7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A walking dictionary?, September 14, 2000
I truly love all of The Cat Who series and I have them all. I have noticed that about halfway through the series they started to change. Polly is a walking dictionary (nobody really talks like that) and I think a very irritating person. I sure hope that Mr. Q. never decides to marry her. Also he has taken to wearing "jumpsuits" I shudder at the thought. The Mr. Q. that we all know and loved during the first half of the series seems to be doing things now that he would have scorned previously. In "The Cat Who Said Cheese" Iris Cobb's missing recipe book is one of the main subjects. I seem to remember that Verona admitted to have taken it in "The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts". All of this makes me wonder whether or not Ms. Jackson-Braun is really still writing her own books. In spite of all of this I really do love the series.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Cats Take the Cheese, November 21, 2005
From beginning to end this book, as the title suggests, revolves around cheese. There is a new cheese and wine shop in Pickax, there is a cheese tasting at Qwilleran's home and the erstwhile journalist buys a nice old book about cheese that emits such a strong smell of Limburger that he has to bury it in the back yard. As if the cheese weren't enough liver & onions, mushrooms, honey and soup also play a part in this story and this is definitely not a book that you will want to read if you are on a diet.
There are several mysteries floating around in this book, none of which ever rise to the top and take on the role of being the major plot line. First, there is a mystery woman all dressed in black, then there is an explosion at the New Pickax Hotel which is followed by the murder of one of the town's merchants and then a fisherman is found stung to death by friendly bees. Despite all of this murder and mayhem however the most important mystery seems to involve Iris Cobb's missing cookbook. For those new to the series Iris Cobb was at various times Qwilleran's landlady, housekeeper and curator of the museum that he lived in until it burned to the ground. Iris was known far and wide for her excellent cooking and the handwritten cookbook where she kept her secret recipes. Shortly after Iris' death the cookbook went missing and now Qwilleran is hot on the trail. As normal, Koko and Yum Yum play major roles in this story and without their help Qwilleran would never have solved all of the mysteries. The interwoven mysteries in this book are built up sort of like a jigsaw puzzle and nothing makes sense until it all starts to fall into place.
This is not a book that I would recommend for someone who has not read any of the other books in the series because despite the several mysteries this book is mostly an update on the lives of the residents of Moose County. The mysteries themselves never really drew me into the story like some of the previous books in the series but the chronicles of Moose County always keep my attention. In short, this is not one of the stronger mysteries in this series but the antics of the cats and of the people of Moose County more than make up for the shallow mysteries. For that matter, the trials of Qwilleran as he attempts to cook a turkey are well worth the price of the book.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Funny characters and witty dialogues: a joy to read, July 26, 2002
I have read all the books of "The Cat who" series and this is the one that gives me the greatest enjoyment of all. Not only did I increase my knowledge of cheese (cheddar used to be the limit of my understanding of cheese variety, now feta and gruyere and brie are added to my dictionary), I also satisfied my curiosity over the identity of the thief who stole Iris Cobb's cookbook, a mystery brought forward from a previous book, in addition to the new mystery that relates a strange, frightened woman, an abusive husband, and a gullible young man with white hair.
All in all it's a delightful read.
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