"The Cat Who Brought Down the House" by Lilian Jackson Braun
The Cat Who Brought Down the House is available at Amazon.com.
After fifty-five years in Hollywood, former Moose County resident, Thelma Thackeray, returns to Pleasant Street in Pickax "to die." She qualifies that statement with the comment that she would first like to have some fun. Being spry for 82 and apparently fit as a fiddle, Thelma perhaps intends to spend many years having fun before the other eventuality takes place.
Thelma, lover of birds, hater of cats, manages to forge a friendship with Qwill in spite of her antipathy, and he spends much of his time escorting her around and coaxing the locals, especially John "Bushy" Bushland and Fran Brodie to make her feel welcomed. Qwill's quest becomes an uphill battle when Thelma's prized Amazon parrots are "birdnapped" and a ransom note demands her jewels.
Nephew "Dickie Bird" Thackeray becomes the man of the hour by returning the birds to his aunt. Cat Koko's hostility for Dickie, however, becomes evident when he exhibits anti-social behavior at the mere mention of the name "Richard." Then there is the question as to whether the hiking death of Thurston Thackeray, Richard's father and Thelma's twin, was really an accident. If so, why did the bereaved Dickie sell off Thurston's vet clinic in such haste? Were the latter's gambling debts involved?
With and without her nephew, Thelma stirs things up in Moose County. Her hat collection worthy of Hedda Hopper becomes a sensation, Bushy's photos of such proving a crowd magnet at libraries around the county. Her supper club shows classic movies to sold-out crowds, and her unconventional style of decorating in her Pleasant Street home has tongues wagging, although designer Fran Brodie would just as soon this particular job be kept quiet. With Thelma's advent in Moose County, libraries experienced a surge in checkouts of books by William Makepeace Thackeray, although he evidently was no relation to Thelma.
LJB fans looking of clues to Polly's abandonment of Qwill in The Cat Who Had 60 Whiskers would do well to read this installment. She confesses to Qwill that she has become disenchanted with her job as librarian and is thinking of quitting. He suggests that the K Fund would like to open a bookstore in Pickax if they had the right person to manage it. Although Polly jumps at the opportunity, her disenchantment may reach much further than the Pickax library. Her ennui apparently extends to the food in the area as she offers critiques of anything that does not reflect her own celery stick and yogurt dip style (too much, too rich, suffers in the transportation).
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