Cat in a Quicksilver Caper

Midnight Louie #18

by Carole Nelson Douglas

Midnight Louie, alley-cat extraordinaire and Las Vegas's hairiest, hard-boiled PI, finds himself literally walking a tightrope when a fabulous museum opening at one of Sin City's swankiest casinos is marred by a little thing like death. Louie's loyal roommate, feisty PR freelancer Temple Barr, has snagged the commission of her repping the opening exhibition of the Russian Czars' priceless treasures at the New Millennium Hotel, the apex of which is the Czar Alexander Scepter, a priceless jewel-encrusted artifact. Trouble is, the hotel has booked an aerial magic act right above the exhibition. Temple works at a breakneck pace to coordinate this logistical nightmare. Tragedy ensues when a performer dies right above where the collection will be displayed and the police threaten to shut everything down. But the word "no" isn't one heard often in Las Vegas when money is involved and the show (or shows) must go on. Just as things seem to be working perfectly, another performer dies…and the scepter vanishes. The culprits could be international art thieves, Russian mafioso, or Chechen rebels out to embarrass the current Russian government. Or it could be someone else, perhaps someone Temple knows all too well . . . . Temple and Louie both have enemies in the magic act--evil magician Shangri-La and her curare-nailed performing Siamese cat, Hyacinth--and on the ground--ever-suspicious homicide lieutenant Carmen Molina, who's itching to pin the heist and murders on Temple's significant other, ex-magician and sometimes ex-spy Max Kinsella, now oddly AWOL. Worse, as Temple and Louie's separate investigations bring them both close to the truth, it's clear that someone has decided to hang them out to die too. Can fancy footwork and detection save our intrepid duo? Find out in Carole Nelson Douglas's Cat in a Quicksilver Caper.

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Fiction, Cats, Mystery Thriller, Cozy, Romance

369 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

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.

Reviews

[Cherney · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings about this book. It could be that I didnt start at the beginning of the series or it could be that parts of it were hard to follow. For example how does Matt know lieutenant Molina. That was a bit confusing he has to have some sort of relationship for her to allow him to take her daughter to ghe daddy daughter dance. I dont know about this series. Of course I skipped over the pages where midnight Louie narrated that I found weird and distracting. I figured when I checked this book out from the library the cat would be like the cats in the cat who books who played a role and would do mischievous cat things to bring attention to clues. Not narrate part of the story.

[Joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Temple's newest PR gig is the opening of the Treasures of Czarist Russia exhibit in the New Millenium Hotel.

There are magicians and aerial acts involved, and of course, thieves who want the treasures.

Midnight Louie and Temple embark on yet another mystery, with deadly results for some, and adventure for Louie, Louise, and Temple and her loved ones, including Max, who loves Temple, but doesn't want to endanger her.

[Hope · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great mystery with a delightful turn of phrase. The detective did the big sit- down big reveal of the murderer that Agatha Christie always did and it was just so much fun to read!

[Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was great, along the lines of the others..however, I was NOT expecting, or ready for.....the ending. Cannot wait for the next book to come in to the library!!

[Roxanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one was actually quite good!

[Haven · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was really, really surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. It's the type of mystery I pick up when I want something mindless and somewhat entertaining. I was pleasantly surprised at how intelligent and well-written the book was. The author has a sharp wit and an excellent command of the English language. I'll be reading the rest of the series.

[Kelaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

have been following this series for more than 10 years. Quirky, cat PI, magicians, Las Vegas, romance, police procedural, international espionage, behind the scenes at variety of conventions, Elvis, great shoes.

[Kimberly · Rating 1 out of 5]

I never quite wrapped my head around the idea of a talking cat. And there were so many unanswered questions: Who was stalking Molina? Who killed Max? Who rigged the platforms to collapse? Not the best mystery I've ever read.

[Jennifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ok, so the cover is what drew my attention to this book in Half Price Books. That it is set in my former home town was another selling point. But beyond that it's horrible! I couldn't even get a quarter of the way through it. What drivel! Ugh!

[Melissa · Rating 1 out of 5]

the whole Max and Matt thing is just too mucg- and then Douglas seems to cop out by getting rid of Max with an act gone wrong

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book quite a bit, although I don't agree with Temple's romantic choice. I will need to read the next one to see if Max is really dead....

[Roxann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book. Midnight Louie is a good character/cat.

[Helen Fleischer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Matt brings trouble everywhere he goes. Bungees, Max, Splat!

[Mary Newcomb]

Hmm! Mysterious deaths abound and the back story very much becomes the story this time around. I'm not sure if I'm ready for the direction suggested by the end of this episode.

[Nancy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't like this book because I couldn't get interested in the story and I thought it was boring. I wish the author had done more to make it more interesting.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now I remember why I put this series on hold. It's a bit much on the flowery language. Otherwise, I do enjoy the characters, and every few chapters written by Midnight Louie.

[Sandra · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think I have reached the end of my patience with cats who are more intelligent than the humans in their community.