"Delightful cozy"

For once, everything seems to be going Alice Nestleton's way. She has a good role in a television series that looks like it is going to be picked up by the network and she has a new beau who is also starring in the same series. She is on a bus taking her to her favorite department store when a non-descript lady holding a shopping bag and a cat starts firing at everyone.

People are killed but the woman escapes. Shortly after Alice gives her testimony to the police. RETRO, the Cold Case Division of NYPD, offer Alice a six week lucrative contract to investigate a possible link between the bus shooting and a similar incident that happened three years ago. Try as she might she can't uncover a connection but she must be doing something right because Tony Basillio gets knifed in her darkened apartment. More affected by Tony's pain than she expected, Alice puts a plan in motion to flush out the killer.

A CAT ON THE BUS is a delightful cozy that stars an intrepid heroine who likes adversity better than peace and harmony. Though why RETRO hired Alice is questionable, her bumbling investigation leads to connections that make the plot more credible. For the first time Alice does some soul searching to decide what she really wants and then goes after it. Lydia Adamson scores again with this winning mystery.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted November 10, 2002

Summary

On a crosstown bus, Alice finds herself the witness to a senseless multiple homicide, perpetrated by a bizarre killer who leaves her cat behind.