The Cat Who Said Cheese
Everything smells in Pickax when a killer invades the Great Food Explo. Luckily, Qwill is on the scene, his mustache twitching with suspicions. Qwill and the cats are on a trail that will demand all their feline intuition and mustachioed insight.
Qwill and the cats once again residing in the converted apple barn. Polly is recovering from her heart attack at the home of Lynette, the sister of her late husband. As the last of the Duncans, Lynette inherited the family’s gorgeous, antique-filled Victorian mansion in Pickax. The lack of privacy this arrangement affords Qwill and Polly marks a turning point in their relationship as it becomes clear that although they have both vowed never to marry again, they really care for each other.
The big focus is the Food Explo being planned for the town of Pickax, involving the opening of several new eateries, a cooking competition, a bachelor/bachelorette auction, etc. all designed to bring attention and tourism to the area.
Unfortunately, a pall is cast over the town when an explosion at the hotel kills a local girl working as a maid. When the bomb went off, she was cleaning the room of a woman who had been staying there for several weeks. No one knows who the mystery woman is – was she the target or the bomber? The girl who was killed happens to be the girlfriend of Lois Inchpot’s son. The cranky proprietor of Lois’ Luncheonette, a popular hangout featured in most of the series, is so disheartened by this sad event as well as the new upscale competition she closes up shop, which causes much dismay in Pickax.
The Explo rolls on, despite the tragedy. As a local celebrity, Qwill gamely helps Mildred Riker with a “just for men” cooking class; hosts a gala wine and cheese event at the apple barn; and agrees to be one of the bachelors auctioned off for charity – it’s not Polly, or the new vamp in town Danielle, who “wins” him but someone completely unexpected. He is also a judge in the big pasty competition. The pasty – rhymes with “nasty” – is a beloved local specialty. It is a meat and vegetable turnover that used to be taken into the mines as a hand-held lunch in the old mining days of Moose County. (Qwill’s involvement in this competition indirectly leads to the recovery of Iris Cobb’s famous cookbook, which was stolen after her murder.)
Of course Qwill, Koko and Yum Yum help to solve the mystery of the explosion, but the mystery is almost beside the point and the action takes place in Pickax with all the familiar characters and charming details of small-town life and customs.
By Lilian Jackson Braun; read by George Guidall
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