Ghostly Paws by Leighann Dobbs is the first of the Mystic Notch Series and was published in 2014. This is one of my favorite Leighann Dobbs series. A reporter turned bookshop owner by the name of Willa is the main character. She has an amazing cat, Pandora, who along with her gang of feline friends, help Willa get out of the trouble that she invariably gets into.
Willa and Pandora are visited in the shop quite frequently by ghosts of authors from centuries ago. Customers will come into the store and a ghost or two will choose that moment to cause mischief. A book may fall off a shelf or a puff of smoke materializes in the corner of the room, signifying that ghosts are coming right in front of the customer. Pandora, being the ever-curious cat that she is, plays with the smoke until it becomes Robert Frost or someone else from days gone by.
In the first book of the series, Ghostly Paws, Willa finds the town’s librarian, Livinia dead at the bottom of the library’s basement stairs. Augusta who, besides being Willa’s sister, is the town’s sheriff that warns the curious Willa to stay away from the case. Willa would be happy to stay away, but the ghost of Livinia comes to visit her and pleads with Willa to find her killer. Mystic Notch isn’t that big so you’d think that it would be easy to find a killer, wouldn’t you? Not so.
Ghostly Paws is a fast read and thoroughly enjoyable. I give it five stars and would suggest it to anyone who likes cozy mysteries and cats.
