Welcome to my stop on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for The Black Cat Detectives: A Mystery by Kit Gray. Stop by each blog on the tour for interviews, guest posts, spotlights, reviews and more!
The Black Cat Detectives: A Mystery by Kit Gray
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
Hardcover
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.
Interview with Author Kit Gray
Thanks for taking the time to share a bit about yourself with my readers and me!
Tell us a little about yourself.
I’m a disabled solo mom living with an amazing kiddo in Connecticut. I like to bake sweets, but I don’t really like to eat them, so I’m forever foisting them on everyone I know. I’m a carnivorous plant enthusiast and I know how to make vegan cheese. When I sing, I sound like a laryngitic seagull.
How long have you been writing?
I was a storyteller even before I learned to write, telling my younger brother wild and ridiculous bedtime stories so he wouldn’t have nightmares. I wrote my first story when I was seven or eight. It was horrible. It was about a cobra with red eyes who hypnotized people with his stare. And that was the whole story. Just the existence of this purportedly scary creature. I wrote the whole thing in crayon, and then tried to illustrate it, which made it even more inscrutable.
Did you always want to be an author? What made you choose the cozy mystery genre?
I always wanted to be an author, but for the longest time, I didn’t think I could. But then I met this other author, April McCloud, who gave me blunt, unvarnished feedback and endless support, even on my first two novels, which were not quite as bad as the cobra story, but pretty close. I wouldn’t be an author if not for April’s support.
I actually write across a wide variety of genres, but I turned to writing cozy mysteries partly because they are one of my earliest comfort-reads, and partly because I went through a terrible year where I lost all five of my elder cats from different illnesses, one after another. I lost touch with my joy after that, and instead of writing the apocalypse book I’d planned, I decided to write something that might help me heal. It occurred to me that if my heroes were kittens, I’d have an opportunity to bring to life the wild, clever, ridiculous, adorable antics of the cats I loved so dearly, and share them with the world.
Do you prefer to read cozy mystery books, or do you have another favorite genre? What are you reading now?
I love reading cozy mysteries! Right now, I’m reading Voted Most Likely to Murder by Lacey Moone and Hot Wings and Homicide by Carmela Dutra, who are both brilliant cozy authors and wonderful people! I’m also reading The Poet Empress by Shen Tao, which is lyrical and dark and utterly captivating.
Do you have a favorite place to write?
Depending on how I’m feeling, I write at my desk in my study, on my sofa in front of a fire, or in bed with a lap tray.
What’s on your desk (if you write at one!)?
My desk has all kinds of things on it. Fidget toys to help me think. Writing implements in a black cat pen cup. A cat salt-and-pepper shaker set for when I realize I forgot to eat and bring food to my desk. A menagerie of play-doh creations my daughter made me. A basket with coins and cards and foam balls and other magician-y paraphernalia, for when I want to practice magic tricks so I can write them better. A working model of the cylinder from the book. A carnivorous plant called Nepenthes Lady Luck. Cold coffee and tepid water.
What is the first book you remember reading as a child? What was one of your favorite books you read as a child?
The first book I ever remember reading by myself was Hop on Pop, which I read to my parents when I was three to prove to them I could read. They didn’t believe me at first—they thought I’d memorized the text because I’d heard it read aloud so many times—so they gave me another book to read. I don’t remember what that one was. Something from the library that I’d never seen before. When I read that one to them, they were so surprised.
Do you like audiobooks, physical books, or e-books better? Why?
I love them all for different reasons! I read a LOT of e-books for the convenience. When I’m tired and my brain is not so interested in braining, I love to read an e-book while listening to the audiobook version simultaneously. But there’s nothing like the comfort of a physical book in my hands, especially in bed or by the fire.
If you had the opportunity to live anywhere in the world for a year while writing a book that took place in that same setting, where would you choose?
You know, I just had this conversation with my daughter. We ended up torn between Scotland and Japan.
What or who has influenced you the most as a writer?
My writer friend April McCloud. No question. We have such different strengths, and she’s so darn brilliant, I can’t get enough of her writing. She has a book out called The Switch, which is a cyberpunk near-future story about a police officer who has to undergo an illegal body-swap to save her troubled brother when he stumbles into what turns out to be a massive, terrifying conspiracy.
Do you have any author friends who support you while you’re writing? Do you belong to any writing groups?
I’ve already talked a lot about April, who can be found here: https://aprilmccloud.com/. April is my Person. My go-to for any kind of support or connection I ever need. And I’m very lucky to be dear friends with a bunch of other phenomenal writers, too. There’s Alice Hathaway (https://akhathaway.com/), who writes epic sapphic adventure arcs in utterly unique, gorgeously realized worlds. Then there’s Lily Luz (https://lilyluz.substack.com/), who writes dark, twisty traumantasy with characters you can’t help rooting for, even when they’re making all the worst decisions. And then I’m in several vibrant Discord author communities, ranging from small, with less than a dozen authors—I’m looking at you, Writer’s Realm friends—to massive, like my 2026 Debuts server.
Finally, what are you working on now? Can you tell us a bit about it?
I’m always working on a bunch of things, so I’ll just pick the book I’m working with my agent to get ready for submission to publishers. It’s an epistolary alternate history that explores queerness and trauma in the Middle Ages via a fictional slow-burn romance between two real-life 12th century philosopher nuns: Hildegard von Bingen and Heloise d’Argenteuil.
Thank you again for taking the time to answer my questions!
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
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- 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
Purchase Links – Penguin Random House Amazon B&N Bookshop.org
Enter the Giveaway
Prize: One winner receives a signed ARC of The Black Cat Detectives with an adorable Cuteness Care Package, which is a collection of stickers, bookmarks, and other swag. 3 runners-up will win only the cuteness care package.
The Black Cat Detectives TOUR PARTICIPANTS
June 3 – Jody’s Bookish Haven – SPOTLIGHT
June 3 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
June 4 – Storybook Lady – REVIEW, AUTHOR GUEST POST
June 4 – Read Your Writes Book Reviews – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
June 5 – Books1987 – SPOTLIGHT
June 5 – @bibliophile_foodie – REVIEW
June 6 – Baroness Book Trove -SPOTLIGHT
June 7 – Boys’ Mom Reads! – SPOTLIGHT
June 8 – Mochas, Mysteries and Meows -CHARACTER GUEST POST
June 9 – Books, Ramblings, and Tea – SPOTLIGHT
June 9 – Sneaky the Library Cat’s Blog – REVIEW, CHARACTER INTERVIEW
June 10 – Socrates Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
June 11 – Sarah Can’t Stop Reading Books – REVIEW
June 12 – Ascroft, eh? – AUTHOR GUEST POST
June 13 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
June 13 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – SPOTLIGHT
June 14 – Cozy Up With Kathy – REVIEW, AUTHOR INTERVIEW
June 15 – Sarandipity’s – CHARACTER GUEST POST
June 16 – Deal Sharing Aunt – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
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