7 minute read
CLAIRE CONSIDERS
CLAIRE CONSIDERS
New Cozy Mystery Series by Two Friends Features Callahan the Flop-eared Gray Cat - Claire Hamner Matturro
Cozy and mystery fans, take note—there’s a delightful, captivating new series in town which is a collaboration between two long-time friends with an impressive publishing history between them. Rebecca Barrett and Susan Tanner team up on creating the Cat Callahan series, with the first full-length books in the series, Callahan on the Case by Barrett and Cat Callahan and the Horses of Hope by Tanner, both released January 2024. Other books in the cozy mystery series will follow.
In the first book, readers meet Callahan, who is a Scottish Fold, otherwise seen as a gray cat with flop ears, plenty of cat attitude, and a penchant for solving crimes. After all, Callahan can go where people can’t, he can see and hear better than human detectives, and his sense of smell is radically better, plus he is closely observant. Callahan can read people with a thoroughness that’d be clairvoyant in a person but is the norm for him. What he can’t do is talk, read, or open doors—which adds a bit of fun in the novels as he finds new ways of access and communication.
Callahan is his own cat, belonging to no one yet fed, indulged, and treasured in his debut by several in the small Georgia town of Warm Springs. Others in the community might call him “that darn cat,” but without malice as he comes and goes at will. Callahan’s wry musings often add a delicious touch of humor to the stories. He even has his own Facebook page, which describes him as: “Cat Callahan, cat of the street, cat of mystery... artful, cagey. A vagabond of the roads and rails.”
The first two entries in the series Callahan on the Case and Callahan and The Horses of Hope are both twisty, clever, well-written, and utterly charming cozies. Each has just the right touch of whimsy, yet both contain serious sleuthing, an authentic set-up, page-turning pacing, and of course danger. Romance readers will have much to enjoy in the books, as will mystery readers. As with most cozy mysteries, the Cat Callahan series requires willing suspension of disbelief, which is, of course, all part of the fun, excitement, and escapist lure.
The new series does have a history, as they are inspired by a series featuring Trouble, the black cat detective, that was the brainchild of best-selling author Carolyn Haines. Barrett and Tanner had both written several books in that series. When the publisher decided to discontinue the Trouble-black cat detective series, Secret Staircase Books, an imprint of Columbine Publishing Group, LLC, opted to publish the Callahan series. Secret Staircase also publishes other of Tanner’s novels.
Callahan on the Case, the first book in the series “is entirely original,” Tanner emphasized, but the next several will be revamps of her and Barrett’s former Trouble books, followed by additional new Callahan novels. She adds “We’ve been working hard on this for a year. It’s been fun but I’ll admit it’s been grueling as well.” Tanner praised their publisher, Secret Staircase Books too for their contributions “on all of this with us. It’s exciting to be here finally.”
Barrett agreed the first two novels are the culmination of a long year of focused effort. “It's a lot more work than I thought it would be because we have to be so involved in each other's manuscripts.” She added, “So far Susan hasn't brought out the garland of garlic or put a stake through my heart.”
Callahan on the Case is set in Southwest Georgia’s Warm Springs, the home of The Little White House, where Franklin D. Roosevelt spent much time, and ultimately died there. The Little White House is now a historic museum, and the setting for the first mysterious death in the book. When a stranger’s body ends up in a locked space in a section of the museum, the death sets off the classic format of a closed room mystery made famous by Agatha Christie. How exactly the body got into the secured place is as much a puzzle as who the dead man is. But when a second body is found near the museum, the suspense ratchets up.
Callahan is joined in the debut by an engaging cast of characters, including the female protagonist, Hannah Sanderson, a young widow and assistant director of the Little White House. Her precocious ten-year-old daughter Teagan steals every scene she is in, along with her protective Scottie dog named Fergus. Teagan has all the makings of a great detective and notices things even the official forensic team miss. She’s sharp, perceptive, and oblivious to personal danger. That she is a child at first puts Callahan off, but she charms and impresses him quick enough, and they end up being quite the astute sleuthing team.
There is more than a spark of attraction between Hannah and Scoop Russell, the state police detective sent from Atlanta to investigate the growing body count. But miscues and old history operated to keep them apart, even as the danger to Hannah strikes closer and closer to her and Teagan.
The second book, Callahan and the Horses of Hope, is set in Alabama where vagabond Callahan lands temporarily. New Hope Ranch, the dream child of protagonist Avery, is a place where people with traumatic injuries, whether physical or emotional, find help through therapeutic riding and working with horses. When Avery seeks to expand her program for veterans with PTSD, the government sends Campbell to check out the ranch. But Campbell comes to doubt Avery, even as he reluctantly finds himself attracted to her. Danger lurks and threatens her dreams, as Callahan sets about finding out who seems determined to hurt her—and why. A sinister ex-husband, a band of violent thugs, a tumble of secrets, betrayal, and someone who is not at all who Avery thinks, and more compound the risks as Callahan once more puts his detective skills at work.
The Callahan mysteries check all the boxes for a totally immersive reading experience. Like all good cozy mysteries, the violence is off stage or at least not graphic, the sleuthing is often by amateurs, the mystery is suspenseful, and the resolution is eminently satisfying. Barrett and Tanner have done a wonderful job with these first two books and readers should look forward to more delights in the expanding series.
Tanner, who brings her personal knowledge and experience with horses and her love of history to her novels, is the author of sweeping historical romances of the American West and Scotland. When not at her desk, Tanner—a competitive barrel racer as well as a multi-published author—can usually be found in the barn or on a horse.
Barrett also writes historical fiction, as well as short stories of life in the South, and children's stories. She fell in love with cozy mysteries after discovering Lillian Jackson Braun's series. In addition to the Callahan series, she writes a detective series set in the deep South of the 1960s featuring a Vietnam veteran.
