As Dark As My Fur

January 23, 2017
Readers who enjoy the prickly pleasure of stepping into a strange alternate universe will welcome Simon’s hypnotic second Blackie and Care mystery (after 2015’s The Ninth Life), set in a blighted unnamed city. Bands of gangsters control the various neighborhoods, bartering is more common than the use of money, and the mostly illiterate masses have to scavenge to eke out a living. Pink-haired teen Carrie “Care” Wright, an apprentice private detective, navigates this treacherous world aided by Blackie, a cat she rescued from drowning. Blackie, the narrator, is no ordinary cat. His consciousness contains not only his feline instincts but also flashes of memories from his past life as a human. When a factory owner hires Care, who has been in charge of the detective agency since her mentor’s murder, to shadow one of his workers, Blackie fears something isn’t quite right. Since he can’t talk, he can do little to warn Care of his misgivings. The novel perilously walks the line between dream and nightmare. Agent: Colleen Mohyde, Doe Coover Agency.

September 15, 2016
Graduate student Dulcie Schwartz is preparing to finish her dissertation when an eccentric professor newly added to her committee cuts off her access to important research. She tries to visit his home and encounters an angry wife. She tries his office and finds him dead from a head wound; naturally, she quickly becomes the main suspect, which gets her suspended from the university, bringing progress on the dissertation to a grinding halt. Professor Fenderby was rumored to have harassed female students, and Dulcie is shocked to find that her cousin, Mina, was bringing a suit against him and that Alyson, Dulcie's student, was having a long-term relationship with him. As always, Dulcie receives wisps of insight from the cats in her life, though the spirit of the late Mr. Grey, usually her leading consultant, seems peculiarly quiet. Simon again mixes Dulcie's personal relationships (human and feline, traditional and paranormal) with realistic portrayals of academic life, including such current hot-button campus issues as sexual harassment. An unlikely blend, perhaps, but one that has found a core of satisfied readers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)