What do you think?
Rate this book
336 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
“Reverend Wall let a homeless man wait inside last week, and he relieved himself on the carpet in the adult Sunday School room. We had to have it cleaned.” She looked reprovingly at Sharon. “With these people, you can’t let your compassion get the better of you.”But when a couple wearing robes and sandals, not speaking any English, knocks on the doorsteps of the church on the cold and snowing night, Sharon can’t resist letting them in. The very young wife is pregnant, after all, and they’re obviously lost. Extremely lost. “Inn” is an excellent reminder of the true meaning and spirit of Christmas, as well as the need for compassion for those less fortunate.
No, Sharon thought. Jesus did, and look what happened to him.
He put down the book and raised his teacup in a toast. “To Sir Walter Scott, who knew how to keep Christmas!”“Cat’s Paw:” 3.5 stars. The great detective Touffét and his faithful assistant, Mr. Bridlings, are invited to Lady Charlotte Valaday’s Suffolk home at Christmas to solve a mystery. Bridlings reluctantly gives up his country holiday with his sister’s family to join Touffét at Lady Charlotte’s manor. Lady Charlotte, it turns out, isn’t much into Christmas, but she is into animal rights, particularly with respect to great apes. She has, in fact, several apes at her home, acting as servants, who have had laryngeal implants, enabling them to talk in a simple way. Lady Charlotte’s “mystery” is of interest primarily to herself, but her concerns are supplanted when a murder takes place, giving Touffét a true mystery to solve. “Cat’s Paw” is an interesting mashup of a Sherlock Holmes-type of detective murder mystery and a science fictional animal rights plot.
“And to Mr. Dickens,” Marley said, “the founder of the feast.”
“To books!” I said, thinking of Gemma and A Little Princess, “which instruct and sustain us through hard times.”