A Christmas Book! Not a Creature was Purring; Krista Davis

Santa Claws is coming to town and checking his list for a murderer--as the New York Times bestselling Paws & Claws Mysteries continue...
Inn owner Holly Miller finds it ruff staying cheerful over the holidays when the dead body of a beloved businessman turns up iln the pet-friendly town of Wagtail, Virginia.

Inspired by her German heritage, Holly's grandmother has arranged for Wagtail to have a Christkindl Market packed with goodies and decorations for the howliday tourists. But Holly's mood takes an unseasonable turn when she learns that her old flame and childhood friend Holmes Richardson has brought his fiancee home--and she'll be staying at the Sugar Maple Inn...
A love triangle becomes the last thing on Holly's mind when her Jack Russell Trixie's nose for trouble leads her to the corpse of a pet clothing tycoon. Now Holly and her dedicated detectives--Trixie and Twinkletoes the cat--must sniff out the killer to keep Christmas from going to the dogs...

Title: Not a Creature was Purring (Paws and Claws Mystery #5)
Author: Krista Davis
Genre: Mystery; Cozy Mystery
Publication Date: November 7th, 2017

Review 

*A Special Thanks to NetGalley for providing this book for an honest and unbiased review*

Hello Fellow Readers!

I am a huge fan of Cozy Mysteries, I absolutely love to read them! I will admit that I have not read any of the other Paws and Claws Mystery books but I definitely will now! I wanted to read a Christmas book so bad this year, probably because I have not been in the holiday spirit (I'm pretty much a Grinch!). So when I decided to request this book it was with the sole purpose of just reading a book with Christmas elements. It was an added bonus that it was a cozy mystery and with cats and dogs to boot!

I really like that even though I have not read the other 4 mysteries I did not feel lost or confused on who the other characters were. I did not feel like I was reading the fifth book is a series (is that a bad thing?) but it also was not bogged down by character explanation. I also liked and also disliked the fact that the murder happened toward the middle of the book and sort of took a backseat to the story of the characters. I liked it because it gave me a chance to actually learn the victim and what kind of person he was, it made me sympathize and want to learn who the killer was. I disliked it because this is supposed to be a mystery and well it was missing some of those mystery elements that I felt it needed.

Holly, Trixie, and Twinkletoes are loveable characters that made me wish my animals were as well behaved as them. Holly was not overbearing (just a little too nice for me, but the heroines are always too nice for me) and the side characters did not make me want to strangle them. They had the right amount of nosiness and didn't meddle as much as other side characters usually do, which can annoy me. 

The story itself was great and easy to read, definitely would recommend for an in-between epic or dramatic reads. While the story was a bit predictable I will say that the murderer actually didn't turn out to be who I thought, which I loved. 

About the Author

Krista Davis lives and writes in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. She resided in Northern Virginia for many years and lived for a time in Old Town, Alexandria.

She really does have a gregarious Ocicat named Mochie who can open cabinets and leap to amazing heights. Her dogs, including a Golden Retriever who isn’t golden and won’t retrieve, consider Krista’s writing career a convenient second job that allows her to be available for her primary job as a door opener, canine cuisine chef, and walking assistant.

Krista’s fascination with mysteries was fueled by Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, and Agatha Christie. Like her protagonist, Sophie Winston, Krista loves to entertain friends and family, but would just as soon leave the cleaning to someone else.