A pleasant and cozy mystery in a small town filled with characters, among them two cats with unusual powers. The mystery itself twists and turns in unpredictable ways. Despite the writing being too detailed and labored at times, it manages to grab your attention and keep it.

Owen and Hercules are back, and with their unique qualities are once again attempting to help Kathleen with a mystery. Things with Kathleen and Marcus are going well, and she is hoping for more, but once again murder disrupts their lives. The cats are in the thick of things as they try to help Kathleen solve clear her friend Simon, and what is up with Micah? Is she as special as the other cats? There is even a bonus short story at the end.

My first read for this popular author of intelligent cat tales aka detectives by night. Kathleen, our librarian and part-time, self-appointed mystery detective is the owner of these clever brother felines. Or, is it as most pet people say, the other way around, they own and tolerate us! Whatever, they collaborate on a murder mystery of two human brothers who people in town all knew had a grudge between them from many years back. Everyone thought that was over and done with; or was it? Sink your teeth into this little cat tail or oops tale, and join or the amateur sleuths in finding out who done it. Enjoy yourself. It's purrfect!!!

A Tale of Two Kitties (A Magical Cats Mystery #9)A Tale of Two Kitties by Sofie Kelly
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Title: A Tale of Two Kitties
Author: Sofie Kelly
Series: Magical Cats, #9
Pages: 336
Publisher: Berkeley
Date: September 5, 2017

Summary:

With a well-placed paw on a keyboard or a pointed stare, Kathleen’s two cats, Hercules and Owen, have helped her to solve cases in the past—so she has learned to trust their instincts. But she will need to rely on them more than ever when a twenty-year-old scandal leads to murder…

The arrival of the Janes brothers has the little town of Mayville Heights buzzing. Everyone of a certain age remembers when Victor had an affair with Leo’s wife, who then died in a car accident.

Now it seems the brothers are trying to reconcile, until Kathleen finds Leo dead. The police set their sights on Leo’s son and Kathleen’s good friend Simon, who doesn’t have much of an alibi. To prove her friend innocent, Kathleen will have to dig deep into the town's history—and into her sardine cracker supply, because Owen and Hercules don't work for free...

Review:

Hercules and Owen! I love Hercules and Owen! I would hate to have to pick between the two of them for a favorite because they have such distinct personalities. For some reason, Hercules seems to be the more well read of the two while Owen is the one who “gets things done!”

Oh, did I mention they are cats . . . with special powers. Hercules can walk through walls -- literally, while Owen can disappear -- also literally. And no, after reading these books that doesn’t seem odd at all.

And yes, there are humans in these books that get into all kinds of trouble and have to have the cats help them out.

Hercules and Owen live with Kathleen who is the town librarian. I realize that is a cliche: cats and librarians. However, as I said the cats have special powers and although Kathleen is only human, she is smart enough to let them help her solve the many murders she seems to get involved in.

This book even starts with a dead body.

You’d think by now it wouldn’t bother me to step on a body in the middle of the kitchen floor, but I was in my sock feet and the body -- missing its head, no surprise -- was damp.

With cat slobber.

And I’m going to leave that right there. You can see why I enjoy these books so much.

A Tale of Two Kitties is number nine in the Magical Cats series. I have loved everyone of the books. There is an extensive cast of recurring characters, so you really want to read them in order. Actually, you don’t want to miss a one of them because they are just that good.

This book was sent to me by NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Small-town librarian Kathleen solves mysteries with the help of her two highly intelligent cats, Owen (who can become invisible) and Hercules (who can walk through walls); the premise sounds too twee for words, but it actually works.

In this ninth in the series, a former resident returns to town shortly after a cache of old letters and photos are found stashed inside the post office wall. When he is killed, Kathleen pokes into the case because of her friendship with the old man's granddaughter, aided by hints from the cats, and by her friendship with a wide range of locals, including her detective boyfriend.

The bonus story at the end is slight but enjoyable, as well.

Charming as always.

I may not be entirely fair to this read because I was a huge fan of LJB and the "Cat Who" books. I found this read to be a little monotonous on all the daily details that didn't add a lot of substance to the book. I didn't have a problem putting it down, I felt no real connection to the characters and although the plot was intriguing it seemed to take a long time to get to any point that I felt the story moved along smoothly. The second half picked up the pace and was more enjoyable.

Kathleen, the director of a small town library in Minnesota, has two cats which seem to have almost supernatural intuition. The cats, along with her friends and her cop-boyfriend Marcus, help Kathleen to figure out who killed Mia’s grandfather. I’d never read anything in this series, but now plan to go back and read more. Fans of Lilian Jackson Braun’s “Cat Who…” series, which had similar prescient felines, might enjoy this book.

Here's a mystery I'd love to solve: how this book is part of a best-selling series of books, with a Big-House publisher. It was all I could do to keep reading to the end. The hook, for me, was the two paranormal cats. One can walk through walls. One can disappear and reappear. Both seem to understand English and respond to small-town librarian Kathleen Paulson's conversations with them.

Most of the opening pages are summaries and back story about people and events from other books in the series. Not until 30% in do we get a dead body. It's not hard to guess whodunnit. The biggest question is how the heroine will manage to confront the killer (happens this way in every book in the genre) without getting herself killed. OF COURSE, she almost gets killed, and of course, the cats come to her rescue.

I hunted and hunted for the first book in the series (they're not numbered) and sampled a few books online, but just couldn't find the cats or the characters engaging.

P.S. Things I used to expect a Big-House publisher to catch have become such common usage, I don't think we'll ever see a return to the correct English. E.g., "the relationship between Marcus and me," please, not "betweeen Marcus and I."

Mayville Heights is the setting for their current adventure and when they are digging into a twenty-year-old scandal, Kathleen needs their help more than ever.
The scandal includes Kathleen's good friend Simon, and when the police look at him as a suspect in a gruesome murder, Kathleen and her dynamic duo set off to find answers.

This series just gets better and better. I love Owen & Hercules, they add just the right amount of humor to this already witty series.

I give A Tale of Two Kittes 5 paws up!

I voluntarily read an Arc of this book provided by Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley.

Pub Date 05 Sep 2017

Wonderful addition to an all already fabulous series. Kathleen has has become an even strong character bad the writer has given Marcus so much more depth that I enjoy them begin together now. I enjoy how the story flows together because we have more then one mystery being told yet they all come together too give you a very satisfying and tantalizing good read.