Lilian Jackson Braun

While the residents of Pickax eagerly await a festival celebrating the 150th anniversary of the town's founding, newspaper columnist James Qwilleran must entertain Harvey Ledfield, an aspiring architect. Strange occurrences seem to follow Harvey around. Koko, the Siamese cat, leaps on his head, a knitter predicts murder, and a woman comes from California to leave a message for Qwill. It's up to Koko to help Qwill piece the clues together.

Former award winning news reporter Jim Qwilleran is assigned to the art world as his new news beat. When a murderer sicks a knife in the neck of a local gallery owner and goes berserk among the works on show, Qwilleran gets help from his Siamese cat solving the mystery.

Pickax's favorite columnist, James Qwilleran, is enjoying a brief vacation with his two Siamese cats at the Nutcracker Inn, in the nearby town of Black Creek. But the tranquillity of the place is interrupted by the discovery of a body floating down the creek -- the body of a man who had been a guest of the inn.

Mr. Delachamp, an estate jeweler from Chicago, has been holding court in Pickax's newly refurbished hotel. Impoverished local gentry are offering him heirlooms, while well-heeled citizens are purchasing baubles worth thousands. Qwill finds the jeweler's cash-only policy peculiar, and even more unsettling: Koko and Yum Yum have become strangely restless. The residents of Pickax are delighted that the old bombed-out Pickax Hotel is reopening with a...

Reporter-turned-millionaire Jim Qwilleran has the winter blues, so he decides to venture "Down Below" for a few months, moving into temporary quarters at the Casablanca, a colorful 1920s apartment building. But things are off to dubious beginnings when Qwill gets trapped in the elevator shaft, and is accosted by an irate matron wielding a lethal cane.

Braun's marvelous best-selling series is the cat's pajamas for lovers of animals and frisky crime-solving adventures. This delightful addition finds Qwill and his fabulous felines on the trail of some very unusual "visitors." Could extraterrestrials be behind the strange goings-on in Moose County? It is up to the ever-humble billionaire journalist Jim Qwilleran and his amazing cats to find out. A backpacker has disappeared, and rumor has it that UFOs...

Jim Qwilleran and his two cats move into a possibly-haunted farmhouse to investigate the death of its owner Mrs. Cobb.