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Praise for the Bookmobile Cat Mysteries

Praise for the National Bestselling Bookmobile Cat Mysteries

“With humor and panache, Cass delivers an intriguing mystery and interesting characters.”

—Bristol Herald Courier (VA)

“Almost impossible to put down . . . the story is filled with humor and warmth.”

—MyShelf.com

“[With] Eddie’s adorableness [and] penchant to try to get more snacks, and Minnie’s determination to solve the crime, this duo will win over even those that don’t like cats.”

—Cozy Mystery Book Reviews

“A pleasant read. . . . [Minnie is] a spunky investigator.”

—Gumshoe

“A fast-paced page-turner that had me guessing until the last dramatic scenes.”

—Melissa’s Mochas, Mysteries & Meows

“Reading Cass’s cozies feels like sharing a bottle of wine with an adventurous friend as she regales you with the story of her latest escapade.”

—The Cuddlywumps Cat Chronicles

“Books, family, romance, and of course, a library cat make this a winning series for mystery readers and fans of these cozy adventures.”

—Kings River Life Magazine

Titles by Laurie Cass

Lending a Paw

Tailing a Tabby

Borrowed Crime

Pouncing on Murder

Cat with a Clue

Wrong Side of the Paw

Booking the Crook

Gone with the Whisker

Checking Out Crime

Dedication

To all small businesses everywhere. In large part because of you and your hard work, our communities are not merely places to live, but are places we’re proud to call home. (Note: Paddles & Pedals of Bellaire graciously allowed me to use their name in this book. Any other resemblance between the fictional and real version is completely accidental.)

Chapter 1

When we’re children, we have all sorts of expectations. We expect to go to school. To learn things. Make friends. Memorize locker combinations. We also expect that someday we’ll do things. Maybe great things. That we’ll go forth and conquer. Be successful. Marry. Have children. Travel.

For me, the husband and child predictions had been a bit fuzzy, but my career expectations had been specific. At the ripe old age of seven, I decided I wanted to work in a library because then I’d be able to read all day and no one would order me to put my book down and go outside and play because otherwise my eyes were going to get stuck and I’d have to wear progressively stronger glasses the rest of my life.

In due course, I followed through with my decision and was now, at age thirty-five, the happy assistant director of a library in Chilson, Michigan, a lakeshore town in northwest lower Michigan. What I hadn’t expected was that I’d be living on a houseboat and driving a bookmobile with a cat as my copilot. But it was an adorable houseboat, running the bookmobile program was tremendously rewarding, and the cat . . . well, he somehow made everything shinier.

Most of the time, anyway.