A Cat with the Blues

Years ago, Alice Nestleton left her Minnesota home to come to the Big Apple in search of fame and fortune as an actress. Now forty-one, jobs are becoming fewer, not that any of them amounted to anything. To supplement her income, she offers her services as a cat sitter. Currently, she cares for Fancy, a Russian blue feline. Fancy has her apartment to herself because her owners are squabbling during an acrimonious divorce in which both claim the cat as theirs. Alice receives a generous fee for insuring Fancy receives fresh food, water, and litter, and that neither Mr. nor Mrs. Woburn abducts the feline.Alice drops off a check on behalf of Mrs. Woburn at the nearby bodega only to have an armed robber demand money while she is there. The thug points his gun at Alice, but inadvertently shoots the shopkeeper. Alice believes she was set up by her client and quits her job. Not long afterward, someone kills the doorman in what appears to be a mugging gone ugly. Next Fancy is catnapped and the gallery where Mrs. Woburn was to have a showing burns to the ground. Alice has solved several homicides over the years and sees a link between these events. She begins her own brand of investigation.