Cat Mystery Thriller

Gabriel Travis – a poet and book binder – has lived and worked above the popular bookshop in Chipping Common for many years. His story is tragic, his murder even more so. The police are convinced the bookshop owner is the culprit; the elderly and erudite, Ezekiel Melnyk.

Normally the arrival of an art exhibition at the Mayville Heights library would be cause for celebration. But thanks to the overbearing curator and high-tech security system that comes with it, Kathleen's life has been completely disrupted. Even Owen and Hercules have been affected, since their favorite human doesn't seem to have a spare moment to make their favorite fish crackers or listen to Barry Manilow.

Cat Latimer and her neighbor, Dante, are throwing a party the weekend before her monthly writers' retreat starts. Dante had asked her to help find out who stole money from the Covington College endowment fund. The party's going strong until a dead body is found in Dante's conservatory after the desserts are served. With a retreat to run, Cat doesn't have time to find a killer, but when it looks like the dead guy was setting Dante up for the fall, the list of suspects explodes and includes Dante, who's now the primary suspect on Uncle Pete's list.

Never have two species co-created a work of such suspense and humorous catitude as the wildly popular mystery series by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown. This time out, that agile-witted tiger puss Mrs. Murphy makes the round of parties where Virginia's Very Best People mingle with some of the worst. Together, she and her human must unravel a veritable cat's cradle of ambition, greed, and murder at the center of which waits a killer with the most tangled of motives.

Mr. Giles never needs convincing to hunt down a criminal who piques his feline curiosity and threatens the peace of their sleepy town. But if he is on the right track, will the humans in his life be able to follow the trail he leaves for them?

Animal photographer Janet MacPhail is training for her cat Leo's first feline agility trial when she gets a frantic call about a "kidnapping". When Janet and her Australian Shepherd Jay set out to track down the missing party, they quickly find themselves drawn into the volatile politics of feral cat colonies and endangered wetlands.

Two young girls plot a murder by witchcraft. Soon afterwards, a government clerk dies painfully in mysterious circumstances. His colleague James Marwood is asked to investigate—but the task brings unexpected dangers. Meanwhile, architect Cat Hakesby is working for a merchant who lives on Slaughter Street, where the air smells of blood and a captive Barbary lion prowls the stables. Then a prestigious new commission arrives. Cat must design a Poultry House for the woman that the king loves most in all the world.

Without Zilla, there'd be no witches zooming around on their broomsticks and nobody would be allowed an exotic animal as a familiar. She grants permits for a living. Okay, it's not riveting stuff but it's important. The day a cute but pushy pussycat arrives at her apartment complex, so does a grotty old journal full of blank pages. Until now Zilla has enjoyed a simple life: her clean, quiet apartment; a couple of potted plants that she struggles to keep alive. She's not an exceptional woman. She doesn't have many friends. She's never owned a pet … and she most certainly does not want a cat.

For the first time in sixteen years, Lara Caphart has returned to her hometown of Whisker Jog, New Hampshire. She wants to reconnect with her estranged Aunt Fran, who's having some difficulty looking after herself - and her eleven cats. Taking care of a clowder of kitties is easy, but keeping Fran from being harassed by local bully Theo Barnes is hard. The wealthy builder has his sights set on Fran's property and is determined to make her an offer she doesn't dare refuse.

Ever since her business partner, Shauna, fell for a wealthy landowner in town, Cat has been working double time to keep her writers' retreat running. And with the January session almost underway, that spells trouble. But best-laid plans really go awry when Shauna discovers her beau missing from their bed. When his body later turns up in the horse barn, they quickly find out the victim's scandalous lifestyle left many dying for revenge.

Things have been quiet in the coastal town of North Harbor, Maine, since Sarah Grayson and her rescue cat, Elvis, solved their first murder. Sarah is happy running Second Chance, the shop where she sells lovingly refurbished and repurposed items. But then she gets dragged into a controversy over developing the waterfront. Most of the residents - including Sarah - are for it, but there is one holdout: baker Lily Carter.

Kathleen is busy running the library and planning her upcoming wedding to detective Marcus Gordon when she suddenly stumbles across a body in the library. She is surprised to learn that the deceased was in the middle of an unlikely heist—it seems he was trying to steal one of the paintings that had been in a box in the library's workroom. Kathleen never knew any of the library's rotating artwork was valuable and can't imagine what the dead man wanted with it.

Brother against brother. Father against son. Friends turned into enemies. No one in England wants a return to the bloody days of the Civil War. But Oliver Cromwell’s son, Richard, has abandoned his exile and slipped back into England. The consequences could be catastrophic. James Marwood, a traitor’s son turned government agent, is tasked with uncovering Cromwell’s motives. But his assignment is complicated by his friend - the regicide’s daughter, Cat Lovett - who knew the Cromwells as a child and who now seems to be hiding a secret of her own about the family.

Baker Georgia Tepper has been hired to provide delicious and spooky cupcakes for the Reading Buddies Halloween Party at the library, and she and Kathleen are meeting to finalize the menu of festive confections. Unfortunately, once Georgia's former mother-in-law ambushes her at the library and threatens Georgia with legal action, the afternoon of fun is soured. When Georgia's litigious in-law is later found dead and the friendly baker is implicated, Kathleen is eager to help prove her innocence.

Piper's always been aware of Levi. He's the kind of man who it's impossible to ignore. With his broad, muscular frame and gunmetal grey gaze he makes a statement without saying a word. But it's not until her psyche brushes his in an unguarded moment that they both realise: they are anchors.

Charlie Harris is stressed out. The Southern Academic Libraries Association is holding this year's annual meeting at Athena College. Since Charlie is the interim library director, he must deliver the welcome speech to all the visiting librarians. And as if that weren't bad enough, the keynote address will be delivered by Charlie's old nemesis from library school. It's been 30 years since Charlie has seen Gavin Fong, and he's still an insufferable know-it-all capable of getting under everyone's skin.

The holiday season on Daybreak Island is a mixed bag for Maddie James. On the one hand, her Christmas spirit is in the doghouse after a break-up. On the other, she's busy enough that she doesn't have to pretend to be merry. Business at her cat café is booming, and Maddie's care-taking of a feral cat colony in one of the area's wealthiest communities only helps her bottom line. But tensions between the homeowners and animal activists are escalating to catastrophic levels...and before long a body is found dead in a snowbank.

In addition to his library duties and his role as doting grandad, Charlie has enrolled in an early medieval history course offered by young, charismatic professor Carey Warriner. Charlie feels a bit out of place - his fellow classmates are half his age - except for Dixie Bell Compton, another "mature" student. When Charlie hears an angry exchange between her and their professor, his interest in piqued. He's even more intrigued when she shows up at his office asking for a study partner.

It is 1968, one of the most tumultuous years of the 20th century. Frank Cooper, a former star investigative reporter now writes obituaries for a popular New York City tabloid. He hears the confession of a dying man named Leonard Rudawski, a former American diplomat, who bitterly questions the fate of Pavel Lukashenko, a would-be Soviet defector in Paris in 1965. Lukashenko promised to expose the espionage secret of a generation if he could get to the West. But the defector, code named “Firebird,” vanished.

Spring has come to charming Mayville Heights, and with it, some Hollywood glamour. The little town is abuzz because the reboot of a popular baking TV show is filming there. Librarian Kathleen Paulson is working as an advisor on historical facts for the show, local restaurants are providing catering for the camera crews, and Kathleen's faithful felines, Hercules and Owen, are hoping there is a cat treat challenge. But then Kathleen finds one of the judges dead.