The Cat Who Played Post Office

The Cat Who Played Post Office is the sixth Cat Who mystery from Lilian Jackson Braun, published in 1987. The post office of the title refers to a particular game involving small objects being moved from one location to another that Koko has developed across the novel, with the cat’s characteristic noticing patterns continuing to provide the unexplained clues that drive Qwill toward the eventual investigation.

This entry is one of the early Pickax based novels, with the small Moose County setting that became the long term home of the series being established and developed across these foundational entries. The wider cast of Pickax characters that would recur across the rest of the series is being introduced and developed in these early Pickax novels, with the kind of careful world building that distinguishes the wider series from less successful cozy mystery franchises.

The central case develops in the way the series formula requires. A death that the local authorities are inclined to treat as natural causes or accident slowly reveals itself to be something darker, with Qwill’s investigation following the small clues that Koko’s behavior keeps surfacing. Braun’s plotting is gentle by mystery standards. Violence happens off the page. The pleasure of a Cat Who book is the slow accumulation of detail, the warm sense of place, and the quiet humor of Qwill’s observations.

For longtime Cat Who fans, this early Pickax entry shows the series formula being established in its mature form. For new readers, starting with The Cat Who Could Read Backwards is the better entry point.