As with Winther's previous two thrillers, the third one involves a woman associated with the San Francisco law firm of McCloskey, Warner & Jarvis. In the first thriller, "The Jaguar Dances," McCloskey's secretary travels to Peru; in the second, "The Leopard Sings," Warner's wife goes to Kenya. And now in this third thriller, "The Tiger Drums," Chelsea Jarvis, the woman partner in the firm, flies to Japan on a seemingly innocuous business trip that becomes a minefield of explosive situations. This manuscript won an Editor's Award in the "Mainstream Novel" category from the Pacific Northwest Writers' Association. In "The Cat Trio," the collective name of Barbara Winther's three thrillers, the cat takes on many guises while it pads silently beneath the people who move across the pages.