TOO MANY TOMCATS

Felines get all the plum roles in these 11 stories, including 9 reprints (1991–2000) in which cats inherit estates, provoke or prevent dastardly murders, and help solve them, sometimes even after they’re dead themselves. What else can they do? “Cat Got Your Tongue,” co-written with the author’s husband, Max Allan Collins (Mourn the Living, 1999, etc.), presents a cat important enough to steal, and in “Aunt Emma’s Defense,” one of two new stories here, an accused killer’s freedom depends on a cat she claims is her reincarnated husband.