I was promised a mystery narrated by a cat. However, there is absolutely no cat to this narration. No cat in the real world knows how rich the people in town are or how many miles it is to Hollywood. No cat would call his person "Master" in such a way. When Joe is terrified, the description reads like that of a terrified human - there is no mention of ears pulling back, back arching, tail puffing, or anything else that is distinctively cat-like. Scent is a very important part of a cat's sensory experience, but there is hardly any mention of it in this story. And when it is mentioned, it's something that humans could smell, not something specific to a cat's keen sense of smell. In fact, the narrator could easily be human and nothing would change.
Also (minor spoilers for chapter 1), I can勉强 accept a murderer looking up, seeing a cat, and taking a swipe at it. But I cannot suspend my disbelief enough to accept that a murderer would continue to chase the cat, dodging police to do so, reaching blindly into cellars to try to grab it (and somehow mysteriously knowing that the cat left the cellar by another exit while he's got his head down groping around in there), all because a cat saw a murder.
It's as if Murphy keeps forgetting that her main character is supposed to be a cat and not a human. The story lacks the authenticity and details that would make it truly believable from a cat's perspective.