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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
NINE LIVES LAST FOREVER, July 7, 2010
This review is from: Nine Lives Last Forever (Cats and Curios Mystery) (Mass Market Paperback)
We are back at the newly renovated Green Vase antique shop and Rebecca, Isabella and Rupert have been joined by some green amphibian intruders. The antique shop is not the only place the creatures have turned up and what does the note left by Uncle Oscar mean?
Rebecca leaps right into another mystery filled with political conspiracy, faked deaths, hidden gold, and cold-blooded betrayal. Working with her uncle's quirky friends and even his arch enemy, Rebecca and the kitties are on a mission to find the truth "warts and all".
I LIKE IT!!!
This second book in the Cat and Curios Mystery series again takes us back in history to the days of Harvey Milk, who was an American politician who became the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and Mayor George Moscone, both were assassinated by Dan White, another city supervisor who had recently resigned but wanted his job back. Milk's election was made possible by and was a key component of a shift in San Francisco politics.
She mixes history with her wonderful tale of the great frog invasion and her characters involvement in San Francisco's politics. So believable you wonder what parts of this story are true and what comes from Rebecca M. Hale's imagination. This is a truly enjoyable mystery with plenty of leaps, jumps, and little and not so little cat feet.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Rebecca M. Hale worked as a patent attorney in the San Francisco Bay Area for several years before taking time off to write her first novel, HOW TO WASH A CAT. The paperback version of the book published in January 2010 and quickly became a New York Times Bestseller. The second book in the Cats and Curios Mystery series, NINE LIVES LAST FOREVER, comes out July 2010.
Rebecca and her cats, Rupert and Isabella, now live in Western Colorado where they are hard at work on the third book in the Cats and Curios Mystery series, FUR IS PRE-FURRED, as well as a new mystery novel set in the US Virgin Islands called THE WATER TAXI.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from The Berkley Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Publishing. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255 : "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Frog Hunters, July 20, 2010
This review is from: Nine Lives Last Forever (Cats and Curios Mystery) (Mass Market Paperback)
Several of the quirky characters Hale introduced in the first mystery in this series (How to Wash a Cat), lure former accountant and current San Francisco antiques store owner, Rebecca, into a scheme that involves frogs, treasure, and Frank Napis, the villian from the previous novel.
Rebecca, who inherited her uncle Oscar's antiques shop and also lost her accounting job, is not having much luck generating customers, even after rennovating the store's exterior and cleaning up its interior. This leaves her plenty of time to be intrigued by two volumes of Mark Twain stories that come into her possession and, initially, appear to be the same edition. But the books are both bait to spark her curiosity and entice her to become part of a rather complex plan designed with more than one purpose in mind. Soon Rebecca is seeing frogs in her shop, stalking Monty the nosy art dealer from across the street, smelling her dead uncle's fried chicken, trying to avoid Dilla's formidable daughter Miranda, and touring city hall with Sam the janitor.
The very delightful Isabella and Rupert, Rebecca's cats, accompany their person on much of he journey and prove to be excellent frog and fried chicken detectors.
Hale features San Francisco history in her story, particularly focusing on Cliff House and on the political era when Harvey Milk, the first gay city supervisor, and Mayor George Mascone were murdered. Interesting and significant as this history is, these sections of the novel at times read more like lectures and could be more smoothly incorporated into the narrative.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not what I expected, September 23, 2010
This review is from: Nine Lives Last Forever (Cats and Curios Mystery) (Mass Market Paperback)
San Francisco stars in this rather contrived story of frogs, faked death, treasure hunts, and poison. I keep wanting the heroine to grow a backbone and be heroic. I find her too passive for my liking. Monty takes advantage of her all the time, and she just lets him do so.
Also, one technical point: Ms. Hale writes in first person, which means she really can't "not see" or "not notice" what's happening nearby, no matter how well she thinks it moves the plot along. That's such a basic point-of-view tenet, I'm surprised her editor didn't call her on it. The times it happened, the shift took me right out of the story -- to me, the kiss of death for future purchases.
Still, I enjoy the setting and the cats. I have great hopes that MS. Hale will give her heroine a bit more strength and let her grow.
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