Customer Reviews

How to Wash a Cat

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

If you've read any number of my reviews, you know that cats are probably my favorite animals; and San Francisco is probably my favorite of all cities. Thus a book that brings the two together is sure to catch my eye. This first of a new series, told in first person by a heroine whose name isn't revealed till the last page, is a mystery without a murder (or at least none that's ever established as such, though I have my reservations). Our narrator, a former accountant, unexpectedly inherits a beloved uncle's rather shabby antique shop, which specializes in memorabilia relating to the Days of '49, and decides to keep it up and move into the apartment above. Accompanied by her two cats, siblings Isabella and Rupert (who, from their descriptions, are probably Turkish Vans), she soon finds herself accumulating a series of mysterious clues regarding an equally mysterious figure from Gold Rush days. Eventually she discovers a hidden tunnel underneath her store and finds out that the neighborhood's aged Oriental flower-seller is actually a retired cop with an agenda of his own. There are eccentric characters galore (San Francisco has always been noted for them), humor, suspense (including the search for a horde of hidden diamonds), beautiful cats and a lovely city. What more can you want from a cozy mystery? (By the way, William Alexander Leidesdorff really existed, and you can look him up on Wikipedia.) I definitely plan to read the next volume.

I bought this book for my wife's birthday, but ended up reading it before she has. I thought it was pretty enjoyable. The mysterious part was sufficiently difficult to figure out without being impossible (I hate when mystery authors keep you from guessing the ending by not telling needed information). Sometimes I said while reading, "Oh, Main Character [who is nameless until the end of the book, which was somewhat distracting in places], why are you going to trust that guy who probably is going to kill you?" but then I realized it was because I knew Main Character was in a mystery novel and she did not, which was appropriate. The only other questionable part was when Main Character meets a carpenter and describes him in a way I took to mean she thought he was attractive, and then she notices his mullet. What?! Does Main Character find mullets attractive? Why would she? She seems like such a normal girl! I expect a full explanation from the author the next time I run into her in my local bookstore.

This is a quirky little novel, but it's a good kind of quirk. Rebecca M. Hale blends the line between narrator and author, reality and fiction, in such a subtle way that you only might figure it out by the last line. An intricate lesson in Gold Rush San Francisco that never bores, with cats that are almost as expressive as the people - certainly easier to understand. I had to read the last two chapters twice to pick up all the little details, but it was worth it. Looking forward to her next one.

Read both these books. I was hoping they would get better as she got into the series farther. My conclusion is these are silly pointless books, they wander, don't have much of a plot and repeat much of the story frequently throughout the book. I felt like I was re-reading the book as I was reading. May recommendation would be to pass on these and any future books by this author. There are plenty of very good authors out there with much more developed stories and characters. Basically a waste of time. I am a cat lover, have 6 of my own, these books just seemed stupid.

I am really torn on this review. I had read the ones here, and wondered how there could be such a difference of opinion. And then I read the book.

I absolutely loved the first 90 percent. The quirkiness was no big deal. I enjoyed the use of language. I loved the cats, even Rupert. I liked the historical who-dun-it setting and characters. And frankly, who gives a damn if you have a name for the primary character? She's telling the story. If you find it troublesome and tend to confuse the narrator with someone else who does have a name, that is YOUR problem. I don't find that terribly troubling. In short, I was really liking this book, a lot. In fact, if someone had stolen my kindle after I had finished the first 90 percent of the book, I would have rated this as FIVE STARS. But no-one was kind enough to steal my kindle at that point. I read the closing chapter. Oh my, would somebody please just shoot me. I wasted all that time reading and enjoying a book with lots of interesting plot twists and lots of interesting questions and befuddlements. And then it just ends. Most of the questions NEVER got answered. WHO, WHY, WHAT? It was as if the book was 70 percent written when the publisher demanded the manuscript. So the author spend 20 minutes wrapping a couple items up, explaining a few of the mysteries, and then skipping town with the check.

Where to start with this book? I guess the place to start is with the prologue, which was not at all helpful to this story and instead felt like an explanation to the title. Maybe there was more to it then that, but I missed is. I'm not saying it isn't there but as I did read this over a day I spent at home cuddled up in bed, sick, it is entirely possible I missed something.

The main character has just inherited her uncle's antique shop in San Francisco. Soon afterward she finds herself jobless and surrounded by a variety of sometimes fun and sometimes annoying individuals who run some of the other local businesses, plus the two contractors/handyman that are going to repair the dilapidated antique shop.

First the bad with this book: you never learn the characters name until the end... and it isn't until the middle to near end of the book that you even get in idea of the age range of this character. I was very frustrated by both of those factors. This book is told in the first person and because of that, I was never very interested in this character. Is she young or old? Fat or skinny? Frumpy or chic? You have no idea. I also thought she let her self be railroaded into things and that drove me a little nuts. I like stronger female leads and she wasn't it.

To top off the bad, I didn't even understand what the real mystery was until it was sprung on you near the ending of the book. The rest of the book just felt like a stumbling list of events that the women found herself pushed into.

The good: I'm not sure what it is... maybe I thought the writing was good? I don't think this book should get two stars but I'm not sure it deserves the three stars either. It was a cozy mystery with a confusing mystery (and the mystery was lacking) and a character I still don't know what I think about because there was so little given about her. I read it and that is pretty much it for me.

I felt as though I was grading a paper on adverb usage. Sometimes I forgot the story because of the adverbs. Maybe I could have gotten past the adverbs but the cats didn't act like any cat I've known or heard of. I wanted to like this book. Wanted to add a new author to my favorites list. But I couldn't.

I enjoyed this book in spite of its imperfections. I liked the fact that the cats are part of the plot and have a role to play. Second, I liked the idea of a mystery without a certifiable murder. Yes, Uncle Oscar died, but one of the mysteries is, did he really die? That's plenty of mystery along with the tunnels and buried treasure, etc.

I would agree with everyone about the weaknesses of the novel, but I think it has great potential. Perhaps the author was trying too hard, and the story was published too soon. I think, with a couple of rewrites, that it could be one of the best.

I couldn't get past the first 50 pages. The author starts a section in the present day, then has a flashback AND during that flashback, has another memory of earlier times. Very poor writing and NO editing. I love cats but there aren't enough cats in the world to make me read anymore of this.

I really liked this book at the beginning. It does have a formulaic plot (mysterious relative leaves heroine a strange business surrounded by weird neighbors) which doesn't bother me if it's well-written. As I read on, I found the heroine pretty unlikeable. I waded through it, waiting for her to develop, or, barring that, for another interesting, sympathetic character to appear. I didn't find any.

The heroine just lets things happen to her - doesn't say a thing about being fired because of a false rumor, encounters intruders in her property without doing anything about them... it's just maddening. Then, in spite of her deep reserves of wimpiness, she barges around in dark places and explores tunnels and construction pits on her own.

The thing that sealed the deal for me was the prose. After the first few pages, which were written in a fairly straightforward manner, the writer starts to ramble. She also throws buckets of adjectives and adverbs into every paragraph, and uses words in a weird way. The definitions are sort of right for the sentences in many cases, but the usage isn't. It's as if she went nuts with a thesaurus without knowing the nuances of meaning that differentiate synonyms.

The only thing I liked about the book was the setting. I've never disliked a book enough to leave a negative review before. If you want interesting characters and compelling puzzles, don't read this.