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Midnight Louie #23
Cat in a Vegas Gold Vendetta
Cat in a Vegas Gold Vendetta: A Midnight Louie Mystery (Midnight Louie Mysteries)
384 pages, Hardcover
First published August 2, 2011
10 people are currently reading
312 people want to read
About the author
Carole Nelson Douglas
153Ìýbooks562ÌýfollowersCarole Nelson Douglas is the author of sixty-four award-winning novels in contemporary and historical mystery/suspense and romance, high and urban fantasy and science fiction genres. She is best known for two popular mystery series, the Irene Adler Sherlockian historical suspense series (she was the first woman to spin-off a series from the Holmes stories) and the multi-award-winning alphabetically titled Midnight Louie contemporary mystery series. From Cat in an Alphabet Soup #1 to Cat in an Alphabet Endgame #28.
Delilah Street, PI (Paranormal Investigator), headlines Carole's noir Urban Fantasy series: Dancing With Werewolves, Brimstone Kiss, Vampire Sunrise, Silver Zombie, and Virtual Virgin. Now Delilah has moved from her paranormal Vegas to Midnight Louie, feline PI's "Slightly surreal" Vegas to solve crimes in the first book of the new Cafe Noir series, Absinthe Without Leave. Next in 2020, Brandi Alexander on the Rocks.
Once Upon a Midnight Noir is out in eBook and trade paperback versions. This author-designed and illustrated collection of three mystery stories with a paranormal twist and a touch of romance features two award-winning stories featuring Midnight Louie, feline PI and Delilah Street, Paranormal Investigator in a supernatural-run Las Vegas. A third story completes the last unfinished story fragment of Edgar Allan Poe, as a Midnight Louie Past Life adventure set in 1790 Norland on a isolated island lighthouse. Louie is a soldier of fortune, a la Puss in Boots.
Next out are Midnight Louie's Cat in an Alphabet Endgame in hardcover, trade paperback and eBook Aug. 23, 2016.
All the Irene Adler novels, the first to feature a woman from the Sherlock Holmes Canon as a crime solver, are now available in eBook.
Carole was a college theater and English literature major. She was accepted for grad school in Theater at the University of Minnesota and Northwestern University, and could have worked as an editorial assistant at Vogue magazine (a la The Devil Wears Prada) but wanted a job closer to home. She worked as a newspaper reporter and then editor in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. During her time there, she discovered a long, expensive classified advertisement offering a black cat named Midnight Louey to the "right" home for one dollar and wrote a feature story on the plucky survival artist, putting it into the cat's point of view. The cat found a country home, but its name was revived for her feline PI mystery series many years later. Some of the Midnight Louie series entries include the dedication "For the real and original Midnight Louie. Nine lives were not enough." Midnight Louie has now had 32 novelistic lives and features in several short stories as well.
Hollywood and Broadway director, playwright, screenwriter and novelist Garson Kanin took Carole's first novel to his publisher on the basis of an interview/article she'd done with him five years earlier. "My friend Phil Silvers," he wrote, "would say he'd never won an interview yet, but he had never had the luck of you."
Carole is a "literary chameleon" who's had novels published in many genres, and often mixes such genre elements as mystery and suspense, fantasy and science fiction, romance with mainstream issues, especially the roles of women.
Delilah Street, PI (Paranormal Investigator), headlines Carole's noir Urban Fantasy series: Dancing With Werewolves, Brimstone Kiss, Vampire Sunrise, Silver Zombie, and Virtual Virgin. Now Delilah has moved from her paranormal Vegas to Midnight Louie, feline PI's "Slightly surreal" Vegas to solve crimes in the first book of the new Cafe Noir series, Absinthe Without Leave. Next in 2020, Brandi Alexander on the Rocks.
Once Upon a Midnight Noir is out in eBook and trade paperback versions. This author-designed and illustrated collection of three mystery stories with a paranormal twist and a touch of romance features two award-winning stories featuring Midnight Louie, feline PI and Delilah Street, Paranormal Investigator in a supernatural-run Las Vegas. A third story completes the last unfinished story fragment of Edgar Allan Poe, as a Midnight Louie Past Life adventure set in 1790 Norland on a isolated island lighthouse. Louie is a soldier of fortune, a la Puss in Boots.
Next out are Midnight Louie's Cat in an Alphabet Endgame in hardcover, trade paperback and eBook Aug. 23, 2016.
All the Irene Adler novels, the first to feature a woman from the Sherlock Holmes Canon as a crime solver, are now available in eBook.
Carole was a college theater and English literature major. She was accepted for grad school in Theater at the University of Minnesota and Northwestern University, and could have worked as an editorial assistant at Vogue magazine (a la The Devil Wears Prada) but wanted a job closer to home. She worked as a newspaper reporter and then editor in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. During her time there, she discovered a long, expensive classified advertisement offering a black cat named Midnight Louey to the "right" home for one dollar and wrote a feature story on the plucky survival artist, putting it into the cat's point of view. The cat found a country home, but its name was revived for her feline PI mystery series many years later. Some of the Midnight Louie series entries include the dedication "For the real and original Midnight Louie. Nine lives were not enough." Midnight Louie has now had 32 novelistic lives and features in several short stories as well.
Hollywood and Broadway director, playwright, screenwriter and novelist Garson Kanin took Carole's first novel to his publisher on the basis of an interview/article she'd done with him five years earlier. "My friend Phil Silvers," he wrote, "would say he'd never won an interview yet, but he had never had the luck of you."
Carole is a "literary chameleon" who's had novels published in many genres, and often mixes such genre elements as mystery and suspense, fantasy and science fiction, romance with mainstream issues, especially the roles of women.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
November 3, 2011
I've been reading this series since I was pretty young (I think in middle school or something and I'm 26 now) and I've always loved the prose that the author comes up with. She has this way of describing a single instant in time with such vivid detail that you can't help but get emotionally attached to the scene. Overall I think this series has a lot of well developed characters and a very rich storyline but it just didn't come through in this installment.
I don't know quite what happened. I kept waiting for the book to begin, to really get into the meat of things and the action...and then it was over. I feel like it spent so much time filling in the background that I didn't know where it was going. Normally the author is very adept at putting a single, compelling story into the context of the overall series but this time I couldn't care less about it. Then the fact that the main plot wrapped up an ongoing storyline from 4 or 5 books past was just ridiculous. It felt very contrived and left me kind of upset that I had felt so emotionally invested in that particular plot.
Overall, I appreciated the new installment to see how the character's stories were progressing but it was definitely not the best book in the series. If this is the first one you're read from this author, please, give it another chance and read one from earlier in the series.
I don't know quite what happened. I kept waiting for the book to begin, to really get into the meat of things and the action...and then it was over. I feel like it spent so much time filling in the background that I didn't know where it was going. Normally the author is very adept at putting a single, compelling story into the context of the overall series but this time I couldn't care less about it. Then the fact that the main plot wrapped up an ongoing storyline from 4 or 5 books past was just ridiculous. It felt very contrived and left me kind of upset that I had felt so emotionally invested in that particular plot.
Overall, I appreciated the new installment to see how the character's stories were progressing but it was definitely not the best book in the series. If this is the first one you're read from this author, please, give it another chance and read one from earlier in the series.
March 11, 2024
I just don't like a book that keeps changing the tellers' perspective. Back and forth. And the changing fonts just in case you couldn't follow it. The book was cute, but it was going in circles part of the time.
September 2, 2011
Well, I’m never a fan of giving unfavorable reviews, nor am I a fan of not finishing books. Unfortunately, this is what has happened when I attempted to read Cat in a Vegas Gold Vendetta by Carole Nelson Douglas. I usually write a little synopsis of the story to start off my reviews, but I’m not quite sure what to type here. There is a cat that is a detective and chats with other stray cats, a PR whiz that somehow turns into a detective, an ex-fiancée with no memory, and an actress with a kooky aunt. The actress hires Temple Barr to act as the detective and track down who killed her aunt’s handyman, and the cats help out. But then Temple has issues with her ex-fiancée Max, who was in a magic accident and has no memory of her. That’s about all I can do to sum it up. I don’t want to write a scathing review, I think this book simply wasn’t for me. I agreed to review it thinking it was more of a mystery book, and not some strange ode to cats. Within about four chapters, I was completely lost and was never able to get into the story or the characters, and ended up just scanning the rest.
September 2, 2011
This book's plot was convoluted and if I hadn't read most of the previous books I would have been totally lost.
Regarding the resurgence of several characters that were previously pronounced dead - I don't read zombie books generally and can't the author think up new evil geniuses?
I adore both Midnight Louis and Temple Barr, and other characters are great; but it's time to weed out some peripheral characters and focus on the good - less is more and all that!
Keep Temple, Matt, Molina, Ambrosia/Letitia, Kit and the Fontanas and dump many of the others, PLEASE.
Regarding the resurgence of several characters that were previously pronounced dead - I don't read zombie books generally and can't the author think up new evil geniuses?
I adore both Midnight Louis and Temple Barr, and other characters are great; but it's time to weed out some peripheral characters and focus on the good - less is more and all that!
Keep Temple, Matt, Molina, Ambrosia/Letitia, Kit and the Fontanas and dump many of the others, PLEASE.
July 17, 2023
This was a hot mess. Now part of it might be my fault as I haven't read this series in forever. I've been on GR 15 years and haven't reviewed one in this series in that time so I've forgotten a lot. That said, to me, it's rather poor form in a mystery series to have more than 75% of your book be working on plot threads from previous books and I'm not talking just romantic entanglements. Let me outline the plots in this.
1. Savannah contacts Temple to help her aunt which happens in the beginning but we don't see this again for almost 100 pages. This is also the main 'new' crime
2. Max, Temple's ex, is back from the dead and she's dealing with that.
3. Matt, Temple's currant fiance is back from Chicago with a hot job offer that might mean a move
4. Molina, the detective Temple conflicts with wants to recruit Max for something
5. Molina wants Temple's help with the Barbie Doll killer as this serial killer (from previous books) may be targeting her daughter
6. Max and Matt have their conflicts
7. Family crap
8. disappearing cats (this Aunt Violet's issue that Temple is hired to help but more importantly she's ill with no will and it looks like she's being drugged in order to get in the will/kill her)
So yeah, hot mess. Most of the book is working on all these previous plots from older books. Aunt Violet's issue is an afterthought. So we have a mystery book with barely a mystery. We have a book that exists to work out Temple's complicated love life with way too much about Max and his issues and Matt and his issues and oh yeah some serial killer. And we get to hear these issues from Temple's pov, Matt's, Max's, Molina's and even the cat's. This wasn't good or interesting. Maybe if i were more up on the series it wouldn't be so bad but even so, it felt pointless.
1. Savannah contacts Temple to help her aunt which happens in the beginning but we don't see this again for almost 100 pages. This is also the main 'new' crime
2. Max, Temple's ex, is back from the dead and she's dealing with that.
3. Matt, Temple's currant fiance is back from Chicago with a hot job offer that might mean a move
4. Molina, the detective Temple conflicts with wants to recruit Max for something
5. Molina wants Temple's help with the Barbie Doll killer as this serial killer (from previous books) may be targeting her daughter
6. Max and Matt have their conflicts
7. Family crap
8. disappearing cats (this Aunt Violet's issue that Temple is hired to help but more importantly she's ill with no will and it looks like she's being drugged in order to get in the will/kill her)
So yeah, hot mess. Most of the book is working on all these previous plots from older books. Aunt Violet's issue is an afterthought. So we have a mystery book with barely a mystery. We have a book that exists to work out Temple's complicated love life with way too much about Max and his issues and Matt and his issues and oh yeah some serial killer. And we get to hear these issues from Temple's pov, Matt's, Max's, Molina's and even the cat's. This wasn't good or interesting. Maybe if i were more up on the series it wouldn't be so bad but even so, it felt pointless.
October 30, 2017
Savannah Ashleigh, one of Temple's least favorite people, begs her to investigate the death of her elderly aunt's handyman. The aunt has cats--a lot of foster cats which she helps care for. Unable to do all of the work required, she relied on her handyman for help.
Aunt Violet plans to leave her money to a person charged with caring for the cats. Do other relatives have other ideas?
Max is back from Europe minus his memory, Temple's new fiancee, Matt, gets a tempting job offer in Chicago, and of course, there is murder, strange doings, and plenty of territory for Midnight Louie and his gang to cover to keep Temple and her loved ones safe.
Aunt Violet plans to leave her money to a person charged with caring for the cats. Do other relatives have other ideas?
Max is back from Europe minus his memory, Temple's new fiancee, Matt, gets a tempting job offer in Chicago, and of course, there is murder, strange doings, and plenty of territory for Midnight Louie and his gang to cover to keep Temple and her loved ones safe.
October 30, 2021
I wanted so much to like this book. But, the author forgets about her characters and loses her train of thought. It eventually becomes a public service announcement. I will probably not read the author again.
August 22, 2017
It's not often I don't finish a book, but I didn't like the writing or the drawn-out recap of all the previous books. I'm a fast reader and it took me 2 weeks to get to page 80, then I gave up.
August 26, 2017
This is part of a series of books about a cat named Midnight Louie who helps his human solve crimes. Cute premise.
October 13, 2017
Midnight louie rules!
Love these books....love the characters....love the setting, as it's my home town.....well written, fun read....on to the next murderous adventure!
Love these books....love the characters....love the setting, as it's my home town.....well written, fun read....on to the next murderous adventure!
May 31, 2019
It's always fun reading this series!
May 5, 2020
Max is back, sans memory. The BDL is caught and eliminated. Savannah Ashleigh is back..and nice???? Loved it. Tied up some subplots but there is still.so much more!
August 6, 2012
I've read a few of the earlier Midnight Louie (a mystery-solving black cat) books years ago). This is clearly a series in which the characters - including the main human character, Temple Barr, a Las Vegas PR whiz and amateur sleuth - have evolved and grown.
In "Cat in a Vegas Gold Vendetta," Temple agrees to take on the case when B-movie starlet Savannah Ashleigh asks her to investigate the death of Savannah's rich aunt, who is dying and has several hangers-on who would like to claim her estate. Aunt Violet is also a cat hoarder. Her stipulation is that whoever inherits must take care of all the cats in the house.
The story is told partially in first-person viewpoint by Midnight Louie, and partially in third-person by the various human characters. I love the chapters told from Louie's POV, especially when he investigates with his daughter, Midnight Louise. Louie becomes particularly invested in the futures of the cats hoarded in Aunt Violet's house, especially when they start disappearing. I love the confrontation between Louie and the hoarded cats when he noses his way into the house!
Meanwhile, the humans are distracted by the Las Vegas Barbie Doll Killer and by the return of Temple's ex, a magician named the Mystifying Max, who has returned from a counter-terrorism mission in Ireland - with no memory left after a horrible attack that killed his mentor, Gandolph the Great (aka Garry Randolph).
There is a LOT going on in this novel, and a lot of history that came about in the previous books in the series. The good news is that I never got lost. There is enough explained so that I didn't really need the previous books in the series in order to understand what was going on, and Carole Nelson Douglas deftly handled the complicated storyline. The dialogue is sharp and witty.
Really enjoyed this! Now I want to go back and read the other books in the series that I missed. Midnight Louie for President! ;-)
In "Cat in a Vegas Gold Vendetta," Temple agrees to take on the case when B-movie starlet Savannah Ashleigh asks her to investigate the death of Savannah's rich aunt, who is dying and has several hangers-on who would like to claim her estate. Aunt Violet is also a cat hoarder. Her stipulation is that whoever inherits must take care of all the cats in the house.
The story is told partially in first-person viewpoint by Midnight Louie, and partially in third-person by the various human characters. I love the chapters told from Louie's POV, especially when he investigates with his daughter, Midnight Louise. Louie becomes particularly invested in the futures of the cats hoarded in Aunt Violet's house, especially when they start disappearing. I love the confrontation between Louie and the hoarded cats when he noses his way into the house!
Meanwhile, the humans are distracted by the Las Vegas Barbie Doll Killer and by the return of Temple's ex, a magician named the Mystifying Max, who has returned from a counter-terrorism mission in Ireland - with no memory left after a horrible attack that killed his mentor, Gandolph the Great (aka Garry Randolph).
There is a LOT going on in this novel, and a lot of history that came about in the previous books in the series. The good news is that I never got lost. There is enough explained so that I didn't really need the previous books in the series in order to understand what was going on, and Carole Nelson Douglas deftly handled the complicated storyline. The dialogue is sharp and witty.
Really enjoyed this! Now I want to go back and read the other books in the series that I missed. Midnight Louie for President! ;-)
June 2, 2017
I've been a fan of the Midnight Louie/Temple Barr books for years, and was glad to find one I hadn't yet read in our local library.
This time, Temple's one-time fiancé, Max, is back from Ireland with amnesia ... and her current fiancé, Matt, is being wooed by TV producers to move to Chicago and have his own talk show. In the mean while, Temple's trying to help B-movie actress Savannah Ashleigh find out why her Aunt Violet is having so many problems during her terminal illness. Oh -- and why someone's trying to kill Lieutenant Carmen Molina's daughter.
Part of the book is told in the third person, covering everyone's thoughts and feelings. The rest of the book is told in the first person by Temple's Runyonesque cat, Midnight Louie, who always has his own perspective on the events at hand.
These cozy mysteries are an absolute delight and I cannot recommend them highly enough.
This time, Temple's one-time fiancé, Max, is back from Ireland with amnesia ... and her current fiancé, Matt, is being wooed by TV producers to move to Chicago and have his own talk show. In the mean while, Temple's trying to help B-movie actress Savannah Ashleigh find out why her Aunt Violet is having so many problems during her terminal illness. Oh -- and why someone's trying to kill Lieutenant Carmen Molina's daughter.
Part of the book is told in the third person, covering everyone's thoughts and feelings. The rest of the book is told in the first person by Temple's Runyonesque cat, Midnight Louie, who always has his own perspective on the events at hand.
These cozy mysteries are an absolute delight and I cannot recommend them highly enough.
August 16, 2012
More fun in the extended saga of Temple, Matt, Max, Louie, and the rest of the gang. Max has returned to Vegas, physically messed up and missing his memory. Matt has network fame and fortune waiting in the wings in Chicago, and Temple has just been hired for her first official PI case. Maybe this will take her mind off the two men in her life... Not the place to start, but lots of fun for those who follow the series.
October 12, 2011
I think i keep reading this series just to find out where the story line with the main characters goes. It's getting harder to wade through the story; however.
Temple Barr is a independent PR rep with a fiance and an ex-fiance who has just resurfaced. She becomes involved in her first for hire PI case. As a result the Barbie Doll murders finally come to a conclusion.
Temple Barr is a independent PR rep with a fiance and an ex-fiance who has just resurfaced. She becomes involved in her first for hire PI case. As a result the Barbie Doll murders finally come to a conclusion.
September 23, 2011
I love the alpha cat mysteries! I have watched Midnight Louie reign supreme in Las Vegas since the very first book and love the characters. She throws a lot of curve balls in the plot which keep you coming back for more-- and the funny thing is I am not usually a cat person! In this one she throws a ferret into the mix!
July 8, 2012
Carole Nelson Douglas always spins a good suspense yarn! Now I have to wait a month before the next one is out! Will Temple really marry Matt? Will they move to Chicago? Did they find Kathleen O'Connor? Did Max get his memory back? Did they discover more about the Synth? What's the next case, and where will Midnight Louie fit into it?
February 5, 2014
Nelson Douglas is back on her game with this installment of the Midnight Louie series. Some of the previous episodes had the series showing its age, but I think the sleek black cat's back! No spoilers, but a taut, sharp little mystery with some real resolution on one of the long-term plotlines, and some real forward motion on the overall series arc. First-rate, as good as the early books.
August 17, 2011
The usual romp. One nice aspect of these books is that CND doesn't seem to need to top each book with the next, as Jim Butcher does with the Harry Dresden books--each one stands on its own without needing to outdo the last with its mayhem.
So... the triangle is suddenly, and very oddly, resolved?
So... the triangle is suddenly, and very oddly, resolved?
October 6, 2019
A nice addition to the series. I like that Solange and Yvette are back as love interests. And I like that both the light and dark alpha males are back in this book! Overall, it was a nice light read, with smart aleck comments all along the way, which is why I love this series.
Read
July 22, 2012I was eager to read Cat in a Vegas Gold Vendetta after the cliffhanger at the end of the previous book and I was not disappointed. For awhile the series was getting so convoluted that it was difficult to keep track of the plot, but now things are clearing up. I'm looking forward to the next book!
Read
February 1, 2017I liked this series once. Now I feel like I am slogging through the same old tired story with minutiae as anything new, trying to get to letter Z. And I must not be the only one feeling that way as I noticed that the final two letters are only available in an e-book.
August 22, 2011
I really liked this one, but then again I really like Midnight Louie and his human(& non-human) pals.
April 17, 2014
Note 2
Good to see some of the loose ends tidied up :)
Good to see some of the loose ends tidied up :)
October 15, 2011
Oh yeah! The clash of Max, Temple, and Matt! Discovery of the Barbie Doll Killer! Max and Carmen face-to-face! Kitty the Cutter making subtle moves from afar. Booyah!
March 15, 2012
Not my kind of story telling.
Want to read
July 24, 2012Always love those Louie books!
September 6, 2014
bad writing; didn't like the characters; book really stunk
January 7, 2013
I think she's running out of ideas. But I've read all the other books, so I'll finish the series.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
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