Desert Cat — Garrison Allen

Penelope Warren calls her bookstore Mycroft & Co., in honor of the cat who presides there. Tough and macho, Big Mike is ready to match wit and claw with the most cunning critter. For when it comes to catching a killer, this lethal weapon is always up to scratch. -- It isn't every day it rains cats and dogs in the Arizona desert. And it isn't every day that Penelope Warren and her Abyssinian alley cat, Mycroft -- a.k.a. "Big Mike" -- lock up their cozy bookstore, and come home to a corpse on their doorstep.

Meddlesome, mean-spirited Louise Fletcher was high on everyone's least-liked list. An expert at backstabbing, she is found with a knife between her shoulder blades and a death grip on a bright new penny. Everyone in Empty Creek has a motive, but the police are stymied. So it's up to Penelope and her felicitous feline partner to sniff out Louise's secrets, paw through her past -- and pounce on a deadly Killer who seems to have nine lives.