Publisher's Weekly Review
Pickax City columnist and wealthy bachelor Jim Qwilleran travels to Scotland, leaving his Siamese cats Koko and Yum Yum at home, in one of the most lively recent entries in Braun's popular ``The Cat Who . . . '' series. Also on the Bonnie Scots Tour are Qwill's current woman friend, Polly Duncan, the Moose County librarian; and his recently returned former girlfriend, Dr. Melinda Goodwinter, who proposes marriage. Tour leader Irma Hasselrich (a friend of Polly's and a patient of Melinda's) dies of apparently natural causes; then a jewel case and the tour-bus driver disappear. Qwill, Polly and Melinda decamp the tour early; back in Pickax City, listening to tape recordings he made along the way--and to Koko's intuitive yowls--Qwill begins to suspect that Irma was murdered. Convincing others, however, takes time and an investigation. Although the cats play a smaller role in this installment than in previous ones, Braun's descriptions of Scottish lore and the complications of Qwill's love life will enchant fans. Mystery Guild selection; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club alternates; audio rights to Dove. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
The 15th outing for Pickax City newspaper pundit and zillionaire Jim Qwilleran and his Siamese housemates, Koko and Yum Yum, travels from Moose County to Hibernia and back again as it dwells on Qwill's Scottish ancestry; the identity of the prowler sniffing around his lover, Polly the librarian; and the attempts of his former lover, Melinda, to rekindle their romance (with dire results) while on a Highland Tour with them and 13 other Pickax friends. The friends include the teddy-bear-collecting Chisholm sisters; cranky, outspoken Amanda Goodwinter (who ``drank a little''); several stalwarts of Pickax's little theater group; and pushy tour-guide Irma Hasselrich, who disrupts everyone's holiday by dying in bed--from unnatural causes. Nice scenery, interesting historical tidbits, and far-fetched- -in fact, farcical--motivation for murder, but die-hards and readers new to the series will have a rare glimpse of Qwill and Koko behaving most ungentlemanly-like toward the ladies.
Booklist Review
Retired newspaperman and heir to the Klingenschoen fortune, Jim Qwilleran accepts an invitation to join a group of Pickax friends on a Bonnie Scots tour, leaving his two Siamese cats Koko and Yum Yum, at home with a catsitter. When the excursion is interrupted by the sudden death of the tour leader and Qwill returns to Pickax with his librarian friend Polly Duncan, he decides that Koko, the extrasensory sleuth, is trying to tell him something. The characters are growing a bit too familiar (this is the fourteenth in the Cat Who series), and the plot seems cluttered, involving disappearances, the theft of valuable jewels and Teddy bears, family secrets, and a catnapping, as well as murder. Nonetheless, friends of the pampered felines and those who enjoy Braun's linguistic humor will find their whiskers twitching in anticipation. ~--Barbara Duree
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