Cat Coming Home (Joe Grey Series #16)

by Shirley Rousseau Murphy

Overview

“That was no accident.”

Escaping Los Angeles and the ugly memories of her son’s recent murder, Maudie Toola returns to her childhood home of Molena Point with her orphaned grandson, facing the upcoming Christmas holiday with trepidation. But she is not aware that the small seaside village is being plagued by a series of brutal attacks on single women . . . or that the heartless fiend who shattered her world has followed her here.

Feline sleuth Joe Grey and his cat pals have a lot on their dish this holiday season, and it overflows when an elderly wandering tomcat appears on the scene bearing an important message from a state prisoner for the chief of police. But this lonely old cat also has a personal agenda—as does Maudie Toola, who knows more than she’s telling about her son’s killer.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061806957
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	11/29/2011
Series:	Joe Grey Series , #16
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	275,964
Product dimensions:	4.24(w) x 6.78(h) x 1.06(d)

About the Author

Shirley Rousseau Murphy is the author of twenty mysteries in the Joe Grey series, for which she has won the Cat Writers’ Association Muse Medallion nine years running, and has received ten national Cat Writers’ Association Awards for best novel of the year. She is also a noted children’s book author, and has received five Council of Authors and Journalists Awards. She lives in Carmel, California, where she serves as full-time household help to two demanding feline ladies.

What People are Saying About This

Todd David Schwartz

“This is delightful entertainment. It would be a true cat-tastrophe if you let it pass you by.”

Editorial Reviews

A heartwarming and satisfying tale.

Booklist on Cat Coming Home

The heartwrenching stories of an orphaned child and a stray cat at Christmas will tug on more than a few heartstrings.

Romantic Times on Cat Coming Home

A heartwarming and satisfying tale.

Booklist

The heartwrenching stories of an orphaned child and a stray cat at Christmas will tug on more than a few heartstrings.

Romantic Times

In Murphy's deeply moving 17th Joe Grey mystery (after 2009's Cat Striking Back), yuletide cheer appears in the enchanting form of Misto, a wise old yellow tomcat who returns from a long sojourn in Soledad Prison to Molena Point, Calif., where he's thrilled to connect with cat sleuths Joe Grey, Dulcie, and Kit, who lend police chief Max Harper and his detectives a helping paw in the close-knit seaside community. Maudie Toola, and her orphaned grandson, Benny, have also returned to Molena Point, where they are celebrating their first Christmas since a family tragedy eight months earlier--the shooting murders of Maudie's son, Martin, and his second wife on an isolated mountain road east of L.A. Since Maudie possesses evidence that could incriminate the killer, Maudie and Benny remain in jeopardy unless the talking cats speak up and fast in this marvelous holiday gift of a tale. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

[A] marvelous holiday gift of a tale.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) on Cat Coming Home

“A heartwarming and satisfying tale.” — Booklist on Cat Coming Home

“The heartwrenching stories of an orphaned child and a stray cat at Christmas will tug on more than a few heartstrings.” — Romantic Times on Cat Coming Home

“This is delightful entertainment. It would be a true cat-tastrophe if you let it pass you by.” — Todd David Schwartz, CBS Radio, Four Stars (Highest Rating) on Cat Coming Home

From the Publisher

This is delightful entertainment. It would be a true cat-tastrophe if you let it pass you by.

Todd David Schwartz

A quartet of talking cats led by feline detective Joe Grey (Cat Striking Back, 2009, etc.) help the police catch a killer.

After her son and daughter-in-law are shot to death while driving the narrow mountain road to Lake Arrowhead, Maudie Toola takes her grandson Benny away from Los Angeles to start a new life. She hires neighbor Ryan Flannery to add a quilting room to the tiny Tudor she buys at Molena Point. Ryan, recently married to Clyde Damen, is one of the few humans privy to Joe Grey's secret: Clyde's stub-tailed tomcat can speak. When a series of home invasions rocks the quiet central coast village, who better than Joe, and his female companions Dulcie and Kit, to prowl the rooftops looking for trouble and reporting by phone to the police? The Damens' good friend, police Chief Max Harper, is under intense pressure from outraged citizens like Arlie Risso to stop the crime wave. But the intruders just ramp up the action, trashing two local restaurants, breaking into homes and beating up the women who live there alone. Maudie's nephew Jared Coletto moves in to watch out for her, even though his badass brother Vic just knifed Jack Reed in Soledad prison. But can Jared protect Maudie from her son's killer? Only Misto, a yellow tomcat born in Molena Point but most recently a resident of Soledad, knows the answer.

Focusing on menace rather than mystery, Rousseau takes that staple of cozies—companion animals—and puts them in the center of a new hybrid—the talking-cat thriller.

Kirkus Reviews