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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.

Probable Claws by Clea Simon — A Theda Krakow Mystery

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
Format: Hardcover
ISBN-13: 978-1-59058-564-1
Publication Date: April 2009
List Price: $24.95