Review of The Cat Among Us
“The Cat Among Us is a book I would describe as “cozy” in the sense that where it takes place is picturesque and the cooking that is described in the story gives you a warm feeling. The story really highlights the goodness of a small town community and the importance of relationships. You know when it’s raining and you're camping or at your cottage? The smell of wet leaves? This book has a similar feel to that.
I would describe this feeling as a grandparent offering you a hidden piece of candy from their pocket—it’s a treasure, a special moment, and somewhat nostalgic. This book was like that, it gave me that warm feeling which is surprising since it is a murder mystery.
Honestly the murder part takes a bit of a backseat, which I don’t mind at all because I was too busy salivating—wondering how I can make scones with clotted cream, and drink tea in my backyard while watching the waves hit the shore.
Honestly I had a lovely time reading this, the author took great care to describe each scene.
I would love to read Gerry just go about her life making her paintings. Heck I wish I was Gerry! Her life seems so pleasant away from the hustle and bustle of “real life”.
The way the author describes the baking I could read her describe cooking any day. I was so enthralled! Personally there were some moments that may not entice all readers, the plot was slower (personally I loved that), the dialogue was a bit dated, but to me this was appealing. The feeling of reading this with a cup of tea and a scone filled me with so much peace and enjoyment that I wish I could stay longer in Gerry world..
Totally recommend. The point of view from the cats was my favourite perspective! Such a unique way to tell the story.”
Read the full review at Sarah.DeeReads
More Reviews of this title
“Author Louise Carson has a cozy that hasn’t been drizzled with maple syrup. The murder is off stage but the motive is neatly woven into an entertaining story laced with small town family foibles, revealing commentary about art and well paced dialogue.
Murder is a private affair in this second Lousie Carons tale and remains so until the motive makes it public. Sprinkled with cats, desserts, horticulture and art, The Cat Among Us finds commercial artist, Gerry Coneybear inheriting an quaint old waterfront property in a typical village after the death of her aunt.
For good or otherwise, Gerry also inherits a house full of cats and a housekeeper, each outdoing the other at championing eccentricity.
Did good old Aunt Maggie pass on naturally or was she assisted? The writing compelled me to find out. If you like your cozies laced with a brain, and a touch of art and evil, then you will enjoy The Cat Among Us. I did and now I’m looking forward to reading the next one.”
“Gerry Coneybear is spending her first Christmas at the Maples, with no one but the 23 cats her aunt left her to help her celebrate in this third Maples Mystery. The discovery of a 100-year-old skeleton in her wood shed and then a much more recent body give Gerry, and the cats, lots to investigate.”
““If, as the poet T. S. Eliot once suggested, April is the cruellest month, then surely the dark and foreboding month of November must be the bleakest.
But as it happens, November is also the month when publishers bring out their newest and sharpest titles. What better way to assuage the melancholy we have come to expect at this time of the year than to get our hands on a good book, especially a book guaranteed to insulate us from this month’s creeping darkness.
Fortunately, local poet and author, Louise Carson, has just the thing we’re all are looking for, a decidedly quaint, hot-off-the-press mystery novel that hits all the right notes.
The Cat Among Us, Carson’s ‘whodunit,’ is set in a sleepy countryside village called Lovering, where city girl, Gerry Coneybear, has just come into a large and somewhat quirky inheritance left to her by her unconventional Aunt Maggie.
Included among the many riches destined to come her way, we find cats, lots and lots of cats. And relatives, not all of whom wish her well.
When chatting recently with Carson in Hudson’s Crème Brûlée coffee shop, I asked if The Cat Among Us could be deemed to fall within what one would label the Agatha Christie school of mystery.
“Absolutely,” she said. “When I read a mystery, I want to feel safe. And when I write a story like ‘The Cat,’ I want the reader to feel equally safe as well.”
Still, this is a whodunit’ reeking with mystery and dread, and unexpected bumps and twists in the night. And that, of course, is what keeps the reader turning the page, one page after another, breathlessly awaiting the next (and there is always a next) surprising wrinkle to give shape to the unfolding tale.
Who is doing what to whom? And where? And when? And that includes the cats: especially the cats.
Carson, who adds professional musician to her many gifts, writes by hand, in an unhurried fashion, weaving her tale much as a mountain stream might work its way down the slope – drifting leisurely at times through the underbrush, at times leaping recklessly across angry white water.
Until, upon reaching its conclusion, it gracefully slips away, unannounced, leaving the reader to wonder, “What’s next?”
Another Carson mystery, that’s what — but I digress.
To local readers, part of the book’s charm lies in the countryside nook Carson has conjured up, the small village of Lovering, an older hamlet hiding quietly along the Ottawa River. The aged willow trees, their branches drooping, stand sentry alongside what the book jacket describes as “a rambling old waterfront property” called The Maples.
What? Sounds like Hudson, you say. My lips are sealed.
The Cat Among Us “is an enthralling ‘whodunit’, one ideally suited to the place and time in which it’s set. My wife Sandra calls it a treasure. “I absolutely loved it,” she says. So much so that after whipping through it in one reading, she read it a second time.
“I loved it both times,” she says. “In fact, reading it a second time made me appreciate the story even more. Clearly, Louise Carson knows and loves cats, as do I, and one of the book’s strengths lies in the way she manages to introduce the cats into the daily goings-on of the story.”
The Cat Among Us can be purchased in the West Island at both Indigo-Chapters and Clio bookstores, or online. And if you’re buying the book as a Christmas gift, be sure to pick up another one for yourself.””
Read the full review at Montreal Gazette.
“After the death of her Aunt Maggie, Gerry Coneybear can’t believe she inherited her aunt’s home. Gerry wants to sell it as she has her own life in Toronto, but the lawyer tells her she can’t do that. Her aunt made a few stipulations. One is that she must live in the house. The second is that she must care for her cats…all twenty of them. With the help of her aunt’s part-time housekeeper, Gerry is able to take care of them.
Gerry is an artist and decides to open an art gallery in the house and teach art classes. Everything is working out well for her, until she learns that her other relatives are not happy that Gerry inherited the house. Strange things start happening and Gerry fears for her life as well as the kitties. She comes to the realization that her aunt may have been murdered, but she has no proof. Gerry decides to do some investigating herself.
I liked Gerry right from the start. The rest of the cast I wasn’t sure about. I trusted no one. I thought any one of them could have been the guilty party. While the cats don’t communicate with the humans, the reader does get to know things from the cats’ point of view. I always enjoy a story that features the cats in the mystery.
The setting is perfect. It’s a small town in Canada. Everyone knows each other and many seem to be related in one way or another. The beginning of the book gives the reader a chance to get to know the characters, then the suspicions begin. It’s not known from the start that anything devious has happened, but it doesn’t take long to realize something isn't right.
The author did a good job of grabbing my interest and keeping me interested until the very end. Even then I wasn’t sure I was convinced as to who the culprit could be. There were several different possibilities.
This is the first book in the series and I’m looking forward to the next book. It’s just the kind of mystery this cat lover enjoys.”
Read the full review at Socrates' Book Reviews.
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