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CAT COMING HOME
by Shirley Rousseau Murphy
William Morrow, October 2010
368 pages
$19.99
ISBN: 0061806935


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

With a title like this and with such a cute, Christmas-y cover, you'd expect the latest in Rousseau Murphy's long-running series about the talking cats of Molena Point to be extremely sweet, adorable, in fact, and possibly the stories reminiscent of the later "cat who" books - simple, sweet, cute, right?

DON'T BE FOOLED!

Yes, the time frame is just before Christmas, and the setting is that impossibly beautiful, nearly improbably nice small town in California, Molena Point, a peculiar place that's home to several cats with unusual talents. But not only are the cats not sugary confections (they're pretty much 'real cats' except for one special bit), the town and its people are experiencing some pretty bad times. This is a rather dark story, with rapid pacing, and rather frightening if you expected an extremely sweet cosy, but her writing is so good it sweeps you along.

A small boy lost his parents in an auto accident that appears to be tied to a murder plot. He and his grandmother come to Molena Point to start a new life in this beautiful place but, alas, some of the bad guys follow them. And there's a lot of other nasty things going on in the town as well - so much for Christmas Spirit, hey? A rash of robberies and home invasions has already put the police department under a great deal of stress, and it's looking like Chief of Police Max will lose his job if they can't find the burglars quickly - the bad guys have escalated to beatings along with the robberies during the home invasions and public opinion is definitely growing nasty. Molena Point used to be such a nice little town!

I would recommend that you not begin the series with this book, as Rousseau Murphy's stories are, I think, more enjoyable if you have some history with the characters, have had them become almost friends. But she's a craftswoman, and carefully gives out just enough back information so that you can follow along quite easily should this be your introduction to Molena Point. It's just that I have become, over the years, very fond of the characters in this series, especially the three talking cats - Joe, Dulcie, and Kit - and the beautiful little seaside town they inhabit. I want every reader to enjoy the stories as much as I do. Other than the wondrous gift of human voices and intelligence, these are ordinary cats, with the usual needs and wants - no sweet fluffy beings, they! Well, all right, they are sweet and fluffy sometimes. But Joe is often acerbic and very funny about it, Dulcie is smart and kind, and Kit is lightning quick and impulsive; all very interesting, very entertaining. Rousseau Murphy blends everything very neatly and nicely into her dark plot, weaving in a bit of Celtic mythology to explain the possibility of talking cats, and does it very well. Plus the cats are extremely selective about who gets to know their secret, with only a few people understanding their abilities. They're not super-heros, only nice cats with something extra.

Over the years I've enjoyed the entire series very much, and although in this novel Murphy does something that usually makes me grind my teeth, her touch is so gentle and evocative that it works beautifully: she ends the story with an obvious clue that something really strange and wonderful will be happening with one of the series' most loved characters in the next book, and I can hardly wait! She is one of the few authors whose books I immediately grab and read, almost inhaling them, and I'm delighted there is to be at least one more. The town is so lovely, most of the people so nice, and the cats so interesting, that I always enjoy being there. But in this book she adds a crisp plot and a crackling pace to the sweetness, making it one of the best she's done in years. Recently she had seemed to be going down an extremely cosy road, with each book becoming sweeter and sweeter, and I was very glad to find her at the top of her game in this 16th entry in the series.

This is definitely a mystery, and is prime holiday reading matter for those who like cosy-ish small-town stories with an edge. Its dark plot, fast pace, and pretty much happy ending, beautiful setting and likable folks make it very appealing. And yes, a cat does come home to Molena Point after many years away, and he's very interesting too.

§Abbey Hamilton loves New England, her cats, yarn, and old-fashioned murder mysteries, and isn't shy about offering her opinions, usually at great length.

Reviewed by Abbey Hamilton, December 2010

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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