Deadly Stuff - Joyce Cato

Joyce Cato, alias Faith Martin, alias Maxine Barry, is a highly prolific author. Cato (whose real name is Jacquie Walton) writes traditional mysteries under the Cato name, police procedurals as Martin, and romance and romantic suspense as Barry. Since the first Maxine Barry novel appeared in 1993, she's published forty novels - 21 as Barry, 14 as Martin, and 5 as Cato.

I have not read any of the Maxine Barry novels, but I've been a faithful reader of the Faith Martin procedurals, featuring the redoubtable DI Hillary Martin, and I recently discovered that the Joyce Cato novels, featuring traveling cook Jenny Starling, are just as enjoyable.

In Deadly Stuff, Jenny begins an assignment as a cook at Oxford's St. Bede's College. The annual conference of a taxidermy society, taking place at the college, coincides with her arrival. Soon, the unpopular, womanizing president of the society, Maurice Raines, is murdered. Jenny, who's helped the police catch murderers in four earlier volumes, is roped into the investigation this time, too.

Jenny is a winning heroine. Physically imposing, at 6'1" with a large, big-boned frame, much is made of how striking she is, and also of how attractive - in another novel, this would certainly grate, but Cato gets a pass from me, considering how seldom a big woman is portrayed as beautiful and desirable in fiction. Jenny is also extremely intelligent, with a sharp analytic mind, warm-hearted, and passionate about her work - she adores feeding people. This last is her most endearing quality. Jenny may be just slightly too good to be true - especially considering her tendency to figure things out well ahead of the police - but in a novel as charming and enjoyable as this, it hardly matters. And, anyway, there's something to be said about the value of a female character who ticks all the boxes, so to speak - our fictional landscape is littered with men who are without flaw, and nobody bats an eyelash, but as soon as a woman who's smart, kind, capable, and funny shows up, the dreaded "Mary Sue" epithet will be hurled at her. Jenny is a thoroughly appealing, memorable heroine, and that's the most important thing.

There is no shortage of suspects, and Jenny and the police methodically work through all of their secrets and motives. A reader who's good at tracking movements and alibis may guess the killer - but someone who's just along for the ride, like me, likely won't.

One thing that Cato, both in this novel and in her Faith Martin books, does really well is give brief snapshots of characters that establish their personalities and backgrounds, and hint at their wider lives, beyond just what we see in the novel. Here, Cato gets under the skin of several characters, most memorably the harried assistant bursar of St. Bede's, Art McIntyre, providing a charming cross-section of his life.

All the characters in Deadly Stuff - including Norman, the scene-stealing chameleon - are well-drawn and intriguing, which breathes life into the plot. Cato is very concerned with clues and fair play, and, as I said, the eagle-eyed reader can have a lot of fun puzzling out the mystery here.

What appeals most to me about especially the Joyce Cato novels, though, is the high-spiritedness - the writing is bubbly and cheerful, wry and companionable. These are quintessential comfort reads, and I mean that as a high compliment. The Faith Martin novels (about which I'd like to write about soon, too) have a lot of the same charm, but aren't quite as jaunty - they're sometimes quite dark, and they're engaging and enjoyable in a different way.

Overall, I had a blast reading Deadly Stuff, and I'm sure I'll want to read it again. Cato is a talented writer who definitely deserves to be better-known.