“I was on a Missing Persian Case and prowling around Soho …

“His ex-girlfriend, a disappointed Tabby, wanted him back, but when I found him, in a little Italian bistro on Lafayette, up to his whiskers in antipasto, he was eager to stay unfound.

“So I didn’t find him and walked away.”

With an opening like that, it’s just about impossible to walk away from “The Maltese Kitten,” the second of Linda Stewart’s “Sam the Cat” mysteries.

Imagine Robert Parker’s wise-cracking detective Spenser – four-legged and furry, with a hankering for lox instead of liquor – and you’ve got a pretty good idea what you’re in for.

Great wordplay, cool characters, a little romance and – oh yeah – a mystery, this one about an expensive cat gone missing somewhere in Manhattan.

Along the way, Sam claws his way through the mean (and not-so-mean) streets of our city, prowls through shops like the Fatal Fedora and cozies up to some cats who aren’t what they seem.

Recommended for ages 9 and up, it’s a perfect book to read aloud to the whole family – provided you can read and laugh at the same time.

Luckily, you don’t have to be a detective to find it: It’s $10.95 in paperback at bookstores, Amazon and on the Web at http://www.samthecat.com