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Midnight Louie #12
Cat in a Kiwi Con
Midnight Louie, the purring P.I., is a jet-black sleuth making his twelfth outing in Carole Nelson Douglas's Cat in a Kiwi Con. While his human partner, public relations whiz Temple Barr, and her significant other, ex-magician Max Kinsella, are bespelled by murder most magical on a Las Vegas university campus, Louie has followed the lethal and lovely Siamese, Hyacinth, into the world's largest science fiction and fantasy convention, GigantiCon.
They're all there: Hercules and Xena, elves and aliens, captains and crew, and Godzillions of fans--both in costume and out. When a prominent player is killed, not only is the method of death perplexing, but the suspects in this case are a very unusual cast of thousands. Soon it becomes clear that none of the investigators are safe in an atmosphere that provides cover not only for an unknown murderer, but for an antagonist in an alien guise who is after the hides of each and every one of them.
Joining in the fantasy-in-progress may be their only hope.
They're all there: Hercules and Xena, elves and aliens, captains and crew, and Godzillions of fans--both in costume and out. When a prominent player is killed, not only is the method of death perplexing, but the suspects in this case are a very unusual cast of thousands. Soon it becomes clear that none of the investigators are safe in an atmosphere that provides cover not only for an unknown murderer, but for an antagonist in an alien guise who is after the hides of each and every one of them.
Joining in the fantasy-in-progress may be their only hope.
416 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 15, 2001
11 people are currently reading
266 people want to read
About the author
Carole Nelson Douglas
167 books568 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 - 21 of 21 reviews
August 24, 2008
The mystery itself was interesting enough, but the wording was bizarre. I prefer writing that is more conversational. This was oddly formal—words that no one ever uses, like ‘thence’.
March 4, 2020
Midnight Louie isn’t your typical P.I. He’s sleek, black and walks on all fours. Louie is a cat. He shares an apartment with Temple Barr, a PR whiz, in Sin City, aka Las Vegas.
The TitaniCon is on this weekend. The convention of all thing science fiction: from books, to TV, to movies, to games. Actors, writers and sci-fi fanatics come from all over, dressed in costumes of their favourite characters.
When a Louie discovers a body on the catwalk about the convention and makes it noticeable for the humans to find, there isn’t much excitement. When the Khatlord, the leading character in a major TV show, is killed by falling into a neon stage set-up, the police take notice. The problem is that everyone is in costume so it is hard to know who is who and who the murder may be.
Add to this sergeant detective Carmen Molina’s asking Matt Devine to escort her daughter to TitaniCon and things get a little more sticky. Temple Barr winds up being a second escort for Mariah Molina, and takes up investigating the murder on her own, while keeping an eye on the kid. Meanwhile, Louie makes friends with some kiwis (as in birds) and picks up a few clues to help solve the case.
There is a third murder being investigated, but this is by Max Kinsella, Temple’s other on-again-off-again half. A professor who studies magicians has been stabbed and the scene is arranged to look like some sort of ceremony was involved. A knife is the tie in to the murders at TitaniCon. A bit confusing, but interesting.
This series is a fun read. Louie narrating in a noir style from the feline point of view: Max being his mysterious self, along with the bit of romance between him and Temple. There are other characters to fill out the plot and humour in the mix. The storyline moves at a good pace. I will definitely be reading a few more of this series.
The TitaniCon is on this weekend. The convention of all thing science fiction: from books, to TV, to movies, to games. Actors, writers and sci-fi fanatics come from all over, dressed in costumes of their favourite characters.
When a Louie discovers a body on the catwalk about the convention and makes it noticeable for the humans to find, there isn’t much excitement. When the Khatlord, the leading character in a major TV show, is killed by falling into a neon stage set-up, the police take notice. The problem is that everyone is in costume so it is hard to know who is who and who the murder may be.
Add to this sergeant detective Carmen Molina’s asking Matt Devine to escort her daughter to TitaniCon and things get a little more sticky. Temple Barr winds up being a second escort for Mariah Molina, and takes up investigating the murder on her own, while keeping an eye on the kid. Meanwhile, Louie makes friends with some kiwis (as in birds) and picks up a few clues to help solve the case.
There is a third murder being investigated, but this is by Max Kinsella, Temple’s other on-again-off-again half. A professor who studies magicians has been stabbed and the scene is arranged to look like some sort of ceremony was involved. A knife is the tie in to the murders at TitaniCon. A bit confusing, but interesting.
This series is a fun read. Louie narrating in a noir style from the feline point of view: Max being his mysterious self, along with the bit of romance between him and Temple. There are other characters to fill out the plot and humour in the mix. The storyline moves at a good pace. I will definitely be reading a few more of this series.
December 3, 2017
I think that, had I not spent six years as part of staff for a sci-fi convention (aka, a "con"), this book might not have amused me so much.
The truth is, knowing how these events are set up and, frankly, what jackasses both fans and staff can be, made this one of the most entertaining Midnight Louie books I've read yet.
The book starts with Louie finding a dead man in the electrical room of a brand-new Las Vegas hotel ... a man dressed as a big cat. Turns out, he's a dressed as a Khatlord, cosplaying a character in a fictional series at the equally fictional TitaniCon.
Soon, we see actors, cosplayers, and story-writers from the Khatlord series generally making asses of themselves all over the event, and another Khatlord -- the main one -- winds up dead as well.
Temple Barr, her on-again/off-again boyfriend Max Kinsella, former priest Matt Devine, and police lieutenant Carmen Molina are all in it up to their eyeballs, of course.
By the time the whodunnit was revealed, I had mentally lined up every one of the antagonists with someone I personally knew ... and it was particularly satisfying to see the villain hauled off and cuffed in the way he was.
At the end of the book, author Carole Nelson Douglas offers a little commentary about cons. She opines that it is possible to go too far in one's desire to play pretend. In summary, she says it's all well and good to go play pretend as long as you are not hurting yourself or anyone else ... but to remember, at the end of the day, to take the costume/persona off and be who you really are.
I wholeheartedly concur.
The truth is, knowing how these events are set up and, frankly, what jackasses both fans and staff can be, made this one of the most entertaining Midnight Louie books I've read yet.
The book starts with Louie finding a dead man in the electrical room of a brand-new Las Vegas hotel ... a man dressed as a big cat. Turns out, he's a dressed as a Khatlord, cosplaying a character in a fictional series at the equally fictional TitaniCon.
Soon, we see actors, cosplayers, and story-writers from the Khatlord series generally making asses of themselves all over the event, and another Khatlord -- the main one -- winds up dead as well.
Temple Barr, her on-again/off-again boyfriend Max Kinsella, former priest Matt Devine, and police lieutenant Carmen Molina are all in it up to their eyeballs, of course.
By the time the whodunnit was revealed, I had mentally lined up every one of the antagonists with someone I personally knew ... and it was particularly satisfying to see the villain hauled off and cuffed in the way he was.
At the end of the book, author Carole Nelson Douglas offers a little commentary about cons. She opines that it is possible to go too far in one's desire to play pretend. In summary, she says it's all well and good to go play pretend as long as you are not hurting yourself or anyone else ... but to remember, at the end of the day, to take the costume/persona off and be who you really are.
I wholeheartedly concur.
September 1, 2017
Temple's boyfriend, Max the "disappearing" magician is back on the scene. Matt is "conned" into being responsible for Carmen Molina's 12-year-old daughter, Mariah, for a long weekend of attending GigantiCon, the world's largest science fiction and fantasy convention.
A murder on a college campus, a diabolical, beautiful Siamese cat, intrigue, and crooks galore weave through this story, which gets its title from some imported kiwi birds, who in their own small way, help Louie solve some of the many perpetrated crimes.
A murder on a college campus, a diabolical, beautiful Siamese cat, intrigue, and crooks galore weave through this story, which gets its title from some imported kiwi birds, who in their own small way, help Louie solve some of the many perpetrated crimes.
May 16, 2022
Good news bad news kind of book. I do like the characters. Even Midnight Louie but it was a lot of pages to get to the actual mystery/crime and most of the con folks were not that interesting. Think of it as a bridge book, kind of like the Two Towers. It's got to give you info and plots twists, and this was the way to give them to you.
I do love the idea that all creatures can talk to one another and the convos between the kiwis and Louie were a clever idea.
I do love the idea that all creatures can talk to one another and the convos between the kiwis and Louie were a clever idea.
May 11, 2019
Got busy and was not able to read this as much as I had hoped, but I was able to pick it up and get right back into the plot.
June 23, 2024
Cute story. Fun to read.
February 21, 2010
Ugh, this book dragged. I like mysteries, I like 'animal' mysteries, but I dislike books where all the characters moralize and pontificate their way through situations. I liked the idea that there was more than one story arc through this book, but that's one of the few things I enjoyed. I picked this one of the series because I know something about the stage on which it was set, but that only exacerbated my displeasure, as it felt like the author knew less about what she was writing about than I did. I'm not going to read the other one from this series I checked out at the same time.
August 15, 2013
The characters are interesting. Temple is delightful. Max is mysterious. Matt is innocent. Electra is everyone's mother and Molina just tries to make sense of the chaos. Then Louie keeps his own story going. It had been several months shince I read Jeweled Jumpsuit and one thing I quickly caught is that this series is NOT a set of loosely connected novels. I am so glad that I am reading these in order because the stories intertwine. While one story does complete itself ineach book there are ongoing things that keep the interest going and led me straight to Leopard Spot.
October 21, 2013
This is the first "Midnight Louie" mystery that i've read. A cute concept that i enjoyed, but i must say that it felt like i came into the story in the middle (which obviously, i did), because so many things from past books were cryptically brought up without answers. It was kind of frustrating.
I also found the use of very large, obscure words (and i have a fairly large vocabulary) by the author very unnecessary & annoying at times too.
The bottom line though, is that it was an enjoyable read, and i will probably read some more of the Louie series. Starting with Book 1! ;-)
I also found the use of very large, obscure words (and i have a fairly large vocabulary) by the author very unnecessary & annoying at times too.
The bottom line though, is that it was an enjoyable read, and i will probably read some more of the Louie series. Starting with Book 1! ;-)
July 19, 2014
Midnight Louie is on the case of a murder taking place at the TitaniCon-the worlds largest science fiction and fantasy convention. Matt Devine is attending babysitting Lt. Molina's daughter and joined later by Temple, where they discover the body of a larger then life TV fantasy costumed hero. Unseen but always watching is Max Kinsella. As everyone hunts for the answer to this latest murder they solve they find answers and more questions to past crimes, a hint of future dangers.
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September 18, 2013I may have to try again with an earlier one. Just kind of dragged. Such a great concept, but too many similar men characters named Matt and Max and who knows what. I feel like I maybe was jumping in to the middle of a well established series and that might have been some of what was missing.
March 31, 2011
media con vegas style, old same villains, 2 unsolved and 1 solved murder
December 8, 2011
Temple, Matt, Louie & company solve crime at an SF&F convention, while taking care of Lt. Molina's daughter.
June 13, 2012
I just love Midnight Louie and his capers....I'm collecting the whole series...
September 24, 2013
This was a little hard to follow at times until I got all the characters straightened out.
December 13, 2013
Always more mysteries than solutions.
Midnight Louis is good in this one.
Book is a puzzler.
Sci Fi convention in Las Vegas.
Midnight Louis is good in this one.
Book is a puzzler.
Sci Fi convention in Las Vegas.
November 2, 2014
The best thing about this book is that I don't have to read it anymore. It should have been so much fun, but no. I couldn't bring myself to care about a single thing.
October 8, 2016
rEALLY INTRIGUING AND FUNNY.
September 30, 2023
I wee bit disappointed. Especially the last quarter of the book.
March 14, 2023
It was a good book, but one definitely needs to read the books that come before it to understand what's going on.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews