Edited by: Abigail Browning.

From the pages of America's two best-selling mystery magazines, here are 43 maliciously entertaining cat tales, each celebrating the time-honored relationship between a good mystery and a prescient four-footed companion. Whether the silent witness or active participant, our feline friend plays an integral part in the puzzling world of crime and punishment.

Tales of murder, mayhem, and meows are all here in this irresistible collection of purr-fect cat crime stories from the world's best mystery writers. Mystery fans and cat lovers alike will devour "pick of the litter" tales from the likes of P.G. Wodehouse, Theodore Sturgeon, Edward D. Hoch, and many others. Readers will delight in bestselling author Lilian Jackson Braun's story of a charming Siamese named SuSu, who's the first to smell a rat in a chilling tale of two spinster sisters and an eccentric neighbor. Patricia Highsmith depicts an eerie tale of a mysterious creature that inhabits a couple's home and serves as a constant reminder of their guilt. And Ruth Rendell leads an unwary motorist up the garden path to an elderly cat owner's cottage, giving a sinister twist to the old maxim, "an eye for an eye." In these purebred stories of felines and felonies, a cat gives a criminal reason to "paws" ... and gives readers a selection that's a terrific tabby treat from first page to last.

Either as a tool for the criminal, a bodyguard for a would-be-victim, or the avenger for the innocent, it's a safe bet that in this collection of mysteries, the cat holds the clue!

Contents:

• Catspaw by Sandra Woodruff
• SuSu and the 8:30 Ghost by Lilian Jackson Braun
• The Caller by Hugh B. Cave
• The Alexandrian Cat by Steven Saylor
• Miss Paisley’s Cat by Roy Vickers
• Arnold by Fred Hamlin
• Call to Witness by Nancy Schachterle
• The Sin of Madame Phloi by Lilian Jackson Braun
• The Nile Cat by Edward D. Hoch
• Cat’s-Paw by Mary Reed
• Cat of Dreams by Frances & Richard Lockridge
• The Abominable House Guest by Theodore Sturgeon
• Phutt Phat Concentrates by Lilian Jackson Braun
• The Faithful Cat by Patricia Moyes
• A Case of Catnapping by A.H.Z. Carr
• Who Killed Wee Winky? by Barbara Owens
• The Witch’s Cat by Manly Wade Wellman, writing as Gans T. Field
• The Cat in the Bag by Charles Peterson
• The Cat and Fiddle Murders by Edward D. Hoch
• Professor Kreller’s Secret by Ingram Meyer
• A Feline Felony by Lael J. Littke
• The Lady Wore Black by Hugh B. Cave
• Helix the Cat by Theodore Sturgeon
• Death at the Excelsior by P.G. Wodehouse
• Miss Phipps and the Siamese Cat by Phyllis Bentley
• Little Miracles by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
• The Black Cat by Lee Somerville
• Cat Burglar by Gene DeWeese
• The Theft of the Mafia Cat by Edward D. Hoch
• Spectre in Blue Doubleknit by Bruce Bethke
• The Old Gray Cat by Joyce Harrington
• Animals by Clark Howard
• The Searching Cats by Frances & Richard Lockridge
• The Highwayman’s Hostage by Lillian de la Torre
• Ming’s Biggest Prey by Patricia Highsmith
• The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe
• Chocolate by Leslie Meier
• A Visitor to Mombasa by James Holding
• Between a Cat and a Hard Place by Jimmy Vines
• The Empty Birdhouse by Patricia Highsmith
• The Trinity Cat by Ellis Peters
• Mrrrar! by Edgar Pangborn
• Long Live the Queen by Ruth Rendell