A Night’s Tail by Sofie Kelly

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy from Great Escapes Book Tours. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

A Night's Tail

by Sofie Kelly

Series: Magical Cats Mystery #11
Series Rating:
Published by Berkley Books on September 3, 2019
Genres: Mystery
Pages: 288
Format: Hardcover
Source: Great Escapes Book Tours
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Get Your Copy at: Amazon, Book Depository, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound
Also in this series: Paws and Effect

In the charming town of Mayville Heights, librarian Kathleen Paulson and her two cats pounce on clues to catch a killer, in the eleventh installment of this New York Times bestselling series.
Spring is coming to Mayville Heights, and Kathleen's brother, Ethan, has arrived in town with his band, The Flaming Gerbils. But not everything goes as scheduled when one of Ethan's bandmates gets into a fight with a man interested in investing in the town. When the businessman's body is later found, Ethan's friend is implicated in the crime.
Kathleen wants to help her brother by solving the case, but she has no shortage of suspects from which to choose. Prior to his death, the investor was fighting like cats and dogs with lots of people. If this librarian wants more than a whisker's chance of solving the case, she will need to rely on her trusty feline sidekicks, Owen and Hercules.

A Night’s Tail by Sofie Kelly is a terrific story about family, friends, lies, and judgment all with a side of murder. 

Why would anyone want to kill Lewis Wallace?

Kathleen and Marcus

Kathleen is our sleuth, head librarian, and she lives with Hercules and Owen two magical cats. Kathleen is involved in many things in Mayville Heights, especially if they include the library. She is one of those people who see a puzzle and has to know how to solve it. 

Marcus is a police detective in town, and he has a magical female cat. Marcus is a nice guy; he always seems to help out with a local cause. In this installment, Marcus is coaching the girls’ hockey team. 

Kathleen and Marcus make an adorable couple. It’s nice that they take the needed time to make a relationship work when they are both so very busy. They are a well rounded, happy, and healthy couple.

Friends and Family

Kathleen’s younger brother, Ethan and his bandmates, Derek and Milo. Derek is a temporary member of the Flaming Gerbils. But he fits in and the band has been doing better now. Their music and songwriting skills have improved. 

Kathleen’s friends, Maggie, Roma, Rebecca, and Ruby are still there for her. In fact, without them who would tag along when she wanted to do some sleuthing.

Mystery

Lewis Wallace is found dead in the conference room reserved by Ethan and his bandmate Derek. The mystery was laid out well with plenty of red herrings to go around. But who did it? The answer to that question you will have to read this fantastic book.

5 Stars for A Night’s Tail by Sofie Kelly 

This book is my first in the Magical Cats Mystery Series, and I enjoyed everything. My mom has read most of the series. I loved Hercules with his wet feet issue and Owen with his chicken addiction. A Night’s Tail by Sofie Kelly gets five stars, and this is a must-read for those who like cozies with cats. 

A Night’s Tail Excerpt

We stayed for the band’s second set and then headed home. Brady offered to drop off Milo and Derek at the bed-and-breakfast where they were staying but it was a nice night—clear and just a couple of degrees below freezing and they decided to walk down. Marcus, Ethan and I squeezed into the front seat of my truck.

“Is there going to be kissing?” Ethan asked, when I pulled in the driveway at Marcus’s house. He squished his face and pulled his shoulders up around his ears. He was sitting in the middle between Marcus and me.

“Yes, there’s going to be kissing.” I leaned across him, covering his eyes with one hand, and gave Marcus a quick kiss.

“I’ll call you after practice,” he said.

Marcus was helping coach the girls’ high school hockey team. They were just one win away from making it to the state finals.

I nodded.

“Good to see you, Ethan,” he added and climbed out of the truck.

“Is it safe to look?” Ethan asked. I’d already dropped my hand. He opened one eye, squinting at me. “I don’t want to see anything that might scar my psyche. I’m very sensitive.”

“You’re very something,” I said. I straightened up and put the truck in gear.

Ethan slugged my shoulder with a loose fist and laughed. “C’mon, Kathleen, you know you’ve missed me.”

“Like a root canal,” I countered as I backed out of the driveway. “Like fingernails on a chalkboard.” We’d been doing this routine for years.

“Do they still have chalkboards?” Ethan asked.

“Like a colonoscopy. Like Mom’s hot cross buns.” Our mother’s hot cross buns were legendary. They looked like they belonged in an issue of Bon Appétit. But they were harder than a concrete paver. Dad had literally chipped a tooth on one of them, although as far as Mom was concerned the tooth had a weak spot and the fact that it broke when he took a bite of—or at least tried to take a bite of—one of her hot cross buns was just an unfortunate coincidence.

Ethan narrowed his eyes at me. “Ooooh, Mom’s hot cross buns. Burn.”

I glanced over at him, head back against the seat, fingers tapping a rhythm on his leg that only he could hear, and I was hit with a wash of homesickness, like someone had just upended a bucket of water over my head. I missed them: Mom, Dad, Sara and Ethan, even though he was right here beside me.

It wasn’t easy being so far away from Boston, from all of them. Not that my family were always in Boston. Ethan was on the road a lot with the band. Sara’s work as a makeup artist and filmmaker had her traveling more and more, and while Mom and Dad were teaching, they still went where the acting jobs were, which in my mother’s case meant Los Angles a couple of times a year for a recurring role on the daytime drama The Wild and Wonderful.

On the other hand I had a life now in Minnesota, a life with Owen and Hercules, my cats, with Marcus and Maggie and a group of friends I’d miss just as much as I missed my family now if I went back to Boston.

“Hey, I never did ask,” Ethan began. “Did you know that dipwad in the bar?”

I shook my head. “No, I don’t know him, at least not personally. He’s here in Mayville Heights to maybe start a business.”

“You get some interesting people in bars,” Ethan said. “When we played in Chicago this woman got up on her chair, whipped off her shirt and started dancing. Then she yelled at me to come give her an autograph.”

“I think that makes you a certified rock star,” I teased, “being asked to autograph a woman’s bra.”

Ethan raised an eyebrow just the way I sometimes did, à la Mr. Spock from Star Trek. “I didn’t say she had a bra on under her shirt.”

“Ewww,” I said with a shudder. “Now my delicate psyche is scarred.”

Ethan shook with laughter. “She was wearing a tank top. And I signed the back of it!” He spent the rest of the drive home sharing all the weird things he’d been asked to autograph, including a bald guy’s head and the top of a toilet tank. I laughed so much I got hiccups and I forgot all about drunks in bars.

Other Books in the Series

    

Giveaway

Prize: (1) Prize Package including a hardcover copy of A Night’s Tail, a paperback copy of The Cats Came Back, a copy of Color a Cat (a drawing and coloring book) and a sweet surprise.

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Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of A Night’s Tail by Sofie Kelly. Check out the other stops and giveaway if you have time.

Until the next time,

Happy Reading!

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

• 2019 Cloak and Dagger
• 2019 Craving For Cozies Reading Challenge
• 2019 Cruisin' Thru The Cozies Reading Challenge
• 2019 Goodreads Reading Challenge
• 2019 New Release Challenge

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