Midnight Louie

Midnight Louie is the name of a slightly overweight (20 pounds) fictional black cat in a series of mystery novels by author Carole Nelson Douglas, and is the general title for the same series. Each volume of the series is told from the point of view of the cat's "roommate", Temple Barr, a freelance public relations consultant, and from the point of view of Midnight Louie, the cat himself. Midnight Louie's chapters are written in what the author describes as a style reminiscent of Damon Runyan, generic gumshoe, and Mrs. Malaprop. As the Las Vegas-set series continues, three other main human characters have points of view: a hard-boiled female homicide detective, C.R. Molina; Matt Devine, an ex-priest; and Max Kinsella, a stage magician. The mix of adventure, mystery, humor and social issues is why the author describes the series as "cozy-noir." Midnight Louie was introduced as a character in the author's early romance-with-mystery series, initially called the Crystal series. The author was not shown galleys of the books until she demanded them, too late to undo the romance editor's deep cuts of mystery elements, including Midnight Louie sections. The books were later reverted and Douglas reissued them in the original form as The Cat and a playing card series. In the interim, Douglas had started writing Midnight Louie's own new mystery series.

Contents

• Crystal series
• The Cat and a playing card series
• Midnight Louie series novels
• Short Stories
• Origin of the name
• References

Midnight Louie's Scratching Post-Intelligencer: All the News about Midnight Louie, Della Street and Irene Adler is a four page hard copy publication with updates by the author including letters to Louie from readers, and to readers from Louie, and news from the author about newly published books and plans for more.