Sometimes, escaping is as much a "going to" as it is an "away from" and such was the case for young Benny and his gentle looking grandmother, Maudie Toola. Maudie wanted to escape from Los Angeles and all its reminders of the murder and related investigation of her son, Martin, and his new wife, Caroline. She wanted to come home to Molena Point, a small, cozy and growing vacation town in California that she had lived in as a child.

Unknown to Maudie were a number of things happening in Molena Point that she is not aware of, including some mean and brutal attacks on elderly and/or single women alone in their houses that were not only planned to crudely shake the women's faith in their own independence as well as to destroy the town's confidence in their police force and especially with Chief Max Harper. Maudie also did not know that Molena was home to a unique breed of cats that could talk and read as well as use phones. She certainly didn't suspect that Joe Gray, the cat living with the lady she contracted to do her home renovations, had been purr-fecting his detective and feline analytic skills and now had her under surveillance!

As Joe and his feline friends, Dulcie and Kit, keep watch on things, they catch the whiff of a new yellow tomcat in town. They soon find out that Misto is an older and well experienced cat that has been wandering for some time, but most recently has come up from Soledad prison with a message for Chief Harper. Joe suspects the old tomcat also has a secret agenda; so, when violence starts to threaten the holiday spirit of goodwill, Joe has little time to know if he can trust the stranger. What will happen if he does?

Well known for loving cats as well as for her literary talent, Shirley Rousseau Murphy's CAT COMING HOME is the 16th book in her Joe Grey Mystery series. As this book was my first introduction to the series, I can well attest that it reads very well as a stand-alone and I now look forward to enjoying the pleasure of reading the other stories about these very talented cat sleuths. It is definitely a different type of cozy mystery; full of human drama and suspense, yet with perspectives and interests shifting from human to a cat's eye view and feline psychology. While I lapped up the story of these talking and cellphone using cats, my Siamese was less impressed; after all, she is on the computer every time I want to use it! It is glad tidings that this is one treat you don't need to beg for! Enjoy!

Book Summary

“That was no accident.”

Escaping Los Angeles and the ugly memories of her son’s recent murder, Maudie Toola returns to her childhood home of Molena Point with her orphaned grandson, facing the upcoming Christmas holiday with trepidation. But she is not aware that the small seaside village is being plagued by a series of brutal attacks on single women . . . or that the heartless fiend who shattered her world has followed her here.

Feline sleuth Joe Grey and his cat pals have a lot on their dish this holiday season, and it overflows when an elderly wandering tomcat appears on the scene bearing an important message from a state prisoner for the chief of police. But this lonely old cat also has a personal agenda—as does Maudie Toola, who knows more than she’s telling about her son’s killer.