‘You Only Live Nine Times’ is a cozy mystery by Gwen Cooper. It’s a follow-on to Cooper’s hugely successful memoir, ‘Homer’s Odyssey,’ about her blind cat, Homer. Homer is noted for saving Gwen’s life and for surviving 9-11 in Manhattan close to Ground Zero.
That book was fantastic. So it was a no-brainer that when she decided to make Homer a detective in this fictional cozy mystery, along with his fabulous cat siblings, Scarlett and Vashti, that I needed to pick this up.
The cats live in Coacochee, Florida, in the 90’s, with their owner Rachel, who runs a book shop. Cooper lived there before relocating to Manhattan, so she knows the details to include. The Coacochee setting is rich and immersive. Rachel is just getting pulled into the local celebrity scene, when there’s a mysterious death right outside the shop. The police chief bends to the Chamber of Commerce and deem it a death from natural causes to not scare tourists away, even though he has a niggling feeling there might be more to it. Rachel and her friends suspect more. So do the cats.
I was curious how Cooper was going to use our furry friends to investigate this potential crime given that they can’t talk, but it worked quite organically. I was impressed how she had the cats investigating different aspects than the humans in the story, and how the cats communicated what they did know, without anyone realizing that the cats knew more than regular animals would. Maybe this is handled similarly to other pet detective novels, but this is a first in genre for me.
The mystery was pretty clever, I thought. I don’t read tons of cozy mysteries, but the clues made sense and dropped with appropriate pacing. There were a lot of characters to absorb, but I think it was necessary to fill out the cast so the crime was a little harder to solve. And probably to pad the cast for future installments. I didn’t guess the culprit right away, but even when I did know, the suspense kicked in and I was still excited to find out how the perpetrator would be stopped.
As I mentioned, I picked this book for my January TBR pile because I love Gwen Cooper’s writing and I love the stories about the real cats behind these characters. I haven’t read other pet detective novels in the past, but this book sold me on that genre blend. I hope that Cooper writes more with these characters. Given that she’s labeled it Book 1, it suggests that I’ll see my furry friends again. It was a lot of fun. I give it five stars and highly recommend it.
Who is this book for? This is perfect for cozy mystery lovers. It’s even better if you love animals helping to solve the crime. If you are a cat person, you’ll enjoy every cat scene. If you love books about high society characters and the 90’s celebrity scene, you’ll also like it. It was like a spring break escape to Florida with cats.
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Thanks for reading!
