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A Cat With the Blues is one of the late Alice Nestleton novels, where the formula has been running long enough that the cracks are starting to show. The setup is fine on paper: Alice attending a jazz club gig with friends, a death at the club, Alice's usual amateur investigation accompanied by occasional cat-related interludes. The execution is thin.
Lydia Adamson's prose by this point has flattened into something approaching pure formula. The jazz-club texture, which should have been the book's pleasure, is sketchier than the setting deserves. The mystery resolves quickly because the book has stopped working very hard to disguise its solution.
Two stars. Recommended only for series completists. Earlier entries in the run hold up significantly better.
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