The Cat Who Tailed a Thief

1997, 1998 Jove Books edition
Lilian Jackson Braun
The Cat Who Tailed a Thief
Original price $6.99, purchase price 50 cents
Very worn paperback with split spine
B-

The hero-worship of Qwill is getting ridiculous, with one woman offering to give up her spot in line at the bank.  When he finally wears a kilt, everyone thinks he looks wonderful.  And of course the banker's bimbo wife, soon widow, is after him.  It's pretty obvious that she and her "cousin" are the guilty ones in the mystery, but it's not a bad book.  I am getting tired of the local anecdotes that Qwill tape-records, but at least there's a sort of pay-off this time, with the tape recorder revealing information.

This is set the winter after Said Cheese, so 1990 turning into 1991.  It seems a bit early for cell phones (I identify them with the mid to late '90s), but that's a minor quibble.  I did find it odd that Koko and Yum Yum allow a picture of them to be taken for the front page of the newspaper, but they're cats and allowed to be fickle.

This is the last Cat Who I own, although I've read some of the later ones.  So it turns out, after all, that I can't say when the series jumped the shark.  Perhaps it's best to bid adieu to Qwill and the gang while the writing's still pretty good.