Why I...and the HUMAN...love MIDNIGHT LOUIE!

Midnight Louie is OUR kind of detective.

In his own words, he’s short, dark and unobtrusive.  He talks like a detective out of a 40s pulp novel.  Plus, he’s remarkably light on his feet and he can shimmy into places Columbo would never dare to tread.
And why not?  Louie is a cat.

A 20 pound, jet black tomcat with all of his – um- assets intact (well for the most part.  He has had a vasectomy – yeah, you heard me right) Louie is the first furpurrson of mystery, or as he puts it, the star of his own multivolume mystery series. And make no mistake about it, Louis is THE star, even though at times he finds himself sharing center stage with some very interesting humans.

A good deal of the charm for me in this series is Carole Nelson Douglas’

well fleshed out characters, both feline and human. Eighteen pound plus tomcat Louie shares the stage in his books with four human characters, two men, two women; two amateur sleuths, two pros. Crime-solving Temple Barr, PR woman and burgeoning sleuth, is Louie’s roommate. (No one “owns” Louie.) He’s Temple’s protector and “muscle.” Hard-boiled female homicide lieutenant C.R. Molina has to put up with the pair of them. Max Kinsella is Temple’s ex, a magician and counter-terrorist operative on the run. Matt Devine is an ex-priest radio advice counselor who’s become Temple’s fiancée.  And this is not to mention the feline characters, which include his alleged daughter, Midnight Louise (who loves ragging on dear old pops), Ma Barker, his mom who still oftentimes refers to him by his given  name, Grasshopper, a bomb and drug sniffing Maltese, Nose E, several assorted cats, big and little…oh! And let’s not forget those glamour pusses, cats of the female persuasion that set Louie’s tail to thumping:  Shaded silver and gold Persians Yvette and Solange, between whose affections Louie bounces like a furry black ball; the deadly Hyacinth, a seal point Siamese whose claws are dipped nightly (supposedly) in Curare; and Satin, a comely black chick with a fluffy tail, one of Louie’s first amours and the maybe-momma of Midnight Louise.

Douglas writes the series as if it were a daytime soap, interweaving plot points and characters throughout.  And, like any loyal soap follower, we’re all dying to know what happens next? Who will Temple end up with, her long time love, the Mystifying Max?  Or radio hottie/ex-priest Matt Devine? More importantly, will Louie ever be able to decide between those darling Persians, Yvette and Solange?

As Louie says, he lives in “the city that never sleeps” – and with a crew like that, who could?

More importantly, who would want to?

The newest Midnight Louie mystery debuts August 6 -CAT IN AN ALIEN X-RAY.

And for those of you who missed it in hardcover, CAT IN A WHITE TIE AND TAILS debuts in paperback July 2!

Article by:

The "Human" - author of her own series about a shamus cat - The Nick and Nora Mysteries, MEOW IF IT'S MURDER, coming Fall 2014 from Berkely Prime Crime!


and moi- Rocco, the Incredible Blogging Cat - the unabashed inspiration for "Nick" - Louie and I have lots in common!

IN honor of Midnight Louie's next book, the HUMAN and I will give away a classic Midnight Louie mystery - which one is a surprise - to one lucky commenter!  Leave your comment and email addy below to be entered!  We'll select a winner using random.org from all comments on June 23!

The winner of our Michelle Rowen/Sarah Dearly giveaway is: Barbara E! Congrats!

June 24 - Nancy Gideon in the hotseat

June 28 - Juliet Blackwell guest posts!

MEOW!