There’s something you all need to know about me: I kind of love cats.

So naturally it’s the picture of the pretty cat on the cover that caught my eye. However, it’s not what kept me reading to the end. (That would be an impressive cover.)

In general I don’t read a lot of pet-themed books. I like animals (and shamelessly babytalk to them) but the pet-heavy cozies just don’t appeal to me. However, this one isn’t about pets. It’s about cats in different situations, and somehow that makes all the difference.

The protagonist, Cassie, is a cat groomer and runs a cat boarding business. (Which, by the way, is brilliant and I’ve been trying to get my friends to start something similar for ages.) In The Bengal Identity a rando brings her a brown cat and says “Help, I’m desperate. My house burned down and I need to board my cat.” And Cassie, being a nice lady, says “Yeah, okay.”
Then she washes the nice brown cat and discovers that she’s actually a very expensive, fancy purebred.
Then the rando guy turns up dead.

How’s that for a hook?

The rest of the book spans all of cat breeding, from legal and registered to very, very illegal. There’s even a raid and a rescue so you get a happily ever after for a whole bunch of cats.

Neither too sweet nor too serious, this was the perfect book to get me through a reading slump. I heartily recommend it if you need something gentle but engaging as a before-bed read.

Are you a mystery fan? Are you a cat person? What are your feelings on the Canine Conspiracy? Let me know!