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In the aftermath of a traumatized girl's witness to a holiday-season shooting, feline sleuth Joe Grey, his girlfriend Dulcie, and their tortoise-shell companion Kit endeavor to track down a killer and assist an investigation by stumped human police.Tags
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Member Reviews
The story opens with a young girl witnessing a murder. I fear that I've made the mistake of starting a series with the 13th book. Even though I love cats and believe they can communicate somewhat (certainly not as the cats in this novel did though), I somehow found it difficult to adjust to the role the cats played in this novel. The story seems to be well-written and well-plotted, but I just had difficulty suspending my belief enough to really enjoy it.
One in a series about Joe Grey, a talking cat, who helps the police find the killer of a man left under the town Christmas tree and his young daughter who was hiding nearby. There was a nice cozy atmosphere of a small town and the people who know each other well. But, for me, the story was a bit slow and the talking cats that understand police investigative work seemed silly.
I usually enjoy books in the Joe Grey series by Shirley Rousseau Murphy. This one is a so-so read/listen as I expected it to have more Christmassy content. In fact, the action could have taken place at any time of the year. It would probably be a bit difficult for new readers to understand about the talking cats as none of their back story comes out in this novel. I have the audio book version read by Susan Boyce, one of my favourite narrators, who did an excellent job.
loved it! i think these are my new book addiction... I have 7 more on reserve with the libraries, lol
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Author Information
55+ Works 5,702 Members
Fiction author Shirley Rousseau Murphy grew up in Long Beach, California and majored in fine and commercial art at the San Francisco Art Institute. She has worked as a commercial artist and has exhibited paintings and sculptures extensively on the West Coast. She has also been a designer and an interior designer, as well as in a library in the show more Panama Canal Zone. Murphy has written several children's books, plus the fantasy novel The Catswold Portal, the Dragonbards trilogy, and the popular Joe Grey mystery series, for which she has won eight Muse Medallion awards from the Cat Writers' Association. She and her husband live in Carmel, California. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Cat Deck the Halls
- Original title
- Cat Deck the Halls
- Original publication date
- 2007
- People/Characters
- Joe Grey (cat)
- Epigraph
- I think, you know, it is the innocence. A violent dog-eat-dog world, a murderous world, but one in which the very young are truly innocent. I am always amazed at this aspect of creation, the small Eden that does not last, b... (show all)ut recurs with the young of every generation...We lose our innocence inevitably, but isn't there some kind of message in this innocence, some hint of a world beyond this fallen one, some place where everything was otherwise?
--Loren Eiseley, All the Strange House: The Excavation of a Life. - Dedication
- For Patrick
- First words
- He reached the village half an hour before midnight, cutting over from San Jose to Highway One, on the coast, the child tucked up warm in the seat behind him.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Merry Christmas to all of us, to a brand-new family.
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Statistics
- Members
- 183
- Popularity
- 177,290
- Reviews
- 4
- Rating
- (4.17)
- Languages
- English, French, German
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 10
- ASINs
- 5
