Customer Reviews

The Cat Next Door

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...but even when not at her best, a Marian Babson book is fun to read. As stated in other reviews, this is not really so much a mystery as a psychological study of a family under stress. Margot returns to her family home in England after having lived in New York the past eighteen months. She returns home as one of her cousins is on trial for the murder of another cousin, actually the twin of the accused.
Why is this not the best? Well, there are a LOT of characters introduced very quickly into the story and it is, at first, rather confusing keeping up with who is the cousin/aunt/uncle/father/daughter of whom. Secondly, there are few clues as to whom the real murderer is. And last, the final solution is a little out there. The murderer confesses without there being any real pressure on him/her to do so...s/he just states it as a fact and goes on with the story of what really happened.
But, leaving those complaints aside, this book is enjoyable & quick to read and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a cat mystery and/or is a fan of other Marian Babson books.

I really wasn't thrilled with this book. I bought it because I read another one of Babson's books, "In the Company of Cats," and I loved it. This one, however, was very much lackluster in comparison. It just seemed to drag on forever, especially with needless details. Do you really need to know what the coffee tastes like, down to the very last milliliter? Or what color every flower in the garden is? Are these clues supposed to help the reader solve the crime? It just felt like the story was trudging forward with few real plot twists. It wasn't exciting and definitely wasn't a "couldn't put it down" sort of book. At only 192 pages, it took me forever to read. Also, one of the reasons I wanted to read this book is because I love cats, and the cat in the book had no real role. The story wouldn't have lost anything without him. He was just awkwardly shoved into the story but had nothing to do with it. All in all, disappointed with this book.

I'm an avid Marian Babson fan, and cannot think of a single novel that she's written that I did not enjoy to some degree or another. Having admitted to that, I must own that while I enjoyed reading "The Cat Next Door," this novel, unlike previous Babson books, was not that much of a mystery novel. It was not one of her lighthearted works either. Essentially, the plot is as follows: about a year ago, Claudia (wife of rising member of parliament, Kingsley) was found stabbed in her parent's garden. Standing over her with a knife in her hand, was her twin sister, Chloe Morton. Now, Chloe's trial is about to begin, and family members have descended from all corners of the world in order to give support to shell-shocked family.

Margot (cousin to Chloe and Claudia), a professional photographer, returns home to her childhood home, in order to lend support to the uncle and aunt who helped raise her (Chloe and Claudia's parents). Tired and depressed, she is appalled to find that her uncle and aunt have more or less fallen apart at the seams: her Aunt Milly has retreated into the world of Regency romance novels, and her Uncle Wilfred has taken to overeating. And then there is Claudia's teenage daughter, Lynette, who has barricaded herself in her grandparents's bedroom and refuses to leave... As the date of the trial draws near, the tense atmosphere in the house mounts, as Margot tries to make sense of what happened and of Chloe's refusal to cooperate with the police or her counsel (Chloe has refused to talk to anyone about Claudia's murder). Kingsley wants the family to pressure Chloe to plead guilty so that she will never have to face a trial, and so that Lynette will not have to testify. But Margot cannot help but wonder if Chloe is actually guilty of having killed Claudia, or if she is covering up for someone else?

"The Cat Next Door" is not really a murder mystery novel at all (there are no cunning plot twists or red herring suspects), but a study of the psychological study of how a slightly eccentric family copes with a crisis. The novel unfolded a little slowly but flowed effortlessly, thus making it a really easy read. I must admit however that the manner in which everything was finally resolved did beggar belief! For the Claudia's murderer to calmly admit all, esp when no one suspected this character of any wrongdoing was not very probable. I think it would have been more likely for this character to have carried on the course (s)he had decided on and let everyone else stew! However the book was a nice read, and if you're looking for something to curl up with before falling asleep, you can't really go wrong with this novel.

This book is a fun read, at least for those of us who find the Anglicisms colorful rather than annoying. For example, apparently in the U.K. one "sells up" a house rather than just selling it. Some of the foods are puzzling to this clod, but one of the author's hobbies is apparently cooking so I didn't mind. But a whodunit this is not.

In a "real" murder mystery the reader is offered clues along the way so if observant and able to winnow the information at least can make a guess as to what has happened. No way in this book as all the critical facts are dumped on the reader virtually at the end. And that's where the killer openly confesses for no particular reason -- other than there's not an iota of evidence for an arrest, much less a conviction. But I did like Tikki, the cat, even if he is totally irrelevant to the plot.