What happens when two pampered house cats lose the comfort of home and are forced to survive on the streets? Award-winning author Katie Christine Bishop explores that question in Love & Murder, a darkly humorous, suspenseful novel that uses the feline world to examine human behavior, social order and survival.
The inspiration for the book came during a trip to France, where Bishop encountered a colony of cats sheltering near a church. She began wondering how many of the animals had once lived comfortably with families before suddenly finding themselves homeless.
That observation became the foundation for a story about two sibling house cats thrust into an unfamiliar and unforgiving world. Outside the safety of their former home, they must navigate competing gangs, scarce food, betrayal, shifting alliances and environmental upheaval.
Through their experiences, Bishop examines what happens to loyalty, compassion and morality when the structures that once provided security disappear. Although the characters are cats, the challenges they face reflect familiar human struggles involving power, community, inequality and the instinct to survive.
Bishop’s own childhood helped shape the questions behind the novel. She grew up in a comfortable middle-class household, doing well in school, attending church and playing soccer. Her family’s circumstances changed dramatically when her mother became ill and permanently disabled and her father lost his job. The experience gave Bishop an early understanding of how quickly stability can disappear.
The novel has drawn comparisons to George Orwell’s Animal Farm and Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, using an unconventional cast of characters to explore larger questions about humanity and life under environmental stress.
In a review for Midwest Book Review, Diane Donovan praised the novel as “Uplifting, engrossing, and deserving of slow reading,” describing it as a story that defies easy categorization while engaging readers emotionally.
Published by Black Heron Press, Love & Murder reflects Bishop’s lifelong affection for animals and her interest in their distinctive personalities and emotions.
Bishop studied at Chaffey College and UCLA, where she earned her bachelor’s degree, before receiving a scholarship to the University of Southern California, where she completed a master’s degree in public policy. She later moved with her husband from Southern California to Seattle and began writing fiction.
She now lives near Seattle with her husband, two cats and a Shetland sheepdog. Her interests include reading, travel, food and gardening.
Love & Murder is available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org and Black Heron Press. More information is available at KatieCBishop.com.