Cat’s Claw by Dolores Hitchens

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Rachel Murdock is an apple-cheeked, white-haired little old lady who lives with her prim sister Jennifer in Los Angeles. You’d think these elderly ladies would be quiet and staid, and in Miss Jennifer’s case you’d be right.  Miss Rachel, however, has become quite the fan of crime solving, much to her sister’s mortification. 

 

When a man is hit by a car nearby and the incident is not reported, Miss Rachel contacts the police—namely, her friend Lt. Mayhew—to investigate.  The people living in the rented house next door have vanished, leaving behind few clues except for the painting of a mountain in California marked San Cayetano.

 

Miss Rachel, being Miss Rachel, decides that she’s going to take a little vacation. 

 

In San Cayetano.

 

This is not a series to everyone’s taste, but I love it.  The books were written in the 1940s and 50s (this title came out in 1943) and haven’t been edited to suit modern tastes. Miss Jennifer turns positively pink at the mention of “petticoats” or (gasp!) any other undergarments. Samantha, the black cat of the title, has to be let out at intervals because the invention of cat litter is still a few years in the future. And despite the elderly protagonist, the crimes aren’t genteel at all.

 

Miss Rachel is a movie fan and, for me, the books read like one of those old black and white detective tales.  I can see Lt. Mayhew in his broad shouldered coat and the pale blonde of a woman’s hair.  Some of the scenes are theatrical indeed, and again I can see those play out as if in a movie.  World War II is firmly in the background, though there are mentions of men enlisting or going to work in war-related industries, which again reflects the escapism of the time.

 

For some readers, Miss Rachel is just a nosey old woman who ought to mind her own business.  I see Miss Rachel as someone who is determined to live life while she can and who enjoys the excitement. She’s also very independent, and while she gets herself into some scrapes, she also gets herself out of them.

 

The series doesn’t need to be read in order, but the first book is The Cat Saw Murder. There were twelve titles in the series, originally written under the more masculine  name D.B. Olsen, but which are now being reprinted under the author’s real name.