Murder shows its teeth and claws for Midnight Louie readers when that jet-black feline sleuth who thinks he's Sam Spade returns to delight his legions of fans. This time, not only does Louie have to bail out his favorite investigative partner, public relations woman Temple Barr, but he has to save a fellow feline from a charge of Murder One. When a big-game hunter is found dead with only a leopard for company, all of Louie's and Temple's allies and enemies converge on the case. And the fun really begins when the unofficial investigators learn the leopard is Osiris, a performing Big Cat who was kidnapped from his magician owner only days before the murder. Things get really wild when a cadre of ardent animal rights protestors secretly stakes out the premises, determined to stop the illegal killing at any price, even their own lives....
Carole 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.
I have been reading the Midnight Louie novels ever since the first one. The feisty PR expert-cum-investigator Temple Barr, and her beloved Runyonesque cat have delighted me for years. So, I'm now trying to work my way through the books I hadn't yet read.
This time, the leopard belonging to Max Kinsella's magician colleague, the Cloaked Conjuror, is stolen and, as we learn quickly, moved to a canned hunt farm. The best way to infiltrate and find out what happened isn't what Max and Temple try (posing as wealthy would-be hunters), but for Midnight Louie and Midnight Louise (who says she's Louie's daughter) to go and actually talk to the cats ... and somehow get Temple to pay attention to their meowings. Before they can figure out how to rescue Osiris, though, the owner of the hunt farm is found dead ... with the leopard in the room. Now there's a mystery to solve and a big cat to exonerate.
Told primarily in third person, with first person chapters in the voice of Louie himself, the book is a charming cozy mystery with a humorous edge. Highly recommend the entire series.
Apparently, one should not just pick up this series at any point. A significant portion of this book was addressing events from previous installments; the murder blurbed on the back of this book didn't even occur until almost halfway through the story. This led to me feeling unbalanced and asea for most of this read.
I really enjoyed this book. I love big cats so I loved this. The writing seemed a little off from Ms. Douglas� style. The story kept me going and wanting to keep reading.
Midnight Louie and his roommate, PR woman Temple Barr, manage to save the falsely accused Osiris, a leopard who was recently stolen from his magician owner, then found as the only creature in the same place as a murder victim.
Midnight Louise makes friends with Osiris and a black panther, and Temple's friends help her, as Midnight Louie, Temple, and their respective buddies uncover mayhem and save the day.
Midnight Louie is detecting again - as is Max. A friend has asked him to investigate the kidnapping of a leopard that he uses in his act. The man is exposing magic tricks and is not very popular with the other magicians right now. Louie is still refusing to acknowledge Midnight Louise as his daughter but she continues to help in his investigations. She discovers where the leopard is and inspires confidence in him and the panther caged next to him. The leopard is in a sanctuary that holds "canned" hunts. Max and Louie are investigating in parallel along different lines. They both discover the leopard, who has been accused of killing the man who owned the ranch. He is removed to a sanctuary that cares for animals until it is decided if he did indeed kill the bad guy. The case gets rather convoluted at one point, but of course Max and Louie win out at the end. There is still an ongoing conflict between Max and the ex-priest over Temple. But Temple has no doubt as to who she wants. There is also a mystery I have missed about a ring that Max gave Temple that disappeared. I didn't think I much liked these when i first began to read them, but have decided I do.
What can one small black cat( only 20 lbs? ) do to save one large cat ( a leopard ) from being charged with murder? ALOT! Midnight Louie has to help a fellow feline prove the innocent theory. When a Travis game hunter turns up dead, right after the big cat gets catnapped, Temple, Louie's human, and shoe fetish Public Relations pal is trying to play down this PR nightmare ( Animal Rights protesters are circling,) in Sin City, while trying to solve this crime before the leopard "Osiris" gets sent to the " big sleep"!
I noticed in this story and then looked back at some others Carole Nelson Douglas is trying to deal with a social issue. This time it is the killing of trapped animals. Reading the story brought back the feelings I had when I realized I was living near and working next to a shooting range for trapped animals. Authors such as Douglas can use your feelings for the characters to create awareness of issues that you might be ignoring. The story is great. Don't read it unless you have read the previous 12 books. It will be dificult to understand all teh side stories that are happening.
I have cats and I just love Midnight Louie. I like the way the chapters alternate between real action, the viewpoint of the main human characters, and Louie's viewpoint. So much happens here I couldn't guess who the perp was.
A bit more organized than previous titles. Plot revolves around a wild animal hunt place in Las Vegas. Midnight Louie feeds a leopard that is being starved so it will kill a human.