The Judas Cat

Anthony Boucher, former New York Times mystery expert: “[The Judas Cat] is a “rewardingly perceptive novel.”

  Craig Rice in the Los Angeles News: “…a wonderful small town setting, a good story, and some very, very top-flight writing. Don’t miss it!”


A hate-filled town was afraid to call it murder...

   A strange victim—Hillside had always dismissed 92-year-old Andy Mattson as simply a strange old codger—a name parents used to scare their kids into behaving.

   Then one steaming summer day the town was rocked by news of his death...his violent death.

   Chief Waterman spoke for the whole town when he said: “It just don’t make sense that anyone’d try to kill the old man . . . What’s the use of risking your neck when he was going to kick off any day?” 

   But in this seemingly respectable town there was someone who couldn’t wait—a fear-crazed killer whose guilt drove him to murder!


The Saturday Review of Literature calls The Judas Cat a “heftily plotted opus with roots sinking deep into pasts of numerous ably delineated characters who furnish plentiful action and a stirring finish.”


About the author:

Dorothy Salisbury Davis was born in Chicago in 1916 and grew up on farms in Wisconsin and Illinois. She was educated in Waukegan and Lake Forest, Illinois. For two years she traveled with a magic show, visiting small towns in 28 states. One of them is the locale of The Judas Cat.

Mrs. Davis first became aware of crime at the age of seven when a farm-hand burglarized the house. It puzzled her that someone who ate with the family, rolled his own cigarettes and tied Dorothy’s shoe laces, could be taken away by the police. Since that time she has been fascinated by the workaday, live-a-day behavior of most criminals a great part of the time.

   Davis was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America, the organization she presided over as president in 1956. She is also an eight-time Edgar Award nominee.