A Cat of One's Own — Lydia Adamson

When Amanda Avery decides to adopt a cat, she turns to her old friend Alice Nestleton--who quickly matches her up with an unusual-looking feline named Jake, and kindly offers her assistance with the intricacies of litterbox behavior, finicky eating, and other basics of cat ownership. But within days, Jake is catnapped ... and although he escapes with his life, his new caretaker doesn't. Instead, she's stabbed with an ice pick after rescuing the ransomed tomcat, and Alice must find out why--by sniffing out Amanda's secret past before she's caught in a lethal game of cat and mouse....