One Bear's Opinion -- Book Reivew

Cat’s Claw by Susan Wittig Albert

Cat's Claw is the twentieth book in the China Bayles Herbal Mysteries series. And after nineteen books in the series, this one alters from the previous books in that most of the story is told by a supporting character. With a few exception paragraphs, all the previous books had been told in first person by the main character. It was an interesting way to tell the story, but did give an limited view of the other characters. This installment is different, and while many other reviewers do not like the change in point of view, I enjoyed it.

I like China and I like her telling of the story, but it was nice to get to know another character well by experiencing the story from her perspective. Series books can get extremely formulaic. Changing it up by moving the main characters outside their comfort zone is the most common way of combating the formula issues. Other ways are making a huge life change for the main character or introducing new, adversarial characters. And the China Bayles series has done both of those in other books. I find I enjoyed the change in character focus this book took. It definitely gave the reader a new perspective on one of the main, supporting characters.

The mystery itself was interesting and how the story was woven together was creative, particular the comeuppance of one of the particularly unsavory characters. Of course, like most series mysteries, many characters to this book are one-off introductions — we will only meet them in this episode. And others are like the unnamed red-shirted officer of Star Trek fame — you just know they will be the victim, or perpetrator.

So in many ways, this was a follow-the-dots series mystery installment, but the different perspective of telling the story mainly from a supporting character’s point-of-view makes it feel new and fresh, and not as formulaic as other episodes in the same series.

I would definitely recommend reading the previous books in the series before picking up this one. Reading this one alone might not give you the best introduction to the series and it may make you less likely to enjoy the other books, which would be a shame. But if you have read other China Bayles Herbal Mysteries, definitely do not pass up this one. And don’t listen to those other reviews that say it’s not as good as the others.

One Bear’s Opinion: Four cups of chamomile tea and warm oatmeal scones

Happy Reading Everyone, 
Oliver