The Cat Laughs

Gerry Coneybear has her hands full. Between her work as a cartoonist and children's book author, raising one-year-old Dot with partner Doug, and caring for the 19 cats her late aunt left her--along with the rambling old house known as The Maples--life in the village of Lovering on the Ottawa River is anything but quiet. Add a busy social calendar, and Gerry is already stretched thin.

So what does she do? She signs up for a three-month, once-a-week art conservation internship in downtown Montreal. It's chaotic, yes--but also invigorating. Gerry finds purpose volunteering at a women's shelter, strikes up a friendship with a homeless man, and starts to notice a troubling pattern of thefts--small and not-so-small--back home in Lovering.

Theft is one thing. But when a suspicious death rocks the village, Gerry and her faithful friend Prudence are once again pulled into a mystery with deadly consequences.