It is almost Christmas and Cozy Cat Café owner Beatrice Young is trying to find out if her ex-husband and now live in boyfriend, Matthew Thompson, has plans to propose. She has every jewelry store owner in town on alert to call her if Matthew comes into the store. She gets that call only a couple of weeks before Christmas and goes racing to see what he picks out. Of course, she cannot let herself be seen, so she takes along her four cats to assist in her spy efforts.

She gets more than she expected. While she sees the ring he selected, she and her cats also witness a mugger steal the ring from him. It turns out that this is just one of a series of big-ticket item thefts in the community, so Beatrice and her furry friends join in the quest to find the thief.

I did like that although there are clues that suggest the culprit, it is not an obvious choice. Beatrice and Matthew are developed enough to feel as if the reader knows them, but less important characters are not as memorable.

The Mewltide Mugger is at heart a cute story, but as much as I love cats, traipsing all over town with four feline sleuths was a bit of overkill for me. Maybe it is because this is the first book I’ve read in the series, but I like to know a little more about the personality of each cat and see each one given a larger role in the story so that they stand out individually, but that didn’t happen here.

I received a free copy of this book with no obligation to review. Any opinion given here is strictly my own. ( )