Customer Reviews

Meow Is for Murder (Wheeler Cozy Mystery)

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

 

 

This installment of the series wasn't that bad, but the ending, involving the way Kendra and Amanda set out to catch the killer, was silly and stupid. Yet again, Kendra doesn't really solve anything...she just runs around town accusing everyone she comes into contact with until someone finally confesses.

This series has so much potential. I just wish Kendra was a more enjoyable character, and that the writer didn't have the annoying habit of using lesser-known synonyms for many common words.

Amanda, Jeff Hubbard's ex-wife, asks Kendra Ballantyne for help avoiding her stalker. She wants Kendra to take care of her two Bengal cats for a few days. Kendra agrees begrudgingly. The stalker shows up and demands to know where Amanda went. Kendra refuses to tell him and realizes just what a menace he is. When Amanda returns home and finds the stalker dead in her house, she asks Kendra to help her prove her innocence. Kendra agrees only if Amanda will promise to get out of Jeff's life.

Kendra soon finds out that Leon was a serial stalker and there are quite a few people who are happy he's dead. Problem is she can't find any one person who she thinks actually killed him.

Plus Kendra begins to wonder if Jeff really wants Amanda out of his life. He says he does, but his actions tell another story.

Can Kendra find the real killer without putting herself in danger? Does she still want Jeff?

I love this series. Kendra is such a fun protagonist. She gets herself in some interesting situations. I love the peripheral characters and all the great animals she takes care of. The author has done a great job of creating such a likeable character that is three-dimensional.

There is plenty of humor along with a well-plotted cozy mystery. I highly recommend this book.

I love this author. I am an animal lover and mystery lover and have found a great series of books that combine both. The main character who is a pet sitting, animal loving, mystery solving lawyer is a very likeable character. Her plot lines are very creative and so is the main character's mystery solving techniques. It is a fast read because it is hard to put down.

After an ethics violation, Kendra Ballantyne's law license was suspended and she became a pet sitter to pay the bills. Now that her license is reinstated she moved to the laid back law firm belonging to Border York and company where most of the lawyers are senior citizens. She works with Borden and is free to choose her own cases including those involving pets. She is still a pet sitter and has called her business Critter, TLC, LLC to prove she takes the business seriously.

When her lover's ex wife Amanda Hubbard asks her to watch her two cats while she goes out of town Kendra very reluctantly agrees. The stalkers show up demanding to know where Amanda is and Kendra realizes how scary he is. She thinks he got into Amanda's home because the refrigerator was open. When Amanda returns home she sees her stalker dead in her house and the police think she is the killer. She begs Kendra, who has solved homicides before, to help her, and Kendra agrees when she promises to get out of her ex-husbands life. The problem is Leon was a serial stalker and had many enemies all glad to see him dead. Kendra comes up with a way to smoke the killer out and gets more than she bargained for with her intelligent but offbeat idea.

MEOW IS FOR MURDER is a humorous, cleverly constructed murder mystery that fans who love and take great pleasure in intelligent and clever who done-its will thoroughly enjoy. Pet lovers will also appreciate Linda O. Johnston's latest crime caper with an eccentric cast that infuses the plot with a sense of jocularity and pets that readers would love to adopt. The heroine juggles her jobs yet still has time to help animals.

Harriet Klausner

Great for the purse to read in waiting rooms, etc. Series is cute.

I love these books! Linda Johnston knows pets and how to fit them into the lives of characters and readers! Keep it up!

"Meow is for Murder" is the fourth book in the "Kendra Ballantyne Pet-sitter" mysteries. As a concept, the pet-sitter idea is pretty good, the variety of situations available makes for interesting stories and they don't seem too unbelievably contrived. I like the love for pets that comes across so clearly.

I enjoyed the prior three episodes in the series for the most part. However, in "Meow is for Murder" it seemed to me that the quality of writing wasn't to the standard of the others. The plotting and pacing were good, but the writing itself seemed amateurish. Not many nouns were used that didn't have an adjective (or two) awkwardly tacked on and there seemed to be a lot of use of overweight words in place of more common vocabulary that would have read more smoothly. The author thanks her "excellent new editor" in the preface, so the difference from earlier volumes could be credited to the new editor, who maybe isn't so excellent.

All in all "Meow is for Murder" is a pleasant read, nicely plotted and filled with characters that seem real.