PURRANORMAL ACTIVITY

A cat lover lands her 10th feline-related mystery.

In the years since Maddie James moved to Daybreak Island, Massachusetts, she’s started several businesses and made many friends. Among the most popular features of her mobile cat cafe are the parties featuring adorable and adoptable kitties. Then a call from a new customer booking a birthday party plunges Maddie into a mass of murder and deceit. Olivia McAllister was Maddie’s mother’s best friend in high school, but she left the island without a word after her aunt Delia vanished from the family estate. Maddie’s mother is astonished to hear that she’s back, and she and Maddie, along with Maddie’s cat, JJ, head over to Olivia’s home to see her. When they arrive, they find the door ajar and the house empty except for a gorgeous long-haired white-and-gray cat that leads Maddie to a secret room behind a bookcase, where she finds Olivia dead in a pool of blood. After calling 911, Maddie calls her grandfather, a former police chief who sometimes helps the local department and has assisted her in solving many cat-related murders. The wealthy McAllister family has deep roots on Daybreak, and although they have not lived in the house since Delia vanished, they still have enough political clout to make the police step carefully when they arrive. Anxious to make sure the cat is all right, Maddie follows it to the beach, where she finds Olivia’s 4-year-old granddaughter, Piper, playing in the sand. As her own mother becomes a suspect along with several McAllisters, Maddie tracks down clues from the past and present, but it’s the famous island ghost cat, which few people can see, who helps her discover the truth.

Feline fanatics will love this cat-centric mystery packed with delightful human characters.