Customer Reviews

Nine Lives Last Forever (Cats and Curios Mystery)

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

 

 

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."

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.

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.

Both this book and its predecessor, How to Wash a Cat, suffer from the same problems. There is no character development. We don't know what motivates characters, what are their issues, what is their history. Two books into this series, you would think we would know something about the characters by now. For example, the main character apparently has no past, because she seems to live in the moment so much that she never thinks about anything. Nobody ever calls her by name. She apparently never talks to herself and calls herself by name. I do this all the time, so I don't find it believable that you can get through an entire day or an entire book without a name or at least some thoughts about past events that have happened in your life. Instead of character development, we have action. Lots and lots of action. Something happens in almost every chapter. This does keep you moving the pages along but it gets a bit exhausting because except for all the action scenarios (most of which are resolved by the end of the chapter, so that you can gear up for the next chapter's action) and the San Francisco history lessons, there is not much going on in this series that would keep you coming back for the next one. And as for the history, it is just too much history for a book of this type. It adds nothing to the plot except filler. The time spent on the detailed history and descriptions of buildings etc. would be better spent in developing characters so that they seem like real people. This is a quick and enjoyable vacation read to check out from the library but that is really the only thing it has going for it. Even then, there are many, many other mystery writers who have nailed the formula and better books to take along on vacation. I buy lots of books and have many series that I collect and look forward to the next one in the series being published. This is not one of them.

If you have insomnia buy this book, it surely will put you to sleep. This is one of the most boring books I've ever read, it has a confusing plot, the chapters jumped around from time period to time period, and I found myself having to go back to see where the character entered the story because I couldn't remember who they were or what part they played in the story. I couldn't even finish reading this book, the lack of continuity was frustrating and I didn't want to waste my time on it. I'll give it one star for descriptive phrasing.

The famous fogs of San Francisco bid fair to become the frogs of San Francisco in the second Cats & Curios mystery. Two months after the events of How to Wash a Cat (Cats and Curios Mystery), newly-minted antqiues dealer Becky Hale is still trying to get a handle on the contents of the store she inherited from her late uncle when the building starts to host an infestation of frogs. Soon it turns out that San Francisco's City Hall is also being invaded by amphibians, and Becky learns to her surprise that her uncle was much more involved in modern-day city politics than she ever suspected. The frog problem proves to be connected to Mark Twain's famous tale about the Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and the years-ago murder of Harvey Milk, and Frank Napis, who nearly killed Becky in the previous volume, is discovered to be still lurking around. Though no murders take place, there are strong hints of a missing treasure from the city's half-forgotten history, and lots of humor as Becky, her cats Isabella and Rupert, and her allies and neighbors try to figure out what all those frogs are doing in their buildings. Some chapters of the book are told by Becky and others by an omnipotent over-the-shoulder author, which I found distracting (I think a novel should be either in first person or in third, not both), but the peculiar situation hooks and keeps your interest.

I was really looking forward to Miss Hale's second book in her series, but was totally disappointed. I read into 100 pages and quit. If I had wanted to read a history of San Francisco, I would have bought a history book. It appeared to be a "writer's block" book. Sorry Miss Hale, you'll have to do better to hold on to this reader.

While Ms Hale deftly portrays her felines, the rest of the story is not worth reading, unless you are a fan of San Francisco history. I totally agree with another reviewer - history is available in history books, and I bought the book to read fiction, not history. I also prefer a protagonist with some backbone, and a plot that actually shows up before the middle of the book. Combine all that with an extreme overuse of verbose descriptions, and it was all I could do to finish the book.

Her last blood relative Uncle Oscar died and within a week of his death, Rebecca lost her job at an accounting firm. She moves into the apartment above the Green Vase antique shop she inherited from Oscar, accompanied by her cats Rupert and Isabella. She quickly learned that her uncle used the store as a front to locate hidden treasures of historical figures he researched.

Life turns dangerous when Frank tries to kill her using spider venom. She knows he still stalks her so she s so frightened she rarely leaves the shop. Her cats notice frogs in the apartment and give chase. Rebecca learns city hall has a frog infestation too. She ponders what her late uncle meant when he advised her with a note to "follow the frogs". Desperate and confused she visits Oscar's friend. Meeting Oscar's eccentric friends, Rebecca asks about the enigmatic note, but none of them grasp the meaning. However, dealing with betrayal and a stalker, Rebecca needs to know rather quickly what the hell is going on.

The protagonist makes the tale work as she just wants to live a serene ordinary life, but is caught up initially in failure and fear, but quickly moves on to eccentricity as Uncle Oscar's zany crew welcome her as their leader. With a nod to the late Academy librarian Margaret Herrick for claiming claimed the annual awards statue looked like her Uncle Oscar; this tale crosses Charlie Chan with the Three Stooges to give readers an idea of Nine Lives Last Forever, a wild refreshing over the top of Nob Hill thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Rebecca M Hale served up another fun weekend for me with a thoroughly enjoyable romp through San Francisco and its history via her uncle's intriguing friends, her endearing cats, and some funky frogs. Rebecca's lyrical writing, interwoven plotline, and a subduded but still quirky Monty kept me turning the pages of her newest cozy, Nine Lives Last Forever. Way to go, Rebecca; I'll definitely buy the next in your series!