THE TAIL OF THE TIP-OFF

Although they don’t attend the women’s college basketball game with their beloved but (by animal standards) dimwitted owner, Harry Haristeen, the postmistress of Crozet, Virginia, Tucker the soulful-eyed corgi, Pewter the prototypical fat cat, and Mrs. Murphy, feline sleuth extraordinaire, all know exactly what will happen the moment they learn that the game has ended with philandering building contractor H.H. Donaldson dead in the arena parking lot: Harry will soon be wondering (1) how that lethal bump got on his neck without anybody noticing, (2) whom he was having his latest affair with, and (3) whether archrival builder Matthew Crickenberger, pertinacious building inspector Fred Forrest, and Donaldson’s long-suffering wife Anne can produce alibis. Of course, despite the help of her best friend Susan and even the complicity of her longtime rival for the affections of Boom Boom, her ex-husband, Harry is slower to ferret out the murder weapon than her pets (or devotees of John Dickson Carr, for that matter), and Mychelle Burns, another building inspector, will die while water drip-drip-drips from the arena ceiling and Tucker, Pewter, and Mrs. Murphy are forced to sink their teeth, claws, and all available paws into an exceptionally avaricious pair of evildoers.

Charming, although as usual (Catch as Cat Can, 2002, etc.), the cats have all the best lines, and a carbo-loading possum gets the tastiest snacks.