Episode 5 - the Cat Who Saw Red


The Cat Who Saw Red


The Cat Who Returns!  After 20 years away, LJB returns to Qwill, Koko and Yum Yum. 

Having read this book and the following book - the Cat Who Played Brahms, I have a theory that this book was written directly after the Cat Who Turned on and Off, then put away for 20 years, until a new publisher and a new husband encouraged her to try again with the series. 

I do incorrectly state in the podcast that this book is the only award nominee, but as I later learned, that wasn't true.  The Cat Who Played Brahms was also nominated for an Anthony Award, but it also lost. 


Short-ish summary:  Qwill starts a diet and is immediately assigned a gourmet dining column for the Fluxion.  Mary Duckworth goes to the Caribbean and sends Qwill to her attorney/gourmet Chef's house for dinner and he moves in to an available apartment there, after reuniting with his former fiancée, who is now the in-house potter, along with her incredibly suspicious husband.  A missing cat and soon a missing wife make the husband even more suspicious but it takes Koko's keen senses to get Qwill the proof he needs to accuse the husband of multiple murders, before the husband tries to bash in Qwill's brains with a clay roller.  Qwill is saved by Koko's ingenuity with yarn and the husband confesses all. Qwill starts a new romance with a fellow tenant, Rosemary and the book ends with all living parties happy. 

Thoughts -

-It’s nice to see the development of Qwill and Arch’s friendship - there are childhood reminiscences, and references to their double dating Joy and Rosie back in Chicago and the general ribbing you can only get away with when you’ve known someone for 40+ years.


-Charlotte Roop, until the end of the book, basically exists to disapprove of everything and ask Qwilleran for crossword clues. She raves about her three bosses until she finds out they are actually behind a smear campaign for a rival restaurant, at which point she resigns in high dudgeon, and turns them in to the police. 


-Some nasty cracks about the Fluxion food editor - “ She can’t boil an egg, but she puts out the best recipe page in the country!”  “Why can’t the Food Editor do it? (Referring to judging the cake backing contest) She’s in the hospital.  Been Eating her own cooking?’


-Rosemary, is a more appealing partner for Qwill, being of his own age bracket and calm, but the cats aren’t fans.  Granted, she thinks a good way to bond is by trying to force feed the cats vitamins.  They are not amused and get locked in the bathroom when they fail to cooperate.  She does however score points with the yarn, although she insists that it’s more likely that Yum Yum strung the web that tripped Dan, rather than Koko...


-The famous murder suicide associated with Maus Haus in it’s former incarnation as the Penniman pottery is revealed by Inga Berry, a teacher at the Penniman school of Art.   Qwill’s apartment with its peephole used to belong to old Mr. Penniman,  who had a crush on a potter named Helen Hake, who was loved by a sculptor named Mortimer Mellon (LJB likes alliteration).  Penniman gets jealous and Mortimer ends up in the river, followed by a pregnant Helen.  Not a good look for the Penniman family, so they abandon the pottery.  And Qwill’s paper keeps bringing up the scandal, which is another reason everyone hates the Fluxion.  It also showcases LJB’s poetic skills - she actually wrote a limerick about the scandal for Hixie to recite: 

A Potty Young sculptor, Mort Mellon, 

Fell in Love with a pottress named Helen

But the Pottery gods frowned, 

And he Promptly got Drowned

Who Pushed him, the potters ain’t tellin’!


Mysterywise - everything points to Dan, right from the start.  But Qwill has to work pretty hard to get some proof.  This book is all about Qwill following his hunches and them turning out to be right, even when everyone tells him he’s wrong.  

I give it Three paws.  It’s solid, the characters are interesting and even though all signs point to the culprit from the beginning, it’s fun to see how she gets there.


Want to hear the podcast?  Listen here: 

https://www.podbean.com/eu/pb-t4bpp-f0ee6a

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