The Cat Who Dropped a Bombshell (The Cat Who... Series #28) » (Reprint)

For nearly four decades, cat lover Lilian Jackson Braun has been turning out mysteries in her The Cat Who...series, starring multifaceted sleuth Jim Qwilleran and his two helpful cats, Koko and Yum Yum. Wryly but tamely written, Braun's books prove that quaintness and crime need not be mutually exclusive.

The residents of Pickax are about to celebrate the 150th anniversary of its founding. But in the midst of all the preparations, Qwill has to take time out to deal with Koko's strange new habit of dropping from balconies and landing in the oddest of places-and a couple that has mysteriously gone missing.

Publishers Weekly

Bestseller Braun's disappointing 28th Cat Who... novel (after 2004's The Cat Who Went Bananas) mostly follows journalist Jim "Call Me Qwill" Qwilleran as he runs around Pickax City, Mich., getting things ready for the town's blow-out celebration of its sesquicentenary. Many books ago, Qwill inherited tons of money and set up a foundation to benefit Pickax. Now that story line has become a caricature, with Qwill's fund popping up and financing yet another venture virtually every chapter. The "mystery" concerns Nathan and Doris Ledfield, a wealthy couple whose only heir is an obnoxious, greedy nephew. When late in the tale the Ledfields die... well, let's just say that no one will be surprised to learn who was behind their deaths, or what his motive was. Lame plotting isn't the only problem. The characterization is not just thin, it's anorexic. Perhaps it's time to put this series, which once defined feline fiction, to sleep. Mystery Guild main selection. (Jan.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.