Sometimes You Need a Cat to Help Solve a Mystery
Discover purr-fect mystery-solving reads with our list of books where clever cats help crack the case. Find your next feline-inspired whodunit today!
Book
The Cat Who Could Read Backwards
by Lilian Jackson Braun
THE FIRST COZY MYSTERY IN THE BELOVED NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING CAT WHO SERIES! The world of modern art is a mystery to many. But for Jim Qwilleran, it turns into a mystery of another sort when his assignment for The Daily Fluxion leads down the path to murder. A stabbing in an art gallery, vandalized paintings, a fatal fall from a scaffolding—this is not at all what Qwilleran expects when he turns his reporter talents to art. But Qwilleran and his newly found partner, Koko the brilliant Siamese cat, are in their element—sniffing out clues and confounding criminals intent on mayhem and murder. This riveting beginning to the Cat Who series is the perfect cozy mystery for cat lovers to start sleuthing!
Book
The Cat Who Robbed a Bank
by Lilian Jackson Braun
When a visiting estate jeweler is found dead, prizewinning reporter Jim Qwilleran and his Siamese cats, Koko and Yum Yum, must do their best to find the purr-petrator in this delightful novel in the New York Times bestselling Cat Who series. As the Highland Games approach, Jim Qwilleran and the citizens of Pickax, Michigan, prepare to celebrate their Scottish heritage with such evens as bagpipe skirling and tossing the caber. But the traditional revelry is marred by troublesome rumors when a visiting jewelery dealer, renowned for his romantic streak (and his mysterious cash-only policy), is found dead in his hotel room. His assistant is missing—and soon, the winner of the caber-tossing content disappears as well. Qwilleran and his snooping Siamese are willing to go to any lengths to find the killer and set the town at ease. But first they'll have to contend with a highjacked bookmobile and an attempted bank robbery. Qwill has a lot of mysteries to sort out—not the least of which is Koko's sudden interest in photographs, pennies, and paper towels...
Book
The Cat Who Played Post Office
by Lilian Jackson Braun
In this mystery in the bestselling Cat Who series, Jim Qwilleran and his cats, Koko and Yum Yum, are living the high life—until things take a deadly turn... Inheriting unexpected millions has left reporter Jim Qwilleran looking like the cat who swallowed the canary. While his two Siamese cats, Koko and Yum Yum, adjust to being fat cats in an enormous mansion, Qwill samples the lifestyles of the rich and famous by hiring a staff of eccentric servants. A missing housemaid and a shocking murder soon show Qwilleran the unsavory side of the upper crust. But it’s Koko’s purr-fect propensity for finding clues amid the caviar and champagne that gives Qwill pause to evaluate the most unlikely suspects—before his taste for the good life turns into his last meal...
Book
The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts
by Lilian Jackson Braun
Jim Qwilleran and his cats Koko and Yum Yum try to solve a haunting mystery in a historic farmhouse in this New York Times bestseller in the Cat Who series. When Mrs. Cobb heard unearthly noises in the antique-filled farmhouse, she called Jim Qwilleran for help. But he was too late. It looked as if his kindly ex-housekeeper had been frightened to death—but by whom? Or what? Now Qwilleran’s moved into the historic farmhouse with his two cat companions—and Koko the Siamese is spooked. Is it a figment of feline imagination—or the clue to a murder in Moose County? And does Qwilleran have a ghost of a chance of solving this haunting mystery?
Book
The Tail of the Tip-Off
by Rita Mae Brown
The Tail of the Tip-Off When winter hits Crozet, Virginia, it hits hard--and hangs on for months. That’s nothing new to postmistress Mary Minor “Harry” Haristeen and her friends, who keep warm with hard work, hot toddies, and rabid rooting for the University of Virginia’s women’s basketball team at the old stadium affectionately dubbed “The Clam.” But the usual postgame high spirits are laid low when contractor H. H. Donaldson drops dead in the parking lot. And pretty soon word has spread that it wasn’t a heart attack that did him in. It just doesn’t sit right with Harry that one of her fellow fans--perhaps even an acquaintance or neighbor sitting close by in the stands--is a murderer. And as tiger cat Mrs. Murphy is all too aware, things that don’t sit right with Harry make her restless, curious, and prone to poking her not-very-sensitive human nose into dangerous places. So the animals start paying closer attention to what the people around them are doing--and they’re the first ones to realize when the next murder occurs. It seems obvious to Harry that the deaths are connected--and she intends to find out exactly how. There’s no shortage of suspects, considering that H.H. was a ladies’ man who’d left a trail of broken hearts all over town--the most recent belonging to his wife-- and that the second murder victim was not very popular in Crozet.As the police launch their investigation, Harry picks up clues through savvy questioning of everyone she knows. But it’s the critters who are most attuned to trouble--they scent something wicked wafting Harry’s way on the tail of the next snowstorm. And as Harry draws closer to the truth about a brutal killer, Mrs. Murphy and her friends realize it’s up to them to make sure their intrepid mom lands on her feet.
