Not much of a mystery in this installment, but as always we get to explore more of the quirky antics of our Moose County community. Qwill spends most of his time befriending and visiting with colorful characters while continuing his transformation into a veritable Jessica Fletcher of the North. One does not read this series for its riveting plots but for the (literary) creature comforts it provides.

Okay, I'm warming up even more to Qwill, his cats, his mustache, and all the wonderful descriptions of food and nature this book brings.

This book is if Agent Cooper was visiting Twin Peaks during the week Laura Palmer was murdered and, rather than actually looking into the murder, spent most of his time finding Black Walnut furniture in antique shops, attending a local rendition of Pirates of Penzance, and hearing about the town mythology.
Oh and describing his food in exorbitant amount of detail, of course.

This is definitely shelved under: how did this get published. It's not bad per se, it just isn't really about anything, the dialogue is The Room levels of jilted, and the scene cuts are bizarre. On page 47, Qwill (yes, the protagonist’s name is f**ing Qwill), sees a bloated corpse floating down the river and calls 911.
ONE PAGE LATER:

He waited for Lori to be alone in her office and then went in to say, “Have you heard the good news?
“We’re going to be on the front page!” she cried, “I’m thrilled!”

A bunch of crap about furniture and family values ensues, and Qwill mentions that he had the mirrors in the hotel that were giving Lori ‘bad vibes’ removed. Then:

“I knew it!” she cried. “There was a negative influence at work, but this morning the pall has been lifted!”
“I feel euphoric myself,” Qwilleran said. Actually, he attributed it to the eggs benedict.

Um, excuse me mister, didn’t you just see a dead human man floating down the river a few hours ago? And you’re ‘euphoric’? AND YOU CAN JOKE ABOUT EGGS?!
But wait, it gets better.
After ignoring the random dead guy, Mr Qwill and his two weird cats move into the his cabin, next to the river with corpse. Qwill complains a lot about how the ongoing MURDER INVESTIGATION is ruining his trip and time with the cats, stopping him moving into the dead mans cabin as they, y’know, figure out why he was murdered. Those police, so selfish. So he moves into the dead guys cabin and write some really lame excuses for journalism. One is about a woman who used to make miniature houses. Another is about whether people like squirrels or not. His column is called..
you’ll never guess.

Spoiler

Qwill Pen.
…
WHAT IS THIS BOOK.

Anyway Qwill pootles around, eats some cookies, meets a man who believes he spoke to a tree nymph in his youth, sees a painting of a beach, and then his cat - the snooty one with the questionable name (tbh Yum Yum is pretty eyebrow-raising too) - strikes, or rather sniffs, gold. Inside the heel of a shoe that the dead man used to own. At this stage I was ready to surrender myself to the fantasy and get on with some sleuthing.
Here’s what happens:

The chief left with instructions to tell state detectives they had overlooked something during the forensic search.
“Tell them the inkeeper turned them over to you and you suspected something fishy about the left shoe. Leave me out of it!”

And that’s it. The police take over and Qwill goes off to eat some more waffles or whatever.
Meanwhile, some random photographer gets hijacked in his canoe because of mistaken identity.. and again - the cat figures it out. And his wife goes to the hospital with a heart attack.
Does our hard-hitting journalist cover this?
Nah, he’s at a gathering for the Mustache Cup Collector’s Club, which, that silly old bean, he thought was Moose County Community College and now he’s going to have to change the limerick he wrote about squirrels to be something more in keeping with them. And, I mean, it was SO GOOD, what a waste:

Our squirrels are smart as can be,
Alumni of MCCC,
They went to college,
In search of knowledge,
And learnt how to run up a tree

This book is daft, but it’s also a dull and stupid.
In Jackson Braun’s words:

“Yargle!” - came the reply, from a cat yowling and swallowing at the same time.

Save your money.

Qwill and cats go on a vacation to a neighboring town, but the cats aren't enjoying the cramp space. When a body is found floating in the creek with gold nuggets found in his position, Qwill is thinking robbery or possible competition being wiped out. So even though he's on vacation, Qwill is back to work solving this murder. Cute and cozy addition to the series. A nice treasure hunt of a mystery.

Another cute edition in a cute series. Not much to say, I enjoy these books for what they are, but there's not much to them.

Qwill and the cats take a little vacation to the nearby Nutcracker Inn, run by old friends Nick and Lori Bamba. In addition to getting Lori's delicious breakfasts every morning, Qwill finds himself in the middle of a crazy situation involving a missing person, a dead body, the mysterious Black Forest, and a meeting with the MCCC. Could it all be coincidence? Not when Koko's death howl comes out... another fun Cat Who read!

I knew it was going to be a stressful weekend and wanted something to transport me away to somewhere safe and familiar. This is the 24th of these books I've read so I knew what I was getting and it really fit the bill. Simple stories/plots, not especially "sophisticated" murders, but most importantly, an easy to get into society that has become like family every time I return. Since the main protagonist, Jim Qwilleran, is independently wealthy he has a fairly stress-free existence doing just what he wants to do. And even though it's not exactly what I'd pick for myself, I sure would like to be in his shoes.

As for the story, itself, I found it much like the last few books in the series; i.e. more about life in the northern areas around Moose County than about actual murder solving. In fact, in this book the murders happen off stage and almost without impact on the main characters, like an afterthought to the rest of the book. This is probably not the best book for murder mystery lovers but still enjoyable for a quick read to escape a holiday weekend with the relatives :)