Miranda James It is one of the many names that cultivate the genre as fashionable as it is cozy crime. This is where the three titles that belong to your series of Feline mysteries, because one of its protagonists is a cat very particular. We know a little more about him and these novels, which are ideal for reading at any time.
Miranda James
Actually, Miranda is the pseudonym of Dean James, an American writer who has been fond of mystery since he was very young and who wrote his first novel at the age of twelve. He works as a librarian at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson. He started publishing in 1994, together with a colleague, Jean Swanson, and won an Agatha Award. The Mystery Writers Association of America also nominated them for an Edgar Award for best critical-biographical work.
His first solo book was published in 2000 and since then has been around for more than thirty, signed with his own name and another pair of pseudonyms: Jimmie Ruth Evans and Honor Hartman. It was in 2010 when she released this series as Miranda James, which has been a bestseller. She lives with four cats and surrounded by many books.
Miranda James — Feline Mystery Series
So far only those have been published in Spanish three titles, but they are already sixteen those that make up this series. Here it has been called Feline mysteries, since one of its most important characters is the protagonist's cat.
They all take place in Athena, a small town in Mississippi and its main asset and attraction is in its main characters: a librarian already in his fifties, widowed and with two children who are away, who lives with his cat, a tabby specimen of main coon, the largest breed and native to the state of Maine, weighing 15 kilos, friendly, affectionate and very smart, who attracts attention wherever he goes. Together they investigate crimes that occur in their, apparently, not so peaceful little town.
Crime out of catalog
In this first title we meet Charlie Harris, the kind librarian who owns a cat named DieselHis wife died of cancer and he has two children, Sean and Laura, who make their lives away from him. He has inherited a nice, big house from his Aunt Dottie and rents out rooms. His first tenant is Justin, the teenage son of a friend.
One day a famous best-selling author and Charlie's former classmate named Godfrey Priest He returned to the village. Nobody liked him and he kept more than one secret. Very soon after appears dead in his hotel and it is Justin who finds him. Charlie, with the help of Diesel, and despite the resentments in between, decide to investigate what has happened. However, they will also encounter the suspicion of the tough detective who leads the case and who is the daughter of the maid who takes care of Charlie's house.
A textbook death
In this second title we have the eccentric Delacorte family when one of its members, the oldest and a collector of rare books, James Delacorte suspects that someone is stealing from him and goes to Charlie to ask him to take inventory from his collection. At the same time appears Sean, Charlie's son, who has left his job as a lawyer for unknown reasons and asks to stay with him. Shortly after Charlie, Sean and Diesel get to work on the inventory, Delacorte appears dead in the library of the huge mansion. To top it all off, a valuable copy of the book also disappears. Edgar Allan Poe, James Delacorte's inheritance causes more than one disappointment to his relatives and a second murder occurs. There are many fronts for Charlie, but it will be Diesel who finds the key.
A for murder
And in this last one Charlie gets a pleasant surprise when he arrives Laura, her daughter, who has temporarily left her career actress in Hollywood and returns to be an acting teacher at the university. It has been thanks to her ex, the writer Connor Lawton, who is almost as obsessed with the play he is writing as he is with getting Laura back together, something that Connor's ex-girlfriend Damitra is not willing to allow. The problem is that shortly after, and after a party in his honor, Laura finds Connor's lifeless bodySo Charlie, also with the help of Sean, who has established himself as a lawyer, will do everything possible to discover what has happened, even at the cost of risking their lives.
What stands out
The success of this series is that it is short chapters that end with a revelation which forces you to keep reading. This allows you to get to know the characters, who have their own stories, from the tenants who pass through Charlie's house to the neighbors, work colleagues and regular friends of the protagonists. And everything is wrapped up in the classic scheme of Agatha Christie.
But without a doubt, the great attraction is Diesel, the huge, playful and affectionate cat, who goes with Charlie everywhere, on walks on his leash and who has a special instinct to get to know people and find out what they need, and to sniff out and solve mysteries.
Ultimately
Un entertainment with the touches of this genre. And, of course, more than recommended for cat lovers.