A WHISKER OF A DOUBT

Feral-cat feeders are implicated in the murder of a wealthy man who’s resisted the feedings in a small Massachusetts island town.

Maddie James, feline lover and proprietor of the cat cafe JJ’s House of Purrs, takes on a new mission when a colony of feral cats is found in Turtle Point’s upscale Sea Spray Lane neighborhood. Though most people on Daybreak Island are locals dedicated to the community, the wealth of Sea Spray Lane’s residents insulates them from the world around them, including the welfare of the cats struggling to winter in the surrounding woods. Some residents, worried that the colony might bring down their property values, have even petitioned to poison the invaders. Bah, humbug! Now that Katrina Denning, Daybreak Harbor’s sole animal control officer and passionate animal defender, has ruffled the residents of the Sea Spray community, the cat-care responsibilities have fallen to Maddie, who’s working double-time to feed the cats with a small team of volunteers and some kind souls who are allowing access to the woods through their yards. A notable exception are the Prousts, who even call the police on a volunteer who accidentally traipses over their lawn. Soon after Maddie finds Virgil Proust murdered during a volunteer feeding trip, Katrina is suspected, then arrested. From what Maddie’s seen of newly widowed June Proust’s yelling at her poor husband in public, she thinks there’s a more likely culprit, and she’s determined to investigate even as some shady hints in Katrina’s background suggest she may not be as innocent as Maddie once thought.

Filled with crazy cat lady energy, with less emphasis on the personal than the mystery.