Another great book by Ms. Brandon ( )

This 3rd novel of the series is a terrific new addition to the series. Solving murder mysteries has come at a price for Darla, Robert, and even Hamlet. Hamlet interacts with a cat whisperer while Darla and Robert have begun karate lessons. Little did they realize that the karate lessons would put them in the midst of more danger.

The novels in this series can each be read as a stand-alone but for this series in particular, I would suggest reading the novels in order as then the reader can luxuriate in the progress of each character which becomes so much richer in knowing their back-story from previous storylines. As examples, James T. James is dating one of the customers and the tenant in the basement apartment Jacqueline "Jake" Martelli is moving beyond her initial cases as she opened Martelli Private Investigations, Inc. in the 2nd novel.

This fun series is not to be missed by bookstore lovers, amateur sleuths, and all who love extraordinary felines. ( )

Let me start by saying I love Hamlet (the cat). He's, by far, the best part of this book. He gets lots of play in Words with Fiends and his methods of communication are clever and just ambiguous enough to leave room for interpretation. The cat whisperer was a bit odd, but it worked in the story line.

Otherwise, this was a very average read. First spoiler:

The title gives away the murderer. Sort of. It's a dead give away by page 21 that the murderer is one of the people Darla plays Words with Friends against.


Part of what made it such an average read for me is no fault of the author whatsoever. I don't have the slightest interest at all in martial arts of any kind. This book's whole theme is martial arts (Darla's sensei is murdered and she finds him in the dojo), so the story left me cold and ambivalent from the word go.

Sadly, the plot was weakened by the obviousness of the murderer. Last spoiler:

When an author introduces an unlikeable character who plays no obvious role in the narrative, and has him constantly appearing and making himself unlikeable - yeah, that's a big giant red flag with a neon border flashing for good measure. The murderer here is introduced early on but he plays no real purpose - it's obvious he's the murderer.


I've liked Darla, Robert, James and Jake enough to keep reading the series, even though it's not the strongest series in my TBR pile. (Reece is supposed to be the possible love interest, but he came across like a sexist jackass throughout 90% of this book, so I'm not quite sure how I'm supposed to like him enough to want Darla with him.) These characters aren't strong enough, however, to carry a weak plot. As a result, I found myself skimming a lot of the second half of the book in a rush to get to the end, and call it done.

This was the book I liked least in this series, so I'll probably pick up the fourth one to see where she goes from here. But it'll have to be a stronger plot and a nicer Reece.

Hamlet is perfect, just as he is. ( )

After a recent brush with danger, bookstore owner Darla Pettistone is worried about both herself and her cat Hamlet. In order to protect herself if needed in the future, she is taking karate lessons; to help Hamlet she's hired a cat whisperer (or feline behavioral empath as Brody Raywinkle prefers to be called). It is going to take a while before hamlet shows any sign of improvement but Darla soon has other things to worry about when she and coworker Robert find the body of their sensei. Tom Tomlinson's death isn't as it appears and soon Darla (and Hamlet) are in the middle of a murder investigation. Will Darla’s snooping put them in danger?

“Words with Fiends” is the third book in Ali Brandon's Black Cat Bookshop a cozy mystery series. Although I have not read the first two books in the series I quickly fell in love with the characters and setting and fully intend to buy the first two books. While I enjoyed all the human characters (Darla, James, Robert, and Jake), as someone who is owned by two cats Hamlet was easily my favorite character. While Hamlet reminded me a bit of Koko from the Cat Who series, this book is not nearly as fluffy as that series with deeper written characters and situations. The bookstore setting is a good one and the events at the dojo are nicely done. The mystery itself is well plotted with plenty of suspects and readers no doubt will be surprised at a few things that happen in the book. Finally, there is a wonderfully funny event towards the end of the book that made wish it reallyy happened and really was a YouTube video. That’s one video I could watch over and over again :-)

“Words with Fiends” is a nicely done cozy mystery and I look forward to reading more books in the series. ( )