The Cat Who Could Read Backwards

Jim Qwilleran, a former crime reporter, takes a job on the art beat at a big-city newspaper, a subject he knows nothing about. Assigned to meet the paper's reclusive, much-disliked art critic, he is introduced to the man's Siamese cat, Koko, who seems able to read, though only backwards.

When a gallery owner is murdered, Qwilleran is pulled into an investigation among the city's artists, dealers and museum people, and Koko's odd habits begin to point him toward the truth.

First published in 1966, this is the opening book of Lilian Jackson Braun's Cat Who series.