The Cat Who Said Cheese (The Cat Who... Series #18) » (Unabridged)

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 Great Food Explo is scheduled to open with a bang, introducing new restaurants, country inns, food specialty shops, and a new food page in the Moose County Something. Unfortunately, before the Explo can get off the ground... a bomb blasts the hotel, killing a housekeeper and causing extensive damage. Enter Qwill, Koko, and Yum Yum with suspicions that the bomb was meant as something stronger than a warning. They set out to investigate a mysterious woman guest at the hotel who disappeared after the bomb exploded and find out why the hotel owner, Gustav Limburger, was suddenly hospitalized. Qwill has moustache-twitching suspicions about the whole affair yet no evidence other than Koko and Yum Yum's new interest in cheese, especially Gruyere, Brie and feta. Of course, Qwill, Koko, and Yum Yum are on the case, and the killer (or killers?) won't escape Qwill's intuition or the cats' detection skills.

Publishers Weekly

One of the best in the 19-title Cat Who . . . series (one of which is a short-story collection), this latest adventure finds newspaper columnist Jim Qwilleran more likable and his feline sleuthing partners, Siamese Yum Yum and Koko, more intuitive than ever. The small town of Pickax City is about to celebrate the Great Food Expo when a stranger moves into the community's dismal, but only, hotel. Both events engage even the reticent Qwill, as townsfolk get ready for restaurant openings and a pastry bake-off while trying to find out more about the mysterious woman. Qwill gets the jump on everyone when he runs into the woman at his summer cabin, but before he can learn much about her, a bomb explodes in her hotel room while she is out and kills one of the staff. When the woman then vanishes, Qwill suspects she is a fugitive fearing for her life. While the police investigate, attention is redirected toward the Food Expo, in which Qwill participates as both food judge and bachelor auction prize. But the hotel bombing and the mysterious woman are never far from his thoughts, nor from the inspired cogitations of Koko, who neatly untangles a web of eccentric characters and mistaken identities. Mystery Guild and Readers Digest Condensed Book selection; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club alternate. (Feb.)