Theda Krakow is in a funk. Her sometime boyfriend's gone for good. The death of her beloved cat opened a bigger void. And the career leap she's made from copy editor to freelance writer has left her financesand her spiritflat. She desperately needs a headline to get her life back on track. <BR>One day, out for a stroll in her Cambridge neighborhood, Theda spies an adorable stray kitten. This charmer leads Theda to an old woman holed up in a decrepit house full of cats. Is this one of those "crazy cat ladies," a classic hoarder, or is the old woman a neighborhood do-gooder <BR> More important, is this the story to catapult Theda out of the dumps <BR> But when she returns to interview Lillian Helmhold, Theda finds her fascinating subject dead of an apparent accident. The neighbors are celebrating, the police aren't interested, and the cats are removed to a shelter. End of story <BR> Not for Theda--one or two things don't compute. So Theda marshals her investigative journalism skills to turn gumshoe.

Journalist Simon (The Feline Mystique) makes an auspicious fiction debut with a well-plotted cat mystery that's not your usual four-footed cozy

caper. Theda Krakow, an appealing freelance feature writer, really gets down to "kickin' " blues and the Boston rock scene. When Theda goes to interview

"cat lady" Lillian Helmhold at home in Cambridge, she finds Lillian dead and her cats circling the woman's big Victorian house in distress. Lillian's

death appears to be an accident, but someone keeps breaking into her house, which is rumored to contain treasure in the late owner's stacks of boxes and

papers. Suspects include a coffee-bar waitress who helped Lillian with the cats, Lillian's schizophrenic son and an avaricious realtor who lives next

door and hates cats. Simon writes well about the visceral tug of today's rock music. We feel the feral heart of true hard rock, and the way the sound, the dancing and the booze all blend into something close to good sex. If the ending borders on the saccharine, and a cat named "Aslan" who saves the day is a little much, this is still a strong start to what one hopes

will be a long series. Agent, Ann Collette at Helen Rees Literary Agency.

-- Publishers Weekly (6.l3.2005)

Is a "cat lady" worth a headline? If she's dead...

Praise for The Feline Mystique

""A luminous treatise on the ancient and sacred bond between females and felines ... The Feline Mystique delves lovingly into the profound depths of feeling our cats can provoke."

Feline mysteries are a mainstay of the genre, although they tend to be mediocre. Fortunately, Simon turns that trend on its ear with a pleasing effort.

The story features Theda Krakow, a freelance journalist looking for a juicy story who stumbles on a crazy old woman living in a house full of cats. Her human interest piece goes up in smoke when the woman winds up dead. The cops say it was an accident, but Theda's not sure. She decides to investigate, with predictably dangerous results.The plot is entertaining, if uncomplicated, but the best thing is the heroine, a pleasant, intelligent woman who easily gains the reader's interest and empathy. --David J. Montgomery, Chicago Sun-Times, August 14, 2005.

"Theda Krakow manages to save cats, meet journalistic

deadlines, choose the wrong hunk, and solve a murder, in a sparkling addition to the mystery scene." - Lea Wait

"A witty, engaging and compelling first mystery that's more quirky than cozy, full of tasty characters and local color."- Sparkle Hayter

A chance meeting with a kitten on a sidewalk in Cambridge, Mass., leads a freelance writer into a mysterious maze with murder at the center.

Theda Krakow is still down in the dumps over the loss of her beloved cat and the breakup of a relationship when she follows Musetta the kitten to a run-down house where an old woman lives with numberless felines. She returns to interview Lillian Helmhold for a story on what she thinks may be cat hoarding only to find her dead. Now Theda's interest turns to saving the cats and helping purple-haired rocker Violet Hayes prove her friend's death was murder. Lillian has a schizophrenic son living in a group home that has recently been robbed and nearly lost to arson. Apart from the rumors that Lillian had a treasure hidden, the house itself proves valuable enough to interest Patti Wright, the realtor next door, to apply to oversee the estate. Theda encounters a sexy artist, an investigative reporter, the police officer in charge of the case, and divers cat lovers and denizens of the clubs she cruises in her attempt to find answers to her questions.

Newcomer Simon's exploration of the real-life relations between women and cats (Feline Mystique, 2002) gives her and her complicated heroine an edge

on other ailurophiles. — Kirkus Reviews (5-1-2005)