The Maine Coon in question is Sheamus, currently residing with Liz Denton of Furever Pets as Liz tries to find him the perfect home, because like most of Liz’s rescues, Sheamus is special needs - he has respiratory issues. Liz thinks she’s found Sheamus the perfect home, but when she goes to deliver the cat to his new owner, she gets a nasty shock - Joe Hitchcock is dead.
The shocks keep coming as Liz discovers the man’s real name was Joe Danvers and he’s wanted for the long ago murder of his wife… whose body was never even found. When a strange man follows Liz home from the crime scene, she quickly realizes that like it or not, she’s part of this mystery now - and she’d better solve it, before someone else winds up dead.
Gosh, there are a lot of things I loved about this book. I loved that Liz is an older heroine, happily married with kids in their early twenties preparing to fly the nest, instead of a ditzy singleton. I adored that Liz helps special needs pets - her own cat, Wheels, was adorable. And I also liked that Liz wasn’t a know it all who ignores police instructions and advice, an all too common trait among cozy heroines. She’s kind, sensible, empathetic - towards humans as well as animals - and very relatable. The crime too made sense when all was revealed at the end, with logical motives and nobody behaving stupidly for the sake of the plot.
There’s an odd subplot with a rival pet rescue owner trying to sabotage Liz - which made no sense whatsoever because Liz and Candace don’t do the same thing at all. And weirdly, this subplot was never really resolved. It just kind of got dropped. Maybe something’s being set up for a future book - I’m pretty sure Liz is being adorably clueless about her daughter’s real relationship with co-worker Maya, and that’ll get explored in a later book - but it seemed like an odd subplot to drop if that’s the case as the background will have to be explained all over again next time around.
Honestly though, the subplot getting dropped didn’t bother me all that much, and it is definitely outweighed by all the good stuff here. I liked Liz and her family so much, and I would happily read more in this series. I’ll give it five stars.
Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this title via NetGalley.