Off a two-lane highway outside of a southern Tennessee town you’ve probably never heard of stands a hole-in-the-wall establishment called the Fat Cat Bar and Grille. Drinks are served by a woman named Charley, who seems to hear things a little too well and see things a little too clearly. She might listen to your life story, but she won’t tell you a single word of hers. The other thing she won’t tell you? That you have wandered into the only shifter-friendly bar in the country… In the three years since I was infected, I’ve finally managed to put my life back together. The bar is actually turning a profit. That bad breakup is totally behind me. And as Marshal, I now run the northern zone of the Mississippi Valley Pride. So when two fierce, gorgeous strangers accuse one of my regulars of killing a human woman—a charge he vehemently denies—I’m determined to get to the truth. With the victim’s brother in search of justice, the widower demanding brutal vengeance, and the fate of the entire “stray” Pride resting on the outcome of this case, I can’t afford to make a mistake. But then my investigation unearths a shocking connection to a killer I put in the ground years ago, and I realize the cards were stacked against me before this game even began…
Rachel Vincent returns to her first series, Shifters, with this latest addition, Fat Cat! Here we meet new characters and see some familiar ones too. This was a story that had a pretty strong mystery going on and involving more Pride politics and was just a fun kind of read that had me craving for more!
Charley is one of the few female strays in the country, but she’s also the Marshal of the northern zone in the Mississippi Valley Pride while also owning the only shifter bar in the area called Fat Cat.
Werecats are predominantly male which has been an age old problem for years. Without any females obviously their population will continue to go down. But the future of the species is far from Charley’s mind at the current moment. Charley was just living life on the daily when two newcomers walk into her bar and make a beeline for one of her regular patrons.
Austin and Bishop are werecats from another town and they are looking for the werecat who killed their sister and wife. Yvette was Austin’s sister and Bishop’s wife, and she died from infection when a stray tried to infect her. The men want justice but Charley can’t allow them to seek it on their own without doing her due diligence as Marshal. Thus begins the investigation of what really happened to Yvette.
This was quite an interesting story as it definitely had a different vibe than the original Shifters books and even the Wildcats trilogy. This book felt more like a mystery as that’s kind of what it was. It just happened to take place in a familiar world with familiar faces. But largely we were in a circle of new people who were in Titus’ territory. It was still kind of fun being in the same world and hearing the same names being tossed about. We do get to see familiar faces in the last 1/3 of the novel which was fun!
I will admit that for most of the novel you kind of forget that this novel is in the Shifter world because of all the new faces. But we do get the same knowledge of things that have been happening and tying things together from past books. So there was a bit of disconnect between the books but at the same time, there was some connections going on.
Mystery wise this one was really good! I kept trying to pick up clues but I will admit I felt like it was hard. This wasn’t really a clean cut whodunit kind of murder, so it kind of made it difficult to develop theories. I just kind of had to go along for the ride as Charley did her questioning! Lol.
There was some kind of romance. I struggle to call it actual romance as with that particular blurb, I suspected we’d be getting setup for a love triangle, but it didn’t really feel like that. I initially thought Charley would gravitate towards one guy more than the other but then a more physical relationship started happening with the other, so I was at a loss. Especially since it seemed to only be physical between them and nothing deeper. It was a little disappointing to be honest, I mean…I just never got that feeling that these two were falling for one another, so it was more like, what’s the point of this?
I kind of got the feeling that perhaps Rachel had intended to go further with this series, like continue the Shifters series with Charley. While the mystery does get resolved by the book’s end, there were several other loose-ends left untied. I felt like these were the moments to pay attention to for future stories, but considering this book was published in 2023 and there hasn’t been anything since, I’m starting to wonder. I know Rachel had other personal career changes happening and that she has a new book coming out soon, so it just kind of made me wonder if these little bits of the story that weren’t quite resolved were meant to be picked up again later on. I guess only time will tell if we’ll ever see more or not.
Fat Cat was a fun story with a good mystery! I would probably have liked a stronger romance element happening or at least maybe brewing. But without fully knowing where these new characters were meant to go, I feel like I can’t judge the story too harshly for this. I can definitely say I was still hooked into the mystery and I kept reading because of my familiarity with this world. I would not recommend picking this book up without having read some of the other Shifters or Wildcats books as those provide a knowledgeable background that’s needed for this one. But all in all, Fat Cat had a strong mystery coupled with amazing characters making for one great read!
Overall Rating 4.5/5 stars
