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belbookandacuppa's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
3.75
norwegianforestreader's review
adventurous
dark
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Murder, and Toxic relationship
chrissa10's review
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
mikimac's review
3.0
It takes some getting used to. The main characters as cats but not like house cats… completely anthropomorphic cats.
Hettie Bagshot & Tilly Jenkins, best friends, run the No 2 Feline Detective Agency. When they find themselves between cases, they agree to help a friend on the Magical Mystery Paws tour.
It is a fun cozy read with a twist. The personalities of the characters are so well done and relatable that you find yourself smiling in recognition throughout the book. It is a funny, cute, whodunit style mystery.
Although this is part of a series, it works well as a standalone read as well.
Hettie Bagshot & Tilly Jenkins, best friends, run the No 2 Feline Detective Agency. When they find themselves between cases, they agree to help a friend on the Magical Mystery Paws tour.
It is a fun cozy read with a twist. The personalities of the characters are so well done and relatable that you find yourself smiling in recognition throughout the book. It is a funny, cute, whodunit style mystery.
Although this is part of a series, it works well as a standalone read as well.
eternity21's review
3.0
This book was a little hard to get into initially. There are cats represented as people in almost all ways. That took a little getting used to. But I did jump into the series at #6. After a while it was fun the author sort of pokes fun with it. Lots of catnip use. LOL. The main cats Tilly and Hettie run a private investigation company. They are invited to join a music tour for a punk rocker named Patty Sniff. Of course there is a murder to solve. It was rather fun. I will be checking into the others in the series.
annarella's review
4.0
A very lovely mix of fantasy and cozy mystery. You've to get used to the fact that the characters are cats acting as human as this can be a bit bewildering at the beginning.
The book is well written, the plot is solid and keep you guessing, the characters are likeable.
A fun to read and enjoyable book.
Recommended!
Many thanks to Farrago and Netgalley for this ARC
The book is well written, the plot is solid and keep you guessing, the characters are likeable.
A fun to read and enjoyable book.
Recommended!
Many thanks to Farrago and Netgalley for this ARC
stephbookshine's review
4.0
*I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley. The decision to review and my opinions are my own.*
First and pawmost I need to note that the characters in this book are cats (which should really be obvious from the title, series and cover, but you never know!).
These are cats that wear ponchos and mini-skirts, drive buses, play guitars and cook delicious Jamaican jerk chicken (with a sprinkle of catnip to mellow the mood). They also clean their whiskers with their paws, sleep curled up on chairs and other surfaces, and take a fairly practical attitude to life and death. So still cats, basically.
I wasn’t sure quite how I would feel about anthropomorphised cats solving mysteries and playing music gigs, but actually it works. It works so well that the characters’ felinity is of as little importance as their breed, sexual orientation or age…it might have a small influence on their actions and behaviours but is irrelevant to the plot and to their characterisation as a whole. I like that.
In fact, at times I suspected the cats’ primary function was to allow the author to exercise her punny bone! Names of characters, places and well-known phrases are all opportunities that the author does not miss to slip in the purrfect feline pun. It added a light-heartedness to the writing that made me smile as I read.
Cats aside, Magical Mystery Paws is a cosy mystery and a well-written one. We have our small clowder of suspects and our curiosity-led amateur sleuths. There are clues and interviews, leading to a big showdown and the final reveal. To my own personal annoyance, I spotted one twist but guessed the actual murderer wrong…a good sign, as that means the author had me fooled!
This book is the fifth in the No. 2 Feline Detective Agency series, and not only will I be tracking back to pick up the first four books, but I will be eagerly awaiting the next release. Recommended for fans of cosy mysteries with their (rough) tongue firmly in their whiskered cheeks!
These days, some of the names resonated with both Hettie and Tilly – cats who had left the earth prematurely and been part of some of the high-profile murder cases that had landed on their desk at the No. 2 Feline Detective Agency. Teezle Makepeace and Mavis Spitforce now rested under nearby trees, no longer burdened by the cares of everyday life; although that made them sad, Hettie and Tilly were proud of the fact that – thanks to them – their murderers were tucked away beyond the consecrated ground, unrecognised by any headstone, and as if they had never been. Justice had been served.
– Mandy Morton, Magical Mystery Paws
Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog
https://bookshineandreadbows.wordpress.com/2018/07/08/magical-mystery-paws-mandy-morton/
First and pawmost I need to note that the characters in this book are cats (which should really be obvious from the title, series and cover, but you never know!).
These are cats that wear ponchos and mini-skirts, drive buses, play guitars and cook delicious Jamaican jerk chicken (with a sprinkle of catnip to mellow the mood). They also clean their whiskers with their paws, sleep curled up on chairs and other surfaces, and take a fairly practical attitude to life and death. So still cats, basically.
I wasn’t sure quite how I would feel about anthropomorphised cats solving mysteries and playing music gigs, but actually it works. It works so well that the characters’ felinity is of as little importance as their breed, sexual orientation or age…it might have a small influence on their actions and behaviours but is irrelevant to the plot and to their characterisation as a whole. I like that.
In fact, at times I suspected the cats’ primary function was to allow the author to exercise her punny bone! Names of characters, places and well-known phrases are all opportunities that the author does not miss to slip in the purrfect feline pun. It added a light-heartedness to the writing that made me smile as I read.
Cats aside, Magical Mystery Paws is a cosy mystery and a well-written one. We have our small clowder of suspects and our curiosity-led amateur sleuths. There are clues and interviews, leading to a big showdown and the final reveal. To my own personal annoyance, I spotted one twist but guessed the actual murderer wrong…a good sign, as that means the author had me fooled!
This book is the fifth in the No. 2 Feline Detective Agency series, and not only will I be tracking back to pick up the first four books, but I will be eagerly awaiting the next release. Recommended for fans of cosy mysteries with their (rough) tongue firmly in their whiskered cheeks!
These days, some of the names resonated with both Hettie and Tilly – cats who had left the earth prematurely and been part of some of the high-profile murder cases that had landed on their desk at the No. 2 Feline Detective Agency. Teezle Makepeace and Mavis Spitforce now rested under nearby trees, no longer burdened by the cares of everyday life; although that made them sad, Hettie and Tilly were proud of the fact that – thanks to them – their murderers were tucked away beyond the consecrated ground, unrecognised by any headstone, and as if they had never been. Justice had been served.
– Mandy Morton, Magical Mystery Paws
Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog
https://bookshineandreadbows.wordpress.com/2018/07/08/magical-mystery-paws-mandy-morton/
pers's review
3.0
A book that I'm sure all children who love tales of anthropomorphised animals will love.
helenh's review
3.0
Let’s get the band back together! And that’s one of the things that happens in Magical Mystery Paws, another chapter in the No. 2 Feline Detective Agency series by Mandy Morton. One needs to suspend all disbelief to read these books; once that’s accomplished, feel free to enjoy the feline antics of Hettie and Tilly, the proprietors of the aforementioned private detective company, and their many cat friends, who just happen to talk, and dance, and sing. And kill things. Like the drummer of the backup band The Cheese Triangles who quickly turns up dead, strangled by a guitar string. Hettie and Tilly are soon on the case, whiskers twitching and tails up.
Never mind the bodies strewn about, Hettie’s long-haired tabby hackles (as described) are soon raised over the disaster in the making of a musical tour, recalling her own history of being on the road. And disaster is a good word for a lot of what happens in the book, which is more a tale of musical misery (the lot of a performer, human or cat, is apparently not a happy one) than mystery.
The book itself, apart from the plot, is quite a wonder. The play on words flies fast and furious -- Tabby Road Recording Studios; Agatha Crispy, whose books Tilly adores, since she is so adept at ferreting out the murderer; M. Balm, the town’s undertaker. There's Enya, the cat with the beautiful singing voice that sings “Caribbean Boot.” And lest we forget, Nicolette Upstart, the famous writer. There’s more where that came from -- especially on the last page.
Finally, the killer is revealed (a bit before the ending), and everything plays out to a happy and triumphant end. The Summer of Fluff tour, when everythin’ seems better with a little bit o’ nip.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the copy of this book, in exchange for this review. (less)
Never mind the bodies strewn about, Hettie’s long-haired tabby hackles (as described) are soon raised over the disaster in the making of a musical tour, recalling her own history of being on the road. And disaster is a good word for a lot of what happens in the book, which is more a tale of musical misery (the lot of a performer, human or cat, is apparently not a happy one) than mystery.
The book itself, apart from the plot, is quite a wonder. The play on words flies fast and furious -- Tabby Road Recording Studios; Agatha Crispy, whose books Tilly adores, since she is so adept at ferreting out the murderer; M. Balm, the town’s undertaker. There's Enya, the cat with the beautiful singing voice that sings “Caribbean Boot.” And lest we forget, Nicolette Upstart, the famous writer. There’s more where that came from -- especially on the last page.
Finally, the killer is revealed (a bit before the ending), and everything plays out to a happy and triumphant end. The Summer of Fluff tour, when everythin’ seems better with a little bit o’ nip.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the copy of this book, in exchange for this review. (less)
gwennypenny's review
3.0
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the review copy.
Well this wasn't quite the book I expected! I was thinking it was going to be a cozy mystery with cats, but it definitely wasn't that!
Hettie and Tilly run the Number 2 Feline Detective Agency, and are invited to go along on tour with Patty Sniff and The Cheese Triangles to help run things behind the scenes.
Things soon take a sinister turn though, when one of Patty's backing band turns up murdered, strangled by a D string.
Hettie and Tilly set their investigative noses onto solving the murder, soon to be murders plural, with a not too surprising outcome.
With a pun-filled cast of cat-characters, it's an enjoyable read.
Well this wasn't quite the book I expected! I was thinking it was going to be a cozy mystery with cats, but it definitely wasn't that!
Hettie and Tilly run the Number 2 Feline Detective Agency, and are invited to go along on tour with Patty Sniff and The Cheese Triangles to help run things behind the scenes.
Things soon take a sinister turn though, when one of Patty's backing band turns up murdered, strangled by a D string.
Hettie and Tilly set their investigative noses onto solving the murder, soon to be murders plural, with a not too surprising outcome.
With a pun-filled cast of cat-characters, it's an enjoyable read.
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