β Scribed by P. T. Deutermann
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Starred Review. Deutermann's first chapter features the eponymous, anonymous cat dancer as he rappels down a cliff in the dead of night, swings into the cave of a 200-pound female mountain lion and snaps a picture of the enraged beast as she attempts to disembowel him. The scene then shifts to a pair of thugs, who, while attempting to rob a gas station minimart, shoot the Pakistani owner and cause a fire that incinerates a young soccer mom and her child. The scumbag perps skate on a technicality when judge Annie Bellamy points out they were never read their rights before confessing. That Deutermann (Firefly ; Darkside) is able to fuse these two disparate plots is testament to his well-drawn characters, intelligent, realistic dialogue and top-notch writing. Lt. Cam Richter, of the Manceford County, N.C., Sheriff's Office, is in charge of the minimart case, which becomes much more complicated after he receives an e-mail attachment that shows one of the two freed killers, K-dog Simmonds, being electrocuted in what is clearly a home-made electric chair. Cam is soon headed into the backcountry of the Great Smoky Mountains on the trail of both a nest of vigilante killers and the elusive, possibly apocryphal Eastern mountain lion. Petrified readers will be checking under the bed and in the closets for any panthers that may have crept inside while they were glued to the pages. (Dec.)
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"A spellbinding novel of suspenseβ¦quite possibly his best."
--Nelson DeMille
"Gripping...original and intense."
--Book Page
"Full of surprises...keeps you reading past your bed time."
--Charlotte Observer
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π SIMILAR VOLUMES
### From Publishers Weekly *Starred Review.* Deutermann's first chapter features the eponymous, anonymous cat dancer as he rappels down a cliff in the dead of night, swings into the cave of a 200-pound female mountain lion and snaps a picture of the enraged beast as she attempts to disembowel him.
An ingenious thriller of murder, revenge, and mystery in remote wilderness, by the acclaimed author of *The Firefly* and *Hunting Season* When two lowlifes rob a gas station, murder the attendant, and then incinerate bystanders who are filling up their minivan, the Manceford County, North Carol
\*You are what you eat. . . . *Cat smart, sassy, and funnybut thin, shes not. Until her class science project. Thats when she winds up doing an experimenton herself. Before she knows it, Cat is livingand eatinglike the hominids, our earliest human ancestors. True, no chips or TV is a bummer and no
_You are what you eat. . . . _ Cat smart, sassy, and funny--but thin, she's not. Until her class science project. That's when she winds up doing an experiment--on herself. Before she knows it, Cat is living--and eating--like the hominids, our earliest human ancestors. True, no chips or TV is a
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