This is the first book in a new series, The Oyster Cove Guesthouse. After a disastrous marriage and subsequent divorce, Josie has moved back home and, after sinking her money into the Oyster Cove Guesthouse, is determined to turn her life around. But not only is she plagued with a host of desperately repairs and a nit-picking building inspector, but now a dead body is found in the closed-off section. In typical cozy mystery fashion, this story has the usual cavalcade of characters: the busybody elderly friend/family members intent on helping with the investigation; the pesky but hunky ex-romantic interest; the ancient, inept sheriff; and Josie herself, sucked into the investigation if only to prove herself innocent of the crime.But the real stars of this story are the anthropomorphic cats, Nero and Marlowe. As in Ms. Dobbs' other series, Mystic Notch, these cats are intelligent and take their duties as caretakers of the guesthouse (and Josie) very seriously. As they communicate with each other and various other cats throughout the town to track down clues, they become intent on not only protecting Josie, but mastering communication with her to point her in the right direction. With several prospective suspects in mind, this will prove to be more difficult than Josie had originally thought, and she will need all the help she can get to resolve this and stay safe. I enjoyed this first book. The main characters can use some more fleshing out, but it was a good start with an interesting locale, several twists and turns, and of course, the cats...proud, acting as typical standoffish cats at times, and displaying an intelligence that far outweighs that of a dog (in the cat's mind at least). Disclosure: I am voluntarily reviewing this book from NetGalley and all opinions are strictly my own.

This review will be post on my blog, Foxes and Fairy Tales on May 9, 2019

This cozy threw me a little at first: I've read lots of where the pets play an important part, but this is my first where the cats actually do a lot of the detective work and chat amongst themselves. It also threw me that Millie and Josie's mom are mentioned to have been involved in investigations before? This is the first in The Oyster Cove Guesthouse series, but perhaps there's a related series I'm unaware of? I felt like I had missed a few introductory chapters. I know it's important to get to the action quickly, but the beginning felt a little jumpy to me. Either way, after a little initial confusion, I quickly settled into the Guesthouse.

Nero and Marlowe, the house cats, are the stars of the show. I really enjoyed their detective work alongside the motley crew of intelligent cat sleuths. There are lots of little moments and character traits that I think cat owners are going to relate to and smile at.

Besides the cats, Oyster Cove is a real attraction in itself. We don't see too much of the town itself, but the crumbling Victorian guesthouse, still mid-renovation, is a vivid and wonderful setting, and the descriptions of the surrounding cliffs are beautiful. I could really clearly see it in my mind.

The mystery aspect isn't the strongest. A lot of the conclusions Josie comes to seem to be mostly chance and I didn't feel like there was a lot of process to her investigation.

Still, A Twist in the Tale was a really entertaining read. The writing is simple and fast-paced. The characters and fun and the setting is great, so I can forgive a few weaknesses in a first instalment. I'd like to pick up more of Nero, Marlowe and Josie's adventure's in future.

A Twist on the Tail is a good quick cozy mystery. The characters are interesting and the book is entertaining.

Simple cozy that’s an easy read. The characters are sometimes silly in their decisions but for those who want a book with cats it’s perfect.
Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for this arc in return for an honest review

This is a first to the series, The Oyster Cove Guesthouse. I enjoyed this book. It has great characters. I like that Josie is trying to rebuild her life, restore the guesthouse in parts, and has people she can talk to.

What I didn’t like was that each time Josie thought she had a suspect, she really had no evidence to back her assumptions up and was too easily persuaded to jump to another suspect without a clue. I had figured out who and why long before the big reveal. I usually don’t mind this but Josie needs to work on her deductive skills and hire a new cleaning person. She can’t afford to carry people since she has little money and needs to restore the guesthouse.

The cats being able to figure this out was delightful.

All in all, I would recommend this book and hope Josie gets some real clues in the future.

This is the second Leighann Dobbs series that features cats solving crimes (the Mystic Notch series is the other one). In less capable hands, the point of view of the cats might come across as silly, but Dobbs has a way of making it work. I found it to be a fun mystery and it includes lots of quirky characters that readers are sure to enjoy.

A Twist in the Tail by Leighann Dobbs is the first book in The Oyster Cove Guesthouse Mystery series.

Josie has hastily purchased a crumbling guest house from her mother's best friend, fleeing Ohio and her ex-husband. She has decided to make a new life for herself. She has also inherited two cats Nero and Marlowe as well.
She chooses to ignore that her guest house is money pit, that bits and pieces are simply falling off, her guests are eccentric and somewhat demanding and her brother's former best friend is helping her fix it up against her will. There is also an inspector who is doing her best to make things as hard for Josie as possible.
But when her guest is found dead in her guest house and Josie ends up being chief suspect, she has no choice but to enlist the help of her mother and her best friend in order to clear her name, At the same time felines are doing their part of investigating curious circumstances and trying to help their humans.

Entertaining and quirky set of characters. Thinking and crime solving pets were truthfully quite a surprise for me and although this is really not my cup of tea, I still found it very engaging and absorbing.
There are many characters but it is not difficult at all to keep track of them. The story is well told, mystery is cleverly presented.
All in all great start of an unusual cozy mystery.

This was a quick, easy read that was a lot of fun with quirky characters. Josie flees Ohio and her ex-husband to return to Oyster Cover, Maine to purchase a bed and breakfast. The lodge came with two resident cats, Nero and Marlow who seem to be able to help solve a murder. I really enjoyed this fun read.

After raising her daughter and divorcing her chef husband, Josie Waters returns to her hometown if Oyster Cove, Maine. To gain back her confidence, and make a living, Josie buys the local guesthouse from her Mother’s best friend. While hosting her first set of guests, one of them is found murdered in the old wing that has been shut off until it can be restored.

With Josie’s future at risk if the local sheriff decides to pin the murder on her, she joins forces with her Mother and Millie, the former owner of the guesthouse, to finger the real murderer. But it’s the two cats that came along with the guesthouse, Nero and Marlowe, that really help solve the murder, along with their own kitty crew of detectives.

A cute concept of telling the story from both the human and feline perspective. First in the series, if you are a cozy cat lover, this series is for you.

Set on the Maine Coast, the Oyster Cove Guesthouse came with much more than Josie, newly divorced and back in town, ever expected. From the renovations that are desperately needed, to two cats, Nero and Marlowe are in residence. When you add in the fact that her mother and Millie, the former owner of the guesthouse are currently wreaking havoc and getting into every sort of adventure (and crime) in town, she’s also got a nonagenarian maid in Flora, who seems never to clean but Josie just can’t seem to let her go. And, while Josie knows good food and was married to a reasonably well-known chef, her culinary prowess is basic at best, perhaps a bit optimistic for her hopes for the guesthouse under her watch. But, there are other things to worry about now, as one of the guests is found murdered in her basement by a rather overzealous code enforcement officer after the cats alerted them to the body. It doesn’t help that the victim is (or was) a well known and perpetually snarky food critic, and a piece of what may have been a ‘bad review’ was found in his room by the police.

Told in two major points of view, we have Josie’s struggles with the B & B, her mother’s increasing involvement in potentially dangerous situations with her best friend Millie, and simply getting the work done and paid for on the Guesthouse building proper. Then we have the conversations between Nero and Marlowe, as Nero tries to educate the ‘youngster’ in all things sleuthing. Nero, for his part is an intriguing character, having existed and lived in the Guesthouse for far more years than a cat should, with Marlowe still being ‘kittenish’ at near ten. There’s a peculiar magic in the ‘cat convos’ that point to clues and possibilities as well as a very strong sense to anyone that has had cat companions that they are judging EVERY move you make. For these two certainly have that in spades. When you add in Millie and Josie’s mother, the return of her grade school nemesis and brother’s best friend Mike as her handyman, and the finger inevitably pointing at her as the culprit, as it seems clear from a rather cursory search by the police that suspects are few on the ground, and the story takes several interesting side-trips with the cats and people on the way to finding the real murderer.

First books are often an incredible balance of introducing and outlining characters while providing those twists that make them intriguing and to be sure you want to read more. Bearing that in mind, Dobbs gives GREAT intro, and adds so many layers to the more ‘standard’ pet involved mystery that I’m totally hooked. The cats as characters are as fully developed and nuanced as humans, and are easy to visualize. Introducing Josie, her Mum and her best friend Millie, as well as the other characters around the inn are wonderfully presented and developed with care: and each encounter adds yet another layer and level to the building up of a picture one can take of this small coastal town. While the mystery itself was fairly simple to solve, it was the characters that helped to make this a wonderful story with enough tease of more to come. A wonderful installment to this series that promises to be a fun set of feel-good cozies.

I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.

Review first appeared at <a href=” https://wp.me/p3OmRo-apA/” > <a> I am, Indeed</a>

Cute story and a fast read. I'm always a sucker for books centered around cats. Plus, these weren't ordinary cats, these were cats that solved crimes. Which is pretty impressive since my cats just eat and sleep all day. I wouldn't have minded a little more back story on Josie. I really don't know much about her. I sort of felt like I was just thrown into the story, like I was missing introductions or simply the beginning. Barbara, the building inspector, was definitely over the top. A fine for having a corpse on your premises during breakfast is simply crazy, especially when it was $250. Did the police even attempt to solve the murder mystery??? Pretty much Josie, Milly and Rose discovered all the clues. I learned that seagulls annoy cats as much as they do people and also aren't very tasty.

I recommend the book and can't wait to read the next books in the series. I have a feeling the kitties have more crime to solve.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Bookouture through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This was an interesting read, with points of view from the main character (Josie) as well as the two cats (Nero and Marlowe). This is the first book in a series, so it will be interesting to see if Josie can get a handle on running a guesthouse and learn to treat her two new cats as they want to be treated along with learning to interpret what the cats are telling her.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I thought I was going to really enjoy this book as I love a cosy mystery and it started off really well, the characters and the scene setting, but I just couldn't get over the fact that the story is sometimes told from the cats point of view and it really put me off.

Unfortunately this book wasn't for me which was a shame but thank you to netgalley for providing me with an advanced reader copy.

Running the Oyster Cove Guesthouse has turned out to be a little more demanding for Josie Waters than she had imagined. Saddled with two cats that came with the guesthouse, she has to maintain its food reputation without her ex-husband culinary prowess and the local inspector who keeps writing her warnings about finding her cats in the kitchen and a corpse on the premises. Intriguing new series with cats who help solve mysteries. Found the characters pleasant although the mystery a little too easily solved.

A twist in the tail is an interesting story told through the cats. The human characters are upstaged by the cats at tje guesthouse. Lots of twists that will keep you wondering who the killer is.

A Twist in the Tail is the first book in a new series from Leighann Dobbs. What an entertaining cozy mystery! Josie is a new inn owner trying to make a fresh start in her old home town of Oyster Cove. When she purchases the property from her mom's friend Millie, she also gets two resident cats. The Inn is in bad shape and needs a lot of work, but Josie has a great attitude until a dead body appears in the closed off portion of the inn. What follows is a quirky, funny tale of the cats trying to get their human to notice the clues they've found, and Josie, her mom and Millie trying to convince the sheriff that Josie is not the killer! Great mystery that kept me guessing. I really enjoyed this one and look forward to more of The Oyster Cove Guesthouse mysteries.

A twist in the tail by Leighann Dobbs a first in a new series by a very talent author.
Loved this new book.
Josie has moved back to Oyster Cove , bought a guesthouse that need a lot of renovations,
Included in the house are two cats named Nero and Marlow .
One of the guest is found dead with a little help from the two cats josie needs to find the killer .
Loved the characters especially Mum and Millie, plenty of twist . I was surprised who the killer was ,kept you guessing.
Definitely recommend this new series and Author.
Many thanks to Nettgalley and publishers for advance copy for a honest review.

Josie Waters jumps at the chance to escape her home and husband in Ohio to take over the Oyster Cove Guesthouse in Maine. The problem is that the inn is in terrible shape. Josie inherits two cats with the sale and while trying to fix up the old Victorian ends up with a dead guest. A charming cozy mystery for fans of the genre

A Twist In The Tail is the first in the Oyster Cove Guesthouse cosy mystery series and what a perfect way to introduce this quirky bunch of characters!

Josie has moved back to Oyster Cove after the break up of her marriage, buying the Oyster Cove guesthouse and throwing herself into the renovation of the dilapidated mansion. If that wasn’t enough, she has to deal with fussy guest, a building inspector who fines her for every minor infraction and the resident cats Nemo and Marlowe who are determined to get under foot.

Then one the guests is found dead but is it an accident or murder?

When suspicion falls on Josie, with the help of her mum and her mum’s best friend Millie, they set out to clear her name. Meanwhile, the resident cats are on the scent too, determined to her their human out. Will they solve the case before anyone else gets hurt?

This was an absolute joy to read! It’s the perfect blend of mystery and fun with crime solving cats thrown into the mix. Yes, you read that right crime solving cats.

Now this is first book I’ve read that has animals as one of the main characters in the book since I was a child, I know it might put some people off but they are done so well, with humour that will have you laughing your socks off!

I loved all the characters, but my favourites were Josie’s mum Rose and Millie the former owner of the guesthouse and her mum’s best friend, who are out to prove that even though they’re retired it won’t stop them from investigating.

I also liked the fact that even though there are so many personalities in the story, the mystery wasn’t overshadowed and it really had me guessing who the culprit was until the very end.

The ending leaves it open with a hint of another puzzling mystery for the cats and their human Josie to solve and I for one cannot wait for the next one!

A twist in the tail is a must for animal lovers and cosy mystery fans!

As cozy mysteries go, this is a wonderful tail (!) Love the cats as someone who lived with a cat for 16 years(notice I didn't say owned) can attest to, cats are Masters of their domain. Very cleverly done, can't wait for the next book in this series. I'm hoping the next book with have more romance with maybe the daughter showing up. I received an e-book from NetGalley in return for an unbiased review.