06 Jul / Mimi Lee Gets a Clue [A Sassy Cat Mystery, Book 1] by Jennifer J. Chow [in Booklist]
Cat mysteries are a (bestselling) thing: the late Lillian Jackson Braun’s 29-volume Cat Who … series; Rita Mae Brown’s ongoing Mrs. Murphy series, starring Sneaky Pie Brown; Shirley Rousseau Murphy’s Joe Grey books. Author of the self-published three-volume Winston Wong mysteries, Jennifer J. Chow enters the feline fracas with her Sassy Cat debut with a major publisher.
Her dynamic duo features Mimi Lee, owner of the newly opened Hollywoof pet grooming salon, and Marshmallow, a rescue kitty polyglot who’s already fluent in canine and has learned English watching television. When Mimi’s first customers arrive with physically challenged puppies from the same Chihuahua breeder, she decides to confront this Russ Nolan. Her vidi-veni-vici visit inspires an official report – but also leads to murder with Mimi tagged as the prime suspect.
She’s already dealing with plenty: a nagging immigrant mother determined to fix her singlehood, a kindergarten-teacher sister threatened by her bully of a boss, crazy rich fur-mothers and their entourage, and a maybe-boyfriend who’s also her sorta-lawyer. Marshmallow will, of course, save the day, not to mention his forever-indebted forever-owner. Chow’s first Sassy Cat title is more slapstick than serious, but this fluffy entertainment could prove irresistible.
Review: “Fiction,” Booklist Online, June 19, 2020
Readers: Adult
Published: 2020