Cat-astrophe Averted: Trapped by Peg Kehret

In her latest in the Pete the Cat mysteries, titled Trapped, Pete, the rotund but erudite cat who is one of literature's super feline sleuths, takes the lead in hunting down an illegal fur trapper and nearly becomes a pelt himself.

While hiking near home, friends Alex, Mary, and Rocky discover an illegal leghold trap, baited and waiting for something or someone to fall prey to its cruel jaws. Hurrying back to report the trap to Alex's animal-rescuing grandmother, the kids see a large hog fall off a beat-up truck careening down the mountain. When the animal rescue team takes the animal to a nearby vet, a local TV news reporter runs a human interest story on the evening news, and the kids enjoy a moment of fame.

But when the kids' families pitch in to build a pen for the pig, named "Piccolo" by the three rescuers, the scruffy truck driver reappears and, asserting ownership, tries to take the hog away. While the belligerent man argues with the boy's parents, Pete the cat is enticed into the old black truck by the appealing aroma of a sandwich, where he discovers a box of rabbit and fox pelts and an invoice all ready to close the deal with an illegal trader. Acting fast, Pete chews off one paw from a rabbit pelt and hides it with the invoice near the house. However, the truck's owner spots Pete inside his truck and vows to himself to kill the cat if he gets the chance.

Pete is unable to coax Alex to follow him to the concealed evidence, and by night the trapper returns with tools to unlock the pen. Again attracted by the smell of fast food, Pete follows his nose into the truck and is captured by the angry man, who vows to shoot him when he gets him back in the woods.

In her usual fast-paced style, Peg Kehret crafts the rising action of this novel into a suspenseful ending. Pete fights for his life when the trapper drags him out to shoot him and in the struggle the man shoots himself in the leg. The man roars down the mountain for medical help, where a suspicious emergency room doctor spooks the trapper with his questions about the wound. Meanwhile, Alex and his father head up the mountain for a midnight search for Pete. Tension rises as Alex's father breaks a leg in the dark woods. Going for help, Alex is almost caught by the trapper on the way home to his squatter's trailer in the mountains. Of course, at the climax of the story, it is Pete the Cat's hidden evidence which finally brings the crook to justice, proving, as always, that cats rule, at least in the mystery cat-egory!

Kehret uses Pete's voice, in italics throughout the text, to inject Pete's advice on sleuthing into the story, not to mention his ruminations on his studies of the dictionary for new words beginning with c-a-t, including his current favorites catapult and caterwaul. Other Pete the Cat books by Peg and Pete are The Stranger Next Door and Spy Cat.

For middle-reader mystery, adventure, and suspense fans Peg Kehret is the go-to gal and Pete is the can-do cat.