St. Martin’s Paperbacks
Published August 26, 2025
Reviewed by Ruth Castleberry
Maddie faces two challenges as spring arrives. The cat café owner is juggling her sister’s wedding plans with the debut of her mobile cat café vehicle at the cat literary festival in Provincetown. Creating the mobile JJ’s House of Purrs is a gift from Harry, who wants to make a distinctive contribution to the cat café.
With the wedding just weeks away, Maddie, her crew, and family travel to the festival site to set up the new mobile cat café. Maddie meets several authors of feline fiction and is impressed and courted by one of the most popular writers, Vivi St. Clair, who wants to tell Maddie’s story. Unfortunately, someone murders Vivi, so Maddie and the gang once again begin investigating.
Maddie wears several hats as she leads the investigation with help from her father and Lucas while keeping the mobile cat café up and running as the festival continues. Jasmine Prescott, who runs a cat rescue foundation on Cape Cod, is the festival’s organizer. The decision to hold the festival, despite Vivi’s death, was made because the event serves as the primary fundraiser for area cat rescue centers.
The team identifies several suspects to check out while they continue to operate the mobile cat café, which makes life somewhat chaotic for all. Adding to the distraction is the fact that the upcoming bride and groom are having a testy time over wedding details.
Claws Out is Cate Conte’s ninth Cat Café Mystery, and it offers a real change of pace when the setting moves to Provincetown. Catching up on family, friends, and felines makes this another entertaining read as well as a fascinating mystery to solve.