Customer Reviews

Cat in a Topaz Tango: A Midnight Louie Mystery (Midnight Louie Mysteries)

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

 

 

This series got off track a few books back but continues to regain its momentum with this entry. Temple's dithering between Matt and Max has lessened but is still there and my hope is the story comes together (i.e., ends) with its "Z" entry.

What's most new in this book is way more serious hints of sex at long last! It's also nice to see Rafi as a good guy and his relationship with Carmen improving. Zoe Chloe is most annoying and hopefully this will be her last appearance. Temple can do better. The play on "Dancing With the Stars" and "So You Think You Can Dance" is really good and explains some of the dances in an entertaining and informative fashion. It gives you a better understanding of and appreciation for the paso doble and tango and watching both dances next season should be even more enjoyable.

Oh yes... Let's not forget that Louie gets a smoldering new female friend and they do their own very descriptive tango!!!

All in all a good addition to a familiar series. Enjoy!

Midnight Louie is always a treat. This book is one of the best in the series!

Carole Nelson Douglas has done it again with the able assistance of Midnight Louie in Cat in a Topaz Tango. Her characters are always 3 dimensional and their personalities are never static but grow and mature with each book. She has the gift of making you care for and about them. I didn't read the book, I devoured it. Kudos to Ms. Douglas and a thousand thanks.

I have to admit that this is the first book by Carole Nelson Douglas that I've read, so it's possible I'm not quite "on board" with her characters, but "Cat in a Topaz Tango" was a bit of a bore from beginning to end.

Douglas apparently thinks her readers are about 6 years old, as she feels it necessary to repeat ad nauseum information regarding her main characters. For example, Temple Barr's fiance Matt is an "ex-priest," we are informed every time he's in a scene. Lieutenant Molina, we are told over and over, has been wounded in a previous book, and is still suffering. Molina and her ex and baby-daddy Rafi have a tense relationship, Douglas harps every time they are in a scene together. Yawn.

Douglas' book is sadly also the subject of poor research and editing, making for some cringe-worthy spelling and grammar mistakes, along with mistakes in history, medicine and science. (Did you know that a finger cut can soak a bath sheet with blood?) Some descriptions are just clunky: P. 264 (hardback ed.) "His head bristled with stiff projections like a metal crown." But on p. 265, same character: "A skull-clinging scarlet scarf covered his forehead above a wig of dangling black dreadlocks...." Huh?

The plot of this book centers around a dance fundraiser/competition a'la "Dancing With the Stars" and begins with a runaway teen with dreams. The teen's mom, a cop, notes that her daughter left with her cell phone, but is too busy being injured and worried to *call* her daughter or get one of the daughter's friends to call her. From there the action gets more and more implausible, and less entertaining. Temple, a 31 year old, goes undercover as a teen internet star. ('Cause, you know, short slender women just look younger!) A series of sabotages haunts the grown-up dancers, but in spite of some of them being "seriously" hurt, they all manage to perform. Even Douglas seems to feel that her denoument is weak; she spends a few extra pages trying to build up to it. And, finally, what is with the burlesque of a spy-story dribbled out in chapters througout the book? Do readers really care that much about the missing bad-boy love-of-her-life? I kept waiting for a connection to the main story, but it was more like Monty Python's "And Now for Something Completely Different" than a vehicle to move the plot along.

The only real mystery is why anyone would think that "Cat in a Topaz Tango" is a mystery.

I have read all of the Midnight Louie Mystreies. I love Cat in a Topaz Tango. I have also read a lot of the other Cat Mysteries and
Carole Nelson Douglas has the very best. I can't wait until the next Midnight Louie comes out.
Debbie James
Kansas City, Mo.

In Las Vegas, public relations specialist Temple Barr convinces her reluctant fiancé, former priest turned radio show host Matt Devine to enter a charity sponsored Dancing with the Celebs contest at the Oasis Hotel that will raise money for charity. Temple agreed to emcee the Junior Division as her on-line zany teenager Zoe Chloe Ozone; Matt is in as well as tough Homicide Lieutenant Carmen "C.R." Molina is in that division.

Temple told him it would be fun, but soon accidents occur. Carmen bullies Temple to help her when her teenage daughter Mariah vanishes. Also working the disappearance are the teen's father, Rafi Nadir, chief of security chief at the Oasis Hotel and of course Temple's significant other hardboiled detective Midnight Louie. Everyone fears the Barbie Doll who has stalked teens.

The twenty first alphabetically correct Midnight Louie caper is a terrific entry in spite of the whodunit being somewhat low-keyed. Temple's former boyfriend Max Kinsella is a minor player as he remains off stage in Europe struggling with killers and amnesia but not struggling with a blonde. The story line is fast-paced even when Louie takes time outs to seduce a feline femme fatale. Fans of the series will enjoy this entertaining feline urban noir while newcomers will appreciate a short summary of who's who.

Harriet Klausner

My order was received in a timely fashion and I loved the book.Cat in a Topaz Tango: A Midnight Louie Mystery (Midnight Louie Mysteries)

I enjoyed the first few Midnight Louie books but now I can't even get them started. The series is getting too the same to spend my limited book budget on. This is not the only series. James Patterson fell by the way side quite a few books ago.This is about the concept of a series going past when it should, not any certain author or genra. Sorry. The books may still be good, but not for me.I read CND when she wrote Science Fantasy and I go back far enough to remember reading many books that became firsts in what ended up as long series in several genras.