The story opens with Cassie visiting a client in his home where he has a full grooming station for his Persian cat named Harpo. George DeLeuw is one of her best clients. He is Chadwick's wealthiest resident and pays her well, wanting extra attention for his cat whose long hair gets matted without the attention. When Cassie arrives for one of her regular visits she hears a scream and finds the maid Anita trembling. Anita leads her to DeLeuw's body, lying dead on the floor. Cassie calls the police and Detective Angela Bonelli arrived on the scene. While several officers processed the scene of the crime Bonelli interviewed them both along with the landscaper Louis who had come inside when he heard Anita scream. Anita and Louis both said they thought DeLeuw was killed by an art thief because his home was filled with expensive artworks. Cassie was grilled on why she moved to Chadwick four months earlier.
Worried about Harpo's care, when Cassie attends the funeral she asks questions of all of the family and business associates of the deceased about whether the cat is named in the will and who is getting possession of the cat. She wants to take care of Harpo herself but all the questions only got her the attention of Detective Bonelli who now thinks that she is a suspect. Every person Cassie spoke to was considered a suspect by the police.
His ex-wife Marjorie sued him for possession of Harpo's brother and then had him put to sleep for spitting up a hairball. Marjorie hates cats and this was just another way to be cruel to him during the divorce. His sister Danielle wanted to get the cat from Cassie and return to the west coast even though she too did not like cats. Danielle had asked her brother for a business loan but he told her no. Cassie thought that whoever got the cat would get some money in the will for Harpo's care. Then there were the business associates at DeLeuw's old Wall Street firm Redmond & Fowler, where DeLeuw had tried to sell an encryption program created by the son of Cassie's handyman, Dion Janos, but passed it off as his own and used it to hide documentation of the firm's corruption.
De Leuw's attorney agrees, however, that Cassie should board Harpo at her shop until the will is read. Before that happens, there are two attempted break-ins at Cassie's Comfy Cats, an arson at the shop, and an attempted kidnapping of Harpo and attempted murder of Cassie herself at the shop when the crime is solved. Many twists and turns happen in between these main events.
This was a fabulous read but there were two odd things that stood out in my mind. The author referred to Harpo as a blond Persian. There is no such thing as a blond Persian cat. There are goldens and there are also silvers. How do I know? I helped a breeder of golden and silver Persians when I was a teenager through my thirties and attended cat shows throughout the Midwest with her. To me, a "blond" cat would be more golden in color but the cat on the cover of the book is a silver. The next item that irked me was how Cassie referred to her shop assistant Sarah as "moving much faster that she should be able to for her sixty years." I am sixty! Is the author saying that I should not be able to move? There is a little ageism here.
Aside from these two issues this book was fast paced with an intricate plot. I lost count of how many suspects there were, maybe 8, that had to be worked through with red herring after red herring. The writing was tight as the crime, occurring in the first chapter, was resolved in this little book's 261 pages. Several regular characters were also introduced for future novels so a lot happened here.
5 out of 5 stars.
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