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.
So far, I’ve reviewed three short stories: “The Strange Case of Sir Arthur Carmichael” by Agatha Christie, “The Cyprian Cat” by Dorothy L. Sayers, and “Hanging by a Hair” by Clifford Witting.
I’ve also reviewed two full-length novels: Murder at the Cat Show by Marian Babson and The Cat Screams by Todd Downing.
Thank you to Literary Potpourri for hosting #ReadingtheMeow again this year.
Introduction
Today I’ll be reviewing The Cat Who Caught A Killer, the first book in the Conrad the cat detective series written by L. T. Shearer, where talking cat, Conrad, and his human friend, Lulu Lewis, investigate a potential murder.
The Plot
Retired police officer, Lulu Lewis, is living on her houseboat, The Lark, after her husband, Simon, died in a hit-and-run accident a year before. Lewis, still reeling from the loss, spends her days in Maida Vale and makes daily visits to her mother-in-law, Emi, who is in a memory care unit.
Despite Emily’s Alzheimer’s, she is remarkably healthy for her age, and Lewis takes comfort in reminiscing with Emily about Simon and her life. Lewis, rebuilding her life, is content with her routine, but that’s before Conrad saunters into her life.
On the small tow-path by her moored houseboat, Lewis grows a few herbs, and while tending her garden, she is approached by a beautiful calico cat, Conrad. Conrad, a rare male calico, is further rarefied by the fact that he talks! His unique ability and Lewis’s comforting aura draw them together. They visit Emily, and Conrad, with his extraordinary insight, reassures Lewis that Emily’s aura is strong and she has many years ahead of her.
The next day, Lewis and Conrad visit the memory care unit and are devastated to learn that Emily died in the night. Since Lewis wasn’t listed as the next of kin, she wasn’t notified. Her brother-in-law is now the executor of his mother’s estate and wants to receive his inheritance as soon as possible so he can return to his fly-by-night life in Spain. His latest wife and her brother have invaded the family home and are hell- bent on cataloguing every last item to be sold. Emily is an afterthought, and her son decides to cremate her to move on as soon as possible.
Devastated by Emily’s death, Lewis begins to ask questions around the memory care unit and uncovers some irregularities- and is suspicious that someone who knew Emily’s severe allergy to sesame, poisoned her to get something from her. Lewis soon finds that there are irregularities at the home; a valuable Cartier watch of Emily’s is missing, a box of special chocolates has gone missing, and her brother-in-law has no interest in clearing up these discrepancies.
Conrad and Lewis embark on a journey to uncover the truth. They start to interview the people who have been visiting Emily and reconstruct a timeline of her last days. They also contact Lewis’s old sergeant, Phillips, to dig up information on potential suspects. Despite everyone telling her she’s being paranoid, Conrad keeps telling her that she’s on the right track. When Conrad and Lewis are almost killed in their houseboat, they know for sure they’re on the trail of a killer, adding a thrilling twist to the story.
The Review
The Cat Who Caught a Killer was a difficult read for me. My grandfather was in hospice and died earlier this year. I took time off from blogging to care for him, and since his passing, I have spent countless hours helping to prepare his estate for sale. The Cat Who Caught a Killer is a painfully accurate portrayal of grief and loss and the devastation that turns everything upside down after the death of a family member. The infighting, the desire to pillage the deceased’s belongings for spoils, and how there are people who will do anything to get their inheritance, even trample on the wishes of the deceased, is all too real. This exploration of grief and loss in the book may lead readers to reflect on their own experiences.
And my grandfather wasn’t even murdered.
Thankfully, Lewis is joined by Conrad, the talking cat, who is by her side for the whole ordeal. I generally liked Conrad – he reminded me of Jiji from Kiki’s Delivery Service, with his slightly sarcastic tone and serving as a sort of inner voice for the main character. I thought they might blur the line between whether Conrad could talk or whether his “voice” was just a manifestation of Lewis’ grief, which would have added some depth to the relationship and deepened the reader’s concern for her mental state. However, no, he is a straight-up magical talking cat.
Initially, I found Conrad’s stilted and overly solicitous dialogue charming. I figured he wanted food and water (Evian, only please) and wasn’t used to communicating with humans, so his speech would be unnaturally stiff- but this continued throughout the whole book. They might warm up his way of speaking to show that he was getting closer to Lewis. I also thought he would start to develop opinions that differed from Lewis’s and perhaps provide some pushback on her actions and ideas as the story progressed. Unfortunately, Conrad is essentially a rubber stamp for all of Lewis’ thoughts and feelings, which didn’t add much depth to their relationship.
Conrad does have a clever little action sequence at the end of the book, which leads to the climactic arrest of the killer(s), but he’s mainly used as a sounding board for Lewis. Hopefully, in subsequent books, Conrad will be more active in the investigation outside of being cute.
The Cat Who Caught a Killer is mainly let down by making Lewis an ex-police officer, because frankly, she’s an incompetent investigator, who seems to be very slow on putting together the fairly obvious pieces of this puzzle. Perhaps her investigative ability is clouded by grief, but the book would have made more sense if Lewis were an amateur sleuth, working her first case. Mistakes and poor investigative skills would work better narratively.
However, Lewis’s love for her husband, Simon, and her love for Emily tie together the emotional core of the book. The author has Lewis visit all of Emily’s old friends to learn more about her and her death, as well as having a teary pilgrimage to all of Emily’s old haunts to say farewell to her. The book examines how individuals cope with death and grief, resonating strongly with the reader’s own experiences. The pain of saying goodbye, the catharsis of rituals, how possessions tie us to our loved ones, and how greed for money can override empathy and compassion after the death of a loved one.
Greed can make us do a lot of terrible things, including murder.
Final Thoughts
Despite various narrative flaws and disappointment in the relatively shallow relationship between Lewis and Conrad, I found reading The Cat Who Caught a Killer to be a cathartic experience. It accurately discusses modern challenges of burying a loved one, of planning a funeral, of the emotional labour of going through the house of a deceased family member, and the emotional devastation of losing someone you love before their time. It made me feel less alone.
I am curious to see how Conrad and Lewis’ relationship will blossom in future books, where he’s not needed to function so much as an emotional support for Lewis- unless, of course, the author keeps killing her family members – and functions more as a partner in the investigation.
An uneven debut, but it has me intrigued enough to read the next book in the Conrad the cat series.
Golden Age of Detective Fiction 
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