CLAWS OUT (A Cat Cafe Mystery #9) by Cate Conte will be released on August 26, 2025, by St. Martin's Paperbacks.
Maddie James takes her cat café on the road with a newly acquired food truck. Her first event with the traveling cat café takes her off Daybreak Island to a cat-themed literary festival in Provincetown. This could be a great opportunity for Maddie to team up with other car rescues. Despite some drama surrounding cat-romance author Vivi St. Clair, the festival kicks off to a good start for Maddie and her crew. Things change on the second morning of the festival when Vivi St. Clair is found stabbed to death on a nearby pier. Vivi’s ex-husband, who just happens to be a former mob boss, was seen hanging around the festival, and immediately shoots to the top of the suspect list. After finding the murder weapon hidden in her food truck, Maddie gets drawn into the investigation. The ex-husband might be the perfect suspect, but Maddie doesn’t think he killed Vivi. Pursuing other suspects takes Maddie away from the festival and puts her into the direct path of a killer.
Aside from not enough of JJ the cat, CLAWS OUT was a fun addition to the Cat Cafe Mystery series. It was nice to finally travel off Daybreak Island. Provincetown provided a new but nearby location, and the traveling cat café/food truck made for a great excuse to travel away from Daybreak Island but keep the cat café involved in the story. Maddie’s amateur investigation did take her away from her duties at the cat café but did keep her around the festival. The mystery of what’s going on between Val and Ethan leading up to their wedding as well as the disappearance of cate café volunteer Harry added some extra drama. CLAWS OUT isn’t my favorite of the series, but I did enjoy it. I hope to see more adventures involving the cat café/food truck in the future.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.