What do you think?
Rate this book
Cat Crimes III
Like foosteps in an empty alley or screams in the dead of night, cats and mystery fit purr-fectly together. CAT CRIMES 3 is an eerie collection of eighteen original spine-tingling tales about cats, humans, and the curious company they keep. For fans of mystery, felines, or both, dare to scratch the surface of these new stories from the best mystery writers working today.
240 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
1 person is currently reading
109 people want to read
About the author
Martin H. Greenberg
910 books163 followersMartin Harry Greenberg was an American academic and speculative fiction anthologist. In all, he compiled 1,298 anthologies and commissioned over 8,200 original short stories. He founded Tekno Books, a packager of more than 2000 published books. In addition, he was a co-founder of the Sci-Fi Channel.
For the 1950s anthologist and publisher of Gnome Press, see Martin Greenberg.
For the 1950s anthologist and publisher of Gnome Press, see Martin Greenberg.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
October 14, 2021
This short story compilation had a really good idea of mixing mysteries with cats. I felt like a few of the stories were good but there were also a good number that didn’t bring much in my opinion. I felt like the book started on a great note with what I considered to be the best story with the creepiest twist. The last story was the worst and I didn’t really understand the crime connection at all and it didn’t really have a story or ending.
May 4, 2020
Alright,
Witches
has refreshed my taste for short stories so now we’re on to my last Cat Crimes compilation. Let's see if Greenberg can pull off at least one of three.
A pair of greedy thieves see an easy path to ready cash, but they're caught red-handed by their not-so-harmless victim. Cat Got Your Tongue by Barbara and Max Allan Collins was a deliciously creepy start to the book, and the twist at the end caught me completely off guard.
A Few Strokes for Mitzi is all it takes to get well-earned revenge. Herbert Resnicow's story of an art restorer getting some payback for the unintentional death of her elderly cat will be a hard one to top. While the killer's financial scheme was too confusing for me to follow (and ate up pages explaining), it doesn't make the revenge plot any less ingenious. Especially since it manages to work around the restorer's unbendable morals.
Next Year, Kankakee, but this year it's Tierra del Fuego for a trip this couple won't soon forget. Mark Richard Zubro sends us to a tiny coastal town just in time for their yearly human sacrifice. This story wasn't as great as the first two and actually seemed a little silly at one point (), and the culmination was a bit of a fake-out, but it wasn't terrible. Mostly it read like it was trying to be something bigger than itself.
A pet therapist regrets his choices when he's hired to reconcile a woman's cat and her new husband. Where's Mittens? by Matthew J. Costello was a pretty good story that, while lacking the buildup of drama the first two stories had accomplished, does give a strong, surprising resolution. My big issue is that what seems like a great plot by the wife actually relied a lot on luck. What if the therapist had brought an assistant? What if he told someone where he was going or got someone to drive him? What if the police did some basic investigating and asked neighbors/checked alibis?
In Larry Segriff's story, a burglar breaks into a house and runs into some bad luck. No Hard Feelings is amusing, but I'm hard pressed to figure out anyone's reasoning. A burglar is allergic to cats, so when he sees his target's daughter and her cat come home for the holiday he decides to break in right away before the fur gets too bad, but why not put it off until she goes back to college? Why is he breaking in while the family is at home? Why is he knowingly breaking in at all to a house that just became even more dangerous for him to be in?
A cat-hating Cat Burglar (by Bill Crider) is caught red handed thanks to some feline intervention. I have to admit, up until the burglar leaves the house it was really funny. It starts out so calmly then he suddenly walks into a Home Alone movie. But after he left the house it turned into bad made-for-TV slapstick. Were the neighborhood cats getting revenge for him using them to figure out when their owners weren't home? Who knows.
The police are reluctant to involve themselves when fifteen cats go missing over a two month period, but the animal shelter manager knows something suspicious is going on. With a bit of work, he and his girl Friday find the Fat Cat behind it all. Nancy Pickard is a writer who doesn’t usually let me down, and here she’s pulled off another great cozy mystery. You like the characters and the plot is smooth and logical, and if the solution clears itself up for the reader before it does for the characters at least the detectives aren’t so far behind that it has a chance to get annoying. It’s a well-rounded, perfectly enjoyable story.
Another ‘cat and mouse’ story of a man turning into a small animal and being hunted and eventually eaten by a Kitty. John Lutz wrote the only such story for this compilation, but there were one or two in each of the previous two books as well. It wasn’t an entertaining plot to start with and now it’s just repetitive. Skip.
The Wall (by Lisa Angowski Rogak) is another solid cozy story. A city couple move to the country and find something odd about their new neighbor’s reputation around town. But the pair has a more pressing concern, such as why their cat keeps disappearing into the basement and returning looking like he’d lost a round with a wet raccoon. The story has a good pace to it and I enjoyed the attention to detail, but the ending is almost funny with how blasé the local police are with what the couple finds in their basement.
A woman’s cat is her Constant Companion, and her husband isn’t at all amused. When she and her cat go missing it’s up to her brother and his friend to be the cats to drag her up. Peter Crowther’s story of a miserable wife, a rotten husband, and a cat determined to give a killer a fond ‘F*** You’ was entertaining, but the only really memorable part was the cat. From how its relationship with its owner is described through the story you expect it to be a sweet-tempered lap cat. But when it shows up it's more like a mangy, battle-scarred old tom that - if it weren't for always being with its owner - I'm sure would probably be spending its days terrorizing the neighborhood dogs. Its appearance at the end was absolutely hilarious, and the text doesn’t say so but I 100% believe that .
Dogs are Dumb Animals, and Dumb the bulldog is the worst of the lot. A cat gets rid of an unhygienic roommate in DeLoris Stanton Forbes’ story, which is perfectly decent but far from being a favorite.
The Life of Riley is looking good when their owner dies and leaves them to the tender care of the valet for the rest of their life. However long that may be. Wendi Lee’s story is from the point of view of the valet, who tries to go about murdering the cat in a competent, patient way that I wholeheartedly approve of. It’s so nice to see a villain who understands that these things need to take time if they hope to get away with it. But I can’t understand why he didn’t just relax and accept being the cat’s caretaker. He gets the money, car, and house when the cat dies, but it’s an old cat and he’s still getting a generous salary and full use of the house and car in the meantime. Even if he’s not a cat person it’s an incredibly cushy job.
A lawyer is hired to get a beloved Maine Coon from a gambling boss when his client hands over the pedigreed puss to cover his debt. But the boss has blackmail plans for that cat, and the state attorney and chief of police are both on the Catnapper’s payroll, so this lawyer is going to have to get creative if he wants to see justice done. Joe L. Hensley’s short story was great fun and a standout of the book. It kept you thinking and gave you a satisfying conclusion.
A cold case turns hot when a cat is denied it's dinner. Killed in Midstream by William L. DeAndrea was enjoyable and clever, and while not the best in the book it was still one of the better ones.
Annie knows she's never Leaving Cornucopia, but a girl can't help but dream. When her dream guy walks into her bar she finds herself swept up into a story of romance, betrayal, and pool-playing cats. D. C. Brod's story is probably the best in the book. The characters are great, Annie's relationship with the cat, Eight Ball, was charming, and the culmination was superbly satisfying.
I have no idea what's going on in Cat House by Melissa Mia Hall. Is the main character going crazy? Is it another 'cat and mouse' story? Were they inside the cat the whole time? Are they now? How? Why? What's going on??
A P.I. is Neutral About Cats (by Jan Grape) but knows to give credit when it's due. It takes an instinctive action from her feline roommate to figure out who really robbed a plane and murdered a stewardess. This one was an interesting case with a thrilling beginning and a clever solution, but I was a little disappointed in how the suspects were set up. There were only two and we knew one was innocent, so the mystery was actually how they did it. I definitely would have preferred this as a full-sized novel with more suspects to muddy the waters.
Buster by Arthur Winfield Knight is a crime, but only because it managed to break from the rest of the theme and couldn't even do it well. A mismatched couple is going through some issues while the main character observes how bad they are for each other. A cat dies, but no one really notices or cares and it doesn't affect the plot. Hell, I'm not sure it even had a plot. It's never confirmed to be intentional (the couple actually totally ignore it while Buster vomits and seizes) so it may not even be a crime. Maybe Buster's death is supposed to be a metaphor for their marriage?
EDITING:
No mistakes and no complaints.
ENJOYABILITY:
A much better compilation than the previous two books. Out of eighteen stories, nine were good enough to warrant my admiration on some aspect or another, so it gets a half score.
THEME:
Buster is barely a crime story and maybe not even that. I'm going to deduct a half point for that since it's the only story that doesn't fit.
THE VERDICT?
The third time was the charm for this compilation series. I'm happy to say that I can recommend this one as a good one to pick up for some quality cat crime fiction.
A pair of greedy thieves see an easy path to ready cash, but they're caught red-handed by their not-so-harmless victim. Cat Got Your Tongue by Barbara and Max Allan Collins was a deliciously creepy start to the book, and the twist at the end caught me completely off guard.
A Few Strokes for Mitzi is all it takes to get well-earned revenge. Herbert Resnicow's story of an art restorer getting some payback for the unintentional death of her elderly cat will be a hard one to top. While the killer's financial scheme was too confusing for me to follow (and ate up pages explaining), it doesn't make the revenge plot any less ingenious. Especially since it manages to work around the restorer's unbendable morals.
Next Year, Kankakee, but this year it's Tierra del Fuego for a trip this couple won't soon forget. Mark Richard Zubro sends us to a tiny coastal town just in time for their yearly human sacrifice. This story wasn't as great as the first two and actually seemed a little silly at one point (), and the culmination was a bit of a fake-out, but it wasn't terrible. Mostly it read like it was trying to be something bigger than itself.
A pet therapist regrets his choices when he's hired to reconcile a woman's cat and her new husband. Where's Mittens? by Matthew J. Costello was a pretty good story that, while lacking the buildup of drama the first two stories had accomplished, does give a strong, surprising resolution. My big issue is that what seems like a great plot by the wife actually relied a lot on luck. What if the therapist had brought an assistant? What if he told someone where he was going or got someone to drive him? What if the police did some basic investigating and asked neighbors/checked alibis?
In Larry Segriff's story, a burglar breaks into a house and runs into some bad luck. No Hard Feelings is amusing, but I'm hard pressed to figure out anyone's reasoning. A burglar is allergic to cats, so when he sees his target's daughter and her cat come home for the holiday he decides to break in right away before the fur gets too bad, but why not put it off until she goes back to college? Why is he breaking in while the family is at home? Why is he knowingly breaking in at all to a house that just became even more dangerous for him to be in?
A cat-hating Cat Burglar (by Bill Crider) is caught red handed thanks to some feline intervention. I have to admit, up until the burglar leaves the house it was really funny. It starts out so calmly then he suddenly walks into a Home Alone movie. But after he left the house it turned into bad made-for-TV slapstick. Were the neighborhood cats getting revenge for him using them to figure out when their owners weren't home? Who knows.
The police are reluctant to involve themselves when fifteen cats go missing over a two month period, but the animal shelter manager knows something suspicious is going on. With a bit of work, he and his girl Friday find the Fat Cat behind it all. Nancy Pickard is a writer who doesn’t usually let me down, and here she’s pulled off another great cozy mystery. You like the characters and the plot is smooth and logical, and if the solution clears itself up for the reader before it does for the characters at least the detectives aren’t so far behind that it has a chance to get annoying. It’s a well-rounded, perfectly enjoyable story.
Another ‘cat and mouse’ story of a man turning into a small animal and being hunted and eventually eaten by a Kitty. John Lutz wrote the only such story for this compilation, but there were one or two in each of the previous two books as well. It wasn’t an entertaining plot to start with and now it’s just repetitive. Skip.
The Wall (by Lisa Angowski Rogak) is another solid cozy story. A city couple move to the country and find something odd about their new neighbor’s reputation around town. But the pair has a more pressing concern, such as why their cat keeps disappearing into the basement and returning looking like he’d lost a round with a wet raccoon. The story has a good pace to it and I enjoyed the attention to detail, but the ending is almost funny with how blasé the local police are with what the couple finds in their basement.
A woman’s cat is her Constant Companion, and her husband isn’t at all amused. When she and her cat go missing it’s up to her brother and his friend to be the cats to drag her up. Peter Crowther’s story of a miserable wife, a rotten husband, and a cat determined to give a killer a fond ‘F*** You’ was entertaining, but the only really memorable part was the cat. From how its relationship with its owner is described through the story you expect it to be a sweet-tempered lap cat. But when it shows up it's more like a mangy, battle-scarred old tom that - if it weren't for always being with its owner - I'm sure would probably be spending its days terrorizing the neighborhood dogs. Its appearance at the end was absolutely hilarious, and the text doesn’t say so but I 100% believe that .
Dogs are Dumb Animals, and Dumb the bulldog is the worst of the lot. A cat gets rid of an unhygienic roommate in DeLoris Stanton Forbes’ story, which is perfectly decent but far from being a favorite.
The Life of Riley is looking good when their owner dies and leaves them to the tender care of the valet for the rest of their life. However long that may be. Wendi Lee’s story is from the point of view of the valet, who tries to go about murdering the cat in a competent, patient way that I wholeheartedly approve of. It’s so nice to see a villain who understands that these things need to take time if they hope to get away with it. But I can’t understand why he didn’t just relax and accept being the cat’s caretaker. He gets the money, car, and house when the cat dies, but it’s an old cat and he’s still getting a generous salary and full use of the house and car in the meantime. Even if he’s not a cat person it’s an incredibly cushy job.
A lawyer is hired to get a beloved Maine Coon from a gambling boss when his client hands over the pedigreed puss to cover his debt. But the boss has blackmail plans for that cat, and the state attorney and chief of police are both on the Catnapper’s payroll, so this lawyer is going to have to get creative if he wants to see justice done. Joe L. Hensley’s short story was great fun and a standout of the book. It kept you thinking and gave you a satisfying conclusion.
A cold case turns hot when a cat is denied it's dinner. Killed in Midstream by William L. DeAndrea was enjoyable and clever, and while not the best in the book it was still one of the better ones.
Annie knows she's never Leaving Cornucopia, but a girl can't help but dream. When her dream guy walks into her bar she finds herself swept up into a story of romance, betrayal, and pool-playing cats. D. C. Brod's story is probably the best in the book. The characters are great, Annie's relationship with the cat, Eight Ball, was charming, and the culmination was superbly satisfying.
I have no idea what's going on in Cat House by Melissa Mia Hall. Is the main character going crazy? Is it another 'cat and mouse' story? Were they inside the cat the whole time? Are they now? How? Why? What's going on??
A P.I. is Neutral About Cats (by Jan Grape) but knows to give credit when it's due. It takes an instinctive action from her feline roommate to figure out who really robbed a plane and murdered a stewardess. This one was an interesting case with a thrilling beginning and a clever solution, but I was a little disappointed in how the suspects were set up. There were only two and we knew one was innocent, so the mystery was actually how they did it. I definitely would have preferred this as a full-sized novel with more suspects to muddy the waters.
Buster by Arthur Winfield Knight is a crime, but only because it managed to break from the rest of the theme and couldn't even do it well. A mismatched couple is going through some issues while the main character observes how bad they are for each other. A cat dies, but no one really notices or cares and it doesn't affect the plot. Hell, I'm not sure it even had a plot. It's never confirmed to be intentional (the couple actually totally ignore it while Buster vomits and seizes) so it may not even be a crime. Maybe Buster's death is supposed to be a metaphor for their marriage?
EDITING:
No mistakes and no complaints.
ENJOYABILITY:
A much better compilation than the previous two books. Out of eighteen stories, nine were good enough to warrant my admiration on some aspect or another, so it gets a half score.
THEME:
Buster is barely a crime story and maybe not even that. I'm going to deduct a half point for that since it's the only story that doesn't fit.
THE VERDICT?
The third time was the charm for this compilation series. I'm happy to say that I can recommend this one as a good one to pick up for some quality cat crime fiction.
July 8, 2015
Collins, Barbara - Cat Got Your Tongue ****
Resnicow, Herbert - A Few Strokes for Mitzi ****
Zubro, Mark Richard - Next Year, Kankakee ****
Costello, Matthew J - Where's Mittens? ***
Segriff, Larry - No Hard Feelings ***
Crider, Bill - Cat Burglar ****
Pickard, Nancy - Fat Cat ****
Lutz, John - Kitty ***
Rogak, Lisa Angowski - the Wall ****
Crowther, Peter - Constant Companion ****
Stanton Fordes, DeLoris - Dumb Animals ****
Lee, Wendi - Life of Riley ****
Hensley, Joe L - Catnapper ****
DeAndrea, William L - Killed in Midstream ****
Brod, DC - Leaving Cornucopia ****
Hall, Melissa Mia - Cat House **
Grape, Jan - Neutral About Cats ***
Knight, Arthur Winfield - Buster ***
My Rating System:
* couldn't finish, ** wouldn't recommend, *** would recommend, **** would read again, ***** have read again.
Resnicow, Herbert - A Few Strokes for Mitzi ****
Zubro, Mark Richard - Next Year, Kankakee ****
Costello, Matthew J - Where's Mittens? ***
Segriff, Larry - No Hard Feelings ***
Crider, Bill - Cat Burglar ****
Pickard, Nancy - Fat Cat ****
Lutz, John - Kitty ***
Rogak, Lisa Angowski - the Wall ****
Crowther, Peter - Constant Companion ****
Stanton Fordes, DeLoris - Dumb Animals ****
Lee, Wendi - Life of Riley ****
Hensley, Joe L - Catnapper ****
DeAndrea, William L - Killed in Midstream ****
Brod, DC - Leaving Cornucopia ****
Hall, Melissa Mia - Cat House **
Grape, Jan - Neutral About Cats ***
Knight, Arthur Winfield - Buster ***
My Rating System:
* couldn't finish, ** wouldn't recommend, *** would recommend, **** would read again, ***** have read again.
June 15, 2010
Mostly good, but this collection had some odd flaws. The final story in the anthology, "Buster," was a real clunker, with no actual story or resolution. Another tale, "Neutral About Cats," had major plot holes...it involved a crime committed aboard an airplane, and the whole "mystery" hinges on the police allowing some passengers to leave the scene without keeping track of their names. That made no sense at all, and it ruined what should have been an interesting story. My impression is that they ran out of really good stories and had to fill the book with things that would otherwise have been in the slush pile.
February 19, 2016
Door de verschillende verhalen in het boek is er een groot verschil in waardering.
Sommige verhalen verdienen een absolute 5* terwijl andere dan eerder een 2* waard zijn.
Sommige verhalen verdienen een absolute 5* terwijl andere dan eerder een 2* waard zijn.
October 2, 2019
2.75 rating
Short stories all involving a cat. Some good; some mediocre.
Short stories all involving a cat. Some good; some mediocre.
May 15, 2019
This is a good compilation of short stories involving cats. You will laugh, cry and be very pissed off with how some of the stories end. I noticed with a couple of stories it seemed like the cats were just an afterthought and just added because the story likely needed something (the author could have just done something about the story itself instead of just shoehorning a cat in there and making it seem like the cat didn't really belong in the story in the first place) but other than that this compilation was enjoyable.
February 20, 2019
There is something for everyone in this book. You'll laugh, cry and get mad at the way some of the stories end.
April 26, 2022
Read as a teenager
November 5, 2022
Meeste verhalen vallen tegen. Zeker niet bloedstollend.
March 28, 2025
As with my short story collections, I liked some of the stories and wasn't so keen on others.
April 26, 2025
…. None of these were good.
August 28, 2008
Curiously compiled collection of comedic and catastrophic cat tails (no spell
check needed this is a deliberate misspelling to be funny lol). I just loved most of the stories, the kitties were adorable and the big cats were sometimes scarier than zoo animals. There are two other collections in this series and I will be on them like a cat stalking a mouse.
check needed this is a deliberate misspelling to be funny lol). I just loved most of the stories, the kitties were adorable and the big cats were sometimes scarier than zoo animals. There are two other collections in this series and I will be on them like a cat stalking a mouse.
October 4, 2009
I like cats and I like mystery stories. I liked most of the stories in this book but a few I really dislike. Maybe because the writer hated cats?
February 11, 2012
"purrr-fect" was my best one word description of this book in junior high.
August 23, 2016
Ehh, not as good as the second one, and definitely not as good as the first. Cats felt a little more like an afterthought in this collection.
Read
April 14, 2008Anthology,Mystery
August 5, 2012
extremely boring with stories that made no sense whatsoever. very disappointed.
May 3, 2017
An interesting collection of cat themed short stories by various authors. Apparently I read this book years ago because I remembered most of them. However, they were worth reading again.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews