Readers will sing "Take Me Out To Ball Game" after perusing this nine inning charmer. .......Harriet Klausner

Baseball Cat is another in the continuing adventures of Penelope Warren and her cat "Big Mike" Mycroft. Penelope is one of those characters who I've only met in books. Her career includes a multiple year stint in the Marine Corps, a fling in the Peace Corps, she manages to get a PhD, and ends up as the owner of a mystery book shop in Empty Creek , Arizona where she is associated with the editor of the local weekly newspaper and dabbles in solving the multiple murders that bedevil that small town.

Like many other series, the enjoyment comes in from following the series so that you get to meet the various side characters and their interactions with each other. In that respect, this book / series shines. The author really knows how to have fun with his creations. Most of the action is driven by the women in the crowd and they are a very lascivious crowd!! The various sexual pecadiloes and various hookups and connections are wonderful. Of particular importance is Penelope's best friend Laney who writes explicit romantic novels and does research with her boyfriend before she can put the experience down on paper. Consequently Laney supplies every woman in town with their own copies of some explicit catalogs, etc. While nothing is ever spelled out exactly, there is enough innuendo and sly remarks sprinkled throughout the text to make you guffaw out loudly!

The whole town is full of interesting characters and that is only enhanced by this edition bringing in the town's newest attraction - a low, low, low level professional baseball team. It is so minor league that everyone in town comes to see every game! Anyway, the story opens with the fact that on opening day, the team's owner is found in the visitor's dugout ... dead ... beaned with a bat.

From there the story loops around the people and town until its resolution. Unfortunately, the mystery story aspects of this novel were not to my liking. I could not guess who the murderer was and it seemed to me that the author introduced a gang of motorcycle riders into the story at the very tail end to create a resolution. I think that was the weakest part which is why I downgraded this review.

If you have read other portions of this series, then this is a keeper, do not read this as the first exposure to Penelope or Big Mike.

This is a good whodunit book and the main cat character, Big Mike is a hoot. The human female character is less well done than the cat. She is a bit one dimensional. The plot is pretty good and the descriptions are good. It doesn't lag in the action and is an all around good writing job.

In Chapter 16, the Coyotes didn't actually win their first game, but only tied it. The author didn't realize if you're trailing by one run going to the bottom of the ninth inning, you don't win the game when the leadoff man walks, is sacrificed to second for out number one. Gets to third after a deep fly for out number two. The runner scores on a suicide sqeeze bunt, while the batter safely reaches first base. This only ties the game, but the author says Coyotes win.

Maybe Minor Leauge baseball has different rules. Who knows?

Thanks for reading.

BORING with capital letters. I only gave this book a two because it had a cat in it.