December's Books

If you are looking to make needle felted projects out of your cat's hair, read Crafting with Cat Hair. Most projects are embellishments to put on scarfs, mittens, etc., but the finger puppets are made entirely of cat hair. An especially sentimental project is a mini-portrait of your cats, made from its very own hair. This makes a nice keepsake of a much-loved pet.

Crafting with cat hair: cute handicrafts to make with your cat by Kaori Tsutaya
Cat Calls: wonderful stories and practical advice from a veteran cat sitter by Jeanne Adlon
As the pig turns: an Agatha Raisin mystery by M.C. Beaton
The evil that men do by Jeanne Dams
And a puzzle to die on by Parnell Hall
A clue for the puzzle lady by Parnell Hall
Shot by Parnell Hall
Murder Mr. Mosley by John Greenwood

Get Real by Donald Westlake

Career thief John Dortmunder is approached with a proposition from a reality show producer. The producer wants to film Dortmunder and his associates planning and committing a heist. Dortmunder reluctantly agrees, but only after insisting that the target be a property owned by the production company. Of course, the producers are plotting to thwart the burglars, and Dortmunder, Tiny, Murch et al have mislead the television folks about their real target.

Westlake, a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master, died in 2008. His Dortmunder books are the epitome of the caper novel--no one wrote a comic mystery like Westlake.

A Bitter Feast by S.J. Rozan

Four restaurant workers have gone missing in Chinatown, and the local cops don't seem all that concerned. Peter Lee, a childhood friend of Lydia Chin and a lawyer working on behalf of the Chinese Restaurant Workers' Union, asks her to find them. When a bomb explodes at the union's headquarters, Peter is critically injured and another, unknown man is dead.

Lydia, joined by her partner Bill Smith, goes undercover as a dim sum lady at a local restaurant to find out more about the missing men. She discovers the smuggling of illegal immigrants, heroin, Chinese mobsters, and federal agents working at cross purposes.

Anyone who enjoys mysteries that emphasize characters, such as the books of Julia Spencer-Fleming and Elizabeth George, will want to read this series.