Cat Mystery Thriller

Soon after banker Willard Carmichael and his young bride arrive in Pickax, a string of petty burglaries follow. Then Willard meets his demise—an apparent victim of a mugging—and the banker's home restoration project goes to the widow's cousin. Though the clues are as elusive as a cat burglar, the suspicious Qwill and his feline companions, Koko and Yum Yum, are determined to catch a thief—and a killer.

Charlie has always believed that his grandfather had sold his house to his longtime tenant, Martin Hale. So when Martin dies, Charlie is surprised to discover the house was not left to Martin, but instead belongs to Charlie. As he and Diesel check out the house he remembers fondly from his childhood, he is pleasantly surprised that it is in better condition than expected. That is, until they find a literal skeleton in a closet.

Sarah Grayson is taking a break from her bustling secondhand shop in small-town Maine to spend time with a friend and her dog. But their purr-fect visit comes to an end when the dog leads them to a storm cellar on a nearby property, where they discover a dead body. The deceased turns out to be a sticky-fingered financial adviser who swindled millions from investors and who has been presumed dead for almost three years. Unfortunately, suspicion falls on the owner of the property where the body was found.

An unpleasant man in every respect, university Professor Herbert Ungley is exceedingly vain. One morning, his landlady catches her cat coming in with Ungley's hairpiece between its teeth. It's clear something has happened to the old grouch, because he would never be caught without his toupee. Ungley is found in the yard behind his social club, with his head bashed in and his baldness plain for the world to see. Although the police are content to call it an accident, sleuthing horticulturalist Peter Shandy is unconvinced and finds there are too many unanswered questions.

When cat lover and quilter Jillian Hart volunteers to help a local animal shelter relocate a colony of feral cats living in an abandoned textile mill, she never expects to find a woman living there too. Jeannie went missing from Mercy, South Carolina, a decade ago, after her own daughter’s disappearance. Jeannie refuses to leave the mill or abandon Boots, her cat who died years ago. After all, she and Boots feel the need to protect the premises from “creepers” who come in the night.

Edgar Award-winning editor Otto Penzler collects more than 50 of his all-time favorite holiday crime stories - many of which are difficult or nearly impossible to find anywhere else. From classic Victorian tales by Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Thomas Hardy, to contemporary stories by Sara Paretsky and Ed McBain, this collection touches on all aspects of the holiday season, and all types of mysteries. They are suspenseful, funny, frightening, and poignant.

Sarah and Elvis can always be found at a charming secondhand shop in the village of North Harbor, Maine. Despite the small-town setting, the daring duo often find themselves wrapped up in murder, but luckily they have help - a quirky group of senior citizens runs an amateur detective agency called Charlotte's Angels out of the store. The Angels are hired to look into who is sabotaging cat shows in the state, and they decide the best way to do that is to send Elvis the cat undercover as a contestant. But then one of the cat show volunteers is murdered just before the latest competition.

Ghost Cat finds small-town lady lawyer Alice MacDonald Greer grappling with an unscrupulous developer muscling into real estate in Coffee Creek, Texas, abusing undocumented workers and menacing his neighbors. Ignoring threats, Alice challenges him in court. After one of her clients is shot dead at a cowboy action shooting competition and another is nearly suffocated in a wine vat, Alice realizes she's got a target on her back.

While new father Joe Grey is overjoyed to teach his three young kittens about the world, he misses his cop work - secretly helping solve crimes alongside his human friends at Molena Point PD. But when beautician Barbara Conley and one of her customers are found dead in the salon, Joe makes an exception and heads for the crime scene. He has no idea that the kittens are following him, or how they will complicate the investigation.

Herbs are good for you, right? Maybe not so good for one person - who's found dead beside a cauldron of magical herbs. Glittery, frilly Sian Pederi is running a course up in the hills called "Unfurl Your Inner Spirit", and it's all path working, ley lines, drumming, and vegan food...until the corpse rocks up. Bron needs to get to the bottom of it, but literally everyone wanted this person dead - and even Bron herself could have cheerfully hit them with a tree branch. She's got other problems, too.

Crozet, Virginia, is a pretty sleepy place, but during a Civil War reenactment, murder occurs, and postmistress and amateur sleuth Harry Harristeen and her three pets are soon on the prowl looking for the killer. Brown and her cat have written a delightful murder mystery that is purr-fect for cat lovers and mystery lovers alike.

Evil has crept into Molena Point, California, on stealthy cat feet. A rash of brazen burglaries, from antique jewelry to vintage cars, coincides with the unwelcome appearance of yellow-eyed Azrael, feline nemesis of crime-solving cats Joe Grey and Dulcie. But what follows soon after really has Joe’s fur standing on edge. A young, healthy waiter drops dead at a reception for local artist Charlie Harper. And when the trail of big-time thefts leads up to San Francisco, the dark beast, Azrael is on the scene. Does he have contact with a stalker and a handsome philanderer?

There’s a bad new cat in sleepy little Molena Point: a renegade tom with a penchant for robbery, a scorn for his fellow felines, and a disdain for human laws. And he’s masterminding a crime spree that’s quickly escalating toward murder most foul. Dulcie and Joe Grey both know the score - they’ve seen Azrael in action. But how can they expose the criminal without letting ordinary, untrustworthy humans in on the secret that certain select cats can think - and talk? Cats like them…

While the town of Pickax is swept up in its sesquicentennial celebrations, Koko has developed a strange new hobby: He drops himself from balconies, occasionally landing in the oddest of places. When a young man comes to visit his wealthy relatives, Koko plummets straight onto his head!

Minnie Hamilton and her rescue cat, Eddie, cruise around lovely Chilson, Michigan, delivering good reads in their bookmobile. But the feisty librarian is worried that the bookmobile's future could be uncertain when a new library board chair arrives and doesn't seem too friendly to her pet project. Still, she has to put her personal worries aside when she and Eddie are out on their regular route and one of their favorite customers doesn't turn up to collect her books. Minnie, at Eddie's prodding, checks on the woman and finds her lying dead in her snow-covered driveway.

The silent rush of footsteps, the muffled shriek, the ever-tightening noose of exotic silk…the mark of the Cat. The Cat had claimed number nine.

The Cat had nine kills, but Ellery Queen found number ten alive and offered the victim temptingly to the killer. The trap was baited, and Ellery and the police poised for the strike that had to come. But the strangler struck elsewhere - and Queen's heart chilled at the thought of what he would find.

Jim Qwilleran has officially inherited a fortune and his freedom, which leaves him with a serious dilemma: What should he do next? Seeking a place of peace and isolation to make up his mind, he heads to the Potato Mountains for the summer. But Qwill lands in the middle of controversy, not solitude. Developers are eager to turn the pristine Potatoes into a tourist trap, and one of the locals has been convicted of murdering millionaire J.J. Hawkinfield. Some people swear the wrong man was convicted, and Qwill is inclined to agree. But if Forest Beechum didn't do the dirty deed, who did?

Persuaded by Polly Duncan, his beloved companion, to join her in a group tour of Scotland, Qwill expects to revel in his Scottish heritage while keeping Polly safe from the Pickax Prowler. Instead, his trip is cut short when a thief swipes a suitcase, the bus driver disappears, and a fellow tourist is found dead—all in the same day. Although the town of Pickax is in a tizzy over the recent events, Qwill has other, more puzzling worries on his mind: Who is the fellow still following Polly? Why is Koko licking Qwill's photographs of Scotland and tackling him on the apple barn stairs?

Kate Osborne, a divorcée, reappears with a fortune and a strange story about how she obtained it. Meanwhile, a terrible car crash involves tortoiseshell Kit and her elderly housemates, Lucinda and Pedric Greenlaw. The accident is terrifying enough, but then two mysterious men steal the car - and the secret treasure hidden inside its doors. When one of the thieves ends up dead, Joe must discover if the events are connected - and why. With the investigation in trouble, will they find the killer…or be left chasing their tails?

Ivy is in trouble. A recent break-up has left her humiliated and raw, so when her best friend, Regan, offers her a month-long escape in the form of a trip to Australia, it feels like a lifeline, one that Ivy grabs with both hands. Regan is everything Ivy’s not. But Ivy is drawn to a calmer type of holiday, so when she spots an ad for crewmembers on a small yacht being sailed by a doting father and his daughter, the girls decide to take the job. Together with a handsome third crewmember, they set off north into tropical heat, but it's not long before doubts start to creep in.