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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780061056000
ISBN number: 0061056006
Label: Avon
Manufacturer: Avon
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 288
Printing Date: June 01, 1996
Publishing house: Avon
Release Date: April 01, 1996
Sale Popularity Level: 76654
Studio: Avon
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
It's been quite a week for Joe Grey. First the large, powerful feline discovers that, through some strange, inexplicable phenomenon, he now has the ability to understand human language. Then he discovers he can speak it as well! It's a nightmare for a cat who'd prefer to sleep the day away carefree, but Joe can handle it. That is, until he has the misfortune to witness a murder in the alley behind Jolly's Deli -- and worse, to be seen witnessing it. With all of his nine lives suddenly at risk, Joe's got no choice but to get to the bottom of the heinous crime -- because his mouse-hunting days are over for good unless he can help bring a killer to justice.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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I've read all these cat books by Shirley Murphy. My husband and daughter got intrigued by them too. They are well written and fun. I can hardly wait for the subsequent book which is coming out early subsequent year. Joe Grey and Dulcie are cats. They help the cops of Molena Point CA to solve mysteries by poking their little selves into places no cop could get into..at least not legally. They can talk...but only a very few people know this. Joe is wise enough to know some people would use him for their own purposes if they knew his talents. I would rate this series 5 stars.
Rated by buyers 
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I was disappointed in this novel for several reasons. One is that it's more like science fiction or fantasy than a mystery. I found the transformations described somewhat awkward and the plot mundane. While this is certainly a talented writer, I was less fascinated by the cats in the story than I was simply creeped out by them. It reminded me somewhat of the Val Lewton film, "Cat People," which still holds up as a "cat horror" story. At times I found it disturbing despite failed attempts at humor, desired to set the thing aside, and interact in a healthy way with my own feline friends. I will definitely not continue to follow the series. I have a house full of cats who I love and cherish. The cats in this book are something else altogether. I'm not sure what.
Rated by buyers -
There's an entire genre of cat fantasy going back at least as far as Tad Williams' "Tailchaser's Song" in 1985, and by extension to the greater strain of anthropomorphic storytelling that reaches to Aesop. So, if you enjoy a story with a feline main character, if you like books where the cats are smarter than the humans who love and pamper them, if you're always up for a mystery in which the character with the tail gets all the good one-liners and solves the case, then you'll probably like this one. Really, though, it isn't very good. The cats sound just like people, and you can see that Murphy knows this by the awkward rationales she lumps in from time to time. There's even a paragraph where the main (cat) character glimpses the clockwork perfection of nature and intuits the existence of god. Not only can this tom solve crimes, he's a feline Spinoza! The book reads like an episode of "Hart to Hart": everything --- the setting, the characters, the plot --- is bright and glossy and two-dimensional. But despite its many flaws, the book is still interesting enough to finish. Like a can of Pringles, even as you realize it's junk you can still enjoy it. This is a book that someone will call "a good beach book." That's about right.
Rated by buyers -
I have loved this series from the get go and recommended to people I hoped could get past the idea of cats who can read, speak and solve mysteries and yet be wholly CAT. I haven't had a lot of luck, but I am a big fan of Joe Grey et al. The mysteries are good and the characters endearing.
Rated by buyers -
This is the very first book in a series of crime novels featuring English speaking cats and their human housemates. We are introduced to Joe Grey who discovers, to his utter bewilderment, that he can understand human-speak; speak English; and read and write as well. As if this is not upsetting enough, he is trying to deal with all of that when he is a witness to a murder. And to top it all off, the murderer notices him and chases him trying to kill Joe.
As the story develops, we find out that having cats who speak/understand/read English may not be all that unusual as there is another cat in the neighborhood (Dulcie) who also develops that ability that week. Then, we find out that some people can apply some magical sayings and transform themselves from people to cats and vice versa.
All of this metaphysical stuff actually detracts from this story which focuses on some crimes that happen in the town of Molena Point, CA. The human housemates of Joe and Dulcie are old friends, as is the town's police chief. Apparently there was some shady stuff going on that was being investigated when the murder occurred. That event touched off a whole nother sequence of events that are chronicled in the book.
As a starter book to a series, it does its job fairly well. We are given the backgrounds of the various characters as well as getting a rather interesting and scenic tour of the town. However, the fantasy elements are so unbelievable, and so out of context, that they actually detract from the fun parts of the story. I mean, having cats who can understand and talk English as sleuths resolving crimes is a great idea and is really handled well. However, the weaknesses in the setup take away from it.
For instance, since Joe's and Dulcie's house mates have known each other for many years, how come Joe and Dulcie just meet for the very very first time in this book? The whole mumbo jumbo thing with Kate transitioning from cat to human and back again ... after disappearing for days or weeks is completely illogical and does not fit well in the story. How does the bad guy able to detect at a glance which cat has these secret abilities and which does not? Let alont the fact that he can detect that ability in humans as well - but no one else can!
There are many more jumbled messes in this story which made me give it a low point rating. Nonetheless, the basic idea is sound and fun and the rest of the series must be better that this one for it to have survived and flourished as well as it has.
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