Pouncing on Murder: A Bookmobile Cat Mystery by Laurie Cass

                   Finally!  I was starting to wonder if Minnie was ever going to figure out her relationship with Tucker.  It still took most of the book, but she finally did.

                Librarian Minnie Hamilton is enjoying the change of weather in her small Michigan town, but it also means the library’s first annual book fair is coming up.  The fair is a lot of work, and despite her boss telling her to delegate, Minnie has a hard time asking other people to help.  She would much rather have her life be as it usually is.  Doing her job as normal, and driving the library’s bookmobile.

                Driving the bookmobile has become a great way for Minnie to get to know people.  One of those people is Henry Gill, a curmudgeon who has quiet ways to show when he has accepted someone into his life.  With Minnie, he brought her maple syrup.  This small, but special relationship Minnie and Henry have is why she finds it so painful when Henry is killed by a fallen tree.

                At first it seems Henry’s death was an accident.  Then Minnie meets the friend who was with Henry when he died.  Adam Deering had a heart attack right after Henry was hit by the tree, but he swears he saw someone running away after it fell.  Minnie goes to the police with this information, only to be told by the head detective that they have heard this story already.  While the story might usually be something to take seriously, Adam’s constantly changing details puts it in doubt.  The detective has to wonder if Adam may have been mistaken.

                Minnie doesn’t think Adam is, and she promises him she will look into things.  With so much unknown about Henry, and the belief that there could be someone out there who wants to take Adam’s life, this is possibly one of the hardest cases Minnie has ever worked on.  With only her cat Eddie around to help her, this case has Minnie going in circles and hitting dead ends more than usual.  Despite these obstacles, along with the task of putting on the book fair, they do not keep Minnie from solving the case in the end.

                I must say, once again Minnie drove me a little crazy in this book.  I understand she is short.  That does not mean I need to hear about it on such a constant basis.  And I do mean constant.  Over and over we heard about her height.  Fine.  I got the message.  Minnie is short.

                Then we had her relationship with Tucker.  I thought things were up and down in the last book.  It was even worse this time around.  Thankfully, their relationship did get resolved by the end of this one, as I mentioned before.  Maybe with that happening, Minnie will be calmer about things in the books to come.  I certainly hope so.