Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter

✍ Scribed by Clement, Blaize

• Book ID: 108141464
• Publisher: Macmillan
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 171 KB
• Series: Dixie Hemingway 1
• Category: Fiction
• ISBN-13: 9781429928182

✦ Synopsis

Dixie Hemingway knows first-hand that many things in life are worse than a dirty litter box. Once happy as a Florida sheriff's deputy, she lost everything when senseless tragedy shattered her world. Now Dixie laces up her sneakers, grabs some kitty treats, and copes with one day at a time as a pet-sitter. Her investigations deal strictly with "crimes" such as who peed on the bed . . . until she finds a dead man face down in an Abyssinian's water bowl. With the local cops stymied--including a handsome detective who catches her eye--she decides to clip a leash on a lead or two and go sleuthing herself. Dixie soon finds out that the Abyssinian's pretty owner has vanished and left behind a shocking past, a lonely cat, and a chilling reason for Dixie to start running when she's out walking the dogs.

From Publishers Weekly

Clement's assured cozy debut introduces an appealing heroine, 32-year-old Dixie Hemingway, who's given up her stressful job as a sheriff's deputy in Sarasota, Fla., to become a professional pet sitter. When Dixie calls early one morning on her latest client, a silver-blue Abyssinian named Ghost, she finds a dead man face down in the cat bowl. The contact person (a requirement when you leave an animal with a sitting service) has no clue where Ghost's owner, gorgeous Marilee Doerring, could have gone or why her locks were changed before she left. Unfortunately, when Dixie locates Marilee, she, too, is dead. And that makes Dixie suspect number one. With sensitivity and insight, Clement develops a plot line involving a bigoted, Bible-thumping radio psychologist, Carl Winnick; his repressed wife, Olga; and their gay teenage son, Phillip, who's a talented pianist. The difficulties and humor inherent to the pet-sitting business, a local law-enforcement hunk with romantic potential and crisp writing all bode well for future entries in the series. (Jan.)
Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Despite the title, which suggests yet another cute kitty cozy, this first-rate debut is more dark than light. Set on Siesta Key, near Sarasota, Florida, the story features Dixie Hemingway, whose family tragedy drove her from the police force and into the bars. Still healing, Dixie is clean and working again, only this time as a pet sitter. When a dead man is found inside one of her client's homes, Dixie must get involved with police work again, this time as an outsider. Clement weaves interesting subplots into the story, such as the story of a young gay man who can't come out to his militant parents and Dixie's own struggles with the loss of her husband and daughter in a senseless accident. When Dixie finds another body--this time that of her client--she becomes of more than passing interest to the police. Despite the grim subject matter, Clement lifts the mood with descriptions of the cute pets Dixie tends each day. A nice mix of lite and dark. Jenny McLarin
Copyright American Library Association. All rights reserved