The Cat in the Stacks Cozy Mystery Series Reviewed

 Starring volunteer librarian Charlie Harris and his rescue Maine Coon cat, Diesel. 

We first meet Charlie and Diesel in Book I - Murder Past Due, the 2010 debut of this charming and delightful series.

To date, author Miranda James has written 17 books in the series, with Something Whiskered having been published in 2025.

Series Synopses

Charlie Harris is recently retired from his position as a Library Director in Houston. Widowed, and with his two children grown and pursuing their own careers, Charlie decides to move back to his hometown, a small town near the coast in Mississippi where he has inherited a house from a great-aunt. 

The house is large, so Charlie rents out a couple of the rooms to boarders. His aunt’s housekeeper has run the house for years and stays on part time to tend to Charlie and his boarders, cleaning and cooking. Since Charlie adores her fine Southern cooking, this works out fine with him. 

To keep busy, Charlie volunteers a couple days a week at the local public library and also works one day a week as custodian of the rare books collection at the local college. 

One day, as Charlie parks at the library for one of his volunteer days, and anxious to get inside as it is pouring rain, he  spots movement under a nearby bush. Investigating, he discovers a very large, and rather wet, Maine Coon cat. He picks up the cat and takes him inside to dry him off.

As time goes by, Charlies tries to find out where the cat belongs, while taking care of him at his home. Unable to locate an owner, he ends up keeping the cat. Since the cat has a very deep and rumbling purr, Charlie names him Diesel. He decides he sounds just like a diesel engine. :) 

Then a murder happens and Charlie Harris and Diesel end up playing detective to solve the crime. 

Diesel goes everywhere with Charlie, including the library where he is a favorite with the children. He even walks on a lease when doing so would keep him safer. 

In subsequent books, Charlie and Diesel become involved in more unsolved murders.  The dynamic duo of genial librarian Charlies Harris and his smart and clever cat, Diesel, earn  the reputation of becoming quite good detectives. 

*You can find the entire collection available here on Amazon. 

Author Miranda  James

Miranda James is a pen name for Dean James, a former medical librarian of two decades. His professional background includes extensive published research on library science, medical history, and the mystery genre. In addition to the Cat in the Stacks series, he is the author of three other series of books. James lives in Texas. 

Summary

If you enjoy cozy mysteries and also like stories that include animals, you will be pleased with this Cat in the Stacks series. As time goes on, Charlie’s two kids move back to Charlie's small Mississippi town (the son, a lawyer, from Houston and the daughter, a striving actress, from California) and become a part of subsequent stories. As does the housekeeper’s daughter, who is a senior detective on the town’s police force and keeps bumping into Charlie when he somehow keeps finding bodies. 

Each story leads into the next, so reading them in sequence is recommended. The Cat in the Stacks series is a darling and light-hearted series of cozy mysteries. 

*Book Review of the “Cat in the Stack” series of cozy mysteries is written by Wednesday Elf

There's a cat in the stacks...

...and he makes the purr-fect partner for a librarian-turned-sleuth.

Murder Past Due (Cat in the Stacks Mystery)

Something Whiskered (Cat in the Stacks Mystery)

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