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Midnight Louie #9
Cat on a Hyacinth Hunt: A Midnight Louie Mystery
“Midnight Louie is the funniest, hairiest hard-boiled PI on the planet!”—JANET EVANOVICH, NYT bestseller
This ninth book in the USA Today bestselling Midnight Louie series is another clever, sassy and classy mystery from New York Times Notable Book of the Year (Good Night, Mr. Holmes) author Carole Nelson Douglas. A bizarre murder at a Las Vegas pirate ship attraction puts freelance publicist Temple Barr’s friends and neighbors on the suspect list. Can the dogged amateur sleuth and her street-smart black cat, Midnight Louie, solve the crime while Temple realizes she’s at the heart of a romantic triangle turning red-hot?
“When it comes to romantic mysteries, Carole Nelson Douglas is the quintessential author.”—Alternate Worlds
“Midnight Louie captured my attention from the very first page!”—SANDRA BROWN, NYT bestseller
“The Midnight Louie series reads like a serial, with each escapade segueing seamlessly into the next as if they were all a part of real life. Louie, of course, is the exception only in that he is fortunate enough to have someone interpret for him: In this case the dual questions of Miss Temple Barr’s dueling flames –Max and Matt–and a sexy Siamese who has Louie’s number from the first twitch of a whisker. The streets o f Las Vegas were never so treacherous, nor so inviting as in this ninth adventure replete with trademark wordplay, heartstrings and yes, even a murder or two–-DSB, Mostly Murder: The Best of 1998
“Temple’s tempestuous love life (not to mention her world-class shoe collection) and Max and Matt’s past and present problems are just part of the fun...You never know what madness and mayhem you’ll find in Douglas’s mysteries, but you can be sure it will be wild, witty and utterly irresistible.”—Alix Madrigal, San Francisco Chronicle
“Cat on a Hyacinth Hunt is the ninth entry in the Midnight Louie cat series and surprisingly the book retains the fresh and exciting perspective of its forerunners. The mystery remains first rate while the romantic triangle (or is that rectangle with Louie being the other corner) has become more complex and interesting. The brilliantly talented Carole Nelson Douglas has set in motion storyline twists leading the series in a new direction that is sure to surprise yet please Louie’s biggest fans.”–Affaire de Coeur
The Prime Suspect finds the series “everything you might want in a mystery: glitzy Las Vegas, real characters, suspense, a tough puzzle, and...on top of it all, a fine sense of humor and some illuminating social commentary.”
“Once again Ms. Douglas lights up the skies with a dazzling blend of witty prose, clever plotting and just plain old good fun. No wonder Midnight Louie is everyone’s cat’s meow.”—Melinda Helfer, RT Book Reviews
“Douglas leads her readers on a merry chase before neatly drawing these disparate threads together. Midnight Louie's fans will be delighted.”—Publishers Weekly
“Las Vegas’s feline detective extraordinary returns... Louie is an irresistible combination of Nathan Detroit and Sam Spade. Plenty of interest here for a lengthy, fun-filled series.”—Mostly Murder
This ninth book in the USA Today bestselling Midnight Louie series is another clever, sassy and classy mystery from New York Times Notable Book of the Year (Good Night, Mr. Holmes) author Carole Nelson Douglas. A bizarre murder at a Las Vegas pirate ship attraction puts freelance publicist Temple Barr’s friends and neighbors on the suspect list. Can the dogged amateur sleuth and her street-smart black cat, Midnight Louie, solve the crime while Temple realizes she’s at the heart of a romantic triangle turning red-hot?
“When it comes to romantic mysteries, Carole Nelson Douglas is the quintessential author.”—Alternate Worlds
“Midnight Louie captured my attention from the very first page!”—SANDRA BROWN, NYT bestseller
“The Midnight Louie series reads like a serial, with each escapade segueing seamlessly into the next as if they were all a part of real life. Louie, of course, is the exception only in that he is fortunate enough to have someone interpret for him: In this case the dual questions of Miss Temple Barr’s dueling flames –Max and Matt–and a sexy Siamese who has Louie’s number from the first twitch of a whisker. The streets o f Las Vegas were never so treacherous, nor so inviting as in this ninth adventure replete with trademark wordplay, heartstrings and yes, even a murder or two–-DSB, Mostly Murder: The Best of 1998
“Temple’s tempestuous love life (not to mention her world-class shoe collection) and Max and Matt’s past and present problems are just part of the fun...You never know what madness and mayhem you’ll find in Douglas’s mysteries, but you can be sure it will be wild, witty and utterly irresistible.”—Alix Madrigal, San Francisco Chronicle
“Cat on a Hyacinth Hunt is the ninth entry in the Midnight Louie cat series and surprisingly the book retains the fresh and exciting perspective of its forerunners. The mystery remains first rate while the romantic triangle (or is that rectangle with Louie being the other corner) has become more complex and interesting. The brilliantly talented Carole Nelson Douglas has set in motion storyline twists leading the series in a new direction that is sure to surprise yet please Louie’s biggest fans.”–Affaire de Coeur
The Prime Suspect finds the series “everything you might want in a mystery: glitzy Las Vegas, real characters, suspense, a tough puzzle, and...on top of it all, a fine sense of humor and some illuminating social commentary.”
“Once again Ms. Douglas lights up the skies with a dazzling blend of witty prose, clever plotting and just plain old good fun. No wonder Midnight Louie is everyone’s cat’s meow.”—Melinda Helfer, RT Book Reviews
“Douglas leads her readers on a merry chase before neatly drawing these disparate threads together. Midnight Louie's fans will be delighted.”—Publishers Weekly
“Las Vegas’s feline detective extraordinary returns... Louie is an irresistible combination of Nathan Detroit and Sam Spade. Plenty of interest here for a lengthy, fun-filled series.”—Mostly Murder
392 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 28, 1998
10 people are currently reading
261 people want to read
About the author
Carole Nelson Douglas
167 books567 followersCarole 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 - 16 of 16 reviews
September 21, 2011
I generally like this author, but this series can be frustrating. For all the action and angst that goes on, very little is resolved in this particular outing of Temple Barr and Midnight Louie. While there is a murder of an old enemy, most of the story is about Temple's love life. In essence, this is romance masquerading as mystery. Nothong wrong with romance. of course, but the mystery should be stronger.
This is the ninth in the series and understanding the story seems very dependent on reading the prior novels. Which, to me, is another weakness. I've read one earlier title and have one later one, which I'm starting today. To really enjoy this series, though, I think you would have to read all of it, in order.
This is the ninth in the series and understanding the story seems very dependent on reading the prior novels. Which, to me, is another weakness. I've read one earlier title and have one later one, which I'm starting today. To really enjoy this series, though, I think you would have to read all of it, in order.
February 3, 2014
This was as far as I could get with Douglas's Louie series. I just grew very tired of it all. The others were okay, fun but a bit long -- prefer Janet E's tighter style. And the Irene series by Douglas much better.
October 4, 2010
The more I read this series, the more i appreciate the depth of Carole Nelson Douglas's writing. Her characters are brilliant..she knows exactly what women want to read about and the layering of the storylines is impressive.
April 10, 2019
Maybe this is a series you can't just jump into in the middle. This was my first "Midnight Louie" mystery. I'm sorry to say I didn't enjoy it - I felt like an outsider, not knowing these people, who was who, what past events were being referred to. It just didn't make much sense to me. I'd read all Carole Nelson Douglas' "Irene Adler" books and LOVED them! So I was disappointed not to enjoy Midnight Louie's 9th installment.
May 23, 2024
After reading my second book of the Midnight Louie Mystery series, it seems to be a series that you can't really read the books out of order. This book was better than the Cat in a Golden Garland, and I chose to read this one since I had some lingering questions that I hoped this book would answer, and a few were. The murder in this book was revealed earlier, and the mystery was drawn right down to the end, but still, some questions linger.
August 13, 2017
Back in Las Vegas, Temple comes across another murder, the victim known to both boyfriend Max and friend and neighbor Matt. A female magician, Shangri La, and her familiar, Hyacinth, become important in the mystery, as Temple and Louie are kidnapped, and Louie again helps solve the mystery.
September 6, 2017
Too weird
March 8, 2019
Love Louie! Now, what does Temple do with Matt and Max? How long til Molina arrests Max? Hmm.
September 3, 2020
I thought this book was excellent. It brought a new twist to the story as well as giving more information into Max's background.
Read
May 16, 2011Midnight Louie
October 9, 2011
This was was unnerving. Even though I knew it would all turn out okay in the end, it was enough to keep me at the edge of my seat.
June 3, 2013
This was yet another amazing book in the series. As soon as I finished I had to read the next one!!!!! Purrfect as usual!
December 13, 2013
Midnight Louis is the cat.
Can be difficult to follow, but good.
Temple Barr has an interesting life in Las Vegas and her boyfriend is a magician.
Pretty good.
Can be difficult to follow, but good.
Temple Barr has an interesting life in Las Vegas and her boyfriend is a magician.
Pretty good.
March 31, 2011
lots of action and character development, damn few solutions
January 8, 2014
loved it!
February 8, 2018
472 pages. This is my first book by this author. This author can write but I was wanting the end to come sooner than it did.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews