Cat Striking Back (Joe Grey Series #15)

by Shirley Rousseau Murphy

Overview

“Murphy’s series is top-notch...a real treat.”
—Cats magazine

 

The acclaimed mystery writer whom Kirkus Reviews praises for having “raised the stakes of the feline sleuth genre,” Shirley Rousseau Murphy brings back cat detectives Joe Grey, Dulcie, and Kit in Cat Striking Back. Arguably the most unusual sleuth in contemporary crime fiction, Joe Grey is at his curious best when he pads across evidence of a heinous crime but with no victim in sight. Cat Striking Back is a treat for readers of Lillian Jackson Braun, Rita Mae Brown, and Carole Nelson Douglas—for cat people and anyone who loves a good whodunit—a bravura display of the mastery that has won Murphy an unprecedented seven straight Muse Medallions from the national Cat Writers Association.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061124006
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	11/30/2010
Series:	Joe Grey Series , #15
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	275,309
Product dimensions:	7.40(w) x 11.72(h) x 0.80(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.

Editorial Reviews

Joe continues to be one of the most entrancing (and effective) detectives in modern cozy mysteries.

Booklist

Joe continues to be one of the most entrancing (and effective) detectives in modern cozy mysteries.

Booklist

In Murphy's magical 15th mystery to feature tomcat Joe Grey (after Feb. 2009's Cat Playing Cupid), an anonymous tip leads Det. Juana Davis of the Molina Point, Calif., PD to an empty swimming pool, where she finds trace evidence of a murder but no corpse. When Sage, a feral feline, catches the canny killer in the act of placing the victim in a ditch dug in the garage floor of a house being remodeled, the cat-hating sociopath throws a hammer at Sage. Sage survives to report what he's witnessed to his cat pals who live with humans, including Joe. With so many smart four-footed sleuths on his trail, the killer is doomed. As in recent entries in this popular series, the cat detectives receive more face time than their two-footed cohorts, like Molina Point's often bumbling if well-intentioned police chief, Max Harper, who gets on the stick only late in the game. Mystery fans who prefer people in action will have to look elsewhere. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

Sleuthing feline Joe Grey's back in this find-the-victim mystery. When Detective Juana Davis gets a phone call from an anonymous source tipping her off about a suspected murder, she doesn't ask a lot of questions. She's heard this voice before, and she knows that questions won't get her anywhere. So she trustingly follows the source's tip to a suburban backyard pool, where she finds no body but mysterious traces of blood. So begins the latest adventure of cat detective Joe Grey, her anonymous tipster. Readers may remember Joe (Cat Playing Cupid, 2009, etc.) as the cat who talks not only with his feline companions but also with a few lucky humans. While Murphy's frequent exposition of the rules of kitty conversation acts as a continuing plague, her premise, a mystery that withholds the identities of both the victim and the perp, is intriguing. Joe knows the pair must be one of four husband/wife sets in the neighborhood, but which is it? He, Dulcie, Kit and their human friends Clyde and Ryan must band together to lead Detective Davis through the clues before the mystery man strikes back at the cat detectives. One thing's for sure: Whatever sinister baddie is behind this homicide hates cats-the most egregious sin Murphy can imagine. Readers new to Murphy's fanciful and highly anthropomorphized mental world of cats might best approach this installment as a dialogue-free zone.

Kirkus Reviews

Magical.” — Publishers Weekly

“[The] premise, a mystery that withholds the identities of both the victim and the perp, is intriguing.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Joe continues to be one of the most entrancing (and effective) detectives in modern cozy mysteries.” — Booklist

From the Publisher