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| Author: Joanna Carl
Publisher: Signet
Category: Book
List Price: $6.99
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $6.98 (100%)
New (39) Used (51) Collectible (1) from $0.01
Avg. Customer Rating:  29 reviews
Sales Rank: 143793
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.7
ISBN: 0451205561
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780451205568
ASIN: 0451205561
Publication Date: March 1, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: With pride from Motor City. All books guaranteed. Best Service, best prices.
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| Customer Reviews:
 A Treat September 18, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The Chocolate Cat Caper is the first in the Chocoholic mystery series by JoAnna Carl. Like a candy bar, the book goes down easy and leaves a sweet taste in your mouth. Soon, you will want another (book, that is). The story is about former Texas trophy wife Lee McKinney as she begins a new life in a Michigan lakeside resort town. Lee helps her beloved Aunt Nettie run an upscale chocolate shop. At a catered affair at a wealthy but hated resident's home, the hated woman dies after ingesting Aunt Nettie's chocolates. A man from Lee's teenage past is the victim's widower. He clashes with the woman's personal assistant, who has taken the murder very hard. Can Lee exonerate her chocolate shop before it is forced to close from lack of business?
This book would make a great TV episode a la Murder She Wrote. It is entertaining with a solid mystery for the reader to solve, but does not contain any very dark subject matter, sex, or profanity like so many other mystery series out there.
Enjoyable December 21, 2005
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I liked this mystery a lot. I think Lee is a great character. I don't find her speech impediment annoying at all like others have said. The mystery was fast paced and enjoyable. You will definitely be craving chocolate when you read it. I really appreciate that the book wasn't bogged down by endless descriptions of chocolate and chocolate-making. Its definitely a themed mystery but doesn't go overboard like the coffee mysteries by Cleo Coyle.
I only had two problems with the book: 1) the ending was suspenseful but the killer was too obvious - I would have liked it to have been someone else; and 2) there was one small thread left hanging that prevented it from having a neat and tidy tie-up.
But overall, I would definitely recommend this book!
 Entertaining Cozy, But Light on the Mystery November 4, 2005
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Lee McKinney has given up her career as a Texas trophy wife and moved back to the small town of Warner Pier, Wisconsin, where she spent the summers cashiering in her aunt's TenHuis Chocolade shop. Lee is helping out her Aunt Nettie by working at the store and balancing the company books while studying for her CPA exam. She knows that the store, while doing well, needs all of the extra summer business it can get to stay profitable so when a large order comes over from Clementine Ripley, Warner Pier's wealthiest and most hated resident, Lee urges her aunt to accept it regardless of her personal feelings on the matter.
Lee comes to regret this decision as Clementine Ripley dies the night of her party due to cyanide poisoning in the amaretto truffles that her Aunt Nettie provided. Things look even worse when Lee finds out that her Aunt Nettie blames Clementine Ripley for the death of her husband, which definitely provides her with a motive and she certainly had the means! But Lee quickly discovers that her Aunt Nettie was certainly not the only one who held a grudge against the infamous defense lawyer. There is Marion McCoy, Clementine's personal assistant, who ran her life, but didn't seem to really like her; Joe Woodyard, Warner Pier's golden boy and the subject of Lee's teenage crushes, the former Mr. Clementine Ripley inherits the entire estate; the Police Chief, who retired to Warner Pier after Clementine Ripley ruined his career in the big city, but couldn't escape her shadow; Mayor Hererra, who looked like a fool when Clementine Ripley backed out of her deal to sell her land to the city to build an observation facility; not counting the town's notorious gossip Greg Glossop, Clementine's slick and charming investment partner and every scumbag that Clementine Ripley kept out of jail...
The Chocolate Cat Caper is Book 1 in the Chocoholic Mystery Series and it was cute and light, but it was a bit of a disappointment. Lee is a charming heroine, but she was pretty ditzy and, while her habit of saying the wrong word when she is nervous (which is often) was endearing and laugh-out-loud funny at times, she just isn't very bright. She solved the mystery by being in all of the right places at the right times (or wrong places at the right times), but there was no real deduction on her part and her attempts to question other suspects in the murder were just laughable. The lack of mystery aside, the chocolate facts were entertaining and I liked reading about how they made the chocolate for the store and the other little details that the author put in. I will definitely check out the next book in the series, but I hope that it has a better mystery in it.
 I'm hooked on this new series. October 2, 2005
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
"The Chocolate Cat Caper" is an easy quick read. The type of book I like to read while waiting in line or traveling via plane. The story is not very complicated, so it's a book that you can put down and come back to easily. However, after you start this book, you may not want to put it down.
I could have done without the quirky habit the heroine has of substituting words with other words when she is nervous. However, the fact that the heroine is not perfect adds to her charm.
A delightful first book in a series (Chocoholic Mysteries) of books that I look forward to reading.
Average January 23, 2005
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I enjoy series mysteries and I don't hold them to a high standard as far as writing, but I do get frustrated when the characters act in a way that you just can't suspend disbelief enough to accept. The author of this series can't seem to decide if her character is a strong, smart woman or a ditz. The ditz part seems like the author thought she needed a gimmick (the malapropisms or whatever that word problem the main character has is). I'd like the book better without it because then I wouldn't feel like smacking the main character.
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