The Cat Who Saw Red

A fun, easy, quick read made even better, by the antics of the Siamese. This story in particular, had a slightly grisly twist at the end. But Qwilleran and Koko and Yum Yum are familiar territory... I've read several books from this series and enjoy them a lot. Particularly these days, I appreciate the clean writing without steamy passages ever more. I also love that the cat plays detective and that his hooman respects him for it.

This happens some time after the first books. Lilian wrote it over 20 years after the first books, and it shows.

The following might be a spoiler, but it doesn't say anything about the mystery in the book, so I don't count it as a spoiler. It's just sort of a trigger warning for sensitive cat lovers reading this book.

I'm sorry to say but Joy's cat didn't make it. I was hoping he would, but, no.
I'm glad to say that Coco and Yum yum do. And they just went on a walkabout, no-one kidnapped them for animal testing or tried to kill them or anything like that. I was horrified when I read that bit, and even though I was pretty certain the cats would survive, I was really scared something horrible would happen to them.

Not my fave of the series. I feel like this is the first time the murder mystery centred on someone with a previous personal relationship with Qwill that the reader also got to know, and not the only one the reader got invested in before badness occurred, a more dismal outcome than I expected.  There were more unlikeable characters than comic relief types this time round. Then there's the rampant fatphobia and obsession over food/weight loss. Not recommended for anyone with ED/history of disordered eating. And to top it all off, the false moment of jeopardy that went too far in regards to the main feline characters just pissed me off. Not to mention what happened to the other cat in the story. Not a great writing choice for ‘Cat Who' books. 🙎🏼‍♂️
⚠️Animal death