CAT BEARING GIFTS

Molena Point’s ever-growing cadre of talking cats is on the job when vagabonds threaten the felines’ human companions.

Joe Grey (Cat Coming Home, 2010, etc.), the original speaking cat, now has lots of company. Old yellow tom Misto survived his long journey from the north. Misto’s son Pan soon joined his father, keeping watch over forlorn Tessa Kraft, whose mother leaves her alone in the house to go shoplifting. Dulcie, obsessed with computers, writes poems while her human housemates sleep. That leaves the work of detecting to Kit, who’s with Pedric and Lucinda Greenlaw when their Lincoln Town Car is stolen by homeless Vic Amson and Birely Miller, who’d been holed up on the property Birely’s sister Sammie left to Emmylou Warren. Birely insisted that Sammie had hidden lots of loot on the property, all given to her by their bank-bandit grandpa. What Vic and Birely don’t know is that the Lincoln, which they grab from the Greenlaws after a landslide pushes the elderly couple off the road, is also chock-full of treasure. Not only do the trunk and back seat hold priceless antiques the couple bought in San Francisco, but inside the door panels are caches of jewels their friend Kate Osborne brought back from the Netherworld. With the help of Clyde and Ryan Damen, Kit sneaks into the hospital to visit the injured Pedric and Lucinda. But it’s her ability to creep across Molena Point’s rooftops that gives Kit the advantage she needs to crack the case.

Despite their gift of gab, Murphy’s sleuths continue to be decidedly feline in her 18th saga of Molena Point.