Didi is in the throes of realizing that her business is falling off. Winter is really bad, but not usually this bad. That is why she takes a “job” examining the wild kittens (mixture of common cat and bobcat) that newcomer Buster Purchase wants to auction for raising funds for the old Magruder barn. For about an hour’s work, she will be paid $500. Business is seriously bad.

At the party/auction she examines the kittens, they are auctioned off to the best families in town, and then Buster Purchase drops dead. Because he is a very large man (nicknamed “The Fat Man”) everyone assumes he has had a heart attack. But there are scratches all over him, and Didi discovers rattlesnake venom in the scratches. This is a perplexing problem and the police finally write it off as accidental death.

Didi and her friend Rose decide to investigate, especially after another guest at the auction is killed outright after being shot three times. This cannot be termed accidental death. When young Trent Tucker seems to be involved, Didi declares war against murder.

The characters in this series -- and they REALLY are characters -- are fun, clever, and overshadowings of some of the characters in a Hamish MacBeth (M.C. Beaton) mystery. Does that mean that small town people are eccentric all over the world? Didi’s boyfriend, Allie Voegler, a policeman on suspension for beating a suspect, is off being psychoanalyzed. He wants to be in Didi’s life but she is not sure anymore. Charlie Gravis has one idea in his head always --how to get rich quick. This time, he sees the old John Belushi Samurai routine and decides that he and his dairy farmer friend could do the same routine and become millionaires. The scene where they perform in the local comedy club is worth three times the price of the book.

The mystery itself is rather far-fetched but is satisfying. It is not Adamson’s best but it is worthwhile. The big question is about the difference between a bobcat and a lynx. That’s the key to the whole mystery. It’s a good, quick read.

--Kay Black