SHOCK AND PAW by Cate Conte

We return to Daybreak Island, New England, during the winter, with seasonal employment at its lowest and the number of residents dropping. That doesn’t dampen the festivities in SHOCK AND PAW. Maddie James is among those entering the Christmas decoration competition where the exteriors of homes are judged for lighting and taste. Not all goes well.

The first mishap is that Maddie’s Grandpa Leo tumbles off a ladder. He’s a senior person, and I don’t know why nobody thought to go with him and hold the ladder. He claims he was fixing a strand of lighting, as the contest is important, but that’s immaterial to the doctors who keep him in the hospital overnight. Maddie is left to finish the work at her cat café, JJ’s House of Purrs. She calls the electrical contractor Todd Banks, a newcomer to the area.

Quite a lot of other stuff happens before anyone else gets harmed, but these items include the possible sale of the local newspaper being considered by Donna Carey, the publisher, to the distress of Maddie’s friend Becky, the editor. Obviously, that’s a serious issue for the whole island, but at present it’s confidential. There’s also a mysterious cat breeder putting flyers up offering fancy kittens for sale. This is frowned upon at the cat café, where homeless kitties are given to adoptive families. Finally, the Christmas event committee of the Chamber of Commerce is absolutely useless this year, with a new chief and little apparent organisation. Maddie gets roped into helping.

Yes, all that. And then someone is found dead in the snow. Maddie and her Grandpa Leo, who used to be police chief and is a private detective to keep busy in retirement, look into the matter, as they do throughout the Cat Cafe Mystery series. I’m fine with them asking people questions, but really, thieving a laptop that police will be taking into evidence? That’s going way too far. That removes evidence the police may need to convict someone.

With plenty of interesting cats, and appearances by the handsome JJ, Maddie’s personal cat, the latest mystery from Cate Conte will once more appeal to fans of felines. There are good warning messages, like earthing your lights properly, getting an approved electrician, and not splashing out on impulse buys of live animals for gifts. SHOCK AND PAW is an amusing title that wraps up the content nicely.

The eighth installment in a charming cozy mystery series set on an island off the New England coast and featuring the cat cafe owner Maddie and her cat JJ.

Beware the cats of Christmas past…

It’s the holiday season on Daybreak Island, and Maddie James is looking forward to stepping out of the limelight, watching the island’s Christmas decoration competition from afar, spending time with her boyfriend and family, running tours for visitors as part of the festivities and spreading holiday cheer through cute cats in jingle bell collars.

But trouble hits close to home when word gets out that Donna Carey, the publisher of the island’s only daily newspaper where Maddie’s best friend Becky is editor, may be selling the business. Becky is a diehard journalist and to her, selling the only newspaper on the island is a fate worse than death. She publicly opposes the potential sale, wreaking havoc on her relationship with her big boss.

Maddie is sympathetic, but she has her own problems - like getting pulled into a role on the Christmas event committee despite her best efforts to stay far removed, and solving the case of a mysterious cat breeder trying to sell expensive designer cats as holiday gifts on the island. But then Donna winds up dead—electrocuted by her own Christmas decorations—and it appears to be more than an accident. To make matters worse, Becky becomes suspect number one. Maddie is thrown into another murder investigation in order to save her best friend from a Christmas behind bars.