Movie Cat

A Big Mike Mystery #6

by Garrison Allen

When C. D. Masterly--the director of a big budget western that could put the town of Empty Creek, Arizona, on the map--is murdered, it is up to ex-Marine, bookstore owner, and sometimes sleuth Penelope Warren and her cat "Big Mike" to discover who wanted Masterly written out of the script.

Genres: Mystery

298 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1999

About the author

aka Gary Amo

Gary Amo is a past-President of the SoCal/MWA and has written several BigMike books under the pseudonym "Garrison Allen." He's also written a fewthrillers under his Amo moniker, including one that was nominated for an Edgar.

Reviews

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this 6th book in the 'Big Mike' cozy mystery series, a detested movie director is murdered. The book can be read as a standalone.

*****

Hollywood hotshots descend on the town of Empty Creek, Arizona to film a Western and the townsfolk - many of whom are extras - are excited.



But soon after filming begins the very unpopular director, C.D. Masterly, is murdered in a most bizarre fashion.



Penelope Warren, former marine and current owner of a bookstore - and her cat Big Mike - help the sheriff's department investigate.





Big Mike isn't that great of a sleuth, but he's entertaining as he inadvertently uses the computer and inserts himself into the movie.



After Masterly's death a new director is hired and while the movie is being filmed the investigators and Penelope question lots of people, formulate several theories, and run into a lot of dead ends.



Meanwhile there must be something in the air in Empty Creek because there are scads of romantic relationships with plenty of fun (not graphic) hijinks. This makes up a good portion of the book.



Eventually the mystery is solved in a (to me) surprise twist. There were a lot of characters in the story - including Masterly's many girlfriends, the movie cast, the film crew, writers, townsfolk, investigators, etc. - and I had some trouble remembering who was who.

All in all I'd recommend the book as an entertaining light mystery.

You can follow my reviews at https://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot....

[Lauren Stoolfire · Rating 2 out of 5]

Movie Cat (Big Mike Mystery #6) by Garrison Allen is the final book in it's series and I've never read and of the precious installments. After finishing this, I can say that I'm not interested in going back and starting the series from the beginning. One of the character names that stood out was *Buffy Anne* Mulholland. This book was released in 1999 and it can't be a coincidence. No matter how this Buffy is described I was always going to imagine her exactly like that other Buffy.

[Dyana · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the last book in the series, and I'm kind of secretly glad about that. The books were getting to be more and more campy, zany, and the sexual innuendoes and sly remarks were taking over the plot. The theme of this book was movie making, and there is a plethora of quirky characters to keep track of. The introduction lists six pages of characters in the book, and everybody seems to be in a romantic liaison with someone else. Most of the women in town are beautiful, buxom, have great laps for Mikey, a 25-pound Abyssinian alley cat, to sleep on; and are willing to take off their clothes for artistic license or calendars without thinking about it. The men are kind of dweebs, but they do have their own calendar now. The dialogue is full of banter between the characters.

A Hollywood movie production company has come to Empty Creek, AZ to film a western on location called "The Ears of the Elephant". It is loosely based on the Pleasant Valley War which was the last range war fought between cattlemen and sheepherders. Most everybody in town wants to be an extra in this C. D. Masterly film. Penelope Warren, the main character, is a former sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps, a former Peace Corps volunteer in Ethiopia, and now owner of the town's local mystery bookstore called Mycroft & Company. She is picked to be the madam of the saloon - "the head floozy". Her sister Stormy is usually an actress in B movies, but her starring role in this movie will be a breakthrough part for her.

C. D. Masterly has rented the mansion on top of Crying Woman Mountain called Paradise Regained. C. D. was into drug use, sexual peccadillos, an extravagant lifestyle, a genius early in his career with each movie getting worse and worse. He has two junior constant companions that attend to his "needs". Vixen DeVaughn, who has a real talent for screaming and wants to make it her career path in Hollywood, finds C. D. dead and takes off screaming hysterically and running nude down the road. Nobody can stop her. It looks like he was killed by a rattlesnake with three fangs. He hated snakes and was terrified of them. Later the police find no rattlesnake venom in his body. The 3rd wound was a hotshot - enough cocaine to kill an elephant. There are tons of suspects as "Masterly had the uncanny ability to irritate everyone he came in contact with...therefore, he could have been murdered by anyone he knew from the 4th grade on." They include Harry Duchette who had to keep revising the screenplay that Masterly wrote, Brock Hackett is assistant director and head gofer for C.D., Dominique Anders is C.D.'s personal assistant and former constant companion, Vixen DeVaughn, Buffy Anne Mulholland is the other constant companion and plans to marry C.D., any number of the film crew, writers, movie cast, snake handlers, the rest of the crew, etc.

Anthony Lyme-Regis is a tweedy Englishman who lives in town and famous as a director of successful television commercials. Recommended by 57-year-old Brynn Moore, a former sex symbol of Hollywood, he takes over making the movie. Lots of things hamper him as director like missing rattlesnakes, a revolver from the prop trailer, all of the gaffer's tape stolen, spray paint on Stormy and Brynn's costumes, the wardrobe infested with scorpions, a toolbox discovered under the gallows, and Mikey the cat stepping into scenes he shouldn't be in. Who's sabotaging the movie? Who is Emily Horster from Akron, Ohio who shows up in town? Then five of the women on the set go missing including Penelope's friend Nora. Where could they be? Even Mikey goes missing, or does he?

Penelope seems to do most of the investigating and her future brother-in-law, Chief Dutch Fowler, and Larry Burke and Willie Stoner A.K.A. Tweedledee and Tweedledum of the town's Robbery-Homicide Bureau take direction from her. Mikey is an ordinary cat who likes lima beans and figures heavily in the climax which has a stagecoach running amuck through town. Pure slapstick comedy. The murderer was a surprise. The series started out as witty with fun plots, but then got more and more outrageous. A cautionary recommendation.

[Laurel Kristick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good reread. Only sorry that it is the last one in the series.

[Norma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was disappointed as I expected more of the cat as he was described as her crime sleuthing buddy.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though it seemed the wait for the latest book, book 6, Movie Cat to come out was awfully short! Obviously they're making us pay for that quick pause with the wait for another book... When will it be out!!!
I know for my other authors it never seems that we have a reasonable wait-time between books, I found Movie Cat provided no tortuous wait.

Penelope's sister, B-movie Queen, Stormy is to star in a fantastic new movie actually filmed 'on location' just outside town and for extras the director has the whole town to choose from. But he has to hurry. Everybody hates him and there's no surfeit of likely candidates for 'perp' when the director is found dead.

[Helen Fleischer · Rating 4 out of 5]

on location in Empty Creek

[Moira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Old series, but love it!!