Cat playing cupid: a Joe Grey mystery

I'm a cop in cat skin, working undercover. So says dedicated feline detective Joe Grey just before setting off to search a suspect's condo, in this solid fourteenth entry in Murphy's popular mystery series. This time Joe's gruff but lovable housemate, Clyde, is on his honeymoon and thus not around to scold Joe for poking his paws into police business, leaving Joe free to investigate a skeleton found in some local ruins and a missing-persons case. The murders are even less of a focus than usual in this long-running cozy series; instead, the mystery of the wild talking cats and their connection with the ruins take up much of the storyline. Even so, this is still a quality mystery, with excellent pacing, ratcheting tension, consistent characters, and suitably nasty villians. The new developments in the story of the talking cats will please many series fans but may not make much sense to new readers. A must wherever the series has fans.--Moyer, Jessica Copyright 2009 Booklist

Murphy's diverting 14th mystery to feature talking feline gumshoe Joe Grey (after 2008's Cat Deck the Halls) finds Joe a little annoyed by all the lovey-dovey stuff run rampant in Molena Point, Calif. A year earlier, Joe endured the explosive wedding of Max Harper, the town's chief of police. Then came the Valentine's Day nuptials of his human housemate, Clyde Damen. Joe welcomes the opportunity to swing into sleuth mode after a female skeleton wearing a bracelet engraved with a cat is uncovered at the ruins of an old estate by Joe's feral feline associates. When another skeleton is identified as that of Molena Point accountant Carson Chappell, who went missing in Oregon before his wedding almost 10 years earlier, Joe really has his work cut out for him. Murphy's gentle blend of fantasy and mystery includes revelations about her unusually verbal cat detectives sure to please series fans. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

The talking feline detectives of Molena Point catch a cold case. Feline shamus Joe Grey's housemate Clyde is wedding longtime love Ryan Flannery. The nuptials proceed on schedule, but the discovery of two skeletons in two states leads back to an unsolved case involving Ryan's father Mike and his sweetie Lindsey Wolf, who suspects the body found in Oregon is that of her fianc, vanished from a hiking trip just before they were to wed years ago. Meantime, Charlie Harper labors to interest her police chief husband Max in another body that the talking cats have discovered on the deserted Pamillon estate. The clowder of cats who live in the area have already gone through an upheaval when their fearsome leader is killed in an uprising after severely injuring Sage, the childhood friend of town-dwelling cat Kit. When Charlie takes Sage to the local vet, she discovers that the vet knows about the talking cats but has been keeping their secret. As the police try to identify the bodies, Joe and his friends search for clues that will prove Lindsey innocent of the death of her fianc and the wife of his partner, who disappeared at the same time. Murphy's feline-loving fans will enjoy the latest in her long-running series (Cat Deck the Halls, 2007, etc.). Newcomers and ailurophobes may find the story confusing, with too much sentiment and too little suspense. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

"I m a cop in cat skin, working undercover." So says dedicated feline detective Joe Grey just before setting off to search a suspect s condo, in this solid fourteenth entry in Murphy s popular mystery series. This time Joe s gruff but lovable housemate, Clyde, is on his honeymoon and thus not around to scold Joe for poking his paws into police business, leaving Joe free to investigate a skeleton found in some local ruins and a missing-persons case. The murders are even less of a focus than usual in this long-running cozy series; instead, the mystery of the wild talking cats and their connection with the ruins take up much of the storyline. Even so, this is still a quality mystery, with excellent pacing, ratcheting tension, consistent characters, and suitably nasty villians. The new developments in the story of the talking cats will please many series fans but may not make much sense to new readers. A must wherever the series has fans.

Murphy's diverting 14th mystery to feature talking feline gumshoe Joe Grey (after 2008's Cat Deck the Halls) finds Joe a little annoyed by all the lovey-dovey stuff run rampant in Molena Point, Calif. A year earlier, Joe endured the explosive wedding of Max Harper, the town's chief of police. Then came the Valentine's Day nuptials of his human housemate, Clyde Damen. Joe welcomes the opportunity to swing into sleuth mode after a female skeleton wearing a bracelet engraved with a cat is uncovered at the ruins of an old estate by Joe's feral feline associates. When another skeleton is identified as that of Molena Point accountant Carson Chappell, who went missing in Oregon before his wedding almost 10 years earlier, Joe really has his work cut out for him. Murphy's gentle blend of fantasy and mystery includes revelations about her unusually verbal cat detectives sure to please series fans. (Feb.)