by Maggie King
Want to make a good mystery even better? Add a cat.
Seriously.
Many mystery series feature feline companions. The most famous one is The Cat Who … series, created by the late Lilian Jackson Braun. The stories feature reporter Jim Qwilleran and his Siamese cats, Kao K’o-Kung (Koko for short) and Yum Yum. Koko has a “sixth sense” that gives him stellar powers of detection.
Shirley Rousseau Murphy also anthropomorphizes her feline detective, Joe Grey, P.I. I was on an Alaskan cruise a few years back and borrowed Cat Pay the Devil from the ship’s library. I had to return the book when the cruise ended but purchased a copy as soon as I got home. It’s a truly charming series.
Midnight Louie is the late Carole Nelson Douglas’s feline super sleuth. Rita Mae Brown’s Mrs. Murphy even speaks. I loved Jennifer J. Chow’s Sassy Cat Mystery Series, and was sad when she didn’t continue it.
Some cats leave the detecting to their human companions. Lydia Adamson, Susan Wittig Albert, Linda Palmer, Gillian Roberts, and Rosemary Stevens are just a few of the authors who feature cats as “window dressing.” Often literally, as cats like to perch on window ledges, watching the world go by.
Just as my Olive stole my heart, she also stole the heart of Hazel Rose, the title sleuth in my Hazel Rose Book Group series. Shammy, Daisy, and Morris, now enjoying eternity together across the rainbow bridge, live on in my series. They don’t detect (Olive hunts down mice and voles, but shies away from killers).
I haven’t forgotten our canine friends–Linda wouldn’t forgive me if i did! The Robbins Library in Arlington, Massachusetts features an impressive list of mysteries with pets, cats AND dogs.
The cats of my life. Top: Marie, Shammy, Daisy; Bottom: Olive, Morris
Originally published in 2018 on the now defunct Pets, Paws, and Claws blog.
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The Writers in Residence 
Having a cat or a dog in a mystery series or even a romance series always adds that furry touch that makes the story seem more real since so many of us have a furry friend sharing our lives. When that four-legged partner helps solve a case, we get an even better ending since we do know they have senses far sharper than our own and, who knows, maybe they really are good at detecting a killer. I added a former police dog, Monte, to Chance McCoy’s life in Second Chance and the next two books in the series because he rounded out Chance’s new life as a private detective. Yea, I like the furry face addition.
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Animals are very perceptive about people, so it makes sense that they make good detectives. I’m already thinking about a cat sleuth for my next story. Thanks for the inspiration, Gayle.
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Whether furred, feathered, or finned, nothing humanizes a person more than having an animal companion. The same goes for characters.
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Well said, Miko. Animals so enrich us and our stories.
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You’re right, Maggie. I always enjoy reading about animals in mysteries, including cats. But you and everyone else who knows me knows I’m a dog person–whether reading about them or having them on my lap. Your post favoring cats is definitely intriguing, though. Maybe I need to put some cat mysteries on my to-be-read list!
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Cats are perfect in mysteries because they’re so mysterious themselves!
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Maggie, I am truly a cat lover. I miss the ones that have passed through my life, especially my very special “Story,” whom I had for 19 years. Sigh.
I’ve also read all of Lillian Jackson Braun’s books, and many others with cats in them. I don’t like the ones with kitties who speak as humans quite as well, but they certainly add color.
As for dogs, I am very enamored with the Chet and Bernie series by Spencer Quinn. The dog in this book actually narrates the story. Totally. And he (Chet) is very good at it …. and funny. Do try some of them! I just finished one that actually had a CAT in it too, titled Cat on a Hot Tin Woof. The audiobooks are especially good.
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