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Book Review/Synopsis

 

 

CAT CROSS THEIR GRAVES

By Shirley Rousseau Murphy

 

This is the 10th book in the 21 Joe Grey Series. It seemed a likely title to go along with the doings of late October when goblins and spirits and Halloween rule!

The reader finds oneself once again on the quaint costal California town of Molina Point where the talking cats live with their human companions. It is there where Patty Rose has retired from her successful career as a movie star.   She is a generous philanthropist and admired by everyone. She had purchased the Otter Pine Inn and refurbished it. When it opened it allowed the guests to bring along their pets which made it very popular.

Every year in her honor the Patty Rose Festival is held where for a whole week her movies are shown in the theater. It was after one of these showings that 3 shots were heard by the residents at the Otter Pine Inn. Patty Rose had been killed in the driveway going down to the underground garage of the Inn.

Kit was passing the holidays at the Inn with her humans when her feline instinct drove her to the window on that midnight eve. She witnessed Patty Rose get shot but could not identify the dark figure running down the driveway. He was short and she could hear the squeak in one of his shoes. Kit managed to get out of the room and even though she could no longer see the killer followed his scent. She caught up to him in a crowd and when he went to his car she jumped in without his seeing her. He drove to a house and in stealth she followed him in. After he left she searched around and found incriminating evidence linking him to Patty Rose’s son who had been killed many years earlier. She wanted to go tell the police, but there was only one way to leave, through the front door which was bolted and everything else was nailed shut.

Dulcie, Joe Grey’s companion, had a secret. She knew of a little girl named Lori who was hiding out in a sealed part of the Town Library’s basement. She had run away from her Dad who had kept her locked up in their house. He was looking for her franticly.

In the interim, three elderly friends had purchased a house together and were renovating it slowly.   One of them was in the garden and as she was digging a hole to plant a geranium her shovel struck something hard. She dug around it and discovered it was a small human bone. She stopped and the police were called. It turned out to be a grave with two children and perhaps even more.

Joe and Dulcie followed the sound of the sirens and watched as the coroners worked at uncovering the small skeletons. They felt their skin crawl because that was a section where they often walked to get to their house.

A release went out to all the police stations in California and neighboring states about cold cases involving small children. Several were found with the same characteristics. They all had high IQs. It was a serial killer.

Lori leaves the library at night and is captured by the killer. He takes her to the house and ties her up. When he goes out for supplies, Kit comes out of hiding and chews on the rope to free the little girl. When the killer returns Lori tears out of the door as he opens it, with Kit following on her heels! She runs back to her hiding place in the library. Kit runs back to the Otter Pine Inn and calls the police about the house. They recognize her as a ‘snitch’ and have no idea she’s actually a cat! They go to the house and find the evidence where she had hid it for them.

Meanwhile, Joe Grey and Dulcie break into Lori’s father’s house. They find an album with pictures of the graves of several vanished children.

From the temporary safety of the library, Lori sees the killer lurking outside, as if waiting for her to leave. As she’s looking, her father’s pickup comes charging up to the man. He starts yelling at him and then throws him into the truck and speeds away!

Why did her father know the killer? Where were they going? What was she going to do?

You’ll have to read the book to find out what happened and why Patty Rose was killed!  It’s a page turner with lots of turns and curves with an unexpected twist at the end! A good book to get you in the mood for the spooky season! ~ Marilu Shellie