Mystery Review: The Cat Saw Murder is the first in a series of 13 novels featuring septuagenarian amateur detective Miss Rachel (the American Miss Marple), all with the word "cat" in the title. Originally published by Dolores Hitchens (1907-73) under the pseudonym D.B. Olsen. Hitchens has an interesting writing style, recapitulating and explaining what is to come, while skipping over certain moments that the reader might have expected to be described. Miss Rachel lives in Los Angeles and here travels an hour away to "Breakers Beach" after a call from her troubled niece. The Cat Saw Murder is somewhat like a British country house mystery, only set in a seaside boarding house. After her cat Samantha and Miss Rachel herself are both imperiled, she allies herself with a police officer (as Miss Marple was wont to do), working together to find the mysterious perp among the residents of the boarding house. Miss Marple appeared nine years earlier than did Miss Rachel in The Cat Saw Murder; I like both but have a sneaking fondness for Miss Rachel who gets much more time in the limelight. As usual, do not read the (unhelpful) Introduction before the story. One aside: the title character Samantha, a cat, doesn't behave much at all like a cat. [3½★]
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