Animal Detective

Florence Nightingale sends care instructions to the woman who has just adopted her angora tomcat, Mr. White. T. S. Eliot issues a rhyming birthday party invitation to all Jellicle cats for his four-year-old godson. Jack Kerouac's mother grieves at the death of the family cat. Jack Lemmon winkingly suggests to Walter Matthau that they go in on a cat ranch in Mexico. This utterly charming collection offers a warm and friendly look at the place that cats occupy in our hearts and lives.

Welcome to the world of Steamboat Willie’s Whistlestop Puzzle Mysteries! It’s the 1920s, and you’re the new first mate of a steamboat, the SS Wilkinshire. You encounter Willie, a talking mouse, on your first mystery! Together, the two of you team up to solve crimes. And there’s a lot of them! The SS Wilkinshire is a magnet for unfortunate events: murder, blackmail, thievery. There’s always a puzzle that needs to be solved. If you think playing detective is going to be easy, think again! These puzzle mysteries are tricky. It takes a very sharp eye to recognize the clues, so ...

A disappearing body. Hidden magical talents. An adorable mind-reading dog. And small-town secrets . . . Addie James’s life imploded when she discovered her fiancé cheating and got downsized from her biotech job. So she left Silicon Valley for the haven of her Aunt Kate’s tea and apothecary shop in the peaceful mountain town of Stargaze. There, she plans to take a deep breath and figure out what’s next. But when Addie reaches Stargaze, there’s no trace of her aunt. Until one night, Aunt Kate’s lifeless body shows up and then disappears from the locked shop. And that’s when ...

Disillusioned, with their dreams of running an island hotel shattered, the McInnes family return to Glasgow. Hugh and Annabella are planning to go travelling, leaving Leger in the care of the Goldsworthy family while they are gone. He wastes no time on self-pity though and throws himself back into his work. Shortly before arriving back in the city, he learns Nicole has been attacked. With the police taking too long to track down the culprit, Leger and Bob get on the case. However, Isabella can't stop flirting, Ginger is acting out of character and Amber is taking risks that put lives in ...

Returning to Glasgow after a brief spell in his new island home has left Leger feeling homesick and heartbroken. His son and daughter have grown up without him, his beloved Ginger has found a new tom and a thief is running amok in the area while his former sidekick, Amber, is uninterested in catching the culprit. On the plus side, the extra pounds he gained during his brief retirement have done nothing to ruin his appeal with the local mollies. Leger faces uneasy choices. Should he help Amber collect clues and point her in the right direction? How can he win back Ginger? Did he make the ...

Now settled in his new home as a hotel cat on a tiny Scottish island, Leger is searching for activities to keep him busy. As always, his mind turns to sleuthing... At a Burns Supper hosted by Tony, the hotel's manager, in honour of the Lithuanian girls he has employed to work for him, the mystery of three recent thefts is apparently solved when two of the stolen wallets turn up in one of the girl's bags. However, Leger is not convinced that the accused, Emilija, is guilty and using his feline instincts, sets about searching for the true culprit to clear Emilija's name.

Refreshed after his recent trip to the island, Leger is back in Glasgow but finds there are matters which require his attention. His girlfriend is angry that he disappeared to the island without saying goodbye and issues an ultimatum; take a break from sleuthing or lose her. Leger must also find a home for Lily, the island sleuth who returned to Glasgow with him and it seems a local cat loving criminal, Malky Maguire, is the perfect person to adopt her. Undeterred by a series of break-ins and acts of vandalism at the Maguire home, Lily settles in and is soon part of the family. However, the...

He thought she was lost forever but he has finally tracked her down. Leger reunites with his friend, former housemate and fellow detective, Lily and she's back in his life just in time to help him solve a mystery. When John, the man of the house in Leger's temporary home, unexpectedly vanishes, Leger initially is not concerned. After all, he and John have never really seen eye to eye. Why would he care if John went for a really long walk? But, Lily suspects that John is in danger and with very little in the way of clues, something Lily heard might transpire to be invaluable to the ...

On Christmas Eve, Leger suffers the indignity of getting stuck trying to escape from a top floor window in front of a cluster of carol singers. So, he chooses to spend the most magical night of the year at his girlfriend, Ginger's home. This decision may be one he will live to regret as they wake up on Christmas morning with a basket of newborn kittens next to them. Leger vows to find the mother of the kittens before they lose their bond with her completely but it won't be easy. He has no idea where to start and nobody in the neighbourhood was pregnant in the first place. How will he begin ...

The neighbours of Glasgow's Creamery Crescent are taking a festive break. Of course, no trip would be complete without their pets so Leger and his closest friends travel north to enjoy the Christmas period in a secluded cottage in the Highlands. The celebratory mood changes when Nicole Goldsworthy witnesses a man and woman burying a body in a shallow grave. The murderers attempt to knock her down in their car but with help from her animal friends, old and new, Nicole survives the hit and run. The situation is complicated further by the arrival of Poppy, who followed the group from Glasgow ...

Leger's lifestyle has finally caught up with him and he is now living in hiding in the highlands with Annabella and Nicole. Life in the wilderness has many benefits but Leger finds it difficult to adjust to his new, temporary home and gets lost one evening. When he is rescued by a kindly American lady and her son and returned home by them, he is filled with gratitude. The visiting Americans invite their new Scottish friends for Thanksgiving dinner the following day, but Annabella has a bad feeling about this woman. Leger decides to throw himself into the celebrations until he accidentally ...

Leger's beloved companion, Annabella, is wrongly accused of armed robbery. To clear her name, Leger must head out of the suburbs and go downtown where he will make new friends and face fresh dangers. He is reluctant to leave the neighbourhood at all as Ginger is pregnant with his kittens and due to give birth any day. However a betrayal by one of his close circle of friends convinces him it is best to concentrate on freeing Annabella but when Ginger's daughter Amber learns the truth there are tragic consequences. Will Leger be able to track down the real robber? Will he make it home in time...

There have been many changes in Leger's life recently and Annabella is now leaning on him for support so much that she won't go anywhere without him. So, on a chilly September afternoon, Leger finds himself leashed to Annabella and travelling in her bag on her way to have lunch with Nicole in Glasgow's west end at a cafe that accepts animal diners. However, when they get there, they find the cafe empty and a violent robbery taking place in the kitchen. Can Leger help the two women track down the perpetrator with no knowledge of the area and no clues to work with except the getaway vehicle -...

Leger McInnes is ready to retire. He still loves detective work, but after a lifetime of investigating crimes in the local area and beyond, his priorities have changed. Ginger has lost her sight, Bob has seizures, Nicole suffered sepsis and now his beloved Annabella has found a frightening lump. It's time for Leger to move onto his next life as a nurse. However, there's just one last job to do before he retires and that's to find the people who robbed Meg, his next door neighbour. All the suspicion seems to fall on Ingrid, a mysterious woman who has turned up on their doorstep claiming to ...

Malky Maguire is dead. The news has shocked the neighbourhood, but with so many dirty deeds recently, nobody is in the mood to mourn the local gangster and former cat lover. Leger sees it as his duty to solve the case, despite having no enthusiasm for it. With the help of his father, Ragnar, who has come to visit Maxine, Leger starts piecing together little bits of information that have been collected by Lily, Sparkle and Ragnar. Can Leger focus on the case while he is still mourning the death of one of those closest to him? Can he stop rejecting Ragnar and get over his fear of losing his ...

A wedding is due to take place but the freshly decorated venue has been sabotaged. Leger sets out to catch the vandal and reconnect with the sisters he hasn't seen since kittenhood. But they have a secret and despite Amber's attempts to protect him from the truth, it seems he is going to find out that family is about more than blood.

In Leger's latest mystery, Irenie, who claims to be a psychic with the ability to read tea leaves and tarot cards visits the hotel with a warning for Annabella. Leger is not to be trusted! Leger then has a nightmare about Annabella where he is to blame for her untimely death and begins to wonder if perhaps he really is bad luck. However Lily is concerned by the psychic's behaviour and after some digging, she uncovers a startling truth about her. Can Lily reveal Irenie's true intentions before it's too late?

It's February, love is in the air and spring is just around the corner - but so is deceit. Maxine has just moved in to the street across from Leger and she is so smitten with him that she instantly adopts and renames him. She and Leger bond quickly, so when she is accused of stalking and harassment by her former neighbours, Leger cannot believe she would do such a thing. Besides, she was with him at the time when the harassment occurred. But a cat is not an alibi who will stand up in court. Desperate to clear Maxine's name, Leger seeks help from his friends, both feline and human and along ...

Glasgow's finest feline sleuth, Leger McInnes, returns and this time he tackles his most disturbing case yet! His friend Winter is traumatised and unable to speak following the horrific experience of witnessing a murder. Leger vows to track down the murderer and find closure for Winter. This will not be an easy task for Leger. With Winter unable to help, despite knowing exactly what occurred and his sidekick Ginger incarcerated while she is in season, Leger struggles to piece together the events of the night of the murder. He seeks comfort from Samara, the pretty new Persian housecat who ...

Leger returns for his fourth book set at the hotel on "the island" far away from Glasgow. Kevin the swan has confessed to killing a local man by drowning him in the loch, but is he telling the truth and why would he claim he is a murderer? While trying to uncover the real story, Leger and Bob also have to look for Carole, who Lily is convinced is the real killer. Can they clear her name?