Will To Murder

When wealthy and eccentric patriarch James Boyle dies a peculiar death, the district attorney declines to investigate, convinced that the victim died of natural causes. Yet even the police are stunned when members of the Boyle family gather for the reading of James' will--and begin to die, one at a time.

Excerpt:

"Would you pry this cat off the steering wheel?" Eric was saying testily.

"God, Eric, you must never have owned pets before." Bradley tugged Purrball off and lowered her into the backseat, which he had turned into a playpen for the cats. A tangle of extension cords plugged a pair of battery-heated cat beds into the cigarette lighter, allowing the cats to lounge like pashas. Of course, Bradley had brought along their scratching posts, chase balls, plush toys, feather twitches, and wind-up mice. Two suitcases alone had been necessary for the cat's luggage.

Eric said with disapproval, "You know, those cats have more toys than I ever did in all the time I was growing up."

"Want a catnip-stuffed mouse to make you feel better?"

"No, thank you."

"I was getting rid of one anyway. The seams are coming loose."

"And a dozen more shall take its place," Eric proclaimed in Biblical tones. "God only knows what your relatives will say when you show up with those cats."

"Why are you so worried about my family?"

Eric could not resist grinning. "I'm afraid they'll be like you."

"Oh for God's sake, rich people are just like you and me. They just have--weirdly dead relatives," Bradley said with rising surprise.

"What are you looking at?"

"It's the latest issue of the Chichiteaux Weekly and it has James Boyle's obituary in it."

"All right. But listen to this. 'Mr. James Elmont Boyle, 71, died in Chichiteaux on August 8th, while out for a drive in his beloved Mercedes-Knight town car. He was killed by a CD.' Killed by a CD? What'd he do, swallow it?"

Will To Murder