Baseball Cat (Big Mike Mystery/Garrison Allen) [Hardcover]

Allen Garrison (Author)

Book Description

Series: Big Mike Mystery/Garrison Allen | Publication Date: July 1, 1997

Bookstore owner-turned-amateur sleuth Penelope Warren and her feline sidekick, ""Big Mike"" Mycroft, investigate when the owner of the Arizona Coyotes, a semi-professional baseball team, is killed by a blow from a baseball bat during the annual Empty Creek, Arizona, Elizabethan Festival."

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Penelope Warren of Empty Creek, Arizona, and her huge Abyssinian cat investigate the murder of a minor-league baseball team's much-hated owner. Penelope runs a mystery bookstore but spends most of her time elsewhere (see, for instance, Royal Cat, LJ 6/1/95). By interrogating baseball team members, suspected girlfriends, possible financial gainers, and almost everyone else who crosses her mind, Penelope succeeds in one-upping the police. A welcome series addition, somewhat scatterbrained but filled with infectious humor.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Thirtysomething Penelope Warren owns a mystery bookstore in Empty Creek, Arizona, and does some amateur sleuthing on the side. When the owner of the Empty Creek Coyotes, a minor-league baseball team, is found murdered, police chief Dutch Fowler asks Penelope to help find the killer. Penelope, her cat Big Mike, Dutch, and two doughnut-eating detectives have a fine time plowing through clues on their way to solving the crime. Set against a background of beautiful scenery and minor-league baseball (described in a manner that would please W. P. Kinsella), the novel moves briskly, with Allen supplying plenty of entertaining banter. What makes it all work, though, is the cast of well-drawn characters, especially Penelope herself, surely one of the wittiest and most intelligent women ever found in a cozy mystery. (Even Big Mike the cat works--and not just for cat people.) If P. G. Wodehouse had liked baseball and hung out in the Arizona desert, he might have written a novel much like this one. John Rowen

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Kensington (July 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1575661837
• ISBN-13: 978-1575661834
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 5.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,271,854 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A nine inning winner!, May 17, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Baseball Cat (Big Mike Mystery/Garrison Allen) (Hardcover)

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

3.0 out of 5 stars Funny characters and setup, no clues, November 14, 2005

By 

Naor Wallach (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Baseball Cat (A "Big Mike" Mystery) (Paperback)

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.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good mystery-adventure book with a loveable cat hero., April 18, 2002

By 

William L. Gilstrap - See all my reviews

This review is from: Baseball Cat (A "Big Mike" Mystery) (Paperback)

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.