Feline and Famous: Cat Crimes Goes Hollywood

Felines move into the limelight as the fifth in the Cat Crimes series travels to Tinsel Town with 16 original stories by writers familiar and new. Bill Crider writes a wacky tale about a bizarre bunch of cartoonists left without inspiration when the parrot, Cap'n Bob, flies away from his hate-at-first-sight relationship with Gus the Cat. John Lutz tells the macabre story of a young Hollywood hopeful who takes on the role to end all roles as a cat-sitter. Pathos accompanies two former vaudeville greats spending their twilight years at the Film Actors Retirement Ranch, where they are befriended by a kitten in a story by new voice Tracy Knight. A torch singer mourns ``The Cat That Got Away'' in Ted Fitzgerald's offering, and a tippling tom named ``Keystone'' provides inspiration for Mack Sennet's Keystone Studios and the famously incompetent constabulary in P.M. Carlson's slapstick tale told in a wonderfully deadpan voice. A couple of hairballs have crept into this collection, as they will, but it is nonetheless an enjoyable, lighthearted read. (Oct.)