Murder at Osgoode Hall

Amicus Curiae Mysteries #1

by Jeffrey Miller

The ever-acerbic and seriously funny Amicus Curious, Q.C., is on the prowl for justice and the rule of law in this imaginative feline mystery. One cold winter morning, on the front lawn of the Law Society. Justice Ted Mariner sees an alley cat kill a bird. The angry judge remands the "murderer" into the custody of the Society's librarians, who provide the cat with bread and water and a Humpty Dumpty potato chip box for his bed. As their new colleague is a friend of the court, the librarians dub him Amicus Q.C. (for Questing Cat). They soon find him in the journals room, sniffing around the reasonably fresh corpse of Jeremiah "The Splinter" Debeers, anti-establishment lawyer, holy-roller, and general pain in the backside for his fellow benchers, the wealthy old-boy governors at the Law Society. Debeers had several enemies, but was his death just a freak photocopying accident? What exactly are the confidential records from the Society's wine cellar doing on the copier near his corpse? With all these deadly distractions around his office, on top of his agonizing war of attrition with the squirrels in the Law Society's garden, will Justice Mariner find time to complete his seminar paper on the constitutional rights of tree-huggers? Ever at risk that the testy "ancient Mariner" will change his mind and sentence him to the humane society shelter, cat teams up with human to find the answers.

240 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2004

Reviews

[Karen-Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

he ever-acerbic and seriously funny Amicus Curious, Q.C., is on the prowl for justice and the rule of law in this imaginative feline mystery. One cold winter morning, on the front lawn of the Law Society. Justice Ted Mariner sees an alley cat kill a bird. The angry judge remands the "murderer" into the custody of the Society's librarians, who provide the cat with bread and water and a Humpty Dumpty potato chip box for his bed. As their new colleague is a friend of the court, the librarians dub him Amicus Q.C. (for Questing Cat). They soon find him in the journals room, sniffing around the reasonably fresh corpse of Jeremiah "The Splinter" Debeers, anti-establishment lawyer, holy-roller, and general pain in the backside for his fellow benchers, the wealthy old-boy governors at the Law Society. Debeers had several enemies, but was his death just a freak photocopying accident? What exactly are the confidential records from the Society's wine cellar doing on the copier near his corpse? With all these deadly distractions around his office, on top of his agonizing war of attrition with the squirrels in the Law Society's garden, will Justice Mariner find time to complete his seminar paper on the constitutional rights of tree-huggers? Ever at risk that the testy "ancient Mariner" will change his mind and sentence him to the humane society shelter, cat teams up with human to find the answers.

[Lorissa Kinna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really only read this book because I work in the Library where most of this book takes place. I found that it used too much legal jargon as well as a lot of cliches. It would also go off on tangents that had nothing to do with the main story really.

[Dianne Landry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book by accident, it was on the shelf beside the book I was looking for. I really enjoyed it because it takes place here in Toronto. The narrator is Amicus Curiae, QC, the library cat at Osgoode Hall. Of course being a cat, Amicus goes everywhere, although I don't think he would get into courtrooms in real life but what the heck.

When a particularly annoying bencher is found murdered in the library it is up to Amicus to figure out whodunit, and he does.

I enjoyed this book but don't know if I want to read any more in the series.