This entertaining cozy mystery mixes pets with crime in the Kitty Couture Mysteries featuring pet supplies store owner Lacy Marie Crocker. CAT GOT YOUR SECRETS is the third book but you can jump right in. As the theme suggests, Lacy has cleverly exploited a gap in the market and creates costumes and party treats for pets. I never cease to be amazed by how much money some owners will spend on goods their pets don't actually need, but it is their money to spend, and it creates jobs.

The location is the wealthy district of New Orleans, where our heroine has returned after her studies and a breakup. Now her mother keeps hinting that she'd like a grandchild while swinging erratically from pack rat to decluttering. We've all been there I think. Still feeling emotional stress from being involved in murder cases earlier that year, Lacy is distraught when her father appears to be the last person to see a gentleman found dead in suspicious circumstances.

With little details like the cat sitting happily on top of the robot floor cleaner, and costumes required for everything from a St Bernardoodle to guinea pigs for the National Pet Pageant, the tale can be read as a lot of fun. For serious crime fans, the adventure is also good, with Lacy looking up how long someone locked in a walk-in freezer can live or what would bring on a heart attack. Everyone who is anyone here knows everyone, and Lacy's mom is the gossip queen, not to mention all the staff have their own gossip line. With her pal Scarlet, who is cuddling her four-month-old baby to allay suspicion, Lacy does her best to investigate why anyone might have wanted to harm the deceased, Mr. Becker. Her dad, the local veterinarian, couldn't have anything to do with it... but the law isn't so sure. I like that Lacy's relationship with her parents changes during the tale.

Another nice friendly character is Imogene, once Lacy's nanny, now the excellent cook for the family. Her mouth-watering meals include local recipes like shrimp and crawfish on rice with tomato, garlic, and onion roue. Not everyone in the city is so convivial or helpful. At the end of CAT GOT YOUR SECRETS author Julie Chase provides a few easy recipes to make pet treats, such as one involving peanut butter and sweet potatoes in baked dog chews. I had a good time reading this and I am sure mystery fans will enjoy it, especially if they are pet lovers.

Book Summary

Lacy Marie Crocker has settled into a comfortable groove back home in New Orleans, and with Valentine’s Day right around the corner, she’s busier than ever running a thriving pet boutique, helping her mother organize the upcoming National Pet Pageant, and untangling her complicated love life. But when delivering a king-sized order of dreidel-shaped doggy biscuits for a Saint Berdoodle’s bark-mitzvah, Lacy stumbles into yet another murder scene—and the last person to see the victim alive was her own father.

It’s up to Lacy to clear her dad’s name from the suspect list before Detective Jack Oliver has to cage him for good. But just when she starts pawing at the truth, she receives a threatening letter from a mysterious blackmailer bent on silencing her with her own secrets. And Lacy’s not the only one with bones in her closet.

Time’s running out in this deadly cat-and-mouse game in Cat Got Your Secrets, the delightfully funny third novel in Julie Chase’s Kitty Couture mystery series, perfect for “all those feline fanciers who love to read Rita Mae Brown” (Suspense Magazine).