Five feline detectives deter Christmas catastrophes

Everyone seems to need a little extra help during the bustle of the Christmas season. In the five books discussed below, that help comes from crime-solving cats. Although the attentive reader will notice that it does indeed take more than five felines to solve these Christmas catastrophes, in the interest of alliteration this article's title must be allowed to stand.

Lydia Adamson, the pseudonym of Franklin B. King, introduces two cats appropriately named "Tiny" and "Tim" in the 1997 Christmas mystery, A Cat on Jingle Bell Rock  (Alice Nestleton series, 15). Alice Nestleton, frequent cat-sitter and occasional actress, persuades her lover, Tony Basillio, to adopt Tiny and Tim after their owner is killed. With help from the cats, Alice attempts to solve his murder. She finds a connection between that crime and the recent suicide of a board member of Sustenance House, a soup kitchen that had received sizable donations from Tiny and Tim's owner.

Jim Qwilleran's two Siamese cats, Koko and Yum-Yum, return in Lilian Jackson Braun's 1968 title, The Cat Who Turned On and Off  (Jim Qwilleran Feline Whodunnit series, 3). Qwilleran, a feature writer for The Daily Fluxion, plans to win a prize offered by the newspaper with an article about Christmas in Junktown, an area known for antique trading. Qwill, who moves into a Junktown apartment with Koko and Yum-Yum, becomes interested in a mysterious death which occurred in the area shortly before his arrival. The ever curious Koko shares his interest.

No Christmas would be complete without Mrs. Murphy's presence as her owner, Crozet, Virginia postmistress "Harry" Haristeen, knows. The 2008 mystery Santa Clawed (Mrs. Murphy series, 17) again features the crime-solving trio of tiger cat Mrs. Murphy, her fat feline friend Pewter and Harry's faithful corgi Tee Tucker.  Harry and her husband, Fair discover a dead monk's body when they visit Christmas tree farm run by The Brothers of Love, a monastic group that assists AIDS patients. The victim, Christopher Hewitt, had been Harry's high-school friend. Mrs. Murphy and company help Harry find the killer, who will strike yet again before being identified.

Carole Nelson Douglas's feline private eye, Midnight Louie, and his human companion, publicist Temple Barr, have their Christmas vacation in New York City interrupted in the 1997 book, Cat in a Golden Garland (Midnight Louie series, 8). Santa Claus, who is traditionally portrayed by the senior partner of the Colby, Janos and Renaldi advertising agency, gets murdered at the company's Christmas party. Louie, in town on an offer of a "spokescat" role for one of the agency's clients, goes to work on the case immediately. He also finds time to involve himself in a romance between Temple and her suitor, Max.

Joe Grey is Shirley Rousseau Murphy's feline private eye in 2007's Cat Deck the Halls (Joe Grey series, book 13) . Holiday festivities in the seaside town of Molena Point, California, are dampened when the police receive a report of a dead body lying beneath the town's Christmas tree. When the officers reach the crime scene, though, the body has disappeared, as has the young girl who is the sole witness to the murder. With the help of hos tabby lady friend Dulcie and a tortoiseshell companion named Kit, Joe Grey tries to protect the child by solving the crime before she becomes the killer's next target.