Colbie Summers stars in the second of the Gourmet Cat Mystery series.
Yes, this is about a lady who launches a brand of gourmet food for
kitties, Meowio. As she supervises production she can be sure of good
ingredients, in a process which started in her kitchen and now occupies
a small premises. THE TROUBLE WITH
TRUTH begins on the morning her son Elliott goes to his first
school since moving to a California town, Sunnyside.
Colbie has a friend and employee called Mira who had a troubled
background and was raised in a foster home. As the story develops we
learn that the fostering was equally difficult. Mira hears that someone
she knows has been found dead, and she is sure she'll be a suspect, so
her inclination is to run. I thought it odd that all the respectable people
she knows agree to hide her from a police search while counselling her
to tell the cops all she knows. They don't seem to have a lot of faith in
standards. Eventually Mira does go to the police with a lawyer, but she
doesn't want to name her alibi. This is when Colbie starts sleuthing.
The inevitable pet cat in this busy tale is called Trouble, and the
previous book featuring Trouble and Colbie was called THE TROUBLE
WITH MURDER. He's a handsome ginger cat and such a good advert
for the pet food, that he gets to go on a San Diego TV talk show. Other
characters include Lani, a lady who makes imaginative clothes, and
Richard, Elliott's dad, who was a surf dude when he and Colbie first
met, and now is seldom in their lives. But that's nothing compared to
poor Mira's unpleasant foster mom and foster siblings. Mira wrote a
play based on incidents in her early life, and unsurprisingly, the family
resent a disguised version of their lives appearing on stage. So much is
going on from so many directions that it can be hard to focus -- but
isn't that rather like life? Even the pet food location has a drama.
I like that domestic security cameras are a feature, again these are
usual in some areas, and we learn about people in the Sunnyside area
who use them in various ways. This is an adult read with some strong
language but no romance. Author Kathy Krevat lives in San Diego and
gives us a nice sense of place. THE
TROUBLE WITH TRUTH is a lively and good-hearted mystery with
a darker side. Those who like contemporary amateur sleuth stories will
have fun pitting their wits against the puzzle and picking up clues.
Things are looking up for single mom Colbie Summers. After relocating
back to her California hometown with her adolescent son and taste-
testing feline, Trouble, she’s ready to take her gourmet cat food
company to the next level. Until helping a teenager gets Colbie mixed
up in a fresh case of murder…
Trying to balance her hectic family life with her growing business—
including a coveted contract with the local organic food store—leaves
Colbie scrambling to keep all her balls in the air. But when a Sunnyside
resident is found dead in his garage, she takes on a new role: harboring
a suspected killer.
The eighteen-year-old murder suspect, a former foster kid and Colbie’s
part-time chef, had a powerful motive to snuff out the high-profile
businessman. The real question is, who didn’t? Sifting through the
victim’s sordid history unearths a cat’s cradle of crimes, including
money laundering and abuse. Now, to clear an innocent girl’s name,
Colbie must sniff out the truth before a killer who smells trouble goes
on the attack again.
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