TAILS LASHING, EYES GLEAMING, PAWS DIPPED IN BLOOD…HERE, KITTY, KITTY, KITTY!

To the Egyptians they were divine. To the practitioners of witchcraft they were messengers of Satan. To the lonely they are warm, soft companions. Children adore them. Poets rhapsodize about them. And storytellers…well, wait and see what our finest mystery writers do with black cats, yellow cats, Cyprian cats, cats of the Mafia, cats in packs, cats invisible, cats…deadly!

Put a saucer of milk beside your favorite chair, pick up this book, and prepare to be entertained—to the last murderous meow.

—FEATURING—

JOHN D. MacDONALD • DOROTHY L. SAYERS • ELLERY QUEEN • BRAM STOKER • JANWILLEM VAN DE WETERING • CLARK HOWARD • EDGAR ALLAN POE • RANDALL GARRETT • L.T. MEADE AND ROBERT EUSTACE • EDWARD D. HOCH • WILBUR DANIEL STEELE • ALLEN KIM LANG • BETTY REN WRIGHT • WILLIAM BRITTAIN

Though this is an anthology of cat stories, and although I recognize that the inherent grace, beauty, and natural intelligence of our feline friends grants them inherent worth far exceeding that of the much over-rated dog—in which I am in agreement with the Good Doctor himself—I must confess I didn’t like this book very much.

There are no stories by Asimov here. The most famous story is, of course, Edgar Allan Poe’s “Black Cat,” which is rather too gothic and melodramatic for my taste, as is Bram Stoker’s “Squaw.” Indeed, there are only two or three stories in the anthology which I can say I genuinely enjoyed, among which Randall Garrett’s “A Little Intelligence” is the most prominent.

This is most unfortunate, as a collection of cat stories deserves to be more memorable and worth-while than this anthology ends up being.