Nine Lives to Murder

by Marian Babson

Book Overview

Winstanley Fortescue, Shakespearean actor extraordinaire and soon-to-be Knight of the Realm, is working backstage when he is conked on the head and falls off a ladder. When he awakens, he finds that he has exchanged bodies with the theater's cat, Monty. Now Monty is in intensive care and Winstanley is a cat looking for clues. Martin's Press.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312105118
• ISBN13: 9780312105112
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 188 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.8" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Five-star fun in a memorable story line

I first read Nine Lives to Murder several years ago and found it great fun. Although I seldom remember the details of my leisure-time escape fiction reads, the dilemma of the switched brains/bodies of the actor and the cat remained with me. This week I revisited this book by listening to the unabridged audio version and I enjoyed it even more this time. From the first moment of Winstanley Fortescue's awakening (after a bad fall) in the body of Monty the theatre cat, through his adjustment to that state and his efforts to prevent the murder of "The Instrument" - Fortescue's human body now occupied by Monty's cat brain - to the final scene, this was a perfect hoot and a great escape. The story rolls along with charm, humor (some of it sly), and enough suspense to keep the reader/listener alert. Babson's a master storyteller who knows cats, and humans, and London. I always enjoy her books, and this is my favorite of them. At least for now.

Purrfect little mystery

I admit it. I'm a smart woman who is a sucker for cat mysteries. I can't help it. I just started reading Babson's books, picking them up here and there, and I very much enjoy them. I like having different characters in every book (rathering than wondering which character in the little town of Catville is going to get murdered this year).Babson's books are a joy to read. They do not insult your intelligence (as much as other books in this genre), the characters are developed, the stories are interesting. If you like cat mysteries and have never given Babson a try, please do. You will be very pleasantly surprised. She's quite a good writer, her stories are fun...and you can always be sure the cats never get seriously hurt. ;-)

Cat afficionados have a new ally

English thespian Win Fortescue and Monty Mousa, theater cat, are thrust into each other's lives by the intervention of someone with murder in mind. Quirk and serendipity lands Win in Monty's body and vice versa; will the murderer finish the job, will the cat and the man be trapped forever in the other's frame? Wives and mistresses past and present decorate the scenery; actors, stagehands, Dames, managers, the wardrobe mistress, a celebrity reporter, a scandal photographer, doctors, Matrons, nurses, The Dutchess of Malfi, a siren called Butterfly, theater mice, and even a dog parade across the page. The resulting draught of their passage causes the mists of obfuscation to pale till, like in all good stories and plays, the truth is revealed. Will Win and Monty get back their own bodies; can all be made right? To know the answers you will just have to read Nine Lives to Murder for yourself.

The most intelligent cat-oriented mystery I've ever read.

Marian Babson knows both mysteries and cats. I've read many cat mysteries, and Babson's Nine Lives to Murder is the most fun of them all. Most of the book is told from the perspective of a self-important English actor whose mind is suddenly trapped in the body of the theater's cat. I still chuckle when I remember him discovering feline pleasures even while he desperately tries to get his own body back. If you don't like books about cats this isn't for you, but if you do you should borrow or buy it right now

A cat's eye view of the theatre and murder.

_Nine Lives to Murder_ is a fast moving mystery set in the world of English theatre. During an attempted murder, Winstanley Fortescue, a famous stage actor, butts foreheads with Montmorency D. Mousa, theatre cat. Cat and man exchange bodies. Fortescue in a cat's body, must try to solve the mystery and save his human body from further attacks. The cat's point of view and the quirks and foibles of the theatre world make this mystery a really good read.