murder, magical cats, and karma

Kathleen Paulson is busy keeping everything going at the library. She’s particularly proud of their new reading program and trying to find funding for it. But as she heads to the library to get it ready for the busy day ahead, she finds a dead man on the floor.

She immediately calls the police, and her fiancé, Detective Marcus Gordon, shows up to investigate. Especially since the dead man turns out to be Will Redfern. She knew him because shortly after she’d shown up to the town to oversee the library’s renovations, Will was the contractor. They’d had an altercation, Kathleen had been hurt, and Will had gone to jail for assault. Now he’s back in town and dead on the library floor. And Kathleen couldn’t help but notice it looked like he’d been trying to steal a painting that had been on the wall. But why? And who had killed him?

As the police look into the crime (and Kathleen does her own sleuthing), they discover that the painting had been stolen from the house of a wealthy man. Several paintings had been stolen, but everything had been recovered except this one. But how did it end up hanging in the library?

Meanwhile, Kathleen is getting ready for the wedding. Her family and friends throw her a lovely shower with surprise guests, and her cats help her out by offering their advice and sometimes leaving decapitated catnip toys around the house as symbols of their love (or their love of catnip anyway).

But these are not ordinary cats. Owen can disappear at will, and Hercules can walk through walls. Which makes it difficult for Kathleen to control them sometimes, but it helps out when they want to point their humans toward the answers they’re trying to find.

The closer Kathleen and Marcus get to finding the killer and understanding why Will Redfern was killed, the more they figure out what’s most important to them. And as they get closer to their wedding, they realize the future they were heading towards looks different than they thought, but it’s filled with so much more love than they expected.

Furever After is book sixteen in Sofie Kelly’s Magical Cats Mystery series. And while these books are about solving murders, the stars of the books are the cats. Owen and Hercules are charming and clever, showing up at the perfect time to offer just the right amount of support. This book is sweet and entertaining, and while solving the crime is an important element of the story, there is also a lot of personal things going on that adds so much sweetness to balance out the darkness of the crimes.

I am a fan of Sofie Kelly, and of cats, so I love these books. But I think Furever After is my favorite so far. I liked how the murder was tied to an old art heist. I thought the was super interesting and lots of fun. But mostly I loved how the story came together for Kathleen and Marcus. Having the wedding at the end and the start of a new family was lovely, and I look forward to seeing what the future holds for them. If you love a cozy with a couple of crazy cats in it, then you should definitely check out this series.

Egalleys for Furever After were provided by Berkley through NetGalley, with many thanks.