Grey Dawn

Starred review from May 20, 2013
With the lightheartedness and strong themes that characterize a cozy series with staying power, Simon delivers her winning combination of academic rivalries, student relationship drama, and kitty wisdom in the sixth Dulcie Schwartz mystery (after 2012’s True Grey). A student who closely resembles Dulcie is discovered, alive but with multiple throat wounds, in the same area of the Harvard campus where Dulcie heard howling and saw her harried thesis adviser, Martin Thorpe, looking strangely wild the night before. The gothic romance The Ravages of Umbria—a dark, cryptic novel that Dulcie is studying in hopes of attributing it to the anonymous author who is the subject of her thesis—frightens her even more, as do warning messages from her ghostly cat adviser Mr. Grey, as Dulcie tries to determine whether Martin is actually a dangerous werewolf. Excerpts from Dulcie’s melodramatic research project offer a delightful homage to 18th-century gothic fiction that also binds this whodunit to its historical predecessors. Agent: Colleen Mohyde, Doe Coover Agency.

July 1, 2013
A fascination with gothic novels colors a grad student's perception of a crime. Dulcie Schwartz is still working on her Ph.D. at an unnamed but prestigious university in Cambridge, Mass. In the university's Mildon collection, she's found passages from a novel she believes were written by the author on whom her dissertation focuses. When coed Mina Love, who looks a lot like Dulcie, is viciously attacked, Dulcie, who's in the vicinity, hears wolflike howls and sees her faculty advisor, Martin Thorpe, nearby looking very strange. Dulcie's determination to investigate redoubles once Mina's roommate, Emily, is also attacked, though she escapes with less serious injuries. Emily is sure the attacker is Mina's possessive boyfriend. But Dulcie still wonders about professor Thorpe, who's been acting very odd lately. It's no wonder that Dulcie's boyfriend, Chris, who works nights, is worried about Dulcie, since her only protection is the occasional apparition of her deceased cat, Mr. Grey, warning her of approaching trouble. Meanwhile, Dulcie's dreams are filled with scenes from the novel she is slowly piecing together. A visiting professor may have some papers that will help her if Dulcie can stay alive and continue her research. Simon's feline mysteries (True Grey, 2012, etc.), best read in the order in which they were written, show Dulcie's growing obsession with the fragments of a mysterious novel--a novel that presents a better mystery than her latest case.

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October 22, 2012
An academic rival poses a threat to Harvard grad student Dulcie Schwartz in Simon’s intriguing fifth paranormal cat cozy (after 2012’s Grey Expectations). Melinda Sloane Harquist, a visiting scholar, is preparing to publish a biography of the anonymous 18th-century author of The Ravages of Umbria, the same author Dulcie has been researching for her doctoral thesis. If Melinda is able to publish first, Dulcie’s thesis will be ruined. When Dulcie decides to pay a friendly call on Melinda at Melinda’s university lodgings, she’s dismayed to find that someone has brained Melinda with a marble bust. To prove she wasn’t the killer, Dulcie turns for help to her usual supporters—her spectral cat, Mr. Grey; her telepathic feline, Esmé, now past the kitten stage; and her boyfriend, Chris Sorenson. Simon, who attended Harvard herself, provides an authentic and appealing view of campus life. Agent: Colleen Mohyde, Doe Coover Agency.

January 1, 2013

Finally reaching the critical discovery stage in her dissertation research, Dulcie Schwartz has the rug pulled out from under her when a visiting scholar she doesn't know muscles into her area of specialization. Such behavior is extremely threatening, and when the mysterious stranger is murdered, Dulcie is a prime suspect. Dulcie struggles more than usual here to communicate with her magical cats, the late Mr. Grey and kitten Esme. Her boyfriend, Chris, is being oddly distant, but she'll need to trust someone if she wants the real killer caught. VERDICT Dulcie has almost worn out her doctoral student welcome. Simon stretches her protagonist's dilemma in the series's eighth outing (after Grey Expectations) in a less satisfying read. The talking cats save the day and the campus is splendidly gothic, but the heroine's continued obtuseness and whininess wear a bit thin.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2013
Harvard grad-student Dulcie Schwartz and the ghost of her dead cat Mr. Grey return in the third in the series. When Dulcie goes to her campus office one night, she hears what sounds like a wolf and then finds her department head walking in a daze. The next day, she learns a girl who looks just like Dulcie was attacked. She can't help but compare the situation to a manuscript she has uncovered about a werewolf. Then a visiting professor is also attacked after telling Dulcie she has information for her. Suddenly, Dulcie has become the prime suspect. The cat element is minimal this time, though Dulcie does receive cryptic messages from both living and dead felines. The academic setting, always a strong point in this series, remains appealing, but the plot proves a bit confusing, thanks mainly to the juxtaposition of the case and Dulcie's manuscript. Cat-mystery fans who can appreciate a slightly darker tone than is typical in the subgenre will like this series, as will fans of G. M. Malliet's academia-set St. Just seriesproviding they can tolerate Mr. Grey.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)