Review: Way too familiar
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 11 3, 2012
The Dog Who Ate the Airplane by Edward Coburn leaves me wondering. While the storyline started and ended well, the center of the book left me thinking about Lillian Jackson Braun's stories about The Cat Who.{{{Spoiler alerts}}}Similarities abounded between the two. In the Cat Who books Jim Qwilleran (Qwill) was surprised by an inheritance that left him filthy rich. Robert Adam Madigan (RAM), Coburn's character, makes millions by using his psychic powers.Qwill is embarrassed by his money, but must remain in the town the inheritance generated from for a certain number of years. He learns to love the area and stays. He sets up a foundation to handle his millions in order to help the people in his town and surrounding area.RAM flaunts his millions. He moves to a small town and sets up a foundation with the same intentions as Qwills.Qwill's best friend moves to his town to run the newspaper and Qwill writes a column titled the Qwill Pen.Ram moves to the small town because his good friend had bought the newspaper there. Ram writes an article called Ram's Ramblings.Qwill has two Siamese cats; Yum Yum and Koko. Yum Yum is just a loveable, normal animal. But Koko senses when something is amiss and gives Qwill hints by pulling items off shelves, becoming focused on something outside the window, and in a number of other ways. He cries when someone dies, even when they are miles away.Ram inherits a beagle from his mother that has psychic abilities. The dog will dump a game of Boggle onto the floor and then select a few cubes. He'll turn them until satisfied and then Ram is able to pick words from the letters he left. He also howled when someone died across town.Now, don't get me wrong, I liked The Dog Who Ate the Airplane but I have liked all the Cat Who books too. I just have a problem with all the similarities between the two author's novels. Maybe Coburn should have stuck with the abilities used in the first chapter and went from there.I give this book 3 stars.