Cat in a Neon Nightmare

From Publishers Weekly
In the 15th entry (after 2002's Cat in a Midnight Choir) in Douglas's sprawling serial that always leaves another murder unsolved until the next installment, that cocky cool cat and "ace feline PI" Midnight Louie and his "erstwhile daughter," Miss Midnight Louise, add their own heroics to a potent brew of who-offed-who and who-loves-who. Last time out, a Stripper Killer was caught by the Circle Ritz gang, but Kitty "the Cutter" O'Connor escaped to keep stalking the object of her affection, "Mr. Midnight" Matt Devine, an ex- but still celibate priest/radio-talk-show counselor. Here, Vassar, the high-class call girl whom Devine picked to lose his virginity to before Kitty could do the deed, ends up dead after their tryst-on a Las Vegas hotel's casino area's "clear Lexan ceiling above the neon." Crack police lieutenant C.R. Molina suspects magician/counterterrorist "Mystifying Max" Kinsella, while Temple Barr, PR whiz and friend to both Devine and Kinsella, suspects Kitty-an over-the-top evildoer also connected to Kinsella's IRA past and perhaps even to the sinister Synth, an ancient magician's association that may have been responsible for the "death" of Kinsella's old mentor, Gandolph the Great. Subsequent volumes should tie up all the loose ends Douglas leaves in this light hybrid cocktail that's shaken, not stirred-and not for those who prefer their mysteries, well, straight up and feline-free. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Sleuth and supercat Midnight Louie has anthropomorphized his way through murder at romance writers' conventions, cat shows, and various other venues designed to display Las Vegas at its most outrageous. Over the top? Louie parted company with the "top" years ago. This time Louie and his human associates, Temple Barr and Max Kinsella, tangle with the Synth, a gang of outlaw magicians up to no good. Tracking down the elusive renegades takes Louie to a private magic club called Nightmare--imagine the bar in Star Wars but not quite as friendly. You'd think a talking cat would fit right in at a joint designed to blur the line between reality and fantasy, but it doesn't work quite like that. Midnight Louie defies critical comment. To some cat lovers, he is as tasty as a fresh bowl of Fancy Feast; to those who prefer the line between feline and human to remain fairly rigid, he is about as appealing as a box of used kitty litter. This adventure won't change minds in either camp. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Review
"In the irresistibly witty Louie, [Douglas] creates a legendary sleuth who ranks right up with the greats--TravisMcGee in fur!" --Romantic Times



Book Description
Cat in a Neon Nightmare is the fifteenth Midnight Louie mystery, and this tough-talking tomcat is as feisty as ever, raising hell (sometimes literally) in Las Vegas, America's Sin Capital.

The lavish hotels and the sham of wholesome fun may soothe the tourists, but sex and greed still fuel this town, and bad guys still abound. And Midnight Louie, the feline Sam Spade has his paws full keeping those he loves safe
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This time Midnight Louie treads the lurid side of mystery's mean streets when a call girl named Vassar is found lying dead on the neon ceiling above a Las Vegas casino. Suicide or homicide? If straight-arrow radio shrink Matt Devine, the man most likely to have been Vassar's unlikely last client, is charged for Vassar's murder, everyone Louie knows is an accessory to the crime . . . except for his ever-loving roommate, PR whiz Temple Barr, who has been kept in the dark by both friends and enemies.

To save Matt's future, Temple will have to crack the cover-up with the unsuspected help of Midnight Inc. Investigations, now including a junior partner: Louie's maybe-daughter, Midnight Louise. Meanwhile, a hot new club in town, Neon Nightmare, has links to the mysterious Synth, a sinister association of magicians that may lie behind the string of unsolved deaths that have haunted Louie Company for months.

And with the psychotic stalker, Kitty the Cutter, still prowling, death is definitely in the cards for someone Temple knows very well, and not even Louie may be able to stop it.



About the Author
Carole Nelson Douglas is the author of the bestselling Midnight Louie series. She is also the author of the historical suspense series featuring Irene Adler, the only woman ever to have "outwitted" Sherlock Holmes. She lives in Fort Worth, Texas.



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Finally, in the 15th escapade of Las Vegas p.r. flack Temple Barr and her know-it-all tomcat, Midnight Louie (Cat in a Midnight Choir, 2002, etc.), Douglas gets around to tying up most of the loose ends she's been carting from book to book. The first sign of knotted threads comes when radio talk-show host and former priest Matt Devine, in an attempt to thwart his obsessive stalking by renegade IRA operative Kitty the Cutter, checks into the gaudy Goliath Hotel, pays for a gorgeous call girl named Vassar, and plans on relieving himself of his innocence. Unfortunately, after Vassar leaves his room, she wanders to the atrium balcony and tips over. Suicide? Accident? Murder? Hoping to snare Max Kinsella, former spy, magician, and roommate of Temple, Lt. Carmen Molina takes on the case, but Max eludes her as he pursues the Synth, a dastardly group of magicians hanging out at the Neon Nightmare, a club with more secret passages than cats have lives. While Louie and his saucy kid Louise are chatting up birds in the atrium and tagging along after Max and Kitty, who collide on a desert highway, Matt is consumed by guilt and Temple totters around on impossibly high heels. Gandolph the Great, who's been dead for years, returns, and Louie's vain and wicked inamorata Yvette pops up on that atrium balcony. There'll be more Catholic soul-searching by Max, Matt, even Molina before the exequies for the series' archvillainess. The plot is silly and congested, and the cats so insufferably cute they'll make you run right out and buy a dog.


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