Four-legged Fun: Our Favorite Animal Mysteries

Hi! Liz here, still floating over the release of A Biscuit, A Casket this week! In the spirit of the Pawsitively Organic Mysteries, which star a fair number of feline and canine characters, we’re talking our favorite animal cozies today.

I love any book that has an animal in it. A cat on the cover pretty much ensures I’ll read it. I totally love Spencer Quinn‘s Chet and Bernie Mysteries. Reading from Chet (the dog’s) point of view is hilarious, heartbreaking and completely amazing.

Clea Simon‘s books are fabulous too, most recently the Pru Marlowe Pet Noir series. And I have so many more in my TBR pile: Leann Sweeney’s Cats in Trouble series, Ali Brandon’s Black Cat Bookshop Mysteries…the list goes on!

Jessie: My absolute favorite animal mystery is a book I read as a child and then read to each of my own children. A Summer in the South by James Marshall makes for a silly and endearing read.

Sherry: The first series I read with cats in them was The Cat Who mysteries by Lilian Jackson Braun. I loved Moose County, Minnesota, retired newspaperman Jim Qwilleran and his smart Siamese cat, Koko.

Edith: I know they aren’t house pets, but I really like Sheila Connolly’s goats, Dorcas and Isabel, in the Orchard Mysteries. They haven’t gotten up to too much mischief yet, but they sure could if they get loose. Their picture is on the cover of Bitter Harvest, too.

Barb: Hmm. I’m thinking my favorite animal mystery is Jasper Fforde’s The Fourth Bear, in which Detective Jack Spratt and Sergeant Mary Mary attempt to solve the mystery of the disparate temperatures of the porridge while looking for missing person Goldy Hatchett, investigative reporter. The plot is complicated by Porribition and of course, the right to arm bears.

Julie: My sister Caroline would want me to plug Rita Mae Brown’s Sneaky Pie Brown series, which she loves. My choices for pet sidekicks? Spencer’s Pearl in Robert B. Parker’s books. And I like Miss Marple in Lorna Barrett’s Booktown mysteries. I haven’t read Krista Davis’s Paws and Claws series, but her Domestic Diva series featured some great pet sidekicks.