Cat's Cradle — Clare Curzon

Old Lorely Pelling was as queer as two left boots...A reclusive eccentric with a checkered past and dozens of cats, her shooting death is first believed accidental, the result of local boys' target practice. But Detective Superintendent Mike Yeadings of the Thames Valley Police Force believes darker motives are behind the death of the old woman. The villagers are astounded that Lorely had named her neighbor's children sole inheritors of her estate. For Yeadings, it means unraveling the tangled skein of deception, scandal and desperation in Lorely's long, frustrated life - and the secrets she shared with a killer.