Tag Archives: D.B. Borton

Death by the Dozen by D.B. Borton

Today at Celtic Connexions, I’m reviewing Death by the Dozen by D.B. Borton. This is the second of her novels I’ve had the pleasure of featuring here.

Death

 

Blurb

A curious case of a disappearing pig. A murdered historian. A sassy senior sleuth. If Cat Caliban’s not your favorite crime-solving grandma, you just haven’t met her yet!

Meet Cat Caliban — sixty-something widow, proud cat lady, and budding private eye. She’s traded in her old life as a housewife for something far more exciting: solving crimes.

But nothing in her sleuthing career has prepared her for this.

When a local historian begs Cat to find the villain who stole her beloved pig — Gertie, a cupcake-loving micro-mini with a mischievous streak — Cat figures it’s a simple petnapping. Sorry, pignapping. Until the trail leads to a dead human body.

With the city gearing up for its bicentennial celebrations, Cat finds herself tangled up in a complex mystery involving missing historical papers, a children’s book about a detective with trotters . . . and a cunning killer who’s determined to keep the past buried.

Cat must crack the case, bring home the bacon, and catch a murderer, before she becomes the next victim of Cincinnati’s deadliest – and oinkiest – celebration.

My Review

Death Cat Caliban is a hoot! When I read Eleven Hours to Murder, I wasn’t sure what to make of Cat. Now that I know her better, I love her, her friends, and her detective partner, Moses.

Set in Cincinnati, Ohio, the case Cat has taken on isn’t what one would call usual. It starts out with a pig-napping and ends with a murder.

Cat is in the throes of seasonal allergies, and when she’s at a function early in the book, the author’s descriptions of the poor woman’s stuffed sinuses cracked me up. I can sympathize because I, too, suffer from seasonal allergies.

Now, it’s up to Cat and Moses to search for the culprit(s). This book had me turning the virtual pages from the get-go.

If another book comes my way, you bet I’ll get myself on that tour.

Book Links

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/247823113-death-by-the-dozen-a-brand-new-witty-and-addictive-cozy-murder-mystery

Purchase Link: https://mybook.to/deathbythedozen-zbt

About the Author

D. B. Borton is the author of two mystery series—the Cat Caliban series and the Gilda Liberty series —as well as the standalone mystery novels Smoke and Bayou City Burning and the humorous science fiction novel Second Coming.

In graduate school, Borton converted a lifetime of passionate reading and late-night movie-watching into a doctorate in English. She is Professor Emeritus of English at Ohio Wesleyan University.

Borton currently lives with Zoe the cat in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she gardens, practices aikido, a martial art, and, of course, reads.

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/dbborton
Website https://dbborton.com/

Eleven Hours to Murder by D.B. Borton

Today on Celtic Connexions, I’m reviewing Eleven Hours to Murder by D.B. Borton.

 

 

A cold case from the Swinging Sixties. A sassy senior sleuth. If Cat Caliban’s not your favorite crime-solving grandma, you just haven’t met her yet.

Meet Cat Caliban: former housewife, widow, cat lady — and private eye in training. Who said fifty-something was too old to start again?

But if Cat’s not old, the case that lands on her desk sure is. Back in the summer of ’69, rebellious teen Leila Perle secretly boarded a bus to Woodstock, and never came home.

What really happened at the legendary music festival — if the missing girl even made it there at all?

Some say that if you can remember the Sixties, you weren’t there. But Cat’s certain someone from the hazy, drug-addled era of peace, love and rock ‘n’ roll remembers exactly what happened to the missing music-lover.

And they’ll do anything to keep their terrible secret buried.

ELEVEN HOURS TO MURDER — a whip-smart, witty mystery featuring Cincinnati’s sharpest tongued sleuth, three cats, one retired Black cop friend with a very unruly beagle, and a case where justice is long overdue.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/243115029-eleven-hours-to-murder-a-brand-new-gripping-and-witty-cozy-murder-myster

Purchase Link: https://mybook.to/elevenhours-zbtbuy link(s)

My Review

This is the first book by D.B. Borton that I’ve had the pleasure of reading. It was well-written, and I loved the characters of Cat and Moses, as well as their friends. This is the eleventh book in the series, but I didn’t need to read any of the previous ones in order for this one to make sense to me.

The premise of the book is that a teenage girl goes off to Woodstock in August 1969 and never returns home. Cat and Moses (private detectives) are hired by the girl’s family to investigate the cold case.

I can’t tell you anymore because that would create a. spoiler and we don’t want that. If you want to know more, you’ll have to purchase the book.

About the Author

D. B. Borton is the author of two mystery series—the Cat Caliban series and the Gilda Liberty series —as well as the standalone mystery novels Smoke and Bayou City Burning and the humorous science fiction novel Second Coming.

In graduate school, Borton converted a lifetime of passionate reading and late-night movie-watching into a doctorate in English. She is Professor Emeritus of English at Ohio Wesleyan University.

Borton currently lives with Zoe the cat in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she gardens, practices aikido, a martial art, and, of course, reads.

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/dbborton
Website https://dbborton.com/