Cat on a Blue Monday: A Midnight Louie Mystery [Hardcover]

Carole Nelson Douglas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1994

Midnight Louie, the lop-eared tomcat with an attitude, and Temple Barr, his red-headed human companion with a nose for trouble, investigate the killing off of prize-winning purebreds at the Las Vegas Cat Show. By the author of Pussyfoot.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Midnight Louie, the 19-pound feline detective and self-decribed "one cool dude," pads the streets of his hometown Las Vegas in his third case (after Pussyfoot ). From a psychic Birman cat named Karma, Louie hears that danger threatens a gathering of cats; the targets may be the cosseted kitties at the Las Vegas Cat Show or the 73 strays who live with elderly Blandina Tyler. Interfering in his sleuthing is Louie's "little doll," diminutive publicist Miss Temple Barr, who is at the cat show when another Birman is discovered shaved. Temple's neighbor, attractive ex-priest Matt Devine, gets involved while investigating obscene phone calls directed at stone-deaf Sister Mary Monica, who lives at the convent near Miss Tyler's home. The plot thickens when the convent cat survives an attempted crucifixion on Miss Tyler's door the day before she herself is found dead at the bottom of her staircase. Are satanists responsible? Did the tippling Father Hernandez hope to secure his parish's legacy before Miss Tyler left her money to her cats? While probing these mysteries, Louie must also discover why Caviar, the hostile kitten that Temple brings home, is also called Midnight Louise. Louie sniffs through plenty of plausible red herrings and avoids getting himself tacked up on the church door before pointing a claw at the killer in this brisk tail that even mystery readers who don't love cats will relish.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

PR flack Temple Barr, arranging publicity for the Las Vegas Cat Show, is on the track of whoever gave Peggy Wilhelm's champion Birman cat Minuet a Mohawk, keeping Minuet out of shows for at least a year. Phone counselor Matt Devine, Temple's reticent suitor, has been asked by his old teacher Sister Seraphina O'Donnell to find out who's behind the obscene phone calls to deaf, elderly Sister Mary Monica. And Temple's Runyonesque cat Midnight Louie has been privy to a dire prophecy of cat-astrophe for untold numbers of local felines. It would be nice if all these mysteries were connected; and it's a lot more fun watching them grow together--and seeing Louie win an accidental blue ribbon and get dragooned into giving blood to a crucified fellow cat--than it is trying to finger the feeble malefactor, about whom the less said the better. (Douglas must agree: It's practically a nonspeaking role.) Less arch than Catnap (1992) and Pussyfoot (1993), but intolerably overextended, with a finale that'll run you within a whisker of your ninth life. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 381 pages
• Publisher: Forge; 1st edition (June 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312856075
• ISBN-13: 978-0312856076
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,127,334 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Midnight Louie is simply the cat's meow in my book!, February 12, 1999

By 

Rachael Zubal ([e-mail]) (Syracuse, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cat on a Blue Monday: A Midnight Louie Mystery (Midnight Louie Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

Midnight Louie, cat detective and tomcat about town (Las Vegas that is), and his "human," Temple Barr are on the prowl again after a mysterious happening at a cat show. Also, strange happenings occur at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church involving obscene phone calls, priestly secrets, and lots of cats. A good read which I couldn't put down. If you are a fan of Midnight Louis mysteries or any other Black Cat style mysteries, you'll enjoy this one. I couldn't put it down until I got to the very suspenseful ending. (And yes I do own a black cat!)

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Midnight Louie, the best!, April 18, 2002

By 

William L. Gilstrap - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cat on a Blue Monday: A Midnight Louie Mystery (Midnight Louie Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

Midnight Louie is at his best and most lovable in this romp through a murder at a cat show. How he is able to keep his excitable "Little Doll" under control and guide her to solving the mystery and other problems is quite engrossing. As always, Louie is the strong character and quite the inimitable tough private cat eye. A well plotted and well written book. Any cat lover and many a non-catlover mystery fan should love this book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Louie does it again, November 11, 2003

By 

Carol Wallace "Gardenwriter" (Clarks Summit, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cat on a Blue Monday: A Midnight Louie Mystery (Midnight Louie Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

At the Las Vegas cat show, a major contender - a once beautiful Birman - is shaved before she gets a chance to compete. At the Circle Ritz, home to Midnight Louie, a big, black, tough-talking feline supersleuth and his roommate, petite PR pro Temple Barr, another Birman, landlady Electra Lark's psychic Karma, warns Louie that he must find a place where lots of cats are gathered because they are all in danger. Louie does his research by absorbing the newspaper classifieds (it's a sort of learning by osmosis, as he explains it.) And so Louie sets out for the cat show.

Meanwhile, in the Las Vegas parish of Our Lady Of Guadalupe the convent cat, Peter, is found nailed to the shed door of a neighbor, spinster Blandina Tyler, in a mock crucifixion. Miss Tyler just happens to keep many, many stray cats. Blandina is aunt to Peggy Wilhelm of the shaved Birman who is now stuck on guard duty at the cat show. Temple - in a fit of good samaritanism - volunteered to help feed them Blandina's cats to help Peggy out. Lucky for Peter, whom she finds and rushes to the vet, where he makes a good recovery. Soon she and neighbor Matt Devine are also in on the action.

Meanwhile, Louie goes undercover at the cat show - after all, it is a place where many cats are gathered and at least one has been threatened. In the process he manages to win Best of Show in the housecat category - even though he didn't enter. That's our boy - one superior dude! But it doesn't go to his head. Louie has a job to do!

Is the hot spot the show? Or the parish, where Temple's divine neighbor, Matt Devine's former grade school teacher has called him to assist with still another problem - the pastor has taken to tippling. Poor, nearly deaf Sister Mary Monica is getting obscene phone calls, although she doesn't realize it. ("He must love philosophy. He's always talking about Kant," she says.) And there are mysterious things that go bump in the night all around the convent area.

And then Miss Tyler is murdered - and we have another clutch of cats in danger - along with a baffling selection of wills, all leaving Miss Tyler's money to different people and/or cats. Suddenly suspects appear to be everywhere.

Meanwhile, back at the Circle Ritz, Temple has adopted a new roommate - a small black Humane Society cat called Caviar. Her real name, she tells her new feline roommate (whose name she does not yet know) is Midnight Louise. Louise has a plan of her own - revenge on her dear old Dad, who heartlessly deserted dear sweet Mom and the kits. Louie is not particularly pleased.

Can Louie hide his identity from Louise? Is she really Louie's daughter? (We suspect so when she manages to leave a couple clues of her own about where the action is - revealing that she has Louie's detection genes if not his massive size.) Will they be able to co-exist in Temple's apartment? Will we ever discover why Father Hernandez is tippling tequila, or who has it in for the show cats - or the convent area cats? Or who keeps calling Sister Mary Monica and talking about female dog breeding?

Somehow, Louie, Temple and Matt manage to keep all the many strands of mystery from getting too, too tangled, but not before Temple has to break out her newly learned martial arts skills to foil an arson and would-be killer, or before Louie escapes after being chloroformed in a sack - the next candidate for crucifixion.

Rest assured - Louie is tough - and smart - and is only a bit chagrined that his latest media appearance is made while he looks helpless and totally dissheveled with an oxygen mask over his puss. After all - he did lead all the right people to the right places so that the dastardly deeds are finally halted and order and safety are restored to both the cat world and the parish. You'll need to read the book to find out how - and that is an entertaining assignment indeed.

This is the third Midnight Louie book and the first in the alphabetical series that now goes through letter N. But if you missed Catnap and Pussyfoot, don't worry - this book stands on its own merits, as do all the books in the series. It is exciting, mysterious, and yet totally charming. Talking cats may sound too cutesy to believe, but there is nothing cute about Louie - or even his alleged newfound daughter, Caviar. These are street smart cats with an inborn intelligence and a novel way of looking at the world that just may give some new insights to the humans who read them.