Degrees of Affection

I'll confess: I picked this up because it pays homage to the Thin Man movies. Yep, that's the whole reason this book ever found a home in my library bag. Oh, I might have read it eventually (I'm slowly picking my way through the cozy mysteries) but I would have held off for a bit. And no matter how much I love the Magical Cats Mysteries, I'm still leery at times when animals come into the picture. They can either be done right (the previous mentioned series and The Cat Who series) or really wrong (All Fudged Up).

And largely, it lived up to my expectations. I liked Nora Charles; she was able to be personal and yet pull off the idea of an investigative journalists (who I am sure are often very personal but I can't name a single literary one I've encountered who I'd have wanted to meet in real life). It even gave her somewhat of an excuse to ask questions, be pushy, and even be a bit sledgehammery in her investigation style. (Which I generally don't like because it rarely fits the context.) I even liked Nick, the cat who adopts her. While there were some aspects I'm a bit concerned about (see below), he was a well written character that added a lot to the story. I never felt like he was a distraction and he worked well with the characters.

Her friend Chantal was...hit or miss with me. I liked the friendship between her and Nora, they worked well together and played off each other well. But Chantal uses tarot cards - a lot. While not quite on the level of Ouija Boards for me (which are basically an instant DNF in any book), I rarely finish a book where they are so prominent. I think it was Nora's attitude towards them that helped but I'll admit, I'll probably take this series book by book. 

The mystery was quite good and complicated, though the coincidence between Nora's former occupation and the background of the mystery was a bit much.

And then there was the whole Nick aspect. Look, I love the guy but this book is going further into areas that the Magical Cat series wisely left alone. I don't care why the cat is good at solving mysteries. I don't care why he use to be the PI's pet and then latched onto Nora. I don't want an explanation other than it's a cat and cat's are not normal. (I love them but they aren't!) The hints we're given about the possibility about Nick are not conducive for me to stay with this series. We'll just have to wait and see.

Still, the good outweighed the problems and anything to do with the Thin Man and other old movies like that gets a huge plus in my book.

We'll just have to see where this goes.