The Midnight Louie Mystery Series in Reading Order

Cat in an Alphabet Soup (formerly titled Catnap) –Book 1

THE COLORFUL A-Z MYSTERIES BEGIN! 

Catnap dazzles and delights readers with its extraordinary sleuthing duo: Ms. Temple Barr, a 29-year-old Public Relations freelancer in Las Vegas, and the eighteen-pound jet-black tomcat called Midnight Louie who tells his own side of the story.

As Catnap begins, Temple is pursuing a cat in the exhibit hall at the Las Vegas ABA as fast as her spike heels will carry her–only to stumble over a dead publisher–and soon learns that the founder of Pennyroyal Press, a paperback house specializing in medical thrillers, had as many enemies as there are attendees at the ABA–and that’s 24,000.

But that’s not all.  Baker & Taylor’s corporate mascots, the genial short-eared cats known and Baker and Taylor, have been snatched from their ABA booth and must be found before they’re done in.  And first Temple needs to convince tall, stern, female lieutenant Molina of the Las Vegas Police that Temple herself is not up to no good.  The lieutenant has all too many questions about the disappearance of Mystifying Max, the handsome stage magician who vanished from Temple’s life six months ago.  Molina won’t believe that Temple knows nothing of his whereabouts . . .

What with Lieutenant Molina, Murder One and feline felony, it’s a wonder that Temple has time to notice the riveting Matt Devine, who’s just rented a condo from Temple’s landlady, in the circular building behind the Lover’s Knot Wedding chapel.  But she does. . .

Catnap is narrated in part by Midnight Louie, the sleuthing tomcat who led Temple to the corpse.  (You thought it was an accident?) Louie’s investigations are aided by his conversations with Ingram the bookstore cat and other felines, yet hampered by his resolve never to speak to humans.  But Midnight Louie is one hardboiled, hairy-chested big dude.  He always finds a way to bring the perpetrator to justice–and to enchant the reader!

Cat in an Aqua Storm (formerly titled Pussyfoot) –Book 2

Midnight Louie is aprowl again–and the game is definitely afoot when petite public relations freelancer Temple Barr finds herself at a striptease convention, up to her spike heels in muscle-bound males, siliconed females…and murder.

After a contestant is found hanging from her own G-string, the owner of a joke striptease business turns up dead.  Then two thugs assault Temple, looking for her ex-flame, a missing stage magician.  Implacable female police lieutenant C.R. Molina wants answers now, answers Temple doesn’t have.

Meanwhile, Temple’s relationship with handsome hotline counselor Matt Devine is heating up nicely, but he may hide secrets of his own .  .  .

As Temple tracks the killer, buzzing around Vegas in her aqua Storm car and stirring up suspects, Midnight Louie pursues his own investigation. Now that fading film star Savannah Ashleigh and the Devine Yvette, her purebred Persian and Louie’s platinum-haired lost love, are among the endangered, this tomcat sleuth will leave no rhinestone unturned to find the murderer .  .  .

Cat on a Blue Monday–Book 3

Someone is stalking prize-winning purebreds at the annual Las Vegas Cat Show, and Midnight Louie is off on the prowl again.

As Louie, aided by a telepathic Birman cat named Karma, follows the scent of the killer, Temple is delving into the past of Matt Devine, the handsome young hotline counselor who’s captured her heart.

Soon Louie and Temple find themselves up to their tails in blackmail, extortion, and cold-blooded murder. Fans of foul play, feisty female detectives, and feline forensics are sure to find Cat on a Blue Monday just their saucer of milk.

Cat in a Crimson Haze–Book 4

Midnight Louie, the best tomcat in the crime-solving business, and his human partner, petite redheaded publicist Temple Barr, are once again in the thick of things in the city of sin. The manager of the Crystal Phoenix, one of Las Vegas’ premier vacation spot, has hired Temple Barr to help clean up the hotel’s image, but soon more than the Phoenix’s reputation is in danger. The phoenix becomes prey to mysterious saboteurs whose little pranks just happen to keep endangering Temple’s life.

When Temple tangles with ex-priests, local police, FBI agents, obnoxious reporters, and a passel of semi-reformed mafiosi who wear pastel zoot suits, it’s up to Midnight Louie to get her out of knot . . . before it’s too late.

Cat in a Diamond Dazzle–Book 5

Midnight Louie is back!…along with the human black tomcat condescends to spend his days with: Temple Barr, a redheaded publicist whose love for expensive shoes is matched only be her affinity for trouble.

This time trouble shows up on her doorstep, in the form of a boyfriend previously gone missing . . . during a murder investigation. No fool she, Temple decides it’s time for a break. A romance writers’ convention–complete with a male-model Incredible Hunk pageant-sounds like just what the doctor ordered.

Unfortunately, a pair of dazzling Cinderella shoes goes missing, one of the would-be Fabios ends up dead, and Temple’s investigations into the matters get more complicated–and more dangerous–than she planned.

Luckily, there’s a smart and smart-mouthed cat prowling around.

Cat with an Emerald Eye–Book 6

Our furry feline friend has dipped his paws into the muddy waters of murder once again–only this time, nothing is as it seems.

Temple Barr, a redheaded public relations expert and Louie’s human partner, won’t be trick-or-treating this Halloween Eve: Her landlady, the eccentric Electra, is dragging her to a seance intended to resurrect the spirit of Harry Houdini.

Midnight Louie scoffs, but when the seance ends abruptly with the murder of a famous psychic, his well-trained nose smells something fishy, and it’s not his dinner.

When Temple discovers that the dead man was a debunker of false psychic phenomena, making any other supposed psychic in the room a prime suspect, she knows there’s more to this case than meets the eye.

Cat in a Flamingo Fedora–Book 7

That rough-and-tumble black tomcat Midnight Louie and his flame-haired human companion, Temple Barr, think shooting a cat food commercial will allow them to play hooky from mayhem.

But life is never easy for the vivacious pair, and Temple and Louie are center stage when beloved comic actor (and notorious ladies’ man) Darren Cooke is shot to death. Cooke had asked Temple to find out if a mysterious stalker was his unacknowledged daughter, and she is determined to find out the truth.

But the search for truth raised a dangerous question: Was this really a murder, or was Cooke a tortured funnyman who finally rang down his own curtain.

Cat in a Golden Garland–Book 8

That rough-and-tumble black tomcat Midnight Louie and his flame haired human companion Temple Barr are looking forward to a Christmas vacation spent in the Big Apple. But there’s more than merriment to be found in New York City–there’s a murder to be solved, and Louie’s’ on the move.

When an ad agency’s head honcho dons his traditional Santa suit for a company party, Midnight Louie scents a murderous trap, and soon someone has put jolly old St. Nick into permanent deep freeze. Meanwhile, Louie’s rival in romance is still trying to turn him into kitty litter, and Mystifying Max the Magician isn’t about to let the holidays pass with making a surprise proposal that leave Temple breathless.

Can one little kitty apprehend the perpetrator, play Cupid, and make everyone’s Christmas bright? If his name is Midnight Louie, anything is possible!

Cat on a Hyacinth Hunt–Book 9

Back in Las Vegas after a holiday trip to the big apple, feline detective Midnight Louie witnesses death on the Nile when the battling Egyptian barges outside the Oasis hotel bring a dead body to the surface. The soggy victim is well known to Louie’s redheaded, high-heeled human companion, Temple Barr: her two best beaux are loosely related to the drowned man, and both have reasons to want him dead. Perhaps Temple can finally choose between handsome hotline counselor Matt Devine and the mysterious magician, Ma Kinsella–by finding out which of them is a killer.

And then there are the new girls in town: an inscrutable lady magician named Shangri-La, who may play a bigger role in this scenario than anyone might think; and her winsome Siamese familiar, who may solve Louie’s problems by giving him the key to her heart–or the key to solving the mystery.

Cat in an Indigo Mood–Book 10

“NINE LIVES WOULDN’T BE NEARLY ENOUGH FOR THIS DUDE. ” At the Blue Dahlia, where homicide detective Carmen Molina moonlights as a torch singer, she finds a dead woman lying next to her can in the parking lot.

The words “she left” are spray-painted nearby. Soon, a second anonymous woman is found dead in another parking lot across town. Is a serial killer at work?

Will the tough lieutenant have to resort to the despised help of amateur sleuth Temple Barr to crack the case? Maybe the wily police lieutenant has more devious plans in mind as the double murder case unfolds. Meanwhile Midnight Louie finds himself walking on the wild side when a glamorous feline client seeks his help in finding her missing boyfriend.

Cat in a Jeweled Jumpsuit–Book 11

Midnight Louie, jet-black feline sleuth with an attitude, is on the prowl again–and this time to a rock’n’roll soundtrack.

Louie’s human partner, Temple Barr, learns that the remodeling of a local hotel is being held up by a ghost–and no ordinary ghost at that. In fact, the workmen swear it’s none other than that jumpsuit-wearing King of  Rock ‘n’ Roll, Elvis Presley.

The opening of Las Vegas’ first Elvis-themed attraction might explain this unscheduled appearance. But what of the death threats against the Priscilla Presley-esque daughter of Crawford Buchanan, Temple’s professional enemy? And who is the late-night caller to Temple’s former suitor, radio counselor Matt Devine, who sounds remarkably like the King of Rock ‘N Roll?

When a dead Elvis is found, the question is not only whodunit, and why, but who the dead man really is. Could the King himself have been hiding behind the guise of his own imitators, and is he really dead again, or for the first time . . . or not at all?

Cat in a Kiwi Con–Book 12

Midnight Louie, the purring P.I., is a jet-black sleuth making his twelfth outing in Carole Nelson Douglas’ 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, TitaniCon.

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.

Cat in a Leopard Spot–Book 13

Midnight Louie, that lovable and feisty feline sleuth returns once again to delight his legions of fans. This time, not only does Louie have to bail out his favorite investigative partner, public relations woman Temple Barr, but he has to save a fellow feline from a charge of Murder One.

All of Louie’s and Temple’s allies and enemies converge on the case when a big-game hunter is found dead with only a leopard for company. And the fun really begins when the unofficial investigators learn that the leopard is Osiris, a performing Big Cat who was kidnapped from his magician owner only days before the murder.

Add to the mix a woman who’s been surgically altered to resemble a Big Cat, a group of Las Vegas high-rollers who’ve been paying big bucks to illegally hunt big game at the victim’s ranch, and a cadre of ardent animal rights protesters secretly staking out the premises, determined to stop the illegal killing at any price, even their own lives .  .  .

Cat in a Midnight Choir–Book 14

In Cat in a Midnight Choir, the fourteenth Midnight Louie Mystery, both feline and human evil-doers and crime-solvers work overtime to make Las Vegas the Capital of Noir Suspense. This time our feisty black cat detective is hunting a mysterious and possibly murderous organization of renegade magicians called the Synth, which has been making Las Vegas too hot to hold for some of Louie’s human friends, particularly ex-magician Max Kinsella. Louie’s on the case . . . but the trick may be on him this time.

And just to make things interesting, while Louie and his furred cohorts battle black magic, both human and not-so-human, Louie’s cherished roommate, plucky PR freelancer Temple Barr, is investigating the murderous side of the Synth despite the intense discouragement of female homicide lieutenant C. R. Molina. Molina herself is secretly moonlighting as an undercover operative to nail the killer of a sad, young stripper, and the search has boiled down to two suspects: Temple’s current significant other, Max Kinsella, and Molina’s long-gone ex-lover, Raf Nadir. Unfortunately, proving either man guilty will seriously impact the lives of Molina and her daughter, Mariah.

As Louie and his human friends sink deeper into a lose-lose situation of crime and punishment, there doesn’t seem to be any way out of this escalating crisis, except another murder.

Can Louie solve some nagging past mysteries, find out just what some mad magicians have in store and stop the stripper killer before he claims another victim? And what will Louie do if he finds that the killer is someone Louie knows . . . and likes?

Cat in a Neon Nightmare–Book 15

Cat in a Neon Nightmare is the fifteenth Midnight Louie mystery, and this tough-talking tomcat is as feisty as ever, raising hell (sometimes literally) in Las Vegas, America’s Sin Capital.

The lavish hotels and the sham of wholesome fun may soothe the tourists, but sex and greed still fuel this town, and bad guys still abound. And Midnight Louie, the feline Sam Spade has his paws full keeping those he loves safe.

This time Midnight Louie treads the lurid side of mystery’s mean streets when a call girl named Vassar is found lying dead on the neon ceiling above a Las Vegas casino. Suicide or homicide? If straight-arrow radio shrink Matt Devine, the man most likely to have been Vassar’s unlikely last client, is charged for Vassar’s murder, everyone Louie knows is an accessory to the crime . . . except for his ever-loving roommate, PR whiz Temple Barr, who has been kept in the dark by both friends and enemies.

To save Matt’s future, Temple will have to crack the cover-up with the unsuspected help of Midnight Investigations, Inc. , now including a junior partner: Louie’s maybe-daughter, Midnight Louise. Meanwhile, a hot new club in town, Neon Nightmare, has links to the mysterious Synth, a sinister association of magicians that may lie behind the string of unsolved deaths that have haunted Louie Company for months.

And with the psychotic stalker, Kitty the Cutter, still prowling, death is definitely in the cards for someone Temple knows very well, and not even Louie may be able to stop it.

Cat in an Orange Twist–Book 16

Temple Barr is a sharp and sassy public relations ace in Las Vegas whose life is finally taking a turn for the better. Hard-nosed homicide lieutenant Carmen Molina is too busy chasing after her own ex-lover, rogue L.A. Cop Rafi Nadir, to pursue Temple’s boyfriend, sexy magician Max Kinsella, and nobody Temple knows has been murdered . . . at least, not in the past few weeks.

Temple takes this downtime as a signal she should buy a new pair of Jimmy Choo spike heels and accept the job of planning a glitzy week of opening events for a trendy new furniture show room.  Dealing with temperamental decor mavens is no problem for a woman who’s saved leopards from big game hunters, tracked killers through strip clubs, calmed the cantankerous owners of Las Vegas’ most glamorous hotel, and seen the ghost of Elvis–until the life of feng shui expert and media-crowned domestic dominatrix Amelia Wong is threatened.  Suddenly, Temple is neck deep in trouble. . . and bodies.

And Temple has one more problem–one she doesn’t even know about: her roommate, Louie, and his maybe-daughter Louise, have decided to make sure that Temple’s search for a killer furniture arrangement doesn’t mean curtains for her. Midnight Inc. Investigations, their PI firm, is on the case. The catch?

Louie is Temple’s cat.

Cat in a Hot Pink Pursuit–Book 17

What’s a Girl to do when she’s forced to be, well, a girl?

That’s what’s hot shot freelance PR woman and amateur detective Temple Barr has to do when as a favor to top cop Carmen Molina she goes undercover at Teen Queen, the newest pop star-search reality TV show, all in the hopes of protecting Molina’s 13-year old daughter.

It’s no picnic trying to be a teenager again, even after a punk makeover. To make matters worse, Temple’s in danger of being uncovered by the show’s celebrity judges, including her romance novelist aunt and her arch-enemy, Crawford Buchanan. And just to make life more interesting there are her fellow contestants, unnatural blondes aplenty who are all too willing to sabotage and back-stab their way to the top.

Unfortunately, someone has a real knife out for Las Vegas’ young women, and it’s up to Temple and her underfoot undercover partner, Midnight Louie, to ferret out the killer.

Cat in a Quicksilver Caper–Book 18

Midnight Louie, alley cat extraordinaire and Las Vegas’ hairiest hard-boiled PI, finds himself literally walking a tightrope when a fabulous museum opening at one of Sin City’s swankiest casinos is marred by a little thing like death.

Louie’s loyal roommate, feisty PR freelancer Temple Barr, has snagged the commission of her career: repping the opening exhibition of the Russian czars’ priceless treasures at the New Millennium Hotel, the apex of which is the Czar Alexander scepter, a priceless jewel-encrusted artifact.

Trouble is, the hotel has booked an aerial magic act right above the exhibition.

Temple works at a breakneck pace to coordinate this logistical nightmare.  Tragedy ensues when a performer dies right above where the collection will be displayed, and the police threaten to shut everything down.  But the word “no” isn’t one heard often in Las Vegas where money is involved and the show (or shows) must go on.  Just as things seem to be working perfectly, another performer dies. . . and the scepter vanishes.  The culprits could be international art thieves, Russian Mafia, or Chechen rebels out to embarrass the current Russian government.

Or could it be someone else, perhaps someone Temple knows all too well. . .

Cat in a Red Hot Rage–Book 19

Temple Barr and Midnight Louie are up to their tails in froufrou, chapeaux, and murder when the Red Hat Sisterhood convention hits Las Vegas.  Electra Lark, Temple’s spirited sixty-something landlady–and a member of the local Red Hat chapter–drags the petite spinmeister to the convention, in the hopes of helping Temple forget about her complicated love life.

Electra is accused of murder after a woman is found strangled with an official Red Hat Sisterhood purple scarf.  She begs amateur sleuth Temple to find the real killer by posing as a pink-hatter, an under-fifty member.

Midnight Louie and his partner in Midnight Investigations, Inc., his maybe-daughter Midnight Louise, join in the hunt. They find old friends at the Crystal Phoenix, including C-movie actress Savannah Ashleigh and her Persian cats, Solange and her sister, Louie’s ex-love, the Divine Yvette.

As Temple and Louie dig through the red feather boas and purple hats and shopping bags packed with official Red Hat merchandise, it becomes clear that a whole lot of folks want to cash in on the red hot rage of female empowerment that is the Red Hat Sisterhood.  And that at least one is willing to kill for success.

Cat in a Sapphire Slipper–Book 20

Las Vegas PR honcho Temple Barr’s beloved aunt Kit, romance novelist and hopeless romantic, wants to make sure her niece is on the right road to true love.  But she winds up in a real romance of her own when she snags one of the most eligible bachelors on the Strip.  Kit has fallen for one of the Fontana brothers, a silver-tongued reputed ex-mobster with a heart of gold.

And so there is to be a wedding–and a Las Vegas wedding at that!

But Vegas’ glitz and glamour can conceal danger and darkness, and the Fontana-heavy bachelor party is, alas, no exception.  The entire party is hijacked and taken to a remote desert ranch where the women are wild and the sex is legal.

Ill at ease among the raunch is Temple’s own Matt Devine, an ex-priest turned talk-show host and Temple’s secret fiance. Before Matt and the Fontanas can make their way back to the Strip, Matt unhappily stumbles upon a beautiful young woman who is quite naked and most thoroughly dead.

Given the remoteness of the location and the Fontanas’ shady reputation, this is a very bad thing indeed.  Luckily, Louie managed to go along for the ride. It’s up to that big old tomcat to bail out his humans and save the day.

Cat in a Topaz Tango–Book 21

Temple Barr and Matt Devine make a cozy engaged couple, and the feisty redhead is all for her handsome radio host fiance staring in a week-long televised Las Vegas charity event, “Dancing with the Celebs.” But while ex-priest Matt struggles to master the sexy moves of the tango, a killer stalks the dance floor. Not only is Matt in danger, but so is the lovely tween Mariah, daughter of homicide cop C. R. Molina, who is dancing in the Junior Division of the show.

And so Temple gets dragooned into resurrecting her kicky teen persona, Zoe Chloe Ozone, now an Internet hottie, to ensure Matt and Mariah don’t foxtrot into a fatal misstep.

Where is Louie in all this? Well, he’s out and about, proving that he’s still the cat’s meow. But he’s got his paws full as he tries to keep all the various players in his little troupe from dancing right into death’s arms . . .

Cat in an Ultramarine Scheme–Book 22

Temple Barr, publicist extraordinaire, is itching to bring off her most dangerous and exciting assignment, helping to launch an endeavor that many a Vegas showmen have dreamed of: a Las Vegas mob museum/casino.

While city powers-that-be hem and haw over doing an official project on the subject, the Family Fontana plans to connect two hotels with a “Chunnel of Crime” featuring an underground speakeasy, a fast “ride” through Vegas crime history by Gangsters custom limo sevice, and other fun attractions.

Temple’s grand scheme to do a live “opening Bugsy Siegel’s vault” media event built around a huge safe found buried underground produces a two-day-old body wearing white tie and tails.

With Temple’s magician-counterterrorist ex-lover, Max, gone missing and her new fiance, radio shrink Matt Devine, in Chicago for week-long media gig, Temple must depend on “the Vegas Strip Irregulars,” a posse of cats, to solve murders old and new that smack of mobs vintage and all too contemporary. Success, or failure, could cost Temple her life, and all nine of Louie’s.

Cat in a Vegas Gold Vendetta–Book 23

Temple Barr is an ace P.R. wizard when it comes to promoting Las Vegas’ hottest clients. She’s also an amateur sleuth who has caught her share of bad guys.

B-movie actress Savannah Ashleigh begs Temple to investigate the suspicious death of her rich aunt’s handyman. Temple happily takes the case, if for no other reason than to take her mind off her chaotic private life. Her ex-fiancé, the Mystifying Max, is back–minus his memory. And current fiancé Matt Devine has shown up from a stint in Chicago with the promise of a surprising future. Which may or may not include Temple.

As Temple digs into the man’s untimely demise she finds plenty of suspect and greedy humans swarming around the ailing Aunt Violet, who means to leave her estate to her resident cats. Temple thinks she’s close to solving the case, but it becomes clear to Midnight Louie, Temple’s roommate and ace feline detective, that there are more deaths both human and feline coming. Add in the return of a mysterious stalker from the past, and it’s murder and mayhem on all fronts for Temple, Louie, and the ones they love in the newest story in the Midnight Louie mystery series.

Cat in a White Tie and Tails–Book 24

In Carole Nelson Douglas’ Cat in a White Tie and Tails, Midnight Louie goes along as chaperone when PR whiz Temple Barr and her fiance, rising media star Matt Devine, head to Chicago so she can meet his family. Matt’s mother has a tragic past primed to rise and bite anybody in reach, even the ex-alley cat sleuth. When Louie is snatched, the catnapping’s surprising motive loops back to Vegas and a string of unsolved murders connected to magic…and ex-magician Max Kinsella, Temple’s former significant other.

Skeptical homicide lieutenant C. R. Molina has commissioned Max to investigate the cold case murder she suspects he committed two years earlier. With traumatic amnesia from a recent attempt on his life, the once infallible Max is more sitting duck than predator. It will take an alliance of frenemies to solve the serial deaths before one of them joins the fatality list.

Cat in an Alien X-Ray–Book 25

Carole Nelson Douglas’s Cat in an Alien X-Ray takes the Las Vegas gang on a science-fictional roller-coaster ride, as Midnight Louie, feline PI, and company encounter UFO enthusiasts, conspiracy nuts who are too bizarre even for tin foil hat therapy. An Area 51 attraction on the Strip threatens to bring more than starry-eyed enthusiasts to town. Once again it is up to that furballed PI Midnight Louie to keep his crew in line and save them from the attack of the creatures from the beyond…or common criminals that prey on the innocent.

Cat in a Yellow Spotlight–Book 26

Readers are biting their nails as the popular alphabetic Midnight Louie feline PI mystery series nears its end with this 26th entry. The Las Vegas reunion show of a groundbreaking band revives a deadly duel between its two divas. Now petite PR powerhouse Temple Barr and her faithful feline roommate Midnight Louie, assisted by the Vegas Cat Pack, must sniff out clues to save the Crystal Phoenix hotel’s reputation and any at-risk lives, including their own. For sleuths and suspects, it all comes down to the black and white lies that destroy hopes, lives, and family.

Cat in a Zebra Zoot Suit–Book 27

In the 27th Midnight Louie mystery by New York Times Notable Book of the Year author Carole Nelson Douglas, Midnight Louie channels the jazz and swing-dance age. In Cat in a Zebra Zoot Suit, Circle Ritz residents petite PR powerhouse Temple Barr and her faithful roommate, Midnight Louie, must defend their beloved elderly landlady from a bizarre murder charge that echoes a long-past atrocity. Meanwhile Temple’s fiancé, Matt Devine, turns detective on a secret mission and her ex, a magician with a counter-terrorist past, tangles with vengeful IRA members and a psycho stalker in Ireland. And what makes a defunct fifties nightclub building in Las Vegas the pit of all evil and greed?

All involved will face surprising dangers and choices and will balancing on the edge of survival . . . and maybe even shocking new futures. Deadly encounters and unexpected reunions force all the main characters into unforeseen loss and disclosure, the suspense leavened by Douglas’s characteristic wit and heart.

Cat in an Alphabet Endgame–Book 28

Long awaited! The 28th and last book in the Midnight Louie feline PI alphabet-titled mystery series from USA TODAY and Amazon bestselling author Carole Nelson Douglas.

New York Times Notable Book of the Year author Carole Nelson Douglas’s cast of four human crime solvers must not only stop a massive Las Vegas conspiracy involving international terrorism and the FBI, but feline sleuth Midnight Louie’s roommate, PR powerhouse Temple Barr, is contemplating marriage. Will syndicated radio counselor and ex-priest Matt Devine’s inside track lose out to the return of that wily dark horse, magician Max Kinsella? The suspense is killing somebody.

Meanwhile, a Strip-wide resurgence the long-vanquished Las Vegas mob could have Temple in search of an undertaker rather than a Justice of the Peace. Luckily, Midnight Louie and the Las Vegas Cat Pack are planning their finest moments to bring down the baddies. But no one can help Temple find which direction her wayward heart must go.

JANET EVANOVICH calls Midnight Louie “the funniest, hairiest, hard-boiled detective on the planet.” The Prime Suspect finds the series “everything you might want in a mystery: glitzy Las Vegas, real characters, suspense, a tough puzzle, and…on top of it all, a fine sense of humor and some illuminating social commentary.”

“Las Vegas’s feline detective extraordinary returns… Louie is an irresistible combination of Nathan Detroit and Sam Spade. Plenty of interest here for a lengthy, fun-filled series.”—Mostly Murder

“If it’s murder, it must be Midnight Louie time! Carole Nelson Douglas’s cool dude feline detective pulls off some fancy footwork when he matches wits with a murderer…Written with stylish zest and irresistible panache, this clever tale operates on a multiplicity of levels.”—Melinda Helfer, RT Book Reviews 4½ stars