Cat mystery novels

The Holly Winter/Alaskan malamute books are by Susan Conant, and I second elfkin477’s recommendation. Even though I’m more of a cat person IRL, the Conant books, especially the earlier ones, are packed with fascinating information about malamutes, obedience training and showing, breed rescue organizations, etc.

The Conant books aren’t written from the point of view of the dogs, nor are they particularly whimsical – both pluses to me. As much of a cat fan as I am, I find books like the Rita Mae Brown series just a bit much. I prefer cats like the one in the Kinky Friedman series that Celyn mentioned, or the ones in the early books of the Richard Jury/Melrose Plant series by Martha Grimes. The cats in those books are much more realistic, with vivid, amusing, exasperating personalities that make you think that the authors are well-acquainted with some real-life cats.

I love LJB and The Cat Who books, I just re-read the whole series. Another cat mystery writer I have just started reading is Shirley Rousseau Murphy. She writes the Joe Grey books. The cat (Joe Grey), and his girlfriend cat Dulcie can actually talk to humans, so some people might not like that. I haven’t read the first few books in the series though (just jumped into the middle), so I’m not sure how they started actually speaking. But the books are fun and good light reading.