This is a 4 star book if you're looking for something very light, predictable, and comforting. I went through a phase years ago, where I read most of this series. At some point, I decided to move on. Fast forward, I needed a small, light book for a trip, and this was on the book donation shelf. I grabbed it, and thoroughly enjoyed it. No blood, no gore, no cursing, good guys are good, bad guys are bad...Sometimes you need a book just like this. It's comfortable, just like warm fuzzy slippers. ( )

(playaway audio edition) insipid story about a bachelor living (by choice???) with two cats named Koko and Yum-yums(!!!???!?!?!!?!!WTF). I had to throw this away (figuratively speaking, it was a library copy) out of pure distaste when he started writing poems to save the kittens in the shelter from euthanasia. Anyone that's ever had anything to do with shelters will tell you the problem is NOT a lack of people who care about kittens, it's that there are just TOO MANY KITTENS to begin with. Would not recommend this to anyone with a brain, but if you happen to adore cats with dumb names and just want some noise to listen to, go right ahead. ( )

I didn't care for this story as much as others. I could be that I had already read it years before and that's why I kept having the nagging feeling that I knew what would happen! ( )

This was a good book, however I did not like it as much as I thought I would. If you like "cozy" mysteries this is a book I can recommend reading. ( )

Koko is once again on the case!

Thelma Thackeray is returning to her hometown, Pickax, after living in glamourous Hollywood for 55 years. One of a set of twins, offspring of Milo Thackeray the potato king. She is coming back to live the end of her life where she grew up. She has bought one of the select old homes on Pleasant Street and has plans for the old Opera House building. Life seems good.

Thelma is a little more splashy than the locals, wearing unusual hats, the owner of 5 African Grey parrots and wearing fine but colourful clothes. But she is delighted to be back.

Her twin brother, Thurston, had become the local veterinarian but had since sold his practice and retired. The thing is he had died in a hiking 'accident' a year or so ago. He left a son, Dick, who was going to help his Auntie Thelma with her project.

While Qwill is learning the history and getting to know Thelma and the people with her, he keeps getting the feeling that there is something else going on. Koko seems to know it too and keeps trying to give Qwill clues.

Like others in this series, I enjoy the fast read and the characters. Koko and Yum Yum are always great to read about, and learning more about some of the citizens of Pickax is interesting. ( )