Cattery Row
By Clea Simon
(Poisoned Pen Press, Hardcover, 9781590583067, 227pp.)
Publication Date: August 2006
Other Editions of This Title: Google eBook, Paperback, Paperback
Categories: Mystery & Detective - Women Sleuths
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Spiky freelancer Theda Krakow has fallen on a bare patch. Changes at the newspaper have cut her regular assignments and magazine work is slim. When a call comes in asking her to profile Cool, a gifted musician who's being oddly reclusive, it's welcome relief from both Theda's man and money troubles.
But even with work at hand, there are problems: Someone is stealing show cats. And both the feline-friendly Theda and her friend Violet, who runs the local shelter, are outraged. When a kindly cat breeder is implicated in the thefts, Theda resolves to uncover the culprits. But when a murder hits close to home, the circle of suspects widens to include family, an extortionist, and more....
Theda is a great guide to the city, whether hanging out in her Cambridge neighborhood or enjoying the latest bands in the clubs, particularly Violet's brand of riot grrrl punk. She's less adept at sorting out her own heart, which largely belongs to her kitten, Musetta, but as a sleuth, she's razor-sharp.
Clea Simon is a Massachusetts-based writer, journalist and a regular contributor to the New York Times, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Ms., Rolling Stone and Salon.com. She's the author of three nonfiction books, Mad House: Growing Up in the Shadow of Mentally Ill Siblings, Fatherless Women: How We Change After We Lose Our Dads, and The Feline Mystique: On the Mysterious Connection Between Women and Cats. She lives in Cambridge, MA, with her husband, the writer Jon S. Garelick, and their cat, Musetta. Mew is for Murder is Simon's first mystery novel.
"The mystery's a winner, but the real appeal of Simon's work is Theda herself ...Cat-themed mysteries are often classified as "cozies," but Cattery Row is, if not hard-boiled, nowhere near cute -- except, of course, for the cats. Simon writes with grit, and in Theda, she has created a flawed and sometimes infuriating protagonist, one readers will want to see for many more lives." -- Jay Strafford, Richmond Times-Dispatch (10/29/2006)
"With its well-developed cast of characters and a multilayered plot, this feline mystery is the cat's meow." --Publisher's Weekly
"A well done example of the traditional (or cozy") mystery, Cattery Row is a pleasant and diverting book. Simon clearly has talent, and it will be interesting to watch how her writing develops" --Boston Globe
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