Cat's Crossing

A dark and uproarious satire about media, the modern city and a missing cat, from journalist and award-winning broadcaster Bill Cameron

When Jones, an ordinary house cat, pops through a loose window screen and abandons his wealthy owner’s country home for the sweltering city by the lake, he does not think of the trouble he’ll cause. Ethical-sausage magnate François Will tries to impress his heartbroken wife by announcing a two-million-dollar reward for Jones’s return and throws the city into chaos.

In 17 Division, home to downtown’s seediest neighbourhoods, the promise of millions drives its residents into alleys, trash heaps and garages, searching for the little black cat that can make all their dreams come true. Sergeant Judd, a hard-boiled but deeply troubled cop, sees an escape from his own problems; his favourite stripper-turned-informant is courting disaster with an obsessive dentistry professor and a very large snake, while his senile aunt wastes his children’s badly needed inheritance on a house full of stray cats, driving Judd to desperate measures.

Add to Jones’s pursuers a murderous and ingenious television reporter, and Cat’s Crossing boils over into a rich satire of media manipulation, mass hysteria and the maddening things we do for love.


From the Hardcover edition.