The Alarm of the Black Cat

Rachel Murdock Mystery #2

by Dolores Hitchens, David Handler (Introduction), D.B. Olsen (Pseudonym)

This classic mystery features a family feud, feline intervention, and the spirited septuagenarian sleuth from The Cat Saw Murder . A strange encounter with a little girl named Claudia and a dead toad sparks elderly detective fiction fan Rachel Murdock’s obsessive curiosity, and she winds up renting the house next door just to see how things play out. But soon after she and her cat Samantha move in, Rachel realizes they’ve landed right in the middle of a deadly love triangle that’s created animosity among the three families who now surround her. When Rachel finds Claudia’s great-grandmother dead in her basement, she reaches out to a friend in the LAPD to solve the crime. They soon learn the three households have been torn apart by one husband’s infidelity and a complicated will that could lead to a fortune. In a house plagued by forbidden love, regret, and greed, Rachel will have to trust her intuition, as well as Samantha’s instincts, to survive―and keep Claudia out of the hands of a killer whose work has just begun.…

Genres: Mystery, Classics, Fiction, Crime, Thriller, Historical Fiction, Cozy Mystery

207 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1942

About the author

Julia Clara Catharine Dolores Birk Olsen Hitchens, better known as Dolores Hitchens, was an American mystery novelist who wrote prolifically from 1938 until her death. She also wrote under the pseudonyms D.B. Olsen, Dolan Birkley and Noel Burke.

Hitchens collaborated on five railroad mysteries with her second husband, Bert Hitchens, a railroad detective, and also branched out into other genres in her writing, including Western stories. Many of her mystery novels centered around a spinster character named Rachel Murdock.

Hitchens wrote Fool's Gold, the 1958 novel adapted by Jean-Luc Godard for his film Bande à part (Band of Outsiders, 1964).

Reviews

[Mighty Aphrodite · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dopo aver assaporato il gusto dell’avventura e dell’intrigo, Miss Rachel Murdock non può davvero rassegnarsi a rimanere a casa con sua sorella Jennifer.

Sa bene come la vita sia complicata e misteriosa fuori dalle mura domestiche e vuole vedere Los Angeles, immergersi nella sua frenesia. Per illudersi di viaggiare, si affida a un agente immobiliare, che la porta in lungo e in largo per la città, nella speranza di riuscire a trovare la casa giusta per lei e concludere un affare.

Quando giungono alla fine di Beecher Street, la casa che li aspetta è trascurata, piena di polvere, anonima. Mentre girano per le sue stanze e Miss Rachel si lascia cullare dal cicaleccio dall’agente immobiliare, la donna scorge delle impronte fresche di scarpe lasciate nella polvere sul pavimento e, guardando fuori dalla finestra che dà su un giardino selvaggio, vede una bambina che sta scavando una piccola fossa.

continua a leggere qui: https://parlaredilibri.wordpress.com/...

[lise.charmel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Piacevole giallo classico, ambientato nella periferia di Los Angeles negli anni Venti. Miss Rachel è una simpatica anziana signora che si fa scarrozzare dagli agenti immobiliari a vedere case, senza una vera intenzione di affittarle, solo per il gusto di fare dei giretti.
Ma durante una di queste visite percepisce che qualcosa di orribile sta per accadere e decide di fermarsi. Aveva ragione: da lì a breve succederanno una serie di crimini, di cui Miss Rachel verrà a capo insieme al tenente Mayhew e alla inaspettata collaborazione della sua gatta Samantha.
La vicenda è particolarmente intricata e non svelo nulla per non far perdere il piacere della lettura, il finale però mi ha un po' delusa.

[Eve Lyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Non avevo mai pensato che una visita a una casa in affitto potesse trasformarsi in una discesa nell’intrigo… ma Miss Rachel Murdock, sì. Lei lo sapeva. Anzi, lo ha intuito fin dal primo sguardo rivolto alla piccola Claudia che, nel giardino di quella casa silenziosa, officiava un triste funerale per un rospo. Da lì, si è spalancata una storia avvincente che mi ha rapita completamente.

Miss Rachel è l’investigatrice che non ti aspetti: un’anziana signora curiosa e acuta, accompagnata dalla sua inseparabile compagna felina, Samantha, una gatta intuitiva, vigile, quasi medianica nei momenti cruciali. La sua presenza non è solo decorativa: è spesso essenziale alla risoluzione del caso, persino alla salvezza della stessa Rachel.

Mi ha colpita quanto la trama sappia mescolare umorismo e suspense, frivolezza apparente e tensione profonda. La narrazione si infittisce senza mai perdere fascino: oggetti insanguinati, messaggi minacciosi, anfratti segreti, antiche faide familiari… fino ad arrivare a due delitti che scuotono le fondamenta di questo tranquillo quartiere losangelino. Confesso che sono stata confusa più volte, proprio nel modo giusto. Ma con un certo orgoglio, alla fine ho colto l’identità del colpevole.

C’è qualcosa di prezioso in questo tipo di giallo: la capacità di incantare con i dettagli, di far sorridere mentre si cercano indizi, di suggerire che anche il crimine può essere raccontato con grazia e intelligenza. L'autrice non scrive solo misteri: costruisce piccoli mondi abitati da personaggi che restano impressi. E questa indagine, così diversa fin dalla prima pagina, ha saputo sorprendermi e affascinarmi più di quanto immaginassi.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The plot, while thrilling, really should only rate three stars, but the writing literally kept me up till 3 a.m. so I could finish the book. And the black cat, Samantha, belonging to Miss Rachel Murdock, really plays a small part until the final chapter. Miss Rachel has impulsively rented the deserted house for a month, sensing that something evil lurks in the quiet enclave of four houses whose inhabitants are related by blood, marriage, and hatred. And of course she is right, as she finds a corpse in the basement closet her first morning there. Dark forces seem to converge around a lonely little girl, and Miss Rachel wants to protect her.

[Alan (the Lone Librarian rides again) Teder · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Second Ever Cat Mystery?
Review of the Penzler Publishers - American Mystery Classics paperback edition (April 4, 2023) of the Doubleday hardcover original (1942).

... also possesses, like Miss Rachel's Samantha, a form of animal intuition that we humans do not. Face it, if a cat or dog takes an instant dislike to someone you can be damned sure that there's a good reason. - from the Introduction by David Handler.

Seeing that there was another Rachel Murdock available from American Mystery Classics (AMC) I was curious to see how the series progressed. As mentioned in the introduction by Joyce Carol Oates in AMC's edition of The Cat Saw Murder (1939), Dolores Hitchens (originally under the penname of D.B. Olsen) was the first writer of a so-called "cat mystery", a sub-genre which has since grown to considerable popularity. This novel is therefore likely to have been the second such book.

The Alarm of the Black Cat finds 70-year-old Miss Rachel again moving away from her sister Jennifer and taking the cat Samantha in toe. She has rented a house in a rather odd neighbourhood where the 3 other nearby houses contain the various relatives of a feuding family. Various creepy incidents occur and murders soon follow. Rachel is determined to solve the case despite Detective Mayhew's (who makes a reappearance from book #1) attempts to dissuade her, even though her own life is at peril by the end.

Again, this book leans more towards a noirish and bloody tone, rather than being a so-called cozy. The solution was actually a surprise to me, despite a gradually reduced list of suspects. The case concludes with the standard golden age of crime trope of gathering all the suspects in a room for the reveal. In an echo of the Philo Vance series, the culprit ends it all with an action which requires an Unsatisfactory Ending Alert™.

Note: As mentioned in my review of The Cat Saw Murder (Rachel Murdock #1 - 1939), Samantha the cat is described as being of a marmalade colour. This apparently didn't suit the marketing and design teams for the book series, where a black cat constantly appears in the titles and the book covers, even in these latest editions from Penzler Publishers. 🐈‍⬛

Trivia and Links
This edition of The Alarm of the Black Cat is part of the Otto Penzler American Mystery Classics series (2018-ongoing). There is a related Goodreads Listopia here with 57 books listed as of early April 2024. There are currently 71 titles listed at the Mysterious Press online bookshop. The official website for the series at Penzler Publishers seems to show only the most recent and upcoming titles.

[LauraG · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un giallo carino, stile classico, perfetto per staccare la mente e/o per rigenerarsi dopo una lettura particolarmente impegnativa. In un certo senso l'ho trovato "rilassante".

[Tara · Rating 2 out of 5]

A suspenseful mystery, but somewhat ruined by a stubborn-headed elderly amateur sleuth that is constantly putting herself, those around her, and the investigation itself in danger. Not to mention the fact that her poor cat that she dragged along got injured and not only did she not take her to the vet, but the cat simply disappeared from the story for dozens of pages, only to serve as a deus ex machina at the end. Simply put, the protagonist annoyed me, so it made it difficult for me to root for her success.

[EuroHackie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unfortunately, I did not care for this at all. I found Miss Rachel to be impulsive, impetuous, and downright stupid. She's no Miss Marple or Jessica Fletcher - she is a busybody who inserts herself into situations that don't call for her help, and she hides things from the police because she wants to solve the mystery herself. Bleh!

I'm also not sure why the mention of a black cat. Samantha, Miss Rachel's cat, is a longhaired ginger. No black cat figures into the story at all. If its supposed to be an allusion to the climactic scene, it's a bad one: since when is a cat in a dark room considered black? I have a ginger cat myself, and I can see his color in the dark.

I think I'll pass on the rest of this series.

[Lymphiecat Beatrice Delle Cave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un giallo stuzzicante, un episodio della signora in giallo fatto a libro. Molto scorrevole ed incalzante (ogni capitolo si chiude su un passaggio carico di suspense)!

[Jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reprinted by the Mystery Bookshop's Golden-Age series, though with more typos than I expect. An irritatingly self-centered intro by David Handler aside, this is a solid and surprisingly dark little mystery. I preferred the first one a tiny bit, though this one was equally dark and even gritty in spots. Just felt like better plot utilization of the cat the first time around. We get more cat-related plot developments this time, as well as an, er closing action sequence where the cat helps foil the murderer, and some disturbing, gothic bits of cruelty toward a cute little girl; even as someone who's read a million period mysteries, it always feels useful to be reminded of the timelessness of localized human meanness. (In that sense, Hitchens has more grit than a lot of purportedly hard-boiled novelists do, as they typically feature isolated, often manfully drunk adults slugging it out and taking beatings rather than facing the crueler ways in which families can warp people.)

Given the Jessica Fletcher references these novels now tend to accrue, it's notable that Hitchens has Rachel turn up in little, out-of-the-way places rather than having Cabot Cove endure its 234th murder. Incidentally, it's striking to me how many mysteries of this era involve rooming houses and/or cheap hotels--makes sense given the exigencies of the time period, obviously, but nonetheless the different social organizations of living back then, especially for single people, become really noticeable when you see them in bulk this way.

[Lisa Kucharski · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read a number of Dolores Hitchens books and have enjoyed them all. The Rachel Murdoch series also features her cat Samantha and her sister (who is the polar opposite of the forward thinking, unfraid Rachel.)

This one starts with Rachel just looking at homes to get out of the house and see things. She decides to rent one home based on a feeling after coming across a young girl who was burying a toad and realizing that it was killed by a person, and that person knew what effect it would have on this girl. Basically, renting a place that would catapult her into the middle of murder.

The wonderful thing about Dolores Hitchens (or D.B. Olsen or any number of alias’s) is that she can make the story feel really big and action packed all the time. Even small events of someone watching someone staring across the area from the back door takes on larger meaning. Her ability to compress action and have so much personal information as well is pretty amazing.

I may have read this one before Goodreads; as I’ve read a lot of them, but decided to read the reprint just revisit a writer I spent a great deal of time hunting down stories to read.

The stories tend to be in the 200 or so page length and read really quickly, I call these kind of stories - eating candy cause they are so good as soon as you finish, you want more.


This one is a bit darker than others as Rachel’s sister isn’t involved as much here, just at the end. When she is involved there is much more humor in the story.

[Darius Ostrowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my third book by Dolores Hitchens and the second that features Rachel Murdock, the old lady who enjoys inserting herself into mysteries, and her cat Samantha (who in fact is not black).

This time as she's out with a real estate agent to pass the time, she spots a little girl burying a toad who was cruelly killed. Both alarmed and curious, Rachel rents the house and inserts herself into the soap opera playing out around her.

There are three families here around her house, all with intertwined secrets and love affairs. All of the classic elements are present: secret letters, vindictive in-laws, dead wives, hidden (and not so hidden) love affairs, and the will of a dead woman that ties all of this together. All of this leads to a murder or two before the truth is finally revealed.

This is the weakest of the bunch, entertaining but annoying at the same time (for example, if people locked their doors then half of the encounters would have never happened!). There is no black cat and Samantha doesn't really get involved in the case. A bit confusing at times, but not that bad.

[Caterina Cincis · Rating 4 out of 5]

La vicenda è intricata e affascinante, ma il titolo è fuorviante, perché la gatta Samantha ha un ruolo più marginale rispetto al primo libro. La lettura è comunque piacevole, la trama è ben strutturata, al punto che arrivi a sospettare di tutti i personaggi, senza riuscire a prevedere chi sia l'assassino.
Apprezzo molto questo tipo di libro giallo, perché sei condotto per mano attraverso le indagini e nulla risulta banale.

[tortoise dreams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Driven to protect a young girl from a mysterious menacing force, septuagenarian sleuth Miss Rachel rents a house in the midst of three families feuding over a past death and future testamentary largesse. Published during the Second World War by the prolific Dolores Hitchens under the pseudonym D.B. Olsen, The Alarm of the Black Cat was the second (of 12) of the Miss Rachel Murdock mysteries. Although published during the war years there's no sense of the war. Despite the title the cat isn't black, she's yellow or perhaps "marmalade" colored and performs heroically at the end. Throughout the book neighbors relentlessly and mysteriously enter Miss Rachel's house prompting the reader to cry out, "lock a damn door!" Much of the novel was murky, there was difficulty in differentiating the characters from the three families and their histories. The mysterious and painful past plays a big role in the events of the present, though I'm still not quite sure how the murderer was to benefit from the crimes. Entertaining nonetheless. [3½★]

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, of course, I’ve read the first two books because of the titles. Although there is a cat in this book, it is not black. And not sure how the title came to this. Also sometimes the transitions from different characters talking or different scenes were not separated into a different paragraph, so I thought I was reading the same character talking, when in fact it switched, and same with scenes. A little disappointed, but then again, I am more into modern/current mystery fiction, maybe it’s a generational thing.

[Silver Screen Videos · Rating 2 out of 5]

The “little old lady” detective is one of the most popular tropes in mystery fiction. The most famous example, and one of the earliest, is Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple. Since the days that Jane Marple helped solve crimes in the rustic village of St. Mary Mead, dozens of her successors have helped police worldwide track down clever killers. In the United States, Miss Rachel Murdock, with the help of her feline sidekick, starred in a dozen novels by Dolores Hitchens from the 1930s through the 50s. In “The Alarm of the Black Cat,” she solves a murder that takes place literally under her nose. Unfortunately, Miss Rachel is no Miss Marple, and Dolores Hitchens is no Agatha Christie. Although there are some creepy moments in “The Alarm of the Black Cat,” the book will probably only appeal to devoted puzzle fans.

Dolores Hitchens was a prolific mystery writer who wrote “The Alarm of the Black Cat” in 1942 under the pen name of D.B. Olsen. This was her second novel featuring Rachel Murdock. Miss Rachel is a 75-year-old spinster and fancies herself an adventuress. However, instead of traveling the world, she takes up temporary lodging in exciting neighborhoods, waiting for something to happen. In “The Alarm of the Black Cat,” she rents a vacant home on a secluded street in a Los Angeles subdivision (even though she keeps most of her belongings in her permanent home). The street only has three other houses, two on either side of Rachel’s and the third directly across the street. The residents of these three other houses are all related to each other by blood or marriage. Soon, one of them turned up dead in Rachel’s basement, where the victim was searching for something while Rachel slept in the bedroom above. Rachel discovers the body the next day and calls her old pal, Lt. Mayhew, of the LAPD.

Even though “The Alarm of the Black Cat” has fewer than a dozen characters, I found it hard to follow who was who sometimes. Early in the book, Rachel befriends Claudia, an eight-year-old girl who lives next door. Claudia fills Rachel in on the residents of the three neighboring homes. I wound up going back to that page several times to refresh my memory of the characters. (This book could have used a map and dramatis personae page in the front.) Although I finished the story about a week before writing this review, my memory regarding the characters and their relationship with each other is very fuzzy. The only memorable character is young Claudia, who is quite likable and has good chemistry with Rachel. The others are non-entities. Besides Claudia, the most memorable neighbor is the only outsider, a family maid whose body is also found in Rachel’s basement.

Rachel Murdock never struck me as much of a detective in the book. She talks to most of the other characters (not all that difficult since everyone literally lives either next door or across the street). And Rachel makes one crucial observation in the last 20 pages that helps solve the case. But other than that, the police seem to do most of the investigating, and she’s just there to get in physical danger. “The Alarm of the Black Cat” is more effective as a woman-in-peril suspense thriller. In addition to people going through Rachel’s basement as if it were Union Station, people run back and forth between houses in the middle of the night. If the author had concentrated on the suspense aspects of the story, the book would have been more entertaining.

I could not empathize with Rachel Murdock, which is the main reason I didn’t enjoy the book. Many fictional detectives have negative qualities, but readers still root for them to solve the mystery. Here, I just didn’t care. Rachel wasn’t just a busybody; she was a careless, inattentive one who didn’t care to keep her doors locked once strangers started showing up in her basement. The mystery itself was confusing rather than entertaining. I admit I didn’t guess the killer, but only because I wasn’t sure who anyone was other than Claudia and the dead maid. Even the reliable gimmick of giving the detective a pet cat comes up short here. Samantha doesn’t seem in the least bit special, and her only memorable quality is a cat’s normal tendency to get underfoot. Neither Rachel nor her cat will be passing my way again.

[⋆.˚★ Glitterarium di Francesca ★˚.⋆ · Rating 4 out of 5]

📖La gatta ha dato l’allarme
✍Dolores Hitchens
📇Sellerio editore

🐈‍⬛🤍Tempo fa Vi parlai già di Miss Rachel, l’arzilla vecchietta appassionata di intrighi e dalla fantasia instancabile, in la Gatta ha visto tutto, di cui trovate la recensione sul mio Blog.
Oggi, ho pensato di parlarvi nuovamente di lei e dell’adorabile gatta Samantha dal mantello nero setoso, gli occhi dorati e il miagolio da soprano, grazie alla collaborazione con Sellerio Editore che ringrazio per la rinnovata fiducia.

🐈‍⬛🤍Miss Rachel Murdock questa volta è desiderosa di girovagare senza spese, fingendosi interessata alle case in affitto a Los Angeles, approfittando dell’agente immobiliare di turno.
Ma durante uno di questi sopralluoghi incontra Claudia, una bambina in procinto di dare una degna sepoltura al rospo che le hanno schiacciato con una scarpa.
Nulla di così trascendentale se non fosse che Claudia ha la parlantina facile e in pochi minuti racconta all’anziana Miss Rachel gran parte dei trascorsi della sua famiglia, che tutto è tranne una famiglia tranquilla, ecco! Tanto basta per incuriosirla e affittare quell’immobile assieme alla gatta Samantha.

🐈‍⬛🤍Di lì strani accadimenti, lettere nascoste, rancori e non detti lunghi un passato intero e lei, che assieme alla sua gatta e l’aiuto del fidato tenente Mayhew, proveranno a dipanare quell’intricata matassa.
Lo stile inconfondibile della Hitchens è perfetto nel coniugare mistero e ironia, curiosità e sagacia dando vita al curioso fenomeno editoriale del Cat Mistery tanto amato ancora ai giorni nostri, dove il gatto, per sua natura disinteressato al compiacere e quindi perfetto per un’investigazione obiettiva, affiancherà l’intrepida anziana signora nelle sue ricerche del colpevole.

🐈‍⬛🤍Mistero, originalità, personaggi eccentrici e talvolta sopra le righe, in un crescendo di suspense e brividi.

🐈‍⬛🤍Ve lo consiglio? Direi di sì, senza ombra di dubbio, ma non solo a chi ama il genere! Tutt'altro! La Hitchens riuscirà a tenervi incollati alle pagine nel riflettere sul movente ragionando sul possibile colpevole!
Riderete di gusto e amerete follemente Miss Rachel e la sua sua fidata, nonchè felina, compagna d'avventura!

[Bev · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few general observations:

1. Why is the cat in the title a "black cat"? There is no black cat anywhere in this story. The only cat mentioned is Miss Murdock's cat Samantha--and Samantha is more of a ginger tabby (and sometimes described as yellow).

2. How many times can a 70-year-old woman get clobbered over the head and still retain all her senses? Miss Murdock has the recuperative powers that would give most thriller heroes a run for their money. Bash her on the head and she'll be out cold for a few minutes and then up and at 'em and ready to track down the miscreants.

3. There's a heck of a lot of action going on at night in this cozy little neighborhood. Everybody seems to be awake and running about, but hardly anybody sees anyone else. And the one person who does see something doesn't really realize what they've seen--which misleads Mayhew and Miss Murdock for a good bit of the story.

I have to say that of the four Olsen/Hitchens books I've read so far (and three featured Miss Murdock), this is my least favorite. Miss Murdock does tend to run into trouble in these books, but in this one she seems particularly reckless and could have been killed twice over. She's also terribly secretive with Lt. Mayhew--keeping back important evidence which puts her even further in danger. The other thing I didn't care for was the danger to Claudia. I've mentioned before that I don't like mysteries that feature danger/harm to children and this killer is a bit too ruthless for my liking. Fortunately, Claudia isn't killed.

The motive is a good one and I thought Olsen/Hitchens did a fair job of spreading the suspicion around. But the plot didn't seem to move as smoothly as in her other work--the action seemed fairly jerky to me. ★★ and 1/2 (rounded up here)

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.

[Jeanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would call this a cozy noir. Cozy because it involves an amateur sleuth (and an older lady at that) but noir because there is violence described, including fisticuffs. This book is best read as a product of its time; it's very much in the '40s-'50s b/w movie era. I could easily see this as a film. While some is over the top, I applaud it for several things, mostly Our Heroine who is much more adventurous than Miss Marple and who gets hit over the head several times while investigating. Foolhardy? Yes, but aware and part of the whole reason for her curiosity and daring is that she has led a relatively sheltered life and is ready for adventure. The story opens with the death of a toad, which normally would put me off-- I don't care for animal deaths-- but this one was handled well. The toad is remembered tenderly and fondly not just as a little girl's pet, but its death lingers throughout the book, a malicious and evil act. That's what drives Miss Rachel; she knows its death is not insignificant. Yes, there are definitely instances in the book that would not be permitted in modern novels, comments or actions that now carry very different connotations, but again-- this is a product of its time and should be read as such. In general, I do believe in leaving such things as they were and not sanitizing them for modern sensibilities. We can't understand the present without understanding the past. Yes, I will be reading more in the series as they are reprinted. PS Samantha the cat is wonderful, even though she is described as a Siamese in one sentence, a black cat in the title, and as an orange cat in the text. She's a smart cookie and saves the day.

[Kenneth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a real page turner, written in the early 1940s and set in Los Angeles. Seventy-year-old Rachel Murdock ("Miss Rachel" as she is usually referred to), has rented a house for a month because while out with a rental agent looking at houses, she saw a little girl named Claudia burying her pet toad. Claudia is the daughter of Ronald Byers and his late wife Annie, who he had married some years before after he had broken up with a long-time girlfriend, Alma Tellingham. There is a property trust involved and Miss Rachel's rental house is one of four next to each other, with families that are not particularly friendly with each other - the Byers, Hayes, and Tellinghams, but who are all involved with the ownership of the trust which owns all four houses and much more. Mrs. Ruddick, Mrs. Hayes mother, is murdered and so the police are called in, led by Lieutenant Mayhew. So, the plot proceeds from there. Miss Rachel had moved in with her cat Samantha, who in spite of this book's title is not a black cat, but who plays a critical role at certain times.

[Sandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining and twisty with a plucky 70-year-old spinster as the amateur detective who has rented a house that the entire neighborhood seems to have access to.

GR does not seem to have a list of the books in the series, so I've copied one from Wikipedia:

Cat Saw Murder (Doubleday, 1939)
Alarm of Black Cat (Doubleday, 1942)
Catspaw for Murder (Doubleday, 1943); aka Cat's Claw
The Cat Wears a Noose (Doubleday, 1944)
Cats Don't Smile (Doubleday, 1945)
Cats Don't Need Coffins (Doubleday, 1946)
Cats Have Tall Shadows (Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, 1948)
The Cat Wears a Mask (Doubleday, 1949)
Death Wears Cat's Eyes (Doubleday, 1950)
Cat and Capricorn (Doubleday, 1951)
The Cat Walk (Doubleday, 1953)
Death Walks on Cat Feet (Doubleday, 1956)

[Roberta_fralerighe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beh che dire, il secondo episodio di questa adorabile serie cozy è ancora più bello del primo.
Ci sono intrighi, omicidi e colpi di scena perfetti per i pomeriggi autunnali con una bella tazza di tè.

La nostra cara Miss Rachel e la sua adorabile gatta si fanno scorrazzare da agenti immobiliari per tutta Los Angels fin quando Miss Rachel non arriva in questa casa,abbandonata, e conosce un adorabile bambina di nome Claudia che ben presto però risulterà essere in pericolo. Un pericolo dato da intrecci famigliari, patrimoni e ovviamente omicidi.
Ma per fortuna ci sono Miss Rachel,Samantha e il nostro valoroso tenete Mayhew.

Perfetto per chi ha amato la Signora in giallo, perché lei la incarna perfettamente.

[Libriandcoffee · Rating 4 out of 5]

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“Il terrore le arrosso’ il viso, le deflagro’ nella mente come una scarica di fulmini. Non ci fu modo di indietreggiare di fronte a ciò che la investi’, nessuna possibilità di nascondersi, nessun passo che potesse portarla abbastanza lontano dalla cosa che si abbatte’ sul suo cranio.”
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E’ il secondo romanzo della serie dei “misteri della gatta” di cui Sellerio ha già pubblicato La gatta ha visto tutto e il terzo, La gatta ci ha messo lo zampino. Io lo definirei un poliziesco ma per non farmi chiamare boomer, vi consiglio di chiamarlo cosy crime 😅. Niente scene splatter quindi, poco sangue e zero violenza gratuita ma un bel libro scritto e tradotto molto bene con una protagonista femminile e un felino che vi rimarranno nel cuore. L’ho letto perché la gatta si chiama come me.

[Cindy Ladensack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Came across this and I’m delighted—and need to read her other books. Love the writing, the mystery was interesting, Miss Rachel a great Marple-esque character…. Now, some of the other characters were uneven, the plot got a little long, and there is, in fact, no black cat to be found in the story. Also, do these people know about door locks and not just walking into other people’s houses any time of the day or night? But a good book and I do need to hunt down others by the author.

[Kidlitter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Miss Rachel Murdock, to use a popular phrase, is EVERYTHING. Samantha the Cat is a worthy companion and the setting of a creepy LA suburban street with its neurotic, black-hearted residents provides the drama. My hard copy had some typos and the plot was convoluted in the extreme but who cares when Miss Rachel is on the case?

[Mary Tonks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Difficult to keep characters sorted out, along with the intermingling of the families involved. Introductory remarks compared Ms. Hitchens to Agatha Christie, but I didn't notice similarities. There never was a black cat.

[Pamela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice and cozy. Only one part was never explained: Samantha, who was the color of marmalade….

How did the Samantha the cat change color from black (in previous book and title of this book) switch to orange? 🤷‍♀️

[Doreen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't read at night - especially in an older home with all their creaks and sounds

[Michale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Miss Rachel “…you know how men are.”
Mayhew: “You women will never quite forgive Adam, will you?”

[Susan Mattes · Rating 2 out of 5]

American mystery classic from 1942. It didn’t click with me.