The slicing Southern wit of Rita Mae Brown takes a slightly different tenor in this tale, claimed to be co-authored by Brown's cat, Sneaky Pie. There's also the voices of cats, dogs, horses, and mice in this tale, and things get fishy when several horse racing jockeys are murdered with daggers to the heart. Good thing the cat Mrs. Murphy is involved--"The day we think like humans we're in trouble," she says--who rallies her friends to go digging around and figure out what the humans can't.