The Cat Speaks Fluent French

At the Mount Royal Dog Show, presentation is everything - until celebrity chef Henri Beaumont turns up dead beside a half-eaten canapé, and presentation becomes a considerably smaller concern.The only witness is Pompadour: a prize-winning Persian with a flawless palate, a formidable memory, and an attitude problem sized for a much bigger cat. She knows exactly what killed him. Unfortunately, everyone who could act on that information hears nothing but a very well-groomed animal making noise.Her one usable translator is Detective Sergeant Barnaby Bell, a golden retriever with excellent instincts for comfort and none whatsoever for guilt. He believes the widow because she looks sad. He believes the blackmailer because he apologizes nicely. He does not, at first, believe the cat - which turns out to be his first mistake, and very nearly not his last.Between them they have exactly one working skill set and one enormous ego, and a killer who has been waiting twenty-three years for precisely this moment to go unnoticed. Pom intends to make sure that doesn't happen. Barkley intends to apologize to absolutely everyone along the way.A fair-play mystery with a French-speaking cat, a deeply apologetic detective, and a motive stretching back before either of them was born - THE CAT SPEAKS FLUENT FRENCH is for anyone who has ever suspected the family pet already knows exactly what happened