THE CAT SAW MURDER

A California spinster can’t save her niece from murder but can leave the police detective assigned to the case in the dust when it comes to solving it in this reprint, originally published under the byline D.B. Olsen.

Summoned to Surf House, a moldering Breakers Beach rooming house, by the pressing invitation of Lily Sticklemann, the adopted daughter of her late brother, Philip, Miss Rachel Murdock finds that her unattractive niece is deeply in debt over a bridge scam that backfired; that Charles Malloy, the former actor who’s won Lily’s heart, has been missing for three weeks; and that Samantha, the black cat Miss Rachel has brought with her, has been targeted for death. That’s hardly surprising since Samantha, who inherited the estate of Miss Rachel’s late sister, Agatha, is worth more than Lily. But why would someone beat Lily to death as Miss Rachel slumbers next to her in a drugged stupor? What is Detective Lt. Stephen Mayhew to make of a drunk’s report of a pair of detached human hands on the adjacent beach? And why has Charles’ estranged wife suddenly turned up at Surf House with their daughter? Joyce Carol Oates’ introduction pronounces this 1939 series kickoff the first cat mystery. Whether or not that’s strictly true, Samantha certainly plays many roles—not as a detective but as a companion, a bearer of clues, the possible victim of an impersonation, and the victim of yet another murder attempt.

The residents of Surf House are forgettable, but the mystery is clever, the tone appealing, and Miss Rachel a treasure.