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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... McMinnville Public Library | Murphy, S. | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Lyons Public Library | M MUR | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Sheridan Public Library | Murphy Joe Grey v.5 | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Silver Falls Library | MYS MURPHY | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Cat to the Dogs is the latest entry in Shirley Rousseau Murphy's acclaimed, uniquely charming mystery series featuring a pair of cats who discovered one day that they have the amazing ability to read, speak, and solve crimes.
"For your information," said Joe Grey, "if that wreck turns out to be a murder, I'm the one who put the cops onto it. Me. The cat you are booting out into the cold for no reason!"
Joe Grey kicked out of the house? Ever since the earthquake, things have been going from bad to worse in Molena Point.
There was the car "accident on Hellhag Hill, which looked--well--fishy, to Joe's night-wise eyes. And there was the suspicious but not unwelcome death of the town philanderer, Shamas Greenlaw. Soon the little coastal California town was filled with greedy relatives and Shamas's brazen young mistress, all looking to share the widow's grief--and her rumored gold.
Every earthquake has its aftershocks, and now even Dulcie, the library cat, is getting weird. She's going to the dogs, literally. She's taken to mothering two orphaned pups discovered at the scene of the crash.
And worst of all, there's Clyde, Joe's erratic but lovable human. He thinks cats should stay out of police work (as if humans could handle it on their own!), and to make his point, he's locking Joe and Dulcie out of the house when Officer Harper come over to play poker.
Clyde is afraid the two will give away their secret--that a few select cats can not only talk, but read--and even use the telephone. (Where does Harper think those anonymous tips are coming from after all?) But Joe is not about to give up the chase. Not until the "ghost" of Hellhag Hill is tracked down and brought to justice.
Mice are nice, but what cat can resist the chance to stalk a real killer?
Author Notes
Fiction author Shirley Rousseau Murphy grew up in Long Beach, California and majored in fine and commercial art at the San Francisco Art Institute. She has worked as a commercial artist and has exhibited paintings and sculptures extensively on the West Coast. She has also been a designer and an interior designer, as well as in a library in the Panama Canal Zone. Murphy has written several children's books, plus the fantasy novel The Catswold Portal, the Dragonbards trilogy, and the popular Joe Grey mystery series, for which she has won eight Muse Medallion awards from the Cat Writers' Association. She and her husband live in Carmel, California.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Recommended only for dedicated cat lovers, this lackluster tale is the latest outing (after Cat in the Dark) featuring the feline Sherlock Holmes named Joe Grey and his companion, Dulcie. As usual, the cats not only outsmart most humans, but also make telephone calls, order take-out and speak perfect English, although only to each other and a few favored people. Hunting in Hellhag Canyon, Joe witnesses a fatal car accident that appears to be murder. While local police search for the victim's identity, Dulcie is keeping an eye on neighbor Lucinda Greenlaw's house. Just widowed, Lucinda, who's waiting for the funeral and a possible inheritance, has been surrounded by her husband's unsavory relatives. Joe and Dulcie suspect that Shamas Greenlaw's death while boating was no accident, especially when his black market business dealings come to light. Now it remains for the feline duo to lead human investigators to connect the suspicious car accident to some of the Greenlaw clan and to prove that the two deaths are related. Murphy's fifth novel moves at a snail's pace and the humans involved, such as Joe's housemate, Clyde, are mere window dressing. Cat fans may fancy the story in any case, but others won't enjoy the plot digressions into the history and mythology of felines. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Sleuthing cats Joe Grey and Dulcie (Cat in the Dark, 1999, etc.) are living at Molena Point, California, Joe with repairman Clyde Damen and Dulcie with librarian Wilma Getz. They're able to talk to each other and to their respective hosts, read the paper, and use the phone, among other things. At the moment, Dulcie is spying on the house next door, where widow Lucinda Greenlaw'whose chronically unfaithful husband, Shamas'drowned two weeks before, is fending off the mostly rapacious Greenlaw relatives gathered in a nearby trailer park waiting for the funeral. Meanwhile, Joe is enjoying an early morning hunt in Hellhag Canyon when a skidding car from the road above comes hurtling down the cliff. Exploring the wreck, Joe finds the driver dead and a brake line obviously cut through. Back home, Joe does his best to keep Sheriff Max Harper alert to the murder possibilities, especially when it's discovered the victim was a part of Shamas's lucrative but mysterious business operations. It seems Shamas's nephews Dirken and Newlon and cousin Sam Fulman were also part of those operations. Complications escalate with the appearance of Shamas's last mistress, Cara Ray Crisp, and again with Newlon's murder. It takes Joe and Dulcie, helped this time by a tiny, nameless feral cat, to bring the killer to justice. Only feline worshipers will enjoy Murphy's endless spins into cat adoration. But even ailurophobes will acknowledge that clever plotting and lyrical prose offer top entertainment.
Library Journal Review
Joe Grey, the talking cat (Cat in the Dark), and friend Dulcie help police solve a suspicious fatal car accident. A special treat for cat mystery fans who like a little more feline participation. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.