It's interesting how cats and crime novels seem to go together. I used to adore The Cat Who... books by Lillian Jackson Braun. I keep meaning to start that series over from number one. Her protagonist is such a well fleshed out guy, too. Not perfect, a little grumpy, but ultimately very pleasant.
I also read the ones by Rita Mae Brown, but I didn't grow to love them like I loved Braun's books.
Chris, cat crime novels are where the cat helps SOLVE the crime, obviously!
Different authors address this in different ways. In Braun's books, the cats always end up doing something that tips the "detective" (he's a journalist, actually, named Qwilleran) off and helps him figure out the crime and who did it. For example (spoilers!),
I think it was the first book, The Cat Who Saw Red, wherein his cat is fixated on a red vase that his friend apparently made for him. Later you discover that the vase is red because when it was fired in the kiln, a body was in it, which gives a very beautiful, distinct red colour to glazing. So it turned out the his friend was dead and her husband had disposed of her body in the kiln she was firing pots in, and then he had delivered the vase from the kiln which she had promised to Qwilleran to make it seem more like she fulfilled her obligations and then ran away, rather than just disappearing.
Another sort of cat crime novel is like in Brown's books, wherein the animals can talk to each other and know things the person (I think she's a vet?) doesn't know because they witnessed things when she wasn't there/didn't see/whatever. So the animals try to find ways to make their owner know what happened, since they can only talk to each other and not her.
Which kind of cat crime novel do you write, Manu? And welcome to BookTalk!
