The Cat Who Went into the Closet (The Cat Who... Series #15) »

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 mansion on Goodwinter Boulevard is more than a retreat for crime writer Jim Qwilleran - it is the scene of another delightful Cat Who... mystery. Qwill rents the Gage mansion in Pickax, and soon after moving in, he and Koko discover fifteen closets jammed with several generations' worth of junk. Koko, of course, is on the case, and what he discovers will shock Pickax and Moose County. What connection could obsolete currency, canceled checks, and an old bankbook have with nail clippers, foot powder, and a man's argyle sock? Something is definitely brewing in Pickax. But what starts out as junk turns into something else. The action begins when Qwill decides to simulate a newscast covering the great fire of 1869. An infamous event in Moose County, this fire burned half of the county to the ground. Now Qwill is about to put Pickax back on the map with a discovery that will uncover long-buried secrets of the Gage family. While enjoying a new life in Florida, the mansion's former occupant, Euphonia Gage, apparently committed suicide. But why would someone as happy and full of life as Euphonia kill herself? And what is the connection between the Gage family and dead potato farmer Gil Inchpot - who is found in the snow with a bullet hole in his head? Can Qwill and the cats get to the bottom of this mystery before the winter yields another dead body?

Publishers Weekly

Newspaperman, philanthropist and sleuth Jim Qwilleran leads a busy life in tiny Pickax City (pop. 3,000), but it is his prescient cats who beguile the reader in this lively mystery, the 16th in the Cat Who. . . series. Qwilleran is renting a huge but empty mansion from Junior Goodwinter, his managing editor, who inherited the white elephant from his feisty 88-year-old grandmother Euphonia Gage when she went to live in a Florida retirement community. When Euphonia is found dead, apparently a suicide, Junior is perplexed. He is still more confounded when her new will suggests that Grandma has gambled away her millions at the racetrack. The death of a local man whose wife was Euphonia's housekeeper raises the suspicions of the already skeptical Qwilleran. He sets up a sting operation with a lively Florida retiree, but his two best operatives are his Siamese cats, Koko and Yum Yum. Qwilleran, who can be gloomy, peevish, vain and demanding, is never dull. Other industrious inhabitants of Pickax City (an editor, a waitress, a dog trainer) are comparably unique and have enough sharp edges to avoid being cute. Of course, the cats get all the best lines. Mystery Guild selection. (Apr.)