Too Many Tom Cats

A collection of eleven of Barbara Collins's best cat-themed stories, edited by Max Allan Collins. In "A Proper Burial," a childless couple is driven to extremes to get back the remains of their beloved dead cat, held as evidence in a murder case. In a saloon brawl instigated by hatchet-wielding Carry Nation, the bartender kills "Carry's Cat," and Carry is later charged with the saloonkeeper's murder. When an actress leaves her fortune to her cat, a scheming daughter tries to rub out "The Ten Lives of Talbert." Can an elderly woman beat a murder rap by claiming that her cat is her reincarnated husband? Find out in "Aunt Emma's Defense." And in "Cat Got Your Tongue," co-written with mystery-writer husband Max Allan Collins, a conniving young couple attempts to steal the cat of a taxidermy-loving old vaudevillian. "Intriguing . . . superb . . . the best the mystery genre has to offer." —Booklist