A Case of Kidnapping: Three Mystery Novels

Breezed through three enjoyable mysteries set in Florida, Malibu, and Delhi, borrowed from my local library. They all have one thing in common - a kidnapping plus murder mysteries to solve.

The Case of the Missing Servant: From the Files of Vish Puri, Most Private Investigator (A Vish Puri Mystery) is by Tarquin Hall, a British writer who lies in London and Delhi, India.

His main character, Vish Puri, is a portly, likeable Punjabi P.I. who employs an unlikely team of helpers with the descriptive nicknames of Tubelight, Flush, and Facecream. His search for a missing servant, Mary, takes Puri to the deserts of Jaipur and the uranium mines of Jharkhand. I rated this a 4.5 out of 5 for unique setting, characterization, and plot.

Raining Cat Sitters and Dogs: A Dixie Hemingway Mystery (Dixie Hemingway Mysteries) by Blaize Clement, author of 5 petsitter cozy mysteries, is set on a small Florida Key near Sarasota.
A 12-year-old girl from L.A. shows up there but then goes missing, and a high school friend's husband is kidnapped for ransom. Dixie tries to find the girl and help her friend while petsitting her many clients' cats, dogs, and birds. An enjoyable and easy read, I also rated this 4.5 out of 5 for characterization, setting, and plot.

The Case of the Kidnapped Angel (Masao Masuto mystery) by E.V. Cunningham aka Howard Fast, features a Buddhist policeman, Detective Sergeant Masao Masuto of the Beverly Hills police force, California.

In this novel, a Hollywood sex goddess is kidnapped from her Malibu beach home. Masuto's unorthodox investigative procedures and his keen insight makes him a detective to follow. I rated this a 4 out of 5 for characterization and writing. Easy to read, spare and direct, a police procedural that is enjoyable and unusual. There are six other novels in this mystery series.

Book Review: Cat Sitter among the Pigeons by Blaize Clement

Title: Cat Sitter Among the Pigeons: A Dixie Hemingway Mystery
Author: Blaize Clement
Publisher: Minotaur Books (January 4, 2011)
Genre: pet sitter mystery, cozy
Source: Library
Rating: 4/5

The men in the backseat released their hold on me. One of them turned his head toward me and spoke through the slit in his mask.
"I guess we made a mistake." He sounded hopeful, as if he thought I might forget the whole thing.
The other one said,"Vern, what're you going to do with her?"
I wanted to know that myself. (ch. 3)

Comments: I always enjoy the pet sitter mysteries by Clement. Her character, Dixie Hemingway, lives on Siesta Key (fictional, I think) in Florida and takes care of pets twice a day, early in the morning from 4 a.m. to 10 a.m., and again in the afternoons. Her charges range from regular cats and dogs, to parrots, iguanas,  etc. You read about the different animals she feeds, walks, and grooms, in the six books in the series. Dixie draws the line at snakes, however, and hands over those jobs to other pet sitters. She often comes across dead bodies (of humans) while doing her job and solves these mysteries as a great amateur sleuth. Her love interest is the detective in the town, Guidry.

Product Description:  "In the sixth installment of the mystery series, Dixie is caring for the cat of a prickly old man whose granddaughter shows up with baby in tow. Dixie desperately tries to save this young woman and her infant from murderous con-artists ready to kill in order to hold on to the millions they stole from naïve investors. The villains, though, are not run-of-the-mill criminals; they are among the socially prominent movers and shakers in Dixie’s town.

Dixie must confront her greatest fears and try to save the lives of the innocent, both two-legged and four."

About the Author: This is the sixth novel in BLAIZE CLEMENT’s Dixie Hemingway mystery series. The author lives in Sarasota, Florida.

Book Review: Even Cat Sitters Get the Blues by Blaize Clement

Pet sitter Dixie Hemingway lives on Siesta Key, a small island off the coast of Sarasota, Fla. She has become involved before in solving crimes while doing her rounds taking care of other people's pets.

This time in Even Cat Sitters Get the Blues, she takes on a five-foot iguana and its owner, feeding them and making sure they make it out of their funk. The iguana was left in the cold and its body temperature had dropped to dangerous levels when Dixie found it. The owner is ill with some unknown malady that makes his skin dimpled and blue-green.

When the owner's security guard is shot dead, Dixie gets caught up in the drama of Who Did It, all while recovering from her own "blues," the death of her husband and daughter in an car accident several years ago.

Dixie is a down to earth, gutsy main character, whose love of animals belies her tough stance toward many humans.

I'm really enjoying this book, even more than the previous pet sittery mystery by author Blaize Clement, Duplicity Dogged the Daschund.