Desert Cat [Paperback]

It was an absolutely dreary way to spend a Saint Valentine's Day. First, it rained all day - and this in the Arizona Desert!!; Then, when Penelope and her lover look for some quiet time at her house, they find the body of the town busybody on her doorstep with a chopping knife sticking out of it and blood all over. Certainly ruins the romantic mood!

Penelope Warren is the heroine of the series of books which is launched with this volume. Penelope is an ex-Marine, ex-Peace Corps volunteer who got a PhD in English Literature and now operates a mystery bookstore in Empty Creek Arizone. As you can see from her history, she is an adventurouse sort. As we read the book we find out about some of these adventures including how she came to share her life with a large abyssinian cat named Mycroft.

As the story develops, we are introduced to all kinds of zany characters who are making Empty Creek their home. One interesting thing about this book is that all the main characters with brains are young women who are busily arranging various trysts and lovemaking sessions in all kinds of interesting ways and locations. The men appear in the story simply as foils for the vivacious women and are mostly there for decoration. The sole exception is the local police chief who conveniently falls in love with Penelope's sister, the movie actress. Mycroft plays a major role in this book as he gets to flaunt his prowess in defeating a passel of dogs, coyotes, birds and various humans.

The book's style is light and humurous and this makes for a nice easy read. The mystery is pretty thin and you know who the murderer is within the first few chapters. The rest of the time is spent looking in at the wacky antics of the denizens of the town.

There were two parts that I found somewhat negative about the story. First, there are many many allusions to other books and characters that feature either cat detectives, or other books by this author. From Koko and Yum Yum to Murphy Brown, they all make a cameo appearances here.

Secondly, and more annoying is the device that the author uses to point Penelope in the right direction. The murdered woman knows she is about to be killed and so she stashes evidence as to who the murderer is around Penelope's house. However, then she plays some kind of game giving Penelope (and us) obscure clues as to the location of the evidence. These clues take the shape of passages in books written by the author which make no sense. Mycroft stumbles on the secret location and eventually points it out to Penelope, but that takes place much later on in the story.

So, overall, I liked the premise of the story and so will read the others in this series. But this one is relatively weak.

Hilarious mystery. The first of the "Big Mike" murder mysteries. I laughed out loud many times while reading it. The protaganists are a beautiful (of course) female ex-marine/present mystery bookstore owner and her "Abyssinian cat from Abyssinia".

Garrison Allen, who wrote at least one mystery under the name Gary Amo, starts off the "Big Mike" series with a very silly mystery. Penelope Warren, former Marine and current bookstore owner comes home one night to find the "First Lady of Empty Creek" dead, stabbed with a knife with a penny glued to the handle. Then, we meet all sorts of eccentrics in Empty Creek, and we see how ridicilous parts of this story are. Seems the villian likes to wear George Bush masks. Allen stoops to self-promoting as he uses another one of his books as a plot device to help find something crucial. I can only hope the subsequent books aren't like this.

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