Cries & Whiskers

Freelance rock music critic Theda Krakow covers the club scene in Cambridge and Boston. She's also a cat person, sharing her life with Musetta, a black-and-white pampered pet. When an animal rights activist is killed in a hit-and-run, Theda helps with her project of saving feral cats from an abandoned bottling plant. Tavia Gilbert gives an energetic reading. Her voice is spunky as Theda investigates an up-and-coming rock group, frantic when Musetta disappears, concerned when boyfriend Bill considers a career change, and determined when facing danger. Gilbert is less successful voicing secondary characters, pushing too hard, sacrificing believability for stereotype. Clea Simon's third mystery takes on the current music scene, designer drugs, unscrupulous real estate developers, and the plight of animal shelters. With cats. S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

October 8, 2007
In Simon's energetic third Theda Krakow mystery (after 2006's Cattery Row
), freelance music journalist Theda delves into the seamy underside of the club scene and the radical side of animal rights. When Animals Now activist Gail Womynfriend is killed in a hit-and-run, Theda and her pet-sheltering punk rocker friend, Violet, take over Gail's efforts to save feral cats from the brutal Boston winter. The more they investigate the accident, the more they learn about tensions among Animals Now's members, and Theda becomes uncomfortably suspicious of a friend. She's also hunting a dangerous new designer drug making the rounds of music venues and wondering about its connection to an elusive group of musicians who want Theda's attention, but only on their own terms. When her beloved cat, Musetta, goes missing, Theda risks everything to get her back and solve all these mysteries once and for all. Readers will thrill to Theda's engaging adventures in amateur sleuthing.