Cat Who Saw Red

The early "Cat Who" books have Jim Qwilleran as a middle-aged, impoverished, recovering alcoholic journalist barely hanging on at a newspaper in an un-named Middle West city. Later he moves north 400 miles to a little town and inherits a fortune. "The Cat Who Saw Red" is the last mystery novel that ties him to the gritty city, and it is the best of the city books--by a considerable margin.Other readers have outlined and commented on the plot, so I will say only about it that the plot here is much better than in the previous city novels. It moves better and the outcome is more logical, more satisfying. But the author's forte is not plotting. It is in the remarkable characters, unusual without being grotesque (a fine line to walk), not the least of whom are Qwill's Siamese cats. To those who have read none of the series, it may sound just a little too cutesy, having prescient cats solve crimes, but the writer makes it work and work quite well.The writer also excels in creating atmosphere, the city, the newspaper office, fancy and not so fancy restaurants and Maus Haus, a rather weird boarding house for people interested in food--and in pottery.Like Dickens, Ms. Braun invents no astonishing plots. Her great strength is in making characters come to life in interesting settings. As in Dickens, characters and settings are sufficient.

This is the fourth in the Cat Who Series; we were introduced to Jim Qwilleran--the only reformed alcoholic of the twentieth century who could be featured in a book without having that part of his history be the maudlin main event--in The Cat Who Could Read Backwards, the book in which he met and then adopted his famous cat, Koko. As a man who works doing a job he doesn't really love because he must pay the bills, and who seems to be able to balance his work and outside life in spite of his divorce and occasional girl-friends, Qwill is a likeable character with a bit of this-could-be-for-real that keeps the stories interesting. In this fourth book he lands in an improbable living situation, a boarding house for people interested in art run by a gourmet attorney who also cooks for them, and somehow the author manages, with the help of the big city atmosphere and the odd assortment of "characters" whom Qwill must deal in his work life, to make this improbable situation sound actually possible. Incredible bit of story telling, to me. Then we are introduced to several other incredibly improbable situations in perfectly credible ways, and before it was over I actually was interested in the outcome. The reading is quick and easy, hypnotic, almost; I resented the telephone's interruption. My grandmother used to say a good story well told could transport you away just like a vacation; reading this book is like taking one of those little vacations.

I got started on this series when a friend lent me a copy of one of the author's early books. It was a hoot and when I found that it was part of a series, I was hooked. This book-on-tape is (I think) the 4th or 5th in the series and assumes the reader has some key facts about the hero (Mr. Q) and the cats (Ko Ko and YumYum) that play important parts in the narrative. So, although this is considered her "best" book by many critics, it's probably wise to start from the begining of the series and work your way up to this one - it will all make more sense that way. Having said that, this was a fun "read" because the plot is tight and logical and the pace is fast. The Narrator (George Guidall - I hope I got that spelling right) is superb. He plays each voice part well and even brings life to the cats through his theatrical "Yowwwwws". I especially like the fact that it was unabridged - the more-common "two cassette" offerings cut out a lot of the chatter that makes these books so much fun. Those who have read others in the series will be surprised to find out that Qwill financially quite poor and is worried about making ends meet (something that get's resolved in later books). But the cats are in rare form and despite the money woes, Mr. Q manages to spoil them with food fit for a king and queen. The author (Lillian Jackson Braun) peppers her prose with interesting facts about pottery, food, wine and life. And she manages to bring everything together in the end - tied neatly with string and a bow. I suggest you find the earlier books and get started on a series that has endured for years and will bring you pleasure for years to come.

In this, the third book in the series, we find Qwilleran and his two feline companions once again moving into a new apartment. And once again Qwilleran is grumbling about his latest reporting assignment - the roving gourmet. At least this time Qwill can't pretend that he knows nothing about eating. Instead, the problem is that he knows too much, and so his doctor has put him on a Strict diet. But how can Qwill lose weight and still write about fine food?Qwilleran is invited to a small dinner at the house of Robert Maus, a famous gourmet lawyer. The Maus Haus, as it is called, was once an art center but now has become the home of a group of exceptional and unusual people in the food business (this is the first appearance of Hixie Rice), and a pair of potters, Joy and Dan Graham. As it happens Joy was an old flame of Qwilleran's. When he finds out that there is an open apartment at the Maus Haus he snaps it up.Qwill pretends that he is not falling for Joy again, but no one else, including Koko and Yum Yum, is fooled. Certainly Joy is not, in short order she asks Qwill to help her financially in getting a divorce from the nerdy Dan. He lends her $750. Suddenly there is a scream in the night and Joy disappears under suspicious circumstances. Qwilleran investigates, in league with Koko, who has graduated from communication via hairballs and the dictionary game, to using the typewriter.In short order Robert Maus's house boy vanishes and Quill must solve two disappearances. And then follow repeated attempts to ruin the reputation of The Golden Lambchop, housemate Max Sorrel's restaurant. Throw in a few suicides from many years before and you have a plot as intricate as the webs Yum Yum has learned to weave with balls of yarn.As is often the case in a Braun story the solution is apparent a little too early to pretend that this is really a mystery story. Really what Qwilleran and his assistants do is fill in all the pieces to that someone else besides Qwilleran will believe there is a crime. This is always great fun. Lilian Braun has a mischievous sense of humor that often shines through Quill's irreverent questions and musings. And his relations with his felines remind up what a precarious position homo sapiens really occupies on the evolutionary ladder.

The Cat Who Saw Red started my craziness over the series. Never did I thought that this book (which I fortunately found in one of those second hand books stores) will stir my curiosity to check out and look for all the titles in the series. The story did not only unfold into a puzzling who-done-it type but also gave insights to other matter of interest like in this case -- pottery. Now, whenever I find myself glued reading one of Ms.LJB's novels, not only do I look forward to the discovery of the culprit but also on those trivial things that that are shared to the readers as the story unfolds