THE POSTMAN ALWAYS BRINGS MICE

Writing as “Holm & Hamel,” the authors open the case files of a feline James Bond. Following the assassination of his beloved human counterpart in the hideously secret MI9, well-bred James Edward Bristlefur finds himself shanghaied from London to New Jersey where, after a miserable spell in a cat shelter, he’s adopted by a family and dubbed, to his disgust, Mr. Stink. Though eager to escape in order to track down the agents of his erstwhile companion’s demise, Stink finds himself drawn to his new caregiver Aaron, a smart and sensitive fifth-grader with a major bully problem. So he puts his larger plans on hold in order to put paid to Aaron’s tormenter with the help of a quickly assembled network of local mice. The inside drawings don’t quite fulfill the promise of the noir cover illustration, but resourceful, self-assured Stink makes a beguiling narrator, against whom Bad Guys, two-legged or four-, plainly stand no chance. The closing revelation that his transatlantic flight was no accident makes a tantalizing lead-in to the next episode, due in October. (Fiction. 10-12)