The Cat Who Had 60 Whiskers (Cat Who... Book 29)

Wonderful and, tragically, final book in the Spectacular Cat Who Series. In this book while Polly Duncan goes on a trip to Paris with her longtime friend Shirley, a former librarian from Lockmaster, the next county over Qwilleran and his two siamese cats meet a woman who's involved in cataloguing the Ledfield collection for sale, donation and/or private distribution. The job is assigned to 3 women, two of them get along well and the other doesn't get along with anyone because of her rotten personality. Then the one who gets along with Qwilleran's new friend does because she was allergic and got stung by a bee and forgot her epi pen. Qwilleran receives a Dear John letter from Polly in Paris because she was offered a job in France and decides to take it which means moving there. Koko is very suspicious of the bee sting death and lets Qwilleran know, will the evidence surface to back up his suspicions?

I can understand the many negative reviews, written by disappointed fans who may have preferred to see the series end with the marriage of Qwill and Polly, but since I have NEVER liked the judgmental, critical and somewhat bitchy Polly, I couldn't be happier that she "moved on" to Paris, leaving all behind. She had been pulling away from Qwill for some time now, and the only reason she had her Siamese cats in the first place was because Qwill had such a remarkable Koko and sweet Yum Yum! If she'd really been so "devoted" to her cats, she wouldn't have lef† them so many times, for so many unnecessary trips; and if she'd been so "devoted" to cats in general, she would have had one long before meeting Mr. Q. It is obvious that LJB was very tired at the end of her long and highly productive life, and the woman deserves a gold medal for giving us an ending that WAS an ending; and I'm glad she burned the barn down, so that nobody else would be moving in, after she (and the real Mr. Q) were gone. As for the mystery itself -- that was never the important part of LJB's stories, so the shorter shrift it gets in this final novel -- doesn't matter very much to me, and was certainly incidental to the "wrap up" of the series. Long live Mr. Q and his Siamese, hopefully with a much nicer lady friend!

I am not sure why there are so many negative reviews and complaints that the mystery wasn't resolved. The mystery was not the central part of this novel, but it was solved--by Koko, of course--although you don't get to see the results. Admittedly, this is not the strongest entry in the series, but it has the elements of character development and gentle humor, in addition to the antics of the cats, that I have enjoyed in the past. Both Qwill and others are ready to move on, and I for one was glad to see one character go. For some reason I had lost track of Braun over the years and was not aware of this story until recently. His reaction to the loss of the apple barn was very typical of the first animal owners. If the critters you love are OK, why be devastated over a building. After all, he has plenty of money to replace the house. It would have been more likely for him to be devastated over the burned books, and that probably should have been mentioned. Like many others, I closed the book with a sense of sadness and loss. No more Cat Who stories. Someone posted that the author had notes for another book, which might have given some closure to one or two parts of the ongoing themes, but it ended on a high note for Qwill and others. Since the changing interaction of the characters has always been part of the series I see no reason to complain about a little uncertainty. If Lilian Jackson Braun was still writing this series--as many have questioned--and died before completing the next installment, It is unfair to take stars away from this book. I recommend this for anyone who has read the other books. This is one series that you definitely need to begin with the first entry. These mysteries are mild and more about people, friendships, places and cats, so if that interests you then I recommend you start with the beginning and go on to the end. If you prefer a fast paced story with a lot of violence and/or graphic sex then skip this. It wasn't written for you.

That sums up how I’m feeling now after having read the entire series of 29 Cat who books. Haven’t read the 3 books of short stories yet but purchased them today.As far as some of the critisim and suspesion that the last few novels (in particular #29) were not Lilian Braun’s style I would agree. Starting with the book having the aliens land and no resolution to the backpacker buried at the beach. And the murder never solved in #29. I will say the murder mystery part was never what attracted me to the series. Qwill, Koko, Yum Yum, all the other cats and people that made up the stories. Their interaction is what drew me back - in fact I intend a slow process of re-reading the series just to pick some nuances I may have missed. I will confess I read a review ~2/3 way through the series that Polly would leave Moose County unexpectedly and the barn would burn down. However, reading on I think the Polly/Qwill split was inevitable. One of the books (upper teens I think) they go on a picnic and Qwill tells her he has something to say. I forget the exact wording but something gave me the impression she thought he would propose but he said something totally inocuous instead. From that point on I got the impression Polly and Qwill’s days might be numbered even though it was plainly stated to the reader Polly liked her independence - but maybe she was resolved that Qwill wasn’t marriage material. In any event I didn’t really get that Polly left Qwill for someone else but her life was going in a different direction. Qwill seemed to bounce right back so maybe it had been over for him a long time ago as well. The burning of the barn I believe was symbolic that his life was headed in another direction as well - guess we’ll never know for sure what Lilian with her creative mind would have come up with but that leaves each of us to create the ending in our minds which might have been her intention all along.

The Cat who ... was never high fiction but it was fun reading. I enjoyed getting to know all the characters and their lives throughout the 28 books. They had become familiar to me - I liked hearing about where they lived and what they did.However, The Cat Who Had 60 Whiskers was a very sad finale. I understand that book series come to an end but this was positively the worst ending of all - there was no ending - just the rug being pulled out from under my feet.I’m not going to lose any sleep over it (there is lots more to read elsewhere) but I was disappointed to say the least.

As an enthusiastic "Cat who..." reader I have read every title and looked forward to this latest offering. Sadly, this book should never have been published in my opinion. The plot lacks any cohesion, the character drawing is shallow and there is a clear feeling that it has been written by someone who has only a cursory knowledge of the whole setting. It did not even feel as if it had been written by the same writer who gave us the splendid early titles such as "The Cat who lived high" and "The Cat who ate Danish Modern". Please allow this series to come to a dignified end and let all of us fans keep our happy memories intact.

So enjoy reading this series - although I have not been able to buy them in sequence, it does not detract from the enjoyment at all. This author is highly recommended.

Ant Braun fan will like this. Any cat who fan will enjoy this. So good to have a murder mystery without gratuitous blood and gore but with good brainwork. The small town America background is really pleasant and the voice for Qwilleran is perfect. You think it's HIM.

Some odd turns but a good read as always. Bee stings, mysterious flasks and friendly town folk add to the pleasure