Even Cat Sitters Get the Blues-Blaize Clement

Even Cat Sitters Get the Blues
Blaize Clement
St. Martin's, Jan 2008, $23.95
ISBN: 9780312340933

Former Florida Deputy Sheriff Dixie Hemingway remains on administrative leave as she struggles with the deaths of her husband Todd and their daughter Christy. She earns a living as a pet sitter in Siesta Key, a barrier island off Sarasota, in an attempt to remain as far away from law enforcement as she can. Although she has not been as successful as she would have liked having recently been forced to kill an assailant.

Although she would prefer to hide in bed from the world for two reasons: that killing even if the Grad Jury ruled self defense and worse the loneliness of Christmas without Todd and Christy. However, she pushes herself to go to work and quit the self pity. At the gatehouse to a client’s mansion, Dixie spots a dead body. Deciding she wants nothing to do with a corpse, she leaves without informing anyone. However, whether it is guilt or concern over the mad scientist who owns the mansion, Dixie, in between caring for his pet iguana, investigates the homicide.

Readers will appreciate the third Dixie Hemingway whodunit (see CURIOSITY KILLED THE CAT SITTER and DUPLICITY DOGGED THE DACHSHUND) as the reluctant former cop works a case that she would prefer not to get involved. Besides sleuthing, Dixie struggles with her feelings of guilt that she should not feel attractions for Police Lieutenant Guidry and attorney Crane. Thriller elements due to her client, the mad scientist not the iguana, enhance an entertaining mystery.

Harriet Klausner