Cat in a White Tie and Tails

Midnight Louie #24

by Carole Nelson Douglas

In Carole Nelson Douglas' Cat in a White Tie and Tails, Midnight Louie goes along as chaperone when PR whiz Temple Barr and her fiance, rising media star Matt Devine, head to Chicago so she can meet his family. Matt's mother has a tragic past primed to rise and bite anybody in reach, even the ex-alley cat sleuth. When Louie is snatched, the catnapping's surprising motive loops back to Vegas and a string of unsolved murders connected to magic…and ex-magician Max Kinsella, Temple's former significant other.Skeptical homicide lieutenant C. R. Molina has commissioned Max to investigate the cold case murder she suspects he committed two years earlier. With traumatic amnesia from a recent attempt on his life, the once infallible Max is more sitting duck than predator. It will take an alliance of frenemies to solve the serial deaths before one of them joins the fatality list.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Cats, Animals, Mystery Thriller

368 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 7, 2012

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

[Carmen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've always liked the Midnight Louie series. The "cat point of view" sections did not disappoint. I love how the whole tribe protects Temple, Matt, and Max.
The human themes have gotten old. All this raising old characters "from the dead". I suppose Garry Randolph will be resurrected next. I am beyond bored with the whole "Kitty the Cutter" being alive, after she was killed a few books ago.
It appears to me the author has gotten too lazy to create "new villians". I do enjoy the parts with Max and Revienne.
And how many more novels must we slog through before Temple and Matt marry? They live right next to a quickie wedding chapel.
All in all the 3 stars are for the cat "point of view" stories. The rest, very disappointed the author can't seem to move forward.

[Joanna Wood · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my favorite of the series. I'll keep reading through the end of the series since I've come this far, but I'm a little tired of the style of writing and how the characters all talk the same. I really had to make myself finish this one.

[Barb · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be honest I'm not totally sure what happened

[Sallee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been a longterm friend of Carole Nelson Douglas's Midnight Louie series. The latest in the series, this one has Matt Devine's mother finally taken the step and marries the brother of Matt's biological father. Max is investigating old murders and the Synth (at least in Vegas) comes to an end. It also looks like Kathleen, his old nemesis is back on the scene. It was also with sorrow that I heard that Carole's Midnight Louie Jr. has crossed the rainbow bridge at the age of 15. This book sets up well for the next one to come.

[Msgypsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this series. Love it, love it, love it. But am I the only one still rooting for Max? And are Three O'Clock and Ma Barker ever going to reconcile? So many questions! I can hardly wait for the next book!

[Charty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sigh. Corny, cheesy, the mystery a huge mess that I can't remember what's going on from book to book (nor do I really care). I've come this far, I'm in til the bitter end.

[Joan · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorites of the series, Midnight Louie, Midnight Louise, Three O'Clock Louie, Ma Barker, and the clowder of semi-feral cats hanging out near the police station all join forces to cover several casinos as more murder and mayhem go down.

Temple's Aunt Kit and the oldest Fontana brother are married, Temple's fiancee Matt's mom is in love with the brother of Matt's father, (who didn't know Matt existed until recently), the Synth is still messing around, although rather ineffectually, and darker forces are behind the unsolved murders, some two years old.

Max is back, although a lot of his memory is still lost. What a ride!

[A.J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Light-hearted cozy mystery fun in Las Vegas. I love Midnight Louie & have read the whole series ... some of them twice. If you have read some or all of the earlier volumes, this is a "must read" ... if not, I suggest you start with the first ones & read them in order! I love all the characters, but Max is my favorite (next to Midnight Louie, of course) ... guess I must have a soft spot for the "dark and handsome," enigmatic males. Temple and "Zoe Chloe" are a hoot! Enjoy!

[Ch J Loveall · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always, Temple rules. Louis does his thing, again. Matt does his best for all women. Max and Carmen continue but not together.

[Glenda Bixler · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series is one of my favorites...Great characters and evolving story...

[deb · Rating 5 out of 5]

love this series - fun and witty!

[Carla Langston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not bad

Less mystery and more subplot, not my favorite book in the series, but still a bit quick read and a nice break from Jane Austen

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another adventure and mystery with lots of laughs and Midnight Louie. It's amazing what that cat can do.

[Crystal Karre · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I read theses books, I am there. That's how good they are

[Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is Kitty the Cutter back? Who exactly is in the Synth and who killed Cosimo Sparks? I still don't know, but the plot is still intriguing!

[Mary Newcomb]

I started this series a long time ago. It seems to have run out of steam. There are three letters remaining in the alphabet, not sure that I want to find out how this ends.

[Clay Stafford]

I picked up Carole Nelson Douglas’s “Cat in a White Tie and Tails” and we immediately set off on a new feline adventure. With the first line, I thought I was reading something from Michael Connelly or Dashiell Hammett, but – in this case – the protagonist is a cat! Call it a hard-boiled kitty cozy. Fans of the series will love this continued adventure. It is a back-and-forth between the action of the people in the story and the points-of-view of the cats with many twists and turns. Throughout, the cats are privy to continued capers of the humans. In this 24th adventure in the series, Midnight Louie, the central reoccurring ex-stray cat character, accompanies owner and PR agent Temple Barr and her fiancé, upcoming media star Matt Devine, to Chicago to meet Devine’s family. What Barr finds is a to-be-mother-in-law with ties to the past best left uninvestigated because – wouldn’t you know it – with twists and turns, there is a catnapping and the perp trail leads back to a series of unsolved cold-case murders connected to Barr’s previous relationship Max Kinsella who – interestingly enough – is dead (or at least Barr thinks so) and has been commissioned by homicide lieutenant C. R. Molina to investigate one of the murders Molina suspects amnesia stricken Kinsella committed a couple of years before. The whole thing is rather convoluted, but then told partly from the perspective of a bunch of cats, what would one expect? Realism aside, the plot is tight. All the characters are fettered together in some fashion and everyone is tied into the plot in some important way. The plot threads are ongoing with much from previous books and loose ends left in this one (presumably to be resolved in future books), but if you haven’t read the previous books, there is still enough backstory included in this novel that you won’t be alienated. The cats do a good job of summing things up. With all the dangers going on, it is a good thing that some of the characters have nine lives. If you’re in the mood for a cozy cat-told mystery, I can think of none better.

From Amazon:

“In Carole Nelson Douglas’ “Cat in a White Tie and Tails,” Midnight Louie goes along as chaperone when PR whiz Temple Barr and her fiance, rising media star Matt Devine, head to Chicago so she can meet his family. Matt’s mother has a tragic past primed to rise and bite anybody in reach, even the ex-alley cat sleuth. When Louie is snatched, the catnapping’s surprising motive loops back to Vegas and a string of unsolved murders connected to magic…and ex-magician Max Kinsella, Temple’s former significant other.

Skeptical homicide lieutenant C. R. Molina has commissioned Max to investigate the cold case murder she suspects he committed two years earlier. With traumatic amnesia from a recent attempt on his life, the once infallible Max is more sitting duck than predator. It will take an alliance of frenemies to solve the serial deaths before one of them joins the fatality list.”


Cat in a White Tie and Tails: A Midnight Louie Mystery on Killer Nashville
My Other Reviews on Killer Nashville

[Mary Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Glad I am getting to the end. Series should have ended long before this book. I am at the point where I skip the Louie chapters.

[Kat Lebo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this series. The series is now 25 books long, with at least 3 "alphabetical" titles to go -- and who knows where it will go from there. Actually, the series is 29 books long if you count the 4 romance novels featuring Louie that predate this mystery series. There is also an anthology called "Midnight Louie's Pet Detectives," full of furry short story fun.

So, if you're a reader of the series, you know that Midnight Louie is a cat and that the novels are full of not only human characters (who are blissfully unaware of how smart, aware and purposeful their furry companions are), but of many feline characters (and other non-human characters) as well. Like all series work, part of the charm of the series, is getting to know the returning characters as well as you do your BFF. This fantasy series if no exception.

So, enter the 25th book in the series. At this point, those of us on Team Kinsella, are still licking our wounds and hoping for something that will turn the tide of the heroine's affections back to our team, rather than to Team Devine, where said affections currently seem seated. Not that Matt Devine isn't perfectly divine, utterly likeable, and totally appropriate for Temple Barr. But come on -- Mysterious Max Kinsella? <> Nah, no contest IMHO. :-)

So follow the investigation, which has grown over the course of many of these novels, tying the mystery of one novel to the mystery of the next and so on until we are sitting on a large and tangled web of murders, situations, emotions and -- of course -- Midnight Louie's brand of Sam Spade P.I. fun.

As usual, finishing this novel just makes me hungry for the next.

[Sandi · Rating 2 out of 5]

No mystery, nothing happened in the story. Most of the action and plot actually regressed. Temple is turning into a little Barbie girl, doing nothing and losing her observation skills, her spunk and charm. Matt is someone and somewhere else most of the time, and he sure got over the Catholic angst quick (and then has the nerve to agonize over his mother's marital decisions). Max has definitely lost a step but at least that is explained by his previous accident and amnesia. Now if only there was a similarly suitable explanation for the change in the personalities of the rest of the humans. The only real bright spot is Midnight Louie and to a lesser extent his progeny M Louise. They are as cute and clever as ever, although the ninja cat crowd routine is a way too 'out-there' and detracts from the cleverness and uniqueness of Midnight, Inc. It felt like the author was distracted while writing this and did not have a clear sense of what was going on. Some of the scenes felt like she threw a lot of ideas onto the paper with the intent to go back later and revamp, revise and rewrite - then never did. All in all, a very disappointing installment in the Midnight Louie saga. Oh well, Three to go.

[Rebecca Mulligan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heading Toward the End

Well, we're up to W. The Midnight Louie series by Carol Nelson Douglas is finally beginning to wrap up. This is a series which is best read in order, rather than coming into it cold. The plots are so intricate it is difficult to understand what is going on unless you have the background down pat. Nonetheless, for Midnight Louie fans this is a wonderful book. As always, each character has its own linguistic style which takes a little getting used to. The interplay between Midnight Louie and Temple Barr (the human protagonist) is wonderfully staged, with Louie constantly guarding and saving Temple. There appears to be some resolution to various mysteries which have surrounded the series, although one can never tell with Nelson Douglas. Plot lines are coming together well, however, and I anticipate that the next three books will tie up all the loose ends perfectly. For cat lovers everywhere I heartily recommend this book and the entire series. Each book is a delight in itself, even if you are unsure where the various plot lines come from.

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Out of all the "cat" mystery series I read, I really think Midnight Louie is my favorite. Been reading these books since the beginning and have enjoyed every one.
This latest outing has Louie catnapped in Chicago, far from his Las Vegas haunts. How things go on from there is great time. Just say Louie wins the day and the plot webs that have been running throughout all of the books are finally starting to come to a conclusion. Can't wait for the next installment.
As the new partner of a Midnight Louie look-a-like, a bruiser of a cat named SamNoir Parker, I can see how a cat like him could inspire a series of books.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

With just a few more books left in the series, I'm not sure how she's going to tie up all the loose ends, but I can't wait to find out how she does it!

Another great romp with Louie, Louise, Three O'Clock and Ma Barker's gang. The ongoing mystery continues, but this one felt more about the characters and not the mystery, as there wasn't really a central crime to solve. But I enjoyed the characters just trying to figure out how to get themselves out of the messes they've gotten into. As always, waiting for the next one eagerly.

[Ricki · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read all of the Midnight Louie books, and I will admit I love all of them so far!Don't have a favorite...each new one fits the bill! What I can say is that the ending of this one left me hanging on the edge of my seat for the next book to come out. What a cliff hanging ending Carole Nelson Douglas has written to this one. It's going to be a painful wait to see how this turn of events turns out. I will hate to see this series end when she gets to Z!

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wonder if the author is starting to get tired of this series? Am I starting to get tired of this series? Is it a combination? The patter is feeling worn around the edges...no longer bright and sparkling. The whole "will he/won't he/will she/won't she?" provocations ongoing in the various characters lives--especially the whole Kitty the Cutter scenario--has dragged on for far too long. Thank goodness the Synth business is finally being resolved!

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finally a marriage even if it isn't our heroine-Read this 12 years ago and have no memory of it. Guess it wasn’t impressive then either. Temple Barr is with Matt Devine, ex-minister ( or priest?) instead of Max (former boyfriend) who is recovering from injury with memory loss. I would definitely not read this without reading previous Midnight Louis novels (he’s a black cat who adopted Temple and has chapters he writes.

[Myra · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very reluctant 3 stars, only because I guess the book did give us some important info on the overall story line of this whole series. But it was boring and scattered and had no real, discreet mystery specific to this book on its own. Too many voices talking. Disappointing. (But since this is only the 2nd of the books in this whole series that has disappointed me, I shouldn't be too upset, right?)

[Charlene · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read the entire series and I'm ready for temple to marry. This is daytime drama in print -- who's really dead, what other skeletons lurk in the lives of the characters and those they love, will the main characters ever find love, and what despised / loved character will return from the dead ...

[Mary Kovarik · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a wonderful read. I think Midnight Louie, the primary protagonist, is sassy with street smarts. He has a so-called daughter whom he won't acknowledge who looks just like him and who is called Midnight Louise. Together they solve mysteries. For a cat lover and a lover of mysteries, this is HEAVEN!

[Kathleen Huben · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read the whole series and find I read it more for the ongoing characters then for the "mysteries". I imagine it would be a very difficult book to follow if you haven't been following the series, even though the author provides a synopsis in the first chapter.