The Cat Who Played Post Office (1996) - Plot & Excerpts
A Review of The Cat Who Played Post Office by Lilian Jackson BraunRating: Four StarsEdition: Mass Market PaperbackGenre: Cozy MysteryThe Cat Who Played Post Office by Lilian Jackson Braun is the sixth book in the Cat Who Series and was published in 1987. For those not familiar with the series: Jim Qwilleran is a journalist from the big city who has inherited great wealth and now lives in a small county with a bunch of unique townspeople. Qwilleran is also the cat guardian of two Siamese, Koko and Yum Yum. Yum Yum is a sweet little female, while Koko is highly intelligent male with a psychic ability to sniff and scratch in the right places when things are going amiss. With Koko's help, Qwilleran uses his inquisitive journalism skills to solve mysteries around the town. Overall, if you are looking to get into the Cat Who Series, this is not actually a bad one to start with because it is the first that is located where Qwilleran is living full-time in Pickax.In this particular Cat Who book, Qwilleran is getting used to living as a wealthy individual. He even invites his friend Iris Cobb from "Down Below" to be his housekeeper (a character who was introduced in an earlier book). However, even with the comfort of his new-found wealth, Qwilleran believes something to be off when he discovers one of his properties to have graffiti from a long-gone maid. Who is this girl? And why did she disappear so suddenly?Jim Qwilleran is a very likable character that a reader gets to see grow from book to book, but the show is actually stolen by his cats, Koko and Yum Yum. If you are a crazy cat-lady like me or just like cats, you will enjoy the mannerisms of the Siamese. It is truly spot-on (you know this if you have Siamese of your own). In fact, this series is responsible for me being the cat guardian of three Siamese cats. In this book, we also get to meet the townspeople of Pickax a little more than we did in the previous book. Some characters are favored more heavily in some books than others (Braun seems to cycle them in prominence).All Cat Who books are very light reads. Even though they are mysteries, they are more of a cozy mystery, where there might be a murder, but there is no blood and guts. Are these books literary masterpieces? No. However, they are really fun reads that take the reader away from life for a little bit.Overall, I recommend this book and this series. This book in particular is pretty solid (some of the later ones are NOT good). Regardless if you love cats, I think most who are looking for a light, cozy mystery will like this one. Four stars.
After his unlikely inheritance, Jack Qwilleram has resigned from his post at the Daily Fluxion and gone to live in the Klingenschoen mansion in rural Pickaxe City, Moose county. Taking his Siamese cats with him, one of whom -the male KoKo- is an uncanny crime buster, able to sniff and scratch out clues, Qwilleram is able to solve mysteries.Having been won over with the notion of cat detectives, which can hardly fail as a premise in my book, I bought two omnibus editions of Braun's works (which contain something like the first third of the twenty odd books in the series) and have leisurely made my way through them..Like all such series, the formula is key, the details between episodes being barely distinguishable one from another. In this one, Qwilleram becomes obsessed with the story of the sudden disappearance of a former maid who served at his mansion. She left many of her belongings behind, which is mill to the grist for the knowing KoKo, who helps unravel the murderous facts behind an unusual local love-triangle.The plot is pretty lame this time around, whilst Yum Yum -the female Siamese- does even less than usual, not even undoing any shoelaces. But there are some nice comic touches, especially a typically over earnest debate around the inaccuracy of the Stars and Stripes flag at a local council meeting. This formula can't really fail to deliver a diverting couple of hours.
What do You think about The Cat Who Played Post Office (1996)?
These short mystery novels continue to entertain me. I’m sure it’s because of the cats...even though they’re not mentioned in the book as often as you might think. Which is either a shame or a blessing depending how crazy you are about cats.Braun writes compact mysteries...a whole lot of punch is packed into 250 pages. The plot is solid, the solution always believable, the characters fun and quirky. I’m sure this is considered to be a “cozy” mystery...something I swore I would never read. And now here I am...on to the next one in the series.
—Monica
Ce livre est le 6ème volume de la saga « Jim Qwilleran Feline Whodunnit ». Je ne connaissais pas du tout ces livres et ce fut une belle découverte.Le début était un peu déroutant puisque je ne connaissais pas les personnages principaux mais après le premier chapitre, tout se met correctement en place et je n’étais plus du tout perdue.Jim Qwilleran est un personnage très excentrique avec ses deux chats siamois à qui il parle et à qui il attribue des dons un peu spéciaux (notamment au chat dénommé Koko). Il est très attachant dans son originalité et les personnages qui gravitent autour le sont également.J’ai beaucoup aimé lire ce livre (qui se lit très vite, trop vite même) et j’ai bien envie d’en lire d’autres. Il n’y a aucune prise de tête, l’écriture est très fluide et très agréable.Je pense que ce livre peut être destiné à de jeunes lecteurs.En bref : un joli coup de cœur que je vous conseille fortement.
—Knit Spirit
It was a really good book. I really enjoy Mystery books because I like trying to guess who did what, although at times it makes me look a little crazy talking to a book. It started out a little slow for my taste at the beginning but it started to pick up around chapter 5. I found myself trying to guess who did it after it started to pick up. I had 4 suspects, 2 of them was right and another one that I didn't see coming. If you want to find who did it your just going to have to read the book.It was about a guy named Jim Qwilleran he responds to an inheritance that an old lady had left him of a mansion and millions of dollars in the town of Pickax. In the terms of the inheritance he has to live there for 5 years and take care of the mansion or he gets nothing. As he adjusts to the big house, he finds out that a local girl disappeared 5 years prier to his arrival and she use to work at the mansion, everyone in town believes that she just ran off but Qwill believes other wise. As he explores the house more and more he starts to become suspicious. With the help of his kitty's Koko and Yum Yum he begins to piece together the real story of what really happened. Melinda Goodwinter: I found her to rather annoying. When she talked to Qwill she ended all her sentences with the word "Lover." That was so annoying, I just wanted to yell at her and say "Stop saying lover, I get it your sleeping with the guy just SHUT THE HELL UP." She was a little snobby for my taste too.Amanda Goodwinter: The cousin of Melinda. She is just a snobby bitch. She didn't like anything and she frowned upon everyone and everything everyone did.Koko: On of Qwill's cats. He reminded me of my own cat. Everything the cat did knock things over, moving thing around, playing with things that he shouldn't touch and other things made me think of my cat.Qwill: He is slightly nosy. But his heart's in the right place.
—Sam
