Welcome friend! October brings Fall and spooky reads and isn’t Purranormal Activity the perfect title? This book is the 10th book of the Cat Cafe Mystery series, but it is complete in itself. At no point did I feel like I had missed out on some major background by not reading the other nine books first.
Trouble is brewing on Daybreak Island. . .
Summer is in full swing on Daybreak Island, and JJ’s House of Purrs―and the new mobile cat café―has Maddie James running nonstop with on-site cat parties.
So when Olivia McAllister, her mother’s childhood best friend, returns to the island for the first time in decades―after a family tragedy drove her away―and asks Maddie to plan a birthday party for her granddaughter, Maddie happily agrees. It’s been forty years since Olivia’s aunt, Delia McAllister, vanished without a trace. Her disappearance was never solved, and the abandoned family house has loomed over the island ever since.
But when Maddie and her mom arrive at Delia’s old house, it’s empty―except for a white-and-gray cat that leads Maddie to a hidden room. There, she finds Olivia dead.
Soon Maddie learns the mysterious cat may be tied to a ghostly island legend. And as she digs deeper, she realizes she’s unraveling two disappearances, forty years apart―while someone is desperate to keep the truth buried.
Purranormal Activity – Review
The protagonist is Maddie. She lives with her grandfather, who is the retired chief of police on the island that they call home. She works with him as a private investigator as well as runs a cat cafe. Recently, she has expanded her operations to a mobile cafe where she organizes parties and brings cats to the partiers.
The story begins when she gets a short-notice call for a kids’ party. It turns out to be from her mom’s best friend, Olivia, who left the island almost forty years ago and no one had heard from since.
Maddie’s cat, JJ, goes along with her everywhere, especially to check out party venues. When Maddie, JJ and her mom go to meet with Olivia, they find an empty house. No matter how much it feels like a bad idea to walk through a place that doesn’t seem right, Maddie and JJ investigate, and eventually Maddie is led to a secret room where she finds Olivia’s dead body.
The interesting part is that it was a cat that showed Maddie the way.
The only other person who has seen the cat in the house is Piper, Olivia’s granddaughter. Yet, a lot is known about this cat on the island. There is a legend of the Ghost Cat whose sighting signals change. In spite of having grown up on the island, Maddie does remember this legend, and part of the story is her learning more about it.
I liked the Ghost Cat because there was so much speculation about whether it even existed. Cats are creatures of their own mind. It could have been a cat rather than a ghost cat, but the sightings and the stories behind it were interesting too. I enjoyed that the book never needed me to completely settle that question.
A town carrying its history
The plot is focused on how Maddie’s mom ends up being a suspect in Olivia’s murder and the couple of days over which Maddie and Grandpa Leo try to find the real culprit.
The part of the story I found more interesting, though, was the family history surrounding Olivia and the island.
Olivia’s family may not have called the island their home for some decades, but they were one of the original settlers and, with deep pockets, continued to support the local authorities. One of their houses, Mermaid Cottage, was reaching its 250th anniversary. I liked how the angle of preserving heritage sites was part of the story and that the people who were not family were interested in the house for their own reasons. The town historian’s involvement added another layer to that history.
On a small island, everyone knows everyone, yet Olivia’s quiet arrival had been hush-hush. There were old friendships, people who had left, people who disappeared, and the particular kind of loss that comes when someone you knew simply moves away or is suddenly no longer part of your life. By virtue of her mom sharing more about her friendship with Olivia and the tragedy of her sudden departure, Maddie compares her own years of leaving the island and leaving some friends behind.
The family left the island when Delia, Olivia’s aunt, went missing. Back then, the investigation was closed before being completed, but now, it is being looked at again, the past coming to haunt the present.
There was a point when I wondered if I should keep reading, because I wasn’t particularly invested in finding out who killed Olivia. But I did keep reading, because I wanted to know more about the family, the island, its history, and the relationships that had been shaped by people leaving and disappearing over the years.
A cozy mystery with cats
Purranormal Activity is a cozy mystery. I enjoyed the cats, particularly the Ghost Cat. The plot itself was alright and moved at a good pace, although I did feel that the story dragged on in places. Even Maddie commented how one particular day was neverending and I found myself nodding along!
I think of Maddie as an amateur investigator. She jumped to conclusions about people and events and did her own thing sometimes without consulting anyone. She didn’t get in trouble, but maybe she did in another book!
Overall, I think this was a pleasant cozy mystery with an interesting island setting, more cats than most books I read, and a family history that I found more compelling than the murder itself. The Ghost Cat was a fun addition, especially because I liked being left wondering whether there really was anything supernatural about the cat—or whether it was just a cat simply being a cat.
Many thanks to the publisher for a review copy of Purranormal Activity for my honest thoughts. I am forever grateful for the books that meet me in my mailboxes.
Check back for an interview with the author in the next post!
Be First to Comment