Laurie Cass

Minnie is a librarian in a small MI town. She has a cat who adopted her. And Eddie the cat is the one who discovers the body in this mystery. The victim is a wealthy local who made good but also developed a bad reputation. Minnie met him when he's returned to town to fix his reputation. His donation to buy the bookmobile was one such attempt. However, when he is killed nobody is saying anything nice and there are plenty of suspects. I liked the bookmobile route and its patrons, some of the secondary characters and the whole summer on the houseboat set up. I'm just not keen on a cat character who helps the mystery along.… (more)

Minnie has a new boss who wants the library's budget, including the bookmobile budget, to be cut so she can get the same system she had at her previous place of employment that the library board had recently decided did not meet their needs. She's buttering up the board members, and Minnie feels the new director doesn't like her very much. The rest of the staff and the patrons don't really like the new library director either. While on her bookmobile route, a lady lawyer who just returned to the area visits, but Eddie the cat finds a dead body in the bed of the pickup she drove. The body belongs to her father. She didn't get along that well with her father, but Minnie is convinced she did not kill him. Lots of people had reason to want him dead. He was one of those builders that cuts corners, creating problems for the people who purchase the homes, the building inspectors, his employees, and everyone else. I really enjoy how Eddie always has his pulse on the situation and drops clues--whether or not they are recognized as such. As I read this book, I couldn't help but wonder if the author had an experience with a D. R. Horton home. D. R. Horton is a builder who is flooding our local area with a bunch of cookie-cutter shoddily-built homes. If I hear of his demise, I'll probably expect it to be murder by one of the persons who bought one of his sub-par dwellings.… (more)