Bruce Von Stiers

There have been upteen The Cat Who..novels. The author of this series, Lilian Jackson Braun, seems to crank out at least one a year. And the fans of the series can’t wait to sink their teeth into the next one. The latest outing in this series is The Cat Who Went Up the Creek. It was published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons and copyrighted in 2002.

Jim Qwilleran is the hero, so to speak, of this series. He doesn’t really give himself too much credit when solving a mystery. He attributes most of what he surmises from his two cats. The cats are named Koko and Yum-Yum. They have the uncanny knack to pointing out clues to Qwilleran so that he might solve whatever mystery is at hand.

In this new story, Qwilleran has made his way to the Nutcracker Inn in the little town of Black Creek. He is taking a brief vacation and gathering material for a book whose working title is Tall and Short Tales. Qwill, as his friends call him, begins a relaxing time only to have it interrupted by the drowning of a man in the river nearby.

Qwill decides to try to find out who the man was and why he was around the area. It seems that the man had also been a guest at the Nutcracker Inn. Was the drowning accidental or was this a murder?

While Qwill is hanging out in Black Creek, his somewhat lady friend is on a trip around the country. Polly Duncan is the lady’s name and she definitely has Qwill’s heart, even if he doesn’t really show it. Qwill is getting postcards from Polly on her trip. It seems that Polly has befriended a man who Qwill suspects has other than honorable intentions toward his girl.

Throughout the story we get to meet strange and wonderful characters. The author seems to relish in giving the reader an opportunity to experience fictional people who aren’t rough, tough city dwellers, but are gentle and caring souls. The backdrop for this book, and several previous ones in the series, is Moose County. It is 400 miles from Nowhere and located somewhere in the northern US. There are several little towns in Moose County, like Pickax and Mooseville. The residents of Moose County are eccentric and sometimes hilarious.

Through a series of events, Qwill is able to determine what happened to the man who drowned and why he died.

The Cat Who Went Up The Creek is a wonderful tale of folksy stuff and murder. Each new book further explores the quirks and nuances of the people of Braun’s Moose County. And as they showed time and time again in Murder She Wrote’s Cabot Cove, murders loves folksy communities.