Customer Reviews

Cat in a Neon Nightmare: A Midnight Louie Mystery

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I just discovered this series a couple books back, but I went back and read all the previous books (tip: there's an interior alphabet in the titles after the first two books). What a trip! This is unlike any mysteries series I've read, more like a long-running TV series where the characterization just gets richer along with the plot complications.

Of course there's the addictive voice of Midnight Louie, the hard-boiled cat PI, coming and going between the adventures of the four main human characters. Louie is "just a cat" to the human characters, so it's only the reader who knows what he's really up to and how he helps them solve crimes. He's all cat and yet also a very funny send-up of PI cliches. The Las Vegas background provides even more larger-than-life opportunities for poking fun at human (and feline) follies.

The four humans include two professional crimefighters and two amateur, so the action can be satirical and amusing . . . or darker and thought-provoking. While there are traditional murders to solve in the books, the sequence is as messy as in real life, with some crimes going unsolved as an underlying conspiracy is slowly revealed. I found in reading the series in one go that the earlier books had little clues sprinkled throughout that became significant later, so I really recommend starting with Catnap and Pussyfoot. The books even get thicker as the story gets richer and more intricate, and rereadings reveal even more of the fine points. I love series that create a universe you can get lost in, that always feels bigger than the book you're reading right now.

This book surprised me though, with sudden plot twists that totally turned my expectations (and some of the characters') upside down. The edgy relationship of the humans (two men and two women, all interesting. . . and they DON'T all have abuse issues) really drives this series. Romance is a factor, but so is rivalry.

This series is unique for being wildly amusing, suspenseful, and thought-provoking all at the same time. I can't wait for the next installment, and hope the author invents a way to extend the alphabet!

I just read Cat In a Neon Nightmare, and overall found it an enjoyable book in the series. I've been reading the Midnight Louie series since the early 90's, and have often recommended the books to friends.

And, though there is some truth to the complaint that the stories have become a bit too PC and preachy, I have to admit these stories still leave me with that feeling of immediately wanting to read the next one, wondering what will happen. And there were some interesting plot twists in this one. I also find them very re-readable. I would also recommend CND's Irene Adler series.

I've just finished this one, and each book in the Midnight
Louie series becomes more exciting! I love the Big Cats and the addition of Louie's mother. I see the love interests of the main characters becoming more confused, complex and even more interesting. I enjoy the characters immensely and feel that I know Temple, Matt, Max and even Molina. I can't wait for the next book to come out in paperback to find out what happens to all of them next.

I've loved this series from the beginning because of the continuing character growth as well as the humor. And the zany Las Vegas background has evolved along with the main characters.

The author spoke recently at my local library, so I asked how come books I love, like this one, sometimes get such negative reviews online. She said sometimes a book's content will hit too close to home and really push a reader's buttons; at least that's what she's found with completely negative reactions. When I showed her a review on this book that was so opposite my reaction, she also said that people's opinions are just that, and they can't be argued with.

But she also was pretty puzzled that someone complained she'd labeled the character of Max as a "lone wolf" so many times it was to the point of nausea. So she did a word search for the phrase after she flew back home and emailed me the results: Max is called a lone wolf in only one of the 16 books: this last one, Cat in a Neon Nightmare. She only found that the phrase lone wolf used twice in earlier books, once by the cat detective, Midnight Louie, contrasting feline and canine behavior, and once as a metaphor for a motorcycle that plays a role in the series.

Amazing, some people aren't really seeing what's in the books, they're reacting to what they think they see. In fact, their comments can be downright wrong in terms of fact as well as opinion.

So my advice is to read these books for yourself and make up your own minds. And write your own review if you don't agree with with what's posted!

One of a series of great books featuring a cat sleuth. Lots of fun to read.

This is an incredible series of mystery books if you like mysteries, cats, and Las Vegas!

He is one cool cat! Midnight Louie would be welcome in my home anyday along with his dear Mum, Ma Barker and sister, Midnight Louise, oh and we can't forget his sweet papa (now retired). A truly delightful read which keeps you looking for the next book in this great series.

Many of the reviewers here have read many, or all, of the books in this series. I haven't. This is the first "Midnight Louie" book I've read.

I won't be reading any more of this series, though I might try the author's Adler series.

The author spends a lot of time trying to bring new readers up to speed. Unfortunately, the attempts to explain the various twists and turns in past books add little by way of clarity, and serve to distract the reader (at least this reader) from the story at hand.

While this mystery theoretically addresses the violent death of a woman, the human characters invest relatively little time, energy, or thought in trying to solve that mystery. The feline characters are considerably more interested in finding out what happened.

The investigation of this death is lost amidst a tangle of sub-plots. Characters appear, initiate discussions of Important Topics (not related to the woman's death), and vanish.

Imagine someone going to the roof of a building with a bushel basket of tennis balls. Imagine that person upending the basket so that the balls fall to the sidewalk below, bouncing in every direction. Imagine the person then describing where the various balls bounced to, and where some of the balls came to rest. That's the sense I had with this book -- the author's attention followed this bouncing ball, then dropped that one to check out another bouncing ball, and then on to another, then back to the first from another perspective. The investigation of the character's death was just one bouncing ball, often overlooked.

For me as one reader, this book was completely unsatisfactory as a mystery.

Readers who like stories with a lot of divergence would probably like this book better than readers like me, who like a sense of convergence and even closure of the story at hand.

Readers who enjoy characters who are talking cats, or characters who are humans with a penchant for feeling many emotions and then expressing their views about how they feel to other human characters, will undoubtedly like this book better than I did.

I discovered the Midnight Louie books over 2 years ago and have ravenosly read them all. Cat in a Neon Nightmare is full of unexpected surprises. A major chapter unexpectedly closes here and through Mrs. Nelson Douglas' artistry we are made to feel the void opened by this event as closely as those it affects in the book. Almost every character this time around is exposed to a truth or happenstance that disappoints them/shocks them at a deep soul biting level and we feel it right with them. Everything is not black and white, not all things happen due to premeditation--like real life--somethings just do. A wonderful continuation of the Midnight Louie adventures and by the emotions it evokes, a wonderful example of what a writer can make their readers feel when they have a grasp of the craft as well as Carole Nelson Douglas obviously does. Huzzah!

Enjoyed the book. " Louie" and "Louise are" favorites as usual. Story was more in depth than usual but well done.

Las Vegas public relations expert Temple Barr has been involved in several recent homicide investigations. Helping her besides her feline bodyguard Louie is her lover Max Kinsella (a magician and part-time counter terrorist operative) and ex-priest Matthew Devine. Matt has also been stalked and threatened by Kathleen O'Connor an IRA agent, who wants his virginity in exchange for leaving him and the females in his life alone. Max, who was once Kathleen's lover, and Lt. Carman Molina of the Las Vegas Police Department tell him to have sex with a high priced call girl so that he wouldn't be of any value to his stalker anymore.

He takes their advice and when he leaves the room, the hooker was very much alive. When Molina sees her she is dead and she knows Matt is the last person to see her alive. Molina suffers a crisis of conscience because she has to think of him as a suspect even though she doesn't want her personal life to spill over into her professional one. Meanwhile Max is busy infiltrating the Synth, a cabal of magicians who might be responsible for the murder attempts on him, Matt and Temple. Midnight Louie saves Max's life from an old enemy with a long grudge.

Temple Barr, who is usually center stage in the Midnight Louis novels, plays a secondary role in CAT IN A NEON NIGHTMARE. The spotlight shines on Max who must come to terms with his own feelings of guilt. Midnight Louis is the true hero of this tale as he saves a life and guards the two men who are an integral part of his human's life. This book is the cat's meow.

Harriet Klausner