Mimi Lee Reads Between the Lines

Chow’s sprightly sequel to Mimi Lee Gets a Clue involves Mimi Lee, who owns an L.A. pet grooming salon, and Marshmallow, Mimi’s telepathic cat, who can communicate with people and other animals, in an investigation at Mimi’s sister Alice’s school, where one of Alice’s fellow teachers, Helen Reed, turns up dead in her car. Though there’s no sign of foul play, the lack of an obvious cause of death leads both the police and Mimi to look into whether Helen was murdered. Mimi gets more feline help after she rescues a kitten from under Helen’s car. The kitten, whom she names Nimbus, has an unusual chip under her skin, and Marshmallow reveals that he and Nimbus were kept by the same man, who’d implanted a device in each cat to enhance their “mental capabilities.” Nimbus is able to share the fact that a man, possibly her former master, was at the school on the day of Helen’s death. Mimi’s appealing narrative voice keeps the action moving, despite a distracting subplot involving strains in her parents’ marriage. This is catnip for fans of talking cat cozies. [em]Agent: Jessica Faust, BookEnds Literary. (Nov.) [/em]