Description:

From Publishers Weekly

At the start of bestseller Grimes's muddled 22nd Richard Jury mystery (after Dust), the body of an unidentified woman, who reminds Jury of a Pre-Raphaelite beauty, lies in a mortuary in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. Shot outside the Black Cat, a local pub, the victim was wearing expensive clothes, decorous yet sexy. The Thames Valley police wonder why Jury, a Scotland Yard superintendent, is intruding on their turf. The victim proves to have been a professional escort, the only witness to her murder the pub's black cat. Cats and dogs can share their thoughts, mostly mundane, with one another, but, alas, not with humans. More escorts get killed. Unresolved cases from Dust and its predecessor, Old Wine Shades, complicate the plot to little purpose. Off-kilter details jar. No London copper would ask a London cabbie if the cabbie knows a particular street. This subpar effort from one of mystery's major stars will appeal mainly to fans of the talking animal subgenre. 8-city author tour.(Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From

Many reviewers felt obliged to note that a Martha Grimes novel requires a taste both for the British "cozy" mystery and Britain's particular brand of tongue-in-cheek humor. But it was a taste that all those critics seemed to share; Patrick Anderson of the Washington Post wrote that he would gladly set down more superficially thrilling fare for any of Grimes's books. While some critics raised eyebrows at some of Grimes's odder touches (like the telepathic color commentary by the local dog and cats) and plot twists, all of them recommended The Black Cat and the rest of the Richard Jury series to new readers. Meanwhile, they hinted that longtime fans should be satisfied with how Grimes ties up certain loose ends from previous books.