Cat Under Fire

by Shirley Rousseau Murphy

(Joe Grey Cat Mystery Series, Book 2)

HarperPrism, 1997
(No hardcover edition)
Paperback: Avon, ISBN 0061056014
E-book: HarperCollins
Large Print: Beeler, ISBN 1574903411
Audiobook: Download and digital rental (CD no longer available)

Winner of the Cat Writers' Association's
1997 Muse Medallion

The death by arson of a famous artist brings the two cats, Joe Grey and Dulcie, into an investigation which ends with release of a man wrongly accused--the cats providing evidence that the police missed, that only a cat could have found.

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The ebook can be purchaed at Amazon, Amazon UK, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, and Kobo.

The print edition can also be purchased at Amazon and is widely available in other bookstores, where it can be special-ordered if it is not in stock.

Quotes from the reviews

"Clever dialogue, fast-paced action, humor, and interactions between cats and humans.... Good fun for cat lovers and fans of offbeat fantasy." --Booklist, March 15, 1997

"Murphy displays the same sense of magical whimsey and deft writing that made the first book of this series, Cat on the Edge, such a welcomed addition to the plethora of fictional kitty crimebusters.... Whether you begin with this new book or pick up Cat on the Edge, you won't be disappointed." --Cats Magazine, September 1997

Excerpt from the story

The night was cool, and above the village hills the stars hurled down their ancient light-borne messages. High up on the open slopes where the grass blew tall and rank, a small hunter crouched hidden, his ears and whiskers flat to his sleek head, his yellow eyes burning. Slowly he edged forward, intent on the mouse which had crept shivering from its deep and earthen burrow.

He was a big cat, and powerful, his short gray coat sleek as velvet over his lean muscles; but he was not a pretty cat. The white, triangular marking down his nose made his eyes seem too close together, as if he viewed the world with a permanent frown. To observers he seemed always to be scowling.

Yet there also shone in his golden eyes a spark of wit, and a sly smile curved his mouth, a hint that perhaps his interests might embrace more of the world than simply the palpitating mouse which awaited his toothy caress--a clue that this big gray tom saw the world differently, perhaps, than another cat might see it.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The mouse sped, streaking for its path, and Joe exploded across the little clearing. With one swipe of scimitar claws he raked the creature up into his waiting teeth, it fought and struggled as his fangs pierced the wriggling morsel.

The mouse knew a moment of apocalypse as it hung skewered and shrieking in the cage of teeth clamped through its body. Joe bit deeper into the warm, soft flesh, the sweet flesh. The mouse screamed and thrashed, and was still.

He crouched over it tearing away warm flesh, sucking up sweet, hot blood, crunching the mineral-rich bones, and the surprising little package of stomach contents. The stomach usually contained grass seed or vegetable matter, but this morning he was rewarded by a nice little hors d'oeuvre of cheese from the tiny mouse stomach. Camembert, he thought, as if the mouse had lunched on someone's picnic. Or maybe it had gotten into the kitchen of one of the houses that dotted the hills. He could taste a bit of anchovy, too, and there was a trace of caviar. Joe smiled. Its belly was full of party food.

How fitting. The mouse had taken its final repast from the silver trays of a party table. Molena Point's cocktail crowd had supplied, for the little beast, an elegant last meal, a veritable wealth of pre- execution delicacies. Joe grinned, imagining the small rodent up in mouse heaven, gorging for eternity on its memories of anchovies, beluga, and Camembert.

Read a longer sample from inside the book

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