Dulcie Schwartz and her feline friends get tangled up in this mysterious yarn . . . - Caught between a distracted supervisor and university politics, Dulcie’s doctoral thesis looks doomed. When she stumbles across the bloodied body of a fellow student, things couldn’t get any worse. Unless her mother’s dreams turn out to be premonitions and Dulcie’s work has all been in vain . . . With the ghost of Mr Grey – her wise and loyal late, great cat – strangely silent, and her new kitten refusing to speak, this time Dulcie might just be on her own.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Sluggish pacing mars Simon's second feline mystery starring Harvard doctoral candidate and nosy parker Dulcie Schwartz (after 2009's Shades of Grey). Outside the Cambridge home of her adviser, Professor William Bullock, with whom she just had an uneasy talk about her unfinished thesis on an obscure Gothic novel fragment called The Ravages of Umbria, Dulcie happens on the bloody corpse of handsome Cameron Dessay, a comp lit whiz who recently switched to English. Dulcie is understandably horrified, as is Professor Bullock's assistant, one of Cameron's many female admirers. Sussing out whodunit leads Dulcie and Mr. Grey, her ghost cat, into dangerous territory, while her romance with fellow grad student Chris Sorenson suffers. Though Simon scores with the spectral Mr. Grey and the likable Dulcie, some cozy fans will find Dulcie's constant fretting over her thesis distracting and wish for fewer details about the world of academia. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Simon’s second Dulcie Schwartz mystery picks up a few months after the end of Shades of Grey (2009), with Harvard doctoral student Dulcie deep into her fall semester, overloaded with grading papers and concerned about getting her advisor’s approval on her thesis. Then she finds the body of a fellow graduate student on her advisor’s front step. The ghost of Mr. Grey, her deceased cat, returns to offer his usual cryptic advice, and her new kitten takes a noncommittal stance toward crime solving, leaving Dulcie on her own to try and find the real murderer before the killer finds her. While the cats are an important part of the book, they are not an overwhelming presence; in fact, the academic setting is a much stronger part of the novel’s appeal, making this easily recommendable to readers who enjoy Lauren Willig’s Pink Carnation series or Jennifer Lee Carrel’s literary thriller Interred with Their Bones (2007), which also has significant scenes set in Harvard’s Widener Library. A solid follow-up to an entertaining debut. --Jessica Moyer
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More About the Author
Hi! Welcome to my Amazon Connect page. I don't know if you found me because you like fun feline mysteries you might be wondering about my upcoming "Dogs Don't Lie." Yup, it's got a dog in it - but my new heroine, the animal psychic Pru Marlowe, couldn't function without her sidekick, an irascible tabby named Wallis. Meanwhile, I hope you are enjoying my Theda Krakow series - "Mew is for Murder," "Cattery Row," "Cries and Whiskers," or "Probable Claws" - and my Dulcie Schwartz series (think cats AND ghosts!) with "Shades of Grey," "Grey Matters," or the upcoming "Grey Zone." Or perhaps we share some family issues, and you're looking at "Mad House" or "Fatherless Women." Or maybe you just love cats and are interested in my "The Feline Mystique." At any rate, good to meet you! I'm a writer and journalist, an avid reader, and am looking forward to making this page lively and fun.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful treat for mystery and cat lovers!,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Grey Matters (Dulcie Schwartz) (Hardcover)
Grey Matters is the second in Clea Simon's Dulcie Schwartz series and picks up a few months after the end of Shades of Grey. Dulcie is a doctoral student at Harvard university who is fascinated with 18th century Gothic novels. She is deeply immersed in the fall semester, hard at work on her thesis, and frustrated with her thesis advisor, who seems distracted and uninterested in her work. When she finds the body of a fellow graduate student on her advisor's doorstep, her life gets even more complicated.
Her best friend is busy with her own studies and a new man in her life, Dulcie's boyfriend is working long hours and seems to be withdrawn and distracted, she hits a significant snag in her thesis, and finds herself on her own as she gets caught up in investigating the murder. The ghost of Mr. Grey, her beloved deceased cat, returns to offer his wise and comforting, but often veiled and cryptic advice. Dulcie's new kitten is trying her best to make her way into Dulcie's heart, but since she doesn't "speak" to Dulcie in the same way as Mr. Grey's ghost, it's slow going on that front. Immensely likeable and multi-dimensional characters, exceptional plotting, and a fascinating academic setting make this a highly entertaining and enjoyable read. The cats are an important part of the book. Unlike other cat-themed mysteries, they do not help with solving the crime, but rather, are an integral part of the story. I absolutely loved the ending of this book. A real treat for cat lovers and mystery lovers alike!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dulcie Returns,
By Marilyn Pizzo (Glendale, AZ, US) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Grey Matters (Dulcie Schwartz Mystery) (Paperback)
Dulcie is back and Clea Simon doesn't disappoint in the second in the series. When she isn't discovering a dead body, dealing with office break-ins, and escaping a house fire, Dulcie is troubling over her thesis, her advisor, and her relationship with Chris. She feels a bit abandoned, even by Mr. Grey. There are a lot of suspects and inter-twined motives to keep Dulcie busy. Great characters. Great story. Another winner for Simon.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Return of Mr. Grey-- And Dulcie,
By beanbug (Bristol, VA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Grey Matters (Dulcie Schwartz) (Hardcover)
Since it's well known that I am owned by multiple cats, it's no surprise that I'd seek out this series about a woman who receives messages from a ghost cat. It's also no surprise that I enjoyed it. The surprise is that this mystery is firmly rooted in reality, no "Ghost Whisperer" nor "Medium" otherworldly intervention in discovering whodunit.
Dulcie Schwartz is a grad student who is struggling to finish her doctorial thesis in English Lit, working on a new reading of a somewhat obscure gothic novel. She's up against deadlines, she still misses her one true friend, the late Mr. Grey who was her beloved cat, her boyfriend isn't showing up very often and her friends seem to be otherwise preoccupied. At least she's decided that she really IS getting some otherworldly communications from Mr. Grey and isn't simply losing her mind. That's something, after all. The trouble is that Mr. Grey's pronouncements come at odd times and tend to be more than a little cryptic. Right now, she needs to prove to her advisor that she has made "significant progress" on her thesis, otherwise she'll lose her grant money and have to leave school. The problem is that Dulcie feels she HAS made progress--more than enough progress-- but Professor Bullock doesn't seem to think so. Actually, Dulcie has serious doubts that he's even read her notes. Also, he doesn't seem to remember from time to time what they've discussed. Armed with new copies of her notes, Dulcie makes the trek to the professor's house in hopes of convincing him. She's prepared to defend her work; she isn't prepared to find the corpse of a fellow grad student littering the path to Professor Bullock's house. Cameron Dessay had been handsome, charming, and apparently well-heeled, on the fast track to a degree. He had a fancy car, fancy clothes and a playboy reputation, but could any of these things have resulted in murder? Not that this is any of Dulcie's business, not really. She just has a cat's curiosity. Besides, Dessay's death is affecting her department and there seems to be something going on with Professor Bullock, upon whom Dulcie's future largely depends. As she tries to unravel this mystery, Dulcie becomes aware that a lot of people around her seem to be keeping secrets. The question is, which of these are dangerous? I enjoyed this second entry in the "Mr. Grey" series. Several mysteries I've read recently seem to be "just the facts," leaving me feeling shortchanged. I enjoy characterization and supplemental information in addition to clues. I want a well-rounded experience. Dulcie, for example, is a likeable heroine who has her head in a literary cloud and sometimes forgets to pay attention to life around her, and Simon lets Dulcie draw comparisons between herself and the heroine of the gothic novel to enrich the experience. After all, isn't one of the joys of reading finding bits of ourselves in fiction, identifying with this character or that one? There's a bit of a twist at the end, nothing earth-shattering, but it certainly has me anxious for more.
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