William Morrow
November 2012
On Sale: November 20, 2012
352 pages ISBN: 0061806943 EAN: 9780061806940 Kindle: B007HBGMJI Hardcover / e-Book Add to Wish List
In this poignant new entry in Shirley Rousseau Murphy's
beloved, award-winning series, feline P.I. Joe Grey and his
four-legged cohorts are plunged into a nightmarish mystery
involving a series of strange events that endangers them and
the humans they love
The confusing events that early fall in Molena Point began
perhaps with the return of Kate Osborne, the beguiling blond
divorcée arriving in California richer than sin and with a
story as strange as the melodies spun by a modern Pied Piper
to mesmerize the unwary. Or maybe the strangeness started
with the old faded photograph of a child from a half-century
past, and the memories she awakened in the old yellow
tomcat. Perhaps that was the beginning of the odd
occurrences that stirred through the coastal village,
setting the five cats off on new paths. . . .
On the way home from visiting their friend Kate Osborne in
San Francisco, tortoiseshell Kit and her elderly housemates,
Lucinda and Pedric Greenlaw, are hurt in a terrible car
crash on a winding coastal road. The accident is terrifying
enough, but then two dangerous men steal the Greenlaws' town
car, making off with a secret hoard of jewels and gold—a
gift bestowed from Kate's newfound treasure—carefully hidden
inside its doors. As paramedics rush the Greenlaws to the
emergency room, a badly shaken Kit hides from hungry coyotes
in the forested hills above the highway, waiting for Joe,
Pan, and their human companions, Ryan and Clyde Damen, to
rescue her.
Back home in Molena Point, yellow tomcat Misto, discovering
a faded photograph of a child living fifty years ago,
becomes lost in his memories of that past century—while Joe
Grey and his tabby lady prowl an abandoned stone cottage
where they've discovered two rough-looking men hiding. The
cats smell mildewed money, and soon smell human blood, too,
and they wonder: Could these unsettling incidents be tied to
the injury of the Greenlaws and to the theft of their car
and treasure? Could they be, as well, part of the larger
mystery involving the very source of the cats' magical powers?
Misto and his unfailing memory might provide some answers,
but his feline detective efforts are nearly derailed when
Misto's son, Pan, the bold red tomcat, led on by the
Greenlaws' exotic treasure and by his taste for adventure,
drives a painful wedge between himself and Kit, just when
their romance feels so filled with joy.
But Kit is busy with other matters, too, as she follows the
two housebreakers, one badly injured and the other eager to
end his partner's misery, as they make off with more wealth
than even they realize. Though the cats know more than the
thieves about the unique items stolen, their investigation
is still in trouble. Only slowly, and after two sudden
murders, do they at last claw their way to the truth,
examining more intently the source of the gold and jewels,
understanding more clearly, as well, the secrets of the
moldering treasury bills—the mystery of their source,
generations past, when Misto lived another life.
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