REVIEW: Catagenesis: A Whodunit in Space with Mind Reading Cats (Cat Ship Book 3) by Jody Wallace
Two humans, a bunch of cats, a space ship…and murder.
Han-Ja Gee has made a fine living on Trash Planet trading information and secrets with those who are willing to pay, either in money or in more secrets. He thought he knew everything…until a talking cat interrupted a business meeting. But cats can’t talk. Cats are so rare that only very wealthy people own them. If he can find and sell some cats, he can pay off the life-debt he owes and leave Trash Planet forever.
Farah Shine Collins is the last human to awaken on the ancient generation ship, the Catamaran, two thousand years after it was supposed to reach a habitable planet. Her adjustment to this new world of sentient cats and a hardscrabble existence in a galaxy that barely survived a catastrophic war is not smooth going. And it becomes infinitely worse when she’s asked to partner with an information broker named Han-Ja, who is clearly trouble, in solving a murder on board the ship.
A murder for which the primary suspect is Farah’s mother. A murder that not even mind-reading cats seem to know anything about. A murder that was only the first in a string of deadly attacks that threatens to tear the whole ship apart.
Han-Ja just wanted to escape a brutal racketeer. Farah just wanted a place that she and her mother could call home. Neither expected to fall in love while locked on a murder ship with three thousand terrified colonists and almost as many angry cats. But if they cannot stop the killer, the collateral damage will be a lot more than their hopes and dreams. It will be their lives.
Warning – there will be SPOILERS for books one and two in this review
Dear Ms. Wallace,
This is the last book in the Cat Ship trilogy –> sadness. It’s far in the future, an original Gen ship has been traveling through space taking colonists in cryopods to their new home. But before they got there, the galaxy barely survived a catastrophic war. Now 3000 years later, the ship has awakened and my goodness aren’t things different.
“Yes, I’m talking,” she said straight to Han-Ja, “yes, we’ve been monitoring you, yes, we chose you, and yes, you may pet me softly. Farah, would you care to demonstrate?”
Han-Ja left home, burned his bridges, made a bad mistake in who he went to to borrow money and has been paying for it (no pun intended) ever since. With what he knows about this Gen ship and its occupants, he can finally get out of debt and away from Trash Planet. Knowledge is power and also money. Right?
“Yes, dear,” Queen Bea said, unhooking her claw from his hand. The tiny white weapon slid back into her paw until she was as innocuous as Han-Ja tried to be. Miracles. Miracles upon miracles. “Whatever we need, we shall have.”
Farah is one of the last colonists awakened from cryosleep. She wakes up to find her mother crying by her bedside and the ship’s cats everywhere. After all, Farrah’s mother is Dear Barbara, the lone human who woke up two years ago and who has been working with the new management to save the rest of the colonists. Who’re the new C Suite occupants? The cats.
Han-Ja slips into the role of social studies teacher for the colonists on the ship in order to finalize his plans but arrives to hear that something else besides slavers and others who might try to take advantage of the colonists is in play. There’s a killer on board ship and factions are forming. Can he, Farrah, and the cats find the killer and solve the mystery before all is lost?
“They can’t all be trusted.” Catty voices rose in a chorus of agreement, and Han-Ja rocked back on his heels. “At least we can do something about it now.”
The book starts with a lot of danger and menacing people. It’s clear that Han-Ja owes money to the worst possible sort who enjoys inflicting pain on anyone and their loved ones who cross her. Then news greets Han-Ja and Farrah that there’s a serial killer and Dear Barbara is among the suspects as well as the cats. Despite this being a ship of cat ladies and their cats, a few non-cat lovers slipped in and the vocal ones are blaming the cats and their newly developed powers. Things begin to slide from bad to worse.
The romance advances in fits and starts and see-saws a bit. While they might start as enemies, at least from Farrah’s perspective, Han-Ja is ready to playfully needle her into a short relationship. Pretty soon Farrah is feeling a bit frisky and pondering the possibility before The Truth comes out which changes her mind – for about 15 minutes before she’s back into wanting a future with him.
Until these things sort of fade to the background only to pop back out after a lot of time is spent rehashing what we know and what we know we don’t know. There are scenes with angry colonists – and I can understand how waking up 3000 years after you were supposed to reach your new planet only to discover that your future is shot, the galaxy is a mess, and you’re so behind the times would lead to frustration and anger – but then they disappear for the focus to shift to Han-Ja, Farrah, the cats and a few of the ship’s crew. It was just weird though I realize there’s no way to include thousands of people in these scenes in a meaningful way. There, I’m being persnickety.
One thing I really do like is that the whole conundrum of evolved, talking cats stepping forward and demanding their place in deciding things is explored. Some people have easily accepted it and are delighted. Others are definitely not happy with the new way of things.
The murders are committed in a “locked room” sort of way. A “this can’t have happened this way yet it did happen this way” sort of way. Lots of people and cats are puzzled, frustrated, and fending off accusations. I pondered a few things and wondered about others and actually kind of got it right even though the identity of the killer only got narrowed down at the very end.
Now the end was a whiz bang of a time. My robot Axel is back from book two and can’t he process some data quickly? Queen Bea and her kittens along with Mighty Mighty, Boson Higgs, Pumpkin and some new and delightfully full of themselves cats take lots of time on center stage and deliver pointed comments on humans and their inferiority to felines. The finale is delivered with oomph, and a bit of heartbreak, but closes with most everyone in a good place. I just wish that parts of this series-closer hadn’t dragged, just the tiniest bit, and the focus had widened to include the colonist more. B-
~Jayne
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I’m sorry you finished a series you’re enjoying but I’m curious to see which cats in space books you review next Jayne!
@cleo: I’m pondering which it will be while I work through the books I’ve committed to read. >^..^<