When private eye Kat Colorado accepts a routine assignment investigating one man's finances, she never dreams that she will become embroiled in the elaborate, illegal, and dangerous scheming of a madman
Karen J. Kijewski was born in Berkeley, California. Her father taught at the University of California, and she later attended the school, earning a BA and a Masters degree. Karen is a past president of the northern California chapter of the Mystery Writers of America. She has two daughters, and is currently living in Sacramento, California with her husband.
Way back in the mid-nineties, I tried reading every series with a female investigator I could lay my hands on. Kat Colorado is one of the series that I recall enjoying a great deal. When I reached the then-end, I was disappointed ended and hopeful Kijewski would resume. Meandering through the memory files recently, I decided to give this series another go, reading through the lens of a decade or two. After all, it won the Shamus and Anthony Awards for Best First Novel, right?
That demon nostalgia. One of the reasons I rarely pick up books I remember fondly but indistinctly.
It begins when Charity Collins, advice columnist, calls friend and private investigator Kat Colorado for help. Charity’s in the middle of a divorce, and her soon-to-be-ex Sam has informed her that he has lost 200k of their money in Vegas. Charity, of course, suspects duplicity. Despite a personal rule against working for friends, Kat takes the case and jets off to Las Vegas to track down the money. As she’s leaving the airport, she runs into a childhood friend, Deck, all grown up and suspiciously well-connected. When they meet for dinner, Kat is sidetracked from her mission after they stop by an art opening and she discovers a body.
I certainly can’t remember what I thought on first read so long ago, but now the writing seems awkward. It has that ‘first-book’ language feel where the author is trying a little too hard to use adjectives and adverbs to jazz up dialogue and setting. When Charity comes over in the middle of the night, Kat “watched morosely” as Charity raids the fridge, and “watches glumly” as Charity opens a bottle of wine Kat was saving. Then Kat “shakes off the idea” of Charity’s fudge combinations and “shuddered” at her finishing up her binge with hot chocolate. The fluidity (and sense) does improve, but the awkward writing coupled with Kat’s lukewarm support with her “good friend” led to rapidly deflating expectations.
Foreshadowing was heavy-handed, particularly in the early sections of the book. I suppose it is a stylistic choice, but I tend to think it’s a weak one. By page ten, there’s a musing on what if? with speculation capped by the phrase “Curiosity kills the cat.” Unfortunately, those kind of pun-ish foreshadowings continue to crop up.
On the up side, I did like Kat’s humor, although it mostly seemed to erupt at inappropriate moments, presumably out of nervousness. I couldn’t help but feel a moment of kinship when someone pours Kat a cup of coffee:
“He poured two cups and put a huge teaspoon of powdered cream substitute in. I shuddered. He handed me the coffee and patted me on the shoulder, thinking, no doubt, that I was overcome. Which I was, but it was the cream substitute, not Sam. I should have gone with black.”
For those who like mystery with a side of romance, there’s a chance meeting that develops quickly. Kat does seem to have empowered, strong-willed overtones, a character trait I prefer over hand-wringing distress. Still, it’s the kind of feminism that lacks subtlety, being couched in the most stereotypical of terms (“my job vs you caring that I’m risking my life”), and forgetting that Kat actually has no real skills that we’ve seen when it comes to protecting herself. She’s also kind of a snot to people that she doesn’t think deserve it, whether it’s a waitress giving lousy service or a real estate agent. I suppose that suited me when I was younger and more arrogant, or younger and lacking some self-esteem (depending on which time period we are talking about), but on the whole, I wasn’t impressed.
All that said, I’d say it entertained me. Until, that is, the last thirty or so pages when it attempts to up the finale by adding one of those silly thriller finales. The villain is straight out of James Bond, cold glittering eyes and creepy sexual domination fantasies (I believed it was compared to “breaking” a horse). As a further feminist bonus, there’s an “exotic woman” angle that makes it even more creeptastic. I’m pretty sure Old-me forgot that scene on purpose, but I would have liked a heads up. Way to go, Old-me!
Honestly, what a bitch, nostalgia. It would have been a lukewarm “I liked it” until the thriller finish. Now the adult in me just rolls my eyes (and yes, I understand the irony in that sentence.)
Katwalk is the first book in Kat Colorado mystery series by Karen Kijewski. I bought this book by chance because the synopsis looked interesting. I'm glad that I took the chance as it was an enjoyable, interesting mystery.
Kat is a private investigator from California (she reminds me somewhat of Kinsey Milhone) who is asked by a friend to help with her divorce. She believes her ex-husband has hidden $200K from her so she won't get her share in the divorce settlement. As much as Kat doesn't like working for friends, she agrees. The investigation brings her to Las Vegas and into shady real estate dealings, bribing and threatening of public officials and even murder.
It's a well-paced story and peopled with interesting characters. The one weakness is the main villain who is a bit of a comic book caricature. But all in all the story was an excellent introduction to the Kat Colorado series. I hope future books are as interesting and further develop her personality and story line.
One problem with reading mass market fiction from the 90's is that you don't know whether or not the man that's getting close to your protagonist is a jerk or if it's just bad writing. This one was such a jerk I'd decided it was ham-fisted foreshadowing, but in the end it was just bad writing.
I won't go into too much detail, but no man, especially not a tough kid you knew from childhood who grew up to be hired Vegas muscle, tells you he knew it was you because you have the same "bouncy hair". Also, if your love interest asks for information (in your ~third conversation) and then cuts you off with "hold on, honey, if it's going to be a long story I'd better get a beer", drop him immediately. Or after he yells at you a few times, in behavior you describe as "volcanic". Not Kat Colorado, though.
In the end I was ready to overlook the bad writing like I was a bouncy haired PI and it was a chauvinistic cop, until the end completely unraveled. The mystery was lousy to start with, then got super dark at the end when . I kid you not.
PI Kat Colorado tries to unravel a real estate investment scam without getting killed in the process. She meets some wonderful people in Las Vegas, Joe and Betty and falls for Hank Parker. I'm darn sure we'll be seeing these characters again. Though I enjoyed the book, I can't honestly say that I was surprised at the ending. Typical adventure for a hard-headed female investigator: girl gets case, case becomes dangerous, boyfriend warns her off, girl rebels and gets captured and threatened, boyfriend is overjoyed when girl beats the odds and survives. Sounds like every other cozy pi mystery out there. As a matter of fact, it greatly reminded me of Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone.
If it isn't already clear from the books I have listed here, I'm a sucker for a good mystery series with female protagonists; I picked the first Kat Colorado book up on the recommendation of the Novelist readers' advisory engine, and so far I'm enjoying Kat Colorado more than Kinsey Millhone (I gave up on Sue Grafton after H) but less than V.I. Warshawski and Stephanie Plum. Slightly more heavy than Evanovich but less than Paretsky, and a seemingly good mix of romance and mystery. Enjoyable enough that I'm going to keep reading the series, for the moment.
Kat Colorado has already had an amazing 32 years and she is only getting started. Born to an alcoholic prostitute who did not want her or her accidental little sister, Cissy (Kat isn't certain her sister ever had an official name, but that is what her mother called the little girl - the mother was careless about naming both girls, not caring), she has become a private investigator after 8 years as a bartender, and 5 years as a investigative newspaper reporter. She picked up a Berkeley college education as well. She lives in Sacramento in a two-bedroom house and she enjoys her life, having chosen humor and walking on the light side of the street. The book seemed a cozy initially, but it hardened as it went along. I'd make the call that it is somewhere between a chic-lit cozy and medium noir darkness. There is constant first person jokey commentary and it is obviously how Kat keeps her head on straight dealing with nefarious and slimy bad people. I kept being reminded of the Kinsey Millhone series by Susan Grafton, and I think it is as good, even if not as popular.
The current case leads her to meeting Hank Parker, police detective, who may be a recurring character as the series continues. He is a definite love interest in this book 1, and rescues her a little a few times, but he lives in Las Vegas while her home is in Sacramento, so only the next book will reveal if this will be an enduring relationship or not. Kat has good friends, but since her little sister died at age three from pneumonia when Kat was 12, and Kat's mother died from falling down stairs in a drunken stupor, my guess is she is ok with running along by herself when she has to. She demonstrates she prefers following her own hunches and making her own plans throughout the novel, but she is no loner, preferring the comforts and safety of friendship when they are available to her. Hank is also escaping dark memories, his wife having been murdered by a car bomb, so they are on the same page in understanding and sentiment. They both are very courageous and foolhardy, so bleeding is not uncommon in these pages and hospital beds are ever present.
Kat is startled awake when her good friend Charity pounds on her door at one on the morning and heads for the refrigerator looking for chocolate or wine when Kat lets her in to her house. Charity is an advice columnist for the Sacramento Bee newspaper and she has a BiG problem. In meeting with her accountant earlier, she has learned her soon to be ex-husband Sam has robbed her $200,000, stealing it from their community property and secretly investing it into Las Vegas real estate. Kate knows working for friends never ends well, but she takes the case. Las Vegas becomes very dangerous for her as she digs into the real estate deals, finding corruption and dirty money. Soon bodies and blood are everywhere and Kat finds herself number one on an assassin's list.
Will Kat lose too much of herself to the dark man behind the real estate scam? She doesn't want to become a killer, but there are people she must save.....
I read another Kat Colorado book, which was my first, and was pleasantly surprised. Now, having read this book and another one as well, I am still pleasantly surprised. It's also nice to be filling in some of the background info on the "regular" characters. Kat's adopted grandmother occasionally reminded me of a certain octogenarian in our household. :) I plan to read more of the Kat series when I need a little bit of this sort of reading.
I fell in love with these books from moment one. I found Kat Colorado to be a fun and quirky character and a less known predecessor to the now popular Stephanie Plum (series by Janet Evanovich). It was through my search to find similar authors to Kijewski that I stumbled upon Evanovich. Both women have a way of words and a way of making a story funny without being absurd.
Sacramento investigator Kat Colorado jets to Las Vegas to check on a fortune owed to her friend Charity Collins by Charity's ex-husband, Sam. Kat proves that Sam's story of losing the money at the casinos is a fraud, but before she confronts him, he dies.
liked this book a little more than I thought I would - the Kat Colorado character is kind of a cross between Kinsey Mahone (Sue Grafton) and Stephanie Plum (Janet Evanovich). She's not quite as humorless as Kinsey but not as madcap as Stephanie either. I'd consider reading more books in the series.
2.5* I remember reading this in the 90s when detective fiction with female protagonists was much harder to find and that alone was a reason to give it a try. I liked it well enough but, although I read at least one other book in the series, I never felt addicted to pursuing the rest.
Read this some time ago. I remember really enjoying Kijewski's work, read all she had out at the time, and then nothing. A shame. Strong characters, well plotted.
Kat Colorado, pi, agrees to help her best friend, Charity Collins, find a missing $200,000 that her husband, from whom she is getting a divorce, has taken from their account. He claims he gambled it away, she believes he has hidden it. Kat goes to Las Vegas to follow Sam Collins activities, finding the money invested in a dodgy real estate scheme, New Capital Ventures. It appears the holdings are in an area that is not zoned for development and is a way of laundering money from a casino owned by Don Blackford. When Kat gets off the plane she is greeted, apparently by accident, by an old schoolmate that she worked with in stopping bullies. Deck Hamilton is muscle for Blackford, and warns Kat that Vegas is a rough town and she would be safer to go back to Sacramento. But Kat persists is attempting to get the funds returned to Sam and to the funds being divided in the divorce. She teams up with a reporter from the local paper, and with his wife enjoy some visiting. She also meets a local cop, Det Hank Parker, with whom she starts a relationship. They met when he was investigating the murder of woman, whose body Kat discovers in the restroom at a casino.
The city council has a member that is being forced to vote for the change in the zoning for the property. She will get the money back but not before she is held hostage by Blackford, clearly a psychopath. He has a servant, a beautiful woman whom he has intimidated into a cowering slave, including sexual. Blackford plans on making Kat another servant intrigued by her gutsiness. She fights back, and Deck dies saving them. She had broken her arm in an earlier incident, and used the cast to beat on Blackford.
This was not the most intriguing story I've read, but I will try another couple of books before I give it up.
The 1980s and 1990s saw a surge of books featuring capable, strong, independent and immensely self-reliant female private investigators, such as Sara Paretsky’s V I Warshawki, Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone, and Linda Barnes’s Carlotta Carlyle.
A less well-known member of that group is Karen Kijewski’s Kat Colorado, based in Sacrmento. This book marked her first appearance in 1989, and followed her to Las Vegas to discover what a friend’s soon-to-be-ex-husband has done with a significant portion of her divorce settlement. Kat finds herself immersed in a world of dodgy property developments.
The plot was well put together, and included what seemed to be a very clever, and seemingly plausible, money laundering scheme (always of interest to a former tax inspector). I did feel, however, that the tone of the novel had not aged well. What might well have been seen as feistily feminist at the time now seems almost to be affirming male chauvinist views. Still, I enjoyed the story, although I doubt if I will go back to dig out any others from the series.
Just re-read this first in the series. Well done! Would give it 5 stars except for a bizarre somewhat S&M scene towards the end. Kat Colorado is a P.I., and the person narrator like Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone, and there are similarities in the characters’ spunk and bravado. But Kat is less of a loner, which in a way makes her more likable (of course I like both characters). Kat’s advice columnist bff Charity, who’s own life is rather a mess, is delightfully drawn. Other friends and a love are introduced in this first novel in the series. Definitely recommend the whole series.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I really liked the story and the main character. But the advice column blurbs at the beginning of each chapter didn't work for me. There wasn't enough mystery to the plot. She basically outs the villian halfway though the story and then must come up with a new motive which felt contrived. The romantic angle was nice but felt rushed. I think some things could have been left for development in book 2. Despite it's flaws there were a lot of things I liked about this book and I would definitely read the next one if I can find it.
I read it because I lived in Sacramento and there was much hype about these books being set there. Well, most of this takes place in Las Vegas. Kat Colorado is supposedly a former investigative reporter at The Sacramento Bee who becomes a private investigator (maybe she took a buyout) and ... I can't remember the rest of the plot. Never mind.
This was a book club selection. I appreciated the author's introduction of a feisty female sleuth and will check out her further adventures. I liked the first half of the book better than the second.
Another Kat Colorado mystery--the first one. I have been re-reading this series. It's fun and I like the detective--brash, tough, but soft-hearted and sensitive inside.
2019 note: This author stopped writing this series too soon!
This is a page turner; you want to know what is going to happen next. Kat gets involved in the underworld of Las Vegas trying to uncover what happened to her best friend's money. In the middle of a divorce Charity finds that Sam (her soon to be ex.) has taken money and she wants it back.
Oh the absolute nostalgia on this was just brilliant. It hasn’t aged and I enjoyed it all over again! Absolutely thrilled that the amazing person she is bought me the whole series. It’s transported me back to my late teens / early 20s Love Kat Colorado and her kick ass attitude. I absolutely recommend this!
A fun, light, easy read. The solution the the mystery wasn't terribly obvious either. The story doesn't exactly keep you guessing but it does keep you interested. I would read more from this author.
Some issues with plot construction and character development but an overall entertaining and quick read. Kat's homebase is Sacramento which is kind of cool.
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