Cat Café #9
Maddie James, cat café owner and animal enthusiast, works closely with family and friends to run her café, find felines new families, and solve mysteries. The solving mysteries part is Maddie’s secondary passion, as her first love will always be helping the poor kitties find their forever homes and making sure they are well cared for in her keeping. Her café, J.J.’s House, is located on Daybreak Island off the New England Coast. J.J. is Maddie’s cat and mascot, as well as a demanding socialite. Maddie has been contemplating expanding her operation beyond the one café on Daybreak Island, and is presented with a timely and interesting opportunity in the form of a donated food truck.
Her friend’s donation is touching, and more than a little intimidating, especially so when her friend reveals that they have reserved a spot for her new truck at the Provincetown cat literary festival. It’s the biggest cat adoption event around, and run by famous cat-romance author Jasmine Prescott. Maddie is hoping to connect with Jasmine, and possibly network her café into Jasmine’s already thriving network of adoption agencies. With her employees and family ready to help her make the event a success, Maddie is feeling excited and confident about the weekend. That is, until another author by the name of Vivi St. Clair shows up. She is a bundle of energy and excitement, and draws everyone to her with her charm. However, this charismatic author has a dark and complicated past that catches up to her in the form of an overly enthusiastic Netflix crew, and even an ex-husband who is all kinds of bad news.
Maddie tries to stay out of the drama storm that seems to follow Vivi everywhere. However, the author seems genuinely interested in Maddie, and keeps inviting her places and pulling her into her circle – until she’s found murdered one morning. At first Maddie can’t believe anyone would want Vivi dead, but then her cat café is pulled into the investigation, and she starts to learn that Vivi’s life was filled with a lot more danger than she ever let on. Like mob bosses. Very dangerous mob bosses that have the local police and the FBI in Provincetown on the lookout before Vivi’s murder even occurs. Using everything she’s learned from, and with, her grandfather and his law enforcement history, Maddie is determined to find the true killer and hopefully keep the cat literary festival going.
Claws Out is a fast paced book that quickly immerses readers into Maddie’s life. Seeing how Maddie puts together a mobile cat café is very interesting, and as always, she puts the cats first, even when that means she or staff must sleep in the truck with them to make sure they remain safe and comfortable. Long time readers will enjoy this newest addition to the series. New readers can enjoy Claws Out as Cate Conte effectively introduces characters, history, and setting without overwhelming the reader. However, there are several character relationships that I feel would be more fully appreciated once readers have read a few other books. I suggest Claws Out to any cat enthusiast with an interest in seeing how shelters and not-for profits network and connect, and for anyone looking to experience some mob intrigue without the actual gory visuals. Readers won’t be able to put Claws Out down until they see who could possibly be the murderer, and of course see how Maddie’s mobile cat café actually works out. – Carla Schantz