CAT IN A MIDNIGHT CHOIR

The 14th adventure in an ambitious, alphabetical series finds feline gumshoe Midnight Louie back in the heart of Las Vegas. Series characters leap into a gonzo noir world where radio waves pulsate virtual advice into the deadly night, over the strip clubs behind the Strip, and across the deeper shade of Los Muertos, a magician’s estate that crouches behind a phony cemetery and focuses the series frame tale of cloaked conjurors and international intrigue. Amateur sleuth Temple Barr works the strip clubs undercover to clear her rogue fiancé of a series of prostitute slayings; radio shrink/ex-priest Matt Divine battles a femme fatale lured by his virginal virtue; professional sleuths Max Kinsella and hard-boiled Lt. Carmen Molina battle each other, never managing the gender détente of their feline counterparts; and streetwise Louie and his probable daughter Louise formalize their relationship as Midnight, Inc., a partnership allied with the alley cats of the 24th Street irregulars. At this pivotal point, one pending case is finally solved, but all characters are “in transition . . . changing emotional models and personal identities like cars”: a Las Vegas Nancy Drew finds Circus-Circus; a Sam Spade, family ties; a Father Brown, sex; a James Bond, monogamy; a V.I., a daughter.

Douglas (Cat in a Leopard Spot, 2001, etc.) provides a fresh corpse only at the fadeout, where it provides a terrific cliffhanger—and compensation for a disappointing solution and some awkward prose. But the wordplay (e.g., “feline fatale” and “martial/marital arts”) is still great fun.