What do you think?
Rate this book
Cat Caliban #5
Five-Alarm Fire
Suspicion is second nature to any woman who's raised three kids. So Cat Caliban has what it takes to be a smart snoop. In her fifth adventure in the series, she gets all fired up when she finds the cremated remains of a corpse hidden in the kiln at her pottery class.
232 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published June 1, 1996
20 people are currently reading
55 people want to read
About the author
D.B. Borton
16 books47 followersD. B. Borton is a Professor Emeritus of English at Ohio Wesleyan University and now a full-time writer. Specializing in humorous mysteries, she has published eleven mystery novels in two series, the Cat Caliban series (Berkley, Hilliard and Harris) and the Gilda Liberty series (Fawcett), as well as the mystery novel SMOKE (Boomerang) and the humorous science fiction novel SECOND COMING (Boomerang). Her latest mystery, BAYOU CITY BURNING (Boomerang), was published in June 2019.
A native of Houston, Texas, Borton became an ardent admirer of Nancy Drew at a young age. At the age of fourteen, she acquired her own blue roadster, trained on the freeways of Houston and the broad stretches of oil-endowed Texas highway, and began her travels.
She has lived in the Southwest and Midwest and on the West Coast, where she has collected three degrees in English without relinquishing her affection for the expressiveness of the everyday language that real people speak. Her research skills and her ear for language both serve her well in mysteries set in realistic places and featuring characters with authentic voices.
A native of Houston, Texas, Borton became an ardent admirer of Nancy Drew at a young age. At the age of fourteen, she acquired her own blue roadster, trained on the freeways of Houston and the broad stretches of oil-endowed Texas highway, and began her travels.
She has lived in the Southwest and Midwest and on the West Coast, where she has collected three degrees in English without relinquishing her affection for the expressiveness of the everyday language that real people speak. Her research skills and her ear for language both serve her well in mysteries set in realistic places and featuring characters with authentic voices.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
December 28, 2021
Cat Caliban is going through menopause and she is absolutely not enjoying the stress of it! To help shift her mind and relax, her friends and fellow tenants suggest a pottery course for beginners.
Speaking of temperament, if you are menopausal, premenstrual, pissed off, or just crabby by nature, let me give you a word of advice from your friend, Cat Caliban: working with clay will do nothing to improve your disposition.
But not being even marginally decent at it is not helping matters for Cat's stress levels and it definitely doesn't help when she finds burned bones of a fellow course mate in the klin and the fact that one of her misshapened piece was used as a murder weapon!
This book was good. The mystery was well plotted and the humour quotient was great as well with Cat's signature snarkiness and sarcasm on high here. The scenes of the pottery classes and the Halloween party in particular were a hoot to read. It wasn't easy to guess who the culprit was and the reason behind the murder until Cat's big reveal in the end. The story is set in the mid 80s but the plotline is very relevant to today's time too as it addresses issues of class, colour, race/mixed-race.
I received an e-Arc of the book from the publishers Boomerang Books/IBPA and the author D. B. Borton via NetGalley.
Speaking of temperament, if you are menopausal, premenstrual, pissed off, or just crabby by nature, let me give you a word of advice from your friend, Cat Caliban: working with clay will do nothing to improve your disposition.
But not being even marginally decent at it is not helping matters for Cat's stress levels and it definitely doesn't help when she finds burned bones of a fellow course mate in the klin and the fact that one of her misshapened piece was used as a murder weapon!
This book was good. The mystery was well plotted and the humour quotient was great as well with Cat's signature snarkiness and sarcasm on high here. The scenes of the pottery classes and the Halloween party in particular were a hoot to read. It wasn't easy to guess who the culprit was and the reason behind the murder until Cat's big reveal in the end. The story is set in the mid 80s but the plotline is very relevant to today's time too as it addresses issues of class, colour, race/mixed-race.
I received an e-Arc of the book from the publishers Boomerang Books/IBPA and the author D. B. Borton via NetGalley.
August 17, 2021
When aspiring PI Cat Caliban signs up for a beginner pottery class at the local art centre, she probably didn't expect to find ashes and bone fragments in the art centre's kiln. The plot thickens when Cat discovers a possible connection between this case and a legendary missing collection of vases once owned by a famous madam from one of Cincinnati's houses of prostitution in the early 20th century. The more Cat investigates, the more secrets she uncovers. Are these secrets really worth killing for?
The more I read cozies, the more I realize just how many books rely on similar tropes and character types. They're usually set in the present, usually in a fictional small town, usually with a young or middle-aged female protagonist, usually with an all-white cast of characters. Five-Alarm Fire is a wonderful exception to this observation.
For starters, Cat and many of her friends are older than the typical protagonists of the genre, with Cat's age playing an important role in how she conducts her investigations and how she is perceived by others. It's also the first cozy mystery I've read that includes several well-rounded and prominent characters of colour and LGBTQ+ characters! The book's discussions of more serious topics like ageism, race, and sex work are dealt with thoughtfully, in a way that greatly contributes to the plot and the backstories of the characters.
On top of all of this, it's a historical mystery in two ways: it's set in the late 1980s and the main mystery digs into the past. It's clear that Borton has done her research on the real-life history of Cincinnati and its pottery. I highly enjoyed reading the historical tidbits and facts she included.
All in all, this book features interesting plotlines, realistic and hilarious characters, and a cozy mystery that's different from the typical book in the genre. 10/10 would recommend this book!
Thank you to Netgalley and Boomerang Books for providing me with an ARC. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. Readers should know that there is some strong language in the book, but it's used sparingly. Also, the book includes some mild violence.
For more of my reviews, please visit:
The more I read cozies, the more I realize just how many books rely on similar tropes and character types. They're usually set in the present, usually in a fictional small town, usually with a young or middle-aged female protagonist, usually with an all-white cast of characters. Five-Alarm Fire is a wonderful exception to this observation.
For starters, Cat and many of her friends are older than the typical protagonists of the genre, with Cat's age playing an important role in how she conducts her investigations and how she is perceived by others. It's also the first cozy mystery I've read that includes several well-rounded and prominent characters of colour and LGBTQ+ characters! The book's discussions of more serious topics like ageism, race, and sex work are dealt with thoughtfully, in a way that greatly contributes to the plot and the backstories of the characters.
On top of all of this, it's a historical mystery in two ways: it's set in the late 1980s and the main mystery digs into the past. It's clear that Borton has done her research on the real-life history of Cincinnati and its pottery. I highly enjoyed reading the historical tidbits and facts she included.
All in all, this book features interesting plotlines, realistic and hilarious characters, and a cozy mystery that's different from the typical book in the genre. 10/10 would recommend this book!
Thank you to Netgalley and Boomerang Books for providing me with an ARC. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. Readers should know that there is some strong language in the book, but it's used sparingly. Also, the book includes some mild violence.
For more of my reviews, please visit:
August 21, 2021
I would like to thank Netgalley and Boomerang Books for an advance copy of Five Alarm Fire, the fifth novel to feature Cincinnati based amateur sleuth Cat Caliban.
Cat is menopausal and stressed so her friends suggest a pottery for beginners course as relaxation. Not so relaxing when one of her misshapen pots is used as a weapon before the body is stuffed in the kiln and burned. Soon she’s investigating a link to the missing Justice collection of Rookwood pottery, once owned by an infamous madam in the early 20th century.
I thoroughly enjoyed Five Alarm Fire, which is a humorous cosy with a plot full of twists and turns. It is told entirely from Cat’s point of view in the first person, so what she knows the reader knows, not that it helped me guess either the perpetrator or motive.
The novel starts with a laugh or two at Cat’s expense and then gets down to the serious business of setting the scene and introducing the first murder, because, oh yes, there is more than one and a few other major crimes. Ok, I was kidding about the serious bit. Cat has a lively sense of humour and a rather trenchant take on life, so the laughs keep coming, whether through her observations, unorthodox approach to investigating or mishaps.
The novel was first published in 1996 and is set in the mid eighties, so I’m not sure how dated that makes the plot nowadays as it is all about race. It made me feel slightly uncomfortable by the end, but I’m not American and have no wish to pass judgement on something I haven’t experienced.
Five Alarm Fire is a fun read that I can recommend.
Cat is menopausal and stressed so her friends suggest a pottery for beginners course as relaxation. Not so relaxing when one of her misshapen pots is used as a weapon before the body is stuffed in the kiln and burned. Soon she’s investigating a link to the missing Justice collection of Rookwood pottery, once owned by an infamous madam in the early 20th century.
I thoroughly enjoyed Five Alarm Fire, which is a humorous cosy with a plot full of twists and turns. It is told entirely from Cat’s point of view in the first person, so what she knows the reader knows, not that it helped me guess either the perpetrator or motive.
The novel starts with a laugh or two at Cat’s expense and then gets down to the serious business of setting the scene and introducing the first murder, because, oh yes, there is more than one and a few other major crimes. Ok, I was kidding about the serious bit. Cat has a lively sense of humour and a rather trenchant take on life, so the laughs keep coming, whether through her observations, unorthodox approach to investigating or mishaps.
The novel was first published in 1996 and is set in the mid eighties, so I’m not sure how dated that makes the plot nowadays as it is all about race. It made me feel slightly uncomfortable by the end, but I’m not American and have no wish to pass judgement on something I haven’t experienced.
Five Alarm Fire is a fun read that I can recommend.
July 16, 2021
It’s getting hot in 1980s Cincinnati with Cat Caliban! No, it’s not summer- Cat has finally hit menopause, with the attendant hot flashes, mood swings, and hormonal surges. In order to have an outlet for her menopausal aggression, Cat is taking a course in beginner’s pottery with the gang from Catatonia Arms at a local arts center. A dead body turns up in the kiln and a mysterious piece of Rookwood pottery turns up, leading Cat to several suspects. After a house fire, Halloween parties, and another dead body, Cat narrows down the suspects to find the killer.
I love Cat Caliban. She has chosen to follow a career as a detective after her husband dies and she begins a new chapter in her life. After raising three kids, solving murders is a piece of cake. As Cat says, “Well, I hadn’t exactly started my career in detection as Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. You don’t sustain your innocence through three teenagers”. Cat is a drinking, cussing, politically waking granny, not a Miss Marple copycat. And now she’s dealing with the trials of menopause, which come across as very real and Borton handles them deftly, weaving Cat’s hormonal trials throughout the narrative.
Borton deals with serious issues, like race and menopause, with a careful hand, making them part of the story rather than a lecture. She involves interesting pieces of Cincinnati history. And her supporting characters are a delight. Leon, a character from previous books, may be neurologically atypical, but Borton treats this tastefully, with affection and humor, and he assists Cat with an important interrogation. The characters from the Catatonia Arms are well-drawn with individual personalities. Frankly, I’d love to be one of Cat’s tenants.
Five-Alarm Fire is an excellent, fun entry in the Cat Caliban mystery series and well worth a read. I highly recommend this book and the whole series. Five out of Five stars.
I love Cat Caliban. She has chosen to follow a career as a detective after her husband dies and she begins a new chapter in her life. After raising three kids, solving murders is a piece of cake. As Cat says, “Well, I hadn’t exactly started my career in detection as Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. You don’t sustain your innocence through three teenagers”. Cat is a drinking, cussing, politically waking granny, not a Miss Marple copycat. And now she’s dealing with the trials of menopause, which come across as very real and Borton handles them deftly, weaving Cat’s hormonal trials throughout the narrative.
Borton deals with serious issues, like race and menopause, with a careful hand, making them part of the story rather than a lecture. She involves interesting pieces of Cincinnati history. And her supporting characters are a delight. Leon, a character from previous books, may be neurologically atypical, but Borton treats this tastefully, with affection and humor, and he assists Cat with an important interrogation. The characters from the Catatonia Arms are well-drawn with individual personalities. Frankly, I’d love to be one of Cat’s tenants.
Five-Alarm Fire is an excellent, fun entry in the Cat Caliban mystery series and well worth a read. I highly recommend this book and the whole series. Five out of Five stars.
August 28, 2021
Five Alarm Fire is the 5th book in the eight-volume "Cozy/Comic" Cat Caliban mystery series created by D. B. Borton, the pseudonym used by author Lynette Carpenter. Catherine “Cat” Caliban is a pushy, blunt spoken, warm-hearted, inquisitive 60 year-old housewife/mother/grandmother/widow who owns an apartment building in Cincinnati inhabited by some quirky tenants. Cat’s numerous friends and tenants try to help but sometimes hinder her ambitions of becoming a private investigator. In Five Alarm Fire Cat becomes involved in some dirty-doings at the local arts center while taking a pottery class. Human remains discovered in a kiln, suspicious house fires, a missing collection of valuable Rookwood pottery once owned by a famous African American madam and the confused genealogical histories of some of the characters drive the plot in this cozy mystery.
Fans of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, Susan Isaacs’ Long Island sleuth, Judith Singer, and Stuart Palmer’s schoolmarm sleuth, Hildegarde Withers, will enjoy the Cat Caliban series which, by the way, is set in the mid-1980s.
Fans of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, Susan Isaacs’ Long Island sleuth, Judith Singer, and Stuart Palmer’s schoolmarm sleuth, Hildegarde Withers, will enjoy the Cat Caliban series which, by the way, is set in the mid-1980s.
July 12, 2021
Wanna'be Private Investigator Cat Caliban may be a hormonal mess what with menopausal night sweats and hot flashes but when it comes to sussing out the bad guys, she has good instincts. You might think her successes are more the result of pure dumb luck than actual expertise but then you'd be wrong. As a distraction to the ravages of middle age, Cat and her friends take a pottery class but the night she has kiln duty, the Cincinnati Arts Center turns into a major crime scene. Cat discovers human bone fragments among the ashes in an already cold kiln and then she gets conked on the head and a major fire breaks out. What ensues is a tangled web of murder, history, genealogy and Rookwood pottery.
In "Five-Alarm Fire" D.B. Borton gets Cat deeply embroiled in early nineteenth century Cincinnati history, centered around what at that time was its red light district. Not exactly a topic for polite society but whoever said Cat Caliban was polite? Au contraire. Cat is the antithesis of polite, especially when she goes on a tear and starts swearing like a sailor on shore leave. She's a delightfully offbeat character that sometimes gets in over her head yet she somehow manages to succeed in spite of herself. I can relate to that. Four stars.
In "Five-Alarm Fire" D.B. Borton gets Cat deeply embroiled in early nineteenth century Cincinnati history, centered around what at that time was its red light district. Not exactly a topic for polite society but whoever said Cat Caliban was polite? Au contraire. Cat is the antithesis of polite, especially when she goes on a tear and starts swearing like a sailor on shore leave. She's a delightfully offbeat character that sometimes gets in over her head yet she somehow manages to succeed in spite of herself. I can relate to that. Four stars.
July 2, 2021
Five-Alarm Fires follows Cat through the first stages of her menopause as she, and her friends, struggle to find an activity to throw herself into to distract herself as her body changes. While taking pottery classes one night, she discovers a body in a kiln and decides to undertake her own investigation to get to the bottom of the mystery.
Having not read the previous books in the series, I enjoyed the twists and turns of Cat’s adventures as she sought out the mystery that came her way while undertaking her pottery class. I could relate to the inability to get the hang of the skills that came so easily to others in Cat’s class, but as a crime unfolded and she undertook her own investigation, the storyline lost me more than once. All the names, places, and intertwining storylines became a little convoluted, but the overall story, once finished, was an enjoyable standalone piece and, when part of a larger series, would fit in perfectly.
Having not read the previous books in the series, I enjoyed the twists and turns of Cat’s adventures as she sought out the mystery that came her way while undertaking her pottery class. I could relate to the inability to get the hang of the skills that came so easily to others in Cat’s class, but as a crime unfolded and she undertook her own investigation, the storyline lost me more than once. All the names, places, and intertwining storylines became a little convoluted, but the overall story, once finished, was an enjoyable standalone piece and, when part of a larger series, would fit in perfectly.
August 27, 2021
Cat Caliban has been talked into joining a pottery class at the Northside Cultural Arts Center along with Moses Fogg and most of the other residents of her apartment building. She had been asked to turn off the kiln in the pottery room on Friday night. When she arrived, the kiln was already off and cold. Knowing this wasn't right, she started checking on things. She realized the pottery that should have been fired was not in the kiln and when opening it, realized the ashes were the wrong color and she discovered a bone fragment. She called Moses and once he checked, they called the police. She started to investigate and soon had numerous suspects. The police found a valuable Rookwood Vase. Part of a collection that had disappeared in the early 1900's. The collection had belonged to a famous Madam in the 1900's. Was the collection the reason for the murder, or was there something else no one knew about?.
I am voluntarily reviewing this book after receiving it free from the author.
I am voluntarily reviewing this book after receiving it free from the author.
July 10, 2021
Thanks to Net Galley an D. B. Borton for another entertaining afternoon with Cat Caliban and her quirky band of friends. If not for the host of them and their assorted pockets of eclectic information, Cat may not have been able to solve this case.
I especially enjoyed the pairing of Malvina and Constance, two historical society matrons, with research skills to rival any academic research assistant. Their contributions to the resolution of this case were invaluable. To say nothing of their sniping at each other throughout their work made for an amusing combination.
Like books one and two in this series demonstrated, Cat is an unconventional P. I., but she gets the job done. She uses old-school tools along with sharp instinct honed over her sixty plus years. Good work Cat Caliban! Have a gin and tonic on me!
I especially enjoyed the pairing of Malvina and Constance, two historical society matrons, with research skills to rival any academic research assistant. Their contributions to the resolution of this case were invaluable. To say nothing of their sniping at each other throughout their work made for an amusing combination.
Like books one and two in this series demonstrated, Cat is an unconventional P. I., but she gets the job done. She uses old-school tools along with sharp instinct honed over her sixty plus years. Good work Cat Caliban! Have a gin and tonic on me!
January 11, 2022
First, I loved it. Second, Menopause is not equivalent to Medicare as MOST women go through it in their early to mid-forties! Time of story is 1985 Cincinnati, book was originally published in 1996 and does have a lot of true historical information about people and attitudes in the US and elsewhere as well as facts about Cincinnati Art Pottery, specifically Rookwood. That being said, this book is hilarious because of the situational and especially the verbal humor. The cozy murder mystery is very well done as Cat brangles with friends and law enforcement over her way of sleuthing. Plenty of plot twists and red herrings, too. I loved it and plan to hunt up others with Cat Caliban! I requested and received a free ebook copy from Boomerang Books, Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) via NetGalley. THANK YOU!
1985 menopause originally pub in 1996
1985 menopause originally pub in 1996
September 1, 2021
I'm loving this cozy mystery series and this book is as funny as the other installments.
Cat is a fantastic character, full of life zest and clever. I was glad to catch up with the characters and had fun.
The mystery is solid and kept me guessing.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine
Cat is a fantastic character, full of life zest and clever. I was glad to catch up with the characters and had fun.
The mystery is solid and kept me guessing.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine
October 23, 2021
What a fun mystery. Love Cat's sarcasm and snarky ways. She made me smile. I spent years in the Cincinnati area so loved revisiting some old haunts. The mystery is a good one, the characters are interesting and the ending was a bit of a twist. I liked the book!
I read the book on NetGalley
I read the book on NetGalley
June 6, 2021
I have been in charge of our families genealogies for over 60 years and I never found anything like Cat did – even if it was speculation. I enjoyed the story and recommend the book.
June 15, 2021
Cat Caliban a widow with grown children decides to become a private eye. As she works to get her license she needs the help of friends,family and tenants to solve mysteries. Fun
August 26, 2021
A new D. B. Borton mystery is always a pleasant surprise to find in one's reading list. Her characters are funny, quirky and loveable and the books are a fun easy read for these troubled times.
September 4, 2021
{Thanks to NetGalley and Boomerang Books for the gift of an eARC in exchange for an honest review.}
Cat Caliban is an amateur detective who has the ambition to become qualified as a private detective. She lives in a house (or apartment building, it’s not clear) with a few (how many is unclear too) fellow retirees, and they take classes together at the local arts centre. When Cat finds human bones in the kiln used to fire the pottery from their class, and it appears that the murder weapon was one of Cat’s creations, she is determined to find out who the murderer is.
This is book five of the Cat Caliban mysteries. Since I have not read the previous books, I had some trouble understanding who the secondary characters were, and I am still unclear about their living arrangements. Some series manage to situate new readers fairly easily, but this book did not. Still, the mystery is good and complex, even though I sometimes got confused by the number of suspects. I loved the collective nature of the investigation, Cat is good at taking advantage of all the resources she can, miles away from the kind of fictional detective who broods antisocially. This aspect of the novel does make me want to read more in this series, if only to get to know Cat’s friends better.
This edition is new, but the original book was published in 1996, which does give it a slightly historical bent. I was put off by an early description of a secondary character as having “mild r****dation”, so I read cautiously after that but there were no other slurs that jumped out at me. Because it is an older book, I was pleasantly surprised by how the author treated the issue of race in the book, not shying away from describing the divisions and the injustices imposed on Black people historically and at the time the novel is set. It is depressing to see how little has changed since then.
Overall, this was a pleasant if not terribly memorable mystery featuring interesting characters.
Cat Caliban is an amateur detective who has the ambition to become qualified as a private detective. She lives in a house (or apartment building, it’s not clear) with a few (how many is unclear too) fellow retirees, and they take classes together at the local arts centre. When Cat finds human bones in the kiln used to fire the pottery from their class, and it appears that the murder weapon was one of Cat’s creations, she is determined to find out who the murderer is.
This is book five of the Cat Caliban mysteries. Since I have not read the previous books, I had some trouble understanding who the secondary characters were, and I am still unclear about their living arrangements. Some series manage to situate new readers fairly easily, but this book did not. Still, the mystery is good and complex, even though I sometimes got confused by the number of suspects. I loved the collective nature of the investigation, Cat is good at taking advantage of all the resources she can, miles away from the kind of fictional detective who broods antisocially. This aspect of the novel does make me want to read more in this series, if only to get to know Cat’s friends better.
This edition is new, but the original book was published in 1996, which does give it a slightly historical bent. I was put off by an early description of a secondary character as having “mild r****dation”, so I read cautiously after that but there were no other slurs that jumped out at me. Because it is an older book, I was pleasantly surprised by how the author treated the issue of race in the book, not shying away from describing the divisions and the injustices imposed on Black people historically and at the time the novel is set. It is depressing to see how little has changed since then.
Overall, this was a pleasant if not terribly memorable mystery featuring interesting characters.
October 6, 2021
This book maybe based in the late 1980s but its surprisingly apt for the current issues the world is facing now.
Issues such as racism, ageism, LGBTQ+ issue and sex work are handled beautifully and with such empathy. Even though quite a bit of the focus is on the theft, the ending was all about getting justice in any form.
Coming to the story, Cat undergoes through THE change as one undergoes at her age. And her emotions are all over the place. To cheer her up and distract her from her predicament, the fellow residents of Catatonia Arms (Cat's neighbours) decide to enrol Cat and themselves in a pottery class.
Cat and Moses are having a very hard time of it, which makes for a hilarious description and dialogue.😂
Which means I had to Google a bit of all the pottery jargon mentioned in the book. Apart from that there is a particularly chaotic and funny Halloween scene for which I burst out laughing and couldn't stop for a while.😂
Cat finds the burned bones of the victim in the klin and later finds out her misshapen pot/plate is the murder weapon.
The mystery aspect was quite strong in this book. It was so difficult to even guess the "whodunnit" and "why" part this time. However I would've liked to know a bit more of Cat's thought process as she was investigating the case.
I found my attention wandering as Cat was interviewing suspects and delving into history.
As a result it took me long to finish this one.
Also I felt there were less of the pets and their shenanigans this time and I missed them.
Overall it's a pretty relevant and good cozy mystery. I already have the sequels to this and I'm excited to read them.
Thankyou to Netgalley and the Author for sending me this review copy.
Issues such as racism, ageism, LGBTQ+ issue and sex work are handled beautifully and with such empathy. Even though quite a bit of the focus is on the theft, the ending was all about getting justice in any form.
Coming to the story, Cat undergoes through THE change as one undergoes at her age. And her emotions are all over the place. To cheer her up and distract her from her predicament, the fellow residents of Catatonia Arms (Cat's neighbours) decide to enrol Cat and themselves in a pottery class.
Cat and Moses are having a very hard time of it, which makes for a hilarious description and dialogue.😂
Which means I had to Google a bit of all the pottery jargon mentioned in the book. Apart from that there is a particularly chaotic and funny Halloween scene for which I burst out laughing and couldn't stop for a while.😂
Cat finds the burned bones of the victim in the klin and later finds out her misshapen pot/plate is the murder weapon.
The mystery aspect was quite strong in this book. It was so difficult to even guess the "whodunnit" and "why" part this time. However I would've liked to know a bit more of Cat's thought process as she was investigating the case.
I found my attention wandering as Cat was interviewing suspects and delving into history.
As a result it took me long to finish this one.
Also I felt there were less of the pets and their shenanigans this time and I missed them.
Overall it's a pretty relevant and good cozy mystery. I already have the sequels to this and I'm excited to read them.
Thankyou to Netgalley and the Author for sending me this review copy.
September 5, 2021
Five Alarm Fire (1996) is the 5th book in the eight-volume Cat Caliban mystery series created by D. B. Borton, the pseudonym used by author Lynette Carpenter. Catherine “Cat” Caliban is a pushy, blunt spoken, warm-hearted, inquisitive 60 year-old housewife/mother/grandmother/widow who owns an apartment building in Cincinnati inhabited by some quirky tenants. Cat’s numerous friends and tenants try to help but sometimes hinder her ambitions of becoming a private investigator. In Five Alarm Fire Cat becomes involved in some dirty-doings at the local arts center while taking a pottery class. Human remains discovered in a kiln, suspicious house fires, a missing collection of valuable Rookwood pottery once owned by a famous African American madam and the confused genealogical histories of some of the characters drive the plot in this cozy mystery. Fans of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, Susan Isaacs’ Long Island sleuth, Judith Singer and Stuart Palmer’s schoolmarm sleuth, Hildegarde Withers will enjoy the Cat Caliban series. Since the author sets this humorous series in the mid-1980s the books have a kind of Sue Grafton/Kinsey Millhone vibe: plenty of pay phones, no smart phones, no Internet to speak of.
June 13, 2014
Cat's going through the change so everyone thinks she needs a distraction. She and her friends who live in her apartment building sign up for a pottery class. Poor cranky Cat can't get the hang of it and feels emotional and depressed because she can't throw a pot. On the other hand, when ash, bone, and teeth show up in a kiln, she's on board with investigating who was cremated and what it might have to do with the art center or the rare Rookwood vase found at the scene.
This wasn't one of the better books of the series case-wise, mainly because there's a lot of repetition as Cat goes through and interviews nearly everyone in the book. Moses doesn't help as much as he usually does, either.
The part that threw me off the most though was how out of character it was for Cat to cry and be all emotional when normally she's just cranky. I guess this was D.B. Borton's way of addressing some of the issues that plague some women in menopause. She went for humor, but I didn't really find it funny.
Still, the whole cast of interesting characters are in the book and it's fun to see their interactions.
This wasn't one of the better books of the series case-wise, mainly because there's a lot of repetition as Cat goes through and interviews nearly everyone in the book. Moses doesn't help as much as he usually does, either.
The part that threw me off the most though was how out of character it was for Cat to cry and be all emotional when normally she's just cranky. I guess this was D.B. Borton's way of addressing some of the issues that plague some women in menopause. She went for humor, but I didn't really find it funny.
Still, the whole cast of interesting characters are in the book and it's fun to see their interactions.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 18, 2022
I picked up this book without realizing that it's the fifth part in the Cat Caliban series by D.B. Borton. But reading this one didn't feel like I was missing anything, so this book can be read as a standalone too. 'Five-Alarm Fire' is a murder mystery that I loved reading, especially Cat.
Cat Caliban, wants to be a private investigator, but at 60 she's finding it rather hard to go through menopause. In order to distract herself from this midlife crisis Cat joins a local pottery class. But she finds human remains in the kiln, leading her to more clues and questions. There was never a boring moment in the entire book, and I loved the twists in the story. Borton has masterfully crafted the plot, scattering crumbs of information and clues. This is the kind of mysteries I love reading and I enjoyed this so much more than I had expected.
I would definitely recommend this book to a mystery lover.
Cat Caliban, wants to be a private investigator, but at 60 she's finding it rather hard to go through menopause. In order to distract herself from this midlife crisis Cat joins a local pottery class. But she finds human remains in the kiln, leading her to more clues and questions. There was never a boring moment in the entire book, and I loved the twists in the story. Borton has masterfully crafted the plot, scattering crumbs of information and clues. This is the kind of mysteries I love reading and I enjoyed this so much more than I had expected.
I would definitely recommend this book to a mystery lover.
September 3, 2021
This is a well written, character driven cozy mystery with an interesting plot line and well researched history that kept me reading well past my bedtime. I am now going back to start this series from the beginning as I started with this book and now I have to know more!
March 31, 2011
VG series inst, plot & characters
September 2, 2021
I have been in charge of our families’ genealogies for over 60 years and I never found anything like Cat did – even if it was speculation. I enjoyed the story and recommend the book.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews