Girls Together magazine agony-aunt 'Mrs Friendly-wise', aka Katinka Jones, finds herself at a loose end in Swansea, and decides to pay a surprise visit to one of the magazine's regular correspondents, 'Amista'. But reaching the address – a strange house perched atop a mountain which matches all the descriptions in the letters – nobody has even heard of 'Amista'. As Katinka begins to fall for the dashing master of the house, Carleon, more strange mysteries emerge and the plucky Detective Inspector Chucky joins the search for the truth in this self-consciously lurid mystery-melodrama.
The first of Brand's non-Cockrill stories to join the Crime Classics, Cat and Mouse is a playful and experimental novel in which Brand sets out to combine Gothic melodrama with her signature style of mystery, complete with astonishing twists and bombshell clues hiding in plain sight.