THE BLACK CAT SEES HIS SHADOW by Kay Finch

Publisher:   Berkley  
Published:  June 6, 2017016
ISBN:        978-0425275269
Genre:       Cozy Mystery
Format:     Print
Obtained via:  Publisher  

Reviewed by name and email address:  Gina  Ginalrmreviews@gmail.com

Three Hearts

 

It’s Pumpkin Festival days in Lavender, Texas and Sabrina Tate is looking forward to all the events…well maybe not so much Aunt Rowe’s pumpkin cannon.  Then again, she’ll do anything to support the woman who was always there for her. Before the festivities can begin though things go slightly awry.  First there’s Gabe who seems to have taken an interest in Sabrina—one she doesn’t want and wouldn’t want even if she wasn’t involved with Game Warden Luke Griffin. Then there is the appearance of a young woman, Tia, who not only looks a lot like Sabrina, she also has a black cat that looks exactly like Sabrina’s black cat, Hitchcock. And that’s just the beginning…

The festival takes a definite turn when one of the vendors turns up dead and it’s Sabrina who finds him. Well…it was actually Hitchcock who found him…the same cat the town used to call the bad luck cat.  When the evidence starts to point to Tia, Sabrina can’t help but look for the killer herself. 

I’ve been enjoying Kay Finch’s Bad Luck Cat mystery series – Hitchcock (the black cat) is such a great character.  She certainly has just how smart a cat can be down.  Adding Merlin to the mix to go along with a “twin” of Sabrina’s was a nice touch. The idea of a doppleganger, i.e., a heretofore unknown twin for Sabrina was a fun idea. 

 

The story, however, was kind of dull. The writing was a tad juvenile and choppy and the characters has no real emotion except maybe anger now and again. At times I felt that the author, herself, was bored with the story.  I wondered if life was imitating art with how hard a time Sabrina was having sitting down and writing her own book in the story.

 

I also liked the idea of the pumpkin festival. It wasn’t all that different than other community events and fairs, but it had some fun aspects to it – like the pumpkin cannon.  Sabrina also does some solid sleuthing as she tracks down the killer.

 

 

 

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.