“Cat’s Paw” in Murder at the Foul Line (2006)

MURDER AT THE FOUL LINE, ed. Otto Penzler, Mysterious Press, simultaneous hardback (ISBN 0-89296-016-7, $24.95 / $33.95 Canada) and trade paperback (ISBN 0-446-69631-5, $13.95 / $18.95Canada)

Publishers Weekly says: Penzler’s choice of contributors is varied and often surprising: sportswriter Mike Lupica is a natural, as is R.D. Rosen, author of the Edgar-winning Harvey Blissberg series about a professional baseball player. But Laurie R. King, author of the Mary Russell series? Her story, “Cat’s Paw,” is one of the best, about a teacher who coaches a girl’s junior high school basketball team, refers to herself as a “twenty-nine-year-old virgin” and has her life shaken up when she almost runs over a cat on the highway.