Pru Marlowe, Pet Noir

Pru Marlowe isn't your ordinary animal psychic. A tough girl on the run from her own gift, Pru left the big city to return to her picturesque Berkshires hometown looking for a little peace. Too bad that her training as an animal behaviorist got her mixed up with Lily, a rescue dog, and Charles, the dog’s guardian. Now Charles is dead, and Lily appears to be headed for the same end, for after all, Lily is a pit bull, a fighting-ring dropout.

When Pru Marlowe gets the call that there’s been a cat shooting, she’s furious. Animal brutality is one thing that this tough animal psychic won’t stand for, and in her role as a behaviorist, she’s determined to care for the traumatized pet. But when Pru finds out that it was the cat who did the shooting—accidentally setting off a rare dueling pistol—she realizes something else is going on....

Parrots will repeat anything. They don’t talk sense—or do they? When Pru Marlowe is called in to retrain a foulmouthed African gray after its owner’s death, she can’t help hearing the parrot’s words as a replay of a murder scene. But the doctor on call scoffs at the idea, and the heirs just want their late mother’s pet to stop cursing.

When Pru Marlowe takes a dog for a walk, she doesn't expect to find a body. But Spot, a service dog in training, has a good nose that leads her right to the remains of a beautiful young woman. Despite her best instincts, Pru can't avoid getting involved. The young woman seems to have been mauled by a wild cat, but Pru knows there have been no pumas in the Berkshire woods for years. With panther panic growing, Pru may have to put aside her own issues - and her own ideas of domesticity - to solve a savage mystery.

The dead don't keep pets. So when animal behavior expert Pru Marlowe gets a call about a kitten, she doesn't expect to find the cuddly creature playing beside the cooling body of prominent local lawyer David Canaday. Heart attack? His three adult daughters angrily blame drug interactions, feline allergies - and each other. And they begin to feud over their father, his considerable estate, and that cute ball of fluff.

Winter is hard in Beauville, where the melting snow can reveal much more than last season's dead leaves. So when a wealthy, obnoxious tourist and his ski-bunny girlfriend surface in Pru Marlowe's little Berkshire town, she knows she should stay out of their way. The bad-girl animal psychic has to focus on more immediate concerns, including Henry, a supposedly tamed wild rabbit illegally living with an 84-year-old lady. Henry, who seems to be acting out and hiding, avoids responding to Pru.