The Cat Saw Murder by D. B. Olsen

D.B. Olsen is the pen name of Dolores Hitchens, an American author who helped define the genre of 'domestic suspense'. Published in 1939, this began a series of 12 'cat' mysteries by Olsen featuring 70 year-old sleuth Rachel Murdock.

At the request of her wayward niece Lily, Rachel visits her at a California seaside resort. She feels a responsibility to her deceased brother's daughter, no matter how reckless she acts. Along for the trip is Samantha, a golden-eyed black-satin cat with the distinction of being an heiress, for Rachel's eldest sister oddly left her entire fortune to her cat, in trust.

Rachel arrives at the dusty, rundown apartment on the boardwalk. Lily had foolishly married before, but he soon left when her money ran out. Now, she confesses she has been losing at cards with someone in the building, owing twice her yearly allowance. Their threats are strong enough that Lily asks Rachel to keep her new will. She had a right to be scared, when the sleeping draught Rachel takes at night is laced with morphine, and someone beats Lily to death with an axe handle. Enter tall, lumbering Detective Lieutenant Stephen Mayhew who gathers the tenants together - the gruff landlady, the gamblers, Mr. Leinster, an older woman and her pretty young daughter, a maid with a little child - but not Mr. Malloy, a tenant who has been missing for days now. Lily was so sweet on Mr. Malloy that people assumed they were engaged.

Mayhew is impressed by Miss Rachel's keen insight. This little old lady is a not a quaint figure in a wool shawl, for she doesn't hesitate to climb around the crawl space above the apartments to spy on everyone. How these disparate people came to be in this dilapidated beach house is a web of extortion, bigamy, hidden weapons, theft, an old will, a new will, a missing man, a cat killer!, a broken window, poison, a lost father, strangulation, counterfeit money, a Mexican marriage - and someone's dismembered hands washing up on the beach.

For 1939, it has its grisly moments but overall, despite the complex plot, I found it lacked momentum. It needed a shot of excitement for me to be more interested when the cuprit was revealed.

I found the most interesting aspect the shifting viewpoints as the story is told by both Mayhew and Rachel, in the moment and commenting after the case was solved. The changing perspectives give it a unique twist.

Dolores Hitchens wrote prolifically from 1938 to 1973 under several pseudonyms.

This was recently republished by Otto Penzler as an American Mystery Classic and is widely available in all formats.

1938 / Hardcover / 264 pages