Stable Cat (Big Mike Mystery)

Allen, Garrison

3.61

77 ratings by Goodreads

9781575660424: Stable Cat (Big Mike Mystery)

ISBN 10: 1575660423 ISBN 13: 9781575660424

Publisher: Kensington Pub Corp, 1996

Feline sleuth "Big Mike" and his human companion, Penelope, the owner of a local mystery bookstore, sift through an bizarre assortment of baffling clues as they investigate the disappearance of a valuable stallion and the murder of his trainer.

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From Publishers Weekly:

The lead cat, Mycroft (aka Big Mike), a 25-pound Abyssinian named after Sherlock Holmes's older brother, is just one of several anthropomorphic creatures who hold center stage in this busy caper set in small but continually seething Empty Creek, Ariz. Horse trainer Jack Loomis has been shot and killed, and his employer's prize Arabian stallion has been abducted. The news of the horsenapping moves the town to grief; the murder of the trainer, who had a reputation for cruelty to animals, inspires mixed emotions. Penelope Warren, outgoing proprietress of a prospering mystery bookstore, has spent four years in the Marine Corps and is an honorary member of Empty Creek's police department. As she is drawn into the case, she brings along Big Mike, who has his own ideas about how to play good-cat/bad-cat with the suspects. Penelope soon discovers that Loomis and Maryanne Melrose, the ranch owner's wife, had been lovers, and that some newcomers to Empty Creek are not what they seem to be. Then there is another killing-exactly like the first. A crew of richly drawn and voluble town characters add opinions and-even better-fresh gossip to the investigation, keeping the proceedings lighthearted. Cats, dogs and horses contribute insights to this tale in which everybody, whether on two legs or four, appears to be in rut.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews:

In his Big Mike series of pet-related mysteries (Royal Cat, 1995; the paperback Desert Cat, 1994), Allen is developing the sort of eccentric and benign if occasionally criminal small town that owes a lot to Andy Griffith's Mayberry and Joan Hess's Maggody. Sometime sleuth Penelope Warren runs an Empty Creek, Arizona, bookstore; her cat Mycroft (a.k.a. ``Big Mike'') goes everywhere with her to assist in tracking down one murderer or another, even when saddlebags may be involved. This time, a heavily insured Arabian stallion is kidnapped and his trainer killed. On the case are Penelope, Big Mike, insurance investigators, the newspaper editor (Penelope's lover), the bank president (her chum), the police chief (her actor sister's intended) and more. The crime is creditably solved and enjoyably so, thanks to an authorial sense of humor that misfires only about a third of the time (not a bad average in this subgenre). But Allen overstuffs his casserole: He's got everything here from a romance writer and an FBI agent on to cute dogs, bunnies, and snakes, not to mention multiple romantic couples cuddling with a boonies-style sexual smarminess. A fairly good series that needs to get leaner and meaner. -- Copyright �1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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