Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Acceptable, not stunning, May 23, 2002
With this fourteenth addition to its ranks, the Midnight Louie series continues to do what it has been doing since about book five: chug along reliably through the soap opera that is the major characters' lives, providing a mixture of cat's-eye-view detection, human foibles, and trendy pop psychology to make an amusing afternoon's read. By this point the ongoing saga far overrides any individual book's plot, so if you haven't read any of the series I wouldn't recommend starting here; there's just too much backstory to catch up on. _Cat in a Midnight Choir_ is very obviously a single chapter in what is essentially a serial melodrama. It doesn't stand alone. Followers of Midnight Louie and Co.'s exploits will be relieved to know that one significant plot thread is resolved here, so there is a sense of resolution that has been missing from the series since the letter "J" or so. But we're only halfway through, so don't go looking for any of the really major mysteries to be resolved. If you're impatient to know the whole truth, "Midnight Choir" may only make you more so. I, for one, am also getting a little tired of certain characters' attitudes. Much of the plot seems to hinge upon characters' not communicating and then justifying the lack of communication to themselves somehow. I find this irritating. Also on the negative side, the non-human cast of characters has grown to a degree that makes it hard even for this reader to suspend her disbelief at key moments. The denoument of "Midnight Choir," far from being thrilling, had me laughing at the excess of feline presence. I rather don't think this is quite what the author intended. On the plus side, Douglas once again serves up a detailed view of Las Vegas and its unique character, sprinkled with people who are genuinely complex and human. I liked "Midnight Choir" far better than _Cat in a Leopard Spot_ (the last installment), but not quite as well as some of the more self-contained, earlier volumes. Fans will want to read this one.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
latest Midnight Louie tale keeps the series freshness, May 4, 2002
There are a lot of unsolved crimes in Las Vegas, many of them involving ex-magician Max Kinsella since some of the victims were magicians or their assistants. There is also a rash of attacks and killings of strippers, one of whom was last seen with the mysterious Max. All of the above is too much coincidence for Lieutenant Carmen Molina to dismiss. She goes undercover to try and ferret out the killer, hoping desperately that it is Max and not the father of her twelve-year-old daughter. Temple, who knows that Molina is going after the wrong man is going to do whatever it takes to protect her hunk. Temple's fearless feline Midnight Louie decides that if he wants to keep his human safe, he must be the one to guard her back. This is the fourteenth installment in the Midnight Louie series and yet the novel remains fresh and exciting like a cat with more than nine lives. Several sub-plots from other books in the series culminate in CAT IN A MIDNIGHT CHOIR but there are other threads left purposely dangling so readers will want to read the next episode in this fantastic series. Carole Nelson Douglas knows what readers want and gives it to them so they will come back for more. Harriet Klausner
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superior Midnight Louie, June 24, 2002
Midnight Louie, a black cat and private detective, intends to help his 'roommate' find the killers who have littered Las Vegas with their victims. With the sometimes doubtful assistance of his 'daughter,' and with support from the big cats who work with a Vegas magician, Louie manages to track down some clues--but will Temple Barr and her erstwhile lover Max Kinsella be able to put them together. And in the meantime, will ex-priest Matt Devine ever make a move on Temple, or any woman. And will cop C. R. Molina get off Max's case for long enough to determine what is really happening in Vegas? Author Carole Nelson Douglas's "Cat" stories deliver a multivolume mystery with the loose ends in one story continuing on into the next. In CAT IN A MIDNIGHT CHOIR, some of the threads start to pull together. A mysterious 13th sign of the zodiac points the way at something more potent than high-school occult and the stripper-killer finally gets his come-uppance, but the deeper mysteries remain unsolved. Indeed, ex-terrorist and crazy woman Kathleen O'Connor (aka Kitty the Cutter) is more dangerous than ever in her attempts to make Matt abandon his most deeply felt beliefs. Fans of the Midnight Louie series will be overjoyed to see this addition to the corpus--and CAT IN A MIDNIGHT CHOIR is a good one, moving forward the extended plot, providing its own nuggets of mystery, and presenting lots of Carole Nelson Douglas's quips and wry insights into humanity (only sometimes as seen from the cat's eye). For those not yet exposed to the series, it might make sense to start with the earlier novels as CHOIR is very much a (superior) middle book.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
