Lit Locale: The Cat Possessed

It is a bitterly cold winter’s night and you are snuggled up in your bed with your cat. The frigid temperatures of a Canadian winter may alarm some people but you know just how to hunker down in the colder months. A pile of plush pillows and your down comforter make the perfect cozy cocoon against what has to be the coldest night of the year. You can hear the fierce winter wind howling outside your window and the soft purring of your cat nestled on your lap. You are careful to not burn your tongue as you quietly sip your cup of tea and munch on a cookie—or perhaps even two or three cookies, we won’t judge. Your hand idly strokes your cat as you turn the pages of Louise Carson’s latest book in the Maples Mystery series, The Cat Possessed. You cannot help but feel that this is the perfect way to enjoy the adventures of Gerry Coneybear and the twenty cats that she inherited from her Aunt Maggie. 

Genni, the cat, models with The Cat Possessed

The Cat Possessed continues the story of young artist Gerry Coneybear, inheritor of her Aunt Maggie’s big old house The Maples (and her aunt’s twenty cats!). Gerry wishes her mountain of bills was a joke. She’s just self-published her children’s book, The Cake-Jumping Cats of Dibble, and that cost money. Plus the valuable painting she was hoping to sell is missing from the auctioneers’. At least Gerry’s relationships are going well: with her boyfriend Doug, part-time housekeeper Prudence, and the odd assortment of friends she’s made over the year since she moved to Lovering, a tiny village by the Ottawa River. All seems well as Gerry bakes treats for the art class she teaches at home, cleans out the woodshed and plans a surprise birthday party. But then one of her students begins sketching ghosts, someone eggs Gerry’s home, she feels she’s being stalked, and on top of everything else, her kitten Jay is acting weird, keeping her up at night. It’s almost as if the cat is possessed. While Gerry’s life has been filled with adventure and mystery since moving to Lovering, she has also spent many a cold night snuggled up in the rambling-200-year-old waterfront home. Just like you, Gerry knows that a hot drink, a delicious baked good from a recipe you just tried out, and a warm cat on your lap is the perfect way to beat the mid-winter blahs. After all, The Cat Possessed is a cozy cat mystery, so what better place to read it than curled up with your feline friend?

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Thanks to Ashley Brekelmans at Signature Editions for getting us in the coziest of moods. The Cat Possessed is available for purchase on All Lit Up.

 

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Other books in this series you won’t want to miss: The Cat Among Us, The Cat Vanishes, The Cat Between.