Sam the Cat: Detective

Sam the Cat Mystery #1

by Linda Stewart

Justice is Sam's business, his only business. It's not a pretty job or an easy one, but it's a job Sam can do. Then "She" walks into his office, purrs out her unhappy story, and begs him to take her case. Sam doesn't play the sap for anyone, but she's pretty, scared, and needs his help. Or does she?

Genres: Mystery, Cats, Fiction, Childrens, Animals, Young Adult, Mystery Thriller

130 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Linda Stewart, who’s been nominated for Edgar and Agatha awards, has written "something of everything"--17 published novels and novelizations (under her own name and a variety of pseudonyms); television dramas and documentaries, magazine journalism, newspaper book reviews (Washington Post and Chi Trib, among others); advertising copy (at 4A agencies and, later, freelance), and lyrics, sketches and special material for nightclubs and Off-Broadway. She has also taught writing and literature courses at The School of Visual Arts in New York City.

Her novels have been reviewed by The New York Times Sunday Book Review, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, New York Newsday, The Baltimore Sun, The Philadelphia Inquirer, January Magazine, and TV Guide, among many others. Her biography appears in “Contemporary Authors” Vol. 101; “Who’s Who in Entertainment,” (1988-1993) and “Voyage au bout de la Noire” Gallimard, Paris, 1986.

She is the niece of Morrie Ryskind, the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright ("Of Thee I Sing") and screenwriter (most of the Marx Brothers movies) and was married to screenwriter Donald Stewart ("Jackson County Jail," "Hunt for Red October," and "Missing," among others).

Reviews

[Robby]

There's a funny reason why I read this kids book as an adult.
I originally started reading this book when I was in elementary school, and I really liked it!
One night I had been reading in my bed, and set the book down on the floor before falling asleep.
That night I woke up sick to my stomach, and didn't have enough time to make it to the bathroom.
I threw up on my floor, and it got all over the book and my Spiderman bookmark, requiring them to be thrown away.
I never got to finish it, and I was really liking it!
Every once in a while I would think about the book that I never got to finish.
It has haunted me for 23 years!
I finally decided to buy a copy on Ebay.
You know what...for a kids book, it is pretty good.
I'm a sucker for a good mystery, and I love the stereotypical "it was a dark and stormy night" sort of narrative. I've yet to find a serious grownup novel that satisfies that ideal, so Sam the Cat Detective was remarkably fun and nostalgic.
I thoroughly enjoyed it, and now I don't have to be bothered anymore by the book I never finished. Now if only I could find a duplicate of my Spiderman bookmark...

[Iva]

Нуарна, але водночас і весела котяча пародія на всі белетрестичні детективи від Агати до Артурів Гейлі й Дойла, бадьора та непровисаюча, із купою стьобу над недоромантикою детективів-одинаків, мережами зв’язків у "тіньовому суспільстві", триллерними бойовками із переслідуванням та ще цілезною купою жанрових штампів.
Навіть фінал, і той сміється над усіма геппі-ендами подібних детективів.

Якщо знайдете де скачати - читати обов’язково!

[Sandra Bracken]

Delightfully fun perfect for a quick beach read.

Sam is hired by Sugary to find a jade necklace that was stolen from her people. With the help of other cats in the neighborhood and the street cats, Sam tracks down the thief and arranges for him to be captured by the cops.

[Calene McAdams]

This was a quick fun read. I enjoyed it enough that I want to read the rest of the books in this series. The author had cats solving the mystery in a way that truly surprised me. Well done!

[Jamie]

Sam is a former police mascot who got tired of the strict rules and now runs his own PI agency. It’s about as cute as it sounds, with all the lovely noir wordplay freshened up for a younger readership. In this first book in the series, Sam is hired by a penthouse kitten to solve a B&E that ended in the sacking of a kindly immigrant handyman, who’d been treating the complex’s pet population like royalty. The case takes him across New York as he discovers his cat burglar’s been a busy boy, and to catch him Sam’ll have to work out the pattern and get one step ahead.

Sam is based on Sam Spade, the Dashiell Hammet detective from The Maltese Falcon . To quote film analyst Eddie Muller, "If a private eye is hired by an old geezer to prove his wife’s cheating on him and the shamus discovers long-buried family secrets and solves a couple of murders before returning to his lonely office – that’s detective fiction. If the same private eye gets seduced by the geezer’s wife, kills the old coot for her, gets double-crossed by his lover and ends up shot to death by his old partner from the police force – I can say with complete assurance: you are wallowing in noir." He was referring to film noir, but it works for literature, too. Thankfully for my sanity and the proposed audience, while Sam Spade is hardboiled noir, Sam is soft-boiled detective fiction. It looks, talks, and feels like noir, but doesn't have the signature pessimism and the characters retain their sense of compassion.

The plot is easy to follow and a nice way to introduce younger readers to detective fiction. The characters have their flaws and maintain their feline attributes despite the world Stewart creates for them (humans aren't the owners, they're the roommates).

Unfortunately, the book has a bad habit of throwing you out of its world anytime a new character shows up. As it goes on it progressively anthromorphizes the cats, and I noticed it took an average of two pages for me to be sure the person speaking to Sam was another feline. Sue, for example, is said to be the manager of a pet salon, dries him off under a hair dryer, and microwaves him some milk. I was sure she was human until Sam started talking to her and she answered him (she’d been giving him hell for being out in the rain and he’d been staying quiet). The first ones were clever, but the latter ones are so bizarrely capable they’re practically freaks of nature. It makes keeping things straight damn hard.


The verdict? A lovely piece of faux-noir detective fiction that’s appropriate for younger audiences and maintains enough patter and rhythm to entertain older ones. The perpetrator is found quickly, but his identity and methods of casing and entering are the big questions. I was very impressed by the plot and how Sam was able to figure things out and get the guilty party arrested, but not so much with the superhuman abilities his fellow felines had to develop to get there. A good book for young readers looking to branch out from the standard preteen detectives and cozies, but I hope the author gets a reality check before the next book.

[Susan]

A cat from the penthouse of his Greenwich Village building hires Sam to investigate the burglary in her people's apartment. She, Sam and all the cats in the area are shocked when kind handyman Max is suspected and fired. Sam sniffs out the real culprit, but has to set up a way to capture him and get the police on the scene. A hard-boiled treat.

[Jess]

A great mystery for those who enjoy sardonic cat detectives, New York City life, furry sidekicks, and solving crime.

[O_susannah]

This was pretty cute, and I mainly liked it because my cat's name is also Sam.

[Jessica Sloane]

This was delightful! Entirely in the point of view of cats, it's written in the style of one of those old noir fictions, except for young readers. It's got a sort of satirical humor and I just loved it. Especially things like how cats had learnt how to use the appliances. Or how cats viewed their people. Our main cat originally had bosses, but later branched out on his own. So then he had an office landlord.

The guy I share my office with had left at five o'clock, after pulling all his usual five o'clock tricks - turning off the air conditioner, turning off the lights, so that seven minutes later I could turn them back on. We go through this every summer. Hunnicker, it has to be reported, is cheap. But then on the other hand, he doesn't charge me rent and I despise petty fights, so we play our little game.

Another had a partner in their business. One cat, a cat food commercial actor, had managers. LOL!

And how did they pay for things? In food, of course!

"I better ask you right now what your fee is," she said, "because I haven't got a -"
"Half a pound of lox plus expenses."
"Lox?"
"Smoked Salmon?"
"Oh," she said. "Well... I guess so. I mean if you can wait till next Sunday."
"Then I'll have to have a small can of tuna in advance."
"You're a tough one," she said."

If you love cats and wit and mystery, then definitely give it a try!

[Britain Valenti]

I'm not a cat person per say, but you couldn't get this book out of my hands as a kid. Just look at that cover! He's a cat! And a detective! What's not to love? In case your wondering:

1) Sam and the other cars cannot talk to humans
2) They can understand humans
3) there's no magic

Sam is approached by a young cat from a rich human family. She has the sneakingest suspicion that someone may be planning a break-in at their home. And, in true Sam Spade (or Sam SPAYED?) style, Sam The Cat, Detective must leave the coziness of his used bookstore home/office and go visit all his cat enemies/partners/rich heiresses/feline fatales, etc. in order to find out the plan and identity of the would be...CAT BURGLAR! (Is he a cat? Is he coming to steal cats? Is he just a human who steals things? NO SPOILERS HERE, FOLKS.)

Also, the cats pay each other in food, so there's actually quite a bit of discussion over who's getting paid how many cans of tuna over the course of the book. And that alone is worth the read, in my opinion.

[Cilla Savary]

A cat detective, a mystery, a seriously clever plot line, and a surprising way it all gets wrapped up. What's not to love. All this and a great job at poking fun at old time detective stories. I am so glad to find there are more in this series. Uh oh! Gotta go. This cat's gotta sleuth...

[Jbondandrews]

A cute and amusing book. I look forward to reading the others in this series.

[Skyler]

Although I have an aversion to books where cats talk like humans, this one, a gift from a friend, was amusing in its parody of hard boiled detective novels.

[Miranda]

In fifth grade, this book was my inspiration for my GATE project elicited by my teacher Mr. Bosaller.

[ThymeOperator]

This was one of my FAVOURITE books as a child, I think it's chapter 43 I must have read a billion times I thought it was sooooo funny when I was 9.

[CK]

4/10

[Amilcar Viator]

Cute little mystery solving a jewelry theft. My husband found this and knows I love cats. A quick little afternoon read.

[Ashini Karu]

Прелесть. И почему в подростковые годы она мне казалась скучной?

[Hiina Shiota]

This book is amazing and wonderful to read. The main character, who is a detective, is very interesting in character. He has the way of solving mysteries and other problems for his client. He understands the feelings of the clients and tries to solve them by asking others about the case. This main character, however, is different from other detective stories, for it is an animal. This cat is able to talk and solve mysteries. This book is very interesting as well as entertaining, unlike the other detective stories I have ever read. Therefore, this book is recommended for those who love animals and mysteries.

[Bonn]

9 yr old loved it. Manages to read like a noir PI novel ....with cats!

[Janine]

As you can see from the book's cover, it's a middle-grade reader with a cat named Sam as the lead character.

This story surpassed all my expectations. It's narrated in the 1st person from Sam's point of view. There is a noir feel, Sam sees himself as the feline Sam Spade, though that's not overdone.

All the characters are cats and they are well-drawn, with different personalities & different motivations. Sandy, the Catslop poster cat made me laugh out loud.

My only complaint is that it took me a while to be sure that all the characters were cats. Sam's friend's name is Spike which is a stereotypical dog name :-). At one point at the beginning Spike puts his "hand" over something, which was jarring because I didn't know if the author was trying to further humanize the characters or if it was a mistake. Later they are "paws".

I loved this story and I laughed out loud in a couple places. I will be seeking out the other books in this series!

[Monique Kirkley]

I also finally got a chance to reunite with this book (as one reviewer recounted). I'm glad I did! Only I was probably in elementary school and I didn't quite understand the book. I only remember when Sam said he was four. Other than that, I didn't have much focus or patience to finish it, but as an adult.. a totally different story! I immensely loved this book and the humor is cute, with the normal human terms you'd find in novels replaced with cat speak, i.e, "on the other paw." I ordered the next book, "The Big Catnap," and can't wait to read it.

[Carol]

This is a "Sam Spade", early crime-fiction take on children's fiction. It's aimed at older elementary to middle school. I enjoyed the cat detective in his gray suit and white shirt fur. He's a professional, and uses his friends and neighbors' help when running down the real burglar and finding a way to prove his guilt.

Due to its nature, however, female cats are portrayed as dumb and pretty or streetwise and rough. I'm not a big fan of this.

[Jade]

Once upon a time, younger me bought this book during a school book fair because it had a cat on the cover (such a discerning reader). Turned out I loved book, a mystery told from the perspective of a cat. I even convinced my teacher to read it to the class.

It's a shame that I wasn't aware that there were sequels but it looks like they were written some years later. Hm, maybe I should look into them ...

[King Haddock]

Yay! I love these books! The characters are fun, as is Linda Stewart's sense of humor (like the ending...). I really enjoy the whole concept of a cat detective. Yeah, these are simple, but still a great, quick read.

[Gretchen Ingram]

If you like cats and 1940s retro mystery, this is the book for you!

It's short- meant for children apparently, but it has a wonderful plot and the solution is really quite good. The cats are not totally unbelievable as cats- human characters barely firgure into the story at all.

[Cynthia Hale]

This was not really a mystery. You knew who the theif was right away. The story was mainly the cats trying to figure out how to catch him. THis book is written for about a 7 year old. And that is about how exciting it was! Oh well....

[Ashleigh Cutler]

Checked this out at the New Holland Library. Was a decent read in that I didn't forget it afterwards, but its clearly for younger readers. Still, if you like cats, you'll enjoy this book and the feline point of view.

[Emily]

This has been turned into a series long after I grew up and I wanted to see if this book was as good as I remembered it being before I looked for the rest of the series. It remains a light, silly, fun detective story with delightful cat characters at the forefront.

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer]

Too cute!! He works for tuna!