The Cat Who Said Cheese

The long radio silence was due to the fact that I have started a new job and was in the process of moving. If you’re actually reading and following I apologize. If you’re coming in from the future then it doesn’t matter; you’ll get to see them all at once anyway.

As a second side note: I brutally abuse commas. My apologies to the commas. I hereby promise to attempt to curb the desire to use them when I should not. Please bear with me as I attempt to break habits and improve my writing. Any comments to that effect are appreciated.


The Cat Who Said Cheese  -  Lillian Jackson Braun (1996)
    I ended up getting this book from my grandmother, who had been given it as some different reading material by my mother, who inherited it from her aunt, who probably was the one who originally bought it. There were about fifteen or so originally; I’m not sure how many there are total in the series. This one was selected randomly from the series; it is neither the first nor the last.
    Some background: This is very squarely a detective story. The main character, James Qwilleran (Qwill), is a journalist from the big city who inherited significant riches in a small back-country town. He sets up a trust fund with the money to revitalize the area without ruining the local charm of the place and contributes to the small-town paper in the area. He lives with his two Siamese cats, Yum-Yum and Koko. At the beginning of the story, the town is being dragged into the future with the opening of several new shops during a celebration called the ‘Great Food Explo’.  Shortly before this planned event is to take place, the major news story is a mysterious woman staying in the local hotel. Her room is bombed while she is out, and she takes off immediately for the airport without talking to anyone or returning for her bags. The story revolves around solving the mystery of the bombing and related subsequent events.
    This story is a part of a series revolving around the same main characters  - Qwill and his cats. It is strongly implied that Koko at least has a sixth sense which allows him to know what is happening and why. He changes his actions to try to communicate with James about what is going on, by knocking certain books off the table, actions, and meowing at certain times. Based on both the name of the book and the writing, the cats are the linking factor between the books, and the author’s attempt to set her detective stories apart from all the generic other detective stories out there. To some extent it worked. They made colorful characters, and in several places did move the plot ahead. The image of cats tearing through a black-tie gala with several gentlemen in their best suits in hot pursuit is definitely an amusing image, enhanced by the idea of clouds of gray fur being thrown up onto everyone’s best clothes.
    It is a truth universally acknowledged that everything in a detective story should be relevant, and I will give the cats the benefit of the doubt because they did know what was going on before the main character did and they also moved the plot forward by demanding certain things from Qwill. Unfortunately, they do begin in a position of doubt, due to two points – the explanation of how the cats actions related to the plot only came after the final reveal, so it didn’t have a direct bearing on the plot. In addition, most of the times they forwarded the plot could have occurred without the interference of the cats. If Qwill has a random cabin that sits unused, he can go out and check it out on a regular schedule, and does not need the cats to tell him they want to go. In addition, if he was given a turkey following a class in which he learns to dress a turkey, it would be the most natural thing in the world for him to try out his new skills and cook the turkey. There is no need for the cats to demand that he cooks the turkey. There really wasn’t any particular rush at that point in the story, if I recall. At that point most of the plot had already occurred and they were in a latent period of trying to figure out the how’s and the why’s of everything that had already happened.
    That is one point of the story which I found interesting and a bit different – the events of the story happened, and then they were figured out. The plot was completed in the first part, and then the detection begins. This stands in significant contrast to many other detective stories, where the unraveling of the events is a direct catalyst for further action. It worked well for this story, and I did not feel the lack of action at all. The plot was unique enough, as were the characters.
    At one point the main character writes a column about nobodies – unique characters who don’t ever sit in the spotlight of fame. This seems to be the author speaking through the main character – the book is a collection of nobodies that are a lot of fun to read about. There is the police chief who plays bagpipes, the ever woman recovering from heart surgery, the cantankerous hotel owner, the hotel owner’s shy-but-talkative-to-friends handyman (and hobbyist beekeeper). The characters were unique and enjoyable, and decidedly human with human failings and foibles. If I had to select one true strength about the story, it was the writing about the people inhabiting the town and the town itself.
    I had a little bit of trouble with the way the main character was written. At times the writing felt almost pretentious. I’m not sure I can give any specific examples right now since I left it at home with my mom, but there were times when it felt like I just wanted the main character to get over himself and get a real job. There was no real detective work in the story. It was more a story about a mystery unfolding than a story about someone doing anything to actually solve something. The story had enough plot points that it was sufficiently obvious after you find out what actually happened and go back to the beginning to start again, but even during the first time through there were points were my thoughts were, “A-hah, that speech felt like it was written specifically so she could drop that tidbit of information!” I really can’t go into more details than that without entirely (or at least mostly) ruining the story, so I won’t. However, I can tell you that the moments jumped out at me several times. There were also times that felt like the author was writing just to put in red herrings. If you come across any such feeling while reading this book, trust your instinct; you’re probably right. Maybe they
    Overall, this was a light, fun read. It is a respectable stab at a respectable detective story with some interesting and unique characters. The series feels like a hotel read – go ahead and read one if you come across one. You won’t regret it, but not something to go out of your way for.  It is possible that other books in the series are more compelling, since my great aunt went ahead and bought fifteen or so, but this randomly-selected one is decent.

Half of this was written with my eyes closed, while falling asleep on the train. This is fun. Also, I’m listening to Pride and Prejudice as an audiobook while working on the train. If there are any randomly misplaced words, I attribute it to either spell-check getting the wrong word or my brain substituting something from what its hearing.