Probable Claws
A
Theda Krakow Mystery
Clea
Simon
Poisoned Pen Press (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-59058-565-8 (1590585658)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59058-565-8 (9781590585658)
Publication Date: April 2009
List Price: $24.95
Synopsis (from
the publisher): When cats start getting sick, feline-loving freelance
writer Theda Krakow suspects an accident is to blame. But her
shelter-owning rocker buddy Violet claims the contaminated kibble was
poisoned.
When Theda starts looking at shelter politics she finds a number of
people who could have happily committed this heinous crime. The city
shelter may be backing down from a healthy pet initiative, a series of
threatening letters suggests a darker motive, and old-fashioned
jealousy may factor in as well. The pressure mounts as
Theda’s editor
grabs onto the idea of a hot story—and dangles a prime job as
bait.
But how can Theda investigate when feelings run so high?
As the music scene rallies to raise funds to save the cats, Theda finds
herself on the outs with both her buddies and her longtime boyfriend
Bill.
And when she’s caught at a murder scene, bloody scalpel in
hand and
only her beloved cat Musetta as a witness to what really happened,
Theda must scramble to find the real killer before she, and Musetta,
become the next victims.
Review:
Freelance music journalist Theda Krakow is arrested for the murder of
an animal shelter veterinarian in Probable
Claws, the fourth mystery in this series by Clea Simon.
Theda has a wide sphere of friends but they all have something in
common: their love of cats. One friend, Rachel, is the veterinarian at
the local animal shelter. Another friend, Violet, manages the Helmhold
House for Wayward Cats. When it becomes apparent that many of the cats
at the Helmhold House are very ill, Violet calls Theda. They come to
the conclusion that a bag of kibble bits cat food may be contaminated.
Theda takes a sample to Rachel for testing who determines it was
tainted with some kind of alkaloid. Someone accidently or intentionally
dropped cocoa or chocolate, or some derivative thereof, into the bag of
kibble bits. There have been widespread threats against the shelters:
some to get rid of all animals that freely roam the streets, some to
stop killing animals. Even bomb threats have been received. Someone may
have made good one of those threats. When Theda returns to
Rachel’s
office to pick up her special "tuxedo" cat Musetta, she walks into the
lab to find Rachel dying, stabbed with a scalpel. While trying to
understand Rachel’s last words, a vet tech had heard Theda
scream and
runs in to find her holding Rachel’s body with the bloody
murder weapon
in her hand.
Theda is arrested, released on bail, and loses her job all within a few
days. She and Bill, her ex-cop boyfriend, have been having problems
too.
Bill is willing to help, but his work keeps him busy most days and
nights giving them not too much time for a lot of talk about what has
passed and what’s to be in the future. Bill urges her to let
the police
do their job. But Theda wants to do a little snooping to find the
killer as she believes the police have not started a search since they
have her as a prime suspect. This involves Theda looking into animal
shelter politics and threats, and questioning her friends at the city
shelter. She has to juggle the time she has between Bill, Musetta, her
friends, wanting to get her job back, and finding clues to the killer
before she becomes a target herself.
The well-developed plot of Probable
Claws keeps the reader guessing. There are a surprising
number of suspects to consider, some less obvious than others. Theda is
an interesting amateur sleuth with plenty of conflict in her life, but
she balances her priorities very well. And it's hard not to enjoy the
interaction Theda has with her cats, in particular Musetta. While cat
lovers will be drawn to Probable
Claws for its feline characters, it's the overall book
itself that will have mystery readers looking forward to the next in
the series.
Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Probable Claws and to Poisoned Pen Press for providing an ARC of the book for this review.
Review Copyright © 2009 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
Have you read Probable Claws? How would you rate it?
Mysteries in this series ...
Mew is for Murder
Poisoned Pen Press (Hardcover), July 2005
ISBN-10: 1-59058-165-2 (1590581652)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59058-165-0 (9781590581650)
Cattery Row
Poisoned Pen Press (Hardcover), August 2006
ISBN-10: 1-59058-306-X (159058306X)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59058-306-7 (9781590583067)
Cries
and Whiskers
Poisoned Pen Press (Hardcover), December 2007
ISBN-10: 1-59058-464-3 (1590584643)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59058-464-4 (9781590584644)
Probable
Claws
Poisoned Pen Press (Hardcover), April 2009
ISBN-10: 1-59058-564-X (159058564X)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59058-564-1 (9781590585641)
Omnimystery keywords for Probable Claws ...
Location(s) referenced: Cambridge, Boston, Massachusetts.
