The Cat Who Went Underground

The Cat Who Went Underground is the ninth novel in The Cat Who series of murder mystery novels by Lilian Jackson Braun.

This summary is taken from the back cover of the Recorded Books (ISBN ) version of the book:

"Despite his horoscope's dire predictions of doom, Qwill plans to spend a peaceful, trouble-free summer in his 75-year-old cabin in Mooseville. But peaceful and trouble-free it is not to be. Qwill's cabin soon turns into something out of a Three Stooges skit, and the handyman he hires to do some necessary renovations disappears without a word. Curious about the high mortality rate among Mooseville's carpenter class, Qwill starts to suspect foul play. Koko only adds to his misgivings by enigmatically thumping his tail in Qwill's face every five minutes -- in perfect synchronization, one might say -- with Qwill's own twitching mustache. By summer's end the cabin is beyond repair -- and Qwill is under suspicion of murder."

With Polly Duncan in England, Qwilleran realizes that Pickax is a bore in summer. So he decides to go to his cabin on the lakeshore in Mooseville. Shortly before Qwill arrives, Buddy Yarrow, a carpenter, drowns while fishing, but the police report it as an accident. When he arrives, Qwill discovers his heater is broken, so calls a nearby resident and friend, Mildred Hanstable. She suggests subscribing to "Glinko," a family "network" that "dispatches" people like plumbers, electricians and others for emergencies. The plumber "dispatched" is Joanna Trump, known to many as Little Joe, who is the daughter of Big Joe, a carpenter who was recently killed in an accident. She makes many visits to fix broken plumbing equipment. Qwill is annoyed at the constant breakdowns and sometimes even suspects her of breaking things on purpose, but is never really sure. He decides to build an addition to his cabin, but is advised against it, because during the summer, all the good contractors are busy with big jobs, so the people are forced to hire itinerant carpenters, or Underground Builders as they are referred to by the locals, who are unreliable.

But Qwilleran was lucky and found out that Clem Cottle, a reliable and experienced carpenter, needed money and so could work for Qwill. He builds steps to the beach and begins on Qwill's addition, but goes missing shortly after. Despite the assurances by Clem's father that he is on a last fling before he marries, Qwill, Clem's mother, and Clem's soon-to-be wife do not believe that. One day while biking on an abandoned road used only by hunters (and Clem was not a hunter), Qwill finds Clem's truck abandoned in a ditch. So he reports Clem's disappearance and begins to look for a replacement. When Clem went missing, Koko began tapping his tail three times, similar to the way Clem hammered nails.