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32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An Atypical Cat Tale, February 18, 2001
I started reading this book expecting another Koko or Louie type of mystery novel. To my surprise, I found was dealing with another beast entirely. Shirley Murphy has her own, unusual approach to the feline mystery story. Joe Grey, the main cat of this book suddenly discovers two things. He can speak/think like a human, and he is the witness to a murder. Murphy handles this as the crisis it would be in a cat's life, and that's the first surprise the book has to offer. Joe no sooner adapts to being the only English speaking cat on the block when he discovers he is being hunted by the murderer. To protect his owner, Joe leaves home to handle this. We are actually treated to Joe calling his owner on the phone to explain why he has gone missing. As the story progresses we discover that another cat, Dulcie, also witnessed the murder and can now speak and think in human. Needless to say, this is a match made in heaven. The cats immediately team up to bring the murderer to justice. In the meantime, the murderer somehow turns a woman (Kate) who is an intended victim into a cat. He uses a kind of Welsh magic. This is never particularly well explained. She discovers her husband is invovled in the crimes and sets out to even the score. As you can tell, there is a lot of willing suspension of belief going on. What is surprising is that Shirley Murphy comes very close to pulling it off. She treats each of the semi-feline characters with great respect and the develop really and enchanting personalities (well, the cats do, Kate comes out a bit flat, despite a big part). Other than the oddity of some characters being cats the story line is a typical thriller/crime novel, involving murder, car theft and counterfeiting. At first this approach gave me some trouble, but I finally got into the groove and stopped expecting the story to behave in a particular way. The two cats, Joe and Dulcie, really are charming. Joe even manages to deliver a fine moral lesson that even a human could understand. While I still find the tale a bit peculiar, I've decided to continue reading the series to see how things work out.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Joe Grey and Dulcie are utterly charming!, June 5, 2002
Somehow, to his surprise and horror, Joe Grey has learned to speak, read and understand English. And to make matters worse, he's on the run from a murderer who will stop at nothing to kill the small grey tomcat. You see, Joe saw the killing, and he can identify the murderer. So Joe has had to leave his comfortable home, and hit the road in an effort to get the goods on the murderer and save his own skin. On the lam, he meets up with Dulcie, a female cat with the same mysterious talents as Joe, and a taste for soft human garments like sweaters and underthings. Dulcie, the other witness to the murder, is also on the run from the fiend trying to kill Joe. The two cats team up with a spurned wife who also has a few tricks up her sleeve to save the day and catch a killer. This is a charming and interesting novel. Other than their amazing linguistic abilities (which are never really explained, but don't let that keep you from enjoying the story. Just go with the flow!), the cats are very true to life in every other respect. Dulcie is a particularly winning "cat"racter, I just fell in love with her from the moment she appeared on the page. If you like cats and cat mysteries and enjoy an element of fantasy in your reading, you'll have fun with Joe and Dulcie.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
If You Like Rita Mae Brown..., August 8, 2003
then you can't afford not to sample the Joe Grey mysteries, of which this is the first. Joe, a tough, stump-tailed tomcat, lives in the arty little California coastal village of Molena Point with Clyde Damen, who repairs and restores high-end and antique cars for a living, and Clyde's two dogs and three other cats. For several weeks he has felt a "strange identity change" taking place in him: he has gained the ability to understand human speech in all its nuances, then to speak it; he's also begun to think on a human level, analyzing, appreciating natural beauty, planning his day, speculating on metaphysical subjects. He's even, inexplicably, suddenly become able to read! On top of this shock comes another: he witnesses a murder in the alleyway behind a local deli. And the killer seems to realize that Joe could be a threat to him, since the very next morning he tries to break into Clyde's house. Forced to go on the run, Joe teams up with Dulcie, a charming little brindle female belonging to retired parole officer Wilma Getz, who is a long-time friend of Clyde's; Dulcie too has just realized that she shares Joe's talent. Trying to preserve their own lives, they realize, requires that they help the police nail the murderer--which, in turn, draws them into a stolen-car ring and a counterfeiting scheme.
Meanwhile, Kate Osborne, a friend of Clyde's, has discovered that she can change from human to cat shape and back again...
The twists and turns of the plot, while complex, are so well drawn that the story flows easily from point to point, and the cats, apart from their fantastic abilities, are recognizably felines who behave just as any housecat might, yet at the same time are distinct and well-delineated characters. The fact that Joe and Dulcie have to do their maneuvering behind the scenes--only their own people, and Kate, are allowed to learn about their new talents--adds a fresh angle to the so-often-repeated "amateur detective" motif. I've gone on to read the second book in the series and it maintains, if not exceeds, the quality of the first. Lovers of cats, mystery, and fantasy are sure to find this book a thorough delight. (Note: Murphy is also the YA fantasy novelist Sylvia Engdahl.)
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