Dr. Nightingale Meets Puss in Boots

A WHISKER FROM DEATH

Farm animals--cows, horses, pigs, and a goat or two--are country vet Deirdre Nightingale's specialties. So she knows a swine when she sees one--whether human or animal. But a trip to New York City will let her observe an old friend's small animal practice to brush up on treating the common cat. Didi never expects a large gray Persian named Molson to help her solve a murder.

The puss Molson is a fixture at Boots, a Manhattan bar, where one of Didi's employees is making her singing debut. Naturally Didi is there with the rest of the gang who work for her--just in time to see the club owner gunned down by a bicycle messenger. The NYPD is on the case, and they're downright mulish about letting a vet join in. But Didi has a hunch--or maybe it's feline intuition--about the crime. Soon she's gathered more clues than cat hairs, and the puss in Boots is inspiring a cat-chy scheme that will trap the killer--or send Didi to the big litter box in the sky.