Nine Lives in the Close – Paperback

A dead master mason. A cat with a crucial clue. And a cathedral hiding a decades-old secret.

Holy Week has begun in Cadminster, and the restoration of St Cuthbert’s Cathedral is racing towards its Easter deadline.

At the Crooked Cat Caf, Eden Metcalfe has enough to worry about: two kittens needing homes, hot cross buns to bake, and a one-eyed tomcat who refuses to stay out of trouble.

Then the cathedral’s master mason, Gideon Hartley, is found dead high on the scaffolding.

Everyone calls it a drunken accident.

But Eden’s cat Bouncer has brought home evidence that suggests otherwise.

Something on his paws could only have come from the very top of the scaffolding. And Eden, a former hospital chaplain who knows grief when she sees it, notices something troubling about the man mourning hardest in the masons’ lodge.

He’s grieving for someone-but perhaps not Gideon.

As Eden investigates, she uncovers family feuds, a disputed inheritance, a secretive Clerk of Works, and a tragedy someone has spent years trying to forget.

Then a wicker basket appears on her doorstep.

Inside is a black-and-white cat and a cryptic Latin message about a choirboy who never came home.

What connects a missing choirboy to a dead master mason? And who is determined to keep the truth buried?

With Easter approaching, Eden must unravel a mystery of old loyalties, hidden guilt, and dangerous secrets-with a little help from the Crooked Cat Caf’s most inquisitive residents.

Nine Lives in the Close is Book Two in The Cat Caf Detectives Mystery series, a charming British cozy mystery featuring a compassionate former hospital chaplain turned amateur sleuth, lovable rescue cats, eccentric cathedral characters, and a cleverly plotted whodunit.

Perfect for readers who love cat cozy mysteries, traditional British murder mysteries, charming English towns, intelligent female amateur sleuths, and heartwarming stories of friendship and second chances.

A clean, standalone cozy mystery with no graphic violence or profanity, a satisfying, fairly clued solution, and plenty of Easter atmosphere, cathedral intrigue, freshly baked treats, gentle humour, and feline mischief.

At the Crooked Cat Caf, every cat deserves a loving home. But some secrets refuse to stay buried.