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Midnight Louie #17
Cat in a Hot Pink Pursuit
Ace freelance PR woman and amateur detective Temple Barr is 30-going-on-19 when she agrees to do homicide lieutenant Carmen Molina a big favor and go undercover as a contestant at Teen Idol, a TV reality show. The lieutenant is worried because someone is threatening the contestants--including her own 13 year old daughter--by leaving mutilated Barbie dolls all over Las Vegas.
Reliving the years of melodrama and teen angst while acting as a nanny-cum-diversion is bad enough, but Temple is dismayed to discover her professional nemesis is in charge of PR for Teen Idol-and, even worse, her romance novelist aunt has flown in from New York to be a judge. Can redheaded Temple fool her nearest and least dearest with a black dye job to complement her new punk persona, Xoë Chloë Ozone?
Temple is on her own among 28 unnatural blonds, who all say they'd kill to make the final cut and be named Teen Idol Queen... and one of them might actually do it. Usually Temple has an ace or two up her sleeve, but Max Kinsella, Temple's ex-magician boyfriend, is AWOL plotting to infiltrate a sinister cabal of terrorist magicians, and neighbor-slash-sometime love interest Matt Devine is in Chicago, tracking down his shocking family roots.
Luckily, there's one one alpha male Temple can always lean Midnight Louie, her black alley-cat roommate. Louie is already on the case, ensuring that all the "little dolls" under his care debut on national TV as more than lovely corpses.
Reliving the years of melodrama and teen angst while acting as a nanny-cum-diversion is bad enough, but Temple is dismayed to discover her professional nemesis is in charge of PR for Teen Idol-and, even worse, her romance novelist aunt has flown in from New York to be a judge. Can redheaded Temple fool her nearest and least dearest with a black dye job to complement her new punk persona, Xoë Chloë Ozone?
Temple is on her own among 28 unnatural blonds, who all say they'd kill to make the final cut and be named Teen Idol Queen... and one of them might actually do it. Usually Temple has an ace or two up her sleeve, but Max Kinsella, Temple's ex-magician boyfriend, is AWOL plotting to infiltrate a sinister cabal of terrorist magicians, and neighbor-slash-sometime love interest Matt Devine is in Chicago, tracking down his shocking family roots.
Luckily, there's one one alpha male Temple can always lean Midnight Louie, her black alley-cat roommate. Louie is already on the case, ensuring that all the "little dolls" under his care debut on national TV as more than lovely corpses.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published May 15, 2005
15 people are currently reading
295 people want to read
About the author
Carole Nelson Douglas
169 books567 followersCarole Nelson Douglas is the author of sixty-four award-winning novels in contemporary and historical mystery/suspense and romance, high and urban fantasy and science fiction genres. She is best known for two popular mystery series, the Irene Adler Sherlockian historical suspense series (she was the first woman to spin-off a series from the Holmes stories) and the multi-award-winning alphabetically titled Midnight Louie contemporary mystery series. From Cat in an Alphabet Soup #1 to Cat in an Alphabet Endgame #28.
Delilah Street, PI (Paranormal Investigator), headlines Carole's noir Urban Fantasy series: Dancing With Werewolves, Brimstone Kiss, Vampire Sunrise, Silver Zombie, and Virtual Virgin. Now Delilah has moved from her paranormal Vegas to Midnight Louie, feline PI's "Slightly surreal" Vegas to solve crimes in the first book of the new Cafe Noir series, Absinthe Without Leave. Next in 2020, Brandi Alexander on the Rocks.
Once Upon a Midnight Noir is out in eBook and trade paperback versions. This author-designed and illustrated collection of three mystery stories with a paranormal twist and a touch of romance features two award-winning stories featuring Midnight Louie, feline PI and Delilah Street, Paranormal Investigator in a supernatural-run Las Vegas. A third story completes the last unfinished story fragment of Edgar Allan Poe, as a Midnight Louie Past Life adventure set in 1790 Norland on a isolated island lighthouse. Louie is a soldier of fortune, a la Puss in Boots.
Next out are Midnight Louie's Cat in an Alphabet Endgame in hardcover, trade paperback and eBook Aug. 23, 2016.
All the Irene Adler novels, the first to feature a woman from the Sherlock Holmes Canon as a crime solver, are now available in eBook.
Carole was a college theater and English literature major. She was accepted for grad school in Theater at the University of Minnesota and Northwestern University, and could have worked as an editorial assistant at Vogue magazine (a la The Devil Wears Prada) but wanted a job closer to home. She worked as a newspaper reporter and then editor in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. During her time there, she discovered a long, expensive classified advertisement offering a black cat named Midnight Louey to the "right" home for one dollar and wrote a feature story on the plucky survival artist, putting it into the cat's point of view. The cat found a country home, but its name was revived for her feline PI mystery series many years later. Some of the Midnight Louie series entries include the dedication "For the real and original Midnight Louie. Nine lives were not enough." Midnight Louie has now had 32 novelistic lives and features in several short stories as well.
Hollywood and Broadway director, playwright, screenwriter and novelist Garson Kanin took Carole's first novel to his publisher on the basis of an interview/article she'd done with him five years earlier. "My friend Phil Silvers," he wrote, "would say he'd never won an interview yet, but he had never had the luck of you."
Carole is a "literary chameleon" who's had novels published in many genres, and often mixes such genre elements as mystery and suspense, fantasy and science fiction, romance with mainstream issues, especially the roles of women.
Delilah Street, PI (Paranormal Investigator), headlines Carole's noir Urban Fantasy series: Dancing With Werewolves, Brimstone Kiss, Vampire Sunrise, Silver Zombie, and Virtual Virgin. Now Delilah has moved from her paranormal Vegas to Midnight Louie, feline PI's "Slightly surreal" Vegas to solve crimes in the first book of the new Cafe Noir series, Absinthe Without Leave. Next in 2020, Brandi Alexander on the Rocks.
Once Upon a Midnight Noir is out in eBook and trade paperback versions. This author-designed and illustrated collection of three mystery stories with a paranormal twist and a touch of romance features two award-winning stories featuring Midnight Louie, feline PI and Delilah Street, Paranormal Investigator in a supernatural-run Las Vegas. A third story completes the last unfinished story fragment of Edgar Allan Poe, as a Midnight Louie Past Life adventure set in 1790 Norland on a isolated island lighthouse. Louie is a soldier of fortune, a la Puss in Boots.
Next out are Midnight Louie's Cat in an Alphabet Endgame in hardcover, trade paperback and eBook Aug. 23, 2016.
All the Irene Adler novels, the first to feature a woman from the Sherlock Holmes Canon as a crime solver, are now available in eBook.
Carole was a college theater and English literature major. She was accepted for grad school in Theater at the University of Minnesota and Northwestern University, and could have worked as an editorial assistant at Vogue magazine (a la The Devil Wears Prada) but wanted a job closer to home. She worked as a newspaper reporter and then editor in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. During her time there, she discovered a long, expensive classified advertisement offering a black cat named Midnight Louey to the "right" home for one dollar and wrote a feature story on the plucky survival artist, putting it into the cat's point of view. The cat found a country home, but its name was revived for her feline PI mystery series many years later. Some of the Midnight Louie series entries include the dedication "For the real and original Midnight Louie. Nine lives were not enough." Midnight Louie has now had 32 novelistic lives and features in several short stories as well.
Hollywood and Broadway director, playwright, screenwriter and novelist Garson Kanin took Carole's first novel to his publisher on the basis of an interview/article she'd done with him five years earlier. "My friend Phil Silvers," he wrote, "would say he'd never won an interview yet, but he had never had the luck of you."
Carole is a "literary chameleon" who's had novels published in many genres, and often mixes such genre elements as mystery and suspense, fantasy and science fiction, romance with mainstream issues, especially the roles of women.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
March 3, 2009
I ended up liking this book although it didn't start out that way. You can't read this series out of order, because each book flows into the next and some storylines don't get answered until the next book. The only real bone I have to pick with this novel is the author's obvious jealousy of blondes, which is so tired. I wish unattractive brunettes would keep their jealousy under wraps.
October 8, 2017
Once again Midnight Louie, plus Midnight Louise, his perhaps daughter, save the day, while Las Vegas PR expert Temple Barr goes undercover as a 19-year-old at a TV reality show, Teen Queen, at the request of her sometimes enemy, Police Lieutenant C. R. Molina. Molina's daughter, 13- year-old Mariah is entered in the "tween" section, and may need protection. All contestants will be sequestered in a mansion for the two-week duration of the shooting.
Of course, there is murder and mayhem, Temple's love, Max, is mostly missing as he tries to infiltrate the Synth, and neighbor Matt is in Chicago trying to trace down his real father, at his mother's bequest.
Lots of unexpected twists and turns to keep the excitement and angst going.
Of course, there is murder and mayhem, Temple's love, Max, is mostly missing as he tries to infiltrate the Synth, and neighbor Matt is in Chicago trying to trace down his real father, at his mother's bequest.
Lots of unexpected twists and turns to keep the excitement and angst going.
February 11, 2026
Midnight Louie is not a series you can jump into the middle of. Sometimes books in a series are independent enough that you can start with most any book in the series. This is not one of those series. I wouldn't have jumped so far into this one but it was a book club selection. There was so much that depended on knowledge from the previous books that I just couldn't get into it. I found the cat narrated chapters a bit jarring (I'm sure this would made more sense had I read the earlier books.). I think the author is a decent writer and the premise is clever. I was really hoping I could catch on but Cat in Hot Pink Pursuit depended rather heavily on the previous books in the series. I tired of trying to work out past relationships with current characters and gave up about halfway.
August 5, 2019
I.love the series...there is always the main ot, but there are 3 sub plots that lurk below the surface, building some extra mystique into the series. They fuel the main plot in a perfectly supporting way.
February 12, 2021
I found places where the author or ghost writer had been talking about a character then a sentence later called the character by the wrong name. One other issue stood out while reading that just confirms Miss Douglas is probably now using ghost writers.
June 17, 2019
Best series
July 25, 2023
I thought it was very fun. I love the idea of a cat protagonist. The mystery confused me a little bit.
March 16, 2017
This was hard to get into at first because there were so many confusing characters thrown into the mix. Once I figured out what was going on, this was a fun read. One thing I can't stand though: SO MANY TYPOS! Not sure if that is the fault of the author or the publisher but it was annoying!
December 8, 2008
This is the first I've read in this series and, even though it put me in the middle of an ongoing story, I really enjoyed it and didn't feel lost at all. It just piqued my curiosity and made me want to go back to the beginning of the series and read them all.
What I found unique about this book is that it truly is a story already in progress. There are loose ends from previous books that are addressed while new ones are created to be continued in the next installment. It creates even greater anticipation for the next book.
The characters are also well defined and, even though Max is rarely in this book, I found myself cheering for his relationship with Temple to work out. I did like Matt but just couldn't see him with Temple, even after they got together at the end of the book.
Another unique aspect of this series is that Midnight Louie's story is written from his 1st-person experience in separate chapters. So not only do you get the story from his perspective, you also get a second storyline about his world as well.
The story itself was fresh and keeps you interested. It's also subtle enough that you don't guess the killer right away, if at all. And it takes the concept of the reality show and adds a twist with worth reading. I'm looking forward to the next book but also to catching up on all the books previous to Hot Pink Pursuit.
What I found unique about this book is that it truly is a story already in progress. There are loose ends from previous books that are addressed while new ones are created to be continued in the next installment. It creates even greater anticipation for the next book.
The characters are also well defined and, even though Max is rarely in this book, I found myself cheering for his relationship with Temple to work out. I did like Matt but just couldn't see him with Temple, even after they got together at the end of the book.
Another unique aspect of this series is that Midnight Louie's story is written from his 1st-person experience in separate chapters. So not only do you get the story from his perspective, you also get a second storyline about his world as well.
The story itself was fresh and keeps you interested. It's also subtle enough that you don't guess the killer right away, if at all. And it takes the concept of the reality show and adds a twist with worth reading. I'm looking forward to the next book but also to catching up on all the books previous to Hot Pink Pursuit.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 14, 2016
Maybe because this is a book in the middle of a series (and I didn't read any of the others), but this was the worst book I've read in a long time! This mystery had too many characters, too many (thin) plot lines, and too many unresolved threads from previous books and into the next. It wasn't engaging and what was supposed to be witty repartee was just flat dialog with unnecessary words.
June 28, 2010
The story never seemed to gel for me; the mystery didn't hold together, and the characters didn't either. There were too many people and too many very different possibilities for the murder. It all seemed contrived and I actually ended up bored with it before the mystery was even solved!
Read
September 5, 2011Temple winds up as a contestant in a reality show contest under some odd circumstances. This book seems to be much more about moving the back story than it seems to be about the mystery. Said mystery is solved but not overtly.
Read
May 16, 2011Midnight Louie
May 30, 2011
The writing seems dated.
May 15, 2012
CND always delights!
October 14, 2012
another wonderful Midnight Louie who done it....
February 19, 2015
Like the first time it was good. That's why I read it a second time.
January 26, 2016
Pleasant fluff. What can I say, I love cat mysteries.
April 7, 2016
The author seemed to go out of her way to make this story difficult to follow. Gave up after a couple of chapters.
March 31, 2011
Louis nabs evil Elvis
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews