The Whole Cat and Caboodle

Second Chance Cat Mystery Series #1

By: Sofie Ryan

Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin

Sarah Grayson is the happy proprietor of Second Chance, a charming shop in the oceanfront town of North Harbor, Maine. At the shop she sells used items that she has lovingly refurbished and repurposed. But her favorite pet project so far has been adopting a stray cat she names Elvis. The big black cat with a scar across his nose turned up at a local bar when the band was playing the King of Rock and Roll's music and hopped in Sarah's truck. Since then he's been her constant companion and the furry favorite of everyone who comes into the store.

But when Sarah's elderly friend, Maddie, is found with the body of a dead man in her garden, the kindly old lady becomes the prime suspect in the murder. Even Sarah's old high school flame, investigator Nick Elliot, seems convinced that Maddie was up to no good. So it's up to Sarah and Elvis to clear her friend's name and make sure that the real murderer doesn't get a second chance.

©2014 Darlene Ryan (P)2016 Tantor

Critic reviews

"This tale is enjoyable from beginning to end." ( RT Book Reviews)

That Cat is Cool.

The story starts off with a information dump. But after that the story was great.

Good cozy mystery, some pronunciation frustration

I enjoyed this mystery - it was a tad far fetched but cozy mysteries often are. The cat was a cute element to the story and made me smile. I also enjoyed the backdrop of the second hand shop. I found the descriptions of what characters were wearing to be a bit much at times - but not a big distraction. It was a light and amusing mystery.

The most annoying thing about this book was that the narrator changed the pronunciation of the name "Arthur Fenety" on a regular basis. Sometimes it was "Fen-e-tea" (I would guess 40-50% of the time) and sometimes it was "Fen-e-thee." (50-60% of the time), even though there is no 'h' in the name. The same applied to the use of the same last name for his sister's character. I don't mind whether it's one way or the other, but for goodness' sake....stick with one or the other! I ended up having to check a print version to see how the actual name was spelled. I thought the narrator did a great job, in general, and did the voices well for all characters, but pronouncing a critical last name differently throughout the narration became really irritating for me.

Excellent!

I loved it. The characters were great and very funny. I laughed out loud many times!

Fun mystery

I thought this book was great, I loved the cat Elvis, and the senior who decided after there was a murder and their friend was accused of doing it that they would be Charlie's Angels and jumped into action

Good story

Hi good story, but to much “ he said, she said” the cat Elvis is a cute idea and cat lovers will appreciate it