This is the third book in the Cat Latimer series by Lynn Cahoon. I had just finished the second book and was really anxious to see how things progressed so I did something I usually don’t do which is read more than one book from a series, right after one another. I’m glad I did. This book was kind of like a conclusion to a trilogy although I still have a couple of things I’d love to ask the author but I’m hoping she’s saving them for the next book or books.
My Goodreads review:
Of Murder and Men by Lynn Cahoon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Oh my goodness was this a good book! I guess a book is really something when you read past the 20% warnings on your Kindle and the battery just dies on you. Luckily, I own a backup Kindle 😉
Cat Latimer has her January writers’ retreat people coming. Since we didn’t have a book for December, we find out that the retreat for that month actually went on without incident. Cat’s friend and business partner, Shauna, has fallen for a local landowner and isn’t going to be at the retreat much this time but she’s still got everything under control especially after Cat confesses to her that she forgot to turn the oven on to bake a breakfast casserole.
Shauna later gets the news that her boyfriend, recently turned fiance’ was found dead in his horse barn after having gotten up in the middle of the night to answer a text. Meanwhile Cat is still looking into Michael’s murder and now she feels like she needs to look into Kevin’s as well.
The stand out visiting character in this book was Shirley, a retired police detective who is on the retreat so she can write a police procedural. I just got the biggest kick out of her. On one hand she really likes Uncle Pete but she tries to brush it off as a professional friendship. She also grabs onto the whole Michael murder mess and won’t let go until she finds something useful. I really hope we do get to see more of Shirley.
I liked the little character cross-over that the author did from her Tourist Trap series. Cross-overs are fun, like introducing one set of your friends to another set. And that’s how I feel about the characters in this series as well as the Tourist Trap series. It’s always fun to go back to visit them.
I was glad to see some of the items that had not been resolved since the first book finally put to rest. I think Cat will always have questions about Michael but her main issues are at peace now. I’m anxious to see how the different things that Shauna, Shirley and Seth have suggested they do for the retreat turn out as well. Long live the writer’s retreat!
Cuddle Up With a Cozy Mystery 