When you are an inoffensive retired librarian with bitter personal experience of Evil Talking Cats, do you rescue a kitten from the cold on a December night? Do you inquire into long-ago cats who voyaged around the world with Captain Cook? Well, yes. If you are Alec Charles worth that is what you do - with unexpected and terrifying consequences...

By the bestselling author of Eats, Shoots & Leaves and Cat Out of Hell, a nail-biting tale of good versus evil involving one man, his dog and a group of 18th-century amateur scientific pioneers who just happen to be cats.

When you are an inoffensive retired librarian with bitter personal experience of Evil Talking Cats, do you rescue a kitten from the cold on a December night?

Do you follow up news items about cats digging in graveyards?

Do you inquire into long-ago cats who voyaged around the world with Captain Cook?

Well, yes. If you are Alec Charlesworth that is precisely what you do - with unexpected and terrifying consequences ...