Claude Beccai

5*****

Original and Entertaining

I loved this author’s style of writing – quirky, funny, with witty asides that had me laughing out loud. And I loved Clara, the elderly dame narrating this story of drug-running and hoodlums. Clara’s life was stuck in the boring ‘now’ of penny-pinching and suspicion of strangers. Her awareness of ‘then’ – the past – is an avenue she does not wish to go down. But the arrival of a wandering cat leads to witnessing a murder, escape to the backwoods and the discovery of new friends who may or may not be on the side of law & order. Through these events, ‘then’ links up with ‘now’, and leads to ‘after’, the future she can ultimately begin to contemplate. It is a very clever, original, and entertaining way of telling Clara’s story – and it kept me up late at night because I couldn’t stop turning pages. ‘The Cat Did It’ is a roller-coaster ride that kept me laughing all the way!