Tag Archives: Mystery

Petectives: Under Fire playlist

Gatsby with his favorite book

Gatsby with his favorite book

A list of songs that I listened to while writing my cat mystery novel, Petectives: Under Fire. Some of the songs have a strong thematic link to the story, while others helped me set a scene or get into the heads of the characters. The story takes place on the Fourth of July during a heat wave so there’s lots of music related to the summertime and hot weather.

Heat Wave – Martha Reeves and the Vandellas

Hot Fun in the Summertime – Sly and the Family Stone

Stoned Soul Picnic – Swing Out Sister

Summer in the City – Lovin’ Spoonful: When you hear this song it immediately evokes the feel of a sweltering hot summer day.

Little Willy – The Sweet: According to Wikipedia, this song is about a stray cat that hung around the garage where the band members practiced.

New Age Girl – Deadeye Dick: I was listening to this song when I wrote the chapter featuring the character, Sunshine the hippie tortoiseshell cat.

Fire – Ohio Players

Lies – Jonathan Butler

Gimme Some Lovin’ – Sam and Dave: Somehow I’ve always heard this song as “Gimme Summer Lovin’”.

Why Can’t We Be Friends? – War

In the Summertime – Shaagy featuring Rayvon: Reggae/Rap reworking of the Mungo Jerry classic.

Summertime Blues – Eddie Cochran

I’ll Take You There – BeBe and CeCe Winans

Love Rollercoaster – Ohio Players: That’s right, there’s two Ohio Players songs on this playlist!

Will It Go Round In Circles? – Billy Preston

Summertime – Billy Stewart

Walk Us Uptown – Elvis Costello and the Roots

Summer Breeze – Isley Brothers

Bang Bang – David Sanborn

Coming soon:

The latest book in the Petectives series:

Petectives: Under Fire – It’s the 4th of July and the Petectives are feeling the heat! In the midst of a sweltering heat wave, feline detectives Yoshi and Gatsby get word that an old enemy is back and running a protection racket in their neighborhood. When an attack lands Gatsby’s girlfriend in the veterinary hospital, he gets hot under the collar but it may take Yoshi’s cool logic to shut down a gang of animal criminals and clear a dog from a horrible accusation. The Petectives are back and there’s going to be fireworks!

Petectives is free today!

Free feline fiction for Labor Day! If you have a Kindle or the Kindle app and you’re in the mood for some cat literature please click on the link at the right and check out “Petectives”.

Book description:
PECTECTIVES
It’s almost Halloween and cat detectives Yoshi and Gatsby are up to their collars in mystery in this humorous whodunnit for pet lovers. When Gatsby and Yoshi decide to help a pretty young cat find her missing brother, what starts as a routine missing pet investigation soon pits them against both a gang of vicious criminal pit bulls as well as the neighborhood dog police, who are looking into rumors of dogfights. While Gatsby’s up to his whiskers in danger and romance, Yoshi’s putting together the pieces of a puzzle that could rock their community. Can the boys find a missing cat and shut down a dogfighting operation while staying two steps ahead of the local dog police? It’s all in a night’s work for the Petectives!
An 18,000 word mystery novella.

Weird Cat Items on Ebay

A few feline oddities that can be found on Ebay:

Phone case with an image of a cartoon woman feeding pizza to a real cat.

Phone case with an image of a cartoon woman feeding pizza to a real cat.

An antique print of a cat hanging upside down pretending to be dead with mice and rats beneath him exploring mousetraps

An antique print of a cat hanging upside down pretending to be dead with mice and rats beneath him exploring mousetraps

Ceramic ashtray painted and shaped like a cat's head.

Ceramic ashtray painted and shaped like a cat’s head.

Yep

Yep

Cat butt salt and pepper shakers

Cat butt salt and pepper shakers

cat skullface figurine

cat skullface figurine

Crazy cat lady action figure

Crazy cat lady action figure

Cat geek tee

Cat geek tee

Petectives Profiles #3 Duke

A closer look at the characters in the Petectives stories
Duke is an entirely fictional character
• Duke is the leader of the Dog Patrol, an informal canine police force dedicated to keeping order in the neighborhood.
• 7 years old. Black and tan German Shepherd. 85 pounds. Disciplined, intelligent, honorable and somewhat cynical.
• Duke served as a police dog until he was injured in the line of duty
• Avid TV watcher – Duke’s favorite show is ‘The Littlest Hobo’, a show about a hyperintelligent German Shepherd who travels from town to town helping people and catching criminals.
• Duke has a gruff demeanor but he’s mostly friendly with Gatsby. Duke is not so friendly with Yoshi – he finds him to be arrogant and pretentious. Duke and Yoshi do have a history of working together before Gatsby was born and they both have a deeply hidden mutual respect for one another.
• Personal feelings aside, Duke respects Yoshi’s intelligence and Gatsby’s investigatory skills and would love for them to join the Dog Patrol but all three of them realize that cats wouldn’t be likely to follow his orders. He grudgingly agrees to work with them when necessary.

Petectives Profiles#2: Gatsby

Gatsby

Real Life
• AKA: Philo; Catboy; Knucklehead Smith; Safety Cat
• Orange cat with light stripes. 12 pounds.
• Rescued pet; We got Gatsby at Pets Without Parents, a non-profit, no-kill, all-breed shelter for dogs and cats in Columbus, OH.
• Gatsby is usually skittish although he has been known to deliver a series of blows to dogs four times his size.
• Likes dry dog food as a snack
• He seems to howl at people doing things that he considers unsafe. This habit has earned him the nickname “Safety Cat”
• Supposedly an indoor cat but has made several attempts to escape to the outdoors.

Fictional
• Narrator of the Petectives stories.
• 3 years old. Orange cat with light stripes. 12 pounds.

• Gatsby is very intelligent but has a reckless temperament and doesn’t always think through the consequences of his actions. He’s prone to making risky decisions based on emotion.
• Gatsby has a very good vocabulary as a result of living with Yoshi, his housemate and partner in crime detection.
• Outgoing and friendly. Loves to get out of the house. Actually enjoys the company of some dogs.
• Something of a “ladies cat” before he met his girlfriend Molasses.
• Gatsby has a high regard for Yoshi although he would never admit it.

Petectives Playlist

A list of songs that I listened to while writing the novella Petectives. Some of the songs have a thematic link to the story, while others helped me set a scene or get into the heads of the characters. There are a range of genres represented but the overall theme is sort of jazzy sophistipop.

Sister Moon – Herbie Hancock featuring Sting: Jazzed up version of the Sting song. I have never had any idea what the lyrics mean but I have imagined that they are from a cat’s viewpoint.

Moondance – Van Morrison: The perfect song for the beginning of the story where cat detective Gatsby meets his lovely client on an October night under a full moon.

Black Cat – Janet Jackson: Gatsby’s annoyed that there are no songs titled “Orange Cat”.

Everybody Wants to Be a Cat – Jennifer Ryan: Slow, jazzy version of the theme song from the Disney classic “The Aristocats”.

Watching the Detectives – Elvis Costello: The big band version from the album “My Flame Burns Blue”. You can’t get any more detectivey than this.

Who’s Johnny? – El DeBarge

Somewhere in the World – Swing Out Sister

Peter Gunn – Art of Noise: No detective story should be written or read without this tune playing in the background at some point.

La Luna – Matt Bianco: Yet another jazzy moon song.

After All – Al Jarreau: A love song for Gatsby and Molasses.

Pink Panther Theme – Bobby McFerrin: Another cool detective song. This one with a cat connection in the title.

Heaven Only Knows – Swing Out Sister

Warehouse – Dave Matthews Band: I pictured this playing when Gatsby and Molasses are exploring the old abandoned house that turns out to be far more dangerous than they suspected.

What Is Hip? – Tower Of Power

Don’t You Worry ‘bout a Thing – Stevie Wonder

The Big Eye – Rusty Zinn: Rockin’ blues tunes with extremely paranoid lyrics.

Someone To Watch Over Me – Ella Fitzgerald

King Of Pain – Inner Circle

Petectives Profiles#1: Yoshi

Yoshi

Yoshi

Real Life

  • AKA: Crazy Yoshi
  • Black cat; 16 pounds
  • Bought at a pet store in a mall in Troy, MI
  • He was given an Asian name due to his resembling a Siamese cat when he was a kitten. He grew out of that appearance but kept the name.
  • Yoshi loves salty snacks such as french fries, potato chips and pretzels. He’s been known to swat nacho chips out of people’s hands so that he can jump down to the floor and recover them.
  • Refuses to ride in a car. If someone can survive his teeth and claws and actually get him into a cat carrier and into the car, he will get so horribly carsick and noisy that it will be almost impossible to drive

Fictional

  • 8 years old. Black cat; 16 pounds
  • Knows how to read. Enjoys the books on his owner’s bookshelves.
  • Refuses to leave his house for any reason.
  • Yoshi doesn’t think much of dogs but has a grudging respect for Duke, the German Shepherd leader of the neighborhood Dog Patrol.
  • Yoshi enjoys four regularly scheduled naps throughout the day which can never be disturbed except for extreme situations.
  • Considered a legendary figure in the neighborhood. Since he doesn’t leave his house most pets have never met him.