"When you thought about it, I'd pulled off a miracle getting Franny to attend Fred's funeral in tears rather than picketing it in Birkies." After decades of marriage, motherhood, and grandmotherhood, Cat Caliban has become Cincinnati's newest, oldest, funniest detective-in-training. During the sixties, Cat was too distracted by the war on the home front between her activist daughter and her husband to pay attention to the antiwar movement. But doves, like pigeons, come home to roost, and Franny's visit to her mother coincides with the murder of a former antiwar activist during a new round of demonstrations. When one of Cat's homeless pals becomes the chief suspect, Cat investigates. When she discovers secrets from the past, someone tries to force her underground permanently. Will Cat become the killer's next target? Will the residents of the Catatonia Arms survive Franny's bad guitar-playing and off-key singing? Three-Ring Circus is the third mystery in the Cat Caliban series.