This week, I’ll be reviewing a selection of cat-themed short stories and books for #ReadingtheMeow2025. Most of my picks are from the Golden Age of Mystery fiction, which is set between the two world wars.
You can learn more about how to participate or learn more about what I’ll be reviewing this week by checking out my introductory post here. My 2025 reviews for #ReadingtheMeow so far include three short stories: “The Strange Case of Arthur Carmichael”, “The Cyprian Cat”, and “Hanging by a Hair” as well as the full-length novel: Murder at the Cat Show.
Thank you to Literary Potpourri for hosting #ReadingtheMeow again this year.
Introduction
Happy Friday the thirteenth to all my readers! I’m wishing you all good luck on this day heralded for bringing bad luck. The Cat Screams is an atmospheric read set in Taxco, Mexico, where US Customs agent Tom Rennert is attempting to have a relaxing vacation.
However, a series of suicides and accidents is haunting the hotel, with a suspected smallpox outbreak adding to the terror. The only consistent element in these tragedies is the chilling scream of a cat, foretelling each death.
The Plot
Hugh Rennert is trying to have a relaxing vacation at Madame Fournier’s boutique hotel, which boasts clean, no-frills accommodations and tranquility. Far from the pleasure grounds of American tourists, this Mexican oasis is nestled in the sleepy town of Taxco and is just what Rennert is looking for, far away from everything, especially murder.
Unfortunately, Rennert’s placid vacation is disturbed by the whirlwind arrival of acclaimed stage actress Gwendolyn Noon, who is embroiled in a drama of her own, befitting a stage.
Noon has rushed away to hide in Mexico after breaking her engagement to the wealthy and prominent oil magnate’s son, Riddle. Who, of course, followed her to Taxco to try and change her mind. Also in Taxco is the gossip monger, David Shaul, who has made a living lately writing about the life and times of Gwendolyn Noon. Her secrets and unsavory past, which have been dominating the newspapers, make it impossible for the marriage to continue.
Shaul, smelling that there’s more to the story than a broken engagement, hounds Noon at Madam Fournier, and Riddle’s ire reaches its boiling point- he decks Shaul and lays him out flat.
Rennert hopes that making it known that a lawman is also one of the guests will temper this raging tempest, and he helps move Shaul into a quiet room so he can recover. Rennert leaves Shaul in the care of a hotel guest and nurse, Mrs. Gidding.
Rennert notices that Madam Fournier is on edge, even though the dust-up between Shaul and Riddle is over. After much coaxing, Madam Fournier tells Rennert that in Mexican folklore, a cat screams before a death, and her beloved cat, Mura, a beautiful Siamese, cannot stop screaming. Rennert tries to reassure Madam Fournier that her beloved pet is just in heat and not a predictor of death, but she remains unconvinced. The Mura’s cries are so intense that she decides to shut away the cat in the kitchen.
A few hours later, Gidding informs Rennert that Shaul has died, and a small blood stain on a pillowcase gives credence to the theory that Shaul was murdered by one of the guests and that he didn’t die from his injury from his brawl with Riddle.
Outside the hotel, a sudden, virulent outbreak of cholera is ravaging victims. There’s no way that police can make it to the remote hotel; instead, the suspicious death is investigated by General Perez, with Rennert acting as an interpreter for the predominantly English-speaking guests.
General Perez and Rennert, a unique blend of team and adversaries, start interviewing the guests. They are captivated by the revelations and the unspoken truths. The investigation is not just about murder; it’s about blackmail, drug smuggling, and a missing jade artifact, adding layers of complexity to the case.
As days pass, it becomes apparent that the porter at the house, Esteban, who has a strange rash, is on the verge of death. In his delirium, he calls to the Mesoamerican spirit Naugal, who has the power to transform a human spirit into an animal. Mura, who prowls the house unceasingly, pieces the night with a terrible cry, and Estaban is dead.
Is Mura more than just a cat? Is it a harbinger of death, summoning the Grim Reaper to its next victim?
When Mura cries a third time, and a guest with the best motive for killing Shaul is killed, Rennert and General Perez must reexamine each of the suspects more closely, and each man, going off on their own theory, has a different culprit for the murders in mind.
When the murderer attempts to hunt down the cat and silence it, Rennert realizes Mura is at the heart of these deaths.
The Review
The Cat Screams is a highly successful closed circle mystery with intriguing suspects, atmospheric horror, and ratcheting tension as danger pervades Madam Fournier’s hotel. The opening gambit of a torrid lovers ‘ spat is subverted by making neither Riddle nor Noon as likely suspects for killing Shaul, by the evidence given by the other guests.
Interestingly, most of the book, after the death of Shaul, is told through interviews with suspects. The interviews are primarily composed of questions that Rennert wants to have answered, and General Perez maintains the fiction that Rennert is merely an interpreter, even while General Perez feels the death is a relatively insignificant matter. To some extent, General Perez is correct; there’s an outbreak of cholera in the town of Taxco, and many lives are being lost. Chalk Shaul’s death up to an accidental death and move on.
What does one American life mean against a city besieged by death and cut off from food and medicine?
But to Rennert, Shaul’s death represents a failing- that there are places that justice cannot reach. While Rennert has no legal standing to investigate Shaul’s death, he feels a moral obligation to Shaul, even if he found him repugnant in life.
Rennert’s unwavering commitment to justice in the lawless and chaotic city of Taxco is a valiant stand; however, Rennert soon finds himself in a complex web of lies. Everyone is lying to him, some to protect secrets, some to hide their identity, some in a misguided attempt to shield the people they love, and some lie to keep killing. He uncovers blackmail, avoids being poisoned, breaks up a drug ring, but the murderer is clever, almost clever enough to evade the law. Moral, principled, and relentless, Rennert is faced with moral dilemmas that will keep the readers engaged and thoughtful.
Rennert is also incredibly intuitive; he notices small gestures —the coloring of a thumb, the way a person fidgets in their clothes —and correctly interprets how these little gestures reveal their lies. Interestingly, Rennert doesn’t seem to mind people lying to him; he likes letting them spin their lies and catching them out later, when the time is right, when the whole puzzle is solved. He uses this method to significant effect to solve the many strange and illegal happenings at Madam Fournier’s.
Except for the screaming of the cat.
The cat, which frightens the whole household, is providing the clue to solving the entire mystery. A clue in plain sight, a cat so significant that even the murderer doesn’t realize Mura could unravel their whole killing spree. As the killings get more and more overt, the cat’s screams punctuate the air again and again.
Downing is relentless in reminding us that death lurks inside the house, and when Estaban dies of cholera, then again, maybe that’s a lie too- the whole house is at a fever pitch. People are cooped up, a murderer is lurking in the shadows, stalking its victims with ease, and every night the cat screams, warning them that one of them is next.
Downing has skillfully woven the Native legend of Naugal into this mystery, lending the story a haunting, fatalistic feel. Death pervades, it invades, and there is no escape from death- they are at the end of the world, where no law can reach them.
Until Rennert realizes why the cat screams.
Final Thoughts:
The Cat Screams was one of my favorite reads in 2025 so far. I appreciated Todd Downing’s slow-burn approach, where every chapter he piles on a minor mystery, and another, and another, while the body count inside the hotel rises and the dire medical crisis outside the hotel keeps isolating them further and further from outside help.
It felt like a noose tightening around my neck.
Despite the number of suspects dwindling due to deaths and apparent libel, I only figured out the killer moments before it was revealed. There’s so much evidence to sift through, so many torrid looks and strange behaviors from all of these guests that it was devilishly complex to figure out what terrible thing they were up to, a little light blackmail, or you know, full-blown murder spree?
Incidentally, I figured out the killer without ever piecing together the significance of Mura’s screaming. It’s a straightforward concept to understand, and it took Rennert several days to figure out. So, if you piece it together, you’re a better detective than the two of us.
Atmospheric, gothic, and a tough mystery make The Cat Screams an absolute winner for me. Weave in some moral quandaries about the reach of the law in a lawless place, and The Cat Screams goes from well-crafted whodunnit to timeless classic for me.
Golden Age of Detective Fiction 
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