Cat Sitter Among the Pigeons

November 29, 2010
In Clement's sharp sixth Dixie Hemingway mystery (after 2010's Raining Cat Sitters and Dogs), the pet-sitting sleuth and former Sarasota, Fla., sheriff's deputy bonds with Ruby Carlyle, the estranged wife of celebrity drag racer Zach Carlyle, as soon as they meet at the Siesta Key home of Ruby's crusty granddad, Mr. Stern. Ruby has sought shelter with her grandfather while waiting to testify against her one-time boss, Ponzi schemer Myra Kriegle, Stern's next-door neighbor. Dixie's job is to look after Cheddar, Stern's American shorthair cat bequeathed to him by Ruby, but she's also concerned about Opal, Ruby's baby girl. When kidnappers snatch Opal from Stern's house, Dixie, Zack, and Zack's beefy best friend, Cupcake Trillin, embark on an exciting rescue mission. The decision of Dixie's fiancé, homicide detective Jean-Pierre Guidry, to move to New Orleans, adds some romantic tension.

December 1, 2010

Want to reduce stress in your life? Don't become a pet sitter. Your clients can be murder.

Dixie Hemingway's latest charge (Raining Cat Sitters and Dogs, 2010, etc.) is a cat named Cheddar. On Dixie's first visit to him, his caretaker Mr. Stern's granddaughter Ruby arrives with her baby Opal, claiming that she has no place else to go. When Dixie, an older Ruby look-alike, leaves, she's kidnapped, blindfolded and tied up, and delivered to the home of Kantor Tucker. After he tells his minions they got the wrong person, she's dumped off with $50 cab fare at Friendly's, where her boyfriend, enigmatic homicide detective Guidry, picks her up. Her dander up, Maggie discovers that as a high-school senior Ruby was used by her grandfather's neighbor Myra Kreigle, an upper-crust house flipper, to lure in investors. Ruby's husband, famous drag racer Zack Carlyle, thinks that Ruby dated him only in the service of Myra's scams. Now that Ruby's agreed to testify against Myra, she becomes the target of Myra and Kantor Tucker, who are desperate to shut her up. Realizing she's up against a powerful foe, Dixie wishes she could forget it all. But when she arrives to find Mr. Stern's house in flames and Opal missing, she joins Zack and his pals in a hair-raising attempt to find the baby before the plot to muzzle Ruby ends in tragedy.

Dixie's latest adventure keeps you glued to your seat from the first chapter.

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