A Cat in the Manger — Lydia Adamson

THE CORPSE WHO CAME FOR CHRISTMAS
Off-off Broadway actress-turned-sleuth Alice Nestleton is just crazy about cats, particularly her Maine coon cat Bushy and zany alleycat Pancho. Now she's hoping for a merry little Christmas peacefully cat-sitting at a sprawling Long Island estate, where she expects to be greeted by eight howling Himalayans. Instead, she finds herself face to bloody face with a grisly corpse. Alice has unwittingly stepped into a deadly conspiracy of high-stakes horse racing, sinister seduction, and missing cash. She knows she'd better count on her cat's clever instincts and nine lives, since her own curiosity has landed her just a whisker away from death....