Cat’s Paws and Curses

A Vampire Knitting Club Novella, Book 8.5

By: Nancy Warren

Narrated by: Sarah Zimmerman

Length: 1 hr and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

When Lucy organizes a holiday knitting circle, it's good fun, until someone's murdered.... And the culprit must be one of the knitters....

Knitting an ugly Christmas jumper at Cardinal Woolsey's knitting shop in Oxford is supposed to be relaxing. Until a knitter keels over. It's soon clear to amateur sleuth Lucy that murder's in the air and that the culprit is one of the knitters.

This is a fun take on a classic closed-room mystery. Of course, no room is every closed when vampires live downstairs. But are the undead knitters to blame? Or is there more to this Oxford knitting circle than lumpy Santas and light-up reindeer?

©2019 Nancy Warren (P)2020 Tantor

Fast and Fun

Cat's Paws and Curses is book 8.5 in the Vampire Knitting Club series. It is a short in-between novella. In this novella, there is yet another murder at Cardinal Woolsey's and this time it happened when Lucy was in the room. The readers don't really have much to go on for solving the crime alongside the characters. It was pretty random and out of nowhere, but it was still a fun book to listen to. The narration is good. It is the same narrator from the rest of the series.

One Room Mystery Suspension of Belief

We are back at Cardinal Woolsey's and we do not go beyond. As is stated in the description this is a take on a one room mystery almost like a short play all happening in one room. I continue to enjoy Nancy's style of writing, her ability to create characters (especially unlikeable ones), and the overall world of this series. Sarah's narration is as always superb and allows the listener to fall into the story. I think the oddity of doing a one room mystery is that this is an ongoing series with the main home of the books now becoming a continual murder scene. In a play it's fine because you aren't coming back to the location for the rest of the book series but one begins to wonder how many customers will want to come back when it will be the scene of such trauma. As well as a group of people sitting around knitting with a dead body that someone else in this room killed and then the police letting Lucy lead the questions. Although this is such lovely Agatha Christie typical for me it felt a little odd to host it in the knit shop. I found myself wishing it had been a knitting circle hosted in someone's home instead. But again I love this series and this was a super short story with a very specific style and intent, I just personally prefer the longer form of story that involves Lucy going out and about instead of narrowing everything at the shop. I am sure those that love this series are sure to enjoy this little edition.

Short and sweet

A short and sweet story that hooks and pulls a just end to an unjustly, mean old lady

Good Short Story

A fun short story in the series. I always enjoy a paranormal cozy mystery as a palate cleanser after plowing through the Criminal Profiler series by Mary Burton.
Part of the Audible Plus catalog.

Another great addition to the series.

Short, but a nice cozy mystery in one of my favorite series. The vampire knitting club is a great knitting club mystery series with Vampires, who just need a hobby.
Set in Oxford England, with cozy Admiral Wolsey yarn for atmosphere, which includes a trap door to an underground vampire dwelling.
Fun.

Something short and sweet!

If you enjoy the series but need a quick fix from your favorite group of vampire knitters than this is perfect!

should have saved my money

sometimes writers write a .5 book to propel a character or part of a story. this was Solely a mystery, and because it was so short, it lacked the charm and interesting snippets that the others had. I didn't really enjoy it.

Far too short for audible

Writers work hard and should be paid well for their work — but this is the shortest audible ever. An hour should not be a full credit. The story was complete but barely there.