The Cat Who Brought Down the House

Lilian Jackson Braun

Thelma Thackeray is returning home to Moose County after a five to six decade absence. She is now 82. She had gone to Hollywood to be an actress. Instead she achieved fame and fortune through her exclusive restaurant. Now it's time to come home.

Of course everyone in Pick Ax is excited about the celebrity returning to their midst. Qwilleran is sceptical at first. But then he meets Thelma. Although she's quite eccentric, she's a "pretty good old bird", and she calls him "Ducky". He meets her prize parrots and takes her around to places from her past. He also took her to her dead twin brother's haunts. Her brother had died a year earlier in a hiking accident.

The night of her welcoming gala at Qwilleran's home, someone kidnapped her parrots. Thelma, her assistant Janice, and her nephew Dick were quietly able to raise the ransom demands and got the birds back with no one in town being the wiser. That same night a mystery van driver was found dead, shot behind the wheel of his vehicle.

Meet Qwilleran, Koko, Yum Yum, Moose County, and mystery in The Cat Who Brought Down the House. The prologue of the book mentions that the "Cat Who" books have now been around for 25 years. Those who read the books faithfully will recognize their favorite people. Those who haven't read them will be introduced to a group of citizens that have their attractions and idiocyncracies like the rest of us. Qwilleran has two advantages when it comes to crime - his sensitive mustache and the precocious Koko. Once again they work together to discover hidden secrets, this time belonging to the Thackeray family.

The Cat Who Brought Down the House is light fluff, a short, cozy, readable mystery. Thelma Thackeray is an enjoyable character. And for those of you who know the characters, it seems Polly is in for a big change in her life.

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