A Cat on Stage Left — Lydia Adamson

Alice Nestleton, off-Broadway actress and amateur sleuth, is between roles during a sweltering New York City summer-- until a strange feline plunges her into a case that's downright drilling. With her bank account nearly bare, Alice says yes when Mary Singer offers to pay her $2,500 to board her cat. But no sooner does Mary arrive in a limo to drop off her pet than she is shot to death right in front of Alice's horrified eyes. And the cat in question? It's just a stuffed toy

As the only eyewitness, Alice feels duty-bound to assist the baffled police. Aided by the dead woman's neighbor, Sam Tully, a hard-bitten old pulp writer and the caretaker of her real cat an exotic Bengal named Pickles--Alice is stunned to discover that Mary's past eerily intersects with her own. As she delves into darkened theaters and even darker secrets, an unusual feline enters the drama--holding the key to a deadly mystery. Now all Alice has to do is stay alive long enough to let the cat out of the bag.