Clea Simon

When cats start getting sick, feline-loving freelance writer Theda Krakow suspects an accident is to blame. But her shelter-owning rocker buddy Violet claims the contaminated kibble was poisoned. When Theda starts looking at shelter politics, she finds a litter of suspects. The city shelter may be backing down from a healthy pet initiative, and a series of threatening letters suggests a darker motive. Old-fashioned jealousy may factor in as well. The pressure mounts as Theda's editor grabs onto the idea of a hot story—and dangles a prime job as bait. But how can Theda investigate when feelings, and felines, run so high? As the music scene rallies to raise funds to save the cats, Theda finds herself on the outs with both her friends and her long-time boyfriend Bill. And when she's caught at a murder scene, bloody scalpel in hand and only her beloved cat Musetta as a witness to what really happened, Theda must scramble to find the real killer before she and Musetta become the next victims.

When Pru Marlowe gets the call that there's been a cat shooting, she's furious. Animal brutality is the one thing that this tough animal psychic won't stand for, and in her role as a behaviorist she's determined to care for the traumatized pet. But when Pru finds out that the cat did the shooting - accidentally setting off a rare dueling pistol - she realizes something else is going on. Could the white Persian really have killed her owner - or did the whole bloody mess have something to do with that pricey collectible? With the white cat turning a deaf ear to her questions, Pru must tune in to Beauville's other pampered residents - from the dead man's elite social set to their equally spoiled pets - and learn the truth before her ex, a former New York cop, gets too close. In a world where value is determined by a price tag, only Pru Marlowe and her trusty tabby Wallis can figure out if this was a case of feline felony - or if some human has set the Persian up to be the ultimate cat's paw.

Pru Marlowe isn't your ordinary animal psychic. A tough girl on the run from her own gift, Pru left the big city to return to her picturesque Berkshires hometown looking for a little peace. Too bad that her training as an animal behaviorist got her mixed up with Lily, a rescue dog, and Charles, her person. Now Charles is dead, and Lily looks good for it. After all, Lily is a pitbull, a fighting-ring dropout, and way too traumatized to give Pru a clear picture of what she has witnessed. But Pru knows something about bad girls trying to clean up, and, with a sense of justice strong enough to overcome her dislike of human society, she takes the case. Listening to the animals, Pru picks up clues - and learns there are secrets in the pretty little town that make murder look simple. Unable to tell anybody about her psychic abilities, uncertain at times about her own sanity, Pru comes to realize that if she clears Lily, she'll likely become the prime suspect - or the next victim. While the only creature she can totally trust is her crotchety tabby Wallis, Pru's got to uncover the real killer - and find a way to live with her gift - before the real beasts in the town savage her and those she has come to love. The first in the Pru Marlowe pet noir series.

The author of Mad House explores the special bond between women and cats, interviewing a wide array of female characters, from a young professional to a lion tamer, who shed light on this unique relationship. Reprint. 15,000 first printing.

Elegant prose ... sheds new light on the father-daughter dynamic-Boston magazine Praise for Fatherless WOMEN ""If it can be said about a book on loss, Fatherless Women is a pleasure to read. Clea Simon is a warm, honest, intelligent, and trustworthy guide, not only for grieving women but for the men who support them. Simon's insights about father-daughter relationships are profound.""-Neil Chethik, author of FatherLoss ""Clea Simon deepens our understanding of the complicated emotions daughters feel about fathers, both during life and especially after death. This book will help heal rifts and set stuck energies free.""-Beth Witrogen McLeod, author of Caregiving: The Spiritual Journey of Love, Loss, and Renewal ""Unusually candid and often provocative . . . Simon's book is immensely thought-provoking about a topic that all of us will face.""-Pauline Boss, Ph.D., author of Ambiguous Loss: Learning to Live with Unresolved Grief There is a special bond between a father and a daughter, and when that bond is broken by death, a woman's life can change in profound and unexpected ways. Clea Simon, critically acclaimed author of Mad House, explores this crucial meeting point of grief and growth by delving into her own experience and those of other women to paint an illuminating portrait of the father-daughter relationship and its lifelong ramifications. Filled with moving stories of real women, this poignant, comforting, and insightful book paves the way for all women to make peace with the past, with the adults they have become, and to courageously face the question: what happens next?

"Elegant prose ... sheds new light on the father-daughter dynamic" –Boston magazine Praise for Fatherless WOMEN "If it can be said about a book on loss, Fatherless Women is a pleasure to read. Clea Simon is a warm, honest, intelligent, and trustworthy guide, not only for grieving women but for the men who support them. Simon’s insights about father-daughter relationships are profound." –Neil Chethik, author of FatherLoss "Clea Simon deepens our understanding of the complicated emotions daughters feel about fathers, both during life and especially after death. This book will help heal rifts and set stuck energies free." –Beth Witrogen McLeod, author of Caregiving: The Spiritual Journey of Love, Loss, and Renewal "Unusually candid and often provocative . . . Simon’s book is immensely thought-provoking about a topic that all of us will face." –Pauline Boss, Ph.D., author of Ambiguous Loss: Learning to Live with Unresolved Grief There is a special bond between a father and a daughter, and when that bond is broken by death, a woman’s life can change in profound and unexpected ways. Clea Simon, critically acclaimed author of Mad House, explores this crucial meeting point of grief and growth by delving into her own experience and those of other women to paint an illuminating portrait of the father-daughter relationship and its lifelong ramifications. Filled with moving stories of real women, this poignant, comforting, and insightful book paves the way for all women to make peace with the past, with the adults they have become, and to courageously face the question: what happens next?

A compelling and compasionate memoir about coming to terms with the unique pain of living with a sibling's mental illness In classic books such as Girl, Interrupted and When Rabbit Howls, the mentally ill depict their own harrowing worlds. In Mad House we have an account of the devastating effects of mental illness on the lives of those who share their world: the healthy siblings of those afflicted. Clea Simon was shattered when her older brother, Daniel, a freshman at Harvard, began hearing voices, making it impossible for him to function. He later committed suicide. Schizophrenia next claimed her sister, Katherine, who has moved from one institution to another after refusing any help from her family. Simon, who spoke with hundreds of other siblings of the mentally ill and with experts in the field, confronts the issues healthy siblings face, from guilt (Why do I deserve to be okay?) to fear (Will illness claim me or my children next?) to anger at being neglected by parents overwhelmed by the needs of the mad child.