"I had been looking forward to going to France in the Easter holidays for weeks. Admittedly it meant going with Mum and her annoying, yuckily young, French boyfriend, Almond. But I knew we would be staying at Almond's parents' place: A CHATEAU! Everyone knows 'chat' means 'cat' in French -- so I couldn't wait... 2 whole weeks in a houseful of cats! I love animals!

"Tragically things NEVER work out as you expect. Instead of a houseful of cats it turned out to be a houseful of Almond's annoying, totally weird French family. Maybe if Piranha wasn't so evil, and Lucien (Almond's younger brother) wasn't so cool, things might have turned out differently -- but before I had time to squeak 'murder,' I was on the ghastly trail of a heartless criminal. Could I, Polly Price, uncover the truth? Well -- not if I was the chief suspect. And not if I starved to death trying to find my way through long, murky corridors to breakfast. I knew I was in a race against time. And I didn't even have a watch."