History Literature / TheCatInTheStacksMysteries

* ArtisticLicenseAnimalCare: Subverted - Charlie is noted as being very careful not to let Diesel eat anything that isn't good for cats, such as onions. In book 4, he lets Azalea's sister Lily know exactly what Diesel can't have, including milk, cheese, chocolate, raisins, grapes, green tomatoes, raw potatoes and the aforementioned onions. It's also noted that while Diesel loves to play with ribbon, Charlie's always careful to make sure he doesn't eat any. There's also the fact that when he found Diesel in the library parking lot, he made the vet's office his first stop to have the cat checked out rather than just taking them straight home. Miss Dickce did the same thing when she and Benjy met Peanut and Endora, and Charlie later did it for the five kittens from book 10 (whom he found on his doorstep).

* TheBeard: In book 4, [[spoiler:Vera Cassity's husband Morty is having an affair with Hank Beauchamp. While Hank is openly gay, Morty isn't, so Hank's sister Sissy pretends to be the one that Morty's with. She eventually kills Vera so Hank and Morty can be together openly, since the Beauchamps are broke and Morty can't divorce his wife like he wants without being taken to the cleaners by her.]]
* BigScrewedUpFamily: The Delacortes in book 2. James cares only for his books (and secretly pines for his butler), his sister Daphne's always pretending to be ill, her son Hubert can't hold down a job because he thinks he's entitled to anything because of his lineage (something he got from his mother), Hubert's wife Eloise is mentally ill, and James' grandniece Cynthia (granddaughter of James' late brother Thomas) is cold to most everyone. The closest to normal is James' flamboyantly gay grandnephew Stewart (grandson of James' other late brother, Arthur), who can't stand most of his blood relatives (except for James, to some extent) and can't wait to get out of that house, just to get away from them all (save for Eloise, the only non-blood relative among them and the one he liked most) - he mainly stayed in order to save money on housing.
* BigShutUp: In book 2, when they catch Hubert Morris yelling at his cowering wife Eloise, both Sean and Deputy Bates roar "Quiet!" at him.
* BlackmailBackfire:

* ClearMyName: Charlie, in book 8 - he'd been seen having an altercation with the victim a day or so before and is briefly considered a chief suspect.
* ClearTheirName: More than a few of the books have Charlie working to clear the name of a friend or relative of his.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: James Delacorte's niece-in-law Eloise Morris, in book 2, who makes strange comments at random times and tends to dress up like [[Film/GoneWithTheWind Scarlet O'Hara]]. It's implied that she's genuinely mentally ill, and it's not helped by everyone except James and Stewart yelling at her whenever she says anything.
* CoolOldGuy: Charlie Harris himself, who's almost fifty in the first book and is a supportive friend and father figure to his boarders.
* CoolOldLady: Miss An'gel and Miss Richelle "Dickce" Ducote, who debuted in the fourth book of the original series and wind up as amateur sleuths themselves. Charlie also thinks of his late aunt Dottie as one.
* TheCorpseStopsHere: In book 4, Azalea Berry becomes the main suspect after being found over the dead woman's body. Her daughter Kanesha notes that it's also politically motivated, because the sitting sheriff is up for reelection in the coming year. He thinks Kanesha, as the chief deputy sheriff, might be wanting to run against him then and thinks having a mother as a murder suspect will make her look bad and thus weaken her chances of winning.
* CreepyHousekeeper: Estelle in Ladies #2, a very superstitious woman who keeps saying the chosen date is bad luck for the wedding being planned, since there's another woman who was set to get married then and instead died the night before; she also falsely claims to have a psychic connection to Mireille Champlain and knew the instant she died. [[spoiler:Estelle herself is already dead by the time Mirielle turns up alive and well.]] Sondra, the bride-to-be, can't stand her and keeps demanding that Mirielle make her leave.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Oscar Reilly is found crushed to death in the compact, automated shelves in the library basement in book 7.
* {{Cuckold}}:
** In book 2, Hubert Morris is blatantly cheating on his mentally ill wife.

** Elizabeth Barber was this for her father in book 9 - a notorious skinflint, she was the only member of the family he was willing to spend money on. [[spoiler:Until she killed him after he murdered his wife and Elizabeth's younger brothers.]]
* DeadManWriting: In book 4, after Vera Cassity's death, Charlie receives a letter from her that, while it doesn't lead to her killer, does reveal important information about her family.

** Or cat, rather - Diesel has a knack for telling nice people from nasty ones. People he dislikes include one crook in book 2 and two {{Asshole Victim}}s in book 3, and in book 7, he backs away from Oscar Reilly when they first meet, even before the man proves to be a total jerkwad, showing that Diesel's instincts are spot on.
** In Ladies #4, the Ducote sisters' dog Peanut reacts with hostility to the greedy and thoroughly unpleasant Nathan Gamble.
* FakingTheDead:

** Justin Wardlaw, supporting character throughout the series, learns early in book 1 that his biological father is supposedly famous writer Godfrey Priest. Godfrey ends up the book's VictimOfTheWeek when he figures out he was lied to and who Justin's ''actual'' birth father was - it's Godfrey's older half-brother Rick Tackett, making Godfrey into Justin's uncle instead. [[spoiler: Justin's mother, who was the one lying about Justin's parentage so that he'd inherit Godfrey's millions, is the killer.]]

** Haskell Bates, a fellow deputy, also becomes friendly with Charlie and becomes one of his boarders at the end of book 7, sharing a room with another of Charlie's boarders - Bates' boyfriend Stewart Delacorte.
* FriendToAllLivingThings: Benjy Stephens, introduced in Ladies #1, who is in training to be a vet. He befriends Diesel easily, and is the one to see Peanut by the side of the road when he and Dickce went out to get groceries.
* FromStrayToPet:
** Diesel himself, found shivering in the rain as an eight-to-ten-weeks-old kitten. Charlie rescues him, takes him to a vet to be checked out, and adopts him.
** In Ladies #1, while Dickce and Benjy Stephens are on their way to town to get groceries, they find a labradoodle by the side of the road, and an Abyssinian that comes running to join him. Later in the afternoon, after taking the animals to the vet's office to be checked out, Dickce meets the owner - a local farmer, who explains the two (named Peanut and Endora, respectively) were his mother's, but he was taking them to a shelter after she died (since he couldn't give them the attention they needed) and they escaped from his truck en route. Having already come to care for the two, Dickce immediately makes arrangements with Claud to adopt them.
* FullNameUltimatum:
** Sean Robert Harris is on the receiving end from his father in book 2, after he loses his temper over a phone call from someone he never wants to hear from ever again. It leads to a CallingTheOldManOut moment, in which he lets Charlie know just how upset he is that Charlie's basically ignored him since Sean's mother died.
** In Ladies #1, Newton Aloysius Pittman Jr. finally [[CallingTheOldManOut calls out his grandmother]], Rosabelle Sultan, on her bad behavior - he tells her she's been acting like a spoiled brat. She promptly uses this trope on him.
* FunetikAksent: In Ladies #2, little four-year-old Tippy speaks with a lisp, portrayed as changing all "L"s in her dialogue into "W"s.
* FurAndLoathing: Vera Cassity, the thoroughly unpleasant victim in book 4, wears a mink coat when she comes to see Charlie, who reacts with disgust.
* GentleGiant: Diesel, who's thirty-six pounds at full growth and large even for his breed, is nevertheless a kind and loving fellow. Charlie actually uses the term "gentle giant" to describe him to a severe ailurophobe in book 5 in an effort to calm her.

* InadequateInheritor: In book 2, James Delacorte clearly considers all his blood relatives to be this, since his will specifies that he's kicking them out of the house and they're only being left money so they can afford new places to live.
* IncompatibleOrientation:
** In book 2, Stewart Delacorte flirts with Sean Harris, but Sean is straight as an arrow (fortunately, he's not bothered by the attention, being more amused than anything). Sean later mentions to his father that a coworker of his, Arthur, had also hit on him but stopped when Sean made it clear he wasn't interested.
** In the same book, James Delacorte has been in love with his butler Nigel Truesdale for years, but Nigel is very straight.
* InheritanceMurder:
** Discussed more than once, as the first two books (and Ladies #4) make mention of the fact that in Mississippi, murderers aren't allowed to profit from their crimes, so killing someone they were supposed to inherit from automatically makes them ineligible to inherit.
** A variant happens in book 1, when Godfrey Priest has added his supposed son Justin Wardlaw to his will, but soon figures out that Justin is actually his ''nephew''. It's not Justin himself, but rather [[spoiler:Justin's mother]] who kills Godfrey to ensure that he can't change his will again in light of this discovery. It's never confirmed in later books if Justin got his inheritance after this, due to the above law.
** In book 2, when James Delacorte turns up dead, it's suspected that the killer did so to speed up their inheritance. Turns out that's exactly the case. [[spoiler:It's not a family member, as initially suspected, though - it's his butler and primary heir, Nigel Truesdale.]]
** In Ladies #1, the victims are all killed to clear the way for the murderer to inherit, the first two because their portions revert to the estate that way and the last a straight-out inheritance murder.
** In Ladies #4, the victim is again killed so the killer can get their hands on his money.
* InterspeciesFriendship:
** In book 2, Sean Harris comes to Athena from Houston, bringing his poodle Dante. Dante and Diesel quickly become fast friends, and this remains even after Stewart Delacorte becomes Charlie's new boarder and subsequently Dante's new owner (since Sean admits that Stewart really likes him and Sean himself can't give the dog the attention he needs).
** In Ladies #1, Dickce Ducote meets (and ultimately adopts) the labradoodle Peanut and his Abyssinian friend Endora, who are practically attached at the hip.
* InTheBlood: Book 9 has two examples.
** Delbert Collins, Charlie's long dead uncle, turned out to have been an alcoholic, though his wife Dottie managed to get him to drop it. He passed it on to his son Bill, whom he never met.

** Despite the fact that they tend to butt heads on several matters, Azalea Berry is fiercely proud of her daughter Kanesha and her accomplishments, with one exception - Azalea is disappointed that Kanesha hasn't married and given her grandchildren, which is a touchy subject between the pair.
** Charlie is mentioned as looking forward to being a grandfather as well. He gets his wish when, at the end of book 6, his daughter Laura informs him that she's pregnant; in book 7, his son Sean informs him that Sean's fiancee Alexandra is also expecting, so they're moving their wedding up to immediately. Laura gives birth between books 8 and 9, and Alexandra between books 9 and 10.
* KickTheDog:
** Almost literally in book 2. Sean Harris was in a relationship with his boss, even buying her a dog as a present, but she refused to take the animal (a poodle named Dante) when she found out he came from a shelter. It's only ''after'' this that Sean finds out she was just using him.

** Charlie's daughter Laura is also very adoring of Diesel - it's mentioned that during her visit in the Christmas between books 1 and 2, she threatened to catnap Diesel and take him back to California with her because she liked him so much (and the feeling was mutual).
* KindlyHousekeeper: Azalea Berry, who was a part-time housekeeper for Charlie Harris' Aunt Dottie for years and continues in the role for Charlie after Dottie dies and Charlie inherits the house, in part since she's not ready to stop working (she also works part-time for other families); she's a bit brusquer than most examples, but still cares for him. Her friend Clementine, who works for the Ducote sisters, is also one.
* LongLostRelative: Book 9 revolves around Charlie meeting one in the form of Bill Delaney, son of Charlie's long dead uncle Delbert Collins (husband of Charlie's aunt Dottie). Delbert was married before, but left his wife after about six months and never knew she was expecting; Delaney himself didn't find out his father's true identity until after his mother died.

** [[spoiler:Also in Ladies #3, Lottie [=MacLeod=] ''tries'' to kill Reba (and actually shoots her in the shoulder, non-fatally), for the same reason - she wants Hadley for herself. She's stopped and arrested for her attempted murder.]]
* MysteryMagnet: Charlie Harris, naturally, as he keeps finding dead bodies, or at least ''knows'' the person who turned up dead. He, his children and Chief Deputy Kanesha Berry are all none too thrilled by this, and Sean Harris in particular is noted several times as being concerned about his father's safety due to his tendency to attract murders and murderers.
* NarrativeProfanityFilter: Used multiple times throughout the series. In book 4 in particular, Helen Louise is subject to this when Charlie informs her of what Vera Cassity had tried earlier.
-->Helen Louise used a word I had never heard her speak, disconcerting me.
* NotBloodSiblings: In Ladies #2, Sondra Delevan and her stepbrother Horace Mims the Third, or Trey, get as far as having a child together. Sondra refuses to marry him though, even though he's head-over-heels for her.
* NotSoStoic: Cynthia Delacorte, James Delacorte's great-niece in book 2. When Charlie first meets her, he sees her as an ice queen, cold and reserved; her cousin Stewart describes her as one later on as well, since she's rather cold to essentially everyone. However, a key scene late in the book shows that her behavior is more because she's tired from working night shifts at the hospital; the stoicism completely fades when she's horrified to learn Elaine is dead and furious upon realizing who must have been responsible, leading to her providing a key piece of evidence that reveals the real killer.
* OldMaid: The Ducote sisters, who are in their eighties when the series takes place, freely refer to themselves as old spinsters, having never married - as noted in Ladies #3, they've both declined repeated proposals from their own doctor, who keeps asking both of them, for several years. Unlike most examples, they don't treat the term as an insult.

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Miss Dickce Ducote's real first name is Richelle, but nobody's called her that in years.
* OnOneCondition: In Ladies #2, it's explained that Sondra Delevan will receive an inheritance from her late father either when she marries or when she turns 25, whichever comes first, but that if she marries ''before'' she turns 20, she gets nothing. This is part of why she refused to marry her stepbrother when she was seventeen, despite him getting her pregnant.
* OriginStory: ''When Charlie Met Diesel'', included as a bonus feature in book 6.
* OutlivingOnesOffspring:
** In book 1, it's mentioned that Rick Tackett lost one of his daughters to cancer when she was about nine or ten.
** In book 5, it's mentioned that Charlie's Aunt Dottie's only child, a daughter named Victoria, died when she was six months old.

* PersonalEffectsReveal: In book 2, James Delacorte's library and personal papers reveals his most recent rare book purchase - and also that someone had stolen it.
* PersonaNonGrata:
** Anyone who complains about Diesel being at Helen Louise's restaurant gets banned from there for good, as seen in book 2.

** James Delacorte in book 2 - a closeted, elderly gay man (not that he's good at hiding it; his entire family knows how he feels about his butler) who doesn't act like it in the slightest.
** Haskell Bates, a local deputy, is also mostly closeted and doesn't act like he's gay; the only stereotypical trait he displays is a large shoe collection.
* StrawFeminist: Marie Steverton in book 6, a history professor at Athena College who tries to throw her (metaphorical) weight around to get what she wants and, if a man refuses to comply with her wishes, she accuses him of sexism and not wanting her to "achieve anything significant" just because she's a woman. It's noted, by both men and women, that her rudeness and prejudice are the issue, and why she's so unpopular, rather than her gender.
* StrongFamilyResemblance: Azalea and her sister Lily are almost identical, as Charlie discovers when he sees them together for the first time in book 4 - when he comes in the room and sees them standing side by side (and with their backs to him), he initially thinks he's seeing double until he gets a better look.

* SweetTooth: Cynthia Delacorte, introduced in book 2, pretends she doesn't have one, but it's proven that she does - [[spoiler:it prompted her to snag one of the peanut cookies that killed two other members of her family via triggering their allergic reactions. Luckily, she didn't actually eat it, and thus it becomes key evidence in proving the identity of the real killer.]]
* TallDarkAndHandsome: Stewart Delacorte describes Sean Harris as "Tall, dark and gorgeous" shortly after they first meet in book 2.
* TamperingWithFoodAndDrink:
** Ladies #2 has one victim die this way, when an allergen was put into their whiskey.

** In book 9, [[spoiler:the cold case Charlie is working on - the murders of four people, twenty years ago - turns out to have been this. Hiram Barber murdered his wife and sons, and then his daughter Elizabeth shot him in the back when she realized what he'd done.]]
* UnexpectedInheritance:

** In book 5, Della Duffy is deathly afraid of cats - the mere sight of one, even one as gentle as Diesel, sends her into a panic attack.
** In Ladies #1, Maudine Pittman is deathly afraid of spiders, and suffers a fatal heart attack at the sight of rubber spiders in her bath towel, placed there by the killer. Her mother is the same, and her niece isn't too fond of them either.
* WitchWithACapitalB:
** In book 3, Laura quotes another character, but censors herself because she doesn't want the language to upset her father.
-->"All he said was 'That fat witch' - except he didn't say ''witch'' - 'may think she can shut me in like she used to, but I'm too big now.'"
** Ladies #1 does it too, when Rosabelle Sultan talks about her daughter-in-law Marla.
-->"If I weren't in polite company, I could tell you what I think of her in a single word, and I'm sure you can imagine the word I mean - it rhymes with ''witch''."
* WrittenInAbsence:
** Justin Wardlaw, introduced as one of Charlie's boarders in book 1 and a RecurringCharacter for much of the series, is absent from books 2, 7, 8 and 9, and is given an explanation each time - he's away with his family for spring break in book 2, in England for the semester in 7 and 8, and away with his family on vacation in 9.
** The spinoff series starts with one, as Charlie, his girlfriend Helen Louise, his children, their love partners and his boarder Stewart Delacorte are all off in Europe for a few weeks. This allows the action to focus on the Ducote sisters, who are cat-sitting for Charlie in his absence (since he can't take Diesel on the trip with him).

* Cat #13: ''Cat Me If You Can'' (announced for July 2020) [[labelnote:Summary]]Charlie, Diesel and Helen Louise head to North Carolina for a book event, partially sponsored by the Ducote sisters. But when one of the sisters is implicated in a murder, Charlie must find a way to clear them.[[/labelnote]]
* Cat #14: ''What the Cat Dragged In'' (announced for April 2021) [[labelnote:Summary]]Charlie inherits a house from his grandfather, but the house comes with a new mystery for he and Diesel to solve.

* Cat #13: ''Cat Me If You Can'' (announced for July 2020) [[labelnote:Summary]]Charlie, Diesel and Helen Louise head to North Carolina for a book event, partially sponsored by the Ducote sisters. But when one of the sisters is implicated in a murder, Charlie must find a way to clear them.
%%* Cat #14: ''(to be announced)'' - ordered in November 2019, per the author's Facebook page.

* Cat #12: ''Careless Whiskers'' (announced for January 2020) [[labelnote:Summary]]Athena College's theater department is putting on a play by Charlie's son-in-law Frank Salisbury and starring Charlie's daughter Laura, but when another of the actors drops dead from a poisoned drink Laura handed him, she becomes the number one suspect, and Charlie and Diesel must figure out the real killer.[[/labelnote]]

* IceQueen: Cynthia Delacorte, James Delacorte's great-niece in book 2, who is rather cold to essentially everyone. However, she eventually provides a key piece of evidence that reveals the real killer.

* NobodyOver50IsGay: Subverted with James Delacorte in book 2 - he's in his eighties, and his great-nephew Stewart informs Charlie that James has been gay but closeted (not that he's very good at hiding it) his whole life.

* TheButlerDidIt: Literally in [[spoiler:book 2, where James Delacorte's butler Truesdale became his boss's primary heir and then killed him to speed up the process after finding out by means of a gossipy paralegal and her aunt, the latter of whom was having an affair with one of the other heirs and shared this information with Truesdale after learning of his status. Both Sean and Kanesha Berry are rather incredulous, especially since two other major suspects have just been arrested, but that doesn't stop it from being true.]]

* {{Cuckold}}: [[spoiler:It's revealed in the conclusion of book 9 that Hiram Barber's wife had slept with her old flame, Bill Delaney, and he was the real father of their twin sons. Hiram responded by murdering the boys and his wife, and in the following confrontation with Bill, was shot in the back by his only biological child, his daughter Elizabeth.]]

* Cat #9: ''Claws for Concern'' (February 2018) [[labelnote:Summary]]Charlie is forced to solve a murder mystery from his family's past, and to deal with true-crime writer Jack Pemberton, who is insistent on making Charlie the subject of his latest book.[[/labelnote]]

* AbsenteeActor: Charlie's boarder Justin Wardlaw is absent for the entirety of book 5. Unlike other cases (see WrittenInAbsence), there's no reason given for his not being around this time. He's also off-screen for all of book 6, being mentioned all of once.

* DaddysGirl: Charlie's daughter Laura, a 23-year-old actress at the time of the first book, who is noted as having always been closer to her father than her mother.

* RecurringCharacter: Justin Wardlaw, one of Charlie's boarders, who has a major role in book 1 and then spends most of the rest of the series off-screen, either being [[WrittenInAbsence described as away]] in books 2, 7, 8 and 9, and entirely offscreen in books 5 and 6. By book 11, he's moved out of Charlie's house and in with family near campus for his last year of college.

* TheScrooge: Nathan Gamble in Ladies #4, who's very stingy about money, wearing worn-out clothes and driving a twenty-year-old car. He's especially stingy when it comes to lending money to his family, as he refuses to let his sister have any money from her trust fund, which he manages, to pay her legal bills and try to keep her ex-husband from getting sole custody of their children. [[spoiler:She finally murders Nathan to get the money, but once she's found out, the law prevents her from profiting from it, so it was AllForNothing.]]

* Cat #13: ''Cat Me If You Can'' (announced for July 2020) [[labelnote:Summary]]Charlie, Diesel and Helen Louise head to North Carolina for a book event, partially sponsored by the Ducote sisters. But when one of the sisters is implicated in a murder, Charlie must find a way to clear them.[[/labelnote]]

** In book 2, Stewart Delacorte flirts with Sean Harris, but Sean is straight as an arrow. Sean later mentions to his father that a coworker of his, Arthur, had also hit on him but stopped when Sean made it clear he wasn't interested.

* ArtisticLicenseAnimalCare: Subverted - Charlie is noted as being very careful not to let Diesel eat anything that isn't good for cats, such as onions. In book 4, he lets Azalea's sister Lily know exactly what Diesel can't have, including milk, cheese, chocolate, raisins, grapes, green tomatoes, raw potatoes and the aforementioned onions. It's also noted that while Diesel loves to play with ribbon, Charlie's always careful to make sure he doesn't eat any.

* AssholeVictim:

** Charlie, who found the young Diesel as a cold, wet stray and quickly took him in. He also takes in five kittens in book 10, including an orange tabby named Ramses who stays with the family afterward, and is noted as having owned cats before.

* DrivenToSuicide: In book 6, Charlie reads the diaries of Rachel Long, and learns of someone whom this happened to: [[spoiler:Rachel's husband, Andrew Long III, became horrified by what he saw during UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar. He deserted during Gettysburg, returned home and, soon after being scorned by his father for what the latter viewed as a cowardly act, went out to his barn and hung himself.]]

* KindHeartedCatLover: Charlie, who found the young Diesel as a cold, wet stray and quickly took him in. He also takes in five kittens in book 10, including an orange tabby named Ramses who stays with the family afterward, and is noted as having owned cats before. His daughter Laura is also very adoring of Diesel - it's mentioned that during her visit in the Christmas between books 1 and 2, she threatened to catnap Diesel and take him back to California with her because she liked him so much (and the feeling was mutual).
* KindlyHousekeeper: Azalea Berry, who was a part-time housekeeper for Charlie Harris' Aunt Dottie for years and continues in the role for Charlie after Dottie dies and Charlie inherits the house, in part since she's not ready to stop working (she also works part-time for other families). Her friend Clementine, who works for the Ducote sisters, is also one.

* TheCorpseStopsHere: In book 4, Azalea Berry becomes the main suspect after being found over the dead woman's body.

* KindlyHousekeeper: Azalea Berry, who was a part-time housekeeper for Charlie Harris' Aunt Dottie for years and continues in the role for Charlie after Dottie dies and Charlie inherits the house, in part since she's not ready to stop working (she also works part-time for other families).

* OutlivingOnesOffspring: It's mentioned in book 1 that Rick Tackett lost one of his daughters to cancer when she was about nine or ten.

** In book 5, Della Duffy is deathly afraid of cats.

* HeKnowsTooMuch: In book 8, the second murder victim knew too much about the killer's previous activities, including [[spoiler:blackmail]], resulting in the killer arranging their death to cover it up.

** In the final chapter of book 3, Charlie receives a letter from the book's now arrested murderer, [[spoiler:in which Sarabeth Conley (née Norris) confesses that the book's ''other'' arrested murderer, her supposed younger brother Levi, is actually her son.]]