Gabriella Herbert Catnapped

Catnapped

Gabriella Herbert

Obsidian, Sept 2007, $6.99, 336 pp.

ISBN 9780451221971

Sara Townley, the investigator for a high profile Seattle law firm, is assigned the job of finding Flash, a cat worth two million dollars. After spending hours on the phone calling pounds and humane societies, she visits the home of multimillionaire Stuart Masterton of Masterton Enterprises, who has not been seen for a while either. Sara talks to Jeff Randall, who is living on the estate as Flash's caretaker. He called the lawyers and explained to Sara he searched the neighborhood, put up flyers and questioned the neighbors. She assures him they will find Flash and he will keep his cushy job.

When she gets home, the Navy Seal Connor she married after knowing him for only a week is there. He had to report to duty after they tried the knot and she hasn't seen him for four months and almost forgot she was married. When Jeff calls telling her a man called with information about Flash she runs out of the house to meet him. What she finds in the alley is a dead body and ends up with a concussion when she knocks her head against a policeman's chin. Connor picks her up and tells her they will work as a team, which turns out to be a good idea as they deal with a missing man, embezzlement, law suits and a killer who has no qualms about getting rid of anyone who gets in his way,

CATNAPPED is a delightful charming mystery that will appeal to readers who don't like blood and gore in their whodunits but demand a good story. It is hard to accept that Gabriella Herbert makes her debut with this cozy because it is so complex and multi-layered, and filled with fully developed characters who readers will love or hate. With no twists clues that lead in a straight path to more clues, the fun in this tale are the relationship between the sleuths and the myriad of suspects tat changes as more evidence surfaces.

Harriet Klausner