Please Do Feed The Cat — Marian Babson

Author Lorinda Lucas returns from a book tour of the United States to find that Roscoe, the cat who lives next door, is in alarming shape. Hoping that whatever has hit poor Roscoe will not be caught by her two cats, Had-I and But-Known, she learns from her friend Freddie that both Roscoe and his owner, Lorinda's neighbor "Macho Magee," are more or less prisoners of another author, one Cressie Adair. For an unknown reason, Cressie has decided to move not only into the colony of mystery writers but straight into Macho's house, life, and all nine lives of his cat. For Roscoe, that means an exclusive diet consisting of very small portions of feline health foods. And then Macho, well, his pen name does fit the thrillers he writes, but his real name, Lancelot Dalrymple, is a much better description of the meek little author he actually is. He's restricted to a "health" diet himself, and can do no more for poor Roscoe than surreptitiously leave a window open so the hungry beast can escape to where he might find some real food....

Any colony of crime writers, even though their books are as different as Cressie's "chick lit" and Macho's heavy thrillers, can be expected to contain a good bit of contention. But not many authors are ready to go for murder away from the printed page. In this delightful tale, with its undertone of sweetly malicious humor about self-important writers, you can depend on finding actual homicide: Please Do Feed the Cat comes complete with a murder as well as a cast of writers as varied as their books. Trust Marian Babson for another happy read.