Quick Recommendations

What's too good to miss? Heck, if you're a fan, you probably don't want to miss any of the series, but here're my picks for its highlights - The Cat Who Could Read Backwards is the start of the series, and it tells the tale of how Jim Qwilleran got back in the newspaper game as a reporter on the art beat and how he met Koko. In my estimation, it's the best Cat Who... book - it features a well-paced, exciting plot, Qwilleran and Koko at their peak, rich writing, superbly fleshed-out supporting characters - there's not a dud among them, and Mountclemens is magnificent - and a masterfully intricate mystery (whose solution is firmly grounded in human psychology, rather unique among Cat Who...s). I can't recommend this one enough, folks. Everything that can be right with it is. Get it get it get it. The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern is considerably different from its predecessor, The Cat Who Could Read Backwards - the mystery is kinda fey and the solution rather obvious, and its tone isn't as serious and solemn - but it's great, great fun. Crazy photog Odd Bunsen - his bit on the Villa Verandah's balconies gets my vote for the funniest moment of the series - and Qwilleran go around trying to dig up houses to shoot for the Fluxion's new interior decorating supplement (Gracious Abodes) and, again, run into many great supporting characters (Harry Noyton, David Lyke, Jacques Boulanger) along the way. Yum Yum is added to the cast at the very end, but it's really the Qwilleran-Odd Bunsen stuff that makes the book outstandingly entertaining. The Cat Who Saw Red tells how Qwilleran meets up with his college sweetheart and once-fiancée Joy at a gourmet boarding house, only to lose her again when she disappears under mysterious circumstances. It's obvious to the observer what's happened to Joy and who did it to her, but Qwill has an unbearably hard time coming to terms with losing the happiness of his past once again, and his persistent denial in face of the facts and fight to get in touch with reality provides some of the series's most touching, revealing characterization for him - and the tone of sadness throughout the book is all-pervasive and beautifully realized. Qwill also gets assigned to the restaurant beat here, which is good for some comic relief. The Cat Who Sniffed Glue is the first of the really good Moose County stories - while Qwilleran and Arch Riker try to get a new newspaper up and running for Moose County, the son of a prominent local banker is shot dead, an event that eventually leads to a family-wide tragedy that's almost Shakespearean. The stuff with the newspaper is good too, and the mystery is very twisty. The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts is hard for some folks to take - it involves the death of Mrs. Cobb and is pretty grim throughout, but it deals with several mature themes - how former relationships affect us, how the past affects the present, how Moose County deals with outsiders, the power of belief vs. truth - in a thoughtful way that deserves attention; it's very moving. The plot's incorporation of a mystery in the past - what exactly did happen to notorious Moose County villain in Ephraim Goodwinter in 1904; was he lynched, did he commit suicide, or otherwise? - into the present proceedings lends a lot of depth to the book - the players in the 1904 affair come across every bit as real and involving as the ones in the present. The Cat Who Lived High features Qwill's return to Down Below to help save a crumbling historical Casablanca apartment building from developers who want to tear it down to make way for an office complex. The moral implications of the restoration project are rather troubling, though, and the developers have some powerful allies... Many of the supporting characters from the previous city installments make return appearances here, we meet some interesting folks in the Casablanca to boot (Mrs. Tuttle, Courtney Hampton), and Qwill's wrestling with the Casablanca dilemma and his adventures in the city are great. The book just jumps from one high point to another and succeeds in being both thoughtful and fun; my copy is worn thin. The Cat Who Wasn't There has a lot of interesting stuff happening all at once - someone attempts to kidnap Polly, a tour group from Moose County goes to Scotland but has to return early when one of its members winds up dead, Qwill's old flame Melinda Goodwinter returns to Pickax - that's all tied together very nicely at the end. It's well-paced, the ending is tense, and the Moose County cast has seldom been more cohesive or involving. What can I feel safe in skipping or saving until I have nothing else to read? In other words, what're the worst books of the series? Without a doubt, those would be the recent The Cat Who Tailed a Thief, The Cat Who Sang for the Birds, and (especially) The Cat Who Saw Stars. The mysteries in all three are inept (the first two are no-brainers, and the third has no mystery at all), the characters (save for Wetherby Goode in The Cat Who Tailed a Thief) are off-putting, the tone is wrong, Qwill's characterization is wrong (at times, he seems downright ditzy and/or outirght rude), and, since opening the site, I've received several e-mails from folks who agree that The Cat Who Saw Stars seems ghost-written. I wanna start at the beginning of the series! You're looking for The Cat Who Could Read Backwards, then. (There's really no other better place to start, in my opinion.) What's the latest book? The Cat Who Smelled a Rat. Again, as with Robbed a Bank I think it's above Thief, Birds, and Stars but below the others in quality. (As for how it fares against Bank itself, it'd say that Bank probably has a slight edge, though it's not a horribly clear choice...) It's a semi-return to previous form in that it boasts some accoutrements of the beloved older country books (such as a swipe at those mystery plots rooted in old family secrets à la Played Post Office), which seems to have earned it a much better reception than other recent releases, but it's too all-over-the-place to really get any of its plotlines to pay off. When do the Moose County episodes start? In The Cat Who Played Brahms, in which Qwilleran goes up to Moose County for a vacation and inherits the Klingenschoen fortune (with strings attached) at the very end. It's not really a stellar Cat Who... book in my opinion (though I seem to be in the minority on this point), and The Cat Who Played Post Office, the next book, is kinda fey, too. In my view, the Moose County episodes don't really start to pick up until the third of the books set there, The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare, and don't really hit on all eight cylinders until the next book after The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare, The Cat Who Sniffed Glue. I heard that Qwilleran was once a newspaper reporter or lived in the city or something... Yup! If you've just read the books that're set in the country, you might want to try the ones set in his lean years as a reporter Down Below, before he inherited the K money - The Cat Who Could Read Backwards, The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern, The Cat Who Turned On and Off, and The Cat Who Saw Red. (He also returns to Down Below after inheriting his millions for a visit in The Cat Who Lived High, which is indeed set in Down Below but maintains the tone of the country volumes - and is also a good place to jump in to the series, if you're gonna jump into the middle of it, since it gives you a taste of both its worlds.) The only one of the city volumes I haven't described in the "recommended Cat Who... books" section is The Cat Who Turned On and Off, which is set at Christmastime and has Qwill on the antiques beat, which is good but not great (and this comes from the daughter of an antique collector who likes the trade and thus would be inclined to like this book). I heard that there was this one book where Qwilleran wasn't in Moose County or Down Below, but instead was in the mountains someplace... Fittingly, that's The Cat Who Moved a Mountain; Qwill's just "officially" inherited the Klingenschoen money (he's lived in Moose County for five years and doesn't have that stipulation hanging over his head anymore) and retires to the Potato Mountains for the summer to do some thinking about what he'd like to do now that he's independently wealthy. The book, which is merely OK, is probably based on Braun's observations on the life in the mountains near Tryon, North Carolina, where she lives. I was told about this really sad book where Mrs. Cobb dies...*sniff* That's The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts. Although Mrs. Cobb does indeed die in it and the book is more somber than most Cat Who...s, it treats her memory and its subject material and the utmost repsect and earns its tears, so please don't pass it up just because of the death. I really like [fill in name of character here]! What's a good book to see him/her in? This section'll probably see some additions and renovations as time goes on - Qwilleran - Practically all of 'em (except Sang for the Birds and Saw Stars), but Could Read Backwards (first appearance), Ate Danish Modern, and Saw Red especially. Also Talked to Ghosts, if you're not a careless reader, Played Post Office, for its one great opening scene, and Played Brahms, to an extent. (Lived High is a good book to use to contrast pre-K money Qwill with post-K money Qwill. Robbed a Bank will prove interesting for those who wish to know more about Qwill's family heritage - but his character is horribly arrogant and dislikable in spots here, despite a few notable moments near the beginning and end of the book.) Koko - Again, practically all of 'em (well, the first two thirds of the series, anyway), but Could Read Backwards (first appearance) and Ate Danish Modern dish up especially well-drawn characterizations of him. The city volumes generally treat him as more of a full-fledged character than the country ones. Yum Yum - The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern (first appearance), The Cat Who Sniffed Glue (to an extent), The Cat Who Saw Stars (unbelievably - she's actually quite cute in that one) Polly Duncan - Knew Shakespeare contains her first appearance, but she's rather bland and undefined there. For some more detailed forays into her relationship with Qwill, try Sniffed Glue, Knew a Cardinal, and Wasn't There. Moved a Mountain also has a few good bits at the beginning and end, and Robbed a Bank has a lot of Polly all throughout. And, though many other people don't, I also very much like her feistiness (overused adjective, but it fits here) in Smelled a Rat. Arch Riker - Could Read Backwards is his first appearance. But Turned On and Off, Saw Red, Played Post Office, Sniffed Glue, Went Underground, Lived High, and Went into the Closet all have great Arch stuff. Iris Cobb - Turned On and Off (first appearance), Played Post Office (first country appearance), Knew Shakespeare, Sniffed Glue. Talked to Ghosts, at the start of which she does indeed die, contains some respectful tributes to her memory. Hixie Rice - Saw Red (first appearance), Knew Shakespeare (first Moose County appearance), Sniffed Glue (she's dang funny here), Knew a Cardinal, Went into the Closet Amanda Goodwinter - Played Post Office (first appearance), Sniffed Glue, Went Underground, and bits of Talked to Ghosts and Tailed a Thief. Really, though, Amanda is in almost every Moose County book, and she's terrific crotchety entertainment whenever she pops up. Junior Goodwinter - Played Brahms (first appearance), Played Post Office, Knew Shakespeare, Sniffed Glue, Went into the Closet Nick Bamba - Again, though his first appearance takes place in Played Brahms, there ain't much of him in there, as I recall. Try Went Underground (especially), Wasn't There, Came to Breakfast, and Said Cheese for Nick. Lori Bamba - Played Brahms (first - and most prominent - appearance), Played Post Office, Came to Breakfast, Said Cheese Chief Brodie - Played Post Office (first appearance), Sniffed Glue, Said Cheese Fran Brodie - Played Post Office (first appearance), Sniffed Glue, Went Underground, Knew a Cardinal, Tailed a Thief Odd Bunsen - Could Read Backwards (first appearance), Ate Danish Modern (great antic and the immortal blacony scene), Saw Red Mildred Hanstable - Played Brahms (first appearance), Played Post Office, Went Underground, Went into the Closet, Blew the Whistle Roger MacGillivray - Played Brahms, Played Post Office, Sniffed Glue (a little), Went Underground. Though Played Brahms is Roger's first appearance, I'll warn you that he does come off as a heel there. Celia Robinson - Went into the Closet (first appearance), Blew the Whistle, Tailed a Thief Derek Cuttlebrink - Knew Shakespeare (first appearance), Came to Breakfast, Tailed a Thief, Saw Stars. As in his plays, though, Derek's amusing bit parts are ubiquitous. Elizabeth Appelhardt/Cage/Hart - Came to Breakfast (first appearance), Blew the Whistle, Saw Stars "Edd" Eddington Smith - Sniffed Glue (first appearance and a great ending scene), Knew a Cardinal (bah! I want more Edd!)