Product Description

"Wilma's in danger!

You think I'm going to sit here polishing my claws?"

When she first hears the news that convict Cage Jones has escaped from prison, Dulcie's fur stands on end. She knows he's after her human companion, Wilma, whom he blames for his stint in jail. She tries to enlist the help of her friend Joe Grey, but the tomcat's got his paws full investigating two local murders. It's only when Wilma disappears after an afternoon shopping trip—and Cage is found lurking at her house—that Joe realizes the two crimes might be more connected than he thought. Paw in hand with the unsuspecting cops, the fantastic felines must untangle Cage's devilish agenda and snare a killer if they ever want to curl up with their friend again and bring peace to their seaside village.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #204672 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-01
• Released on: 2007-12-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 336 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780060578138
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Talking tomcat Joe Grey and his fellow feline sleuths, Dulcie and Kit, track an escaped convict in their engaging 12th adventure (after 2005's Cat Breaking Free). Just as the cats fear, Cage Jones kidnaps Dulcie's human housemate, a retired U.S. probation officer, Wilma Gertz, who testified in Cage's probation hearing to prevent his release. The crime rate rises in Molena Point, Calif., with the murder of several area women and the return of Cage's former partner-in-crime, Greeley Urzey—back to reclaim stolen ancient artifacts he and Cage believe Wilma took. As the cats go wild trying to save Wilma, their chatty, anthropomorphic shenanigans might raise eyebrows, but Murphy's surefire plotting makes this more than just another cute cat cozy. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
In Murphy's latest Joe Grey cat mystery, there is plenty to keep the three sentient feline sleuths--Joe, Dulcie, and the Kit--busy: three women in the small California town of Molena Point are murdered; Wilma and her niece, Charlie, have been kidnapped by an escaped con bearing a grudge; and that old scoundrel Greeley Urzey is back in town and up to no good. As usual, the felines and their human coterie are appealing (at least to cat fanciers), and the virtually nonstop action will keep the series' fans whipping through the pages. Sally Estes
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"A complex, well-crafted plot and lively, credible characters will leave fans purring with pleasure." -- Publishers Weekly

"[A] series of supense yarns that not only capture the feline "attitude" but offer a satisfying read." -- Salinas Californian, praise for CAT BREAKING FREE

"[A]delightful mix of humans, sentient cats, mystery, and humor." -- Booklist, praise for CAT FEAR NO EVIL

Customer Reviews

fine feline amateur sleuthing
In Molena Point, California, Dulcie tells her two feline pals Joe Grey and Kit that she is worried about her housemate retired federal officer Wilma Getz, who just vanished without a word from a shopping mall. Joe Grey thinks his friend is being an inane female as her human companion has left home before, but three days have passed and Dulcie is panicking that something bad happened to Wilma especially since Cage Jones escaped from prison, a place he went to because of Wilma's testimony in court.

When someone shoots Wilma's former partner Mandell Bennnett and local resident Linda Tucker is killed, though he cannot see a link, Joe Grey believes that Dulcie is right and Wilma is in trouble. The cat trio follows Wilma's trail to the nearby hills where undomesticated cats reside and learn that someone abducted her and her niece Charlie, the wife of police Captain Max Harper. Assuming Cage and an associate have more than revenge in mind, the cats begin a rescue attempt before Dulcie's housemate and her relative are killed.

Fans of the series will take great delight as the fearsome felines search for and try to rescue one of their human housemates from an avenging killer with an extra unknown (to the cats) agenda. The story line is action-packed as the personified cats discuss the case in English amidst themselves, some wild felines, and a few humans. Though newcomers may have difficulty listening to the animals chatter in human tongue as that is a key premise from the start, long time fans will welcome the latest feline amateur sleuthing.

Harriet Klausner

These cats are awesome...
Think you would not enjoy a mystery with talking cats--cats that not only talk to each other, but also to humans? Well this one is a really good read, and not at all frivolous or cozy. This is Murphy's 13th book, and as good as the previous ones.

Joe Grey, Dulcie and Kit (all cats) do their best to solve kidnappings, murders, and help their human roommates the best they can, using all their feline skills: their sense of smell, sight, and their ability to get into crime scenes unnoticed. Joe hangs out at the local police department in Molena Point, California, and picks up information that he relays to his fellow sleuths.

In this harrowing tale, Dulcie's beloved human, Wilma, is kidnapped, and then her niece Charlie is taken. The cats are hard put to rescue them. They are up against several very malicious criminals, one an escaped convict with a grudge. Eventually, with the help of the police and a few feral cats, everyone is saved.

The cats are believable, and the clever ways they manage to communicate with those humans who do not know they can talk make this story even more enjoyable.

Armchair Interviews says: If you have not read these books before, you have to try them.

Cats and kidnapping
Joe Grey, the talking feline detective, is so focused on the recent murders of two Molena Point women that at first he thinks his calico lady Dulcie is borrowing trouble when she worries that her human housemate, retired parole officer Wilma Getz, is in danger. It seems that Cage Jones, to whose release she testified in opposition, has escaped from jail and is on the loose--and Dulcie is sure he'll seek revenge. What even Dulcie doesn't suspect is that Jones is missing something valuable--something he thinks Wilma may have taken from his family's home when it was last searched. And so when Wilma, on her way home from San Francisco, disappears out of a mall parking lot, Joe and Dulcie and their young partner Kit have their paws full.

Though we never do find out what Jones is missing or what became of it, Murphy provides hints enough to give us firm grounds for guessing. And while the kidnap itself is resolved in the first three-quarters of the book, there's still the question of the murders (now totalling three) and the sinister presence of Greeley Urzey, former partner of the devilish Azreal (see Cat Fear No Evil (Joe Grey Mysteries)). Back for a return engagement are Willow, Cotton, and Coyote, the feral sentients rescued in the previous volume (Cat Breaking Free: A Joe Grey Mystery (Joe Grey Mysteries)), who have settled in a ruin up in the residential hills behind the village with a small clowder of gentler talking cats, and whose presence proves critical to the satisfactory resolution of the situation. With all the familiar human characters--Clyde Damen, Wilma, Max and Charlie Harper, Ryan Flannery, Kit's octogenarian housemates Lucinda and Pedric, Detective Dallas Garza--and some new faces, it's a good sound entry into a popular series.