A Clutter of Cats

A Maples Mystery #5

by Louise Carson

It's late spring and young artist Gerry Coneybear and her twenty cats are thrilled to finally be able to spend time in the garden surrounding her 200-year-old house on the Ottawa River. But Gerry is having difficulty keeping her curious cats safe from her new neighbours' large dog. The couple's? marriage appears a bit fraught, and when the philandering husband is murdered, the wife is the obvious suspect. Or ought to be. As events unfold next door, Gerry watches from her garden, where she picks rhubarb, weeds, and plants her flowers, catnip and herbs, all supervised by her cats and her friend and part-time housekeeper Prudence. A terrible car crash, an eccentric train engineer (and his equally eccentric wife), and a midnight visit to the house next door all contribute to this cozy mystery coming out all right in the end. And there's jam-making. And ghosts.

Genres: Mystery

240 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2021

About the author

Born in Montreal and raised in Hudson, Quebec, Louise Carson studied music in Montreal and Toronto, played jazz piano and sang in the chorus of the Canadian Opera Company. Carson has published five books: Rope, a blend of poetry and prose set in eighteenth century Scotland; Mermaid Road, a lyrical novella; A Clearing, a collection of poetry; Executor, a mystery set in China and Toronto; and The Cat Among Us. A sixth book, The Cat Vanishes, is to appear in October 2018.
Her poems appear in literary magazines, chapbooks and anthologies from coast to coast, including The Best Canadian Poetry 2013. She's been short-listed in FreeFall Magazine's annual contest three times and won a Manitoba Magazine Award. She's presented her work in many public forums, including Hudson's Storyfest 2015, and in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Saskatoon, Kingston and New York City.
She lives in St-Lazare, Quebec, where she writes, teaches music and gardens.

Reviews

[David]

A very gentle and sedate murder mystery, well-suited to the general outward appearance (at least) of its setting. Interesting attempt to imagine the mental process of cats, especially when they encounter ghosts.