Mister Puss Books in Order

Dumont, Wisconsin is already familiar ground in Michael Craft's fiction, but the Mister Puss books give the town a different flavor. These mysteries are smaller in scale, cozier in shape, and much more willing to wink at the reader. The central human sleuth is Brody Norris, a gay architect with a cool head and a sharp eye for detail. Around him are his husband Marson Miles, wealthy widow Mary Questman, Sheriff Thomas Simms, and one very unusual Abyssinian cat named Mister Puss.

Whether the cat truly talks is left just slippery enough to be fun.

That uncertainty is part of the charm. Mister Puss seems to communicate, first with Mary and then with Brody, but Craft never pushes the books into full fantasy. Instead, the series lives in a playful in-between space where a chatty cat can coexist with careful clue work, queer domestic life, and very real murder. The result feels offbeat rather than broad.

Each book builds its crime out of local community life. In Flabbergassed, a bizarre weight-loss venture turns deadly. In ChoirMaster, church money, old friendships, and fresh desire make a mess of things. In HomeComing, Hollywood rolls into Dumont for a film shoot, and the excitement ends with another body. That pattern tells you a lot about the series. These are village mysteries, just with more architectural talk, more queer characters, and a better cat.

Dumont matters here as much as any human character. The town is full of old houses, long memories, tangled loyalties, and people who know just enough about each other to be dangerous. Brody fits the setting well because he solves problems by noticing how lives are arranged, who belongs where, and what feels out of place. Sheriff Simms handles the official side, while Brody works the human side.

These are cozy mysteries with whiskers, but they are also books about home.

That idea of home runs straight through the series, especially because Brody and Marson are building a life together at the same time the cases keep intruding. Readers coming from Inside Dumont or the Mark Manning books will catch extra echoes, but newcomers can start here without any trouble. If you want warmth, wit, small-town scandal, and a series that never quite answers how much of the cat is magic and how much is instinct, Mister Puss is an easy recommendation.