CRAZY CATS by Melody Bussey

CRAZY CATS by Melody Bussey
Top Publications Ltd Co.
ISBN: 19299760406 - Trade Paperback
Amateur Sleuth

Reviewed by Sue Bartroff, MyShelf.com

This is an early work by the author. Interesting enough to keep me up until 3 am reading the book but frustrating because of the holes in the plot.

Catherine 'Cat' Allen returns to New Hope with four-year-old son Ryan in tow after a bitter divorce from an abusive husband. Feeling she has no place else to go, she determines to face the problems she left behind her in this town. She had grown up in a local foster home, become involved at an early age in the sex and drug scene and ended up in a crash which killed a foster sister for which she blamed herself.

This book shows them returning to live in her old foster home which she has oddly inherited, trying to make a way for the son she loves above all else and continue her career as a sculpture artist. The characters are well written, the descriptions of the area, and people are clear and compelling. While the interactions between the town and Cat meander along; the primary story--mysterious skeletons appearing under the home farm in tunnels used to hide escaping slaves, the untimely deaths of the other foster children, the threats to Cat and Ryan, local political intrigue, the love story between Cat and the local vet; move too quickly and without enough development.

The final chapter allows Cat who is tied tightly hand and foot to scoot herself and her son down hundreds of feet of tunnels to safety in seconds while the killer creates a cave in. Not only doesn't it explain Cat getting herself and the boy along that distance; but it doesn't explain how she got herself untied to begin digging out.

I will look for more work by this author. I think she has a bright future and even with the plot holes; the book was worth reading and made you want to know more about Cat and Ryan's life in New Hope. Her ability to make the town and it's people live in the reader's mind is rare.