Back in 1990, a new series came out, written by Randy Wayne White, starring "Doc Ford". It takes place in Florida. Being a Florida "gal", I GOT HOOKED. And here I am, still reading them, 25 books more later.
I tried, I really tried, to like his books. We've been going to that area of FL since 1974, when my inlaws were still alive. Before he died, Dad gave us the contract to his time share week, on Fort Myers Beach. Since Himself stopped working in 2011, we've spent a week almost every November in the unit, exploring the surrounding area. In fact, we pass by Doc Ford's Rum Bar & Grille each time we take the San Carlos Bridge to get onto/off the beach. So tried to like the book, but I got tired of reading six different explanations/descriptions in the same paragraph time after time.
It's what I've come to refer to "wordy-words", put there by an author to get the word count up for the day. I've given up on another one or two other authors for the same reason.
...In 1996, Shirley Rousseau Murphy came out with the "Joe Grey" series. The last one (of 22 books) came out in 2018. If you are not familiar with Joe, he is a cat, and he and his girlfriend help solve murders in there home town. And they can talk, but only a few humans know that. I just love the cats and people in these books. I just wish there were more of them.
Have you read any of
Rita Mae Brown's books that she "co-authors" with her cat, Sneaky Pie Brown?
Set in Crozet, VA (a delightful little town - we've driven through there), the main human character is the local postmistress, but the really entertaining characters are her tiger cat (Mrs. Murphy) and Welsh Corgi dog (Tucker). The pets talk to each other, with other animal life around them (I think, it's been years since I've read them), and manage to get their point across to their human to help her solve mysteries.
I had kept up with the series when we still lived in OH, read the next few as they came to market when we first lived here, then somehow managed to get behind and never resumed reading them. Right now I'm in the process of reading the most recent book from a number of authors I like, but I need to make a point to get back to Mrs. Murphy again. Guess I'll start back at book one and just keep on reading until I run out of new ones!