Customer Reviews

Curiosity Didn't Kill the Cat (A Conan Flagg Mystery)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I picked up this book based on the setting - a bookstore on the Oregon coast (a favorite of mine). And while the setting is integral to the plot, there is not much atmosphere in this book. Basically, this is a dated (written in 1973)piece. It is, if such a thing is possible, a Cold War cozy murder mystery. I like cozies and I like a good Cold War thriller (LeCarre, etc.) but for me this combination just didn't work. It lacks the cute and clever of an endearing cozy. Nor doesn't have the page turning suspense of a good Cold War thriller.

Also, don't be fooled by the title -- the cat has almost nothing to do with the book. Cat mystery fans will have much more fun with the Lilian Jackson Braun/Rita Mae Brown/Carole Nelson Douglas series.

I had never encountered M K Wren when I came across "Curiosity Didn't Kill the Cat". My first reaction was, "Oh no! Not another cat detective." Thank goodness it was not.

The story starts out great. The protagonist, Conan Flagg, runs a bookstore/library in a small town. He discovers he is being kept under observation by Major Mills, a former colleague of his in the intelligence service. Is Mills still in the intelligence business? On which side? And what could possibly be happening in an out-of-the-way bookstore? Then there is a suspicious death, and we get to meet colorful local characters who wander in and out of the bookstore.

Sadly the story goes downhill fast. The local characters become less interesting, the plot more predictable (Cold War spy-verus-spy), and Conan Flagg more egotistical. Flagg's detection is almost brilliant at times but incredibly dull and ineffective on the whole. The action sequences toward the end of the book are unconvincing.

Yes, the cat does play a role, totally unnecessary. It's as if an editor said, "Cats are hot right now. Make the cat discover an important clue."

It's true the cat in the book has almost nothing to do with the main plot, it's not about the cat. It's about people in a small, sheltered town and their reactions to what's going on. Not to mention Conan's past, and the how gossip becomes a favorite pasttime. Who doesn't want to be Miss Dobie?! After I read this first novel of a series, I had to get the others!

CUROSITY DIDN'T KILL THE CAT by M.K. Wren is a fine introduction to Conan Flagg, Conan is ex-CIA operative who was sent home from Berlin with a bullet in his lung. He makes a new home on the coast of Oregon near the ranch his father built and followed his desires to the world of books.
Conan has a love of books, a Rolodex file of experts in many fields, a native American mother and Irish father, a love of classical music, a cat named Meg who loves bits of paper more than catnip toys, a host of small town friends, and above all his assistant Miss Dobie.
When Captain Harold Jeffries, U.S.N., Ret. ends up drowned in the surf below Conan's house it looks more like murder than an accident. When the book Captian Jeffries had checked out of the rental library ends up back on the shelf the next morning then Conan knows someone is using his shop for business other than selling books.
This story is dated, but strong enough that I've ordered the others in the series. A good book remains a good book no matter when it was written.
Nash Black, author of QUALIFYING LAPS.