Cat Playing Cupid by Shirley Rousseau Murphy

From the Jacket: Love—and murder—is in the air. . . .
It took Joe Grey's human, Clyde, nearly forever to pop the question to Ryan Flannery, and what more romantic time to tie the knot than on Valentine's Day? But dark secrets from the past, uncovered by Joe and his feline pals, threaten to ruin the happy union.
First, a body discovered many miles away reopens a ten-year-old cold case involving a man who disappeared days before his own wedding. The jilted bride is back in town and eager to find the truth . . . or to hide evidence of her own wrongdoing. Trouble is, she's soon involved with Ryan's father, who is house-sitting and preparing meals for Joe Grey while Clyde and Ryan are on their honeymoon.
Then another body is found closer to home on the grounds of a ruined estate, deserted save for a band of unusual feral cats. Around the wrist of the corpse is a bracelet bearing the image of a rearing cat, and the cats discover a rare literary volume hidden nearby that divulges their own secret: their special ability to speak.
But as the police investigate the two murders, located more than five hundred miles apart, only Joe Grey suspects that the crimes are related. It takes a chase from which the tomcat wonders if he'll emerge alive for anyone to hone in on the connection between the murders. Finally, feline perception and cop sense combine to bring a killer to justice in this delightful new tale involving Shirley Rousseau Murphy's three amazing cats.

Quote: But at the greenlaw house Kit wasn't sleeping snuggled down with her humans. She sat wide awake in her tree house, alone in the moonlight, far too energized to sleep. She thought about joy. She thought about all the wonders in the world she hadn't yet seen and smelled and tasted and clawed and leaped over.

Why this book you might ask: I've had this book for awhile and just hadn't gotten to it. Now the Cat Book Challenge is .....well, challenging me to get to some books that have been languishing on my shelf. I don't know why I haven't read this before now, this is one of my favorite series.

My thoughts: I have found all the books in the Joe Grey series to be delightful. With Clyde and Ryan finally getting married (on Valentines Day), Kit worrying about her old friend Sage and wondering if he could he could be her dream tomcat, romance is very much in the air. As usual the cats helped solve a murder, or in this case two murders. I liked the discovery of a old, hidden book of "folktales" that could reveal the secret of the talking cats. Joe Grey, Dulcie, and Kit, and are not the only cats who can talk and there was quite a fuss about whether to destroy it or not. This was a fun, light, fantasy set in a lovely sounding small town I would like to live in on the coast of California.
If you've never read any of these books, I think you would enjoy meeting Joe, Dulcie and Kit. Their humans, who are wonderful characters, good people, are fun to read about as well.

Links:
Joe Grey Mysteries

Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: William Morrow (February 3, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061123978
ISBN-13: 978-0061123979

Challenges:
100+ Reading Challenge
2010 Cat Book Challenge
Monthly Mixer Mele

Pages read in 2010:
This book - 354
Total - 2799