Customer Reviews

Cat Raise the Dead: A Joe Grey Mystery

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I really enjoyed this light mystery. Of course, I'm a cat lover... I often chuckled at the voice, the viewpoint and the antics of these cats...who can talk to each other and understand humans very well. There were several mysteries weaving through this book. A good, fast read.

This time, the two talking cat detectives come to the rescue of some old people at a home and also catch a "cat burglar". When a few of the people at the home are suspicious and scared, Dulcie starts investigating and, as always, manages to get Joe Grey involved too. How they are everywhere to find out what goes on and how they can do surveilance and eavesdropping so much easier than a human are quite entertaining. Always, they keep the police captain jumping with their anonymous phone tips and keep him worried because he suspects the two cats are involved in the crime solving. He won't allow himself to believe such things and that keeps him worried. This is a great job of cat sleuthing and is an interesting book.

I normally do not read mysteries, but the unique slant to this, and previous titles in this wonderful series has me hooked. Owned by 6 cats, I found this book, and its predicesors a "can't put the book down" kind of read. Joe and Dulcie are fabulously developed characters and Dulcie is absolutely adorable. After this last, I wonder when these two will have kittens, and if they will be as intelligent and vocal as their parents.(Hint) Thank you, Shirley R. Murphy, for such wonderful tales. My kind of books they are. Keep them coming.

In this volume, Joe Grey and Dulcie - the talking cats - take on a couple of parallel mysteries. First, there is the matter of the "cat burglar" - an elderly woman who is driving and walking around the village of Molena Point in broad daylight entering people's houses and robbing them of cash, collectibles, and jewelry; most of the time, while the house occupants are at home working on gardening, or at their pools!

The other mystery revolves around the local old folks home. In this case, some of the patients tend to disappear behind the locked and forbidding doors of the Nursing wing - and are never seen again!

The way Dulcie finds out about the second mystery is that she gets involved in a pet therapy session that her human companion (Wilma) is interested in. Then, once the stories of the missing people pique her interest, she gets Joe Grey involved - unwillingly! - and they both go to the home. There they meet with other concerned people and the normal mayhem of a mystery story ensues.

Ultimately both mysteries are resolved by the cats and the local police chief is again led to the solution which is planted right in front of him and his horse! and the only clues he has is that he finds cat hairs and sees the pair of cats running around ... which makes him start doubting his sanity!

Unlike the previous books in this series, this one was written in an eerie and creepy vein. Previous books were light hearted and had lots of humor associated with the story - in this one it was dark and haunting. Maybe it was the way the subject of old people was brought out and explained, or maybe it was something else, but do not expect to have too many moments where you are reading this book with a smile...

It was a good book and a good yarn and one that I really liked. The resolutions of the mysteries was mostly logical and so I recommend it.

These are the best cat detective books that exist! They are fun and fanciful, and the author, having written 14 in the series has never run out of good plots. I was in a rehab home for 3 weeks when I had my hip replaced and took these books with me. They "saved" me from watching animal planet all day long. ;-)

I was shocked and dismayed when I read this book. I have read several of SRM's books and enjoyed them tremendously. How could any author, who writes about talking cats, clearly targeting animal loving readers, think it would be a good idea to REPEATEDLY include graphic, sadistic, lengthy descriptions of cute, furry, innocent rabbits being terrorized, mutilated, tortured and devoured with glee by her main chacters??? And, as further insult to animal lovers everywhere, harp on it throughout the book??? I can't imagine WHAT SRM was thinking...oh, wait...SHE WASN"T!!!! Maybe she let a cat write this book, except a cat would have likely produced a better product. HATED IT, LOATHED IT, DESPISED IT! I may never read her work again.
j

I am hooked on Joe Grey! I have almost read all the Joe Grey books written. This one is no exception if you enjoy the humor and wit of a mystery from the cat's viewpoint and narration. Joe Grey, Dulcie, and Kit get into such trouble together. A good wholesome read with laughs and drama enfolded together.

In the third adventure of Joe Grey and Dulcie, sentient detecting cats, Joe is not at all pleased when his human housemate, Clyde Damen, suggests that he become a Visiting Pet at Casa Capri, a nursing home on the outskirts of the coastal village of Molena Point, California. He protests that he has no social conscience--but what Clyde doesn't suspect is that he has an agenda of his own. Four times he has shadowed a female burglar who walks brazenly into unlocked houses while the family is in the yard (or sometimes even in another room) and lifts small valuables. He hasn't shared his observations with the baffled police yet, but that's always an option.

When he allows himself to be persuaded to the nursing-home visit (mostly by Dulcie), though, Joe discovers another intriguing situation. No less than six of the residents have vanished into the intensive-care wing in the last year or so, and none of their friends in the home have heard from them since. Neither has 12-year-old Dillon Thurwell, a former neighbor and good friend of one of the missing women, who entered the facility while Dillon and her family were in Dallas for a year. And Dillon is even more stubborn about learning the truth than Joe can be--even to the point of disguising herself as a nurse and trying to infiltrate the locked IC wing. Soon Joe finds himself likewise convinced that something is rotten in the state of Casa Capri--and he sets out to find out what it is.

As always, Murphy manages to make her sentient cats and their activities thoroughly plausible: as a long-time cat person, she's observed felines often enough to imagine how they might investigate a mystery if they were able to think and speak like humans. And she ends the book with an unexpected twist that ties Joe's two cases neatly together. Though no murders are evident (as they were in the past two volumes), this is one of the best entries in this consistently readable series.

I highly recommend this book. It is interesting, keeps your attention, and you can't put it down. I am reading it again.

Joe Grey is always a great read. This book is in great condition. Highly recommend this seller. Will use again.