Amazon.com Review
"No. Oh God, no!" In the opening pages of
Stray Kat Waltz, readers discover that Kat Colorado has suffered a devastating personal loss, and Kat fans are in for a tragic treat as Karen Kijewski takes her tough-talking heroine to a deeper level.
Sara Bernard, a battered wife who fears for her life, pleads with Kat to take her case. Kat refuses at first, fleeing to Tahoe for a reprieve from her pain. Gradually, however, Kat cannot resist Sara's determination to escape from her policeman-husband, Jed. She tutors Sara in the subtleties of disguise and evasion. But, when Kat meets Jed, the story becomes even more complicated. Jed insists that he has never harmed his wife, and all of his colleagues on the police force back him up.
Kijewski unfolds a shifting tale that directs and misdirects the reader, and early uncertainties in character are thoroughly resolved by the carefully twisted plot. All the while, Kijewski explores the web of deception that inevitably surrounds the hot-button topic of spousal abuse. The acerbic dialogue of the earlier Kat adventures is still here, as well as a few steamy dream sequences that punctuate the early grimness. New readers will also want to read Kat Scratch Fever to ground themselves in Ms. Colorado and her relationships. Other books in the series available in paperback include Alley Kat Blues, Copy Kat, Honky Tonk Kat, Kat's Cradle, Katapult, Katwalk, and Wild Kat. --Patrick O'Kelley
From Kirkus Reviews
Reeling from a personal tragedy (Kat Scratch Fever, 1997), Kat Colorado is in no mood to buy into Sara Bernard's sad tale of sposal abuse. She tells Sara to call the cops and leave her alone. But Sara can't call the cops, she wails; her husband Jed is a cop; nobody can help her but Kat. Kat insults Sara, hangs up on her, turns her out into the street. When a friend of Sara's is wrestled from a riverside path into the river and drowned, though, Kat agrees to take the case, meets with Jed Bernard, and hears his version of the marriage (duly seconded by all his friends): Sara's wild accusations are hysterical, and Jed's a put-upon husband who likes to coach inner-city basketball games and never raises his voice. Caught between an alleged abuser whom she's caught stalking his wife, trespassing on her property, and burglarizing her stuff, and her client, a world-class whiner who alternates between tearful reproaches and suspicious disappearing acts, Kat takes a closer look at the Bernards and finds that she can't trust either of them. So whose story should she believe, and what's behind the lies she's getting from at least one of them? The he-said/she-said of Kijewski's ninth packs as much unfocused intensity as Sara's complaints, but the lumbering pace and Kat's gee-whiz undercover work make this less than Kat's finest hour. --
Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
