When an animal rights activist is killed by a hit-and-run driver on an icy Cambridge street, music critic Theda Krakow can’t get too upset. The victim cared more for wild animals than for people and had no use at all for domesticated pets, such as the black-and-white cat, Musetta, that Theda adores. Besides, Theda is busy investigating the rise of a dangerous new designer drug that threatens the musicians and fans who make up the club scene that Theda considers her second home.
But when Theda learns that the accident victim was defying her own radical group to rescue feral cats on the eve of a ferocious winter storm, she puts her own prejudices aside to help investigate. As Theda and her buddy, the punk-rocker and shelter-owner Violet, race to save these half-wild felines from the freezing New England winter, they uncover simmering tensions that make the activist’s death seem more than an accident. Could a friend have been the fatal driver? Is Violet more involved with the extremist group than she’s let on?
Even while kittens are at risk and the new drug hits close to home, Theda tries to hang onto her journalistic objectivity. But when the threats become more personal and Musetta goes missing, Theda risks her reputation, her career, and possibly her life. The word “deadline” has taken on a whole new meaning.