Movie Cat: A Big Mike Mystery (Big Mike Mysteries) [Paperback]

Allen Garrison (Author)

Book Description

Series: Big Mike Mysteries | Publication Date: June 1, 2001

Empty Creek, Arizona, becomes the backlot for a shocking mystery when the film director of a big-budget western is found dead. For Penelope Warren, ex-Marine, bookstore owner, and occasional detective, finding the killer, with the help of her 25-pound Abysinian cat, is a scene she's fated to play.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Welcome to Empty Creek, Ariz., where all the women are voluptuous, all the men are adoring and everyones horny. Blame it on the water, says ex-marine Penelope Warren, now a bookstore owner and amateur sleuth. In the latest episode (after Dinosaur Cat) of Allens series featuring Penelope and her fat cat, Mycroft (aka Big Mike), Empty Creek is invaded by a B-movie film crew. Director C.D. Masterly and his company are in town to shoot a low-budget western starring Penelope, her sister, Stormy, and most of the towns women as saloon floozies. Before the filming gets underway, however, Masterly is found murdered in his rented villa, and everyone in the crewactresses, writers, female companionsis suspect. As a new director begins shooting and the sexual antics heat up, Penelope begins her search for the killer. Allens plot gets dragged down by Empty Creeks steamy capers, and Mycrofts part in the long saga is disappointingly small. None of the characters, including Penelope, are standouts in this town, where the ladies are intelligent bombshells and the men are dumb, at best. Other than Mycrofts standard feline feats, this novels best feature is an exciting conclusion in which the movie shoots explosive finale exposes the killer.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

A big-budget movie shoot arrives in Empty Creek, AZ, with promises of part-time employment that tempt Penelope Warren, local sometime sleuth (Baseball Cat, LJ 7/97). Unfortunately, she and cat Mycroft really swing into action only after someone murders the movie's director. For cat-genre fans and others.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 298 pages
• Publisher: Kensington (June 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1575666235
• ISBN-13: 978-1575666235
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 4.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,011,760 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply one of the best cozy mysteries I've read this year!, May 6, 1999

By 

[e-mail]/Patti Herwick (Akron, Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Movie Cat (A "Big Mike" Mystery) (Hardcover)

Garrison Allen's 6th (and hopefully not last) Big Mike book is one of his best. Once again Mikey and Penelope find themselves in the middle of murder and mayhem when very unpopular director C.D. Masterly is found dead, nude and with an angry rattlesnake in the immediate vicinity. All the characters we have come to know in Empty Creek along with some really strange new ones (keep in mind that the people of Empty Creek are NOT the strange ones!) are in this outstanding, funny heartwarming mystery! I promise you, you'll never think of alarm clocks the same way you always have when you see what one does to Mikey! Mikey and Penelope have joined the ranks of Koko and Yum Yum, Midnight Louie and Mrs. Murphy et al in the cat mystery world don't let us lose them. Please let the publishers know that you want more Big Mike mysteries or this one may be the last one!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Where Oh Where Has Mikey Gone?, July 28, 2000

By 

Michael Butts (Berkeley Springs, WV USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Movie Cat (A "Big Mike" Mystery) (Hardcover)

All of Garrison Allen's "Big Mike" mysteries/comedies are some of the best and most entertaining reading I've encountered in some time. What's interesting about 'Movie Cat' and all of the Allen mysteries are that the murder and whodunit are secondary to the witty and crazy characters populating the books. Penelope and all of her cohorts are funny and of course Big Mike is the primo cat in detective fiction. The food fights, the things he does to Tweedledum and Tweedledee are priceless feline encounters. So, where is the latest Garrison Allen installment? I noticed only two reviews for this book---how sad! Come on mystery readers, have a little, no a LOT of fun. Grab up all the Big Mike mysteries and have yourself one heck of a good time!

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No one will feel empty with Penelope and Mycroft tale, March 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Movie Cat (A "Big Mike" Mystery) (Hardcover)

The residents of Empty Creek, Arizona would feel right at home in Eerie, Indiana. Penelope Warren, owner of Mycroft and Company mystery bookstore, is a typical resident, who feels she is just an ordinary person. However, eccentric seems more accurate as her cat Mycroft loves lima beans, her horse slobbers over peppermint sticks, and a close friend gives her erotic gifts as jokes. Even weirder is that Penelope believes she is a sleuth, who conducts investigations without being paid or asked to for that matter asked.

Penelope is currently working as an extra in a western being filmed in town by a Hollywood crew. She learns that everyone despises the director, Clarence Davis. So when someone murders Davis, Penelope begins to make inquiries. However, the suspect list includes a cast of hundreds.

Unlike previous novels in the series, the adorable Mycroft takes a back seat to his human counterparts. The secondary characters provide a satirical look at Hollywood on location and Penelope remains an oddball amateur sleuth. The story line includes plenty of cleverly devised misdirections and red herrings so that even a flow chart will not help readers guess the identity of the culprit. In MOVIE CAT, Garrison Allen writes a humorous who-done-it that will receive much acclaim for the subtle and not so subtle ironies.

Harriet Klausner