The Cat Who
Sniffed Glue
by Lilian Jackson Braun
Jove Books
Pp. 200
The eighth book
in The Cat Who… mystery series is a
light-hearted mystery featuring an eligible bachelor, Jim Qwilleran, and two
Siamese cats, Koko and Yum Yum. Qwilleran is biggish, 50-ish, and with a
moustache that bristles when he is ‘on to something’. He is a bachelor so he
eats out at restaurants every night and has a succession of lady-friends, whom
he calls for dinner dates. They are always keen to accept (perhaps because of
his inherited fortune) and he has a succession of romantic entanglements with
housekeepers, librarians and interior designers.
The cats play a
major role in his life, and they are incredibly spoiled, with their own
apartment and chef. With feline intuition, they help Qwilleran solve crimes as
he explains the details of cases to them, and they respond with clues such as
banging into things, sitting on vital evidence, or tripping up villains.
The novel is set
in Pickax City, Moose County, “400 miles north of everywhere”, with nearby
towns called Chipmunk and Brrr (it’s the coldest place in the county) bursting
with folksy characters. Written in 1988, it is a novel of its time, before the
digital age. Newspapers are still read in physical form; the town does not have
one but Qwilleran, himself a ‘newspaper man’ helps to establish The Moose County Something. It is going
to “hit the streets” in a week, and there is no name for it – maybe things were
run differently thirty years ago, but this still seems very slack in a
corporate world, and is yet another aspect of the novel that is exceptionally
homey.
Braun also
incorporates theatrical tropes into her mystery, as each chapter is introduced
with Place, Time, and Cast – this is
both an original device and means to introduce characters, but also an example
of lazy description and stereotypical characters. Interior designers and
architects see buildings as a set designer would, and places are described like
stage directions.
The crime begins
with vandalism and drink driving, but all are shocked when it progresses to
murder. It is what is described as a ‘cosy mystery’, the increasingly-popular
genre of crime that is the literary equivalent to a hot cup of tea; the perfect
antidote to the daily onslaught of violence and outrage. The characters are
broadly drawn, there will be more description of meals eaten than of wounds
inflicted, there is very little violence or pain, but copious cold leads to
follow in the quaint little community, and the murders don’t really matter all
that much. In these olden times there are no forensics, and red herrings
include plenty of opportunities for the cat to sniff glue: snowshoes;
bookbinding; taxidermy; model-ship making; theatrical make-up.
Amazon has three sub-categories of ‘cosy
mystery’: animals; crafts and hobbies; and culinary. This places itself firmly
in the former category, and if you know what to expect, you will not be
disappointed.
