Arriving back home after a conference one day, Jillian finds Chablis sneezing (the cat is allergic to humans) and that the house burglarized. The only thing missing is Syrah. When Detectives Morris and Candace arrive at the house, Morris thinks that Syrah may have escaped during the break in and is not too concerned. Candace, however, is very keen to collect evidence and suggests that Jillian visit the local shelter to ask them to be on the lookout for Syrah.

At the shelter Jillian learns that the aptly named Flake Wilkerson has a reputation for having a lot of cats in his house, and many suspect that the cats do not belong to him. Jillian visits Flake and doesn’t find anything, but then goes back a second time only to find Syrah as well as Flake dead on the floor, a knife protruding from his mid-section.  Jillian is an immediate suspect, but once she convinces the police of her innocence and learns that Flake was cat-napping pets and probably selling them, she makes a case that an outraged cat owner killed him. 

The police aren’t too sure and decide to follow the money which leads straight to estranged daughter Daphne who was recently named beneficiary to Flake’s life insurance policy.  With the help of Candace and her evidence kit, Jillian follows the trail of cats, certain they will lead her straight to the door of a killer.  

The Cat, the Corpse and the Quilt is great fun for cat lovers, but the casual cat fancier may find Jillian’s obsession with her trio a bit over the top.  Even given that Jillian is a recent widow, her need to view the cats on her cat-cam cum phone seems to be a lot.  There are a lot of crazy neighbors that Jillian meets, most of whom know her and her situation; the local assistant coroner, Lydia, threatens Jillian when she sees her having lunch with Tom Stewart who Lydia fancies as her boyfriend. 

Through Jillian’s investigating, she meets many of the locals and gains good friends in Candace and Tom, who may also turn out to be a potential boyfriend.  Flake’s business, once revealed, seems like a strange one, and there is not much background given about him that might explain why he has chosen this particular venture as his vocation.  Readers who favor small town cozies, especially Southern towns, with zany characters will find a lot of hometown charm in the first entry of the series.  Quilters lured in by the title will find little snippets of quilting, but most of the focus is on the cats and the corpse.                                                  

--Jennifer Monahan Winberry