The Cat Who Turned On and Off

The Cat Who Turned On and Off

  - Lilian Jackson Braun

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In my continued quest for a cozy mystery that would be intellectually satisfying, picked up “The Cat Who …” series, going by the Goodreads lists of highest rated books in the genre. Of all the ones that I have read, this is the only series where the protagonist is a male (except for Armand Gamache series, which I don't consider a cozy mystery at all). The MC is a middle-aged journalist, who is amply assisted in solving the crimes by his two Siamese cats. Due to an inadvertent mistake I started with the third book in the series, under the impression that it was the first one. Reading the blurbs of some of the subsequent books left me a bit confused, as they seem to describe how he came to possess these cats, whereas in this one he already has the two of them.

The MC has a troubled personal life, true to the persona of typical detectives in contemporary thrillers/mysteries, though thankfully he is sociable and good-natured. One advantage of the male lead is that he can solve the mysteries on his own (excepting the help from the cats). The authors writing a female lead seem to feel compelled to have a love interest rescue her from a life-threatening situation at the climax – and it really annoys me no end.

I liked the background given to the him – an erstwhile crime reporter, now relegated to the “features” department, making a success of his assignments despite his initial reluctance. The setting was interesting - "junktown" - the shabby part of the city that has evolved into a market of antiques. The mystery by itself did not hold much suspense – there were enough hints indicating the murderer, and with that, one could take a guess to the reason. The story was more about how the MC would discover the identity of the suspect and confirm the reason for the crimes. It was a short and fun read, with the cats providing a lot of amusement.