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Joe Grey #18
Cat Bearing Gifts
In this latest entry in Shirley Rousseau Murphy's award-winning series, feline P.I. Joe Grey and his four-legged cohorts are plunged into a nightmarish mystery.
On the way home from visiting their friend Kate Osborne, tortoiseshell Kit and her elderly housemates, Lucinda and Pedric Greenlaw, are hurt in a terrible car crash. The accident is terrifying enough, but then two dangerous men steal the Greenlaws' Town Car, making off with a secret hoard of jewels and gold—a gift bestowed from Kate's newfound treasure. A badly shaken Kit hides from hungry coyotes in the forested hills above the highway, waiting for Joe, Pan, and their human companions, Ryan and Clyde Damen, to rescue her.
Back home in Molena Point, yellow tomcat Misto, discovering a faded photograph of a child living fifty years ago, becomes lost in his memories of that past century—while Joe Grey and his tabby lady prowl an abandoned stone cottage where they've discovered two men hiding. The cats smell mildewed money and soon smell human blood, too. Though the cats know more than the thieves about the unique items stolen, their investigation is still in trouble as they claw their way to justice.
On the way home from visiting their friend Kate Osborne, tortoiseshell Kit and her elderly housemates, Lucinda and Pedric Greenlaw, are hurt in a terrible car crash. The accident is terrifying enough, but then two dangerous men steal the Greenlaws' Town Car, making off with a secret hoard of jewels and gold—a gift bestowed from Kate's newfound treasure. A badly shaken Kit hides from hungry coyotes in the forested hills above the highway, waiting for Joe, Pan, and their human companions, Ryan and Clyde Damen, to rescue her.
Back home in Molena Point, yellow tomcat Misto, discovering a faded photograph of a child living fifty years ago, becomes lost in his memories of that past century—while Joe Grey and his tabby lady prowl an abandoned stone cottage where they've discovered two men hiding. The cats smell mildewed money and soon smell human blood, too. Though the cats know more than the thieves about the unique items stolen, their investigation is still in trouble as they claw their way to justice.
320 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
94 people are currently reading
487 people want to read
About the author
Shirley Rousseau Murphy
62 books522 followersShirley Rousseau Murphy is the author of over 40 books, including 24 novels for adults, the Dragonbards Trilogy and more for young adults, and many books for children. She is best known for her Joe Grey cat mystery series, consisting of 21 novels, the last of which was published when she was over 90. Now retired, she enjoys hearing from readers who write to her at her website www.srmurphy.com, where the reading order of the books in that series can be found.
Murphy grew up in southern California, riding and showing the horses her father trained. After attending the San Francisco Art institute she worked as an interior designer, and later exhibited paintings and welded metal sculpture in the West Coast juried shows. "When my husband Pat and I moved to Panama for a four-year tour in his position with the U. S . Courts, I put away the paints and welding torches, and began to write," she says. Later they lived in Oregon, then Georgia, before moving to California, where she now enjoys the sea and views of the Carmel hills.
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Murphy grew up in southern California, riding and showing the horses her father trained. After attending the San Francisco Art institute she worked as an interior designer, and later exhibited paintings and welded metal sculpture in the West Coast juried shows. "When my husband Pat and I moved to Panama for a four-year tour in his position with the U. S . Courts, I put away the paints and welding torches, and began to write," she says. Later they lived in Oregon, then Georgia, before moving to California, where she now enjoys the sea and views of the Carmel hills.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 97 reviews
July 8, 2013
Although still a good read, there is a noticeable change in writing style. For instance, there is a significant increase in the amount of cursing by characters from whom this type of language is not in character.
Also, much of the story involves a character thinking entire paragraphs in the form of several internal questions.
There are many other deviations from the accepted style of Joe Grey novels; if you are a long-time fan of the novels, chances are good that you will notice them. I have OCD, so I tend to let these type of things bother me and distract me from the story. Hopefully, that won't happen to you.
I certainly hope that these changes do not continue in future books.
Also, much of the story involves a character thinking entire paragraphs in the form of several internal questions.
There are many other deviations from the accepted style of Joe Grey novels; if you are a long-time fan of the novels, chances are good that you will notice them. I have OCD, so I tend to let these type of things bother me and distract me from the story. Hopefully, that won't happen to you.
I certainly hope that these changes do not continue in future books.
April 10, 2018
I adore cats, and I wanted to read a mystery involving cats. This was the third series I sampled, and I think I found a source for future cat mysteries. I was initially worried because these cats speak and write, but Joe Grey and crew retains their "catness", and it is cats that I want to read about. They may speak, but they are not humans in fur. I like dark, complicated and bleak mysteries so the mystery of this particular book did not excite. It took second place to simply indulging in following cats around, and that is what I wanted. Sly and sweet, the cats are the stars, the mystery simply something they do while being cats. How many times can I write, "cats".
December 18, 2012
I have loved this series and recently reread them all. I was really looking forward to this new addition, but I have to say I was disappointed in it. I liked getting deeper into the relationship between Kit and Pan, but I missed the voices of Joe and Dulcie who really have very minor parts to play in this novel. I didn't like spending so much time with Vic, the villain of this book. It felt like half the book was devoted to his point of view, and I really did not like him at all. Overall, the writing seemed uneven, and at times almost felt like someone else was writing sections of the novel. I hope Joe and Dulcie come back to the front lines in the next story.
March 22, 2024
Found my new fave mystery genre: talking cats solving crimes.
November 25, 2019
In this tale of Joe Grey, Kit & Pan relationship begins. The Greenlaws returning from a shopping trip are in a car accident. Both are hurt and Kit hides in the wild. Pan knows she is alone and needs help. Damon's, Rock and Joe plus Pan go to her rescue. Kate Osborne enters the story after her trip to the netherland
October 6, 2014
Finished in one long sitting. I enjoyed this most current title in the series. Now to wait for the next one to be published.
December 31, 2015
Originally published at Reading Reality
Usually I would say that anyone who likes feline sleuths will not just love Joe Grey, but could start anywhere in his series. Although the whole thing is so much fun that starting with Cat on the Edge makes for a lovely bunch of binge reading.
However, while I definitely enjoyed this entry in the series, I don’t think it is a good place to start. Too much of the action in this one is dependent on events in the past, and on people who have been introduced in previous books. Also, unusually for the series, the focus is very much on the humans in this one. The cats take a back seat (sometimes literally) as crisis after crisis strikes their human families, and everyone rallies round to protect the most vulnerable and find the guilty parties.
Many of the events in Cat Bearing Gifts were set up in Cat Telling Tales. An acquaintance of Ryan’s from art school barges into Molena Point demanding free room and board for herself and her two daughters based on a short and not all that friendly relationship from several years back. Ryan packs Debbie and her two girls off to one of the houses that she and Clyde are rehabbing. While Ryan knows that Debbie won’t lift a finger for upkeep on the rent-free house, everyone involved feels sorry for Debbie’s younger daughter Tessa, who is bullied by her sister and her mother nearly to the point of abuse. Tessa is being watched out for by Pan, one of the intelligent, talking cats, and everyone is trying to find a better solution for her than either her mother or Child Protective Services.
Debbie’s mother Sammie was found murdered underneath her own house in Cat Telling Tales, but Sammie left her little bungalow to her friend Emmylou. Emmylou and Sammie were two of a kind, tough older women who lived alone and independently and took care of themselves and kept themselves mostly to themselves.
But Sammie’s brother Byerly wanders back to Molena Point several months after Sammie’s death. Byerly calls himself a hobo. He’s a wandering vagrant who has always touched base with his sister but never returned home to live. He’s also easily influenced and manipulated, and he returns to Molena Point with his ex-con friend Vic. With Sammie dead, Byerly and Vic break into a neglected cabin on the property and begin a mini-crime spree.
Vic also fences the stolen goods that Debbie shoplifts.
But the mini-crime spree turns maxi when Vic and Byerly cause a hit and run accident on the road from San Francisco back to Molena Point. They wreck their old truck, total a semi, and drive Pedric and Lucinda Greenlaw off the road. Vic beats up Pedric and Lucinda, and steals their car.
And that’s where the case really begins. Because little Kit is a witness to the original crime, and wants to make sure Vic gets his just desserts the minute she is rescued. And because the Greenlaws’ car is concealing all the mysterious, magical and valuable treasures that their friend Kate brought back from the dying world on the other side of The Catswold Portal.
A lot happens in this story, and at first it seems almost all bad. While Vic and Byerly thankfully don’t have the tools to discover the treasures concealed in the doors of the Greenlaws’ Lincoln Town Car, Vic has more than enough ambition (although not much sense) to take his possession of the big car and its keys and turn them into an invasion of the Greenlaws’ home as well as license to commit even more crimes as he hides the car all over Molena Point and tries to plot his way out of the town and his life as a hobo.
But the first thing he has to do is get rid of his injured partner Byerly. And the second thing he has to do is get one last score out of the disgusting Debbie. And last but certainly not least, Vic has to find a way to dodge the pursuit of all of the cats who are suddenly following him everywhere in town.
In the end, no one ever manages to get the better of Joe Grey, Dulcie, Misto, Pan and especially, Kit.
Escape Rating B+: Cat Bearing Gifts is quite a bit darker than many of the stories in this series. It is sad and scary to see the Greenlaws, who are fit and feisty but definitely in their 80s, brought down, even temporarily, by a nasty piece of work like Vic. There’s a certain amount of fear on the reader’s part, and definitely on Kit’s, that some of the damage may not be recoverable, or may cause lasting infirmities.
Kit is certainly forced to acknowledge that her chosen humans are elderly and that she will lose them someday in the foreseeable future, even if that day is not today. Kit discovers that one of the flaws of having human intelligence is that it means a little cat is able to see the awful stuff that’s coming. She is not happy about it, and neither are we.
Because Pedric and Lucinda are in the hospital recovering for a lot of this book, the humans are rightly taken up with that crisis. Everyone rallies round, but everyone is also too busy to pay attention to what the cats are doing. And the cats themselves are naturally distracted. They all care for the Greenlaws, and are worried. There’s also a certain amount of necessary deception on the part of both the cats and the humans to sneak Kit into the Greenlaws’ hospital beds, very much against medical orders.
So everyone is distracted and no one has the time or the energy to get together and compare notes about the strange doings the cats witness surrounding Vic, Byerly, Emmylou’s house and Debbie’s shoplifting. Everyone knows a piece of the puzzle, but there is no opportunity to put the pieces together.
While this was an interesting way for the plot to take care of what sometimes seems like feline omniscience, all the events that they watch are very sad and go on quite a while. The reader will want Debbie to get her comeuppance long before it finally does. And as is often the case where the detectives are very scattered, more than a few bad deeds occur because the puzzle pieces just don’t come together in time.
As a long-time reader of this series, I was glad to see the pieces finally connected between The Catswold Portal and Joe Grey. As someone who is fascinated by the relationship among the cats, it was really interesting to see the argument between Kit and Pan. While it is obvious that they are mates, they feel both in the human and the cat sense. Their argument about goals and purposes and futures was very human, but the motivation behind it was very cat. As was the resolution.
I’m looking forward to a happier story in this series in the next book, Cat Shout for Joy. Joe Grey and Dulcie are having kittens!
Usually I would say that anyone who likes feline sleuths will not just love Joe Grey, but could start anywhere in his series. Although the whole thing is so much fun that starting with Cat on the Edge makes for a lovely bunch of binge reading.
However, while I definitely enjoyed this entry in the series, I don’t think it is a good place to start. Too much of the action in this one is dependent on events in the past, and on people who have been introduced in previous books. Also, unusually for the series, the focus is very much on the humans in this one. The cats take a back seat (sometimes literally) as crisis after crisis strikes their human families, and everyone rallies round to protect the most vulnerable and find the guilty parties.
Many of the events in Cat Bearing Gifts were set up in Cat Telling Tales. An acquaintance of Ryan’s from art school barges into Molena Point demanding free room and board for herself and her two daughters based on a short and not all that friendly relationship from several years back. Ryan packs Debbie and her two girls off to one of the houses that she and Clyde are rehabbing. While Ryan knows that Debbie won’t lift a finger for upkeep on the rent-free house, everyone involved feels sorry for Debbie’s younger daughter Tessa, who is bullied by her sister and her mother nearly to the point of abuse. Tessa is being watched out for by Pan, one of the intelligent, talking cats, and everyone is trying to find a better solution for her than either her mother or Child Protective Services.
Debbie’s mother Sammie was found murdered underneath her own house in Cat Telling Tales, but Sammie left her little bungalow to her friend Emmylou. Emmylou and Sammie were two of a kind, tough older women who lived alone and independently and took care of themselves and kept themselves mostly to themselves.
But Sammie’s brother Byerly wanders back to Molena Point several months after Sammie’s death. Byerly calls himself a hobo. He’s a wandering vagrant who has always touched base with his sister but never returned home to live. He’s also easily influenced and manipulated, and he returns to Molena Point with his ex-con friend Vic. With Sammie dead, Byerly and Vic break into a neglected cabin on the property and begin a mini-crime spree.
Vic also fences the stolen goods that Debbie shoplifts.
But the mini-crime spree turns maxi when Vic and Byerly cause a hit and run accident on the road from San Francisco back to Molena Point. They wreck their old truck, total a semi, and drive Pedric and Lucinda Greenlaw off the road. Vic beats up Pedric and Lucinda, and steals their car.
And that’s where the case really begins. Because little Kit is a witness to the original crime, and wants to make sure Vic gets his just desserts the minute she is rescued. And because the Greenlaws’ car is concealing all the mysterious, magical and valuable treasures that their friend Kate brought back from the dying world on the other side of The Catswold Portal.
A lot happens in this story, and at first it seems almost all bad. While Vic and Byerly thankfully don’t have the tools to discover the treasures concealed in the doors of the Greenlaws’ Lincoln Town Car, Vic has more than enough ambition (although not much sense) to take his possession of the big car and its keys and turn them into an invasion of the Greenlaws’ home as well as license to commit even more crimes as he hides the car all over Molena Point and tries to plot his way out of the town and his life as a hobo.
But the first thing he has to do is get rid of his injured partner Byerly. And the second thing he has to do is get one last score out of the disgusting Debbie. And last but certainly not least, Vic has to find a way to dodge the pursuit of all of the cats who are suddenly following him everywhere in town.
In the end, no one ever manages to get the better of Joe Grey, Dulcie, Misto, Pan and especially, Kit.
Escape Rating B+: Cat Bearing Gifts is quite a bit darker than many of the stories in this series. It is sad and scary to see the Greenlaws, who are fit and feisty but definitely in their 80s, brought down, even temporarily, by a nasty piece of work like Vic. There’s a certain amount of fear on the reader’s part, and definitely on Kit’s, that some of the damage may not be recoverable, or may cause lasting infirmities.
Kit is certainly forced to acknowledge that her chosen humans are elderly and that she will lose them someday in the foreseeable future, even if that day is not today. Kit discovers that one of the flaws of having human intelligence is that it means a little cat is able to see the awful stuff that’s coming. She is not happy about it, and neither are we.
Because Pedric and Lucinda are in the hospital recovering for a lot of this book, the humans are rightly taken up with that crisis. Everyone rallies round, but everyone is also too busy to pay attention to what the cats are doing. And the cats themselves are naturally distracted. They all care for the Greenlaws, and are worried. There’s also a certain amount of necessary deception on the part of both the cats and the humans to sneak Kit into the Greenlaws’ hospital beds, very much against medical orders.
So everyone is distracted and no one has the time or the energy to get together and compare notes about the strange doings the cats witness surrounding Vic, Byerly, Emmylou’s house and Debbie’s shoplifting. Everyone knows a piece of the puzzle, but there is no opportunity to put the pieces together.
While this was an interesting way for the plot to take care of what sometimes seems like feline omniscience, all the events that they watch are very sad and go on quite a while. The reader will want Debbie to get her comeuppance long before it finally does. And as is often the case where the detectives are very scattered, more than a few bad deeds occur because the puzzle pieces just don’t come together in time.
As a long-time reader of this series, I was glad to see the pieces finally connected between The Catswold Portal and Joe Grey. As someone who is fascinated by the relationship among the cats, it was really interesting to see the argument between Kit and Pan. While it is obvious that they are mates, they feel both in the human and the cat sense. Their argument about goals and purposes and futures was very human, but the motivation behind it was very cat. As was the resolution.
I’m looking forward to a happier story in this series in the next book, Cat Shout for Joy. Joe Grey and Dulcie are having kittens!
July 26, 2023
A good story somewhat hard to follow with all the povs changing between characters.
September 19, 2018
Feline detectives of varying ages work together to protect those they love and unveil the truth in this novel. Having discovered more about the history of their unique breed of cats, they still choose to protect their humans, so when two of them are in an accident, they come together to ensure no further harm befalls them. Soon after, another human turns up injured. The felines and their humans soon find that many of the mysteries and misdeeds in their little town point back toward one source, but how do they all connect? And how can they keep themselves and their humans from danger?
December 26, 2024
I had two major issues with this book. I think I might have liked it much more in other circumstances.
First is that this was a terrible place to enter the series. Characters (and there were far too many for this particular story) were quickly introduced, and I had a hard time sorting through them. If I already familiar with the characters, this would be less challenging, and I might have appreciated the chance to get a glimpse of characters I knew.
There were also many references that seemed pretty strange without context.
The second is that I picked this up precisely because it was a Christmas book, but I didn't really see the connection in the story.
I might start this series at the beginning, and see what I think.
First is that this was a terrible place to enter the series. Characters (and there were far too many for this particular story) were quickly introduced, and I had a hard time sorting through them. If I already familiar with the characters, this would be less challenging, and I might have appreciated the chance to get a glimpse of characters I knew.
There were also many references that seemed pretty strange without context.
The second is that I picked this up precisely because it was a Christmas book, but I didn't really see the connection in the story.
I might start this series at the beginning, and see what I think.
October 6, 2020
Excellent x 10. These books about cats always give me a warm happy feeling. The stories do involve mystery, bad guys and drama. But they also give way to the sadness of how mean people can be. In the end, well so far, there have been good endings. Which is my very favorite kind. Not without consequences. But usually appropriate ones. Lovely stories. I truly enjoy these books. And the Narrator is the same! Yay! I dislike getting used to a new voice, cadence, or inflections. Wonderful voice, Susan Boyce! Thank you.
March 13, 2024
Another novel featuring Joe Grey, a talking cat and experienced detective, and his human and talking cat friends. His friend Kit, a talking cat is riding with her humans when their car is hit by a truck. The criminal truck driver steals their car. Alas, the car had been full of treasure! Expensive cat-themed jewelry, that is. Cat detectives to the rescue! All of our favorite characters are back. Very enjoyable.
August 17, 2019
I notice I gave only 3 stars to the two previous books in this series. It must be a delight for those who read the books in order, but by book 18 I just don't care enough about the cellphone-using cats, their less well realized humans, and their past and future exploration of past lives and dying realms. Bravo to those who enjoy it. I did however read the whole book, it is not that bad.
September 28, 2019
If you are a cozy plus fantasy reader this story will fill this demand. The creative characters, California setting, and an ending that leads to more tales is what this book gives to the reader. If talking cats in this Joe Grey Mystery create interest for the reader this is it. copy right 2017 370 pages
April 20, 2019
It took a while for me to get into this one; not as gripping, but I still loved all the featured felines, more so than their humans who were pretty meh in my eyes. I plan to continue with this series. I love the author's writing and creativity, and well... I love reading about cats.
October 19, 2019
VIOLENT!!!! Thieves hitting elderly people with tire irons is not my kind of book!
This was my first foray into this series and I was about to X it off my list until I read the reviews.
I will try earlier books instead.
This was my first foray into this series and I was about to X it off my list until I read the reviews.
I will try earlier books instead.
January 30, 2020
Oh, how I love this book series! I savor each book. In this one, the suspense gets personal, as Pedrick and Lucinda are victims of a couple of sleazy criminals. That's all I'll say. Rest assured, it is 100% Shirley Rousseau Murphy at her best!
May 7, 2020
Good tale! As usual these days, not so great proofreading; the biggest gaffe being referring to Joe as Jesse. I was like “Jesse?!? Who the heck is Jesse?!” I went back looking to see if I’d forgotten someone, thinking how THIS is the one kind of situation where I wish I was reading it as an e-book, so I could just tell it to search for “Jesse”. Then I kept reading, thinking if there was a Jesse, surely he’d be mentioned again. Nope. Had to have been meant yo be “Joe”. Anyway, it’s interesting having new cats, but at one point, with 5 cats going different places, I realized I wasn’t sure who had witnessed what! But it kept it lively! This is a direct follow-up to the previous book, with some of the same characters & much mention of the previous book’s events.
Read
November 2, 2020It must be a good book. I couldn't put it down, but a few unanswered questions that might be answered in previous books in the series. Who was Billy Young's mother? and why did Debbie's ex kill Sammy?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 7, 2022
DNF
I found this book very confusing- perhaps because I have not read previous books in the series.
It seems to be a combination mystery/fantasy and I am not a fan of mixed genres.
I will not be reading other books in this series.
I found this book very confusing- perhaps because I have not read previous books in the series.
It seems to be a combination mystery/fantasy and I am not a fan of mixed genres.
I will not be reading other books in this series.
December 3, 2024
Two crazy drivers caused a three car pile up. One driver died, the two outlaws caused the wreck. One outlaw attacked two old people. Then he stole their car and everything in it and left them to die.
May 13, 2017
I love the Joe Grey series. The feline characters are just as vivid as the human ones. Although it may seem implausible, but somehow not really. Murphy writes just that well.
May 27, 2017
There is a tenderness in this book that I didn't really expect.
August 9, 2017
An action suspense story
Takes the series to a new level of plot twists and action suspense.
A thriller of a great who done it.
Takes the series to a new level of plot twists and action suspense.
A thriller of a great who done it.
August 29, 2017
These stories just get better and better!
January 7, 2019
Would like more details about Kate's visit to the Netherworld.
November 24, 2017
A truly fun book to read because of the talking cat characters and it a well-written mystery. If you like cats and like mysteries, this book is perfect (Purr-fect) for you.
April 12, 2018
Talking cats.
July 29, 2018
Another good book
I wish I had read more of the earlier books, but I enjoyed it even though I had only read a few.
I wish I had read more of the earlier books, but I enjoyed it even though I had only read a few.
December 17, 2018
Not 1 of the best in this series.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 97 reviews