Lara Caphart and her Aunt Fran own and run the High Cliff Shelter for Cats; not your usual shelter. The shelter is their Victoria Home, the cats are allowed the run of the house, and on 'adoption days' they are taken to the room that serves as a meet-and-greet, where Fran and Lara offer the guests snacks and something to drink. But, according to the new health inspector, Evonda Fray, who showed up unannounced, it qualifies as a cat café, and says she's coming back the next morning to shut them down.

Then a man, Brian Dowling, shows up at their home unannounced and begs Lara to care for his elderly cat, Smuggles, while he finds another place to live. It seems Evonda is his new landlord and hates cats, and told him he'd have to get rid of the feline immediately. Softhearted Lara agrees to the situation, even though she struggles with the fact that she doesn't want their facility to become a boarding place for cats.

However, the health inspector never gets a chance to follow through on her threat. When the chief of police arrives at their doorstep that morning, it's to tell them that Evonda's dead, and had a cease-and-desist letter in her hand. After learning this, neither women want to host the new reading nook's opening, and put it off for another time.

When the chief warns Lara to stay out of the investigation, she vows to do so, since it has nothing to do with her. At least until she's hauled in for extensive questioning -- questioning that seems to put Brian Dowling in the limelight as Evonda's killer. While she doesn't want to believe it, she doesn't know where else to turn. Only a matter of sheer coincidences puts her in the sights of a killer -- who may or may not be the person she expects...

This is the fourth book in the series, and I enjoyed reading it. Lara and her aunt are beginning to grow on me; I already liked the cats in the book. I do like the fact that the cats eventually get adopted, but I miss certain ones every now and then. I especially have a soft spot for Brian's elderly cat Smuggles, since I lost my own 17-year-old cat just before Christmas, and it still tugs at my heart.

The mystery is quite interesting - when Evonda is murdered Lara wants to know more about the woman but can't find much about her online. It takes a chance meeting before she discovers the truth, and by then the woman is dead. It's rather sad what made her the way she was, and I can't even imagine something like that happening to another person.

The reason for the murder was as simplistic and as old as murders have been committed; still, it never should have happened, and we know that all decisions have consequences, some that will never leave us, no matter what we do. It was done well enough that it was believable, and the reactions of those left behind carry it through. When the ending comes and everything is getting back to normal (or as normal as it can be when you have a spirit cat), it gives us a bit of a teaser of things to come in the next in the series. Recommended. ( )

Lara and Aunt Fran are preparing for the official opening of the reading room - a cozy place where kids can cuddle up with a cat and a book at the High Cliff Shelter for Cats. But the health inspector, Evonda Fray, shows up and says that the shelter qualifies as a cat café and that it must be shut down. When Evonda is found dead clutching a copy of the cease-and-desist order, suspicion falls on Lara and Aunt Fran. It's up to Lara to find the killer.

I finished a five-star book before picking this one up and I could see the flaws in the writing, but it is a cozy and it did what it was supposed to do. The thing that drove me crazy was the shortened words - sitch, pics, sibs. I can't stand it!! This book has the same likable characters as before, lots of cats and the mystery was good. I liked getting the story on the unlikable victim, it was interesting to see how she ended up a miserable person (who, of course, did not deserve to die.)

Thank you to Netgalley and Lyrical Underground for an ARC. ( )