"The Cat, the Quilt, and the Corpse" by Leann Sweeney: Book Review

"The Cat, the Quilt, and the Corpse" by Leann Sweeney
Obsidian, 278 pp., $6.99 (paperback only)
Reviewed by David Marshall James

The title practically screams, "Cozy mystery," as does the protagonist, Jillian Hart, a cat fancier and owner of a "kitty quilt" business.
Nevertheless, before you drop your ginger snaps on the Oriental carpet, or swallow the lemon slice in your cup of hot tea, let it be known that this is a highly likable mystery-- the first in a new series that holds plenty of potential.
Jillian-- a young widow residing in a lakeside neighborhood in fictitious Mercy, South Carolina-- returns home from a quilt-selling jaunt in nearby Greenville to discover that her house has been burgled.
Oddly, the thief has made off with one of her much-adored cats, all three of which were rescued after Hurricane Katrina. Jillian has been living in a self-inflicted cocoon during the past year, since her (also fairly young) husband died unexpectedly, so she has not made many friends in Mercy, where she and her husband relocated from Texas, a short while prior to his death.
Now, however, Jillian marches into action to recover her missing pet. She is on a mission that naturally brings her in touch with the ranks of the local constabulary, along with: a couple who run an animal-rescue shelter; a security-system installer and his mother; a junk collector; and a host of local entrepreneurs who are prime givers and receivers of gossip.
Then, there's the mean old man who lives in a rambling manse on the edge of it all. Nobody, not even his daughter, is too upset when Jillian discovers him skewered by one of his butcher knives, lying on his dining-room floor. Even Jillian has come to dislike him in the short time she has known him, and for good reason. But he's the titular corpse, and the mystery of his murder must be solved, and it naturally involves Jillian, because her missing cat brought her to his abode, and because two people she trusts are the prime suspects in the murder.
Everyone is pretty much "up into" everyone else's "bidness" in Mercy, a town in which you are never more than five minutes (by car) from anywhere else, as Jillian wryly notes. By the by, one of the few quibbles here is the unwieldiness of the title. Why not name the succeeding volumes "Five Minutes to [BLANK]," with a juicy word or two filling in the blank?
As the plot unfolds, we meet the characters as Jillian does. This literary construct allows us to put ourselves more into her shoes, and thus to empathize with her. Veteran mystery writer Leann Sweeney also develops a sturdy sidekick for Jillian: an overzealous young police detective named Candace, whose driving indicates that she believes everything in Mercy is only two minutes apart.
Author Sweeney has produced a mystery that will surely please anyone who likes to stretch out on a quilt with a good book in hand and a kitty curled up nearby.

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