The Cat of Amontillado

The Psychic Cat Mysteries #1

by S.M. Reine

It takes a special kind of man to survive in a world torn apart by vampires, zombies, sidhe, and gods.

A man like Mr. Poe.

Brilliant. Handsome. Fluffy. A psychic cat who can shapeshift into a human.

A vampire's shriveled husk is found long-dead in a wine cellar underneath Haven, a retirement resort where immortals pass infinite time. The only rule in Haven is zero violence, and there's zero tolerance.

Mr. Poe must team up with the local sheriff, Gwyneth Gresham, in order to solve the murder, bring justice to the deader-than-usual victim, and survive Miss Draconia's Knitting Circle. For a budding detective like Mr. Poe, one little murder mystery won't even give him paws.

Genres: Mystery, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal, Cozy Mystery, Humor, Novella

67 pages, ebook

First published April 1, 2021

About the author

Hi everyone! My name is Sara, and I write urban fantasy and paranormal novels as SM Reine. I collect swords, cat hair, and typewriters (which I do use for writing!). It's a good day when those three things have nothing to do with each other.

If you would like to know the instant my next book is available, you should enlist in my Army of Evil! We have a wicked cool secret handshake, but you'll have to sign up to learn it. ;) Check it out -- http://smarturl.it/armyofevil

Reviews

[✘✘ Sarah ✘✘ (former Nefarious Breeder of Murderous Crustaceans) · Rating 4 out of 5]

💥 Dec. 19, 2020: FREE today! Get it get it get it get it!





This is how Abominable Cozy Mystery-Type Thingies (ACMTT™) usually make me feel:



But. This being S.M. Reine (aka the Queen of All Things Beautifully Dark and Wonderfully Violent and Delightfully Fished Up, aka Elise Kavanagh’s Mommy), and this originally being, much like Lickable Iron and Scrumptious Magic, an April’s Fool joke, I thought to my little nefarious self, “why the shrimping hell of the stinking fish not?!” (Oh, and by the way, for those of Despicable Book Taste who don’t know S.M. Reine, the simple fact that writing a bloody shrimping cozy mystery is her idea of an April’s Fool hoax should tell you something. Oh yes, it should indeed. This is how I reacted when I first heard about it, just so you know.) My other excuse The other reason why I most valiantly decided to give this story a try is that I’d just read Vigilance, was on the brink of committing shrimpicide as a result, and therefore needed something abhorrently fluffy to balance things out and stuff. QED and stuff.

Okay, so this story is a super extra short (and super extra cheap) Supernatural Whodunit Type Thingie (SWTT™), in which the lead detective is the local lesbian zombie sheriff a revoltingly-cute-too-clever-for-his-own-good-psychic-kitty-accidentally-turned-human-kiddie-I’m-kidnapping-and-locking-up-in-my-high-security-harem-kindergarden-wing-for-despicably-cool-hatchlings named Mr Poe *waves at Edgar A.*



Poe + Queen = YAY. That is a scientifically proven fact.

One of the most titillating things about this story is that it takes place is some sort of pocket dimension called the Haven, which happens to be a temporary retirement community for immortals. Which means it’s populated with delicious beings such as knitting circle-hosting vamps (don’t ask), asshole angels, non-dead yet non-zombified thingies, the occasional harlot, female vampire orc blacksmiths, the occasional cait sidhe, goat librarians, bipedal noncat things, and booze-imbibing sylphs with a thing for sex parties. And the icing on the cake shrimp on the paella: some of said delicious beings are characters from Reine’s Descentverse, straight out of her Preternatural Affairs, Ascension, and Silly Werewolves Seasons of the Moon series. (⚠️ This book might prove spoilerish for those who haven’t read those series. Thou hast been warned and stuff.) Which is slightly very wondrous, if you ask me.

➽ Nefarious Last Words (NLW™): the premise + the setting + Mr Poe + the colorful cast of characters + Reine’s take on ACMTT™ =



Pretty much, yeah.

· Book 2: The Tell Tale Cat ★★★★
· Book 3: The Masque of the Red Cat ★★★★
· Book 4: Fall of the House of Cat ★★★★
· Book 5: The Cat and the Pendulum ★★★★



[Pre-review nonsense]

Well. This was disgustingly cute, revoltingly cozy and abominably fluffy. And still, I liked it. I actually, bloody shrimping liked it. Please allow me to convulse a little.



Full review to come and stuff.

[Choko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cute!

This was exactly what the author was going for - a goofy shape-shifting cat book... let. Short, sweet and to the point cozy mystery where a small kitten finds itself unwittingly shape shifted into human child... Mr. Poe was adorable, but auntie Gwen stole the show for me. LGBTQ in multiple species 🙂👍

[Nola Arganbright · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very fun story of a kitten who turns into a human. The town he lives in is a retirement community for paranormals. It is a very short story but has plenty of action. Good plot and great characters.

[The Captain · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ahoy there me mateys!  Those who have been aboard for a while know that urban fantasy and I are not usually friends.  In fact we tend to be enemies.  I can't explain why.  It's just a truth.  And yet recently I loved the DFZ and The Lazy Girl's Guide to Magic series.  So when Melanie @ grabthelapels gushed about S.M. Reine's work, I figured I would take a chance.

Ye see this book is about a cat who can turn into a human.  It is a cozy mystery with homage to Edgar Allan Poe.  The title and the psychic cat as a main character convinced me to try it.  The fact I got it for free didn't hurt and it is short at 67 pages.

Ultimately it ended up being okay.  I actually very much liked Mr. Poe the cat, the neighbor who helps him, and the overall tone.  However, the mystery was boring and the world building a bit not to me taste.  I wouldn't mind reading the rest of the series if it were free but don't want to spend me loot on it.  But having just read two UF series back to back could just mean that I am very much done with the genre for a while.  That fact I can find any enjoyment in UF at all is still a marvel to me.  Arrr!

[Elentarri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting concept and world-building/characters, but the writing was simplistic and not very good.  Solving the murder also didn't really involve very much detecting, and relied more on guesswork and "jumping to conclusions". 

[Nancy D Miz-Firefly aka Sparky · Rating 5 out of 5]

While it was not actually amazing, it was overwhelmingly precious.

I had to check (several times) to be sure I was reading S. M. Reine.

[Krystyna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Curiosity killed the cat?

An okay read. Not sure what I was was expecting but this fell a bit short. I was expecting magic and although it is set in a paranormal community and the kitten swallows a magic ring, the magic was in short supply. Likewise I expected some humorous situations and again this was lacking. The plot however was a good one. A sudden collapse of a wall reveals a dead vampire. A vampire that had been walled in and left to starve over a long period. Who is he is one of the questions posed to the kitten's babysitter. A kitten that has swallowed a magi ring and shifted into a human boy. Can the unlikely pair find out who, how and why?

[Karen ⚜Mess⚜ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a very clever, very handsome, very perfect psychic kitten

S.M. Reine knows cats. She is tuned in to her inner cat and created this clever, charming and delightful mystery. Puuurfect for a lazy afternoon read.

[Peter Tillman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started this one, but it may be a little too silly and, well, sillier for me. Every fantasy cliché (pretty much) is being trotted out. I know it's meant to be funny, but humor is tricky. I'm going to pause it while I read something else

It is a freebie, so you may want to heed the many who did like it. New author for me.

OK, I've given up. NOT FOR ME. 1.5-ish stars, for what I read. And I'm not interested enough to look up how far I got. ...

[Sandee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was fun and interesting but didn't quite deliver what I was expecting. Mr. Poe the shape-shifting cat is a good premise and I was looking forward to reading about his skills as a detective. This story however, is only about Mr. Poe's discovery that he can shape-shift and about his time as a kitten. It is sweet and funny. I wish the blurb had provided a better description.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was weirdly perfect. Mr. Poe is a cat who can shapeshift (unintentionally, as it might be) into a human and HE LIVES WITH SUZY AND IZZY AND HELLO CESAR AND I REALLY DIG THAT.

Plus, HE'S A CAT WHO CAN SHAPESHIFT INTO A HUMAN.

We got to spend some quality time with Aunt Gwen, solve a murder most foul, and see a little, bitty kitty be a Very Good Boy. One who is also very clever. And psychic. Possibly the best part? Mr. Poe's disdain for Cesar and his tomcat ways. (What? I like Cesar, but I like how when we get to see people in a different light, too, and Mr. Poe's irritation at Cesar horning in on his territory amused me greatly.)

Mr. Poe. I like the guy.

-Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal

[Sha · Rating 4 out of 5]

30 Nov 2020

1.Confession time: our house recently got a kitten. He's very cute and very bitey and I am very fond of him. This means that any story featuring a cat and cat-like behavior might get preferential treatment from me.

2. There's nothing particularly remarkable about the plot of this book- it's a standard murder mystery, and not even a particularly interesting one. I mean yes, the victim was murdered in a relatively horrific fashion but other than that, it's pretty meh. The investigator talks to a couple of people. Convenient psychic powers allow our narrator to get information that was otherwise unavailable. With the help of this they solve the case and have a final confrontation. That's about it.

3. The banality of the plot, however, is neatly offset by the narration and the setting. We don't see quite as much of the setting as I'd like to, but what we do see of it is pretty interesting. I mean, the vampires and zombies have knitting clubs and disputes in the Home Owner's Association meetings. Bless.

4. The narration is even better. The story is told in the first person PoV of a kitten. The kitten in question is very kitten-like, even when he accidentally transforms himself into a human. He's bitey and arrogantly self-assured and tends to get distracted by moving objects and is generally the cutest goddamned thing in this entire book. I only have a month and a half's worth of experience with kitten proximity but whatever was in this book was VERY VALID.

5. KITTIES. //in the process of completing my transformation into unrepentant crazy cat lady

[Ketutar Jensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short story, perfect little morsel in October :-D
It tells a story of a little black kitten, the smartest and handsomest of his litter, and probably the whole kittenhood ever.
S.M.Reine manages to write him as a true cat, the way I feel cats are. He's clever, curious, affectionate, fiercely loyal to his people, but totally self-centered pompous little a-hole :-D I love cats :-)
Things happen and the cat get turned into a boy, and has adventures with his "baby sitter", who is the sheriff of the small haven for magical beings. We meet zombies, vampires, and other people of that kind. There's even some knitting involved.
S.M.Reine wrote this as an April Fool's joke - every 1st of April she says she's coming with a new book, but this book she actually wrote into a book :-D
The cat is named Poe, after her own cat, and Edgar Allan Poe, and there are several short stories in this series, all named after a Poe story.
I love cats, and The Cask of Amontillado was my first Poe ever, and it left a strong impression on me. I recommend you read the Poe story together with this, partly because this story is connected to that, and partly because I think it's one of the best short stories ever written. Spooky. As with Poe, the spookiness isn't in the obvious things...
Well, this story isn't spooky, it's a nice cozy mystery, and perfect for cat lovers.

[Kateblue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute little number about a cat that helps solve a mystery. Good to read when you are in an easily distracting circumstance (car passenger in this case) but not that exceptional or original except for the worldbuilding characteristics of the snippy little MC. Recommended for when you have read something really heavy and need some relief.

3 1/2 stars, really.

[Alexis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dovrebbe essere un cozy mystery fantasy, ma poco ci azzecca con il racconto originale di Poe, a parte il nome del gatto ed un breve accenno al barile di Amontillado.
Ci mette troppo per entrare nel vivo del mistero.

[James Garman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title was concerning a special resort for magical beings of all sorts. Numbered with the neighborhood are angels, demons, vampires, shifter and just about any other being you can imagine. The whole idea of Haven, which is where they all live, is that they all need to get along and any violence is forbidden.

Mr. Poe is a cat who gets rescued by two females named Sally and Izzy from under the porch of their house as a kitten. Mr. Poe is the narrator of most of the story and he has pretty much the mindset that we might associate with cats....he is very self-assured, might even say cocky and maybe even a little arrogant. But he does love his mommies, one of which of which is an sort of Angel and the other is another type creature. The sheriff is something else but she gets involved also.

Altough it introduced some interesting variations on the "super-natural" community like mummys and zombies, most of the action seems to involved vampires and a mystery concerning one walled up till they died inside a basement used for a knitting party.

Mr. Poe gets into the wrong place or maybe we should say got into two different "wrong places" and finds himself changed, and only changing part of the way back when the murder is solved and the story is over so there is likely to be other books or novellas written with Mr. Poe.

Sadly, I would only suggest that others read it if they find the discription appealing or have time for a 2-3 hour year and don't want to get into anything that requires thought. I have to admit that for a lot of it, I was sort of bored actually.

[Amy Mills · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this more than I did. The initial setup is cute: kitten accidentally swallows a magic ring, and becomes human (conveniently able to speak, due to the ring's properties), to the dismay of pretty much everyone. And if the plot had revolved around that more, around figuring out how to get the ring back out, or find a way for the kitten/kid to control the shifting, I probably would have loved this. As is? That became the back-drop for a mostly pointless murder mystery. And, if the kitten had played a meaningful role in solving that, it would have helped. The kitten's role was to report overheard thoughts due to the ring's plot-convenient gift of very plot-selective psychic senses, so at least there was something, but it was just kind of a grab bag of stuff thrown together, without any thought as to plot structure.

So if you like the idea of a kitten-to-human having semi-random adventures, and aren't looking for a well-structure plot, you might enjoy this. It was free, so, there's that. I'll probably give the second one a look and see if the plotting is any better.

[Anniken Haga · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally! A book by this author I could read!

I've been trying to read Reine's stuff for a while. I really like her writing-style and the way she see the world, but I have trouble getting into her stories. The pacing is too slow for me, and I've never been too interested in the romance/paranormal genre, and that goes for this author as well.
But I've kept trying, for I respect her a lot, and like her as a person, and finally I found a book/series by her I can read.

The writing is as usual good, and while the pacing may be a little slow, that's ok. This is the first short story about a cat that can turn into a human, and we readers need to be introduced to a new world -- which is done well. One can easily read this book without having read anything else by Reine before.

The characters are clear, if a bit annoying in how ''purrfect'' they are - pun intended ;)
All in all, it was a fun little story that was just the mini-escape from reality I needed.
I'm looking forward to reading the rest of this short series.

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Forgot I had this. The bits when Poe becomes human are handled well; he does seem to be essentially a cat, with a cat's reactions, rather than a human character who once in a while the author remembers is supposed to be a cat.

From my very limited experience, the story also seems to be a "cozy": we got cats; we got knitting; we don't got noir. As for the "mystery" aspect ... Not so much. The mystery is so easily solved that I kept waiting for a twist that didn't happen.

The story seems more for the fans of Reine's other works, who might want to see what their favorite characters are up to in retirement. Some characters from the Preternatural Affairs series; some characters I recognize from descriptions of other books. (So maybe don't read these stories if you haven't read the other series.) I don't, however, find myself interested in reading the other series; and I'm not going to pursue the other stories about Poe.

Good covers, though.

[Lady · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Kitten That Became A Man

•••NOT for the homophobic, transphobic, closedminded or faint of heart!•••



This series must be read in order. This is the first book. I can't wait to read "The Tell Tale Cat"!



This is a super fun, super short, cozy supernatural mystery that is kinda silly and a great read. I was sad when it was over but I'm totally gonna go buy the other two books now and I hope the author continues this series!


***This cozy supernatural mystery is suitable for young adult through adult readers who enjoy modern fantasy filled with lovable characters and a cat incredibly full of himself (as they all are) who is incorrigible and irrepressible while still managing to be adorable :)

[Vannessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a fun, quick read. Mr. Poe, a young black kitten, is taken in by two immortals living in a small town for immortals in another dimension. This novella is told from Mr. Poe's point of view and it was fun to read a cat's perspective on life! After accidentally swallowing something that changed him into a young human, Mr.Poe desperately wants to turn back, but while working out what to do, he stumbles over a murder in the small town and helps out the local Sheriff who is looking after him while his two mummies are away for a few days.

Mr. Poe was great and I would love to read more from his point of view and hopefully see his psychic powers grow a bit more!

[JP · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely Fan-freaking-tastic 😁

S.M. has been one of my very favorite authors for years and years 😃. I've been a cat lover all my life and currently take care of all the homeless flea-lines that horrible people dump in my neighborhood 🤗. As they age I bring them into my house and love them till they pass 😻. So, I absolutely Adored this book and look forward to reading more of these 🤓. Thanks S.M., your stories are totally awesome and I've spent many sleepless nights enjoying them. You ROCK! 🎸

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cute fantasy reading 📚

A will written fantasy novella in the Psychic Cat Mysteries Series (book 1-4) with shape shifters, vampires, and more in the village of Haven. The characters are interesting. The story line is fast moving as the cat 🐱and a vampire race to solve a fifty year old murder. I would recommend this novella to anyone looking for a quick read. Enjoy reading 🔰2021 🐈

[Lizzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first read from this author, and I enjoyed it! It’s a quick little story and read it in an hour or so.

I’m unfamiliar with her other stories/universe, but I was able to catch on quick. I love Mr. Poe and his attitude and cleverness.

Will definitely read the other two in this short series! I love having a cozy and cute quick read on hand. I hope the author can share more stories about Mr. Poe in the future! 🖤🐈‍⬛

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

For such a short story it was very interesting! A cat turned human is not an unusual story for me but they usually humorous and interesting. Mr. Poe as a human was different and he had difficulty accepting his humanity and was relieved when he was back being a cat. Read this enjoyable story as it was fun!

[Dana Fucci · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just purrrfect!

Just purrrfect! I love the thought of imagining what my kitties might say if they could speak. As a shorter read, this was a great story. I was eager to get back to it when interrupted by the real world.
I would recommend this book to any one new to Sara Reine and her unique world.
Thanks for this light bit of fun!

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short and cute story about a cat rescued by 2 immortal women who live in a hidden dimensional town. Mr. Poe is rescued as a kitten, but accidentally swallows a magical device that makes him human - except in his mind, he's still a cat. He and the Sheriff end up working on the case of a murdered vampire. Its sweet and campy and less than 70 pages. Not a bad read.

[Tammy Bridges · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like books that are different This 1 was Was

It was a good book to read Very interesting Lots of different characters Cats are my special Animal I have a lot I do hope the writer has cats Because to write about them you need to know about them So far so good It could have been a little bit more in depth About the 1 that died The 1 that was the wife Of the dead

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like mysteries and Edgar Allan Poe, and I love cats, so this clever, quick read was a lot of fun. It doesn’t hurt that my son has a black cat named Poseidon that we call Po. This is my first introduction to SM Reine, and I’ve already put several other of her books on my Want to Read list. I also plan the read the rest of the Psychic Cat series.

[lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Accidental magic and a murder ....

A home alone kitten finds himself in a stange situation as a human , and not a very big human ,furless, upright and worried but still a very clever boy .