Canapes for the Kitties [Mass Market Paperback]

Marian Babson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 1999

The cat's out of the bag: dead bodies are piling up in Brimful Coffers, a picturesque English village. Among the deceased is Boswell, a pet white rat. His killers were caught: Had-I and But-Known, two mischievous felines belonging to Lorinda Lucas, mystery writer. Unfortunately, the other victims were all too human-and their killer remains at large...

The danger in Brimful Coffers was unforeseen when several authors created an informal writers' colony in this lovely town outside of London. In act, the location was heaven until the undesirables-critics and scholars-began to show up. Soon Lorinda and her friends feel as if they're living in a fishbowl. Worse, they're getting chilling threats, supposedly from their fictional characters! But when fatal "accidents" begin to claim the colony's residents, death isn't make-believe. And unless Lorinda can sniff out the killer, even a cat's nine lives might not be nearly enough...

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

When Lorinda Lucas, a well-known mystery writer in Brimful Coffers, kills off her popular fictional heroines, neighboring writers rebel. Old and new resentments (that even involve local cats Had-I, But-Known, and Roscoe) lead to murder. Another humorous charmer from a popular author (Break a Leg, Darlings,
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Babson's antic imagination runs unfettered in this outing, set in a village near London called Brimful Coffers. Mystery writer Lucinda Lucas has lived there for six months, cajoled into buying her cottage by novelist Dorian King, and swayed as well as by the relative freedom it provided for her cats (believe it!) Had-I and But-Known. Dorian has also inveigled other writers of the genre into ownership--a veritable enclave that includes Lucinda's close friend Fredericka (Freddie) Carlson and Lancelot Dalrymple, a.k.a. Macho Magee, the name of the hero of his tough-guy stories. Macho owns cat Roscoe, a frequent visitor at Lucinda's. Others in residence are acerbic book critic Plantagenet Sutton; magazine editor Gemma Duquette; Gemma's noisy, bickering American neighbors Karla and Jack Jackley; Betty Alvin, secretary-maid to Dorian; and Gordie Crane, all-around odd-job man. The nasty incidents start with Jackley's not-too-damaging fall into a bonfire at a Guy Fawkes party and Gemma's brush with food poisoning; matters turn eerie, though, when Lucinda finds pages from her typewriter in which her fictional sister sleuths are plotting her demise, and then take a really serious turn with the deaths of Plantagenet and visiting author Ondine van Zeet, along with a near miss for Dorian, whose motive for literary in-gathering proves more crass than aesthetic. The solution to it all arrives without benefit of any detecting skills and with nary a policeman in sight. Veteran Babson (Break a Leg, Darlings, p. 96, etc.) may have earned her self-indulgent funning. And her faithful, animal-adoring followers may be entranced. Newcomers unbeguiled by icky-poo, however, deserve fair warning. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks (May 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312968973
• ISBN-13: 978-0312968977
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,091,047 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A cozy village adventure., September 16, 2002

By 

MLPlayfair (Ravenna, OH) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Canapes for the Kitties (Mass Market Paperback)

CANAPES FOR THE KITTIES starts rather slowly, but it never drags. This light and easy-to-read cozy reminded me a bit of Christie in the atmosphere it built up. About a third of the way into the book, it turns creepy and more interesting. Good premise, nice structure, likeable characters (mostly mystery writers!) -- and I love the cats! I wasn't too happy with the outcome -- I thought MY theory of who did it would have been more interesting! But still worthwhile for the nice, fun visit to a friendly village of eccentrics. Nicely done. This is my first Babson. Now I'll look for more!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Playing Cat-and-Mouse With Mystery Authors, September 12, 2001

By 

Author Bill Peschel "Writers Gone Wild" (Hershey, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Canapes for the Kitties (Mass Market Paperback)

Although feline references play a dominant role on the cover and title of Marian Babson's latest cozy, it is a gallery of mystery writers who do the catting about when they move into the same English neighborhood occupied by a collection of rivals.

The kitties do play a supporting role, a duo named Had-I and But-Known, owned by cozy writer Lucinda Lucas, and Roscoe, by Macho Magee (formerly known as Lancelot Dalrymple). But they act as cats, not as characters on a par with their owners, as seen in Rita Mae Brown's series, nor do they offer hints as to who done it, as in Lillian Jackson Braun.

No, like the cats, Babson wants to play with the English literary scene, so her authors are beset by the neighborhood's new arrivals: the venomous critic Plantagenet Sutton, a college professor who collects writers like some collect butterflies, and a husband-and-wife duo seeking to record in camera and prose a year in the life of a charming English village. Not only that, but the characters in Lucinda and Macho's books seem to be acting up as well, resenting their creators' plans to replace them with other series.

Babson is a writer with a long track record, and she capably serves up in "Canapes for the Kitties" a charming, breezy cozy laced with some tart darts thrown at some tempting targets.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you haven't tried this series, you should., September 3, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Canapes for the Kitties (Hardcover)

Mystery writer Lucinda Lucas is sick of her trio of detectives, "the sibling spinster sleuths", and decides it is time to eradicate the three flowers before they turn to weeds. However, word spreads amongst the writing community of Brimful Coffers that Lucinda plans to eliminate the sisters. The reaction is extremely negative as old and new feuds surface over the pros and cons of Lucinda's next story line.

However, someone decides to take the argument one step further by killing some of the writers. At first, it appears to Lucinda as if her fictional trio is trying to scribe a different ending than Lucinda has planned. All the mystery writers, including Lucinda, fail to cope when confronted with a real series of who-done-its. So it is up to Lucinda's trio of felines (Had-I, But-Known, and Roscoe) to risk their nine lives by trying to uncover the identity of the killer before their mistress becomes the next victim.

No one quite writes cat mysteries each the same merriment as the marvelously jocular Marian Babson does. Her latest cat who-done-it is a very humorous tale that effortlessly crosses the line between fiction and the fourth estate while expeditiously take the reader along for a magic carpet ride of fun. Anyone who loves witty feline mysteries needs to not only read CANAPIES FOR THE KITTIES, but all of Ms. Babson's previous works - her brand of humor makes them entertainingly unique.

Harriet Klausner