True Grey

October 22, 2012
An academic rival poses a threat to Harvard grad student Dulcie Schwartz in Simon’s intriguing fifth paranormal cat cozy (after 2012’s Grey Expectations). Melinda Sloane Harquist, a visiting scholar, is preparing to publish a biography of the anonymous 18th-century author of The Ravages of Umbria, the same author Dulcie has been researching for her doctoral thesis. If Melinda is able to publish first, Dulcie’s thesis will be ruined. When Dulcie decides to pay a friendly call on Melinda at Melinda’s university lodgings, she’s dismayed to find that someone has brained Melinda with a marble bust. To prove she wasn’t the killer, Dulcie turns for help to her usual supporters—her spectral cat, Mr. Grey; her telepathic feline, Esmé, now past the kitten stage; and her boyfriend, Chris Sorenson. Simon, who attended Harvard herself, provides an authentic and appealing view of campus life. Agent: Colleen Mohyde, Doe Coover Agency.

December 1, 2012
A graduate student finds that life imitates art a little too closely in the gothic romances she studies. Dulcie Schwartz (Grey Matters, 2011, etc.) doesn't understand the meaning of her recurring nightmares, in which she finds a body--sometimes red-haired, sometimes dark-haired--from which the "precious ichor glistened jewel-like no longer." She does know that under the watchful eye of Thomas Griddlehaus, chief clerk of her university's famed Mildon Collection, her dissertation about The Ravages of Umbria is moving along nicely--at least until the arrival of celebrated gothic scholar Melinda Sloane Harquist leads the Mildon to be locked down under the orders of Dean Haitner, who wants to give Melinda sole access to its treasures. Ignoring a warning from Mr. Grey, her dearly departed cat, who comes periodically from the other side to counsel her, as well as the concerns of her current pet, the younger but equally talkative Esme, Dulcie goes to Dardley House to confront Melinda. She finds her rival sprawled out like the figure in Dulcie's dream and every bit as dead. Now, Dulcie is a person of interest in the investigation, and her friendship with Detective Rogovoy of the university's security force doesn't help much when she's questioned by the Cambridge police. Adding insult to injury, Dean Haitner slaps her with plagiarism charges. Now that her boyfriend, Chris, is working a night shift and her thesis advisor is giving her wide berth, Dulcie has almost no one to share her sorrows with--except of course her feline friends. As paranormal talking cat mysteries go, Simon's latest gives her humans their due and a little bit more.

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January 1, 2013

Finally reaching the critical discovery stage in her dissertation research, Dulcie Schwartz has the rug pulled out from under her when a visiting scholar she doesn't know muscles into her area of specialization. Such behavior is extremely threatening, and when the mysterious stranger is murdered, Dulcie is a prime suspect. Dulcie struggles more than usual here to communicate with her magical cats, the late Mr. Grey and kitten Esme. Her boyfriend, Chris, is being oddly distant, but she'll need to trust someone if she wants the real killer caught. VERDICT Dulcie has almost worn out her doctoral student welcome. Simon stretches her protagonist's dilemma in the series's eighth outing (after Grey Expectations) in a less satisfying read. The talking cats save the day and the campus is splendidly gothic, but the heroine's continued obtuseness and whininess wear a bit thin.

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