As a licensed psychologist, how could I resist a cat named Prozac? (Hint. I wasn’t able to resist and neither will you.)
Prozac is the feline star of Laura Levine’s best-selling and riotously funny series, The Jaine Austen Mysteries. Yes, Jaine Austen is the main character, and she has a tribe of hilarious human friends, but Prozac steals the scene every time.
Prozac is not ball of fluff, a Hallmark card feline who stays on the sidelines mindlessly playing with a ball of yarn. Prozac is a strong-willed cat who has opinions on everything, and her acerbic comments add spice to every scene. She criticizes Jaine’s elastic waist pants, her taste in prospective dates, her inability to keep her bowl overflowing with fish bits, and Jaine’s annoying habit of not recognizing her star quality.
Prozac stars in all twenty books in the series. I started with book one, THIS PEN FOR HIRE and worked my way through the series, gobbling up the books like Godiva chocolates. Prozac doesn’t solve crimes per se, at least not in the traditional way, (she doesn’t have an opposable thumb) but she has Jaine Austin’s ear and her insights are priceless.
Nick is an extremely gifted cat who’s been described as Nora’s “sidekick” in The Nick and Nora mystery series by T.C. LoTempio. The eighth book in the series, PAWSITIVELY MURDER, will be out in October. True confession time. This is one of those ideas that I wish I’d thought of ages ago. Like many writers, I’ve always wanted to write a series about a cat detective but was stymied when I couldn’t think of how the cat would communicate.
The author came up with a brilliant solution—Nick communicates through Scrabble tiles. A gentle nudge here and there, a bit of tail swishing and Nora knows exactly what Nick wants her to know. How did the author get this idea? From her own cat, who loves pushing Scrabble tiles around the floor. And cats are naturally curious, a necessary attribute in a detective.
If you haven’t read the delightful Cat in the Stacks Mysteries by Miranda James, you are in for a treat. SOMETHING WHISKERED is number seventeen in the series and is set in Ireland. Charlie and his wife Helen Louise Brady are on their honeymoon, and they brought their beloved Maine Coon cat, Diesel with them. I once asked readers which cozy series they would enjoy reading more than once and they replied, “Cat in the Stacks!” The characters are so engaging; the plots are so full of surprising twists and turns that the books draw you back again and again. And of course, Diesel had me at his first meow.
Miranda James says, “Diesel was inspired by a real cat, the first Maine Coon cat I’d ever encountered. His name was The Diesel, and he belonged to the late Dr. Barbara Mertz (aka Elizabeth Peters and Barbara Michaels.) He made quite an impression on me and when I started to write the series he came to mind.”
Hope you are planning a summer of cozy mystery reading! Stay tuned for next month’s column and you’ll see more of your favorite authors.
Mary Kennedy
About Mary Kennedy
Mary Kennedy is a licensed psychologist and the author of the Talk Radio Mysteries and the Dream Club Mysteries. She’s written nearly fifty novels and has four million copies in print. Her first thirty-five books were young adult novels published by Scholastic nationwide and in several countries. She lives in the northeast with an eccentric cat. She’s tried unsuccessfully to psychoanalyze him but she remains optimistic.
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