THE CAT WHO BLEW THE WHISTLE

Floyd Trevelyan, president of the Lumbertown Credit Union, is gone, and so are his secretary Nella Hooper and millions of Moose County dollars. It was just a few days earlier that model- railroad hobbyist Trevelyan's latest brainchild, the Lumbertown Party Train, steamed through nearby Pickax and Wildcat in its triumphant first run; and it's back to those fateful last days that aw-shucks columnist Jim Qwilleran, ``the richest man in the northeast central United States,'' looks for clues about what tipped Trevelyan off to flee one step ahead of the police investigation—and who blew the whistle on his scam in the first place. Luckily, hearty oldster Celia Robinson, a longtime correspondent of Qwilleran's just arrived in town, has settled in as a Pickax Pal to Trevelyan's abandoned wife and daughter. And Qwilleran himself is well-positioned to keep tabs on Trevelyan's ne'er-do-well son, Eddie, while his cats, Koko and Yum Yum (The Cat Who Came to Breakfast, 1994, etc.), run off as usual with the detecting honors. Larceny, homicide, and a climactic train wreck- -but nothing nasty—provide mild punctuation for an Ozzie-and- Harriet daily routine that takes Qwilleran and his homespun friends from picnics to flirting to gossip to softball games to amateur theatricals. Braun's childlike characters take these activities and themselves almost as seriously as they take their cats. (Literary Guild/Mystery Guild main selections)