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Title: The Cat Who Saw Red by Lilian Jackson Braun ISBN: 0-515-09016-6 Publisher: Jove Pubns Pub. Date: September, 1991 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.68 (31 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Best of the early cat who books
Comment: 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.
Rating: 5
Summary: Good storytelling again.
Comment: 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.
Rating: 5
Summary: Nominated for a Edgar
Comment: This 4th book of the series, I understand, was nominated for an Edgar (as in Edgar Allen Poe), which is the mystery series equivalent of an Oscar. It deserves such recognition. First, it brought L.J.B. back after a long break from writing (for which fans are forever grateful). Second, it is a truly remarkable crime, probably one of the most unusual ones I've heard about apart from the C.S.I. television series. I still get chills thinking about that crime (I should stress it is not gory, unlike C.S.I., though it may be the "darkest" story in this mystery series)
This book does a fine job of fleshing out its primary characters and their current assignment: a curious neighborhood of artists. I was particularly delighted with the descriptions of the cats, so vivid as to create a vicarious cat lover experience for me(I'm allergic to cats, so the printed word is all I can handle). Of course, Koko, the Siamese cat with unusual abilities, steals the show.
If you are new to the "Cat Who..." series, this is an excellent starting point. The whole series is one big "can't put it down" pleasure read. Please keep in mind that the entire series is forever evolving, which in some ways is just like real life (and unlike some mystery series where everything resets between stories). So what you read in this book will have remarkable contrasts to books before and much later in the series, though the core elements remain in tact. The series of books divides into two time periods in the protagonist's life: Qwilleran as a reporter in the Big Cities, and later Qwilleran as a columnist in Moose County. The first group is urban, slightly gritty and darker in some ways, the second group is still edgy at times, but is more small-town cozy and much quirkier, in a hometown fashion, which really appeals to the fans. The dividing point for the series is the book "The Cat Who Played Brahms", which is therefore another good starting point. This one, "The Cat Who Saw Red" is in the first group.
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Title: The Cat Who Turned on and Off by Lilian Jackson Braun ISBN: 0515087947 Publisher: Jove Pubns Pub. Date: March, 1995 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern by Lilian Jackson Braun ISBN: 0515087122 Publisher: Jove Pubns Pub. Date: December, 1990 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The Cat Who Played Post Office by Lilian Jackson Braun ISBN: 0515093203 Publisher: Jove Pubns Pub. Date: August, 1991 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The Cat Who Played Brahms by Lilian Jackson Braun ISBN: 0515090506 Publisher: Jove Pubns Pub. Date: September, 1997 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The Cat Who Could Read Backwards by Lilian Jackson Braun ISBN: 0515090174 Publisher: Jove Pubns Pub. Date: December, 1994 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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