Cat Telling Tales

Molena Point on Fire--Cats to the Rescue

I have spent so many pleasurable, scary and whew -good hours with Shirley Rousseau Murphy and her fabulous feline detectives in Molena Point. Molena is a California coast town full of tourists and shops and our favorite cats' human housemates. I am used to the beautiful ladies who wear cashmere shawls and decorate rich homes, work in soft sculpture, paint and draw the cats, and those who pull up their jeans and build houses. They are so creative and kind. Even super sleuth cat Joe Grey's housemate is an artist who returns vintage cars to original beauty. In the old Molena the main detective never takes a picture of paw prints at crime scenes or notices the cats at the station "to get a donut." The Police Chief is a wonder who takes his "tipsters at their word" even if they know stuff that only comes into his office. He never sees Joe Grey sitting on his "in" box seeming to sleep. Yes the old Point was heaven on earth but the new one... Hellfire and brimstone comes to town. The recession has hit. Families abandon their homes even their pets. Houses are falling apart, a poor woman sleeps in her car, confused cats roam the streets with no hunting skills or stay by their old homes with empty stomachs and hearts full of hope. When the first of the hellfires begins, Joe Grey who can punch a phone, sounds the alarm. His alarm saves the farm animals and pet dogs but is too late to save an old woman named Hesmera. She dies alone in her bed. But why did she not leave the house? In the burn and grime left behind the mystery begins. Luckily her grandson Billy is away working to buy food. He is saved but left bereft--no family he knows but his grand. And thank goodness--his is one super dysfunctional family. Three generations beginning with the drunk mother (now deceased), Deborah and Esther who leave and never speak to her, Greta dead in a car accident and and her son Billy the lost child. The 2 older girls' husbands are in the real estate business which is quickly turning t...