Clea Simon – författare

The dead don’t keep pets. So when animal behavior expert Pru Marlowe gets a call about a kitten, she doesn’t expect to find the cuddly creature playing beside the cooling body of prominent local lawyer David Canaday. Heart attack? His three adult daughters angrily blame drug interactions, feline allergies―and each other. And they begin to feud over their father, his considerable estate, and that cute ball of fluff. While the cause of death is pending, each sister has an ax to grind―and the arguments escalate when Canaday’s will is read.

Pru’s special sensitivity to animals, which caused her to flee the cacophony of Manhattan for the quiet Berkshires, adds further problems. The local vet is overwhelmed as the animal hospital’s money runs out. There’s a needy Sheltie and some invasive squirrels, too. But the dead man’s kitten, his former partner, and his troublesome family keep drawing “wild-girl” animal psychic Pru back in.

Despite the wry observations of her trusty tabby Wallis, now acting as guardian for the wrongfully accused kitten, and the grudging compliance of her cop boyfriend, this may be one time when Pru can’t solve the mystery or save the kitten that she wants to believe is innocent. A single witness knows the truth about that bright spring morning, but how far can Pru investigate without risking her own hidden tale?

The dead don''t keep pets. So when animal behaviorist Pru Marlowe gets a call about a kitten, she doesn''t expect to find the cuddly creature playing beside the cooling body of prominent Beauville lawyer David Canaday. Heart attack? His three adult daughters angrily blame drug interactions, feline allergies—and each other. And begin to feud over their father, his considerable estate, and that cute ball of fluff. While the cause of death is pending, each sister has an axe to grind—with arguments that escalate when David''s partner reads out the will.

Pru''s special sensitivity to animals, which caused her to flee the cacophony of Manhattan for the quiet Berkshires, adds further problems. The local vet is overwhelmed as the animal hospital''s money runs out. There''s a needy Sheltie and some invasive squirrels, too. But the dead man''s kitten, his former partner, and his troublesome family keep drawing "wild-girl" animal psychic Pru back in.

Despite the wry observations of her trusty tabby Wallis, now the wrongfully accused kitten''s guardian, and the grudging compliance of her cop lover, this may be one time when Pru can''t solve the mystery or save the kitten she wants to believe is innocent. A single witness knows the truth about that bright spring morning. How far can Pru investigate without risking her own hidden tale?

Music-journalist Theda Krakow is caught up in investigating the rise of a dangerous new designer drug that threatens the musicians and fans of her beloved club scene. But she puts her story on hold when she learns of an animal-rights activist who was killed in a hit-and-run accident while trying to rescue feral cats from a ferocious winter storm.

Theda feels moved to help out with the effort. But as she and her buddy, Violet, race to save the half-wild felines from the freezing New England winter, they uncover simmering tensions among the extremist organization that make the activist’s death seem more than accidental. Theda tries to hang onto her journalistic objectivity, but when the threats become more personal and her beloved cat, Musetta, goes missing, she will risk her reputation, her career, and possibly her life to solve these mysteries once and for all.

Pru Marlowe isn’t your ordinary animal psychic. A tough girl on the run from her own gift, Pru left the big city to return to her picturesque Berkshires hometown looking for a little peace. Too bad her training as an animal behaviorist got her mixed up with Lily, a rescue dog, and Charles, the dog’s guardian. Now Charles is dead, and Lily appears to be headed for the same end, for Lily is a pit bull, a fighting-ring dropout, and is far too traumatized to give Pru a clear picture of what she has witnessed. But Pru knows something about bad girls trying to clean up, and, with a sense of justice strong enough to overcome her dislike of human society, she takes the case.

Listening to the animals, Pru picks up clues and learns there are secrets in the pretty little town that make murder look simple. Unable to tell anyone about her psychic abilities, and uncertain at times about her own sanity, Pru comes to realize that if she clears Lily, she’ll likely become the prime suspect—or the next victim. While the only creature she can totally trust is her crotchety tabby cat, Wallis, Pru must uncover the real killer—and find a way to live with her gift—before the real beasts in the town maul her and those she has come to love.

When Pru Marlowe gets the call that there’s been a cat shooting, she’s furious. Animal brutality is one thing that this tough animal psychic won’t stand for, and in her role as a behaviorist, she’s determined to care for the traumatized pet.

But when Pru finds out that it was the cat who did the shooting—accidentally setting off a rare dueling pistol—she realizes something else is going on. Could the white Persian really have killed her owner, or did the whole bloody mess have something to do with one pricey collectible? With the white cat turning a deaf ear to her questions, Pru must tune in to Beauville’s other pampered residents, from the dead man’s elite social set to their equally spoiled pets, to learn the truth, before her ex, a former New York cop, gets too close.

In a world where value is determined by a price tag, the pedigreed puss may have a reason for revenge, and only Pru Marlowe and her trusty tabby, Wallis, can figure out whether this was a case of feline felony or if some human has set up the Persian as the ultimate cat’s-paw.

When cats start getting sick, feline-loving freelance writer Theda Krakow suspects it’s accidental. But Violet, Theda’s shelter-owning rock-music buddy, claims the cats’ kibble was poisoned. When Theda starts looking at politics at the city shelter, she finds a number of people who could have happily committed the heinous crime. Meanwhile, the city shelter may be backing down from a healthy-pet initiative, a series of threatening letters suggests a darker motive, and old-fashioned jealousy may factor in as well. The pressure mounts as Theda’s editor grabs onto the idea of a hot story and dangles a prime job as bait. But how can Theda investigate when feelings run so high?

As the music scene rallies to raise funds to save the cats, Theda finds herself on the outs with both her buddies and her longtime boyfriend, Bill. And when she’s caught at a murder scene, bloody scalpel in hand and only her beloved cat Musetta as a witness to what really happened, Theda must scramble to find the real killer before she, and Musetta, become the next victims.

When Pru Marlowe takes a dog for a walk, she doesn''t expect to find a body. But Spot, a service dog in training, has a good nose that leads her right to the remains of a beautiful young woman. Despite her best instincts, Pru can''t avoid getting involved. The young woman seems to have been mauled by a wild cat, but Pru knows there have been no pumas in the Berkshire woods for years. And while Wallis, Pru''s curmudgeonly tabby, seems fixated on the idea of a killer cat, Spot has been sending strange signals to Pru''s own heightened senses, suggesting that the violent death was something more than a tragic accident. As motives multiply, a cougar of a different sort sets her eyes on Pru''s sometime lover, and another woman disappears. With panther panic growing, Pru may have to put aside her own issues—and her own ideas of domesticity—to solve a savage mystery.

Winter is hard in Beauville, where the melting snow can reveal much more than last season’s dead leaves. So when a wealthy, obnoxious tourist and his ski-bunny girlfriend surface in Pru Marlowe’s little Berkshire town, she knows she should stay out of their way. The bad-girl animal psychic has to focus on more immediate concerns, including Henry, a supposedly tamed wild rabbit illegally living with an eighty-four-year-old lady.

Henry, who seems to be acting out and hiding, avoids responding to Pru. Yet when Pru discovers the tourist murdered and his girlfriend’s high-maintenance spaniel falls to her care, she gets dragged into a complicated case of crime and punishment that involves some new friends, an old nemesis, and her own shadowed past. A recent museum art heist draws the feds into the investigation along with a courtly gentleman radiating menace, who represents secretive business interests in New York and shows a surprising awareness of Pru. Her on-again, off-again romance with police Detective Creighton doesn’t stop him from warning her to steer clear of the inquiry. The spaniel, however, lures her in.

Pru lives in a world where only her crotchety tabby Wallis knows the whole truth about her past, her flight from Manhattan, and her unique gift that surfaced abruptly one day. Fearing the worst, Pru now comes dangerously close to being exposed. With everything in motion, Pru, Wallis, and everyone they hold dear will be lucky to escape … by a hare.

"[F]ans of animal mysteries will find plenty to keep them entertained here." —Booklist

When Pru Marlowe takes a dog for a walk, she doesn''t expect to find a body. But Spot, a service dog in training, has too good a nose not to lead her to the mangled body of a young woman. Despite her own best instincts, Pru can''t avoid getting involved.

The young woman seems to have been mauled by a wild cat—and Pru knows there have been no pumas in the Berkshire woods for years. Wallis, Pru''s curmudgeonly tabby, seems fixated on the idea of a killer cat, but Spot suggests that the violent death was something more than a tragic animal attack. As motives multiply, a cougar of a different sort sets her eyes on Pru''s sometime lover, and another woman disappears. With panther panic growing, Pru may have to put aside her own issues—and her own ideas of domesticity—to solve a savage mystery.

Parrots will repeat anything. They don''t talk sense—or do they? When Pru Marlowe is called in to retrain a foulmouthed African gray after its owner''s death, she can''t help hearing the parrot''s words as a replay of a murder scene. But the doctor on call scoffs at the idea, and the heirs just want their late mother''s pet to stop cursing. The only other possible witnesses being an evasive aide, a blind neighbor, and a single-minded service dog, Pru is stuck with what may be a featherbrained theory. Even her crotchety tabby Wallis doesn''t buy it, although Wallis would be more than willing to "interrogate" the bird up close. Meanwhile, Pru, the bad-girl animal psychic, is also called on to deal with drugs, jealousy, and a potential rabies outbreak.

An old enemy from the past spells trouble for a young PI and her enigmatic cat in this dystopian noir mystery from the author of The Ninth Life. Care’s reputation as a private investigator is growing, and clients are starting to beat a path to her door. An elderly woman seeks her help in finding out what happened to her missing brother. Blackie senses that he has met this woman before, some time before he became a cat. But who is she—and what is their connection? At the same time, a dockworker asks Care to find a colleague who has gone missing. But how does a poor laborer have the funds to pay for Care’s investigative services? As Blackie and Care delve further into each case, it becomes clear that neither client has been telling the whole truth. Then a body is discovered at the waterfront, and the investigation takes a disturbing new twist…

“Cat-loving fans of grim postapocalyptic tales will best appreciate Simon's third Blackie and Care mystery.”—Publishers Weekly