The storyline had me pulled in different directions with strategic red herrings, but it was done so well, I wasn’t left feeling dizzy. The writing kept me engrossed with its interesting characters, unique murder plot, cute cats and the relationships between the main characters and her family and friends. It is also the perfect read to get you into the Halloween spirit!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this eARC!

Cate Conte's latest cozy mystery was the perfect read for the end of October! Set in Daybreak Harbor right at Halloween, the spooky history of the haunted inn, combined with two forty-year old cold cases and a visiting psychic the atmosphere was exactly what I wanted to read for the season. I found that the mystery moved along quickly and kept me guessing until the end. Conte did a great job unfolding the intrigue of the cold cases along with the current murder to make for an excellent mystery. I will definitely pick up the rest of this series and can't wait to read the next.

I adore this series because I love the idea of a cat cafe. I went to one once when visiting Hawaii and I had a blast; I wish there was one around where I live so I could go as often as I wanted. There are so many kitties in this book, from JJ himself to all the shelter cats taking part in a Halloween costume contest, and the famous Balfour Jr.! Of course, the owner of the cat cafe in Daybreak Harbor, Maddie, always has something big on her plate, including helping orchestrate a Halloween festival and solving a murder, once again.

This edition of the series seemed a little different to me from the others. Nine Lives and Alibis was a quick and enthralling read, although it required quite a bit of set-up and the killer didn't strike until halfway through, but then as it turns out there are two murders solved in one! I liked how so much of the town was involved in this case, most finding out little bits of information that could be put together. Particularly interesting to me, the police accepted Maddie's help without much of a protest. In some, if not most, cozy series law enforcement is usually pretty strict with whom they share information and like to insist that they are in charge and the cozy heroine should just butt out. But, Maddie must have solved enough murders now for the police to accept her help.

Three stars! This was a quick, fun Halloween-themed read any cat lover would enjoy. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for supplying a copy of this book. As always, my opinions are my own.

In "Nine Lives and Alibis," the seventh installment of Cate Conte's Cat Café cozy mystery series, the picturesque town of Daybreak Harbor is gearing up for a Halloween extravaganza. However, what should have been a season of treats turns into a complex web of tricks and troubles for the town's residents.

Maddie James, the series' endearing protagonist, finds herself embroiled in yet another perplexing situation when her sister Sam invites a famous medium, Balfour Dempsey, and his enigmatic black cat to town. As the excitement builds, so does the tension, as it becomes apparent that the medium's presence is stirring up more than just spiritual energy.

The intricate plot weaves together the diverse agendas of the town's inhabitants, from a secretive reading to a determined hunt for answers to age-old mysteries. When tragedy strikes and Balfour is found dead, suspicions soar, and Daybreak Harbor is thrown into disarray, leaving Maddie and her family entangled in a chilling murder mystery that sends shivers down the spine.

While "Nine Lives and Alibis" maintains the charm and wit characteristic of the cozy mystery genre, it occasionally struggles to fully capitalize on the potential of its intricate plot. The narrative, though engaging, feels somewhat predictable at times, and some of the characters lack the depth needed to truly captivate the reader. Additionally, the resolution of the central mystery feels rushed, leaving certain threads unresolved and questions unanswered.

Despite these shortcomings, Cate Conte's vivid portrayal of the Halloween festivities in Daybreak Harbor, coupled with her adept handling of the small-town dynamics and interpersonal relationships, lends a delightful ambiance to the story. The feline companions that feature prominently throughout the narrative add a whimsical touch, appealing to animal lovers and cozy mystery enthusiasts alike.

"Nine Lives and Alibis" is a solid addition to the Cat Café series, providing an enjoyable and light-hearted read for those seeking a dose of mystery and Halloween charm. While it may not leave a lasting impression, it offers a pleasant escape into a world of quirky characters and curious feline companions, making it a worthwhile choice for fans of the genre.

Cute story of a family and a town putting on an event for Halloween. Once again Maddie and her family are in charge and her sister gets a well known psychic to come to the event. Bonus, he is originally from the area. Where they event takes place will be at the Daybreak Inn. Several mysteries have happened over the years at the Inn. Will he be able to solve them? Do the people originally involved want him to solve those old crimes? What will happen if he does and where does that leave Maddie on solving the old mysteries along with the new ones?

This was absolutely the PERFECT book for this time of year. A cozy mystery at its heart, Nine Lives and Alibis, the seventh installment in the Cat Cafe Mystery Series, brings the reader to Daybreak Island as they prep for Halloween, and their big celebrity guest appearance, the famous medium Belfour Dempsey. However, things go a bit sideways and we wind up with a murder on our hands - and not the unsolved one from 40 years prior.

Honestly, this book brought everything I needed at this time. It was a little bit spooky, a little bit woowoo, and a lot of bit cozy. The characters were interesting as heck, and the story was very well done. There were definitely plot points that I didn’t see coming, and I love that in a book.

While I don’t have too much to say (since it was just such a solid straightforward book), I can say I definitely recommend it. Overall, I gave it a 4.75 star rating!

The first 40% of this book is set up – literally, it’s Maddie running errands around town getting ready for Daybreak Island’s first Haunted Halloween Festival. When we finally got to the murder portion of our cozy murder mystery, I was actually sad Balfour died (even though his murder is IN the book description) and was really rooting for Maddie to help find the killer. The softspoken medium really just wanted to help people.

This book is perfect for cat lovers, which is probably obvious with it being part of the Cat Cafe Mystery series. The main character owns a cat cafe and takes her cat JJ EVERYWHERE. To meetings, while running errands, while investigating a murder – JJ is always by her side. The cat cafe hosts a feline costume parade as part of the Halloween festivities. JJ is dressed as Sherlock Holmes. It’s super cute.

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I come as a newbie to this series jumping in at the seventh book. It can be a gamble doing that and I’ll admit that I probably didn’t catch all the nuances as a result. However, I didn’t get lost as the author gave plenty of backdrop and started with Maddie, her family and the town working on their Halloween festivities. I loved the small-town island setting and my attention was piqued right away when the haunted inn and the forty-year-old cold murder case that happened there were mentioned in the opening chapter. Oh yes, a fall festival and historical mysteries at the inn were a delight to my eyes.



This is a cozy, so its pace was slow out of the gate when it comes to the murder- this doesn’t happen for several chapters. I expected this, no longer being a cozy greenhorn, and got comfy for all the early antics with the cast of characters of Maddie’s family and small-town dynamics as they sought to outdo Salem as a Halloween destination for the tourists. Maddie owns a cat café with her granddad and has a rescue cat JJ. She doesn’t spend much time with the café which I was rather curious about as a cat lover, but JJ gets on the page often enough to justify the series theme.

The murder victim, the celebrity guest psychic, was actually a guy I liked and was sad to see him bumped off. He was well-liked so I think that made it harder to plunk to his killer’s motive for me. Naturally, Cate Conte provided a good pile of characters who were a tad shifty-eyed even if it wasn’t for murder.



So, a fun autumn mystery read that hit the sweet spot for my seasonal craving. Cozy mystery fans should pencil this series in for a tryout.

I need more of JJ and Maddie in my life! Of course I found book 7 in this series and now have to go back and grab the other 6 😂

This is a purrfect read for Spooktober. Let's see:

Small Town✔️
Halloween Setting ✔️
Murder Mystery ✔️
Ghost Stories and Haunted Vibes ✔️
Kitty Cuteness ✔️

All that and some cozy goodness makes for a quick and fun read. I really enjoyed Maddie too. She's a great MC. Definitely grab this one if you're a fan of mysteries.

I sincerely appreciate St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

I was ready for a fun mystery featuring lots of animals and a little Halloween spookiness. That’s not what I got.

I should start by clarifying that I haven’t read any of the prior books in this series. We have A LOT of characters, all with various relationships to one another, and not much introduction. I didn’t feel most of them had any personality. They just walked on and off the pages as needed. I assume reading the prior books would have helped somewhat, so I recommend starting at the beginning.

Now, if you haven’t yet read this book’s synopsis, then don’t. A major event—the only major event, in fact—is given away in the description, but it doesn’t actually happen until about halfway through the book. So major spoiler there.

Not much of anything of interest occurs until well after the first third of the book. It’s a lot of people talking to a lot of other people about plans for the big Halloween event. The mystery finally starts about midway, and continues dragging along until the final third, when it spirals into a convoluted tangle.

The biggest surprise for me was the absence of animals. This is a cat mystery, in a cafe full of DOZENS of cats. I expected to interact with, yes, cats. But we only get occasional hints at their existence. They’re the quietest, most polite, well behaved group of cats I’ve ever come across.

Speaking of which, have you ever shared a home with cats? There’s a reason why dogs have doggie daycares and dog parks where they interact with one another, but cats do not. Cats don’t generally like random other cats. They’re territorial. Yet this cat cafe apparently takes newcomers all the time. Just, here’s a new cat for you other cats to play with. Umm…. ? AND this town was planning a cat parade! Dozens of cats, in costumes, walking on leashes. Again… they’re CATS! Not trained cats, either. No one is taking endless hours teaching these cats to walk on leashes and get along with one another while wearing cute little costumes. So, yeah, that bugged me.

And, finally, while this is a Halloween-themed cozy that largely takes place in a supposedly haunted inn, there is nothing even remotely spooky in the content.

Clearly, this book wasn’t for me. But I’m in the minority, as I often am, so ignore me. But don’t read the synopsis.

Nine Lives and Alibis
By Cate Conte
Minotaur
October 2023

Review by Cynthia Chow


Maddie James has always felt the pressure to live up to her family’s name, what with her father being the CEO of the only hospital on Daybreak Island and her mother a local business magnate and community leader. So Maddie knows that when her sister Sam recruits her and their other sister Val for the Daybreak Island Haunted Halloween Festival, the family’s all-in philosophy will keep Maddie busy juggling tasks to ensure success. Event planner Val will be organizing most of the events, but Maddie and Grandpa Leo will keep the festival feline-focused with their JJ’s House of Purrs cat café hosting a pet costume parade. For her contribution Sam has booked celebrity psychic medium Balfour Dempsey, whose mother still lives in town and is proud of her son’s success. Balfour’s handlers are more demanding than Maddie expected, adding to the contract an addendum that makes Balfour’s equally famous cat – Balfour Dempsey, Jr., confusingly enough – as the grand poobah and master of ceremonies for the parade. They’re not the only ones insisting on special treatment, as even local residents are willing to pay an exorbitant amount of money for private sessions with the psychic while a stalker menacingly looming around.

The town seems to be torn between taking advantage of the tourist revenue and not wanting to appear to be kitschy, with the owner of the Inn at Lighthouse Point Balfour refusing to allow Balfour to stay despite the publicity it could bring. Maddie’s grandfather steps in to house the psychic, while Maddie herself is worried about how to gather enough pumpkins for a carving contest during a pumpkin shortage. While the cat costume parade and other contests are Maddie’s focus, it’s a larger mystery that may be the biggest draw for the town and the psychic. The ghost haunting the Inn at Lighthouse Point is rumored to be that of Archie Lang, who on October 5th, 1983 fell down an elevator shaft while a maid went missing. The Daybreak Island Gazette owner hopes that Balfour will provide clues with his visions, not only solving the case but maybe winning her an investigative journalism award. When Balfour himself is murdered and Balfour Jr. goes missing though, Maddie wonders if the ghosts of the past have returned to haunt those still around in the present.

This 7th in the series brings back all of the characters whom fans have grown to love, if only for brief but memorable appearances. Maddie herself finally has a real, adult relationship, with boyfriend Lucas and his foster dog moving into the home that also houses the cat café. While Maddie doesn’t truly believe in ghosts, Balfour’s eerie insights into her grandmother has her wondering if he was murdered before he resurrected secrets someone needed to keep buried. Despite her family’s legacy and history with Daybreak Island, Maddie is learning that there is much she still doesn’t know about those she’s lived beside since birth. Maddie’s cat JJ may be the one donning a Sherlock Holmes costume, but it’s she who will be delving into the past and uncovering the events from 1983. This is another entertaining pet-friendly mystery that highlights the importance of shelters and animal rescues while crafting a satisfying mystery set in an exuberant Halloween setting.

I don't know how Nine Lives and Alibis manages to be so cute without being too cute. I'm not a cat person. I'm not not a cat person either – but I don't prioritize feline friends in the cozies I choose. Every year, Daybreak Island hosts a Halloween parade followed by a cat-judging contest aimed at getting some cats adopted, and Maddie James and her cat cafe are a big part of the festivities. This year, a special treat is planned: the famous medium, Balfour Dempsey, formerly of Daybreak Harbor, and his believed cat… Balfour will be in attendance. Human Balfour will be giving psychic readings to a select few. Soon after he shares his intent to retire, he "falls" off the cliff behind an allegedly haunted inn where he is staying – but who dunnit? A persistent stalker? Part of his team? Someone from his past? It has somehow fallen on Maddie to find out. Nine Lives and Alibis is number seven in the Cat Cafe Mystery series, and I was absolutely comfortable jumping in there. The setting, the characters, and the trajectory of the series were all handled in a manner that made it a strong, free-standing book, but I'm eager to backtrack and read some of the prior installments. It's a fun, well-paced cozy that will keep the reader guessing

I received this Advanced Reader Copy of Nine Lives and Alibis from Minotaur Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love Halloween themed cozies and the cover of this one drew me to it. I have not read previous books in this series but could still follow the story. October in Salem, Massachusetts and old mysteries to solve. What could be better? I very much enjoyed the plot, the characters, and especially the setting! I will definitely be reading more of this series.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance reader copy of this story. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The bad thing about an ARC is a lack of cover art. I didn't get to see JJ in his Halloween costume until I look the author up on the internet. He's a doll and the costume is purr-fect. I've not read any of Ms Contes books before and this was a surprise and treat. I like the lead character and the secondary cast too. All of them, including the murder victim, were fleshed out and interesting. The plot had me until the end. I'd figured out one of the murderers, but the actual solution wasn't anything I saw coming. Brava.

#NineLivesandAlibis #CatCafeMystery #CateConte #StMartin'sPaperbacks #mystery murdermystery

This is an incredibly cozy, slightly spooky, murder mystery set around Halloween on a small island. This book follows Maddie James as the town's whole Halloween event has somehow fallen to her shoulders. Plus, they've somehow gotten a famous psychic medium (who usually works in Salem) to be the centerpiece of their event. Nothing could go wrong, right? And nothing will happen that connects to a murder and disappearance from 40 years ago, will it?
Of course it will! When the psychic medium falls to his death, the town is thrown into chaos, and Maddie uses her sleuthing skills to help the police and find the culprit. Everyone is a suspect, and very shady pasts come to light as Maddie gets pulled into a cat fight, finds a lost cat, and stumbles upon Catwoman. There are a lot of cats in this book, and it only adds to its charm!
You don't have to have read the previous books in the series to get caught up (though I'm thinking about checking them out anyway), and you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat piecing together the clues right alongside the myriad of characters.
This book was super cute, and a fairly easy read. It's absolutely perfect for the Halloween season, and I highly recommend it.

In Nine Lives and Alibis , the seventh in Cate Conte’s Cat Café mystery series Set on Daybreak Island of the coast of Massachusetts. This book centers around Halloween and the town's new festival that is trying to rival nearby Salem for drawing in tourists. Besides a cat costume parade the big draw is the local inn's mysterious "ghosts:" and the unsolved murders that occurred there in the 1980's. A famous medium, Balfour Dempsey returns to his hometown of Daybreak as the celebrity guest and he is hoping he can shed light on the crimes. He brings tourists and a stalker with him and drama follows.
I enjoyed the book and recommend this series. It's a fun and entertaining read with some very cute cats.

This book was interesting to read. The story line was interesting and kept you guessing. The only problem I had was keeping the characters straight. That could be because I didn't take the time to read many pages at once. However the author did give enough clues in the current dialogue so you could remember who was involved in the action. The idea of a "cat" cafe puzzled me. That concept was not explained to my satisfaction. Were the cats where food was served? That doesn't sound too healthy to me. But maybe I missed something.

Nine Lives and Alibis is the seventh book in the Cat Café Mystery series. The main character, Maddie, has earned the respect of the local police and provides information (and receives some back) regarding a murder that has taken place during the town’s Halloween week-long festival. The book seemed pretty long, but there was a lot going on (the current murder and two 40-year-old cold cases). The author kept the pace moving quickly (everything transpires over a few days). There were a lot of suspects and lots of clues to keep track of (ex. who said what to whom, who told Maddie what, and what could she share), so if you like your cozy mystery stories with a lot happening and enjoy keeping track of suspects’ movements etc., you’ll love this book. The stories were very interesting.

I was so happy the book was back to being like the first five in the series (I’ve been reading this series all along). I really disliked book six - so much so that I wasn’t able to make it past chapter 10 in that book. That one was just too disturbing for me (I read cozy mysteries for a reason). It covered a person who hoarded cats and as far as I got (chapter 10) it just described everything Maddie was doing to help (which was very admirable, of course), it was just too detailed and upsetting for me to read. Anyway, I’m so happy book seven kept it cozy. I hated thinking I was done with the series.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s/Minotaur Books for the opportunity to read this book. I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion. I will post this review to my blog, Goodreads, Bookbub, & Amazon accounts.

Maddie James runs a home for stray cats where they can be adopted. She lives on an island near Boston. One of the biggest holidays on the island is Halloween. This year, they have something special scheduled. A famous psychic who grew up on the island is coming back to stay in a haunted hotel.

But there are some things that took place in the hotel that people don't want to get out. And the psychic isn't a fake. He appears to know the identity of a murderer in the murder that took place in the hotel long ago. That is, until he is found murdered.

Maddie has been serving on the organizing committee for the event. But now, she turns her attention to finding the murder.

This is the first book in the series that I have read. It was a great read. The characters are well developed. The plot is a good one. While the identity of the murderer isn't a huge surprise, the twists and turns to get there are fun. I highly recommend this book.

I love cozy mysteries and am always looking for a new series to try. Nine Lives and Albis have all the makings of a perfect cozy-a beautiful small-town setting wonderfully described, an adorable pet (or 2 or 3), and a main character who gets involved in solving a crime. The spin of 40 year old cold cases, a, likable victim and secrets revealed made this a fun , interesting read. This is the first in the series I've read - I was admittedly confused by the concept of a cat cafe and some of the relationships of the characters. I did like the main character Maddie and will need to go back to read the rest of the series. Although Halloween-themed it is perfect to read anytime. Thanks to #netgalley and #stmartinspress @minotaur_books for the ARC. My review is voluntary and
the opinions expressed are my own.