The Cat Who Series by Lilian Braun Jackson

These books are a very easy and quick read and I savoured every moment of them. Each book was like visiting with a friend. A friend of mine gave me one of the books, I can't remember which one, and I was hooked. I had have the whole series. I've since given those books to friends so that they too can enjoy them.

The first book introduces us to Jim Qwilleran, a former prize winning reporter who has come on hard times and is ekeing out a living working as a feature writer for the Daily Fluxion. In this first book he, along with his neighbour's siamese cat Koko, solve the murder of KoKo's owner and Jim finds himself the new room mate of one very intelligent cat. The second book introduces a second cat, Yum Yum, into Jim Qwilleran's household and the stage is set for another totally enjoyable 27 books, 29 books in all. Each book is 250-300 pages long.

By the fifth book in the series "Qwill" finds himself the recipient of a fortune but must move to Pickax in Moose County, "400 miles north of everywhere" and live there for 5 years in order to qualify for his inheritance. His 5 years stretches into forever in a town filled with colourful loveable characters (most of them). Each book includes a murder, of course, which Qwill solves only with the help of his quirky cat KoKo and his sidekick YumYum.

Lillian Jackson Braun had written the first 3 books of the series in the 1960s. In the 1990's she decided to pick up where she left off and wrote another 26 novels.

I was sorry when the series ended, I could have gone on reading forever. The series in order is:

1. The Cat Who Could Read Backwards (1966)
2. The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern (1967)
3. The Cat Who Turned on and Off (1968)
4. The Cat Who Saw Red (1986)
5. The Cat Who Played Brahms (1987)
6. The Cat Who Played Post Office (1987)
7. The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare (1988)
8. The Cat Who Sniffed Glue (1988)
9. The Cat Who Went Underground (1989)
10. The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts (1990)
11. The Cat Who Lived High (1990)
12. The Cat Who Knew A Cardinal (1991)
13. The Cat Who Moved A Mountain (1992)
14. The Cat Who Wasn't There (1992)
15. The Cat Who Went Into the Closet (1993)
16. The Cat Who Came to Breakfast (1994)
17. The Cat Who Blew the Whistle (1995)
18. The Cat Who Said Cheese (1996)
19. The Cat Who Tailed A Thief (1997)
20. The Cat Who Sang for the Birds (1998)
21. The Cat Who Saw Stars (1999)
22. The Cat Who Robbed A Bank (2000)
23. The Cat Who Smelled A Rat (2001)
24. The Cat Who Went Up The Creek (2002)
25. The Cat Who Brought Down The House (2003)
26. The Cat Who Talked Turkey (2004)
27. The Cat Who Went Bananas (2004)
28. The Cat Who Dropped a Bombshell (2006)
29. The Cat Who Had 60 Whiskers (2007)