I'm pleased to welcome Kit Gray to Cozy Up With Kathy today. THE BLACK CAT DETECTIVES is Kit's debut novel and was released last month.
Kathy: In THE BLACK CAT DETECTIVES we meet Bippity, Boppity, and Boop, three kittens who need to solve a murder. Why choose to make the cats detectives instead of their human?
KG: Mila is trying to solve the murder, too! In fact, the process teaches her a lot about herself, her community, and what’s important to her. But she doesn’t realize how much help she needs from her clever, loyal kittens.
There are a lot of reasons I loved the idea of telling ¾ of the story through the kittens’ eyes and making them detectives. One was the sheer potential for antics. Kittens, especially ones who can bend the laws of physics, can get up to all sorts of nonsense.
But on a more serious note, showing the story unfolding from the perspective of the kittens allowed me to offer an outsider’s perspective on the human characters and their world, which was a lot of fun to write, and I think added something interesting to the story.
Kathy: I currently have 5 cats, all rescues. Do you have cats of your own?
KG: I am lucky to have two cats, a mama named Hylia and her baby, Mickey, and two dogs, a pitbull/lab cross called Titan and a pitbull/greyhound cross called Iris.
You may recognize the name Hylia from the book. I didn’t name her after the noble feline Queen character. Rather, a dear author friend of mine, April McCloud, had read an early draft. April is friends with a lady named JoAnn who fosters pregnant cats and new mamas in up in Rochester, NY, and talked JoAnn into naming the cat she was fostering after the character in my book.
Then she called me and told me about the real-life Hylia. Of course, I couldn’t resist rescuing her, and I am delighted to say that she very much resembles the character for whom she’s named.
Kathy: The kittens' human is Mila, an up-and-coming magician. Do you enjoy magic shows?
KG: I haven’t been to one in years, but I used to love them when I was growing up. To write Mila and her magic authentically, my daughter and I embarked on a quest to learn magic ourselves. Now, we perform tricks at book events, and even teach the audience how to do one or two of them!
Kathy: In addition to magic, there's also magick. Why choose a paranormal mystery and what makes them such fun?
KG: There was a very practical reason to add the layer of magic to my story. Without special abilities, there’s only so much three kittens could do to investigate a murder. I needed them to be extraordinarily intelligent and have some ability to subtly bend the laws of physics so that they would have the skills at paw to investigate the crime and save their human.
Though to be fair, I am not entirely convinced that my cats don’t have similar superpowers in real life!
Kathy: What first drew you to cozy mysteries?
KG: I grew up on cozy mysteries, starting with Agatha Christie and Lilian Jackson Braun. I’ve loved them all my life. I particularly like the combination of intellectually engaging, fun, and joyful that is so central to the cozy reading experience.
Kathy: Do you write in any other genres?
KG: I write a lot of dark speculative fiction, usually apocalyptic, and I’ve published some short pieces of creative nonfiction, some literary flash fiction, one horror short, and a bunch of poetry. But this is my first published novel, and I’m really happy about that! I love that it centers joy!
Kathy: Tell us about your series.
KG: This is the first book in my series, though I do admit I’m hoping for the opportunity to write more. It centers three kittens with the ability to subtly bend the laws of physics, who must solve a murder mystery to save their human.
Kathy: Do you have a favorite character? If so, who and why?
KG: I have a huge soft spot for Boop, but Bippity is the easiest for me to write because her mind works the most like mine.
Kathy: Did you have a specific inspiration for your series?
KG: I had five elder rescue cats, and one terrible year, I lost them all to unrelated illnesses, one after another. It was the worst year of my life, and I lost track of my joy. Then it occurred to me that instead of my usual dark speculative novels, maybe I could write something joyful. Naturally, I immediately thought of murder!
It was such a balm, writing a story that brought to life so many facets of what I loved about the fur family I had lost, and knowing that they would live forever on the page. It helped me honor their memory, rediscover my own joy, and hopefully share that joy with the world.
Kathy: What made you decide to publish your work?
KG: When you write just for yourself, the story exists only in your own mind. When you write work to publish and share, each reader who picks up a book enters into an act of co-creation with the author. What I put on the page is only half of the equation. How each person who honors me with their time and attention sees and feels and imagines what I’ve written is the other half. To me, each unique instance of a story being brought to life by someone choosing to read it is a precious and magical thing.
Kathy: If you could have a dinner party and invite 4 authors, living or dead, in any genre, who would you invite?
KG: 1. Agatha Christie, 2. Octavia Butler, 3. Ursula K. LeGuin, 4. George Sand.
Kathy: What are you currently reading?
KG: Voted Most Likely to Murder by Lacey Moone and Hot Wings and Homicide by Carmela Dutra, and I’m re-reading The Mysterious Mr. Quin by Agatha Christie.
Kathy: Will you share any of your hobbies or interests with us?
KG: I’m a solo parent to a homeschooled neurosparkly kiddo, an avid fan of carnivorous plants (I have a Nepenthes Lady Luck on my writing desk), and an enthusiastic baker.
Kathy: Name 4 items you always have in your fridge or pantry.
KG: 1. A Dr. MacDougall’s instant pad Thai soup cup, which is my panacea when I get an upset stomach
2. A log of homemade cookie dough so kiddo can make a warm cookie for dessert when she wants one
3. Loads of fresh fruits and veggies, and invariably, somehow, one shriveled ancient apple
4. Homemade pancake & waffle mix, similar to bisquick but vegan
Kathy: Do you have plans for future books either in your current series or a new series?
KG: I do! I have one book I’m preparing with my agent so it can go on submission to editors, one that I’m currently drafting, three completed books waiting in the wings, and two that have been planned and are waiting for their turn to be written.
Kathy: What's your favorite thing about being an author?
KG: I’ve had a few people let me know that the kittens gave them joy in a way that’s going to stick with them. That’s the most wonderful feeling, and such an incredible honor.
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The Black Cat Detectives: A Mystery by Kit Gray
About The Black Cat Detectives
The Black Cat Detectives: A Mystery
Cozy Animal Mystery
Setting - Corvin's Crossing—a small fictional island off the coast of New England
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Publication Date: May 26, 2026
Print Length: 304 pages
A charming cozy mystery with a delightful twist: The detectives are three kittens with magical powers, determined to solve a most purr-plexing case.
Precocious kittens Bippity, Boppity, and Boop are exceedingly loyal to their human, the twenty-eight-year-old up-and-coming magician Mila. She saved them from starving to death in a dingy Corvin’s Crossing alleyway and has been nothing but loving ever since, even though her own life is in shambles.
So when Mila’s sketchy boyfriend and business manager turns up dead at the end of her big magic show—she’s the prime suspect. With evidence mounting, there’s nothing stopping the sheriff from hauling away Mila to the human pound. Unless the kittens can solve the crime and clear her name.
The kittens will have to use their dubious control over the laws of physics and every whisker of know-how they’ve got to catch the real killer if they want to save their happy home with Mila. This is one meow-stery more tangled than any ball of yarn they’ve encountered yet.
About Kit Gray
Kit Gray aka Elise Scott writes from their lived experiences of queerness, disability, neurodivergence, fat-positivity, and petting three cats with two hands. Their life has been an adventure, from facilitating equine therapy for trauma survivors to counseling at-risk youth with the aid of an inordinately large sub-woofer and beyond. They earned their BA from Mount Holyoke and their MS from Capella University. Their debut novel, a cozy mystery featuring three kittens with the ability to bend the laws of physics, who must solve a murder to save their rescuer from the human pound, is forthcoming from Crooked Lane in May 2026. Elise is a Not Quite Write Prize winner and Best-of-the-Net nominee. Their short work has appeared/is forthcoming in The Advocate, Choices: An Anthology of Reproductive Horror, The Not Quite Write Anthology 2025, The B'K, Five Minutes, Knee Brace, All Existing, and Quibble, among others. Find out what they’re working on now at http://elise-scott.com.
Author Links-
- Website https://elise-scott.com/
- Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AuthorEliseScott/
- BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/elisescott.bsky.social
- Instagram https://www.instagram.com/elisescottwrites/
- X https://x.com/buttonjar1
- GoodReads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/58697146.Kit_Gray
- Storygraph https://app.thestorygraph.com/profile/authorkitgray
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