The Diamond Cat

The cat who swallowed more than a canary....A lifetime of craving more cuddly companionship than her hectoring mother has led fortyish Bettina Bilby to board her neighbors' felines for a long holiday weekend: an expectant tabby, a pampered blue-eyed Balinese, a depressed ginger Persian with a cod-liver-oil addiction, and Adolf, an imperious mouser with a patchwork face. But a freak storm sets the pigeon among the cats, a carrier bird downed on the doorstep with a tiny load of large flawless diamonds. And Bettina's dilemma escalates, as Adolf gobbles up one of the gems and a succession of elegant but shifty strangers prowl the gardens, offending the cats, and bringing in their wake back-door bloodshed and murder. Poor Bettina Bilby. Ever since her father's death, she's been living with her hectoring mother, without even a cat of her own to cheer her dreary life. And now a freak storm promises to ruin her long bank holiday weekend, trapping her inside, where she's at the mercy of a leaking roof and Mother Bilby's continuous carping-especially about Bettina's lack of sense in agreeing to take in four boarders for the weekend. The boarders are cats, of course-what would a Babson tale be without them?-and a lovely lot they are: irascible Adolf; pampered Bluebell; depressed Pasha; and Enza, so named because her owner opened the window one day and, well, in flew Enza. Then, in the midst of the storm, a carrier pigeon dies in the backyard, leaving Bettina to deal with its cargo of diamonds as well as with a steady stream of shifty strangers who, under transparent pretenses, try to gain access to the Bilby home. In her latest comic tale, Babson (Nine Lives to Murder) mixes high-tech theft, high-flying ransom and a denouement that finds Bettina savoring a sudden but welcome freedom. The Diamond Cat is a jewel.