Summary

Joe Grey isn't your average feline. After all, there's nothing ordinary about a cat who solves crimes. But it's more than his skill and cunning on the mean streets that makes Joe stand out among the legion of cat detectives on the prowl today -- it's how Joe cracks cases that makes him so unique. Join Joe Grey, his lady friend Dulcie, and their tattercoat friend Kit in the eleventh delightful installment in the series that "raises the stakes of the feline sleuth genre" (Booklist) and discover the secret they hide from most people -- and the mystery that makes Joe Grey so exceptional.

The fur starts flying -- the fur of Joe Grey, Feline P.I., that is -- when a gang from L.A. comes up to tranquil Molena Point, California, and begins breaking into the village's quaint shops. After all, Molena Point has been his home since he was a kitten eating scraps from the garbage behind the local delicatessen, and he doesn't take well to marauding strangers. Joe even wonders whether the blonde who's moved in next door to his human companion Clyde could be a part of the gang -- she's been acting pretty suspicious lately.

But when the strangers start trapping and caging feral cats -- speaking cats, like Joe and his girlfriend Dulcie -- it proves too much for the intrepid four-footed detective. And when one of the gang is murdered, and a second mysterious death comes to light, he has no choice but to try to stop the crimes. Joe, Dulcie, and Kit, who used to be a stray herself, are deep into the investigation when they are able to release the three trapped felines. But as Kit leads them away to freedom, will she herself return to that wild life?

In this marvelous book that once again opens the door to the spectacular world of Joe Grey, meet three new cats -- winning cats drawn from among hundreds of their owners' entries and chosen at random to appear in this book -- and join old friends and new in Shirley Rousseau Murphy's most ambitious and enjoyable mystery to date.