Loved The Interactions

Bob & Shirley’s Killer Cat Puzzle by Suzy K Quinn is a really fun contemporary novel that goes hand in hand with the other books in the Bob & Shirley Mystery series.

This book is unique in that the reader can interact with the characters, find the hidden clues, and decide if Sambuca, Bob & Shirley’s cat is guilty of murder. Or is it one of the other four lower village cats?

Bob loves his puzzles and draws out a grid within which we can place our clues. We need to decipher the clues in each chapter, add them to the grid, and work out who is the guilty party? – Easy?… Err, nope! Not for me! I am hopeless at that sort of thing. I had great fun finding the clues (some of them) and filling in the grid. But was left scratching my head, wondering which was the guilty cat? Fortunately, Bob goes through the clues in detail towards the end of the book! Don’t jump to the back to read the solution as it takes away the fun!

Of course, you can always just read the book without filling in the grid. As with the other books in the series, this is highly amusing with Shirley being slightly scatterbrained and definitely in Sambuca’s corner, and Bob providing the analytical brain and very fussy about the English language. The pair bounce off each other and are hilarious.

As the previous owner of a psycho cat, Marble (died aged 19 in July 2020), I can definitely identify with Sambuca. “Shirley says Sambuca is misunderstood, but I find him extremely easy to understand. He’s a spoiled, vicious, entitled cat with an alcohol problem.” I used to say Marble was misunderstood! And you had to keep an eye on his eyes, as he could go from enjoying a stroke o biting!! “There’s… a warning sin on the bar that says ‘Do not look directly at the cat’.”