The Alarm of the Black Cat (An American Mystery Classic)

Dolores Hitchens, David Handler (Introduction and notes by)

$15.95

Publication Date: April 4th, 2023

Publisher:

American Mystery Classics

ISBN:

9781613163924

Pages:

288

Usually Ships in 1 to 5 Days

Description

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.…

About the Author

Dolores Hitchens (1907–1973) was a highly prolific mystery author who wrote under multiple pseudonyms and in a range of styles. A large number of her books were published under the D. B. Olsen moniker (under which her "Cat" series was originally published), but she is perhaps best remembered today for her later novel, Fool's Gold, published under her own name, which was adapted as Band a part by Jean-Luc Godard.

David Handler is the Edgar Award-winning, critically acclaimed author of several bestselling mystery series. He began his career as a New York City reporter, and wrote his first two novels—Kiddo (1987) and Boss (1988)—about his Los Angeles childhood. In 1988 he published The Man Who Died Laughing, the first of his long-running series of mysteries starring ghostwriter Stuart Hoag and his faithful basset hound Lulu.

Praise for The Alarm of the Black Cat (An American Mystery Classic)

You will never regret having made the acquaintance of Miss Rachel Murdock.
— New York Times

An appealing Jessica Fletcher antecedent.
— Publishers Weekly

Miss Rachel [is] a treasure.
— Kirkus

Hitchens’s superior fair-play will delight golden age devotees, as will the alluring prose.… Miss Marple fans who haven’t yet discovered this astute student of human nature are in for a treat.
— Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)