Cat in a Quicksilver Caper

Carole Nelson Douglas

8/15/2006

I need my friend who also reads this series to catch up with me. She hasn't gotten this book. I need to discuss the Temple/Max/Matt triangle with someone who knows what is going on!!! (OK, I've had my rant.)

Temple Barr is in a quandry. Max, her significant other for a couple years, then disappeared, now returned in her life, is rarely around. Matt, the man who started to become important until Max returned, has decided to step into her life romantically after all. She is torn between the two. She needs a distraction.

Las Vegas is good at distractions. Temple is hired as a public relations consultant for the New Millenium Hotel's upcoming Russian treasures exhibit. The crowning piece is a scepter that is jewel encrusted and priceless. The security is high. The people involved with the show are varied - Red Russians, White Russians, displaced Russians, defected (from still Communist Soviet Union) Russians, some Chechen rebels, and the usual Vegas high rollers and bankers. Before the show opens a man is found hanging from the ceiling, dead. It appears he died while attempting to prepare to steal the scepter. But was it an accident, suicide, or murder? This is just the thing to help keep Temple's mind off her personal problems.

Midnight Louie doesn't have the personal problems - well, except if Temple does permanently hook up with Max or Matt he loses his side of her bed. He stretches as far across it as he can with his whiskers and tail. She is his person and his responsibility. But there's nothing he can do with her right now, so he gets together with his partner (and maybe daughter) to investigate the death. Besides, the dangerous Hyacinth and her owner, Shangri-La, are part of the new act at the New Millenium. Are they involved in the hanged man's death? Or are they the next intended victims?

At this point in the series the overriding story arc continuing from novel to novel overshadows the novel specific mystery. The death in Cat in a Quicksilver Caper is lost to the Temple/Max/Matt triangle and isn't strongly written to give the overriding story much competition. Midnight Louie gives the new reader a good synopsis of the story at the beginning of the book, but I recommend it to someone who has already been reading the series. The synopsis is good enough for someone who hasn't read any of them, but the impact of the book is better if the reader knows the main characters well.

You can find more about this book at .

The Series:

Catnap
Pussyfoot
Cat on a Blue Monday
Cat in a Crimson Haze
Cat in a Diamond Dazzle
Cat with an Emereld Eye
Cat in a Flamingo Fedora
Cat in a Golden Garland
Cat on a Hyacinth Hunt
Cat in an Indigo Mood
Cat in a Jeweled Jumpsuit
Cat in a Kiwi Con
Cat in a Leopard Spot
Cat in a Midnight Choir
Cat in a Neon Nightmare
Cat in an Orange Twist
Cat in a Hot Pink Pursuit
Cat in a Quicksilver Caper
Cat in a Red Hot Rage
Cat in a Sapphire Slipper