Cat Mystery Thriller

Spring has come to charming Mayville Heights, and with it, some Hollywood glamour. The little town is abuzz because the reboot of a popular baking TV show is filming there. Librarian Kathleen Paulson is working as an advisor on historical facts for the show, local restaurants are providing catering for the camera crews, and Kathleen's faithful felines, Hercules and Owen, are hoping there is a cat treat challenge. But then Kathleen finds one of the judges dead.

Midnight Louie, the hugely popular jet-black feline sleuth who thinks he’s Sam Spade with hairballs, returns for an eleventh outing in this cozy-noir series. This time his human partner, Temple Barr, learn that the remodeling of the Crystal Phoenix Hotel is being held up by a ghost: the workmen swear its Elvis.

If you believe in the feline mystique, this anthology will have you purring. Intrigue, murder, and a not-so-cuddly kitty are at the center of these 9 stories by some of the finest, best selling mystery writers of all time. Curl up with Larry Segriff's No Hard Feelings read by Jamie Farr, Sharyn McCrumb's Nine Lives to Live read by Mary Jo Catlett, Joan Hess's The Maggody Files: Hillbilly Cat read by Jean Smart, Clark Howard's Animals read by David Birney, Edward D. Hoch's The Theft of the Mafia Cat read by Richard Gilliland, J.A. Jance's The Duel read by Eleanor Mondale, Ellery Queen's The Adventures of the Seven Black Cats read by Mike Walker, Janwillem van de Wetering's A Great Sight read by Mason Adams, and Carole Nelson Douglas's Coyote Peyote read by David Ackroyd.

When Utah Sheriff Bud Shumway and his friend Mayor Howie decide to get out of town and go camping, they have no idea what kind of mayhem and intrigue they’re getting themselves into, from the death of the camp-host’s wife to finding rare jewels in the desert. Having their friends Shorty and Doc along just adds to the chaos, especially since they have a strange prescience that Doc is about to die.

The beautiful, serene village of Molena Point, California is the type of place where people go to get away from the harsher realities of life - which is what attracted classic film star Patty Rose to buy the village inn and settle down to enjoy her golden years. But as the town gathers to celebrate and honor the beautiful, aging actress with a festival of her old films, Patty is brutally murdered - to the horror and shock of this peaceful burg.

Romance is in the air in the charming seaside village of Molena Point, California. Everyone is excited about the upcoming wedding of its chief of police to the lovely Charlie Getz, even cool feline detective Joe Grey. But the festivities are interrupted when two uninvited guests try to blow up the church. Then one of the bride’s good friends, building contractor Ryan Flannery, lands in a heap of trouble when her philandering husband is found dead.

Love - and murder - are in the air.

It took Joe Grey’s human, Clyde Damen, nearly forever to pop the question to his girlfriend, Ryan Flannery, and what more romantic time to tie the knot than on Valentine’s Day? But dark secrets from the past soon threaten to destroy everyone’s happiness. First, a body discovered many miles away reopens a 10-year-old cold case involving a man who disappeared days before his own wedding. Then another body is found closer to home, on the grounds of a ruined estate, deserted save for a band of unusual feral cats.

Christmas in the charming seaside village of Molena Point, California, has always been a traditional affair - but not this holiday season. Instead of singing carols and climbing into Christmas trees, Joe Grey, feline P.I., is faced with his most difficult case yet - and that's saying a lot for a wily tomcat who for years has been solving crimes the police can't even crack. A stranger lies dead beneath the village Christmas tree, with a little child the only witness to the shooting.

Even the bright seaside village of Molena Point has been hit hard by the economic downturn. Sadly, former residents haven’t just left their homes; they’ve abandoned their pets, too. Luckily, Joe Grey’s human friends have joined together to care for the animals. But just as one problem is solved more arise. A suspicious fire leaves a twelve-year-old boy homeless when the body of his alcoholic elderly guardian is discovered in the smoldering ruins.

In Cat in a Zebra Zoot Suit, feline PI Midnight Louie's roommate, powerhouse PR freelancer Temple Barr, discovers a strip club opening in a nearby empty building threatens her elderly landlady's wedding chapel business. Electra Lark's troubles go supernova with a murder charge for a death that echoes a bizarre slaying decades earlier.

Cats are disappearing and Sammy is finding some of them in neighborhood garbage cans - dead! Miss Kitty, a local psycho cat lady, blames Sammy. Meanwhile, there's something fishy going on with one of the students from Slammin' Dave's Pro Wrestling School that just opened up next door to Sammy's friend Holly.

After a holiday trip to the Big Apple, Midnight Louie returns home to death on the Nile when battling Egyptian barges outside the Oasis hotel cause a dead body to rise to the surface. The soggy victim is well known to Temple Barr, Louie's redheaded, high-heeled human companion. Her two best beaux have been closely involved with the dead man, and both have reasons to want him dead.

When bodies are discovered in the open, the killings seeking to reenact Jamie's previous investigations, the team picks up the trail. A single killer is working from the shadows with ruthless efficiency, claiming victims before Jamie can even take a breath. But what's his endgame and what message is he trying to send? As Jamie starts to close in on the culprit, she begins to buckle under the weight of her own career. The monsters she's worked so hard to lock away are clawing their way out, and as the bodies start piling up, the team is pushed to their breaking point.

A caravan of trucks hauling building materials up a mountain road is nothing out of the ordinary, but in the Town of Green, it’s news. Gwen Paris has that feeling again that something is up...but what? Gwen Paris is hanging out at Gunderson’s vintage coffee shop, more to see the fetching owner Kevin Pearson than for the caffeine, when all conversation turns to trucks climbing Perryville Foothills to the only address worth noting there: Brightston Mansion. Just as Gwen is about to ask who? what? A name is uttered: Derek Payne.

Unable to stop herself from investigating another murder, Rachel Murdock gets plenty of help from Samantha, the cat who follows her wherever she goes; her much less adventurous sister Jennifer; and Lieutenant Mayhew, who is grateful to have another sharp mind on the case. Miss Rachel, her sister, and her cat are watching with undisguised interest a bandy-legged man who is spying on a house across the street until a speeding black sedan runs him down. The sisters are curious to know why the man was murdered.

Ashley Branson is sure of one thing after experiencing a disastrous blind date—she would much rather enjoy the single life and hang out with playful felines at her studio, A Purrfect Pose, than ever compromise her inner peace like that again. When the mysterious guy makes a late arrival then has the nerve to dine and dash, it's embarrassing. But when he winds up dead in his apartment that same night? Ash suddenly finds herself thrust into a twisted murder investigation and questioning if she might be shaping up to be the suspect . . . or the next victim.

Normally the arrival of an art exhibition at the Mayville Heights library would be cause for celebration. But thanks to the overbearing curator and high-tech security system that comes with it, Kathleen's life has been completely disrupted. Even Owen and Hercules have been affected, since their favorite human doesn't seem to have a spare moment to make their favorite fish crackers or listen to Barry Manilow.

The life of Lulu Lewis, a retired police detective, took an unforgettable turn when Conrad first introduced himself to her. Visiting an old friend in Manchester, the pair stumble across a chilling news report about a trail of bodies found across the city that echo a string of cold case murders from Lulu’s past in London.

When Rachel Murdock and her sister Jennifer receive a call for help from their favorite niece, Lilly, in Breakers Beach, California, they quickly hop a train from Los Angeles to see her-but not before collecting their prized cat Samantha in a picnic basket and bringing her along for the ride.

The long-promised Jamieson-Armstrong family camping trip takes a pause with news of murder at the local fish farm, where the vacationing families recently visited. Even worse, it looks like their campsite neighbor's brother-in-law, Adam, is the prime suspect in the fish farm Manager's murder.