Book Review: "Cat Coming Home", A Joe Grey Mystery By Shirley Rousseau Murphy

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Since I started doing book reviews on Cat Chat I have been receiving some unexpected books in the mail that have been sent to me by various publishers.

"Cat Coming Home" was the first of a few of these books that will be periodically featured on Cat Chat.

I saved this one to read for the main reason that the cover had a black cat with various Santas around it, and I thought this would be a good book to feature during the holidays.

What I thought the book would be and what it actually IS are worlds apart! I was mistaken that because there were Santas on the cover that this was a light-weight, fluffy (pun intended) cat book with a  warm and cozy story tucked between it's pages. I couldn't have been more wrong.

"Cat Coming Home" is a mystery. I know a number of you will think I am insane but mysteries are not on the list of my favorite genre of books to read, as a result I kept pushing this one to my "one of my books I will get to later" piles. I am rather an impatient sort (surprise, surprise) who prefers to ponder and get lost in thought when I read, I am not one who cares about "who done it" and frankly most mysteries lose me due to my lack of curiosity. (I would make a lousy cat).

Shirley Rousseau Murphy

Once again my feeling that I would not enjoy this book or have it capture my attention couldn't have been more wrong. It is a generous 354 pages (and as we used to say in school, it wouldn't be a "quick read" because it isn't printed in large type!). I started reading it Friday night and much to my surprise I found myself so engrossed in this mystery that I had nearly finished the entire book by the time I went to bed.

"Cat Coming Home" is one of a series of books featuring an amazing cat (Joe Grey) who has the ability to talk, use the telephone, write (even without opposable thumbs) and a number of his cat friends can do the same. Joe Grey is a detective cat (not many humans know this), and his friends,  Kit, Misto (the Senior kitty of the bunch, a former prison cat) and Dulcie are important links to the solving of this most intriguing mystery.

One of the main characters is Maudie Toola who has left Los Angeles following the horrific murder of her son and his wife (newlyweds). She is returning to her childhood home of Molena Point along with her orphaned grandson (Benny). She is faced with having to raise Benny. It is Christmas time and Maudie is not looking forward to the holidays but knows she must make them the best she can for poor Benny.

What Maudie doesn't know is that the killer has followed her. She also doesn't know that she is under the watchful eye of four cats who aren't your classic "cute" kitties but are brave, intelligent, super sleuths with a gift for sarcasm and the ability to be "at the right place at the right time".

"Cat Coming Home" is riveting, peppered with danger, humor, excitement, strong friendships and new beginnings.

If you like cats (or not) or mysteries (or both),  or if you are like me and normally DON'T like mysteries, give this one a try. It will pull you into the depths of it's pages as it did me.

CAT COMING HOME by Shirley Rousseau Murphy. (William Morrow) ISBN: 9780061806933 is the 16th installment in the award-winning Joe Grey mystery series.

The reading order of the Joe Grey novels is as follows:

Cat on the Edge
Cat Under Fire
Cat Raise the Dead
Cat in the Dark
Cat to the Dogs
Cat Spitting Mad
**Cat on the Money
Cat Laughing Last
Cat Seeing Double
Cat Fear No Evil
Cat Cross Their Graves
Cat Breaking Free
Cat Pay the Devil
Cat Deck the Halls
Cat Playing Cupid
Cat Striking BackCat Coming Home
(from www.joegrey.com)

ABOUT SHIRLEY ROUSSEAU MURPHY: she "has received eight national Cat Writers' Association Awards for best novel of the year, two Cat Writers' President's Awards, the "World's Best Cat Litter-ary Award" in 2006 for the Joe Grey books, and five Council of Authors and Journalists Awards for previous books. She and her husband live in Carmel, California, where they serve as full-time household help for two demanding feline ladies." She may be contacted at 

murphy@joegrey.com

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Visit www.joegrey.com