Maddie James runs a home for stray cats where they can be adopted. She lives on an island near Boston. One of the biggest holidays on the island is Halloween. This year, they have something special scheduled. A famous psychic who grew up on the island is coming back to stay in a haunted hotel.

But there are some things that took place in the hotel that people don't want to get out. And the psychic isn't a fake. He appears to know the identity of a murderer in the murder that took place in the hotel long ago. That is, until he is found murdered.

Maddie has been serving on the organizing committee for the event. But now, she turns her attention to finding the murder.

This is the first book in the series that I have read. It was a great read. The characters are well developed. The plot is a good one. While the identity of the murderer isn't a huge surprise, the twists and turns to get there are fun. I highly recommend this book.

I love cozy mysteries and am always looking for a new series to try. Nine Lives and Albis have all the makings of a perfect cozy-a beautiful small-town setting wonderfully described, an adorable pet (or 2 or 3), and a main character who gets involved in solving a crime. The spin of 40 year old cold cases, a, likable victim and secrets revealed made this a fun , interesting read. This is the first in the series I've read - I was admittedly confused by the concept of a cat cafe and some of the relationships of the characters. I did like the main character Maddie and will need to go back to read the rest of the series. Although Halloween-themed it is perfect to read anytime. Thanks to #netgalley and #stmartinspress @minotaur_books for the ARC. My review is voluntary and
the opinions expressed are my own.

It’s almost Halloween time. The town has formed a committee to try to increase their Halloween business. Maddie James’ mother is the head of the committee. The assignments are bing checked to see if everything is going as planned. Madddie’s younger sister has invited a well known psychic to be part of the event. His name is Balfour Dempsey. He has made a lot of demands which are being agreed to. He wants a separate room for his cat, Balfour, Jr. With this psychic at the events the town hopes to outdo their neighboring city Salem in festivities. He has agreed to doing readings and even tarot readings. He will also judge and decide what cat in the costumed cat parade will win. After Balfour has arrived and is taken to the haunted hotel, H has settled in quite nicely. After series, it was written Balfour has done a few readings, he appears to have disappeared. The guards didn’t even noticed he was not in his room as well as the cat. Suddenly, it appears that Balfour has fallen off the cliffs. Maddie suspects it might had been murder not accidental. Is Maddie right? Why would someone want to murder Balfour? Is it due to a cold case or?

The author has written a delightful and engaging cozy mystery. Even though this the seventh book in the series, one doesn’t need the earlier novels to enjoy it. Having two cases that needed to be solved made the current mystery made me want to find out if the two cases were somehow related. It was a fun, yet serious mystery.

Nine Lives and Alibis

A Cat Cafe Mystery

By: Cate Conte

Publish Date: 22 August 2023

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books

Mystery, Thriller

100 Book ReviewsProfessional Reader

I would like to thank both St. Martin Press and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book.

Good Reads Synopsis:

In Nine Lives and Alibis , the seventh in Cate Conte’s Cat Café beloved cozy mystery series, Daybreak Island is gearing up for Halloween―but this year it seems like it’ll be all tricks and no treats.

It’s October in Daybreak Harbor, which means everything Halloween. The town is going all out for the holiday, hoping to one-up the festivities in neighboring Salem, Massachusetts, and Maddie James is delighted to be part of the planning for the annual happenings.

But trouble brews when Maddie’s youngest sister, Sam, books a famous medium, Balfour Dempsey, to come to town for the celebrations and stay in the local haunted inn―along with his equally famous black cat. The town busybody books a secret reading with Balfour and doesn’t want anyone to know why. Maddie’s best friend Becky is hell-bent on getting Balfour to help her solve two 40-year-old mysteries―a murder and a missing maid. And the psychic has a stalker who’s followed him here to the island, demanding he connect with her dead husband.

When Balfour is pushed off the cliffs behind the inn to his death and his beloved cat goes missing, it throws the whole town into a frenzy. And Maddie and her family find themselves in the middle of a murder mystery straight out of a Halloween movie.

Book Review:

I gave this book 4 stars. Even though this is the seventh book in the series it was easy to follow along. That is what I like about cozy mysteries. You really don’t have to start from the beginning to know what is going on. All the background is great to know but it is only for the main characters. The author does a great a job with giving you the information you need for this story.

This story is during the month of October, and they are getting ready for Halloween. The party and gathering they are planning is for spot lighting cats that need a home. There will be a cat costume parade and contest for all the Cats who will be participating. There is also going to be a famous medium there, who happens to have a onetime lived in the area. Also a reporter is trying to solve two very old cold cases from 40 years ago.

One night the medium is found dead, and they can’t figure out he dead. They know he fell off the cliff but was he pushed or did he slip and fall. Can this also be tied to the two old cold cases. You will have to read the book to find out.

What I like about this story is that. the family is very strong in it and so are the friendships.

Even strangers are willing to step in and help out when needed. Great story.

4.5 stars! This was my first experience with this series, and now I can’t wait to go back and catch up on the rest of the Cat Cafe Mysteries! Nine Lives has everything you could want in a Halloween cozy—cold cases, a murder of a psychic, a Halloween festival, pumpkin carving in a funeral home, Shakespeare, and plenty of quirky characters. The main character from the author’s Full Moon series also made an appearance in this installment, which made me want to read that one as well! One of my favorite elements was the newspaper stories scattered throughout the book; and let’s not forget that I couldn’t figure out who the murderer was! Overall, excellent story and I’m excited to read more of the Cat Cafe series!

This was a great Halloween cozy read. I loved the small, island town setting. The cats were great additions to the story line and the murder mystery kept me guessing until the end. The only reason that I gave it four stars was that the beginning of the story seemed to drag a bit and it was half over before the murder happened. I will definitely be checking out other stories in this series.

4.5/5
Maddie lives on a small island, but they're planning a huge Halloween. What better way to celebrate and bring in tourists than with a massive Halloween festival headlined with the island's own famous Psychic, back for the first time in years?

It's got a good cast of characters, lots of Halloween vibes, and a fun haunted mystery. Plus cats. In my opinion, that's all you really need to know to know you'll have a good time with this one.

I'll admit that I've jumped into this series a bit far in, so some of the characters who didn't have much of a role in this book were harder to care about. That said, overall, I really enjoyed it, and I found it easy enough to follow what was happening-- which in my opinion, is essential to a good cozy series. There was plenty of explanation. Any genre with a lot of holiday books needs to allow for that for those of us who mood-read and don't have time to read a dozen books to get to the plot we're yearning for, and I think the author did a good job of this.

While I was surprised by how long it took to get to the murder, I didn't find that as off-putting as I might have from a different author. The opportunity to get to know the victim and all potential suspects made it a much better book in this case. It was just a fun, interesting ride from start to finish.

Another highlight of this book was the way the author treated the supernatural. The main character was allowed space to be skeptical without it feeling like the author was dismissing and belittling all things magical, which I appreciated.

I'll definitely be adding the rest of this series to my list.

Maddie James is living a busy life on Daybreak Island. As the owner of the cat cafe JJ's House of Purrs, she has a full-time job taking care of the cats that are forever being added to the current rotation of adoptable felines (despite an official limit of 10). Her boyfriend Lucas is moving into the house where she runs the business and also lives with various family members: her grandfather, sister and sister's boyfriend (who supplies the baked goods at the cafe). She's also part of the committee that is preparing the annual Halloween Festival that's going to be celebrated on the island. Everyone is looking forward to the return of one of the island's most famous former residents, the renowned psychic Balfour. He plans to give readings by appointment during the festival at the Inn at Lighthouse Point hotel, where he'll also be staying. This is appropriate since the inn is said to be haunted, as well as being the site of an unsolved murder and disappearance in the 1980s. Maybe the uneasy spirits will be able to get Balfour's help to solve the mystery. Once he arrives with his odd entourage in tow, he's settled into the top floor of the inn, which had been unused since the mysterious death of a guest. When Balfour begins his psychic readings, the electricity goes out and then the evening really gets scary when a body is discovered at the foot of the cliff behind the inn. Are the ghosts to blame, or are there all-too-human reasons that are working to keep the secrets of what happened so long ago?

The events of the story move along quickly and there's a lot going on. My main issue with the book was that there were So.Many.Characters! It was impossible to keep up with everyone. There were Maddie's many family members, the townspeople, the police officers, the hotel people (past and present), the tourists arriving for the festival, the psychic and his crowd, etc. plus all of the pets had "people names" like Lola and Walter. When the festival planning was going on and later when the more recent murder happened, Maddie was running around talking to one of the many characters and it was impossible to keep everyone straight. It also didn't help that a lot of the characters had similar names like Henry/Harry, Manfred/Martin, Sal/Sam, etc. I guess it really shows that you have too many characters when you have to start re-using names! There was also the odd thing about the "cat costume parade" that made me wonder if the author had ever made the acquaintance of a cat. Sixty cats dressed up and walking on leashes in a parade full of noisy people? Yeah, that could happen . . .

It’s late October in New England, so it’s time for the Daybreak Island Haunted Halloween Festival. They’re trying to compete with Salem, Massachusetts by setting up a big celebration on the island, including renowned psychic Balfour Dempsey and tours of the local Inn, which is rumored to be haunted. And right at the heart of the event’s planning and organizing is Maddie James and her family. Her mother is the chair of the event, her sister is the official event planner, and Maddie is the one who gets volunteered to help out wherever she’s needed. And she’s needed in a lot of places.

But Maddie is okay with that. The cat café she runs with her grandfather is doing well, with their manager taking care of most of the day-by-day work. And Maddie loves Daybreak Island and wants to help. Especially since the cat café is going to be highlighted, with a cat costume parade that Grandfather Leo is in charge of.

Maddie and her sister are tasked with picking up Balfour at the airport, which includes his staff of four and his black cat Balfour Jr. The sisters get the group settled in at the Inn, so they have time to prep for Balfour’s readings, which people have been signing up for. But before Balfour gets settled in his room, he sees a photo in the hallway that stops him.

Decades before, there had been a murder in the Inn, a man thrown to his death in the elevator shaft. Balfour, who has been known to help the police with their investigations, looks at the staff photo and notes that the murderer had looked like the men in the photos, with a large mustache. Maddie didn’t really believe in psychic powers, but she did wonder how Balfour had come up with that information.

Then, during the first night of the Inn tours and of Balfour’s readings, the man himself goes missing. When no one can find him in the Inn, Maddie goes looking for him by the cliffs out back. That’s where she finds someone, at the bottom of the cliffs. At the top of the cliff by the broken fence, Maddie finds Balfour’s glasses. She fears that he is the man on the rocks below the Inn.

But who would kill the well-liked man? Was it someone who knew something about that cold case who wanted their secrets kept hidden? Or was it a person who’d had a reading with Balfour and didn’t like what he said? Or was it one of those closest to him, who were upset when Balfour announced that the Halloween festival would be his last event, that he was retiring to focus on his work with the police? Or was it just a terrible accident that ended the man’s life?

Nine Lives and Alibis is book 7 in Cate Conte’s Cat Café Mystery series. It’s perfect for spooky season, with cat JJ parading around in his Sherlock Holmes costume. This one is filled with ghost stories and cold cases and family drama and plenty of cats. There are lots of suspects in the murder, but as you can maybe guess from the title, there are also lots of alibis.

This was the first book I’ve read in the Cat Café Mystery series, but it won’t be my last. I really liked Maddie and JJ and want to spend more time with them. But I will say that this story focused on Maddie and her family almost as much as the murder. I’m not a big fan of the mysteries where the murder happens on the second page, but this one doesn’t happen until about halfway through. I would have preferred a little less of the event chaos up front and a little more investigation (I mean, she had less than half the story to find a killer). But I like these characters and want to get to spend more time in Daybreak Island, and especially in the cat café.

Egalleys for Nine Lives and Alibis were provided by Minotaur Books through NetGalley, with many thanks.

In the 7th novel of the Cat Café series by Cate Conte, Nine Lives and Alibis, Maddie’s mother has roped her into being on the Halloween celebration committee on Daybreak Harbor. They are excited to have booked a famous medium, Balfour Dempsey, to give readings. Balfour’s mother, Alice, lives on the island and is excited to see her son. But, after Balfour’s arrival, along with his cat, Balfour Jr. and an entourage of helpers, things don’t go as planned, and Balfour is found murdered. Maddy, et al, are working to find the murderer before the Halloween celebrations are ruined. Forty years prior, there was a murder in the local haunted inn, and a maid disappeared, and Maggie wonders if there is a connection .

Conte does an excellent job of presenting and developing the characters. Maddie, the protagonist, is very likeable, and shares the stage with her delightful cat, JJ. She is the owner of the cat café, but seems to be busy most of the time and doesn’t spend much time there. Family members are good supporting characters, and they seem real – like members of readers’ families. The new characters are good enough that readers won’t have any idea who murdered Balfour: Balfour’s staff, a stalker, and some residents with suspicious pasts.

The story flows and is easy to read. The dénouement is surprising, and some of the main characters are put in jeopardy.

All told, this is a fun cozy, especially for cat lovers. Those who haven’t read the previous novels will definitely want to read the previous novels.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

Great read!!! Kept me wanting to read till the end. Loved the Halloween theme and cats involved. Lots of twists and turns. Highly recommend .

Super fun and cute! Loved the small town/island setting. The Halloween vibes were amazing and it sounds like such a fun place to visit. I also loved all the cats and the idea of a cat costume parade. The murder mystery aspect was really good and kept me guessing! I enjoyed this and will definitely check out other books in the series.

Here’s the thing about this book! It was cute and I loved the fall vibes of it all. It will definitely keep you in the festive mood. The mystery was great too! The only reason I didn’t absolutely love it is because I don’t think it can be read as a stand alone. I was really confused with the characters. I feel like if I went back and read from the start and really knew the characters I would have loved this book!

Quick and fun read. Definitely need to read more in the series. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

Jumping into a series with book 7 can be a struggle. Cate Conte's series, A Cat Cafe Mystery, features a Maddie James and her friends and family living on an island off the coast of Massachusetts. In Nine Lives and Alibis, Maddie and her mother are leading the Halloween festival for Heartbreak Harbor. In an effort to compete with the ultimate spooky town, Salem, they are pulling out all the stops, even hiring a psychic with ties to their community. There are so many characters that it takes awhile to figure out who everyone is and it would have been helpful to have a character map to keep them all straight. However, by the end of the book I had figured out the important ones and knew who to focus on. There were many fun twists as Maddie investigated an unsolved mystery from 40 years ago and then became involved with a current day quest. Now I'm going to have to go back and read the previous six books!

Maddie James and her family are all involved in planning for Halloween events in her small New England town. When a renowned psychic is engaged as the star attraction, Maddie and friends never expected to be involved in yet another mysterious death at the Inn where the psychic is staying.

This book is part of the Cat Cafe mystery series, and readers new to the series (as I am) will have some quick catching up to do in the first chapters. More than 20 characters were introduced at the outset. (I had to make notes to keep up!) However, despite my initial skepticism, I quickly became engrossed in the quirky characters and the highly atmospheric Halloween setting. The descriptions kept me interested and I could picture the settings and events. Now I am anxious to read more in this series about Maddie and her eccentric family (especially Grandpa Leo and JJ the cat.)

Readers who enjoy a cozy and quirky mystery with a lot of atmosphere and some paranormal action will find this a fun and intriguing read.

I received this novel from the publisher and from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

Nine Lives and Alibis, the seventh in Cate Conte's Cat Café cozy mystery series, takes place at Halloween and features not only a two week celebration including pumpkin carving, psychic readings, a cat costume parade but two murders – one present and one past – plus a mysterious disappearance years ago. Conte takes her time setting up the current day murder and I was truly sad when it was revealed who died. The Halloween theme – not only the events planned during the celebrations but a maybe haunted hotel and a psychic who may have real powers – is fun to read about – I do wish this was real so I could see pictures of the cat costume parade! All of the mysteries – both past and present – were nicely done with more than a few surprises. All in all, a well done mystery.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley.

Nine Lives and Alibis by Cate Conde is the 7th in the Cat Cafe Mystery series. I had not read any of the other books in the series but that did not stop me from enjoying this book.

I don't read a lot of cozy mysteries, I usually read psychological thrillers. That said, I do like to read a cozy mystery every so often. I just love the covers in this genre. Whimsical without being too over the top.

In this book, it is October and the town of Daybreak Harbor, which is a town near Salem Massachusetts, and Maddie James is eager to take part in the Halloween festivities. Maddie's sister Sam has decided to book a famous medium to take part in the holiday fun.

He is Balfour Dempsey, a crazy name I know, and he has his own entourage with him including a black cat. In the story, there are also two cold cases that were never solved. There was a murder and a hotel maid went missing some 40 years ago.

Maddie's friend Becky, a journalist, is very eager to solve these two cases with the help of Balfour. So we have a supposed haunted hotel, the town has a few people who want private readings with the medium, 40-year-old cold cases, and a stalker who wants Balfour to conjure up her dead husband. Not only will there be festivities for the holiday, but there will also be a cat parade. Now I have had cats all my adult life and I could not picture what a cat parade would be like. Cats are very independent creatures, getting them to all line up for a parade would be something to see.

Then Balfour turns up dead, pushed off a cliff and his cat goes missing. So now not only is Maddie involved, but her sister and father are also. Who would want the medium dead? Well, my friends, you will just have to get the book and read it for yourselves!

I enjoyed reading this book and had it done in a few hours. I really need to go back and read the other ones in the series. I give the book 5 stars.

This review will be brief, as it is the third time I've typed it due to computer issues.

Maddie is helping plan and coordinate her island hometown's first Halloween festival, and there are headaches a plenty that only escalate when the psychic medium guest of honor disappears after both revealing information about a 40 year old unsolved murder in the inn and a secret reading with the wealthy town matron. Maddie navigates both the past and the present as she investigates how the psychic wound up dead at the base of the cliff.

There are many threads to this mystery, and they are tied together nicely. The cast of characters is electic and engaging, and the tale is well-crafted. It was a fun, seasonal read. I will definitely check out other titles in this series.

Maddie (and many of her family members) are deep in the planning for the biggest off-season event on the island. She is worried something will go wrong, but I'm sure the headline attraction being murdered wasn't even something she considered. Even if he was staying on the haunted floor of the local hotel.

Nine Lives and Alibis is the seventh book in the Cate Conte's Cat Cafe Mystery series. It is the first book in the series that I have read and I had no trouble jumping right in.

Halloween candy is already on the shelves at the store so why not get started on your Halloween reading? If you have followed Girl Who Reads for a while, you know that I don't like scary stories and often turn to fun cozy mysteries for my Halloween reading. Usually, that means reading a paranormal cozy, but if you don't care for witches, vampires, etc. in your cozy mysteries, then this book will be a great one to put on your list.

Like many island communities, Daybreak Island has a slump after the busy tourist season has ended. Members of the community have decided to put on an extravagant Halloween event - one to rival nearby Salem, MA. In fact, they have snagged their headline attraction from the Salem event. It helps that Balfour, a medium, has ties to the island and his mother still lives there.

I really enjoyed the characters. There's not one but three mysteries. There is the current murder, but there are two unsolved cold cases from 40 years ago - a murdered man and a missing maid.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book, but I have a couple of nit-picking things that I didn't like. One, we don't get to see the cat cafe much. It's understandable since the mysteries are centered around the hotel and a few events take place at other venues. For the second item, I thought it was possibly a plot point. There are white lilies in Balfour's room. Lilies are highly toxic to cats (the cat doesn't even need to eat the plant as just the pollen can make them sick) and Balfour has a cat named Balfoud, Jr. It didn't seem true to character for both Balfour and Maddie, who owns the cat cafe, not to know that. They made no mention of the lilies outside of Maddie being worried about the glass when the vase is broken.

It was cute without being cheesy. I will definitely be on the lookout for other books in this series.

My review is published at Girl Who Reads - https://www.girl-who-reads.com/2023/08/nine-lives-and-alibis-by-cate-conte.html