The Cat Who Saw Red

Rating:
Summary: The Best Braun has to Offer
Review: "The Cat Who Saw Red" was my introduction to the "Cat Who" series way back when I was about 10 years old. To this day, I have no idea how that book ended up on my mother's shelf - my parents are not readers. But I'm sure glad it did - I've read every book in the series since!

Braun's work has been highly criticized lately for going drastically downhill, and I agree. That criticism is justified. To read "The Cat Who Saw Red" again reminds me of exactly from what great heights Braun has fallen.

The mystery, as others have said, is not that hard to figure out. But the characters are so rich, the writing so fluid, and the situation so compelling that one cannot put this book down. The way Jim Qwilleran interacts with those around him is just fabulous in this book. Unlike later "Cat Who" novels, he doesn't take himself seriously at all - and he can also be heartbreakingly vulnerable. Qwill's buddy Arch Riker is a treat in this book, too, witty and cranky at the same time.

I highly recommend this book as an introduction to the series, or as a re-read for longtime fans.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely my favorite within the "Cat Who" series.
Review: "The Cat Who Saw Red" will keep your attention from start to finish. Ms. Braun has incorporated a delightful mixture of intrigue, colorful characters, curious cats, and a one of a kind boarding house setting, to come up with, what I consider, the best of her "Cat Who" series. You will find yourself wanting to revisit Jim Qwilleran's temporary residence, Maus Haus, and it's smorgasbord of inhabitants from time to time. I know I have. A very good read.

Rating:
Summary: In which Qwill, Koko, and Yum Yum. . .
Review: . . .move to the home of gourmet cook (and high profile attorney) Robert Maus, who owns a residence for artists.

Among the residents, Qwill is thrilled to discover his first love and former fiancee, alas, now trapped in an unhappy marriage. With a curious and delightful cast of characters (several of which make appearances in later books) this well-written mystery (with a particularly bizarre murder) was written on the heels of "Off and On" but not published until nearly 20 years later.

This is possibly the best of the first four "The Cat Who" novels and is well worth the reader's time.

Rating:
Summary: Expect to get hungry
Review: After a hiatus of nearly 20 years since _The Cat Who Turned On and Off_ (1968 to 1986), Qwilleran and his feline supervisors Koko and Yum Yum, returned in this book, picking up nearly where they left off. Qwilleran is still forty-something, and the only way in which he's beginning to feel his age, barring the recent addition of reading glasses, came courtesy of his doctor after an energetic visit to the vet. (The cats feel that examining their teeth is an outrageous invasion of privacy.) His vet-recommended physical resulted in the incredible document he's reading in the Press Club as the story opens: NO FRIED FOODS - NO CREAM SOUPS...(It's hilarious to listen to George Guidall narrating as Qwilleran, reading this to himself as his oblivious colleagues quite innocently order a lunch containing nothing but no-nos, to be topped by Qwill ordering cottage cheese and half a radish.)

The universe seems to be conspiring to lure Qwill off his diet: that same day, "Percy" (the managing editor who says 'per se' a lot) gives him the latest of a long string of dubious assignments: restaurant critic, expert on food and wine. (Qwill, of course, was established from his first appearance as a recovering alcoholic who never drinks anything stronger than nutmeg-laced ginger ale.) This leads into the typical pattern of the first four Qwill/Koko adventures: Percy assigns the ex-crime reporter yet another feature rather than City Room beat; the perennial tenant Qwill locates the latest of a series of apartments through contacts on his new beat; and he meets the quirky denizens of his beat before crime strikes (not always murder). Braun begins playing with that formula in this book, as an old flame of Qwill's - now unhappily married - lives in Maus Haus, his new building. (The series took a different tack starting with the next book, _The Cat Who Played Brahms_, introducing Qwill to Moose County.)

Maus Haus belongs to the attorney Robert Maus, whose true passion is gourmet cooking. He inherited the place under the terms of a will specifying that it be used to support the arts, having once been the site of an art colony. (The art colony, established by the late owner of _The Morning Rampage_, the town's rival newspaper, dissolved after two artists died mysteriously - the building's physical setting by the river gradually builds up a creepy atmosphere, as images of water and drowning seep into the story.) Maus runs it as a boarding house with a tenant list qualifying as artists - stretching a point to consider cookery an art as well as the pottery practiced by Qwill's former fiancee Joy Wheatley Graham and her disagreeable husband Dan Graham. Notice the food motif running through the names of the tenants: Hixie Rice, a food writer; crossword addict Charlotte Roop, who works for the Heavenly Hash fast-food chain; Rosemary Whiting, the best possible advertisement for her health-food shop; Max Sorrel, whose pride and joy, the exclusive Golden Lamb Chop, has been targeted by a smear campaign that's driving him out of business.

Even without a mystery, this could have been developed as a good character-driven novel, explaining among other things Qwill's taste in women (he realizes that most of his girlfriends, and his ex-wife, looked like Joy), and laying a foundation for a gradual shift in his taste from this point to older women. Having last seen her as a young woman, before she broke their engagement and fled Chicago to find herself, Qwill naturally remembers her as she was, which colors his view of the real Joy today - and he never really got her out of his system.

Joy, for her part, is still something of a free spirit who can't bear confinement - but she's also, in middle age, admitting that she wants comforts: to exploit the new glazes she's invented rather than spending most of her efforts trying (and failing) to avoid bruising her husband's ego, for one. (Also a potter, Dan lost part of a thumb long before the story opens - limiting the kind and quality of the work he can produce - but he insists on saying of things Joy does, 'that's nothing' and producing loud spiels of his own past glories.) Joy confides to Qwill that she hasn't got the money for a divorce - she's paying a price for trusting Dan's handling of their joint financial arrangements earlier in their marriage - and that she's planning on selling some interesting papers she found while exploring the building (implication is that they involve the old drowning scandal, but she doesn't actually say so). Qwill doesn't want to think of Joy as a blackmailer - and offers her a $750 loan, not telling her that he can just barely afford it. Joy seems genuinely surprised, and signs a note without being asked in her atrocious handwriting.

As a recovering alcoholic, Qwill's own finances have only of late years reached an even keel - the money, most of his savings, is the last of a prize he won in a _Fluxion_ writing contest, and losing it would clean him out again. So when Joy disappears again as she did in Qwill's youth, his other childhood friend Arch Riker is the first to say: stop payment on the check, Qwill! But he doesn't want to leave her stuck somewhere without resources, even when the question becomes, has he been had for a sucker? Where did she go - and with whom?

NOTE: George Guidall's unabridged audio recording is, as always, excellent, covering the range from Koko and Yum-Yum's yowls and other Siamese commentary to Qwill's pleasant, deep voice to Dan Graham's hokey cliche-ridden speech (although like the author, Guidall slows down and clarifies Dan's rapid-fire mumble after a few initial samples so that we can follow it more easily).

Rating:
Summary: Reading The Cat Who Saw Red
Review: After reading The Cat Who books by Lilian Jackson Braun (I'm on book 13 and counting) most readers are struck with a sudden urge to go out and purchace a pair of Siamese cats from the local pet store. These wonderfuly writen books are not only easy to get into, but hard to get out of. They could even be called comfort books, because of the fact that well known and well liked characters often reapear from book to book. My only complaint arises in this book. It can only be described as characters feeling the wrong emotions at the wrong times(Just like someone winning the lottery and then ripping up the ticket). Still, the book is well worth reading, so don't miss it!

Rating:
Summary: Good read
Review: Brilliantly entertaining as usual with some edginess that is missing from the Moose County installments. Quaint and quirky. Three cheers for Qwill.

Rating:
Summary: Great Series, Good Writing, Best if Read in Sequence
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Still wonderful!
Review: I recently re-read this , recalling it as one of my all time favorite mysteries,and it still entertained. With all the current mystery writer wannabe's out there, it's good to know Braun still delivers.

Rating:
Summary: Repulsive
Review: I wish I had a "zero stars" option. I'm amazed at the number of readers who loved it. Perhaps they are also fans of the horror genre. The premise for the pottery glaze turning red was nothing short of nauseating. The image will linger with me forever. I wish I'd never read it. I was taken aback to find something so graphic in the Qwilleran series.

Rating:
Summary: MY FAVORITE IN THE WHOLE SERIES!!!!!
Review: I've read every book in the series and The Cat Who Saw Red is my very favorite. Koko and Yum Yum are smart but Lillian Jackson Braun makes them realistic and believible, and that is not an easy task.