Kitty Litter Killer

Trish Cunningham Mystery #3

by Candice Speare Prentice

TRISH CUNNINGHAM IS PUSSYFOOTING WITH A MURDERER

 

Amateur sleuth Trish has retired from her short-lived foray into crime solving. No more walking deliberately into danger. Her short-term goal is to see her best friend Abbie marry fiancé Eric Scott in three weeks.

 

But the brutal murder of Abbie’s ex-husband could ruin the nuptials, especially since Abbie was the last one seen with him—when they had a hostile argument at the local convenience store.

 

With evidence pointing at Abbie and the possibility of jail looming in her best friend’s future instead of a wedding, Trish comes out of self-imposed sleuth retirement. And as the clock ticks down to the wedding date, Trish once again puts herself in reach of the claws of a murderer—this time to protect her best friend.

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery

253 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published December 9, 2008

About the author

Candice lives in the semi-suburbs of Maryland with her husband, family, and a dog named Jack. When she's not writing, she might be gardening (translate: fretting over the flowerbed, wondering what happened to her green thumb). She likes photography, scrapbooking, and housewifely endeavors. As is true with most authors, Candice's interests are numerous. In addition to mystery, romance, and suspense novels, her stack of "things to be read" includes newspapers from the 1800s, magazines from the early 1900s, biographies, diaries, and historical medical books.

Candice is represented by the MacGregor Literary Agency. She's a member of ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers). You can visit her at www.candiceprentice.com.

Reviews

[Cornerofmadness · Rating 3 out of 5]

I grabbed this from the library because I needed a K for my alphabet challenge and it sounded cute. It's more like a 2.5 read. It's probably a little better than my own personal enjoyment but honestly I didn't connect with the characters at all (also this is book 3 but that doesn't really matter much). I didn't notice it was a Heartsong (i.e. Christian inspirational) until half way through but I think the author forgot that too because God wasn't getting credit for everything until about that point. Don't get me wrong. I'm not bashing on religion here. I read mysteries with priests, monks, nuns, rabbis etc but for me there needs to be a balance between faith and mysteries and a lot of times the 'inspirational' ones have it too far to one side for me. That said mostly it wasn't bad in this until Abbie, the prime suspect started saying her ex's abusive behavior was a punishment from God for not helping Phillip to find God. I about threw the book at that point but luckily the main character was quick to shut that down.

Trish is a mother of three or four (I think one is her husband's by an earlier marriage) who has two very domineering women in her life, her mother and her mother in law. Apparently Max (her husband) comes from mom and she doesn't and she thinks her MiL dislikes her because of it...apparently for years since she has somewhat older kids. Her best friend, Abbie, an author, is getting married in two weeks to Eric, a detective when Phillip her ex (and another cop) returns to town, argues with her in public and gets killed.

Naturally Abbie is the prime suspect and even more naturally Trish doesn't think the state cop detective put on the case because of conflicts of interest with the local cops is capable of seeing past Abbie as a suspect. We have the normal pressures to stay out of it by the family except Mom who is running around 'helping' by alienating everyone.

As for the titular kitty litter and kitty, Trish's well to do mom wants to get Sammie, Trish's little girl a cat. Rather than being cute and fun, the cats barely play a role (but a pivotal one at the end) and does nothing more than to reinforce negative stereotypes about cats which I didn't appreciate much (They're sneaky, they're not loveable etc).

It's not a bad read. The mystery was pretty obvious and I was a bit annoyed that everyone seemed more concerned about the murdered man (who hadn't been very nice) once they realized he had converted to the Lord. I'm not sure I'd go out of my way to find more of this. It's not really my cup of tea.

[Paige · Rating 4 out of 5]

With the exception of some grammatical problems this book was very enjoyable. I wish I had known that this was book 3 in a series but that did nothing to take away from the story. I liked the subtle Christian themes that permeated the story. Never preachy, never judge mental just good old fashion writing with a mystery on the side. Of course I am am partial to mysteries and cats. Looking forward to the first two and hoping that this truly is not the last we hear from this author.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book 3 in the Mayhem in Maryland series finds Trish Cunningham the new mother of a 13 month old and trying to help her best friend Abbie plan her second wedding to the detective who advised her of her first husband’s infidelity.
A new delivery guy who used to model in a New York is one of the suspects when Abbie’s ex-husband is found killed along with Abbie who is the top suspect.
Family dynamics are explored, unusual motives and a wedding that might never take place.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't read a lot of fiction, preferring true stories. That said, I had been doing so much research that I needed a break. What better way than to go into a good crime sleuth type book. I like how the character intertwined her family life and her sleuthing. It got scary but I don't want to spoil that fact... Good read that was worth my investment!

[Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it!

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this series, wish there were more.

[Cheri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fair. i might read more by this author. but probably would not recommend to others as a great read. Easy reading. average writing. pleasant

[Virginia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good reading

[Rhonda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good lite fun read