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Summary
Summary
From Shirley Rousseau Murphy, six-time winner of the Cat Writers' Association Muse Medallion, here is crime-solving from the paws of the most cunning and intelligent feline detectives around: tomcat and feline sleuth extraordinaire Joe Grey, his tabby pal Dulcie, and their tattercoat friend Kit.
When antiques and valuables begin to disappear from residents' homes, Joe Grey knows that something is very wrong in sleepy Molena Point, California. Could the thief be a local or, even worse, is it the old crook who may be connected to Azrael, the sinister, yellow-eyed cat who terrorized Joe and Dulcie years ago, and whose return has Joe's fur standing on edge? Even a seasoned tomcat like Joe isn't prepared for the shock that awaits Molena Point residents at the opening for artist Charlie Harper.
While guests are dining on hors d'oeuvres and fine wine at the joyous celebration, a young, healthy waiter drops dead at Charlie's feet.
Meanwhile, just north of Molena Point, in San Francisco, the cats' friend Kate, a woman with a troubling secret, is followed by a stranger and robbed. Her apartment is then gutted, with claw marks and black cat hairs leading her to suspect the vicious tomcat Azrael. In the most dramatic investigation of their lives, Joe Grey, Dulcie, and Kit, following diverse leads, scratch out the truth and, with cunning feline skills, restore a distraught village to its usual cozy tranquility.
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
Once again sleek feline sleuth Joe Grey and his tabby partner, Dulcie, prove to be the best snitches the Molena Point, Calif., police ever had in this superior cat cozy, the ninth entry in Murphy's popular series (after 2003's Cat Seeing Double). A sophisticated thief has been targeting the small coastal town, stealing prize jewelry and paintings, despite elaborate security measures. Also missing is a vintage 1927 Packard belonging to Joe's owner, Clyde Damen. The ante is raised when a waiter at an art gallery opening suddenly falls dead and a local realtor gets blown up in a gas explosion. Meanwhile, someone is stalking interior designer Kate Osborne, whose apartment is invaded by ferocious tomcat Azrael, an old adversary of Joe's, and the avaricious Consuela Benton is leading astray troubled teenager Dillon Thurwell, whose mother is having an affair with a suave art collector. As usual, the relationships between the lively human characters and the talking cats in whom they confide their problems provide as much interest as the crime solving. The intricate and absorbing plot keeps the reader in suspense throughout. (Mar. 5) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
With her latestoe Grey mystery, Murphy moves closer to integrating the world she created in her first adult novel, The Catswold Portal (1992), which features shape changers who shift between cat and human forms. Azrael, the sinister black tomcat with burning yellow eyes introduced in Cat in the Dark (1999), has returned to Molena Point, California, to embark on another crime spree with human cohorts while he attempts to find the cat portal to the Netherworld.ate Osborne, who moved to San Francisco three years earlier to search for information about the parents she has never known, also comes back to the village, obviously troubled and arousing great interest on the part of Azrael. The fast-paced story involves sophisticated burglary, murder, and the bizarre secret ofate's own nature. Once again the delightful mix of humans, sentient cats, mystery, and humor remains true to the preceding books in the series, only this time with a larger dollop of fantasy, which should extend the audience beyond the usual cat-mystery buffs. --Sally Estes Copyright 2004 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Several thefts of antiques and jewelry and the murder of a waiter at artist Charlie Harper's opening send cats Joe Grey and Dulcie (Cat Seeing Double) racing for help. Friend Kate is robbed, too, and a strange cat shows up at her house. For all those aficionados of feline mysteries. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Excerpts
Excerpts
Cat Fear No Evil A Joe Grey Mystery Chapter One During first week of October, when an icy wind blew off the Pacific, rattling the windows of Molena Point's shops, and the shops, half buried beneath blowing oaks, were bright with expensive gifts and fall colors, residents were startled by three unusual burglaries. Townsfolk stopping in the bakery, enticed by saffron-scented delicacies, sipped their coffee while talking of the thefts. Wrapped in coats and scarves, striding briskly on their errands, they had left their houses carefully locked behind them. Burglaries are not surprising during the pre-Christmas season when a few no-goods want to shop free of entailing expense. But these crimes did not involve luxury items from local boutiques. No hand-wrought cloisonné chokers or luxurious leather jackets, no sleek silver place settings or designer handbags. The value of the three items stolen was far greater. A five-hundred-thousand-dollar painting by Richard Diebenkorn disappeared from Marlin Dorriss's oceanfront home without a trace of illegal entry. A diamond choker worth over a million vanished from Betty and Kip Slater's small, handsome cottage in the center of the village. And the largest and hardest to conceal, a vintage Packard roadster in prime condition was removed from Clyde Damen's automotive repair shop, again without any sign of forced entry. Police, searching for the 1927 Packard that was valued at some ninety thousand dollars, combed the village garages and storage units, assisted by Damen himself. They found no sign of the vehicle. Police departments across the five western states were alerted to the three burglaries. Now, three weeks after the events, there were still no encouraging reports, and police had found little of substance to give detectives a lead. And Molena Point wasn't the only town hit. Similar thefts had occurred up and down the California coast. With most of Molena Point's tourists gone home for the winter, and local residents settling in beside their hearths in anticipation of festive holidays, the disappearance of the valuables made people nervous -- though certainly the victims themselves were above reproach. All three were law-abiding citizens well known and respected in the community. Clyde Damen ran the upscale automotive repair shop attached to Beckwhite's foreign car dealership. He took care of the all villagers' BMWs and Jaguars and antique cars as if they were his own children. The owner of the Diebenkorn painting, Marlin Dorriss, was an urbane and wealthy semi-retired attorney, active on the boards of several charities and local fund-raisers. Betty Slater and her husband, Kip, who reported the diamond choker missing, ran the local luggage-and-leather shop and were long-time residents who traveled to Europe once a year and gave heavily to local charities. Both residences and the Damen garage had alarm systems. All three systems had been activated at the time of the thefts, but no alarm had been set off. Considering this, the citizens of Molena Point thought to change the locks on their doors and to count the stocks and savings certificates in their safe deposit boxes in the local banks. When there was a lull in the thefts for a few days, people grew more nervous still, waiting for the next one, waiting for the other shoe to drop. But maybe the sophisticated thief had moved on, tending to the similar thefts along the California coast. All California police departments were on the alert. The newspapers had a field day. However, Molena Point police captain Max Harper and chief of detectives Dallas Garza offered little information to the press. They pursued the investigation in silence. The MO of the thief was indeed strange. In each instance, he left all valuables untouched except the single one he selected. In the case of the diamond choker, he had ignored pearl-and-ruby earrings, a sapphire bracelet, and five other pieces of jewelry that together totaled several million dollars. In the theft of the painting, only the Richard Diebenkorn landscape had disappeared -- it was Dorriss's favorite from among the seven Diebenkorns he owned. And Clyde Damen's Packard was only one of twelve antique cars in the locked garage, several of them worth more than the Packard. Clyde had purchased the Packard in rusted and deteriorating condition from a farmer in the hills north of Sacramento, who was later indicted for killing his grandfather. It was now a beautiful car, in finer shape than when it had come from the factory. Just before it disappeared, Clyde had placed several ads in collectors' magazines preparing to sell this particular treasure. At the time of the theft, the gates to his automotive complex had been locked. The lock and hinges did not appear tampered with, nor had the lock on the door that led to the main shop -- Clyde's private shop -- in any way been disturbed. The deep-green Packard with its rosewood dashboard and soft, tan leather upholstery and brass fittings was simply gone. When Clyde opened the shop very early, planning to spend the morning on his own work, the space where the Packard had stood beside a half-finished Bentley was empty. Shockingly and irrefutably empty. A plain, bare patch of concrete. Before calling the cops Clyde did the sensible thing. He locked the shop again and went out into the village to find his housemate, a large gray tomcat. Finding Joe Grey trotting along the street headed in the direction of the local deli, Clyde had swung out of the car and rudely snatched him up. "Come on, I have a job for you!" "What's with you!" Joe hissed. "What the hell!" He had been headed to Jolly's Deli for a little late snack after an all-night mouse hunt. He was full of mice, but a small canapé or two, a bit of Brie, would hit the spot -- then home for a nap in his private, clawed-and-fur-covered-armchair. "I need you bad," Clyde had said. "Need you now." At this amazing announcement, too surprised to argue further ... Cat Fear No Evil A Joe Grey Mystery . Copyright © by Shirley Murphy. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold. Excerpted from Cat Fear No Evil by Shirley Rousseau Murphy All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
